Sweatlick. The last time we heard from investigators yesterday evening, they told us that they are following up on every lead and asking for help from the public to help bring this little girl home safely. At exactly 1:04 in the morning, a surveillance camera picks up something it was never supposed to catch. A light.
Moving slowly through a stretch of dark woods just behind a quiet residential street. No one should be out there at that hour, but someone is and they’re not lost. The beam moves low across the ground in a way that later drew investigators attention. It looks like someone moving through the area with a purpose.
Six hours later, that same person walks through the sliding doors of a Walmart on Augusta Road. He heads straight to the gardening section and stays there for nearly 20 minutes. He doesn’t seem to be shopping normally. Just standing in the aisle staring as if he’s unsure what he needs. He approaches an employee and says he’s working on a garden but doesn’t really know what he needs.
Eventually, almost randomly, he grabs a few seed packets off the shelf, throws some bags of soil and fertilizer into the cart and pays for everything at the register. Then he leaves the store without drawing attention. At 7:47, the same camera that caught him in those woods hours earlier picks him up again. He’s back.
This time he’s carrying one of those bags from Walmart heading into the wooded area. The footage shows him move into the wooded area about 60 seconds pass. Then he walks back out. He returns without the bag. While all of this is unfolding, more than 250 law enforcement officers, alongside FBI agents and volunteers, are combing through the same neighborhood searching for a 6-year-old girl named Faye Sweatlick who vanished from her own front yard the afternoon before.
There was no sign of her and no clear lead. The search is massive and most of those officers have no idea how close they are to the truth. Then that same morning, a team going through trash containers near one of the houses on Piccadilly Square pulls out something that immediately draws their attention.
A small child’s rain boot with polka dots. And right alongside it, a second item that immediately changes everything. Within 30 minutes, the investigation shifts. Officers pour into the woods. And there, less than 200 ft from where Faye was last seen playing in her yard, they make the discovery an investigator had feared.
Moments later, a call comes in from just a few houses away. In the backyard of a home on the same street, they find a man there. At that moment, no one has officially connected the two scenes. But the pieces are already there, already beginning to form a clear picture. This is the story of what happened in Cayce, South Carolina. A case that drew national attention and left many questions unanswered.
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I want to know where in the world you’re watching this from. It was a Monday afternoon in February, and the kind of day that seemed completely normal. Just before 3:00, a yellow school bus rolled to a stop near Springdale Elementary School in Cayce, South Carolina, and 6-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik stepped off. Her mom, Selena, was right there waiting.
The two of them walked home together the way they always did. Side by side, talking, just a mother and her little girl wrapping up another regular day. People who knew Faye described her as the kind of kid who was known for her bright personality. Bright, energetic, full of warmth and energy. Selena called her her her little magical fairy.
And that wasn’t just a nickname, it was a description. Faye genuinely cared about the people around her. She wanted everyone she met to feel good. She would stop complete strangers just to tell them she liked their hair or their outfit. She was constantly trying to make new friends. She was the kind of child who made people feel noticed and appreciated.
When they got home, Faye had a snack and did what she always did. She went outside to play in the front yard. Selena checked on her every few minutes, glancing out the window the way any parent does when their child is playing close to home. Everything looked fine. A neighbor later recalled seeing Faye running near the shared fence that borders a NAPA Auto Parts store sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon.
She was just being a kid. Just playing. At around 3:45, Selena stepped outside to check on her again and Faye had disappeared. What followed next was a devastating situation unfolding in real time. Selena ran to the neighbors. She made calls. She searched the surrounding area herself and when none of that turned anything up, she called 911.
I don’t know what happened. We can’t find my daughter. She was playing outside and now I can’t find her and I I I don’t know what happened. She’s right around the She is She’ll be 7 in June. [laughter] All right. All right. I’m going to stay on the line with you, but I’m going to get Casey on Casey TV on the line, too, but I’m going to stay on the line, so don’t hang up, okay? Okay.
Okay. All right, ma’am. You’re on the phone with Casey. Go ahead. Yes, ma’am. Can you tell me what your daughter’s name is? Uh my daughter’s name is Faye Spatola. F A Y E Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. What was the first name again? Faye. Faye is F A Y E? Yes, ma’am. Okay. What’s the last name? Spatola. Spell that for me.
S P A T O L A S W 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, well, the last Well, the 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, 55 lbs. All right. You left her in the front yard. You didn’t see which way she went or anything like that. No, she was right in It was right It was right in front of my front porch. It was 5:00 in the afternoon, roughly an hour after Faye was last seen.
Within minutes, police were on scene. By 5:30, there were already around 50 first responders in the area. And by 6:00 that evening, the FBI had entered the case. The response was immediate and enormous. K9 units were deployed. A helicopter swept the area from above. Officers began going door-to-door, asking neighbors for any security footage that might have captured something useful.
Comes to checking on those home security cameras, that’s something that we’re already doing. Certainly we’ll be going 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 Kasey, 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 community wanted to help. People were showing up ready to join the search.
But law enforcement asked volunteers to hold back and let the professionals work the grid. Faye’s father, Chad, was notified about his daughter’s disappearance that same evening. FBI agents went to his home and conducted a search. Faye wasn’t there, and phone records confirmed Chad had been at home at time she went missing.
He was not a suspect. Despite everything being mobilized so quickly, public safety director Byron Snodgrass stated that at that point, there still wasn’t enough evidence to confirm an abduction. And without meeting the specific legal criteria, an Amber Alert could not be issued.
A detail which many people found difficult to understand. By the following morning, a tip line had been set up and it received nearly 300 calls. Investigators followed up on every single one. None of them led anywhere. The search continued to grow. More than 250 officers and agents from agencies across the country were now working the Churchill Heights area.
Checkpoints went up at every entrance and exit to the neighborhood. Every vehicle going in or out was being stopped and checked. It had been almost 24 hours since Selina made that call to 911 and authorities still had nothing concrete to show for it. We’re all 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’s 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 or 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 Casey 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 a press conference, officials were honest with the public. They didn’t know exactly what had happened.
They didn’t know if Faye had wandered off, gotten hurt somewhere on her own, or if someone had taken her. But privately, with every hour that passed, investigators were increasingly believing something more serious had happened. Investigators were beginning to view the case differently. To generate new tips, investigators released footage from the school bus camera showing what Faye had been wearing the day she disappeared.
Polka dot rain boots and a black t-shirt with the word peace on it. The image was shared widely across local and national news coverage. Investigators were methodical. They interviewed everyone with any possible connection to Faye or her household, her mother Selina, Selina’s live-in partner, and her father Chad. Every alibi was checked.
Every story was verified twice. Detectives were careful not to narrow their focus too early, which meant publicly no one was ruled out yet. That transparency was deliberate. They didn’t want to make a mistake by a dismissing someone too soon. But after thorough investigation, Faye’s family members were officially cleared. The searches of their homes, the analysis of phone records, the detailed alibi checks, none of it pointed toward anyone in her immediate circle.
That cleared the air around the family. But it also meant the investigation was left without a clear direction. On February 12th, police released images of two vehicles that had been spotted leaving the neighborhood around the time Faye disappeared. The images created a surge of attention and briefly appeared to offer a possible breakthrough, but within a short time both drivers were identified, checked out, and cleared.
Another lead that went nowhere. After nearly 72 hours, investigators had no confirmed suspect, no confirmed motive, and no confirmed explanation for what had happened to Faye. The search pressed forward, but investigators still had no clear answers. Thursday morning, February 13th, started with a deadline.
It was trash collection day in the Churchill Heights area, and investigators understood something critical. If there was any evidence sitting inside those bins, it was hours away from being gone forever, lost before investigators could recover it. Investigators had to move quickly. Every container in the neighborhood needed to be checked before the trucks arrived.
Teams moved quickly through Piccadilly Square, going through trash containers one by one. And then, at a home identified as number 62, they found a child’s rain boot matching what Faye had been wearing. A small child’s rain boot, polka dot pattern, exactly matching the description of what Faye had been wearing the day she disappeared.
Alongside it, another item that investigators immediately flagged as significant. The details of that second item weren’t released to the public right away, but whatever it was, it immediately changed the focus of the case. Investigators responded immediately. Less than 30 minutes after that discovery, the search for Faye Marie Swetlik reached the outcome investigators had feared.
Public Safety Director Byron Snellgrove was on the ground personally, moving through a stretch of wooded area situated less than 200 ft from Faye’s own home, when he located Faye. She had been concealed in the wooded area in a spot that search teams had passed near before without realizing how close they were.
The lost autopsy later helped clarify what had happened, and that it had occurred within hours of her disappearance on the afternoon of February 10th. That finding changed the entire case. While hundreds of officers were still out there searching, still hoping for a different outcome, investigators later determined that she had died earlier in the timeline.
Within minutes of Faye being found, a a second call came in from the same street. In the backyard of a home on Piccadilly Square, authorities were called to another scene on the same street. At that moment, the two scenes and Faye’s discovery in the woods and the man found on the porch had not been officially connected.
But that was about to change very quickly. 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. The man was identified as 30-year-old Cody Scott Taylor. Authorities later confirmed his death. He lived approximately 150 ft from Faye’s home, living only a short distance from where Faye was last seen.
His name meant nothing to most people at first, but as investigators began pulling the thread, investigators began to connect the evidence. People who knew Cody described him as withdrawn and emotionally isolated, someone who kept everything locked inside, even around the roommates he lived and worked with.
He had studied mathematics at the University of South Carolina, but left without completing his degree somewhere around 2009. He moved between jobs frequently, never really planting roots anywhere. At the time of the investigation, he was working at a Wingstop location alongside one of his roommates. No serious criminal history, a few traffic violations, nothing more.
On the surface, nothing that would have drawn attention. But investigators were now examining every detail more closely. As soon as Cody’s identity was confirmed, detectives began retracing every step of the previous 72 hours. And details that had once seemed minor started taking on new significance. On February 12th, the day before Faye was found, police had knocked on the door of Cody’s apartment as part of their routine canvassing of the neighborhood. Cody wasn’t home.
Officers spoke with his roommate and conducted a search of the space. During that search, two things stood out. First, there was a large bag of dirty laundry sitting in the apartment. The roommate confirmed it belonged to Cody, and detectives collected a DNA sample from it for analysis. Second, sitting on the table in plain sight was a missing person’s flyer for Faye Marie Swetlik.
At the time, it looked like nothing. Residents all over the neighborhood had those flyers. But later, in the context of everything else, it took on a very different significance. Officers left the apartment without making any arrests. When Cody returned from work later that evening, his roommate noticed a change in his behavior. He was tense, more guarded than usual.
And there was something else. A smell in the apartment that hadn’t been there before. At first, the roommate dismissed it, assuming Cody had used an air freshener, maybe trying to cover up the smell of marijuana. But then he paused on that thought, because in all the time they had lived together, Cody had never once used an air freshener, not once.
Later that same day, just before in the evening, police came back to the apartment. This time specifically to speak with Cody. The conversation was brief. When asked about his whereabouts over the previous days, Cody said he’d been home alone, sleeping. No details, no alibi, just that. Officers noted it, but without anything concrete to hold him on, they left again.
What would become clear later was that surveillance cameras had already been recording a timeline that would later provide a more complete picture. Going back to the early hours of that same morning at approximately 1:00, a camera positioned near the wooded area behind the neighborhood captured a light moving through the trees.
The footage showed a figure navigating the darkness slowly and deliberately. The beam of light moving low across the ground in a deliberate pattern. Later, law enforcement confirmed the person in that footage was Cody Scott Taylor. He was out there alone in the middle of the night in the same stretch of woods that later became central to the investigation.
6 hours after that, just before 7:00 in the morning, cameras picked him up again. This time walking along the street headed toward Walmart on Augusta Road. He looked calm, unremarkable, just another person moving through an ordinary morning in a city that was anything but ordinary that day. Inside the store, he made his way to the gardening section and stayed there for close to 20 minutes.
His behavior caught the attention of at least one employee. He moved slowly through the aisle, pausing in front of items without picking them up, circling back, looking uncertain. He told the employee he was working on a garden but wasn’t sure what he needed. His roommate would later tell investigators that Cody had never shown any interest in gardening, not once in the entire time they had known each other.
And on top of that, Cody typically lived paycheck to paycheck. But he had recently received a paycheck, and that morning he had money to spend. He eventually grabbed a few seed packets seemingly at random, then added several bags of soil and fertilizer to the cart along with a box of Pop-Tarts. He paid and walked out. Outside, he opened the Lyft app and requested a ride back toward the neighborhood.
The driver said he appeared tense and distant. At one point, as they drove through streets lined with police vehicles and news crews actively searching for a missing child, the driver asked him if he knew anything about the little girl who had gone missing. Cody said he had never seen her, never knew her. At 7:47 that morning, the same camera that had recorded him walking through those woods at 1:00 caught him again.
Back at that exact same spot, this time carrying one of the bags of soil from Walmart. He walked into the tree line. The footage shows approximately 60 seconds pass. Then he walks back out. He returns without the bag. Less than 2 hours later, investigators searching those same trash containers on Piccadilly Square would find Faye’s boot.
And less than 30 minutes after that, they would locate Faye. In the same stretch of woods where a surveillance had placed Cody Taylor twice within a short period. As president and as a father, let me say, we were deeply saddened to receive word this afternoon that the remains of Faye Swetlik, the 6-year-old girl who went missing from her parents’ front yard just 3 days ago, have been found.
A few moments ago, I spoke on the phone with FBI Director Christopher Wray. And uh I have assured Governor McMaster uh that he will continue to have the full resources of the federal government made available in this investigation. Investigators later said the evidence linked Cody to the items recovered near his home.
DNA results connected him to items found during the search. Investigators reviewed all available evidence and concluded that Cody Taylor acted alone, that there was no indication anyone else was involved. The case would take nearly a full year to officially close, with the FBI and the state law enforcement division continuing to review details long after the Casey Department of Public Safety completed its portion of the investigation.
Attempts were made to pull data from Cody’s phone and computer, hoping to find something that could explain the why behind all of this. Those efforts came up empty. No note was left behind. No explanation. No indication of a motive that investigators could point to with any certainty. One of the hardest parts of the case is exactly that.
Not just what happened to Faye, but the fact that after everything, no one could fully explain why. 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 When Byron Snellgrove stepped into those woods on the morning of February 13th, he had already been working this case for nearly 3 days straight.
He had stood in front of cameras and answered hard questions. He had watched his officers work around the clock, pushing through exhaustion, still hoping for a different outcome. And then, in a matter of seconds, the outcome changed everything for the investigators on scene. Something no one in law enforcement ever wants to face.
It was a moment that stayed with the officers on scene. For everyone who had spent 72 hours fighting for a different outcome. Nearby, the second polka dot boot was recovered. News of the outcome spread almost instantly. What had begun as a local missing child case had grown over those 3 days into something in the entire country was watching.
And when the update came that she had been found, and that the search had ended in the outcome no one had hoped for. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Messages poured in from across the country. Strangers who had never met Faye, never visited Casey, never had any connection to South Carolina whatsoever, were deeply affected by the case.
Flowers appeared outside the home. Candles were lit. Handwritten letters were left by people who simply didn’t know what else to do with what they were feeling. The community’s grief was evident in in on front porches, and conversations between neighbors who had once felt completely safe in their own community.
The case changed the community. The case left many people feeling unsettled. And that feeling didn’t go away when the news cycle moved on. It stayed. At the national level, the case drew attention from figures far beyond South Carolina. Former Vice President Mike Pence released an official statement expressing support for law enforcement and acknowledging the weight of what investigators have been asked to carry throughout the search.
His words drew even more attention to a case that had already captured the country’s focus. A reminder of just how far the story had traveled from a quiet street in Casey. Investigators held a press conference to address the public directly. Byron Snellgrove spoke clearly and without hesitation. All available evidence and established facts pointed to one conclusion.
Cody Taylor was responsible for what happened to Faye, and he had acted entirely alone. Multiple pieces of forensic evidence formed a single consistent picture. There was no indication of any other individual being involved at any stage. The case was as closed as a case could be, with the case unable to proceed through the court system.
That left many questions unresolved. There would be no trial, no courtroom, no moment where answers were forced into the open under oath. Cody Taylor had left investigators without direct answers from him. And that silence became one of the most difficult parts of the aftermath for the community to sit with.
A local funeral home stepped forward and covered the cost of Faye’s funeral entirely. A quiet but meaningful act of compassion toward a family that had already lost everything. And on February 21st, a public memorial was held in her honor. Hundreds of people came. First responders, police officers, teachers, neighbors, and strangers who had followed the story from the beginning all gathered together in the same space to say goodbye to a child whose story had touched the community.
The dress code, if you could call it that, was pink and purple, Faye’s favorite colors, and people honored it. The crowd was filled with both shades, a sea of color that felt deeply emotional. 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-mile 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 rest of our lives. Selena had always said that when it came to Faye, the more sparkle the better. And on that day, the sparkle wasn’t about fashion. It was about love. It was about keeping something of her spirit alive in the only way that was still possible. At the memorial, journals were set out with colorful pens so that anyone who wanted to leave a message could do so.
Page after page filled up with words, with small drawings, with things people couldn’t bring themselves to say out loud. People lingered longer than they expected to. They stood over those open pages and took their time knowing the memorial carried a deep sense of closure. Selena spoke at the memorial.
She didn’t hide her pain, but she also didn’t let grief be the only thing in the room. She spoke about who Faye was. Not as a victim, but as a person. A real child who made people feel seen and valued. Who had a way of making everyone around her feel noticed and appreciated. And she made a request of everyone there. She asked them to carry Faye forward.
Not just in memory, but in behavior. To be a little kinder to strangers. To give compliments freely and without expecting anything in return. To let themselves feel joy in the small things. Dancing in the rain, stopping to notice something beautiful, choosing warmth over indifference. Because that was Faye. That was how she moved through the world every single day of her life.
And the best way to honor that, Selena said, was to move through the world a little more like she did. It took nearly a full year for the case to be officially closed. The Casey Department of Public Safety completed its investigation, but the FBI and the State Law Enforcement Division kept certain threads open, continuing to review details in the background long after the main conclusions had been reached.
Investigators pulled data from Cody’s phone and examined his computer looking for anything that might point toward a motive or indicate whether anyone else had any knowledge of what he had done. Nothing of significance was found on either. No note, no message, no digital trail that led anywhere meaningful. The motive was never established.
Investigators never found a clear explanation. That is perhaps the hardest truth of this entire case. Not just what happened to Faye, but that the person responsible for it left behind absolutely no explanation for why. Investigators did everything they could. They followed every lead, processed every piece of evidence, and pursued every available avenue.
The conclusion was clear. The reasoning behind it was not. You feel like you don’t have a friend to play with. You can go to you can sit down on a buddy bench and somebody else will come and sit down with you and talk to you or somebody will come up to you knowing that you need a friend. And then, I mean, kids are awesome that way and then they can In July of 2021, Byron Snellgrove, the public safety director, who had been at the center of this case from the very first hours of the search, announced his retirement after more than
35 years in law enforcement. In the years that followed, he spoke openly about the weight this particular case had placed on him and on his officers. Locating Faye that morning in February was something, he said, that he would carry for the rest of his life. And he was not alone in that. Officers who had worked the search described the case as one that never really left them.
Not because of the details, but because of her. Because of who she was and how difficult it was to process. The impact on the Casey community ran deep and lasted long. People who had once let their children play freely in their front yards without a second thought found themselves rethinking those ordinary moments.
A sense of vulnerability settled over Churchill Heights that didn’t simply disappear when the investigation ended. It remained woven quietly into the fabric of everyday life in that neighborhood. But out of that grief, something else emerged, too. At Springdale Elementary School, the school Faye attended, the school she had stepped off a bus in front of just days before she disappeared, a buddy bench was installed in her memory.
It sits on the playground as a permanent reminder, a place where a child who feels alone can sit and signal to others that they could use a friend. It is exactly the kind of gesture Faye herself would have understood immediately because she never needed a bench to tell her when someone needed kindness. She just knew.
That is who Faye Marie Swetlik was. She was more than a case or a headline. She was a real child who made people feel seen and valued. A little girl who thought the best way to spend an afternoon was outside playing, maybe making a new friend, maybe stopping a stranger just to tell them something nice. She was her mother’s little magical fairy.
She was a first-grader at Springdale Elementary. She was real and she was loved and the people who knew her have spent every day since February 10th, 2020 trying to carry her memory forward. If this documentary moved you, if Faye’s story is one you think more people should hear, share it with someone today. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to this channel.
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