Harold and Thelma Swain were shot and killed at their Georgia church in 1985, but although DNA evidence and witnesses put their killer at the scene of the crime, the double murders went unsolved for almost 40 years.
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Now in 2024, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced they arrested one man who was briefly a suspect in the original investigation, according to WJXT. The now 61-year-old Georgia suspect was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault. But before police apprehended him, another Georgia man spent 20 years in prison for the crime.
The Swains were shot to death during their Bible study at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in southeast Georgia, according to official reports. A statement from the Brunswick Judicial Circuit said the married couple was killed after an argument between Harold and the suspect ensued in the church’s vestibule.
The investigation into their murders went cold until 1998 when police reopened the case and turned eyes to Dennis Perry as the prime suspect, according to The Georgia Innocence Project
Perry was eventually arrested for the Swain murders in 2000, although he maintained his innocence. The Georgia Innocence Project said Perry’s 2003 murder conviction was mostly based on circumstantial evidence. Police found a pair of glasses believed to belong to the killer. But even though hairs from the glasses did not belong to Perry, he was still convicted.
Then 38-year-old Perry accepted a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, according to First Coast News. In accordance with his deal, Perry waived his right to file a direct appeal, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
It wasn’t until Perry’s case was reinvestigated by the “Undisclosed Podcast—” a true crime podcast which investigates the stories of the wrongfully convicted— that answers would soon come to light, according to the New York Times. By July 2021, Perry was fully exonerated of the murders, although he spent 21 years locked up. Unfortunately for police, Perry’s innocent verdict sent investigators back at square one.
Later in May 2020, GBI and the Camden County Sheriff’s Office reopened the case for the second time because of “possible new evidence,” according to First Coast News. In August 2020, the investigation shifted towards Erik Kristensen Sparre after the GBI searched his property and uncovered links to the murders.
The investigation showed Sparre, who is believed to be a white supremacist, fabricated his 1985 alibi and had even reportedly bragged that he had “killed two ni****rs,” according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
That’s when police moved to arrest and charge him for the 1985 killings. While authorities have finally made an arrest in this case, the GBI said the investigation into the murders is still “active and ongoing.”
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