Tennessee mom Karen Swift goes missing after Halloween party

On By Littum

For a mother of four who attended a Halloween party in 2011, the real terror began after she left the event.

Karen Swift mysteriously disappeared in the early morning hours of October 30, 2011 after returning home from a party at a country club in Dyersburg, Tennessee, a harrowing case explored in an all-new Date line broadcast on Friday, November 1 at 21/20 on NBC.

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What happened the night before Karen Swift disappeared?

“It was October 29, two nights before Halloween, when they gathered in their costumes and their masks, perhaps to hide their secrets? Including a woman named Karen Swift, the life of the party, usually,” Date line says correspondent Keith Morrison in the voiceover an eerie preview of the episode, titled “After the Halloween Party.”

On the night of the gathering, partygoers said Karen was not acting like herself.

“She just said she wasn’t feeling well,” Karen’s friend Jenny Gurien said Date line.

Karen, who was 44, got a call just after midnight from her daughter Ashley Swift, then 9 years old.

“I was at a friend’s house and I wanted to go home,” a now grown Ashley told me Date line.

“ONE Very Strange Case of Missing Persons”

Karen’s husband, David Swift, “stayed up late to make sure they got home safely, but when he woke up the next morning, Karen was gone.” Morrison says in a voiceover.

It sparked a year-long search for answers.

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“It was a very strange missing persons case,” said journalist Janice Broach Date line.

As Morrison said in the preview clip, “The mystery of what happened to Karen Swift became bigger than anything this town had seen.”

A shocking discovery

Karen’s body was discovered about six weeks after she disappeared in a cemetery about two miles from her home, according to a NBC News reportbut the grim discovery wasn’t enough for investigators to put the pieces of her disappearance together.

For years, society was left to wonder what happened to the missing mother in her final moments. The investigation quickly went cold until the authorities got an unexpected break in the case.

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“Nearly a decade later, a private investigator claims to uncover exciting new leads that turn the city upside down,” reads a synopsis of “After the Halloween Party” episode.

Private detective Heather Cohen said so Date line that she “came in and I stirred up the hornet’s nest”, revealing dark secrets that had been hidden for years.

In addition to featuring interviews with Cohen, Broach and Ashley Swift, the episode also includes commentary from attorney Jason Creasy and Terry McCreight, an investigator with the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office.

To find out more about what happened to Karen in the aftermath of the Halloween party, clock Date line Friday 1 November at 21/20 NBC or stream the episode on Peacock when it becomes available the next day.

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