In the woods, less than 200 ft from a house, investigators discover a shallow grave. Right next to it, a small boot with polka dots, a 6-year-old girl who had been playing in her own yard just the day before is now gone. But that’s not even the most shocking part because on that same day, just minutes apart, another discovery is made.
Not far away, on a back porch, the body of a man is found. He’s dead. His throat has been cut and suddenly this question hangs in the air, are these two deaths connected? How does a child disappear in broad daylight from a yard where her mother could see her in a neighborhood where people were always around and no one noticed a thing.
Who took her and why? And the most chilling part is this, the answer may have been closer than anyone ever imagined. This is the story of Faye Marie Swetlik. Hey guys, let me pause for just a quick second. I’ve actually been really curious about where you’re all watching from. It’s kind of fascinating to me, honestly. So, if you don’t mind, drop a comment and tell me your city and what time it is for you right now.
Thanks for taking a moment, I really appreciate it. Go ahead and share that in the comments and I’ll keep the story going. Just before 3:00 in the afternoon, 6-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik stepped off her school bus from Springdale Elementary. Her mom, Selina Swetlik, was there waiting for her and the two of them walked home together chatting about their day like they always did.
It was one of those normal everyday moments, nothing felt out of place. Faye was the kind of kid people instantly adored. She was bright, full of energy, always smiling, just genuinely happy. Selina used to call her her little magical fairy because she had this way of lighting up everything around her. She loved people, like truly loved them, and she wanted everyone else to feel happy, too.
Her mom even said you couldn’t go anywhere without Faye stopping strangers just to compliment them. Whether it was someone’s hair or their outfit, she’d find something kind to say. And she was always excited to make new friends. When they got home, Faye grabbed a quick snack and then headed outside to play in the yard, something she did all the time.
Neighbors were used to seeing her out there, running around, having fun. Selena kept checking on her, looking out the window every so often, and at first, everything seemed completely normal. One neighbor later said they saw Faye running toward a shared fence near a NAPA Auto Parts sometime between 3:30 and 4:00. But around 3:45, when Selena looked outside again, Faye was gone.
At first, it didn’t fully sink in. Selena checked the yard again, then started going door to door, asking neighbors, making calls, searching everywhere she could think of. But as the minutes passed, that feeling like something was very wrong started to grow. And by 5:00 in the evening, she made the call no parent ever wants to make. She dialed emergency services.
Can you tell me exactly what’s happening? We can’t find my daughter. She was playing outside, and now I can’t find her. I I have a daughter who’s around the same Yes, she She’s going to be 7 in June. All right. All right. I’m going to send an alarm with you, but I’m going to get KC on KC PD on the line, too, but I’m going to send an alarm, so don’t hang up, okay? Okay.
All right, ma’am. You’re on the phone with KC. Go ahead. Yes, ma’am. Can you tell me what your daughter’s name is? Uh my daughter’s name is Faye Swalley. F A Y E All right. Hold on. Hold on. What was the first name again? Fay. Fay? Is that Y E? Yes, ma’am. Okay, what’s your last name? Sweetlick. Spell that for me.
S W E T L I C K. Okay, and what was she wearing? Uh she was wearing a polka dotted bathing suit. Uh um a flowered skirt. Okay. And um a black A black t-shirt that has um a neon design on it. And how long has she been gone? Um I don’t know. Last I saw her was probably about an hour ago. How tall is she? Uh she’s 3 ft 10.
3 ft How much does she weigh? Uh 65 lbs. All right. You last saw her in the front yard. You didn’t see which way she went or anything like that? No, she was uh it was right it was right in front of my front porch. Within minutes, police arrived at the home and by 5:30 around 50 responders were already on the scene.
Everything started moving incredibly fast. By 6:00 in the evening, even the Federal Bureau of Investigation had joined the search. The entire community wanted to help. People were ready to come out and look, but authorities asked volunteers to hold back and let trained teams handle the situation.
Not long after, Chad Sweetlick, Fay’s father, was informed that his daughter was missing. FBI agents went straight to his home to search the property, but there was no sign of her there. Later, phone records confirmed that he had been at home at the time of her disappearance, which ruled him out early on.
Meanwhile, officers were already going door-to-door, speaking with neighbors, and asking anyone with surveillance cameras to come forward. They needed every possible angle, every second of footage, anything that might show where Faery Sweetlick had gone. comes to checking on those home security cameras, that’s something that uh we’re already doing.
Certainly we’ll be going uh continue to go door-to-door and and then even revisit some of these doors a second time. Ashley Hunter, a spokesperson for the city of Casey, asked that the community continue to share recordings with law enforcement. People in the community uh in the Churchill Heights community, if you have uh home security systems, uh Ring, Wyze video, anything like that, talk with our investigators and and let them reach out and and obtain some of that video. The search quickly expanded. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation even brought in a helicopter, and K9 units were deployed to track any possible scent. But despite all that, officials were cautious about how they classified the case. Byron Snellgrove stated at the time that there wasn’t enough evidence to officially call it an abduction.
Because of that, Faye’s disappearance didn’t meet the criteria for issuing an Amber Alert. By 7:00 the next morning, a dedicated hotline had been set up, and it was flooded almost immediately. Nearly 300 tips came in, and investigators worked through every single one. But frustratingly, none of them led anywhere.
Meanwhile, the scale of the search kept growing. More than 250 officers and investigators from different agencies across the country had joined the effort to find Faimarie Sweatlick. In the Churchill Heights area, checkpoints were set up. Every car coming in or out was stopped and checked. By that point, almost 24 hours had passed since Selina Sweatlick made that call to emergency services.
With so much attention on the case and growing concern from the public, authorities held a press conference to share more details about the investigation. We’ve all been gathered here for one thing today, and that’s to find Faye. The last time Faye was seen, she was wearing a black shirt with the word peace across the front of it.
The photos that you have, her hair is a little bit longer uh than it is today. We’re trying to get pictures of that. It’s been cut to about shoulder length and just above. Faye’s parents are anxiously awaiting her return. What we would like to ask is that you hold on to a phone number. 803 205 4444. And we specifically ask that the residents of Churchill Heights here in Cayce who have cameras such as surveillance cameras around their houses, uh uh doorbell cameras, Ring doorbell cameras, anything like that, anything that records,
and have any type of recording on their devices between the time of 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. yesterday, please call us at that number. Let us know that you have that recording. We’ll come get it, look at it, and it may be key in us proceeding with this case. And again, we’re here for one reason. We’re here to find Faye.
At point authorities still didn’t know what they were dealing with. Was it possible that Faye Marie Swetlik had simply wandered off, gotten lost, maybe hurt somewhere nearby, or had something far worse happened? But as more time passed, it became harder and harder to believe that a 6-year-old child would just disappear on her own.
Investigators released footage from the school bus showing exactly what Faye had been wearing that day, hoping it might trigger someone’s memory. She had on her little polka dot rain boots and a black T-shirt with the word peace on it. It was such a simple detail, but one that people wouldn’t forget.
As the search intensified, police questioned several people close to her. Her mother, Selena Svetlik, her mother’s partner, Carter, and her father, Chad Svetlik. At first, they made it clear no one was being ruled out. There were no clear suspects, no solid direction. But eventually, after searches, phone record analysis, and verified alibis, her family members were cleared.
On February 12th, police released images of two vehicles that had been seen leaving the neighborhood around the time Faye was last spotted. For a moment, it seemed like a lead, but both drivers were quickly identified and ruled out. And just like that, investigators were back at zero. No sign of Faye, no answers.
Then came the morning of Thursday, February 13th. It was trash collection day, which meant time was critical. Officers needed to search the garbage bins before anything potentially important disappeared forever. As they checked the dumpsters near homes on Piccadilly Square, something was found near one of the houses.
Something they immediately described as critical evidence. But they didn’t reveal what it was. Whatever they discovered changed everything. It led them back toward the wooded area nearby. Search teams quickly regrouped, narrowing their focus, adjusting their plan. And less than 30 minutes later, the search came to a devastating end.
Byron Snellgrove was one of the officers scanning the wooded area when he found her. Faye’s body was buried in a shallow grave less than 200 ft from her home. Later, it was determined that she had died from asphyxiation just hours after being taken, and that her body had been moved shortly afterward.
And then, almost immediately after that discovery, another call came in from Piccadilly Square. A man had been found on the back porch of his home, covered in blood, dead. At first, his identity wasn’t released, and police were careful not to say whether the two deaths were connected, but the timing was impossible to ignore.
Since our last briefing this morning, we’ve had several developments to share with you. It is with extremely heavy hearts that we are announcing that we have found a body that the coroner has has identified as Faye Marie Swetlik. We are now treating this case as a homicide. As this community has been working hard to find Faye and bring her home safely, we wanted you to know as soon as possible.
At this time, no arrests have been made. You need to know that this is a fluid investigation and that we are working diligently on it. 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. At this time, we feel there is no danger to the community.
We will continue to provide more information as it becomes available. We will not be taking questions. Thank you. After Faye Marie Swetlik was found, messages of sympathy started pouring in from everywhere. People who had been following the story, neighbors, complete strangers, it felt like the loss hit far beyond just one family.
There was this overwhelming sense of grief that settled over the community, and it wasn’t just sadness, it was shock, too. The realization that something so tragic could happen so close to home in a place that felt safe really shook people. For many, it became personal. A little girl they had never even met, but somehow they felt like they knew her.
All I could think of was my own kids if something were to happen to them. Oh, I think it was terrible. Um, I feel bad for the family. I feel bad for all the people in Not long after Faye Marie Swetlik was found, the case drew national attention. Even Mike Pence released a statement expressing both his support for law enforcement and his grief as a parent.
He said that as a father, the news was heartbreaking that a 6-year-old girl had been taken from her own yard and found just days later. He also mentioned that he had spoken with Christopher Wray, confirming that the federal government would continue to provide every possible resource to assist in the investigation alongside the support already promised to Governor Henry McMaster.
And then there was the second discovery, the man found dead on his own porch. He was soon identified as 30-year-old Cody Scott Taylor, but that raised an even more unsettling question, who exactly was he and how was he connected to Faye? After a little girl disappeared from her yard, investigators are now revealing more details about her death.
Police say that the body of a man found in the same South Carolina neighborhood is connected to the death of 6-year-old Faye Swetlik. People who knew Cody Scott Taylor described him as quiet, withdrawn, the kind of person who kept to himself. He struggled with depression and had spoken about dark thoughts before, but mostly he kept everything bottled up inside.
He lived with roommates, moved from job to job, and at the time was working at a Wingstop. He had once studied math at the University of South Carolina, but it seemed like he left around 2009. As far as anyone knew, he didn’t have a serious criminal history. On the surface, nothing about him immediately stood out, but after his body was found, investigators started piecing everything together, and that’s when things began to shift.
At first, there was no clear connection between him and Faye Marie Swetlik. Then, a critical piece of evidence was discovered in a trash bin near his home that changed everything. Investigators came to believe that Cody was the one who took Faye, though exactly how he managed to do it remains unclear. Their theory was that he killed her within hours, most likely by asphyxiation, and then kept her body inside his apartment for 2 days.
And this is the part that’s really unsettling. Police had actually searched his place twice during that time and found nothing. On February 12th, officers had already been at his door. He wasn’t home, so they spoke with a roommate, checked the apartment, and even collected a DNA sample from his belongings. There was also a missing poster of Faye sitting right there on the table.
The roommate’s alibi checked out, so police left. But, when Cody returned from work later, something felt off. His roommate noticed he was acting nervous different. There was also a strong, unusual smell in the apartment. At first, it was brushed off as air freshener, but that didn’t make sense.
He had never used anything like that before. Police came back again that same day and spoke with him directly. When asked about his whereabouts, he couldn’t give a clear answer, just said he had been home alone. Once again, officers searched the place, and once again, they didn’t find anything. Then came the detail that tied it all together.
Surveillance footage showed someone moving through the wooded area late at night, around 1:00 in the morning, carrying a flashlight. Later, it was confirmed that person was Cody. A few hours after that, around 7:00 in the morning, cameras captured him at a Walmart. He wandered through the gardening section kind of aimlessly before buying bags of soil and fertilizer.
According to his roommate, that was completely out of character. He had never shown any interest in gardening before. After leaving the store, he called a Lyft. The driver later said something about the ride felt off. Cody seemed nervous, avoided simple questions, and gave off this uneasy vibe. And during the drive, they passed police officers and reporters who were actively searching for Faye.
The driver asked if he knew anything about the missing girl. Cody’s response was quick. He said he didn’t know her, that he had never seen her before in his life. About 40 minutes later at 7:47 in the morning, that same camera picked up Cody Scott Taylor again back in the woods. This time, investigators determined he was carrying one of the bags of soil he had just bought.
And like he was heading straight to the exact area where Faye Marie Swetlik would later be found. He stayed there for barely a minute, then walked back out, no longer carrying the bag. Not long after, police searching trash bins near his home made a critical discovery, a small polka dot rain boot, just like the ones Faye had been wearing, and a ladle covered in dirt. That was the turning point.
Once they found those items, they immediately returned to the wooded area to search again. Surveillance footage later captured the moment Byron Snelgrove located her. Faye’s body was partially buried right there in a shallow grave with her second little boot nearby. Wrapped around her neck was a white plastic trash bag, a detail that made everything even more devastating.
And then, almost immediately after that discovery, Cody went out onto the back porch of his home and took his own life. As investigators continued building the case, more evidence came in. DNA found under Faye’s fingernails matched Cody. Her DNA was also found on the ladle along with his, and both were recovered from a black bag containing clothing.
Piece by piece, it all pointed in the same direction. Byron Snelgrove later stated that all the evidence and facts led to one conclusion, Cody Taylor had kidnapped and killed Faye acting alone. Authorities also confirmed they believed he had no accomplices. In the midst of all this grief, the community came together one more time.
A funeral home offered to cover the costs and on February 21st, a public service was held. People gathered to say goodbye to a little girl whose life had been taken far too soon. That was Faye Swetlik’s favorite song. And it was a somber night for the city of Cayce as the community said goodbye to the 6-year-old who captured the hearts of so many.
Trinity Baptist Church opened its doors to hundreds who came to pay their respects to Faye. And before the service tonight, people lined the streets for this procession from her home in the Churchill Heights neighborhood to the church. This colorful tow truck carried Faye, her mother, and her pink bicycle to the service.
David Bates is the owner of Diligent Towing in Lexington. He’s also a neighbor and friend of Faye Swetlik’s family. So, he reached out to Faye’s family and asked how he could help. He offered up his pink tow truck to escort Faye’s mother and her ashes to Trinity Baptist Church for her memorial service. The community’s come together 100%.
I mean, we’re all blessed to be a part of this. The pink truck towing Faye’s bicycle on the back joined dozens of motorcycles and tow trucks for the 2-mi procession to the church. One by one, motorcycles and trucks pulled into the church greeted by hundreds more there to show their respect for the little girl who made a big impact during her short time here on Earth.
Faye will be somebody that we remember for the for the of our lives. Hundreds of people came to say goodbye to Faye Marie Swetlik, including first responders and officers who had been part of the search. Many of them wore pink and purple, her favorite colors. And just like her mom, Selena Swetlik used to say, “The more sparkle, the better.
” It was a small way to honor the bright, joyful little girl she was. Faye loved writing notes and receiving letters, so during the service, there were journals set up where people could leave messages or draw pictures using colorful pens. It became this quiet, emotional space where everyone could express what they were feeling, even if there weren’t really words for it.
It took about a year before authorities officially closed the case, and even then, not everything had answers. No one can say with absolute certainty what exactly happened that day or why. Investigators were confident that all the evidence pointed in one direction, but still, there are questions that will likely never be answered.
The motive, in particular, remains unknown, and it may stay that way forever. Cody Scott Taylor didn’t leave behind a note, no explanation, nothing that could help people understand his actions. Authorities tried to access data from his phone, but they couldn’t retrieve anything useful. The same went for his computer, no clear evidence, no clues.
Even though the local investigation in Cayce was completed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation continued its work along with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division just to make sure nothing had been missed. And then, in July 2021, Byron Snellgrove, the director of public safety in Cayce and one of the key figures in the case, announced his retirement after more than 35 years in law enforcement.
In the end, what remains is Faye’s story, a story that started with a little girl full of light and left behind a community forever changed. For me, after 65 hours of searching, the memory of finding Faye Marie Swetlik’s small body in a shallow grave on the morning of the 13th of February 2020 will never fade.
This tragic case deeply affected the officers who were dedicated to her search. Almost a year later, they still haven’t forgotten. The disappearance and murder of Faye Marie Swetlik immediately became and forever will remain deeply personal to each of us. Faye’s death clearly had a profound impact on the community in which she lived and that pain will be felt for a long time to come.
Springdale Elementary School has a friendship bench in her honor. If you feel like you don’t have anyone to play with, you can go and sit on the friendship bench. Someone else will come and sit next to you and talk to you or just come over because they know you need a friend. Kids are amazing in that way and then they can go play together.
In her farewell speech, Selina Swetlik asked people to keep honoring Faye Marie Swetlik not through grief alone, but through love. She called it the most important kind of magic, the kind her daughter carried so naturally. She encouraged everyone to be a little more like Faye, to be kinder, to give compliments to strangers just because, to dance in the rain, to stop and smell the flowers, to slow down and notice the world around you.
And uh you know, to simply give a little more love to every person you meet because that’s exactly how Faye lived her life.
