Missing S.C. Girl Faye Swetlik Found Dead, Investigators Suspect Homicide
The missing South Carolina girl who disappeared from the front yard of her home has been found dead.
The Cayce Department of Public Safety confirmed the death of 6-year-old Faye Swetlik on Thursday, February 13, just three days after she vanished.
“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we have found a body that the coroner has identified as Faye Marie Swetlik,” Director Byron Snellgrove announced during a press conference. “As this community has been working hard to find Faye and bring her home safely, we wanted you to know as soon as possible.”
Details regarding where and when her body was discovered are not yet known, but her death is currently being investigated as a homicide.
Sgt. Evan Antley with the Cayce Department of Public Safety also confirmed that officers searched Swetlik’s home “multiple times” and worked around the clock to find the little girl. Additionally, the cops closed off the neighborhood to everyone except residents, their visitors and delivery trucks and assigned an officer the task of guarding her home.
During the course of the investigation, they came across the body of an unidentified adult male in the Churchill Heights neighborhood.
There is no word on whether the deaths could be related, but Snellgrove insisted the community was safe.
CDPS removed two vehicles from Swetlik’s residence, failing to disclose details of anything that “may or may not have been found in those vehicles.” They had also recognized two vehicles captured on CCTV footage near the little girl’s home, one whom they have already identified and question. Investigators are still seeking information about the second vehicle.
As of now, no arrests have been made.
Swetlik — a student at Springdale Elementary School who had a speech impediment due to a tethered tongue — was last seen playing in front of the Londonderry Lane home in Cayce, near Columbia, at approximately 3:45 p.m.
By 5 p.m., a little more than an hour after her family started looking for her, they reported her missing.
Following Swetlik’s disappearance, her grandmother Ruth Collins pleaded for help in finding her granddaughter.
“I want my baby back,” Collins said at a prayer vigil at Trinity Baptist Church on Tuesday. “We've got to find her.” On Facebook, she wrote: “I'm going crazy not knowing where she is.”
Collins also elaborated on her thoughts via an interview with ABC. “Faye is a bubbly and happy little girl,” she said. “She's not the type of kid that will up and walk away... Faye pays attention to her surroundings. We just want to find Faye and bring her home.”
Following the news of Swetlik’s death, Collins posted a photo of her kissing her granddaughter's head.
Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Lindsey Graham have both addressed the tragedy and sent their condolences to Swetlik’s family.