Her Last Halloween
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A mother of four gone missing then found murdered. It's the Karen Swift story, the woman last seen alive at a Halloween party and was a second woman also in danger. And all new 2020 starts right now. It was a really big deal. This beautiful blonde headed lady comes up missing after a Halloween party. It was just supposed to be a fun night out, adults only. What's the overall view of this young mom who suddenly goes missing?

People liked Karen. They liked being around her. Tonight, the shocking trial and the ex-wife you'll only see on "2020." This is a man I was married to that I shouldn't have been afraid of. But what about his first wife? My mom was going out more, which made me start to question why. When they found Karen's vehicle, it had a badly damaged flat tire.

It appears that this screw was mainly inserted into the tire. It was literally screwed into the tire. So this is where you found the smashed cell phones? In this area here. Not one, but two smashed phones. I thought maybe somebody saw her walking and grabbed her. She doesn't hold back. I can see Karen going over there and letting him have it. This case is wild, to put it mildly. It's wild because the circumstances are just so unique.

Karen Swift's Halloween costume was a very sexy black costume. Black skirt, black tights, black shoes, and she had a black kind of a Mardi Gras type mask that she was wearing. I think she was supposed to be a cat. She had a skirt on. It was very form-fitting. So it was va-va-voom. It was.

What began as an innocent night of Halloween partying was just the beginning of a tragic story that would engulf not only Karen Swift, but her whole family and almost everyone in this close-knit community. There was going to be a costume party on October 29th, 2011. It was held at a place here in Dyersburg that's called The Farms. It's a country club that's attached to the golf course.

Dyersburg, Tennessee is just a small hamlet in western Tennessee. It's not far from the Mississippi River.

Dyersburg is a small, very closely knit town. Everybody pretty much knows everybody. I think the majority of the population still has that old southern hospitality kind of greet everybody, wave if you know somebody when you're driving down the road, you wave to them. There's only 38,000 people here. Most people have grown up here, lived here their whole lives. And I think that

You take the word of mouth and you add the social media aspect to it now and everyone is almost always in everyone else's business. 44-year-old Karen Swift marries husband David in 1989. Originally from Arkansas, they moved to Dyersburg, Tennessee with their family about two decades later in 2008.

My first move to Tennessee, I really liked it. I enjoyed it. It was very peaceful and getting to know all my new friends and, you know, meet new people was fun.

They didn't know anyone in Dyer County and they made the move here apparently for the schools. There are some good schools in this area. Together, David and Karen Swift had four kids, two boys and two younger girls, including their daughter Ashley. Growing up, my mom was very involved. She loved taking us to sports, danced here. She just had that very caring and nurturing personality.

She was just a wonderful mother. She would do anything for her children. They were number one in her life. They came before anything else. Karen was always kind of a fun-loving, bubbly type of personality. Tried to, even when things were not going particularly well, tried to keep a positive attitude.

Her friends really liked her and she had a lot of friends. She was someone who was beautiful, someone who appeared to be happy with her life, and things appeared to be going very well for her. Karen was outgoing, gregarious. She made friends very easily. People liked Karen. They liked being around her.

And on this cool, clear October night, Karen was headed out with her friends while her daughter Ashley, who was nine at the time, was heading to a sleepover at her friend's house. I remember I was staying at a friend's house and my mom was going to a Halloween party with some of her friends and my dad was going to stay home with my sister. Karen Swift went to the Halloween party with Bill Bona and Kathy Bona.

The party was hosted by 15 to 20 different couples. The women kind of did all the decorations, put everything together. The guys just kind of showed up. And it was just supposed to be a fun night out. Adults only dress up, have fun in a costume, and just socialize with one another. Karen arrived at the Halloween party

probably around 8 or a little after 8 p.m. That night Karen was in a pretty good mood. I mean, she was able to go out on the dance floor and talk to different people. People were drinking, having a good time, music was playing, people were out dancing. Karen was walking around talking to several people. I remember seeing her on the dance floor at least one time. And she left with Bill and Kathy Bonner around, probably around midnight that night.

and they went to McDonald's to get some french fries. So they went through the McDonald's drive-thru and then went home to Kathy and Bill Bona's house. While they're at Bill and Kathy's house, she gets a call from her daughter Ashley. When we were starting to go to bed, I decided that I wanted to go home. I called my mom and asked her to come get me. Karen immediately told Kathy, "I've got to go. My baby's sick. I'm gonna go pick her up."

So she did. She left, she went and picked up her daughter at a friend's house and then went home. By now, of course, it's around 1:30 in the morning, the next day, October 30th. On her way home, Karen texts her husband David to let him know she's heading back to their house. When she told him about going to pick up Ashley, he sent her a text response about the garage door is closed, come in the side door.

And then they arrived back at the Swift home around 2:00 AM that morning. Karen goes to sleep downstairs while her husband David is sleeping in a different bedroom upstairs. David did not get up until the next morning around 10:00 or 10:30 when the girls woke him up. It's now that the Swift family's entire world turns upside down. The next morning, Karen was not at home. The girls

were the first ones, according to David, to tell him that their mother was missing.

Remember, Karen and Ashley had returned home around 2:00 in the morning and went to sleep. But now it seems that sometime after that, Karen had somehow disappeared. Between the time of probably 10:00 and 11:00, Kathy Bonner, her friend, had been trying to call her. David Swift, her husband, had been trying to call her. And so now people are starting to get seriously worried that something's happened to her. After Bill and Kathy Bonner then get a response from her, they kind of said, well, something's not right.

So they called David and asked him, "Where is Karen?" And then they called the sheriff's office and said that she was missing. Shortly after that, David made a phone call to the sheriff's department and reported that his wife was missing.

Karen's disappearance quickly became a mystery, and it would begin with the discovery of her abandoned car, a key piece of evidence that transforms this from a missing persons case into something far more sinister. So she shows up missing. There was a lot of different theories about what was going on. There were many clouds of suspicion. ♪♪

It was a really big deal. This beautiful, blonde-headed lady, mother of four, comes up missing after a Halloween party. Everybody was talking about it. The morning of Karen's disappearance, her car is discovered less than a half mile away from her home.

At the corner of Millsfield Highway and Harness in Dyer County is where the broken down SUV of 44-year-old Karen Swift was found. I saw the car sit there for a day or so. Karen's gone and that's what's important and we just want her to come back. You could walk to it. It wasn't that far away on the highway and it was there with a flat tire. So that's a clue. Her car's there. Karen's vehicle was...

was on the side of the road on Millsfield Highway right next to Harness Road. That's the road that Karen had lived on. Karen was not there. It was in a normal state. It was parked on the side of the road. It had a flat tire to the right side. The investigation revealed that it was a screw in the tire. Why would her car be up there? If she had come home, there was no one who said Karen walked home from up on the highway. So it would appear that Karen had left.

But it wasn't very far for her to suddenly get a flat tire either. Investigators believe that the tire had been manually deflated and that the screw had been intentionally inserted into the tire, which begs the question, did somebody put it there on purpose to leave Karen stranded? When we observed the car, we noticed a screw in the tire. If you look at this very closely, it appears that this screw was mainly inserted into the tire. It was literally screwed into the tire. Literally screwed into the tire.

And my theory was right once we sent it off for forensic analysis. It was mainly placed in that tire. And I wanted you to look at, show me this screw. This is one that you actually ran over. This is the screw I actually ran over in my patrol unit that went all the way up in the tire. And you can see where it was on the road. Yeah. A lot of friction. A lot of friction. This screw

has no friction. The lack of friction making investigators believe the screw hadn't been driven on. But how could that be? They had not been in Dyer County that long because they had moved there. Karen's from Pocahontas, Arkansas, which is about two hours from Dyersburg. And it was about four years later that she disappeared.

The Swifts seemed to have a great life in Pocahontas. They were young and in love and devoted parents, as their friend Holly Sutton tells us. We met through just public school and ended up being fast friends. They were excellent parents. They had rules. They were fairly strict. They did everything with their children.

We moved ultimately from my dad's job to Tennessee. It was just a better opportunity. I enjoyed it. It was very peaceful. I do think she was happy. I think that she wasn't necessarily fully herself in Tennessee. Karen wasn't acting like herself, and turns out there was a reason for it. Strains on their marriage, David's new job as a manager at a manufacturing plant, and Karen's apparent change in lifestyle in Dyersburg worried those closest to her.

She had just mentioned to me that it was very different. She just said that, she says, "I don't know that you would like it here." But she did say that she was meeting people and getting out. I was used to her tucking me into bed every night or being home every night, getting up with her and going to the gym, and that kind of slowly stopped the longer that we lived in Tennessee. That was not their lifestyle in Pocahontas. They didn't even social drink. We didn't need that. It was hard to hear because that was not them.

As soon as she went missing, it was Chief McCrite's supposition that David at the very least had something to do with it. We finally just decided that, hey, he's going to be the only person that can really help us in this case to tell us about where his wife might have gone. He came in and gave my guys an interview. That interview didn't go very well, we didn't think.

and I said, "Are you going to a costume party or what are you doing? Are you all having a party?" She said, "No, I'm just going to Kathy's." I said, "Well, okay." He really wasn't concerned to me about

where she might have gone. He was saying like, you know, that she drank and

She was pretty much an alcoholic. I was drunk and had been drinking and she was so drunk once that she had passed out. She was just so drunk that she was drinking so much. So that was just, you know, I should as a husband be concerned about where is my wife. If you had to use an estimated guess right now, where do you think she is?

I don't know. I'm so worried about her. I would say my dad's reaction was he was obviously very worried, but you have to think I was nine and my sister was five. So I think he was trying to put on a very brave face for us. As the search for Karen Swift continues, investigators are reminded of a horrible incident Karen had with a neighbor just months before.

There was an issue where John Hogshooter had poisoned a couple of dogs in the neighborhood. One of the dogs belonged to David and Karen Swift. Anybody who has a dog and they say their neighbor poisoned their dog, that would certainly be bad blood. She doesn't hold back. If she feels that she's got something to say, she's going to say it. A suspect emerges for investigators.

As the search for Karen Swift continues, investigators cast a wide net for suspects and leads. There was a man that she had met at a concert about 20 miles from Dyersburg across the Mississippi River.

It never grew into a full romantic relationship. It was more of an acquaintance. I think they talked on the phone a few times, maybe sent text messages back a few times, but it never developed any further than that. His last text to Karen was she told him that she was at the Halloween party hanging out with some friends.

And his last text was something essentially, "Great. Text me sometime. I'd love to take you out to dinner." And we quickly concluded that, you know, obviously it didn't sound like somebody who was obsessed, and he was ruled out as a suspect. Found out where he was at the time of her disappearance, and that alibi I checked out. But investigators have another possible lead to follow as they learn of a terrible conflict between Karen Swift and one of her neighbors.

John Hogshooter lived across the road, diagonal from their residence. Caddy cornered probably not more than 150 feet from their home. Mr. Hogshooter had previously had a criminal matter charged against him regarding some sort of issue with one of their dogs. He had gained some notoriety in the neighborhood. He's kind of a rough around the edges fella generally.

There was an issue where John Hogshooter had poisoned a couple of dogs in the neighborhood and one of the dogs belonged to David and Karen Swift. He put some poison, some sort of poison concoction out on his property. One of the Swift's dogs got into the poison and was also sickened. The Swift's dogs did not die.

On October 7th, Karen actually went to this man's house to confront him about her dog being poisoned. John was eventually charged with animal cruelty in that case and he actually pleaded guilty. While one neighborhood dog did die from the poisoning, the Swift dog managed to survive after being rushed to the vet and having its stomach pumped, the incident creating bad blood between the neighbors.

Anybody who owns a dog and they say their neighbor poisoned their dog, that would certainly be bad blood. I know Karen and the hog shooter guy, I knew of the fight they'd had. She doesn't hold back. She doesn't hold back. Like, if she feels that she's got something to say, she's going to say it. When she was missing, he became one of the first suspects that the Sheriff's Department looked at.

Investigators want to talk to John Hogshooter. He'd been poisoning neighborhood dogs, including Karen's. They bring him into this interrogation room and they have some questions to ask. - Jim, what I'm gonna talk to you about, I'm gonna just shoot straight from the hip. Are you aware of what's going on out there where you live? - Yeah, I'm well aware of what's going on. - What I'm trying to do is clear people.

And I know that the incident that happened with the dogs out there, I know all about that because of the prior investigators that had been working that case. What I'm trying to do is find out your whereabouts on the 30th, that Saturday.

We interviewed John and asked him that he, of course, you know, we didn't beat about the dogs, but we wanted to know, did he know Karen? His memories of Karen Swift differs from what others have said about the tension between the two of them. What we want to do is make sure you had no involvement in Karen's disappearance.

I don't know. The only way I've even seen a picture of this lady is my wife showed me a picture of her. I was like, "Oh, is that what she looks like?" The only other time I've ever seen her is out on her grass in the summertime from my house. Had he ever had any contact with Karen? Had he spoken with her? What kind of involvement had he ever had with Karen or David or anybody else in that neighborhood? I'd go up there and talk to him and sit out on the porch. From that area, from my house or his house, the only time I've ever seen that lady.

out there in the yard, she's in a bikini, what do you think? Everybody's gonna be like, "Oh, man." - Your man, you're gonna look at her, ain't you? - Yeah, but you know, just like, "Yeah, she's in a bikini up there." That's it. That's the only time I've ever seen her. - And he said no. He just saw her one time out in the yard, like a neighbor waving or something to the nature of that. - When did you find out that this woman was missing? When did you know about it?

As soon as they started talking to him, he was extremely cooperative.

They impounded his vehicle. They searched, they got a search warrant, searched his house. I can't even get in because my keys, my keys in that truck.

There's a gold key in where the ashtray thing goes right there. There's a gold key. That's the only way to get in and get my clothes done. He was very relaxed. He wasn't tense about it. It was obvious that, I mean, he wasn't nervous. I thought it was a good interview. There was no evidence in the end that pointed that John Hogshead had any knowledge of this at all.

But then investigators find Karen Swift's two cell phones, almost totally destroyed, near the property of John Hogshooter. Finding these two phones very close to John's property was very concerning for the police. When we discovered the phones, they were damaged. They were crushed. Somebody might have stomped them and then pitched them there.

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So you've got the investigators, they don't know where Karen Swift is, they know she's missing. Her phone was not in her car. They didn't see it around the car, so they start searching for the phone. So we decided we're going to do a grid from where the car was found back to the house. So this is where you found the smashed cell phones? In this area here, the phones were found. Yeah.

They found 580-something feet from their driveway, from Karen's driveway to this location. A highway patrolman comes across not one, but two smashed phones. This is images of them, right? They were shattered. That phone was shattered before it even went there. Because if you had thrown it in that grass, you would never have got this damage to this phone. But as close to the Swift's home as the phones are, they're also very close to John Hogshooter's home.

that neighbor the Swifts say they had a confrontation with. Finding those two phones within proximity of John Hogsheader's house raises many, many questions for investigators in this case for obvious reasons.

Investigators found out that Hog Shooter was at this church event. We knew where he was on her day of disappearance, and we were able to establish his alibi. There was no evidence in the end that pointed that John Hog Shooter had any knowledge of this at all. A thorough investigation was done, and he had alibi witnesses, and we were able to pretty quickly eliminate him as a suspect.

With Hog Shooter cleared, the investigation continues. At this point, the most important unanswered question: Where is Karen? Some people just walk away from their lives. It happens all the time. Without a body, they don't know that a crime's been committed. We constantly relied on getting them to the media. Of course, the sheriff would make press releases, social media. Everybody knew that we were trying to locate her.

There's a landmark in Dyer County and it's a large cross where you can see it from a good distance. And near that, within a few hundred feet, is a cemetery. Bledsoe Cemetery is very spread out. Some of the headstones there are over a hundred years old and even older. It's a very rural area.

A local pastor and a congregant were in Bledsoe Cemetery on December 10th examining overturned headstones. And as they're surveying this type of damage, they notice a human body part coming out of some kudzu bushes. Karen Swift has been missing for six weeks at this point. The police arrive and head to this nearby area full of kudzu.

Kudzu, they're vines and kudzu can cover everything. It can cover very large trees and hang down. Kudzu can cover everything that it crawls across and it crawls across almost everything. And this is the kudzu that was... This is the kudzu area.

And all of this was in kudzu. Every bit of this was in kudzu. So it was hiding everything here? Yes, and the body was found somewhere in this area, maybe near that tree stump. The body was so badly decomposed, it was hard to tell how long it had been there. One thing was very clear, though. There was almost no way that this person just wandered off and somehow found themselves underneath these bushes and then somehow died.

They certainly have an indication that it's a female, but they're not positive that it's Karen Swift. The body was found with just undergarments on. Yes. What does that tell you? Well, it lets me know that she did not leave the house dressed like that. The body is sent to the medical examiner and dental records make the identification official. It is indeed Karen Swift. We went to the home to make the death notification.

And we told David that we found Karen. And his very words were, "You found it." You know, and we all, like, "We found your wife, Karen. You found it." I don't have any audio or statement that backs that up, but I don't know that that statement proves anything. I know that the officer was trying to make something of that.

But it's, in my opinion, not an admission or anything other than you found it. The 44-year-old's body was found near Bledsoe Cemetery, just two miles from her Dyer County home. Police identified Swift's body Sunday using dental records. They're not saying how she was murdered. No suspects have been named. Maybe it was just my dad who sat me down and told me that they found my mom. But I remember my dad being kind of very calm.

He explained it in a way of mom's not coming back home and this is the new reality. And I think that he was trying to say it in the best way possible, but there's not really a best way possible to say that. It was one of those days where you just go numb and you just cannot believe that this is what it came to and why. I was very upset when her body was found because of the kids and also David.

And he was wondering what in the world could have happened. I thought maybe, you know, maybe somebody saw her walking and, you know, grabbed her or things like that. But the more I thought about it, I thought there had to be a little bit more to it. The autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. One thing that we were not able to tell was whether there was strangulation involved.

Investigators may not be certain how, but they are now convinced Karen Swift was murdered. As they try to figure out who did it, what did they find under a spare tire? As investigators in Dyersburg look into what is now a murder case, they learn some messy details about Karen and David Swift's marriage. Remember, they had moved here to Tennessee from Pocahontas, Arkansas. Karen and David met in Pocahontas. They got married in 1989.

Karen and David had what could be best described as a tumultuous marriage. I know that maybe there were some affairs going on in Arkansas. He ended up having a marital affair with this lady and a child was born as a result of that affair. And they divorced at that time.

For a lot of couples, that might have been the end. But David and Karen are able to reconcile. They're divorced for only about seven months when they remarry in 2000 and continue raising their two sons together. And so then David and Karen go on and have their daughters Ashley and Keely. Now sometime in the mid-2000s, Karen has an affair. David finds out. He forgives her for this. They reportedly move on.

He decided to quickly move the family to Dyersburg. So it's David and Karen living in the new house with three of their four younger children. The oldest son was now in college. It felt like if they didn't get away from the problem they were having in Arkansas, their marriage would never work. And it did, you know. I mean, they had got along for quite some time, and then things went from bad to worse.

That's because once the couple moves from Arkansas to Tennessee, more problems spring up. Karen makes new friends, and David and Karen have very different views about what happened next. It didn't seem like David was happy with those friends, and they weren't especially happy with David either. It was clear that once she started this friendship with these new friends, that she was moving away from David. It was midnight. I heard her sneaking out of the house.

He talked about it in that police interview. You know, I've seen nights that she would speed down the drive and Ashley's chasing after her and stuff, not wanting her to leave and go out at night. It did get to a point where I feel like there was a little bit of shift in my family, and my mom was going out more, which made me start to question why.

As investigators learn details about what was going on, questions are raised about the nature of David's behavior towards Karen and if his alleged behavior crossed a line. When David got upset is when Karen would be absent from the house. He wanted to know where she was. He would wake up, she would be gone, and he would get out to see where she was at.

David might be following her, but to him it made perfect sense. He told people he had reason to worry about her and their kids. And his attorney says he thought she might be cheating on him. If it's late at night and your kids are in bed and you're home after a work day, you know, you might understand why somebody would say, "Hey, what's going on?" Or, "Can I ask you some questions?" I think David just wanted his wife to be at home.

where she should be with him and the kids. She claimed it was controlling. I don't think so. But Karen let it be known she had had enough. She wanted another divorce. Karen wanted to file for divorce because she felt David was too controlling of her. Frankly, if we had to go to court, the inappropriate marital conduct would have been what I would refer to as kind of a stalkish behavior.

But Karen doesn't have enough money of her own to file for divorce, so her good friends, Bill and Kathy Bona, loan her the cash. Not only that, the Bona's say they gave Karen a second phone to use to get around her husband to talk to her divorce lawyer. Karen told me that she had a secondary phone with a number that she was talking to me on. It was a secondary phone, and she did not want him to know that she was calling and talking to me about a potential divorce.

Investigators understand why they found those two smashed and discarded phones. She was afraid to be present when he was served. It was a substantial amount of money that she was asking for. So I think that had a big impact on David when he received that. And in the meantime, the couple continues to live together in the same house. She was living downstairs. David was sleeping upstairs. I didn't notice anything different, you know.

We all went about our business. She chose to live in the home. And my take on it was that she wasn't afraid of him. She didn't ask for order or protection because there had been no issues of physical violence. David continued to say things to Karen wanting to call the divorce off. He wasn't happy about the divorce. To prosecutors, the possible divorce and the issues in the marriage are reaching a boiling point.

I believe that he had the attitude they had reconciled before or had problems before and perhaps they could just talk through it and continue on with their life. And he said she wasn't having it. He said there was just no way.

Was it enough of a motive for murder? Investigators had some evidence, including those smashed cell phones found here. And there were those divorce papers that David seemed to have hidden under the spare tire in his car. This here is not adding up because if I'm getting a divorce, why do I need to hide them in the car, in the trunk, under a spare tire? I don't have an explanation if he had just stuck them there or if he had inadvertently

Set him there. It was only 20 days after she filed for divorce that Karen went missing. To investigators, it's a lot of smoke. But the truth is, there is simply no hard evidence linking David Swift to the crime. And the district attorney general in office at the time is not willing to charge him. I think he was concerned that you only get one chance to try the case.

For more than a decade, the town wonders, is there a killer walking free? Then in 2022, finally, an arrest. Give me a thumbs up if you can hear me. And I got a chance to talk to that man from behind bars. Did you ever feel like you had a cloud of suspicion over you? Am I talking with the killer? And another woman emerges with a harrowing account. How would what she says affect the Karen Swift case?

The night that Karen was last seen, she went to a Halloween party. I mean, the body was here for a month. Undetected. They investigated and they investigated, and everyone was like, "When are you going to find a suspect?" The story of the same man, but two different women. One of them killed, one of them claiming she was stalked. And there he was, in my backyard.

in the middle of the night. This is too much. The exclusive interview you'll only see on 20/20. They told me that my dad was got arrested. And in that moment, I was like, for what? How big a deal was this trial in Dyersburg? This trial was huge. They didn't compare the fingerprints. They had tunnel vision. I'm sorry. It's all right. This is a man I was married to that I shouldn't have been afraid of. And why is this happening?

Today we've intensified our search. We have combed through the areas again. Karen Swift is a 44-year-old housewife, mother of four, in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and she disappears in October 2011. Her car turns up not far from her house. The car was locked here. There was no signs of foul play in the vehicle. It was puzzling. I really didn't know. I didn't know what to think.

So after Karen goes missing, the police talk to her husband, David. I just ordered some home. And they learn that there are serious problems in the Swift marriage. Well, have you filed for divorce? She filed on the 5th. Six weeks after she disappears. The body was found somewhere in this area, maybe near that tree stump. Karen Swift has been found. Police identified Swift's body using dental records.

For the Dyer County Sheriff's Office, this case turns into a murder investigation. But they don't have enough evidence against Karen Swift's husband, David, or anyone else for that matter, to make an arrest. For more than a decade, there seems to be a question that lingers in the air in this town. Will Karen Swift ever get justice? When it didn't happen right away, it almost felt like that there was nobody trying. Somebody did this. So who?

I'm 100% sure David did not do this. And we kept working his case. We never gave up on it. And there was always little bits and pieces that we could piece and put together. David, any time law enforcement or the DA's office reached out to him, he answered their questions. He cooperated because he wanted to find out what happened to his wife.

They investigated and they investigated and everyone was like, when are you going to find a suspect? When are you going to charge someone? So for 10 years, 11 years, it was the hot topic in town. It became an election year issue about no swift justice. And a lot of people were upset about Karen's case not being solved. It was always the number one thing that came up.

And in 2018, promising to look at the case again, Danny Goodman is elected as the new District Attorney General. Later, the sheriff hands the entire case file over to him.

And we, of course, had a regular caseload. It wasn't something that we could just drop our normal caseload and start going through. By then, David Swift has left town. He has a whole new life and a new wife, Kelly Essman. Single Christians, good news at ChristianMingle.com. I met David on Christian Mingle in January of 2014. And we dated for about two and a half years.

And then he moved to Alabama when we got married. My relationship with my dad during this time period was very good. He made sure that we still had as normal as a childhood as we could, even into our teenage years, you know. He did start telling me a little bit about Karen and the fact that she had come up missing. He actually asked me to run

a background check on him and the background check comes up clean. You know, none of the news stories showed that he was a person of interest. They didn't say that he was a suspect. It was okay. I think they had a wonderful relationship. Everybody got along.

It may have started out that way, but Kelly says cracks started to form in the marriage over parenting issues. And she says David never wanted to discuss her concerns. Over the years, she says it grew worse and worse. There were challenges, and with all blended families, there are, you know? And that's where it started going downhill. We both went to therapy. So I finally just decided I can't go back.

this is too much. He finally said that he would file for divorce. But they have no idea that back in Dyersburg, there's been a break in the Karen Swift investigation, thanks to something completely unrelated, the COVID pandemic. It was actually good for this case because at that time we were not allowed to have an in-person court

We were not allowed to have jury trials. So we had a lot of time that was just down time in the office. We were alone in the office for, I want to say it was around six weeks. Looked at every page that was compiled by the Sheriff's Department. And that's how the case basically was rejuvenated and we started back.

with a lot more detail looking into it. We just basically came to the same conclusion that, yes, David Swift did it. We noticed maybe that there were a few things that we would like to have to prosecute the case that were not there.

In particular, they say they want information stored on Karen Swift's cell phones, found smashed not far from her home. After a year of trying, experts can't recover that data. But prosecutors say they do come up with more digital evidence from David Swift's computer. In the days and weeks after Karen vanished,

They found that her husband had been visiting all of these multiple dating sites. Why is David looking at dating sites when she hasn't even been found?

David Swift's lawyer claims other people in the house may have been using that computer and accessing those sites. The prosecutors decide they have enough to take the case to a grand jury. David Swift is indicted. We would never take a case to trial that we did not feel like we could be successful with

with prosecution. And at that point, we felt that we could. An arrest has finally been made in the 2011 murder of Karen Swift. David Swift was arrested today in Alabama where he was living with his new wife. David Swift is charged with premeditated first-degree murder. He was shot.

Swift is brought back to Tennessee, where he later pleads not guilty to first and second degree murder and manslaughter. The sheriff posts on Facebook, "Today is a good day for law enforcement. David was always a suspect because all the evidence points to him."

Certainly it wasn't enough evidence to take him into custody and bring it to trial. Every rumor, every piece of information that came in, we followed up. No one else had a motive. No one else had the opportunity. And he had all of those things. They told me that my dad got arrested. And in that moment I was like, "For what?" What could they possibly have?

that they arrested him for something that happened so long ago. I think they just wanted to make an arrest to say we got somebody because they were getting so much black from people. There was nothing groundbreaking, no scientific evidence or anything other than what was in the file. I'm not saying that Danny Goodman or his office did anything unethical or improper,

But sometimes when pressure is applied or pressure is present in a situation, decisions get made. And we just disagreed with his decision to charge David Swift. I remember getting that first phone call from him after he was in the jail. And I remember his first words weren't,

You know, they weren't about him, they were about us. And that everything was gonna be okay. - I spoke to David Swift in a jailhouse interview. David, because this is the moment to clear the record, did you kill your wife?

Because of the pending criminal charges, Swift says he couldn't talk about the details of the case, but he denied any violence in the marriage. So you said no domestics, meaning you never hurt Karen?

Never raised a hand to her. But before he goes on trial accused of killing Karen, a truly shocking development. New details emerge about David Swift's alleged behavior with another woman. And he faces another criminal charge.

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Weeks after David Swift is arrested and charged with his wife Karen's murder, he's released after posting a $200,000 bond. But in a truly wild turn of events, Swift's legal troubles follow him home to Alabama, where he faces accusations of stalking, this time from his estranged second wife, Kelly Essman. I was not afraid of David during the marriage. Towards the end of my marriage, I was not necessarily afraid of him.

After I separated, there were periods of time when he would call me asking me, you know, where are you going? You know, I would tell him Hobby Lobby or, you know, just Target or whatever. And he always seemed to be calling exactly when I would be going to that place.

After David's arrest, Kelly claims she found proof that she was being followed and filed for an emergency restraining order. Kelly alleges that in the midst of all of this turmoil with David, that she came into some information that he actually had purchased a tracking device. And right then I knew. That's how he knew where I was going. So I knew there's a tracking device somewhere on my car. And we did find the tracking device.

Kelly also claims in her motion that David started reaching out to her, sending repeated messages via text and email. I repeatedly asked him to stop. It started with us trying to work out the details of the divorce, but it turned into a lot of random harassing emails on various topics.

Kelly files for that emergency restraining order, reporting that she was afraid for her safety, that she believed she may be in danger, and that David's stalking and harassment had become egregious. The judge made no findings on those claims, but the restraining order was granted. I just wanted him to leave me alone. That's all I wanted, just leave me alone. Even with this new wife that he had and got a divorce, his M.O. was the same.

following her around there in Alabama. Karen and her friends and family said that David often would follow Karen around, that he was monitoring where she was at, that David would call her. He even told us he followed her to a local store and got into the back of the car. As for Kelly, she filed a police report after she claimed David's alleged harassment continued.

In coordination with Alabama authorities, investigators back in Tennessee check up on what David Swift has been doing. When he was put on a bond, the judge allowed an ankle monitor to be put on him. That brought to light data showing that he had been to her house on several occasions and fallen rich. And the sergeant calls me and I'm like, "How is that possible?" That he knew where I was going.

And he said that we think he's got a tracking device on your car. And I'm like, again? Police pour over Kelly's car looking for a tracking device. They don't find one, but Kelly says she does find something chilling on her security camera system, which 2020 was able to obtain. I pulled up the feed from that night, and there he was in my backyard in the middle of the night. He had to drive 40 minutes one way to get to my house.

And one of the times he saw him at my house was in the middle of the night for an hour and a half. When I see the video, that's when I become very confused, fearful. Why is this happening? Why is he doing it? I didn't give him any reason to. This is a man I was married to that I shouldn't have been afraid of.

David's charged with felony stalking in Alabama and his bond in the Karen Johnson Swift murder case was revoked. Things moved pretty quickly after that. After they got the indictment, they arrested David Swift. There are pictures of him getting in the car. With his bond revoked, Swift is brought into custody and sent to Tennessee. He's been charged with stalking down there. They're going to handle those charges once we dissolve this case here.

David Swift has yet to enter a plea to the stalking charge. His lawyer handling the case hasn't responded to 2020's request for comment. With Swift sitting in jail, attention turns back to his fast-approaching trial for Karen's murder. The case is big news in a small town, and both the prosecution and the defense are about to pull back the curtain on the Swifts' private lives. Did anyone have no clothes on in the hot tub?

What exactly was going on at those hot tub parties? And what did they have to do with Karen's case? A man accused of killing his wife more than a decade ago is back in Tennessee. We'll bring you inside of the courtroom as both sides prepare for trial. News of David Swift's trial puts Dyersburg on the map in a way locals have never seen.

When there was finally an arrest in Karen's case, you had TV crews, newsprint media, all these people flooding in to Dyersburg. How big a deal was this trial in Dyersburg? This trial was huge. It was high profile. It's been the number one trial that has public interest in Dyersburg. Interestingly, Karen Swift's murder trial doesn't take place here in Dyer County, Tennessee. Instead, a judge issues a change of venue, and David Swift is tried for murder 50 miles from here in Wheatley County, Tennessee.

As opening statements begin, the prosecution makes it clear that there is no smoking gun against David Swift. You are not going to see fingerprint analysis. You're not going to see ballistic testing. We will, however, give you several pieces of a puzzle. And when we get through giving you all of those, we think that we're going to have a complete picture. We knew that a jury would want to see some type weapon that was used for the murder.

And it was just, we were never going to have that in this case. But the prosecution lays out their theory that David Swift didn't actually need a weapon. We submitted the defendant, dragged her to the garage. Once inside the garage, the defendant stomped Karen on her head with such violence that it caved her skull in.

I was shocked when I heard that because I had not heard that before and I'm like, "Okay, we'll see the evidence of that." The autopsy showed that there was starburst fracturing on the left side, which indicated that her head was against something solid and then was struck from the other side. And our theory is that solid object was the concrete in the garage.

The defense counters that the investigators never found any evidence in the garage to back up this theory. So you actually walked around the garage and looked at it when you first went out there with Mr. Swift? Yes, sir. All right. You didn't see any blood or smell of strong bleach, did you? I did not.

The prosecution then switches gears to focus on Karen's abandoned car. Remember, investigators say that her tire appeared to have been deliberately punctured. The flat tire, I think, is one of the more significant pieces of the puzzle in this case. One thing I did observe was a screw that was in groove number three. The screw was slightly below the tread surface.

Does that have any significance to you in your examination? Yes. When an object punctures the tire in the tread area, it will actually rebound as it goes through the tire because of the elastic nature and the structure of the tire. Could you imagine a situation where a screw entered the tire in service like this, where it ran over an object, perhaps a pebble or a stone that could have forced the screw head beneath the tread surface?

Well, I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I would say extremely improbable. It was their contention that the tire was intentionally deflated as a ruse to make people believe that Karen had actually suffered from a flat tire, and that's why her car was there when, in fact, that was not the case. But the defense brings in their own expert, who testifies that the screw could have accidentally punctured that tire. There's other vehicles could kick up.

screws or nails. You know, say you're following a construction vehicle and some are on the back of the trailer and they bounce off and you just happen to be behind it. Who knows what angle it's going to strike your tire at as you're going down the roadway. My expert actually did test on a light tire on a similar wheel and, you know, tried to recreate that and explained it to the jury. And I think the jury has to decide which they believe.

The prosecution also calls Karen's friends, Bill and Kathy Bona, to the stand to testify about how they viewed Karen and David's relationship. She finally started taking action when she started getting the confidence to say, I'm just done. I can't do this anymore. And the controlling and accusations, she was ready to be done with the marriage because...

She needed to get out. The defense argues that Karen had full control of everything she did. She did the behavior she wanted to, and that's just a reality. And as we move on closer to the time she got a divorce, she would come and go as she wished.

Prosecution asks the Bonas about Kathy's 40th birthday celebration, where they hosted an after-party with a group of their friends, which included the use of their hot tub. The Bonas testify that this party led to a confrontation with David Swift. How were people dressed? Some people had swimsuits. A couple people did not. When you say they did not, did they have anything on? No. They were nude? Yes.

Do you know if Ms. Swift was in the hot tub? It was, yes. I mean, I don't remember specifically seeing her, but she enjoyed being in the hot tub when she came over, you know, in the wintertime when it was cold, so I'm sure she was. Was Mr. Swift present that night? He wasn't at first, and he wasn't invited, and he wasn't welcome. Mr. Swift burst into the door, you know, there and startled me and asked where Karen was. What was his demeanor at that time? He was agitated, I would say, but...

I would also say it really caught me off guard. I thought, I don't like this, and I went to get out a chair to go, you know, ask him to leave, basically, and he came down the stairs and left. How did he appear when he came down as far as his attitude and demeanor? I mean, he came down the stairs and left abruptly and left through the door, you know, quickly enough where I couldn't even really get a word in edgewise.

The prosecution plays David's full police interview in court, where he confirmed that he would sometimes follow Karen to the Bonas house. Karen started sneaking out of the house and she would go to be with Kathy and Bill. And when you say go to be with them, would you be going to party with them? Go party and they'd be in the hot tub in the backyard.

There was a lot of information about the hot tub parties and all of that, so it kind of verified the rumors that were going around that something somewhat wild was going on. And there is key testimony still ahead as one emotional witness makes waves. Who can call you next witness? Ashley Swift. And David's own daughter prepares to testify at her father's trial. What will she say when she takes the stand?

Inside the weekly County courthouse attorney Daniel Taylor dives into one of the most memorable cases of his career. I've been a trial lawyer for 32 years and it's the most media attention on any particular case that I've had.

This is 2011. After all those years, there's been no scientific breakthrough or anything. There's been nothing new that's come in or anything. After all this time, there was a charge. The defense contends that the reason David would follow Karen was because he was worried about what was going on at those hot tub parties. There were issues about conduct and things that were going on, adult parties, things about...

They call her friend, Robin Alford, who testifies that she saw Karen passed out at Kathy Bona's birthday party.

Did you see Karen Swift leave the hot tub and go into the house? I did. I witnessed her get up. She looked to me as if she was hot and woozy kind of feeling. When I walked in and I witnessed her laying on the floor. Did you, were you aware whether or not when you first met the Swifts that they drank alcohol or not? Karen never drank before she come to Dyersburg, never. And I don't think that she could handle her alcohol at all.

The defense points out that in his police interview, David did express concern for Karen's welfare. The defense was simple: David Swift

did not kill Karen Swift. They said it could have been a random act by somebody who was just passing by either in a car or on foot. They didn't compare the fingerprints. They just tested David Swift. They had tunnel vision.

The defense also argues that David had a serious knee injury affecting his mobility, so he wouldn't have been physically able to dispose of Karen's body. They said he had this injured leg, so he could not have possibly picked her up and placed her in the cemetery. Did you notice anything about his leg or how he was walking? He had a knee brace on and he had grudges.

Multiple witnesses for the prosecution dispute the seriousness of David's knee injury. Was he using crutches? I've never seen no crutches on Saturday. Did he appear to be injured in any way? You could see him using his crutches while he was talking, but after he got done talking and they went in the house, he just walked like he didn't need crutches anymore. I thought that was strange. Even if he is faking it, it's still, there's a visual there. The jury is repeatedly seeing people get on the stand and say, yes, I saw him on these crutches. Yes, I saw him on these crutches.

The defense also disagrees with the prosecution's account of what happened inside the Swift home on the night of Karen's murder. So part of the prosecution's theory of the case was that David comes into Karen's room, takes Ashley, the daughter, out of the bed and goes and puts her in bed with the sister, Keely. He returns to the room.

And Karen is either asleep or in a very incapacitated state. And then something happens where he ends her life. Then the defense calls an essential witness to challenge that theory. Would you tell everybody your name? Ashley Swift. I was nervous to go on the stand and they decided to call me early. And so in that moment, I did freak out a little bit just because I hadn't mentally prepared myself.

Ashley, who was only nine years old when she saw her mom for the last time, describes what she remembers about the hours before Karen disappeared. You're not used to testifying, so let me just ask you a few things, okay? Okay. When your mother picked you up, did she pick you up in her car? She did. And where did y'all go after that? We went home, back to our house where my sister and my dad were. And do you recall...

getting out of the car or going to the house? Do you recall everything about that night? Yeah, we came into the house and we went to sleep in her bedroom. I didn't really prepare for trial. Whatever was asked was what was asked and however I answered was however I answered and I told the truth in everything that I said.

And Ashley testifies that it wasn't her father who moved her from the bed that fateful night. Oh, I know it was my mother. How do you know that? It's instinct to know your mother versus somebody else. You have that bond with that person and you know who it is. But you didn't actually see her?

No, but I felt her. There were some times during my testimony where they were trying to, I think, trick me into thinking that what I felt and knew was something else, and I made sure to own that. It was my testimony. So you actually don't know for sure then, do you? I mean, I have a pretty good instinct and feel what my mother feels like. Seeing his oldest daughter take the stand becomes a visibly emotional ordeal for David. I know that it was physically tough.

And he knew it was difficult being asked questions. And finally, after two weeks of heated exchanges and moving testimony, there are fireworks inside the jury room where lines are drawn in the sand. It was divided pretty much down the middle. It was basically the guys against the girls. As the courtroom holds its breath for a verdict.

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It was time for the lawyers on both sides to make their final plea to the jury. Karen and David Swift's marriage ended sometime around 3:30 a.m. on October 30, 2011. Sadly, it didn't end the way Karen had envisioned it might when she filed for divorce earlier that month from David.

My job in closing argument was to convince the jury that there was only one person that could have done this. And that's what I attempted to thread all the evidence together and present them with a coherent theory of what happened that evening. There's only one person in the planet that could have killed Karen Swift, and it was David.

How do you think the prosecution did in presenting its case to the jurors? I think that General Goodman had a very, very difficult case. It was an inherited case. It was very old evidence. I think that he did the absolute best that he could to try to bring justice to Karen Swift. The prosecutor said that he would put the puzzle together, but the puzzle was incomplete.

And so that's exactly what I argued, and that his version of the offense and what he claimed happened was incorrect or inconsistent with what was proven. There is no proof to support the state's theory in this case. You have heard all of my questions. You have heard all of the witnesses. The state said that this was a puzzle that they would put together for a complete picture. There is no complete picture.

As it was going to the jury, we all kind of sat around and hugged. A bunch of family friends showed up and we were sitting there trying to figure out, "Oh, what if the jury's saying this? What if they're saying that?" But we really didn't know what was going on in that jury room. We started deliberating. "Why don't you think he's guilty? Why do you think he's guilty?"

We took an initial vote just to see where everybody was, and it was divided pretty much down the middle. It was basically the guys against the girls. According to juror David Liggins, some of those male jurors felt there just wasn't enough evidence to convict David Swift. If you stomp somebody's head on concrete, good enough to fracture her skull like it was fractured and busted.

And then he can beat every law enforcement and science in the state. I don't believe that's possible this day and age. No physical evidence. But for other jurors, they say David Swift's behavior towards Karen couldn't be ignored. In my heart, I really thought he did something when he knew where she was at and what she was doing because he was following her. That made me think that, yes, he did something.

As the jury was deliberating, things were very tense. And you could sense the tension minute by minute. I actually was not surprised that the jury was deliberating as long as they did. Anytime you have a circumstantial case, you're going to have a lot of discussions. You're going to have a lot of opinions.

When the jury went out, it was tense on both sides. Both sides were just waiting. You have no choice other than to talk to your client, talk to his family. And so he obviously was nervous and it could mean either him going home or either him staying.

you know, in custody. After hours of fruitless deliberations, the jury tells the judge they were unable to reach a decision. He instructs them to keep trying. After 10, 11 hours, you're getting tired. Mentally exhausted. Everybody was so tired. They couldn't reach a decision, so they stayed and they went home, and then they came back. It got a little heated, but anytime you got difference of opinions,

It's eventually gonna get a little hateful. Finally, after two days of deliberation, the jury announces it has reached a decision. When we walked back in there, everybody was looking, of course. They're gonna see if they can tell whether you voted not guilty or guilty. Anybody would have voted like we did. But I do remember looking out in the gallery

I saw one lady, she was shaking, and the longer it took, it was obvious to me that she was becoming more nervous. And this was pretty much the scene inside the courthouse. I just prayed we had done the right thing. Madam foreperson, has the jury reached a verdict in this case? After two days of grueling deliberation, the jury has come back in David Swift's murder trial. Has the jury reached a verdict in this case? No, Your Honor.

Do you feel like it is likely that the jury on continued deliberations will reach a verdict? No, sir. I think the best word to describe what happened as the verdicts were being read was shock. Does the jury agree on the highest level of offense that the defendant is either guilty or not guilty? Yes. What is the verdict in that? Not guilty.

The jury came back not guilty on first degree murder, not guilty on second degree murder, and they were hung on voluntary manslaughter. Do you all believe that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked with respect to the charge of voluntary manslaughter? I see everybody nodding their head yes. I was just sitting there in the chair. I was just kind of just numb. I was like, I can't believe this.

We spent all this time presenting the facts and apparently they just didn't get it. The jury didn't get it. The first two officers on the scene said that they did walk into the garage that day. I'm sorry, you could smell bleach if he had bleach in there. You could see the blood if he ain't cleaned it up yet. When they gave me a scenario, that's where he done it. And then they can't find nothing. That ended the case for me.

I think it stopped at manslaughter because I felt like he did something in my heart. I really thought he did something. When the verdict came in, your reaction? Honestly, I really was not surprised. The reasonable doubt was

I think the way that the prosecution laid it out was the only person that could have done it was David Swift. They didn't present proof that said that it was David Swift. If I removed myself and my knowledge of the case and I was an independent person, I would have had to have rendered a verdict of not guilty.

One detail that the prosecution wasn't allowed to introduce at trial: David's indictment for allegedly stalking his second wife, Kelly. But some jurors say hearing about that accusation wouldn't have made a difference. The only thing, in my opinion, that would have changed my outcome was the scenario the prosecution gave.

Yes, that woman was beat to death, but they can't convince me that David done it. Let me take you to the penultimate moment, which is what was it like to hear the jury say not guilty? Man, it was great. I thought, finally. It was overwhelming.

Although he was acquitted of murdering Karen, David Swift's legal ordeal is far from over. He's still facing that charge of stalking his second wife and remains in jail as he faces retrial on that voluntary manslaughter charge. I'm disappointed that the jury didn't reach a decision that I thought they should as to all the offenses. That's the jury system. And that's why we'll have a retrial.

We were confident going into the first trial. We're equally confident for a second trial. And I think that it's something that we can't give up on. It's just something that we have an obligation to do. I'm not really sure what you expect to get out of a retrial when we've already seen the presentation of all this evidence before, and everybody has pretty much already formed a decision on it.

And today, 13 years after her mother disappeared, Ashley Swift, Karen and David's daughter, still steadfastly believes in her father's innocence. Moving forward, I'm not exactly 100% sure what's going to happen. I hope that we can get my dad home soon. He is currently sitting in jail for something that, you know, he shouldn't even be in jail for.

David has missed out on a lot of special things. He has missed the birth of a grandchild, his daughter's graduation from dental hygiene school, his oldest daughter Ashley. He has missed Keely graduating high school. What does justice for Karen Swift look like? I think that in a situation like this, I think that we

have to unfortunately reconcile with the fact that there may not be justice. I will always remember Karen and I think everybody should remember Karen by her love for children, that she was a great mother and she was a great friend. I think one of the things I want people to know most about my mom is she's a very caring and nurturing person and she would do anything for any of us kids or my dad. I would love to have my dad around again and you know

really fight for justice for my mom. That's our program for tonight. I'm David Muir. And I'm Deborah Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night.