Blayne Alexander and Keith Morrison sit down to discuss his episode, “After the Halloween Party.” Friends and family were at a loss when Karen Swift, a Tennessee mother of four, went missing on October 29th, 2011. It took investigators 6 weeks to find Karen’s body and prosecutors 11 years to charge someone with her murder, but the case is anything but closed. Keith and Blayne talk about the small-town gossip that plagued the investigation in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and the private investigator from out of town who set out to solve the case herself. Then, Keith shares a podcast-exclusive clip from an interview with two of Karen’s neighbors who knew her as a child, and Dateline associate producer Sam Springer joins Blayne to answer viewer and listener questions from social media. Learn about more cases featured in Dateline’s Cold Case Spotlight series here: https://www.nbcnews.com/cold-case-spotlightYou can also read the stories of those covered in Dateline’s Missing in America series here: https://www.nbcnews.com/missing-in-americaListen to the full episode of “After the Halloween Party” on Apple:https://apple.co/3ZLYVRCListen to the full episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1dbl1xaIB3Bwm7X6J68Ttq
Chapter 1: Who went missing in Dyersburg, Tennessee?
And it took prosecutors 11 years to charge her husband, David Swift, with her murder. At his 2024 trial, the jury was not able to agree that David killed Karen, meaning that this case is still very much open. All right, Keith, let's talk Dateline.
It's a very, very unusual story. But it shows what happens when a thing like this occurs in a small town where people talk and whisper a lot.
You know what? I want to start right there, actually, because I was just fascinated by the town itself, by Dyersburg. I mean, this was a small town. We're talking about a lot of people who knew each other and a lot of people who seemed to have opinions about how other folks were kind of living their lives, right? Yeah.
Yes, very gossipy place. And I got that impression from everybody I talked to. And one of the ways you can tell, of course, is that people in the positions of officialdom in Dyersburg sort of try to tamp that talk down. You know, things are really pretty normal here. But clearly from the discussions with other people— It wasn't necessarily so quiet behind the scenes.
As one of the characters, Heather Cohen, discovered when she came to town and got an earful from everybody.
You know what? Heather was fascinating to me. There is a laundry list of fascinating characters, but I think Heather's probably at the top of my list.
She was the little disruptor that got thrown into this like a hand grenade.
Disruptor with a capital D. You know, I'm curious, though, because when we do episodes, every now and then you'll come across kind of like a Heather, somebody who really doesn't have anything to do with the story, but comes in and starts investigating or gets interested or really kind of attaches themselves to it.
I'm curious, as you spoke to her, what was it that really drove her and motivated her throughout this?
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Chapter 2: What was the community's response to Karen's disappearance?
Chapter 3: How did gossip affect the investigation?
As one of the characters, Heather Cohen, discovered when she came to town and got an earful from everybody.
You know what? Heather was fascinating to me. There is a laundry list of fascinating characters, but I think Heather's probably at the top of my list.
She was the little disruptor that got thrown into this like a hand grenade.
Disruptor with a capital D. You know, I'm curious, though, because when we do episodes, every now and then you'll come across kind of like a Heather, somebody who really doesn't have anything to do with the story, but comes in and starts investigating or gets interested or really kind of attaches themselves to it.
I'm curious, as you spoke to her, what was it that really drove her and motivated her throughout this?
Well, you know, she portrays herself as a private investigator who does a A wide variety of other cases. She claims that she did this case for free. She wasn't hired by anybody. She just was very interested in it and she wanted to solve it. Enough that she devoted years to this effort.
But I found that when I was talking to Heather, I felt like, though she's a very bright woman, perhaps she was giving too much credence to some of the gossip that went around town. Gossip which might have been true, might not have been true. But in a town like Dyersburg, there's a lot of it.
I'm curious, what was it like, Keith, for you and the team to try and get to the bottom of these swingers rumors, right? Like it's not easy reporting on secrets, but especially when you're talking about a small town like this.
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Chapter 4: What role did the private investigator play in the case?
That's right. You know. The official line is there were no such things. Pink poodle, I think, was one of the phrases that supposedly described them. And there may or may not have been, I don't know. But I will say this, you know, you can tell by my wrinkles, I've been around for a while. And I've encountered lots and lots of small towns where the things that go on would curl your hair.
And swinging is kind of tame compared to some other stuff that would happen in a small town. I think they happen everywhere. They happen in cities, too. It's just that it's a little harder to identify. And in a small town, everybody knows everybody else's business. And so the word goes around.
It was like an unspoken secret, but an unspoken, the worst kept secret kind of? Uh-huh.
Or it didn't happen at all. Depends on who you listen to.
Mm-hmm. Let's talk about the investigation because there were so many pieces here to this, of course, as well. One thing that stood out when that kind of first call came in and they said, we seem to have misplaced her about a missing person. I've certainly never heard anybody described it as that way. Talk to me a little bit more about that. What do we think was behind that phrase?
You can only speculate, right? According to the family, it was not uncommon for Karen to... Vanished in the middle of the night. She'd get up at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and go out somewhere. Sometimes to meet someone, sometimes not. But, you know, it's a way of saying maybe she's not lost. Maybe she just went out of her own accord or maybe she is lost. We don't know. Sure.
Let's talk about that horse search. The fact that a dozen, more than a dozen of Karen's friends went out on horseback to search for her. It was so interesting to me because it really, in many ways, told me a lot about that town and about that community. One, that there is a prevalence of horses to jump on. But the fact that all of them came together, they all went out on searches.
Of course, we've done stories where people kind of go out and search by foot. But talk a little bit more about that scene and that kind of community coming together to find her.
Yes, they really were kind of worried about it and united about it. And I was a little surprised by the horses too. What hit me was I grew up in a different part of the world where kudzu vines are just not part of the topography. So the idea that vines growing seasonally enough to hide a body for that long was kind of a surprise to me.
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Chapter 5: What new evidence was revealed in the trial?
Well, you know, he had it on his desk.
Just for our viewers, I want to say, in case they're driving, I don't want them to have to start Googling who this is that we're talking about. Some people would say that he was one of the greatest attorneys of the 20th century, but he was, at least for me— In his mind, anyway. In his mind, right?
Yeah.
He was well known because he was part of the dream team for the O.J. Simpson trial, got him acquitted on murder back in the early 90s.
Certainly one of the most famous defense attorneys of the 20th century. Good way to put it. Yes. And, you know, often successful, but sometimes just more famous than successful. There you go.
When we get back, Keith is going to share a podcast exclusive clip from an interview with Jenna and Gerald Scott. Those were Karen's neighbors when she was growing up. You know, let's talk about Ashley. Of all the many people that you talked to that we heard from in this story, Ashley absolutely stayed with me.
And I'm sure that was the case for so many of our viewers because you can't help but just feel so terrible for her.
Oh, you do. And she was very brave, I thought. She was brave to testify in support of her father. She was brave to come and talk to us at great length. And, you know, she didn't shy away from anything. But she absolutely believes in her bones that her dad is innocent, that he did not do this.
When I heard her say that, and you asked her, you said, is there even an inkling, even a little bit? And she said, absolutely not. I almost wondered if that was a sort of method of self-protection for her, that she couldn't bring herself to believe that her dad had anything to do with it.
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Chapter 6: How did the kudzu vines conceal evidence?
Something was happening and it's still unclear exactly what it was.
Now, I should say this about the clip that we just played. Dateline actually first heard about Karen's case through Jenna, the person that you just heard from, who submitted it years ago as part of our Cold Case Spotlight series. Of course, that's our online article series where we highlight unsolved cold cases around the country.
But I think that it just really speaks to how, you know, when our viewers send us things, we listen to them. We look into these types of things.
We do. And I think that's one of the most useful parts of our program, actually, Missing in America and these kinds of cases that finally get some new attention because potentially, at least partly, because of attention from media, from us.
Sure.
That's a very, very happy feeling when you can be somewhat helpful in the resolution of a case or to give a family a chance to tell the world what's been going on and describe their hopes and their frustrations and their grief for that matter if somebody has been killed or missing. So these are, I think, important contributions that we're happy to make.
And to that point, I want to give this plug. If you have a cold case, if you're listening, you have a cold case that you'd like to be featured, please submit it to us. You can submit it to us on social media at Dateline NBC. Well, Keith, it has been a true joy talking Dateline with you. I appreciate it.
Oh, thank you. I'm delighted to talk to you. And, you know, not only you're a very engaging interlocutor, but you're not Josh Mankiewicz.
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Chapter 7: What was Ashley's testimony about the night her mother disappeared?
Chapter 8: What challenges did the prosecution face in court?
When we get back, Keith is going to share a podcast exclusive clip from an interview with Jenna and Gerald Scott. Those were Karen's neighbors when she was growing up. You know, let's talk about Ashley. Of all the many people that you talked to that we heard from in this story, Ashley absolutely stayed with me.
And I'm sure that was the case for so many of our viewers because you can't help but just feel so terrible for her.
Oh, you do. And she was very brave, I thought. She was brave to testify in support of her father. She was brave to come and talk to us at great length. And, you know, she didn't shy away from anything. But she absolutely believes in her bones that her dad is innocent, that he did not do this.
When I heard her say that, and you asked her, you said, is there even an inkling, even a little bit? And she said, absolutely not. I almost wondered if that was a sort of method of self-protection for her, that she couldn't bring herself to believe that her dad had anything to do with it.
I think that is sometimes the case in a situation like this. With Ashley, I didn't get that impression. I thought it was stronger than that, her opinion. But one of the moments in that interview with her that I still think about in terms of her certainty was when her mother brought her home in the middle of the night and put her into bed
She was moved from one bed to another, which would have made it possible for something to happen to her mother. Either Karen left of her own accord or she was, you know, removed forcibly from bed. But before that could happen, Ashley had to be taken out of the bed that she was sharing with her mother. Somebody picked her up. She was at the time nine years old. Nine.
So not kind of before memories get formed. Memories are pretty good at nine. Not perfect, but pretty good. So somebody picked her up and the authorities alleged that had to be David. An assumption, frankly. She is completely convinced and repeated this several times. I know who it was that picked me up. A daughter knows when her mother is carrying her out of the bed and putting her somewhere else.
I knew and I know it was her who carried me to a different bed, which really takes the heat off David.
there was something about that that gave me chills because she was so convinced. As you know, I've got two of these Dateline episodes under my belt at this point. And the second one that I've done had an interview that was very similar. There's something about interviewing an adult who was a child when they lost their parent because the memory is formed as a child.
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