Authorities say they plan to reveal how a 6-year-old South Carolina girl was killed after disappearing from her front yard, and how evidence about her disappearance was found in the trash of a deceased neighbor whose body was found soon after the girl’s.
Police in Cayce and the Lexington County Coroner's Office have scheduled a news conference Tuesday afternoon on Faye Marie Swetlik's slaying.
The girl got off the school bus and was last seen playing in her Cayce front yard on Feb. 10. More than 200 officers searched over three days for her, knocking on every door in her neighborhood and checking every vehicle going in and out.
A police officer blocks a road near an entrance to the Churchill Heights neighborhood Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, in Cayce, S.C., where 6-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik recently went missing just after getting off a school bus. Hundreds of officers in Cayce, along with state police and FBI agents, are working around the clock to try to find Swetlik, who was last seen Monday, Cayce Public Safety Officer Sgt. Evan Antley reiterated Thursday. (AP PhotoSean Rayford)
Investigators have said they found a clue about her disappearance in a neighbor's trash can Thursday.
They soon found the girl's body in woods that had been searched previously, and then found the neighbor, 30-year-old Coty Scott Taylor, dead in his home.
Cayce Public Safety officers said the girl's death is being investigated as a homicide. They have not said anything about how Taylor died.
A Cayce police officer blocks an entrance to the Churchill Heights neighborhood Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, in Cayce, S.C., where 6 year-old Faye Marie Swetlik recently went missing just after getting off a school bus. Hundreds of officers in Cayce, along with state police and FBI agents, are working around the clock to try to find Swetlik, who was last seen Monday, Cayce Public Safety Officer Sgt. Evan Antley reiterated Thursday. (AP PhotoSean Rayford)
The girl's disappearance shocked Cayce, a town of about 13,000 just west of Columbia. Several prayer vigils were held while she was missing and after her body was found.
A public memorial for Faye will be 7 p.m. Friday at Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce.