TN TN - Karen Swift, 44, Dyersburg, 30 Oct 2011 - #2

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Sheriff believes Mid-South mom was murdered
December 14, 2011

snipped...

Her car was discovered, with a tire off the rim, pulled over about a quarter of a mile from her home. Swift had been to a Halloween party and brought her young daughter home from a sleep over when she disappeared.

Box said her tire had a puncture in it and a sheet rock screw in it. The TBI crime lab is conducting more tests on the tire.

...Box said there was never an organized grid search in the area where Karen Swift's body was discovered.

http://www.wmctv.com/story/16319091/sheriff-believes-mid-south-mom-was-murdered
 
~n/t~ said:
I agree. The question is why there? Does that road lead to anywhere? A highway? Not knowing the area I have no idea.

If the husband did it, why would he have chosen this area?


Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

For one thing, it's a graveyard - no people around. The only reason these men found the body was because one of them was a preacher who was a caretaker of the place.

The cemetary road probably just loops with one lane through the cemetary so that cars can easily get to graves during funerals or visitations. That is the way many old graveyards are designed here in Tennessee.

I think it's significant that Sheriff Box said that no grid search was done there. He may be implying that someone knew there wasn't going to be a search of the graveyard area and moved the body there from somewhere else.
 
The sheet rock screw in the tire is sort of blowing my mind. Of course that could be found anywhere, and someone could have hammered that into her tire as well, but it also reminded me that she was working on a house that was slated to be rebuilt for Habitat for Humanity.

Here's the article about her friends and the text messages about a house she was cleaning in the week before she died.

http://www.stategazette.com/story/1792485.html

* Friday, Oct. 28

Swift - "OK I am about to set (bug)bombs off & lock up, been here since 7:30! I will have to come back. Got bathrooms to do. Mop also stove and fridge. Is Wednesday soon enough? I can tomorrow if you need me to. I work Monday and have a landscape job Tuesday."

* Saturday, Oct. 29, 2 p.m.

Hopper - "Don't worry about the fridge and stove. Getting new ones. Wednesday is fine. Great thanks! I will pay you as soon as possible."

Swift - "Hey, if I don't have to do fridge & stove. I will finish it early in the morning."

The last text Swift sent Hopper was referring to cleaning the house on Sunday morning (Oct. 30), the day she was reported missing.

Hopper found out Swift was missing after Swift's best friend, Cathy Bona, texted her and said they were looking for her.

"I thought she was probably at the Trimble house," said Hopper.

So the sheetrock screw might have gotten into her tire on Saturday when she was cleaning that old house, but the tire didn't go flat until that night - sometimes sharp things cause a slow leak. Maybe she wanted to leave early on Sunday morning but the tire went flat, or maybe she left the house, realized she had a flat (usually one hears a thumping sound), then walked back home and that's when she got into an argument with her husband.

Of course we have no way of knowing if the sheet rock screw came from the Habitat House or not.

I don't believe this was a random crime at all, so now I'm wondering if an argument ensued about the flat tire.
 
tarabull said:
Sheriff believes Mid-South mom was murdered
December 14, 2011

snipped...

Her car was discovered, with a tire off the rim, pulled over about a quarter of a mile from her home. Swift had been to a Halloween party and brought her young daughter home from a sleep over when she disappeared.

Box said her tire had a puncture in it and a sheet rock screw in it. The TBI crime lab is conducting more tests on the tire.

...Box said there was never an organized grid search in the area where Karen Swift's body was discovered.

http://www.wmctv.com/story/16319091/sheriff-believes-mid-south-mom-was-murdered
Click to expand...

I wonder if the the tire off the rim is the same tire that had the puncture in it? So her tires weren't slashed as was said earlier on?

I find nothing suspicious about a sheet rock screw in a tire. Honest to goodness, I just had that happen to me a couple of weeks ago. Flat tire and had to have it repaired.

If the tire was off the rim, would Karen have tried to fix it herself? Perhaps replacing it with a spare? This is a very interesting revelation.

Slashed tires would've been more concerning than a flat tire with a screw in it.

hmmmmm
 
~n/t~ said:
I wonder if the the tire off the rim is the same tire that had the puncture in it? So her tires weren't slashed as was said earlier on?

I find nothing suspicious about a sheet rock screw in a tire. Honest to goodness, I just had that happen to me a couple of weeks ago. Flat tire and had to have it repaired.

If the tire was off the rim, would Karen have tried to fix it herself? Perhaps replacing it with a spare? This is a very interesting revelation.

Slashed tires would've been more concerning than a flat tire with a screw in it.

hmmmmm
Click to expand...

If the tire was off the rim, someone may have tried to drive on it after it was flat.
 
ThoughtFox said:
The sheet rock screw in the tire is sort of blowing my mind. Of course that could be found anywhere, and someone could have hammered that into her tire as well, but it also reminded me that she was working on a house that was slated to be rebuilt for Habitat for Humanity.

Here's the article about her friends and the text messages about a house she was cleaning in the week before she died.

http://www.stategazette.com/story/1792485.html

* Friday, Oct. 28

Swift - "OK I am about to set (bug)bombs off & lock up, been here since 7:30! I will have to come back. Got bathrooms to do. Mop also stove and fridge. Is Wednesday soon enough? I can tomorrow if you need me to. I work Monday and have a landscape job Tuesday."

* Saturday, Oct. 29, 2 p.m.

Hopper - "Don't worry about the fridge and stove. Getting new ones. Wednesday is fine. Great thanks! I will pay you as soon as possible."

Swift - "Hey, if I don't have to do fridge & stove. I will finish it early in the morning."

The last text Swift sent Hopper was referring to cleaning the house on Sunday morning (Oct. 30), the day she was reported missing.

Hopper found out Swift was missing after Swift's best friend, Cathy Bona, texted her and said they were looking for her.

"I thought she was probably at the Trimble house," said Hopper.

So the sheetrock screw might have gotten into her tire on Saturday when she was cleaning that old house, but the tire didn't go flat until that night - sometimes sharp things cause a slow leak. Maybe she wanted to leave early on Sunday morning but the tire went flat, or maybe she left the house, realized she had a flat (usually one hears a thumping sound), then walked back home and that's when she got into an argument with her husband.

Of course we have no way of knowing if the sheet rock screw came from the Habitat House or not.

I don't believe this was a random crime at all, so now I'm wondering if an argument ensued about the flat tire.
Click to expand...


I think this information is a bombshell, imo. It certainly leaves it open to other random crime opportunity rather than a domestic one.
 
ThoughtFox said:
The sheet rock screw in the tire is sort of blowing my mind. Of course that could be found anywhere, and someone could have hammered that into her tire as well, but it also reminded me that she was working on a house that was slated to be rebuilt for Habitat for Humanity.

Here's the article about her friends and the text messages about a house she was cleaning in the week before she died.

http://www.stategazette.com/story/1792485.html

* Friday, Oct. 28

Swift - "OK I am about to set (bug)bombs off & lock up, been here since 7:30! I will have to come back. Got bathrooms to do. Mop also stove and fridge. Is Wednesday soon enough? I can tomorrow if you need me to. I work Monday and have a landscape job Tuesday."

* Saturday, Oct. 29, 2 p.m.

Hopper - "Don't worry about the fridge and stove. Getting new ones. Wednesday is fine. Great thanks! I will pay you as soon as possible."

Swift - "Hey, if I don't have to do fridge & stove. I will finish it early in the morning."

The last text Swift sent Hopper was referring to cleaning the house on Sunday morning (Oct. 30), the day she was reported missing.

Hopper found out Swift was missing after Swift's best friend, Cathy Bona, texted her and said they were looking for her.

"I thought she was probably at the Trimble house," said Hopper.

So the sheetrock screw might have gotten into her tire on Saturday when she was cleaning that old house, but the tire didn't go flat until that night - sometimes sharp things cause a slow leak. Maybe she wanted to leave early on Sunday morning but the tire went flat, or maybe she left the house, realized she had a flat (usually one hears a thumping sound), then walked back home and that's when she got into an argument with her husband.

Of course we have no way of knowing if the sheet rock screw came from the Habitat House or not.

I don't believe this was a random crime at all, so now I'm wondering if an argument ensued about the flat tire.
Click to expand...

She had keys to the house. Maybe she couldn't sleep & decided to go ahead & finish up her job. I think they should check the "Trimble house" as a possible crime scene.

Or she could have finished her job, picked up the screw & went flat on the way home.
 
Maybe the sick child wasn't so sick afterall....maybe only a tummy ache from too much candy. (tho, I don't want to assume...)

Maybe evidence from the Swift home is a note Karen left for David saying "Went to work at the Trimble house - BBL"

That might explain why he wasn't worried about her.

More possibilities here than meet the eye imho.
 
stillwatersc said:
If the tire was off the rim, someone may have tried to drive on it after it was flat.
Click to expand...

Maybe but in my recent experience with a screw in my tire, it didn't go flat immediately. My tire was low and thought it was just missing air so went to the gas station and put air in it. I even drove it to work that day. It was the following morning when I noticed it was low again that I decided to take it to a garage to have them look at it and lo and behold, it had a screw in it and had to be repaired.

All this to say, Karen may not have noticed it until she was close to home and maybe her leaving the home had to do with the flat tire!!

We were all speculating on what may have caused her to leave the house again and this may be our answer.
 
stillwatersc said:
She had keys to the house. Maybe she couldn't sleep & decided to go ahead & finish up her job. I think they should check the "Trimble house" as a possible crime scene.
Click to expand...

Surely they've checked that out since it was the first place her friends thought of when they heard she was missing.

On the other hand, the flat tire makes me think she never got back to the Trimble House on Sunday morning.

Another scenario: Her husband sees her leave early in the morning, which he told the brother-in-law.

He follows her to see where she is really going - maybe he doesn't believe she is going to clean a house, or maybe he's just angry. After all, the only reason she was cleaning up old houses was to make a couple hundred bucks so she could leave her husband. That could be a sticky subject.

She has a flat tire and has to turn around and drive back (hence the wheel and rim) but doesn't make it all the way home, so she pulls off the road. She gets her clothes that were folded in the back seat and starts walking home.

Her husband meets her on the road in his own car as he's driving back too and she realizes that he was following her the whole time. That could start a major argument right there.

If there was an altercation, it could have happened where they found the clothes dropped. Blow to the head or strangulation - crime of passion, etc. Then she could have been taken to the cemetary.

This whole scenario might take about 30 minutes tops, and then he's back home with the kids.

Problem: He forgot about the clothing she had dropped, but maybe he figured that was okay because someone would think she was abducted by someone unknown (which turns out to be a common theory).
 
~n/t~ said:
Maybe but in my recent experience with a screw in my tire, it didn't go flat immediately. My tire was low and thought it was just missing air so went to the gas station and put air in it. I even drove it to work that day. It was the following morning when I noticed it was low again that I decided to take it to a garage to have them look at it and lo and behold, it had a screw in it and had to be repaired.

All this to say, Karen may not have noticed it until she was close to home and maybe her leaving the home had to do with the flat tire!!

We were all speculating on what may have caused her to leave the house again and this may be our answer.
Click to expand...

There probably wouldn't have been any garages open on Sunday there, certainly not before 5 a.m.. And why try to drive on a nearly flat tire when she could have changed it there in the driveway?
 
~n/t~ said:
Maybe but in my recent experience with a screw in my tire, it didn't go flat immediately. My tire was low and thought it was just missing air so went to the gas station and put air in it. I even drove it to work that day. It was the following morning when I noticed it was low again that I decided to take it to a garage to have them look at it and lo and behold, it had a screw in it and had to be repaired.

All this to say, Karen may not have noticed it until she was close to home and maybe her leaving the home had to do with the flat tire!!

We were all speculating on what may have caused her to leave the house again and this may be our answer.
Click to expand...

And I've run over a nail or screw & had my tire go flat almost immediately. But I've also had one in my tire which was discovered when the tire was low & it never went flat. This info opens up numerous possibilities. Maybe LE can figure out how fast the tire deflated from the SUV's black box.
 
The article days the tire had a sheet rock screw in it and a puncture in it, which reads to me that the puncture was separate from the sheet rock screw (which of course would puncture the tire as it embedded in it...so why point out the puncture, which is a given unless it is separate?) Also, didn't the car have a fancy electronic system that would warn the driver of a flat tire? Mine has one, and I have had quite a few slow leaks over the years that were caught well before the tire became flat thanks to the indicator light on my dash. I don't understand how if this vehicle had such a system why someone would (presumably) ignore the low tire pressure light for so long that the tire came off the rim...especially in the wee hours of the morning.
 
Going back to that text and call to her friend earlier, I wonder if someone at the party was creeping her out and she wanted to be "rescued" via a phone call, etc.?
 
rosiebean said:
The article days the tire had a sheet rock screw in it and a puncture in it, which reads to me that the puncture was separate from the sheet rock screw (which of course would puncture the tire as it embedded in it...so why point out the puncture, which is a given unless it is separate?) Also, didn't the car have a fancy electronic system that would warn the driver of a flat tire? Mine has one, and I have had quite a few slow leaks over the years that were caught well before the tire became flat thanks to the indicator light on my dash. I don't understand how if this vehicle had such a system why someone would (presumably) ignore the low tire pressure light for so long that the tire came off the rim...especially in the wee hours of the morning.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's odd, especially since we know she drove her child home in that same vehicle. If the screw had been in the tire all day it surely would have been going flat by 1 a.m.

I think it's more telling if there was both a screw and a puncture in the tire. The screw might not be the thing that made the tire go flat, and so would be considered a red herring. Interesting!
 
ThoughtFox said:
The sheet rock screw in the tire is sort of blowing my mind. Of course that could be found anywhere, and someone could have hammered that into her tire as well, but it also reminded me that she was working on a house that was slated to be rebuilt for Habitat for Humanity.

I don't believe this was a random crime at all, so now I'm wondering if an argument ensued about the flat tire.
Click to expand...

You don't have to hammer the nail in, just lean it up to the tire and drive the car over it...but they might be able to link that nail to the work site..but i am having an issue with this mother leaving the house in the middle of the night without telling her husband so he can watch the kids..this is an experienced mother...and the child is not a newborn..only an emergency would make her go get medicine in the middle of the night, and why not wake up the husband so he can go...and if she was going to help or meet someone, again she would say something or her first move upon gettting the flat would be to call that friend and say...i got a flat..so her phone should tell that story...i think the flat tire is staging and the husband did it.
 
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