| DC sheriff ‘confident’ of arrest in slaying | | Posted: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 9:03 pm
| DYERSBURG (AP) — A West Tennessee sheriff says he is “confident” that an arrest will be made in a slaying investigation that has gone on for months.
Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Box told the State Gazette (http://bit.ly/KsmkLC) last week that the investigation into the slaying of Karen Swift is still “active and ongoing.”
“We are confident we will bring the person, or persons responsible, to justice,” said Box, who declined to release details about the five-month-long investigation.
“Our office has collected much evidence in the case and investigators still are confident that an arrest will be made when the investigation is complete, but not until then. We will protect the integrity of this case up to the arrest and maintain this integrity during the trial to see that a conviction is received. This case must and will be tried in a court of law and not in the media, not on the Internet, and not in the newspaper.”
The remains of the 44-year-old mother of four were found on Dec. 10, 2011, near a cemetery close to her home. She had been reported missing more than a month earlier.
Her decomposed remains were sent to the Regional Forensic Center in Memphis for positive identification and an autopsy. Although the remains were identified, police have yet to release details of the autopsy.
Box has said there were injuries to Swift’s body, which led police to investigate her death as a slaying, though a cause of death hasn’t been released.
Swift’s husband, David Swift, told police he last saw her at their home on the morning of Oct. 30.
The Dyer County Sheriff’s Department is also asking for help from the public. Box said anyone who had contact with Swift before she disappeared or remembers seeing anyone near her vehicle on Oct. 30, 2011, should call police at 731-285-2802 or 1-800-TBI-FIND.
Information from: State Gazette, http://www.stategazette.com Published in The Messenger 5.23.12 | | | | |
