This morning for missing 6-year-old Faye Swetlik. 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. Just before 3:00 p.m., 6-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik skipped off the school bus from Springdale Elementary School.
She met her mother Selina and they walked the short distance back home talking about their days. Faye was described as bright, funny, and lively with bundles of energy. Selena called her her magical little fairy that always wanted to play and have fun. Her mother said she loved everyone and everything and always wanted people to be as happy as she was.
Selina said her daughter was always the first one to give a compliment, even randomly to people she’s never met before. We couldn’t go anywhere without her stopping three or four different people to compliment them, be it their hair or if a color looked good on them, and she always wanted to make new friends. When they got home, Faye had a small snack before she went out to play in the yard, something she did a lot with neighbors confirming they often saw her.
Selina was regularly checking outside and keeping an eye out and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. A neighbor reported to having seen Faye running towards a shared fence with NAPA Auto Parts sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. At around 3:45 p.m., Selina checked outside again. Her daughter Faye was gone. After running around to all the neighbors, making several calls, and searching the area, she phoned 911 at 5:00 p.m.
- All right, ma’am, can you tell me what is happening? We can’t find my daughter. She was playing outside and I don’t know where she is. I can’t find her. I have a daughter who is around this She She’ll be 7 in June. All right. All right, I’m going to stand the line with you, but I’m going to get Casey on Casey PD on the line, too, but I’m going to stand the line, so don’t hang up, okay? Okay.
Okay, ma’am. 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 Swetlik. S W E T L I K. on. Hold on. What was the first name again? Faye. Faye, F A Y E? Yes, ma’am. Okay, what’s her last name? Swetlik. Spell that for me.
S W E T L I K. Okay, and what was she wearing? Uh she was wearing uh polka dotted rain boots, 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 last I saw her was probably about an hour ago. How tall was she? Uh she’s 3 ft tall. 3 ft? How much does she weigh? Uh 55 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 right in the right in front of my front porch. Minutes later, the police arrived at the house and by 5:30, 50 responders would be on scene. Everything was moving at a rapid pace and at 6:00 p.m.
, the Federal Bureau of Investigation got involved as well as the community springing into action. Everyone wanted to help, but police urged citizens and volunteers to stand down and let the professionals handle the search. Chad Swetlik, Faye’s father, was soon informed that she was missing and FBI agents would soon be at his house to search it, but Faye wasn’t there and phone records would later confirm that Chad was at home at the time his daughter had gone missing.
Officers had already started going door-to-door and asked neighbors with security cameras to contact them and turn in any footage. 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 Cayce, asked that the community continue to share recordings with law enforcement. People in the community in the Churchill Heights community, if you have home security systems, Ring, Wyze video, anything like that, talk with our investigators and and let them reach out and and obtain some of that video.
The FBI provided a helicopter and Cayce and officers were deployed as well. Despite all of this, Department of Public Safety’s Chief Byron Snellgrove said at the time that there didn’t appear to be enough evidence to point to this being an abduction and Faye’s disappearance didn’t meet the criteria for an Amb
er Alert. At 7:00 a.m. the next morning, a hotline was set up and almost 300 tips would come in. Police would follow up on every lead, but nothing came back. More than 250 officers and investigators from agencies across the country had now joined in the hunt for Faye. Roadblocks were set up around the Churchill Heights area and every car coming in and out was searched.
It had now been almost 24 hours since Selina had made the 911 call. A press conference was held to share some more details. We’re all in Cayce 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 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 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. Authorities still didn’t know if Faye had simply walked away from her home and become lost or maybe injured or if she’d been abducted.
But by now, it was seeming less and less likely that the 6-year-old had gone off of her own accord. Investigators released footage from the local school bus to show everyone what Faye was wearing that afternoon, hoping to generate some more leads. She was wearing polka dot rain boots and a black T-shirt with the word peace on it.
During their intensive search, authorities interviewed a number of people, including Selina, her live-in boyfriend Carter, and Faye’s father, Chad. At this point in time, police said they weren’t ruling anyone out and one of the detectives said there were no clear suspects.
But members of Faye’s family would soon be cleared after searches of homes, analysis of phone records, and alibis ruled everyone out. On February 12th, police released an image of two cars seen leaving the area Faye lived in around the time she was last seen, but the drivers of the cars were quickly located and ruled out as well and the police were back at square one.
There was still no sign of Faye and no clues pointing to where she might be. The morning of Thursday, February 13th, was the scheduled day for the bins to be collected and emptied. Officers quickly needed to do one last search before any evidence in anyone’s bin was taken away. While they were searching through the bins at the homes around Piccadilly Square, they found something at number 602 and clearly just in time.
They described the evidence as critical, but didn’t immediately reveal what it was. Whatever they had found, it led them back to the woods. After quickly pulling together and remapping the routes and areas they needed to focus on, less than half an hour later, the search for Faye Swetlik would come to a devastating end.
Byron Snellgrove was looking through the wooded area once more when he found her body in a shallow grave less than 200 ft from her home. It would later be determined that she had died of asphyxiation just hours after she had been abducted and her body had been moved. A mere matter of minutes after Faye was found, officers were alerted to something else back at Piccadilly Square.
A man had been found bleeding and dead on his back porch. He was not identified and police initially kept quiet about whether or not there was a link between the two. 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. 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 involved. Former Vice President Mike Pence even gave a statement offering his full support to the police as they continue to investigate the case. And as your Vice 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 I have assured Governor McMaster that he will continue to have the full resources of the federal government made available in this investigation. The man that had been found on his porch would soon be revealed to be 30-year-old Coty Scott Taylor.
But who was he and what link, if any, did he have 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. Those who knew Coty said he was a loner who constantly had a negative outlook on life.
They claimed that Coty had described himself as someone that lived without hope, was asexual, and an incel. He lived with a roommate who he worked with, and his roommate said that Coty had expressed feelings of depression as well as suicidal thoughts, and he mostly kept to himself. Coty had enrolled at the University of South Carolina at Columbia and studied mathematics, but there is no record of him graduating, and according to some sources, he dropped out in 2009.
Aside from a few traffic violations, he had no history with the police. He had moved between jobs a lot, but was working at a Wingstop alongside his roommate at the time. As soon as they found Coty’s body, police began to piece everything together and connected the dots over the coming hours and days. Although he seemingly had no link to Faye in any way, the evidence the police described as critical was found in the bin that belonged to his home.
Investigators believe that Coty took Faye from her yard, but it remains unconfirmed how he abducted her and whether he used any kind of force or lured her away. It is believed that he asphyxiated her in a matter of hours after abducting her and somehow managed to conceal her body in his apartment for 2 days without investigators finding her when they searched the place twice.
On February 12th, while searching the area, police had actually knocked on the door of Coty and his roommate. Coty wasn’t home, so officers spoke to his roommate and took a look around. A full laundry bag was in the house, one which his roommate identified as Coty’s, and detectives took a DNA sample from it.
They also noted that Faye’s missing persons poster was lying on a table. After they were done with the search of the property, Coty’s roommate’s alibi had checked out. The investigators left. When Coty returned from work that day, his roommate recalled him acting in a strange and erratic way. His roommate would also soon realize that since Faye had been missing, the apartment had started to develop a strong and odd smell.
He said he initially dismissed the odor as being cheap air freshener that Coty was using to try and conceal the smell of weed, but his roommate did note that Coty never actually used air freshener, and this in itself seemed strange. Later that day, just before 6:00 p.m., police returned to search the pair’s apartment again, this time hoping to get an interview with Coty, which they did.
When he was asked about his whereabouts, he was unable to give them a strong enough alibi. He said he was sleeping at home alone. Officers left again, finding nothing out of place. But they would soon realize that same day, a surveillance camera was collecting footage which would become invaluable.
The footage showed officers going through the wooded area in their search for Faye. At around 1:00 a.m. on what was now February 13th, the same camera picked up something else. It captured a light coming from a spot in the same area of woods. Someone was moving around in the dark and using something to light up the area, someone police would later confirm was Coty Taylor.
Six hours later, just before 7:00 a.m., cameras picked up Coty walking through the streets and going to a Walmart on Augusta Road. He wandered around the garden department for about 20 minutes, telling an employee he was working on his garden but didn’t know what to buy. According to sources, Coty’s roommate was emphatic that Coty had no interest in gardening.
He also told investigators that Coty rarely had discretionary money, but had just gotten some money from his workplace in the hours before the trip. The employee at Walmart would later tell police Coty grabbed random seeds from a display and appeared to have no plan for his garden.
Around 10 minutes later, he paid for several bags of soil and fertilizer, plus a box of Pop-Tarts, and left. Coty then booked a ride through the app Lyft. According to the driver, Coty made him feel very uncomfortable, and when the driver casually asked if he was doing some gardening, he dodged the conversation. While driving, they went past some police and other media who were out looking for Faye.
The driver asked him if he knew her, and Coty replied, “I don’t know her and never met her before.” About 40 minutes later, at 7:47 a.m., the camera that had picked up Coty moving around in the woods in the dark also captured more in the same spot. Police determined that Coty was carrying one of the bags of soil he had just purchased up into the woods where he would bury Faye.
He stays for about a minute before heading back down the hill without the bag. When the police searched the bins of Coty’s home, they’d found a child’s polka dot rain boot and a ladle covered in dirt. Following this huge find, they headed to the woods to conduct another search. CCTV footage showed the moment that Cayce Public Safety Director Byron Snellgrove discovered Faye’s partially buried body next to her other tiny polka dot boot.
A white plastic trash bag was wrapped around her neck. Coty Taylor then stood on his back porch and slit his throat with a knife. As well as the CCTV and the evidence found in Coty’s bin, they would soon gather more. When Faye’s body was examined, she was found to have Coty’s DNA under her fingernails.
Her DNA was also found on the ladle along with Coty’s, and both sets of DNA were found in the black laundry bag. “All endings, evidence, and facts point to the exact same conclusion. Coty Taylor abducted and murdered Faye Marie Swetlik and was the sole perpetrator of this horrible case,” said Byron Snellgrove.
They also believe that Coty acted alone. It was announced that Faye’s funeral expenses would be covered by a funeral home, and on February 21st, a public memorial was held for her. You are my sunshine. My only sunshine. That was Faye Swetlik’s favorite song, and it was a somber night for the city of Casey 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. A 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. Hundreds of people, including first responders and officers, turned out to pay their respects with many wearing pink and purple, Faye’s favorite colors. In Selina’s words, the sparklier, the better. Faye loved getting letters and writing notes.
So, journals were set up and her family wanted everyone to write a few words or draw a picture in colorful pens. It would take a year for the authorities to officially close the case. It’s impossible to know exactly what happened that afternoon and why it did. Police confirmed that all the evidence pointed one way, but sadly, there are still so many more questions that can never be answered.
No motive has ever been determined for the crime and likely never will be. Coty left no suicide notes or any other information in his home indicating why he had done this. Multiple agencies have tried to access the data from Coty’s phone, but have not succeeded and no evidence was found on his computer. While Casey police concluded their part, the FBI investigation is still ongoing as is a review by the State Law Enforcement Division.
In July 2021, the director of Casey Department of Public Safety, Byron Snellgrove, who played such a vital role in Faye’s case, announced his retirement after more than 35 years in law enforcement. For me, after 65 hours of searching, the memory of finding the small body of Faye Marie Swetlik in a shallow grave on the morning of February 13th, 2020, will never, ever leave me.
This tragic case has taken a toll on officers who were dedicated to finding her. Nearly 1 year later, they haven’t forgotten. The disappearance and murder of Faye Marie Swetlik immediately became and always will remain incredibly personal for each of us. Faye’s death evidently had a profound impact on the community in which she lived, one that will continue to be felt for a long time to come.
Springdale Elementary School unveiled a buddy bench that had been dedicated in memory of Faye. If 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 go and play together. In Selina’s eulogy for her daughter, she asked that people continue to honor Faye’s memory through love, something she said was the most important magic. She asked that they try and be a little more like Faye, to be more kind, to compliment a stranger, to dance in the rain, to stop and smell the flowers, to just show a little bit more love to everyone you meet.
