TN v. David Swift: Karen Swift Murder Trial

DYER COUNTY, Tenn. (Court TV) — More than 10 years after a mother of four was found dead in an abandoned cemetery, her husband is heading to trial on charges he murdered her.

David Swift is charged with the murder of his wife, Karen Swift, in 2011. (Dyer County Sheriff’s Office)

David Swift was indicted on a charge of pre-meditated first-degree murder in 2022, 11 years after his wife, Karen Swift, disappeared.

Karen was reported missing to the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 30, 2011. David was allegedly the last person to see her alive when she returned home from a Halloween party that night.

Investigators found her car with a shredded tire near her home, WMC reported. Six weeks later on Dec. 10, her body was found in an abandoned cemetery. An autopsy report provided to Court TV said she died from “blunt force injury of the head.”

When he was arrested in 2022, David was remarried and living in Alabama. He was released on a $200,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted.

David faces separate charges in Alabama, where he is accused of stalking his second wife, from whom he is divorced, AL.com reported.

Jury selection in David’s murder case begins on May 28.