Karen Swift Vanished After a Halloween Party and Was Found Dead Weeks Later. Inside Her Chilling Case — and Why It’s Still a Mystery After 13 Years
In 2011, 44-year-old Karen Swift went missing the morning after a Halloween party. Over a decade later, the truth of what really happened has yet to be uncovered.
Karen’s husband, David Swift, whom she had recently filed for divorce from, woke up on the morning of Oct. 30, 2011, in their small town in Tennessee to find her gone. As the search began, her abandoned car and two smashed cell phones were discovered — but it would be six weeks until Karen’s dead body was found hidden beneath a tangle of vines, according to ABC News.
The case went cold for years until August 2022, when David was arrested and pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. Although a mistrial was declared in June 2024 on one of those charges, clues continue to emerge, and a trial on the voluntary manslaughter charge lies ahead.
Despite years of unanswered questions, Karen’s friends, family and Dyersburg community members remain committed to uncovering the truth of that night.
“Ultimately, I know my family’s truth,” Karen’s daughter Ashley Swift told 20/20. “And I know my mom would want me to continue fighting for her.”
Who is Karen Swift?
Karen Swift was a 44-year-old woman who went missing the morning after a Halloween party — and was found dead six weeks later.
At the time, she lived in Dyersburg, Tenn., with her husband, David, and their four kids. According to a Dateline episode, which aired on Nov. 1, Karen and David were involved in separate affairs. There were also rumors that Karen belonged to a swingers group known as the Pink Poodle Club.
When Karen disappeared on Oct. 30, 2011, she had filed for divorce three weeks prior and also rejected David’s invite to have dinner together the night before, per ABC News.
She was later described as “the life of the party,” but Karen’s friends recall her behavior starting to change in the period before her murder, including hanging out with a new circle of friends and increased drinking habits.
Her daughter, Ashley, told Dateline that although her mom was present during her childhood, she began to spend more time away from home at night.
“I remember nights of me begging and crying of her not to leave, I didn’t want her to go out and just wanting her to stay home with us,” she said.
But her mom would go anyway, which Ashley said “was not like her at all.”
What happened to Karen Swift?
On the night of Oct. 29, 2011, Karen Swift went to a Halloween party in her small town of Dyersburg, per NBC. She received a call from Ashley to pick her up from a friend’s late that night and fell asleep beside her when they returned home.The next morning, Karen was missing — but her car was found abandoned by two hunters on a rural roadside, as well as two broken cell phones near a neighbor’s house, ABC News reported. Six weeks later, her body was found near a cemetery in the area, and an autopsy revealed that she had suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
According to Dateline, medical examiners attributed Karen’s cause of death to a skull fracture. Prosecutors believe that David moved Ashley into another room, dragged Karen from the bedroom to the garage and violently stomped on her head.
Then, they believe he loaded Karen into a car, dumped her body at the cemetery and covered it up to make it seem as though she had been abducted, Dyer County District Attorney Danny Goodman told the show.
David also brought himself to local authorities in the days that followed and expressed interest in helping them find his wife in whatever way he could. He came into the station on crutches, a result of reinjuring his knee following a knee surgery months prior.
The defense, however, argued that there was no evidence of a murder taking place in the garage or of David leaving the house that night. Ashley testified that it was her mother who moved her into the other room, and David’s physical therapist testified that he would have struggled to walk or lift, per footage obtained by Dateline.
Prosecutors believe he had been lying about the reinjury as an elaborate plan to show there was no way he could have been responsible for the strenuous crimes.
What was David Swift’s verdict for Karen Swift’s death?
The events of that October night became a lingering mystery, one that would sit idle with no arrests for over a decade, according to ABC News. That changed on Aug. 8, 2022, when Karen’s husband, David, was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and pleaded not guilty.
Many were stunned by this development, including their daughter, Ashley.
“I remember … trying to figure out why,” she said in an interview with 20/20. “Why right now? Why, after all these years, is this happening?”
Though over a decade passed before a suspect was formally named, Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Box told ABC24 Memphis that they had been actively looking into Karen’s murder.
“We have literally spent thousands of hours on this case and a lot of that time was spent dispelling false information and rumors,” he said. “Our investigators never gave up and just kept going through the evidence.”
David’s trial began in May 2024, and he maintained his innocence throughout.
“I never raised a hand on nobody, now or ever,” he told ABC News. “And I certainly wouldn’t do it to my wife or the mother of my children … It’s just not my character.”
In June 2024, the trial ended with a not guilty verdict, acquitting David of first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree murder, per ABC News. However, the case hit another standstill when the jury was unable to reach a verdict on voluntary manslaughter, resulting in a mistrial.
Where is David Swift now?
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Since the mistrial in June 2024, more clues have continued to be uncovered, including David’s ex-wife Kelly Essman coming forward alleging he stalked her. During an appearance on 20/20, she mentioned meeting David on a dating site three years after Karen’s death, and they wed in May 2016.
More recently, David’s team filed a motion to dismiss Karen’s case, which the Tennessee Court of Appeals denied in October 2024. The charge of voluntary manslaughter — which he has also pleaded not guilty — will be further discussed in a new trial.
David remains behind bars awaiting trial on the voluntary manslaughter charges in Karen’s case, while also facing stalking charges from his ex-wife in Alabama.
As for Ashley, she told Dateline that she wants justice for her mom, but she also wants her dad home, seeking “a normal life.”
Meanwhile, Karen’s friends aren’t sure what they believe anymore.
“I don’t know whether David killed her, I don’t want to have an opinion anymore, I just want to be able to rest,” one of Karen’s friends told Dateline. “I want justice for her, but I don’t know if that will ever come.”
