COLUMBIA, S.C. — The investigation into the homicide of six-year-old Faye Swetlik is still active and will likely receive a major update Tuesday, when law enforcement reveals autopsy results.
Swetlik was first reported missing around 5pm on Monday, February 10th from her Churchill Heights neighborhood in Cayce, South Carolina.
Cayce Department of Public Safety said she was last seen at around 3:45pm playing in front of her home.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers from several agencies, including the FBI, swarmed the neighborhood and began searching.
24 hours later, Cayce Department of Public Safety Director Byron Snellgrove said they were unsure what happened.
“Well we've not ruled anything out, we're not sure that she hasn't just walked off and is somewhere in the woods or at a neighbor's house possibly in distress or fallen or something like that,” Snellgrove said last Tuesday.
The Director continued and said they had no evidence of an abduction.
On Wednesday, police released video of Swetlik getting off her school bus on Monday. The video shows Swetlik in a black shirt with the word ‘peace’ across the front.
Also on Wednesday, law enforcement closed the neighborhood and announced the search area was widening slightly.
By Thursday morning, Cayce DPS said investigators were still searching the area and inspecting garbage trucks and the landfill. In a Thursday morning press conference, Cayce DPS described the case as still a search and not a recovery effort.
Then, Director Snellgrove made a major announcement just after 2 p.m.
“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we are announcing that we have found the body that the coroner has identified as Faye Marie Swetlik. We are now treating this case as a homicide,” Snellgrove announced in a brief press update.
Moments later, he announced they found a second body.
“We also need to inform you that during the course of our investigation, a deceased male was located in the Churchill Heights neighborhood, that investigation has just begun,” Snellgrove said.
Cayce DPS released no other details about the two cases.
On Friday, DPS Sergeant Evan Antley said it was a piece of evidence from a trash can which led to the discovery.
“Based on that discovery, we narrowed down an area that we felt, as an investigative team, that we needed to go back to and look for more evidence,” Antley said.
Antley announced Faye Swetlik was found in the woods between her home and a business nearby.
The body of the unidentified male, Coty Taylor, was found at his residence about 100-200 feet from where Swetlik disappeared.
“Our evidence and our investigation does link these two together. I can confirm that he was a neighbor, that he was not a relative, he was not a friend. He was merely a neighbor who lived in Churchill Heights,” Antley said.
However, law enforcement declined to explain why the two were connected or what evidence linked the two bodies.
Antley said Taylor did not have a criminal record and was not known to law enforcement. Taylor had been interviewed and his home searched earlier in the week during neighborhood canvases, according to Cayce DPS and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office.
There were no additional announcements about others involved.
“We have no suspects at this time. We have made no arrests and we are not seeking any persons of interests as of this time,” Antley added.
Taylor has not been charged or connected to any crimes in this case, nor has his cause of death been announced.
The autopsy results for both Swetlik and Taylor are going to be released Tuesday at another press conference at 3pm. The autopsies were completed on Saturday.
