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Karen Swift's brutal murder in 2011 shook the quaint town of Dyersburg, Tennessee, which was just getting ready for a joyous Halloween. A mother of four children, 44-year-old Swift seemingly disappeared into thin air after visiting a Halloween party. She was found much later, dead from a head injury.
The horrific murder and its coverup are the subjects of Dateline season 33 episode 6, which is titled After the Halloween Party. The episode will air on November 1, 2024, at 9 pm EST on NBC.
This case has many mysteries and remains unsolved as of today. Ahead of Dateline's exploration of the murder mystery, let us go over five crucial details about the murder of Karen Swift.
5 key details about Karen Swift's murder
1) Karen Swift reportedly made it back home before she seemingly disappeared
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On the night of October 29, 2011, Karen went to a Halloween party at the Dyersburg Country Club. When one of her daughters fell sick, she reportedly picked her up and dropped her home around midnight that night.
However, the following morning, David Swift claimed that he could not locate his wife, kickstarting the investigation into her disappearance.
2) It took over six weeks to find Karen Swift's remains
In what appeared to be a meticulously pulled-off murder, authorities could not locate Karen Swift's body anywhere for six weeks. Her car was discovered a few miles away from the Swift residence, and her cell phones were also reportedly found damaged near a neighbor's house.
Finally, she was found beneath a tangle of vines by a caretaker near Bledsoe Cemetery in Dyer County. An autopsy would later reveal that she died from blunt force trauma.
3) David Swift became a suspect in the case due to his rocky marriage to Karen
While everything seemed fine between David and Karen from the outside, the latter had actually applied for divorce weeks before her disappearance. This hinted that David could be involved in the murder as he could not reconcile with his long-term wife.
However, because no physical evidence was found, authorities turned to John Hogshooter, a local convicted of animal cruelty. This, too, was a dead end for the investigation.
Over a decade later, David was charged with murder. He was also charged with felony stalking of his next wife Kelly Essman.
4) Karen Swift had reportedly taken up a different identity before her murder
In the months leading to Swift's murder, the 44-year-old woman had seemingly taken up a very different identity for herself. According to friends and acquaintances, Karen had begun attending a lot of parties and spent little time at home with her family. She was also intermixing with a new group at The Farms Golf Club in Dyersburg.
She was also reportedly drinking more regularly at the time.
5) David Swift was found not guilty of first-degree or second-degree murder but is yet to be cleared of the voluntary manslaughter charge
After his trial concluded, the jury did not find David Swift guilty of four of the five charges against him, which included first-degree murder and second-degree murder. But the jury could not deliver a unanimous verdict about the voluntary manslaughter charge, leading to a hung jury.
David Swift will reportedly go on trial again for this charge in the future.
The upcoming episode of Dateline on NBC will cover this case in more detail.
