Murder: True Crime Stories - SOLVED: The Swain Murders 2

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

After the murders of Harold and Thelma Swain, investigators faced mounting pressure to deliver answers—but instead, the case spiraled into decades of missteps, false leads, and a wrongful conviction. In Part 2, Murder: True Crime Stories follows the long investigation that led to the arrest of Dennis Perry, the flaws in the evidence used to convict him, and the stunning DNA revelations that ultimately set him free after 20 years behind bars. As attention finally returns to the true suspect, this episode examines how race, politics, and systemic failure delayed justice—and why the Swains’ story is still unfolding 40 years later. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Murder True Crime Stories to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, we're Sabrina DeAnraga and Corinne Vien, hosts of Crimes of. Crimes of is a weekly true crime series with each season diving into a different theme, from unsolved murders to mysterious disappearances and the cases that haunt us most. And since this Valentine's season, we are unpacking crimes of passion, when love turns into obsession, passion twists into paranoia, and jealousy drives people beyond the edge of reason. Crimes of is a crimehouse original. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

or watch on YouTube. New episodes every Tuesday. This is Crime House. When something awful happens, we all want justice to be served. But unfortunately, it isn't always so easy. When Harold and Thelma Swain were shot down at their church in 1985, the community of Waverly, Georgia, was desperate for answers.

But years passed, and still, there was no movement. By the early 2000s, local officials were looking for any detail that might crack the case wide open. And when a new investigator came on, it seemed like the pieces finally fell into place. A suspect was charged and the case was closed. But in their rush to get a conviction, they may have gotten the wrong man, which meant that in the end there was no justice, not for Harold and Thelma, and not for the person who is wrongfully imprisoned. But there's finally hope.

Because 40 years later, the real killer seems within reach. And this time, the case looks airtight. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come at every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Friday's episodes covering the cases that deserve a deeper look.

Thank you for being part of the crimehouse community. please rate, review, and follow the show, and for early, add-free access to every episode, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. This is the second of two episodes on the murders of 66-year-old Harold and 63-year-old Thelma Swain in Waverly, Georgia. Last time, we learned about Harold and Thelma, their love story, their kindness, and their role at the Rising Daughter Baptist Church,

By all accounts, they were pillars of the community, and yet on the night of March 11, 1985, someone killed them in cold blood in the place that was their sanctuary. Today, we'll continue the investigation into Harold and Thelma's deaths. After more than a decade without any progress, a suspect was finally convicted, but the story wasn't over. It would take several more years for the dark truth to emerge, and it left the public wondering, was it too late for justice to be served? All that and more coming up. In July of 1985, Camden County Chief Sheriff's Deputy, Butch Kennedy, was at a breaking point.

66-year-old Harold Swain and his wife, 63-year-old Thelma, had been gunned down at their church in Waverly, Georgia, four months. ago. Since then, Kennedy and his partner had gotten hundreds of tips, but no real leads. That all changed one day when the Telfare County Sheriff's Office called with some interesting news. They had a prisoner who claimed to have information about the Swain's case. Telfare County was about 130 miles north of Camden County. It sounded like a long shot, but Kennedy was willing to try anything. He called up his partner, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, named Joe Gregory. Together, they drove two hours to the Telfare County Jail to meet with the inmate.

His name was Jeffrey Cottrell. He'd recently been arrested along with two other men for having a machine gun in the trunk of their car. according to Catrell. He was at a party in April that year with one of the guys he was later arrested with. The accomplice was drunk and bragging about killing two black people in a church. More specifically, he said he'd gone to the church with a friend and acted as lookout while they did the killings. Catrell didn't ask why they'd done it, so he couldn't give Kennedy and Gregory any sort of motive, but he said his accomplice 27-year-old Donnie Barrentine might be able to.

After ending the interview with Catrell, Kennedy and Gregory had Barrontyne brought in next. The first thing investigators noticed was how much he looked like the composite sketch their witnesses had created. He had a lean face and longish hair that fell around his ears and chin. And that was already suspicious. But Kennedy didn't get to ask a single question about the Swains before Barentine asked for his lawyer. Kennedy didn't give up, though. Just because he couldn't officially question Barentine didn't mean they couldn't chat. And that's exactly what they did.

They covered a little bit of everything from Barringtonine's tattoos to car, cars and food and eventually two guns. It turned out, Barentine was all too happy to share his opinions on that last one. He came from a family of drug smugglers in the Florida Panhandle and had recently been questioned about a shooting that happened there. It involved a 41 Magnum. Barentine said he was downright offended that the police thought he had something to do with it. He'd never be caught lugging around something that heavy. Barentine likes something more lightweight.

That was useful information for Kennedy and Gregory. The Swain's autopsies showed they'd been killed with 25 caliber bullets, the kind that typically came out of a small, easily concealed pistol or handgun. Despite that detail, Barentine hadn't said anything that sounded like a potential motive. Still, their instincts told them they were finally getting close to something. But before they called it a day, they had one more person they wanted to speak to. Another witness who might have heard Barentine bragging at that party in April.

Sue Wilkes was also in custody, only she was in Florida a couple of hours away, and her charges had nothing to do with Barentine or Cattrell's. Kennedy and Gregory drove to the courthouse where she was being held. When they asked her about Cattrell's claims that Barentine had taken part in the murders, her story was almost exactly like Cotrell's. But there was one extra detail that really stood out to them. Allegedly, Barentine also told her he was worried. He said another woman at the church had seen him, then fainted.

He was afraid she would come forward with the description. Little did he know, that's exactly what she did. Kennedy and Gregory had already spoken to Cora Fisher several times. In fact, she was one of the women who'd helped create the sketch. But only someone who was deeply involved in the murders would have known she fainted. that information hadn't been made public. It was a huge breakthrough, but it still didn't explain why Barentine had targeted the Swains.

It seemed like there was nothing connecting the sweet old couple to this drug smuggler from Florida. Or was there? A few days later, Cotrell reached out to the detectives once again. He said he'd been chatting with the... Barrentine in their cells ever since the interviews, and according to Catrell, Barantine admitted the murders had been a message to the Swain's son-in-law, Ed Brown. Apparently, Ed Brown owed a lot of money to a group of drug smugglers known as the Black

Mafia. They were another local gang that was friendly with the one Barentine was a part of. Barantine and his friend killed the Swains as a courtesy to the black mafia in the hopes that it would get Ed Brown to comply. As much as they wanted it to, this theory didn't make much sense to Kennedy and Gregory. For starters, the Swains didn't have a son-in-law, let alone one mixed up in the drug world. The investigators racked their brains trying to make the dots connect.

The only child Harold and Thelma had was 20-year-old Lephaine, who'd they taken in when she was just a girl. Lafane was the daughter of one of Thelma's nieces, so technically she was the Swain's grandniece. Her biological parents had been out of the picture for most of her life. But after the murders, she ended up back home with her mom and stepdad. That's when Kennedy realized her stepdad. her stepdad's name was Lawrence Edward Brown. When they looked him up, he was also in prison. Brown had been arrested for possessing 1,500 pounds of marijuana.

Clearly he was involved in drug smuggling. Suddenly, their theory felt a little more plausible. Their next step was to talk to Brown, but he refused to speak with either investigator. At that point, Kennedy and Gregory turned their focus back to Barentine. They put him in a lineup and called on their best witness, 55-year-old Van Zola Williams. She'd spoken to the shooter that night

and had been the one to lead Harold to him. If anyone would recognize the killer's face, it was her. Out of all the options, Van Zola picked Berenstein, but only because she recognized his shoes, which were rather generic, dark-colored cowboy boots. She didn't feel confident enough to name him as the murderer, though. And when they confronted Barentine about it, he insisted he had an alibi for the day of the murders. Barantine said that on March 11th, he was working his regular job at a factory in Mariana, Florida, about 240 miles from Rising Daughter Baptist. According to the factory's records, Barantyne did work that day.

He clocked out at 3.29 p.m. But it turned out, this alibi wasn't as ironclad as Barantine had hoped. He could have easily clocked out, driven to Waverly, and committed the crime, which took place around 9 p.m. The only thing the detectives needed to figure out was if the timeline worked. To test it, they drove the route Barentine might have taken that night, and they discovered Barentine could have easily made it with time to spare. It was certainly suspicious, but they still needed proof. before doing anything else.

Kennedy and Gregory were getting frustrated. It seemed like they'd finally found their guy, and yet they couldn't find the smoking gun. They needed to do something before Barentines slipped through their fingers entirely. Kennedy decided to try something a little out of the box. He called in an expert in the Kinesic interview technique. At the time, it was relatively new, but most police interrogators thought it had potential.

The basic idea is to ask questions meant to cause stress in the suspect. The interviewer then uses their verbal answers as well as their body language to determine whether or not the suspect is telling the truth. Sort of like a human lie detector. After the interview, Kennedy's expert was confident that Barentine was guilty. He wrote an official report that was sent to the Camden County District Attorney. Hoping to dot the eyes, Barentine was also asked to sit for an actual polygraph test. He agreed and failed that too. Of course, we now know the signs behind light detectors is questionable,

but at the time it felt like the confirmation Kennedy and Gregory desperately wanted. By now, it was August, 1985, five months since Harold and Thelma were killed. Kennedy wrote a warrant for Donnie Barentine's arrest on two counts of murder. Gregory took the warrant to the district attorney for approval. To his utter shock, he was shut down. District attorney Glenn Thomas told Agent Gregory that he wouldn't file charges based on the words. of a few criminals. They needed solid evidence.

Gregory tried to argue with him, but the DA held firm, which left Kennedy and Gregory stuck in a holding pattern. All they could do is keep watching Barentine and hope new evidence or a better witness would drop into their laps. Months passed. 1985 became 1986,

and yet, the detectives didn't make any progress with their main suspect. While they still hoped for a break, they knew better than to ignore other possibilities. And that other possibility came into the sheriff's office in March of 1986, nearly one year after the murders. And it would change everything. I was guilty of multiple skin care crimes.

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installer donut plus tax at participating restaurants for limited time term supply see app for details time for tim's in march of 1986 nearly one year after harold and thelma swain were murdered at their church in waverly georgia a new witness came forward he claimed he knew who had killed the swains it was his former son-in-law 27-year-old eric spar moments later, the man handed Deputy Bush Kennedy and Agent Joe Gregory a tape recording. He said it contained a confession from Spar. The witness's daughter, Emily Head, had finally divorced Spar after years of abuse, but he'd been making threatening calls ever since.

The family started recording them just in case, which was how they caught this confession. Kennedy sat down with Emily to hear what she had to say about her ex. According to her, Spar was a vehement racist, just like his father, and he was very dangerous. He'd held a gun to her head and pulled the trigger at least once. The only reason Emily wasn't dead was that it had jammed. She'd finally worked up the courage to leave him about a week after the shooting. Around that time, there was a day when Spar left the house dressed entirely in dark clothes. He didn't come home until the next day, wearing a white shirt.

He'd also cut his hair for some reason. Before the murders, it was shoulder length. But ever since, it had been short. But the most compelling details came when Kennedy asked what Spar did for work. Emily said he was a welder for a trucking service. Kennedy immediately thought of the glasses they'd found at the scene. The lenses were covered in tiny divvets like they'd been worn while welding. Not only that, but the GBI lab also found the glasses were covered

in transmission fluid. Emily now had Kennedy's full attention. He asked her if she'd ever known Spar to wear glasses. She said he did. In fact, he lost a pair just before the murders. Rather than buying new ones, he made some from a few of his dad's old pairs. Sure enough, the glasses they'd recovered at the church

looked like they'd been made up of several different pairs. The temple pieces didn't match each other or the front. And this wasn't information Emily could have picked up from reading about the case. The glasses had deliberately never been mentioned to the press. Just like that, Kennedy had his best and strongest lead. Kennedy's next step was showing Emily a selection of glasses, including the ones found at the crime scene. Emily recognized them almost immediately.

For Kennedy, this was the smoking gun he'd been looking for. But Gregory wasn't so sure. He had plenty of experience with guys like Spar. They'd say anything to scare the people they abused. Not only that, but an unwitting confession made over the phone wouldn't hold up in court. If they actually wanted to nab spar, they needed him to confess in person in front of authorities. So Kennedy and Gregory got creative.

The head family had been recording all of his calls in which he repeatedly threatened to kill them, which meant Kennedy was able to arrest him for making terroristic threats. But getting him to break wasn't as easy as Kennedy had hoped. During questioning, Spar denied knowing anything about the murders. He claimed he'd been working that night, not at his mechanic job, but at a Wind Dixie grocery store in Brunswick, about 20 minutes away from the church. The detectives needed to verify his alibi, so they called the store to speak to Spar's manager. The manager apparently checked the corporate archive.

and confirmed Spar had clocked in at 306 p.m. on March 11, 1985. He didn't clock out until 6.41 the next morning. Long overnight shifts like that weren't uncommon. Plus, the supervisor had also contacted some other employees who worked that night. As far as they could remember, Spar was in the store. It seemed like Spar was in the clear. But there was still one detail Kennedy couldn't let go of. Thanks to Emily, they knew Spar owned several handguns.

They just needed to find out if any of them fired 25 caliber rounds. Kennedy got a warrant to search Spar's house, which he served on March 10, 1986, the day before the anniversary of the murders. But if Spar had been the killer, he had a year. to get rid of any evidence. The investigators looked all over, but came up empty-handed, and after two days in custody,

Spar made bond and was released from jail. At that point, Kennedy and Gregory dropped Spar as a suspect. But they didn't drop the Swain's case, and it wasn't long before the investigation got some much-needed attention. In 1988, a new show called Unsolved Mysteries reached out to cover the story. The sheriff signed off on it, and he and Gregory even participated in filming,

playing themselves in reenactments and sitting for Talking Head interviews. Now that two years had passed since the murders, it seemed like they weren't holding details back anymore. Gregory spoke about the mysterious glasses they found. he even laid out the theory about Donnie Barentine showing his mugshot. The hope was that by casting a wider net, they'd catch the attention of someone with the missing piece of information they needed. Just like after they released the sketch, tips flooded in,

and just like before, the majority were wild goose chases. But then, they received two tips about the same man. 26-year-old Dennis Perry. Perry had grown up in Waverly, but moved to Atlanta about four months before the Swains were killed, and apparently he was also a drug dealer. The first tip, which came from an anonymous source, claimed Harold Swain had discovered Perry's field of marijuana. The caller also alleged that Perry sold drugs to Harold's nephews, which Harold also found out about.

The second tip made the same claims, except this time the caller gave his name. Kennedy knew the guy who had a reputation for telling questionable stories, but they looked into Perry all the same. It turned out he didn't have a car, didn't wear glasses, and there was no evidence connecting him to any marijuana field. and most importantly, Perry had an alibi. Perry's supervisor in Atlanta told detectives he'd been working the day of the murders. Perry's time card showed he didn't clock out until late in the

evening. Atlanta was 300 miles from the church, which was at least a four and a half hour drive. Even if he'd somehow gotten a vehicle, the timeline didn't work. But, just to be thorough, the investigators brought a photo lineup, which included a picture of Perry to 58-year-old Van Zola Williams. She was still their most reliable witness when it came to identifying the killer. She took a long, hard look at all the pictures and told the detectives, she didn't recognize anyone. As far as Kennedy and Gregory could tell, Perry was about as far from a viable suspect as they could get. And just like that, the case went cold.

As the years passed, it became more difficult for Deputy Kennedy to accept that he might never learn who killed the Swains. And his boss, Sheriff Bill Smith, didn't make him feel much better. Smith had been elected sheriff just a few months before the Swains. were killed. He'd spent much of his campaign appealing to black voters. The fact that his deputy wasn't able to solve a case that carried so much weight with their black constituents reflected poorly on Smith. But the truth was, Sheriff Smith had bigger problems than one unsolved case. In 1991, he was under investigation by the GBI for the unresolved.

unlawful use of inmate labor, and he'd long-faced other accusations of corruption, but it was easier to blame Kennedy for his problems than take responsibility. By November of 1992, after seven years and two more election cycles, the tension between the two men finally boiled over, 47-year-old Kennedy resigned. But the Swain's story wasn't over. Six years later in 1998, Sheriff Smith decided the Swain's case deserved another look. It was more of a PR move than anything.

The sheriff was up for re-election once again. He hoped that finally nabbing their killer would help him win. Smith hired an old friend and former deputy, Dale Bundy, to focus exclusively on the Swain case for one year. And on July 1st, Bundy got to work. He began by reviewing the case file. But after 13 years of investigation, it was thousands of pages long. Bundy spent six days with it before deciding to simply revisit the old witnesses himself.

He started with 66-year-old Cora Fisher. on the night of the murders. She'd fainted after hearing the gunshots, but she'd always been adamant that she got a good look at the shooter before she did. As Bundy spoke to her, he got the feeling Cora was holding something back.

So he cut to the chase and asked if she had a theory about who the killer was. To Bundy's amazement, Cora said she did. A white woman, woman had come to her house 10 years ago back in 1988 after the Swain's episode of Unsolved Mysteries had just come out. The woman had shown Cora a picture of the killer. Cora said seeing his

face made her faint all over again. Bundy asked who it was, but Fisher didn't feel safe saying his name. The most she could bring herself to do was point Bundy in the direction of the white woman. She lived in a mobile home park very close to Rising Tauter Baptist. Bundy drove straight there and started knocking on doors. Before long, he found the woman he was looking for. Jane Beaver was 59 years old, and unlike Cora Fisher, she gave Bundy the suspect's name right away, Dennis Perry. Bundy remembered the name Dennis Perry from the case file, but didn't recall any mention of Jane Beaver. Had he stumbled on the piece of evidence that Kennedy and Gregory had been missing all this time? According to Jane, Perry was dating her daughter at the time of the murders.

They'd broken up toward the end of 1984 when Perry moved to Atlanta, but he still dropped by to visit every so often. One visit took place in February of 1985, a month before the killings. Jane explained that Perry was acting strange that day. At one point, he even said he was going to kill Harold Swain. Before Bundy left, Jane gave him the pictures she'd shown Cora Fisher. Bundy pocketed it, then brought it to the next witness he planned to talk to that day. Van Zola Williams. Van Zola was 68 years old by then and had seen a lot of pictures of

potential suspects over the years. She told Bundy this man sure looked like the killer, but she couldn't say for certain. That was enough for Bundy, though. Dennis Perry was officially his main suspect. Bundy interviewed 36-year-old Perry at his home. Bundy interviewed 36-year-old Perry at his home, in Jacksonville, Florida in August of 1998. Perry was a bit nervous, but he'd already been cleared as a suspect, so he figured this was just some sort of formality. And his story hadn't changed since 1988. He was working in Atlanta at the time.

He knew of Harold Swain, but didn't know him personally. The conversation with Bundy only lasted a few minutes. But Perry's ordeal, was only just beginning. Bundy spent the next year building his case against Perry. He re-interviewed all of his friends and family. Perry's mom, Helen, backed up her son's alibi. She told Bundy he'd moved in with her in Atlanta

because of a serious back injury that happened in December of 1984. Perry was still recovering in March of 1985 and only just easing back into work. Helen also insisted that Perry didn't return to Waverly until at least April or May. This contradicted Jane Beaver's statement about him acting strangely in February. But Helen was certain about the timeline

because she was the one who'd rented a car for him. Besides, she said Perry would never harm, let alone kill another person. Bundy heard that sort of thing a lot from the people. people in Perry's life, they said he wasn't a violent person. The only thing he'd ever struggled with was anxiety. Despite all of that, Bundy somehow managed to cobble together enough evidence to satisfy a grand jury. On January 13, 2000, Perry was indicted on two counts of murder. Bundy took the warrant to Jacksonville where he waited with local law enforcement

for Perry to come home from work. When they pulled him over at 622 that evening, Dennis Perry stepped out of his truck and into a nightmare. Investing is all about the future. So what do you think's going to happen? Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point. I think it would come down to precious metals. I hope we don't go cashless. I would say land is a safe investment. Technology companies, solar energy. Robotic pollinators might be a thing. A wrestler to face a robot?

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In January of 2000, the Camden County Sheriff's Office finally made an arrest for the 1985 murders of Harold and Thelma Swain. After 15 years, 38-year-old Dennis Perry was charged with two counts of murder and taken to the Glen County Jail in Brunswick. Perry was immediately transported to an interrogation room, but even then he didn't seem to realize the gravity of the situation, so Perry started answering questions without asking for a lawyer. The interview wasn't recorded, which was unusual, but not illegal in Georgia. Instead, an officer present took notes by hand, which meant a lot of context got lost along the way. Bundy and the other investigators asked Perry a series of leading and hypothetical questions. So the notes

recorded him saying things like, if he could go back and make it right, he would. would, and that he'd been afraid this day was coming. To his credit, Perry realized what was happening and refused to give a tape statement without a lawyer. He eventually hired one, and while Perry waited in jail, his attorneys got to work on his defense. They were going up against Brunswick District Attorney John Johnson, who was known to always seek the maximum sentence no matter the crime. In this case, he wasn't going to settle for a conviction. He wanted the death penalty. Years passed as both sides prepared for trial.

Finally, the date was set for February 2003. Tensions rose as the date drew nearer. Until suddenly, the DA reached out with an interesting proposal. Ten years, including time served. All Perry had to do was plead guilty to manslaughter. It was a remarkably lenient offer, especially, considering who was making it. The defense sought as a sign that the DA wasn't as confident as he'd led on. The fight moved to the courtroom on February 10, 2003.

The state's entire case rested on the testimony of three witnesses. 69-year-old Cora Fisher, 64-year-old Jane Beaver, and investigator Dale Bundy. Cora was too sick to come to the trial in person, so it seemed like she'd been questioned at home. The transcript was read into the court record in front of the jury. In it, Cora came across as confused and unreliable. She seemed to remember brand-new details, like how Harold had allegedly said, boy, what are you doing here to the killer? That contradicted the many other witnesses who'd all said Harold didn't seem to recognize the killer.

But the really damaging moment came when the defense showed Cora a picture of Donnie Barentine, not Dennis Perry, and asked if he looked like the killer. Cora put on our glasses to get a good look. Then she said, yes, that looked like the same man to her. After reading Cora Fisher's testimony, the state brought Jane Beaver to the stand. She had also revised her story since speaking to Bundy. Jane said Perry had told her his plans days before the murder, not weeks, as she'd originally told Bundy. She also claimed he was living with his grandparents at the time, which was flat-out.

false. The defense pointed all of this out during their cross-examination. So far, neither of the state's most important witnesses seemed to hold up well under scrutiny. And Bundy didn't fare much better when he stepped onto the stand the next day. After watching him play hero during the prosecution's questions, the defense was ready with a bombshell of their own. They produced a diagram of the crime scene that came straight from the original case file. In it, the position of every witness was clearly labeled. According to this diagram, Cora's view of the vestibule and therefore the shooter had been blocked by a closed door. Bundy had never seen the diagram before that moment.

That should have been a very... big deal. The lead investigator just admitted to a major oversight, one that called his primary witness into question, and yet the judge didn't seem to think much of it. The trial lasted two more days. During their portion, the defense laid out all the reasons Perry had been cleared back in 1988. His alibi was strong. He didn't have a car. He didn't wear glasses. The list went on. And when it came to the glasses, the defense pointed out that the sheriff's office had lost them, along with a lot of other physical evidence from the case. When the jury left for deliberations on February 14th, it seemed like the defense had successfully discredited the state's case.

and yet the verdict came back at 7.30 that night, guilty. The DA offered 38-year-old Perry one last deal. He would waive his right to appeal in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. Perry felt he had no choice but to accept. He knew he was innocent and he didn't want to die before. he could prove it. Sometime around 2004, Perry's mom, Helen, wrote to the Georgia Innocence Project pleading for them to take on her son's case.

The Innocence Project was a non-profit that worked to correct and prevent wrongful convictions. They found Perry's story compelling and took him on as a client. But progress was painfully slow. It wasn't until 2018, 15 years into Perry's sentence that things seemed to finally move forward. The Georgia Innocence Project reached out to the undisclosed podcast about Perry's case. The show focused on potential wrongful conviction cases and had just helped the GIP exonerate one of their other clients. Susan Simpson, an attorney, and one of the hosts of the show, was, immediately intrigued. A year after Simpson started digging into the case, she found something

shocking. After Perry's conviction, the Camden County Sheriff's Office paid Jane Beaver a $12,000 reward. Perry's defense team was never informed about this. This was clear prosecutorial misconduct, something the Innocence Project could finally use to help Perry. The Innocence Project brought on a local law firm, and together they submitted a habeas petition on Perry's behalf. Also known as a writ of habeas corpus, it's typically filed by inmates who feel they've been wrongfully imprisoned. For 57-year-old Dennis Perry, it was the first taste of hope he'd gotten in 16 years. But the podcast did a lot more good than that.

Their coverage of the Swain's case caught the attention of a journalist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. His name was Joshua Sharp. Unlike the original investigators, he was certain that race was a viable motive in the killings. Out of all the suspect, The one that caught Sharp's attention was Eric Spar. He was a known white supremacist from the area

whose ex-wife had recorded him taking credit for the murders. Spar had gotten off because he had a solid alibi. But Sharp wondered if, maybe, there was more to the story. Agent Gregory had contacted Spar's supervisor, a man named Donald Mobley a year after the murders. Mowgli assured him that other people recalled that Spar was at the store all night. When Sharp read that, it seemed suspicious, so he decided to follow up. But when he tried to look up Donald Mobley, there was absolutely no record of his existence.

It took trucking down several old employees before Sharp finally learned the manager back in the 80s was David Mowgli. When Sharp finally got a hold of him, Mowgli had no memory of ever speaking to the police about an employee. And he barely recognized the name Eric Spar. The one thing he was sure about was that no one named Donald Mowgli had ever worked. at the Winn-Dixie with him. Of course, Sharp knew he was asking questions about stuff that happened 34 years ago. It was possible David Mobley had just forgotten about it all, but something still felt off about the whole thing.

So Sharp went back to the newspaper search program and looked for David Mobley. None of the results matched what Gregory had written in his official report. His address, his social security number, even his birthday, it was all wrong. More importantly, neither of the two phone numbers Gregory had listed ever belonged to Mobley or the Brunswick-Winn-Dixie. Sharp used old phone books at the library to find out whose number Gregory had actually called. It turned out to be a widow in Brunswick. The woman's daughter told Sharp they had an old phone in their backyard shed. Over the years, they'd caught plenty of people from the nearby

halfway house sneaking in to use it. Suddenly, it seemed very possible that Gregory had never spoken to anyone who worked at that wind Dixie. Spars, perfect alibi, could have been completely made up. But Sharp needed to be sure before he shared this revelation with anyone, so he contacted Gregory. After all these years, Gregory couldn't remember how he'd gotten the manager's contact information back in 1986, but he sometimes asked suspects for that kind of thing, so he might have gotten those numbers from Spar himself. Thinking about it now, even Gregory had to admit he might have been played.

Shark took this information to Perry's new defense team. The Georgia Innocence Project sent an investigator to Spar's house, hoping to collect a DNA sample. Eric Spar was at work, but his mother, Gladys, was home, She was so confident that her son was innocent that she handed over a sample of her hair. In 1985, a few strands of hair had been trapped in the hinge of the glasses found at the crime scene. By 2019, the hairs were also gone, but the results of the original DNA test were still in the case file. When the Innocence Project ran Gladys Spar's sample, it was a little bit of the original DNA test were still in the case file.

it was a match. Perry's team took all of this new evidence to the district attorney, hoping she would take swift action to free Perry. Instead, District Attorney Jackie Johnson requested that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reopened the investigation into Harold and Thelma Swain's murders. It felt like a stalling tactic, and Perry's defense wasn't going to stand for. for it, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic picked up steam.

Prisons were especially dangerous places to be in 2020, so in April the defense team filed an extraordinary motion for a new trial. They were granted a hearing in July. Between the proof of prosecutorial misconduct and the new DNA evidence, their case was undeniable. Judge Stephen Scarlett agreed. And on July 17, 2020, he overturned the conviction. Four days later, Judge Scarlett ordered that 58-year-old Dennis Perry be released while he waited for the DA's next move. Three days after that, Perry was a free man for the first time in 20 years. One year and a new district attorney later, all the charges,

against Perry were dropped. After 21 excruciating years, Perry was given back his innocence. But while Perry finally received justice, the Swains still had to wait for theirs. The GBI continued the investigation into the Swain's murders, but this time their focus was on 58-year-old Eric Spar. He was under near constant surveillance for things. three years. Finally, in December of 2024, Eric Spar was arrested and charged with the murders of Harold and Thelma Swain. His trial started in October of 2025, but on the second day of testimony, a witness violated a pretrial motion and the judge declared a mistrial. At the time of this recording, Spar is still in jail awaiting a new trial.

date. In the 40 years since their deaths, Harold and Thelma Swain have come to represent many things. Their case is about powerful forces like race, politics, and justice. And while all of that is certainly important, it can lead us to forget that at the heart of it all is really the story of two people. Harold and Thelma Swain were pillars of their community. they dedicated their lives to uplifting those around them and being forces for good. And in their honor, we should all strive to do the same. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories.

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Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertowski, Sarah Kamp, Megan Hannam, Honeya Saeed, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. drives a person to murder. Find out from a licensed forensic psychologist on serial killers and murderous minds, a crimehouse original podcast. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.