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Harold and Thelma Swain

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Real Names: Harold and Thelma Lang Swain
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Waverly, Georgia
Date: March 11, 1985

Case[]

Details: Sixty-six-year-old Harold Swain was the well-respected deacon of Rising Daughters Baptist Church in Waverly, Georgia. He was a retired pulpwood worker, a handyman, a volunteer firefighter, a member of the county jury commission, and a spokesperson for the Black community. His sixty-three-year-old wife, Thelma, was also closely involved with church affairs. She was a devoted wife and surrogate mother to their niece, Lafane Kight, whom they raised from infancy. They had been married for over forty-three years. They were described as an "exemplary couple", well-liked by members of the community. Lafane said they were gentle people who liked to fish, garden, and participate in church activities. They lived in a ranch-style house not far from the church.
Waverly, population 825, is a predominantly Black community nestled in the Baptist Bible belt. Lumber, farming, and the paper mill provide the income for this small, isolated area over thirty-five miles from the nearest big city – Jacksonville, Florida. For years, Rising Daughters Baptist Church has served not only as a place of worship, but also as a social center for the small township. But on Monday, March 11, 1985, this quiet community was shattered by violence. The quiet sanctity of the church was violated when Harold and Thelma were brutally murdered there.
Harold's brother, Robert, recalls that he was always happy, jolly, and laughing. These things came naturally to him because of his love and kindness for everyone. He would always go out of his way to help someone at any time. If someone needed a favor, and he was able to do it, he would do it. Robert said that Thelma was the same way about helping people. Harold's friend, Steve Rawl, said that the amount of people at their funeral was the most he had ever seen and that it showed how much everyone thought about and respected them.
At 7pm on the night they were murdered, Harold and Thelma held their weekly Monday night Bible class at the church. Nine women from several area churches attended. At 8:50pm, one of them, Vanzola Williams, excused herself early to go pick up her daughter at work. As she entered the church vestibule, she encountered a man leaning against the wall. She asked if she could help him, and he said that he needed to talk to somebody. When she asked who he needed to talk to, he said, "Somebody in there." They opened the doors to the church; he pointed at Harold and said, "I want to talk to him."
Vanzola went back into the church and told Harold about the man. Some of the other women in the group caught just a glimpse of him as he stood in the doorway; none of them recognized him. Harold followed Vanzola out into the vestibule and met with the man. As she left the church, she heard them talking. Just seconds later, the man pulled out a gun. Harold tried to wrestle it from him. However, the man shot him four times: three times in the chest and once in the back of the head. Thelma ran out to the vestibule; the man shot her once in the upper chest area.
One woman from the class named Cora Fisher fainted when she witnessed the shooting. Some of the women hid behind the pews; others rushed into the kitchen and pastor's office and tried to call for help. However, the phone did not work. Vanzola, who heard the shots, ran around the church, came in through the back door, and joined them. Twenty minutes passed while the women waited in fear. Finally, one of them, Marjorie Moore, armed herself with a broom and made a dash for her car. She noticed an unfamiliar vehicle in the parking lot (it left soon afterward). She then went to a nearby convenience store to summon help. Sadly, it was too late; Harold and Thelma were dead. That night, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was brought in, and a massive manhunt started in Waverly.
Harold and Thelma were personal friends of Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith and his family. It was a shock to him that they had been murdered. He says that when he arrived at the scene, there was a lot of confusion. No one really knew what had happened. They did not know what the facts were or who had done the murder. They also did not know what the motive was. According to GBI Agent Joe Gregory, Harold and Thelma were highly respected people who were very active in the community. They did not appear to be the type of people who would be victims of a "murder plot".
Harold and Thelma were found lying on their backs in pools of blood in the vestibule. No blood samples were taken, as it was assumed that all of the blood belonged to them. There was a lot of physical evidence found at the scene, including five bullet casings, five blue plastic shirt buttons, two Pepsi bottles, a smudged vestibule mirror, four pieces of cut telephone line, the telephone box (which had smudges or fingerprints on it), and two pairs of glasses.
One pair of glasses was determined to have belonged to Harold. They were unable to determine who the other pair (which were metal safety glasses) belonged to. Agent Gregory's gut reaction was that the killer was a transient. He says that the glasses appeared to belong to a person who did not have enough money to properly maintain their glasses or buy a pair when they needed them. He believes that they were modified by the person for their use.
The glasses are not "ordinary" ones. The lenses are thick, with the surface pocked by a welding torch. The earpieces do not match; the right one was wrapped with tape. They appeared to have been assembled from parts of two or three separate pairs. They would have been worn by someone "extremely" far-sighted with astigmatism in the right eye. Transmission fluid residue was found on them. Were they dropped by the killer?
When the police discovered the glasses, they investigated the theory that the killer may have been a transient. The church is located on busy Highway 17. Transients would often stop by for a handout or free meal. Motorists would also stop there to ask for gas money or other assistance. But if robbery was the motive, why were over $300 left in Harold's wallet? Other evidence suggests that the crime was premeditated. The authorities feel that the church had been cased before the murder. The telephone lines to it had been cut. Agent Gregory said that this could suggest that it was a premeditated murder. However, he believes that it also could have been part of a premeditated armed robbery attempt.
Vanzola clearly saw the killer. She said that he was calm. She thought he was there for a handout. She did not think he was there to hurt anyone; she did not see a weapon or anything on him. She noticed he was wearing scuffed boots. He was a young white man. He had long, shoulder length blonde hair. However, she said that she did not look at him too much because she wanted to leave.
The police attempted to create a picture of the killer using an identikit. But the eyewitnesses did not agree on many of the details. An artist was brought in to sketch a composite drawing. For five months, the police searched for the killer using it, but no new leads or clues surfaced.
Finally, on July 5, 1985, police 135 miles away in Telfair County, Georgia, pulled over a car for a minor traffic violation. In the trunk, they found an automatic weapon and submachine gun. Three suspects were taken into custody. One of them was Donnie Barrentine. Acquaintances of the suspects told Agent Gregory that he had told them and other people in Florida that he had murdered a Black preacher and his wife in a church. After several interviews with him, he admitted that he had told those people that he had killed a Black preacher and his wife. He then smiled and said, "But I was lying to them."
Agent Gregory said that they have never been able to come up with any hard evidence to connect Barrentine to the murder. After the interviews, he was given a polygraph test. He failed it. In fact, the polygraph operator told Sheriff Smith that Barrentine was "a very good suspect in the murder". The resemblance between the man on the wanted poster and Barrentine was inconclusive.
The eyewitnesses from the church were taken to Jacksonville for a police lineup. Vanzola said that she did not recognize any of the men in the lineup as the killer. She noted that he had shorter hair and a lighter complexion than Barrentine. However, she also noted that he was wearing the same boots that the killer was wearing. In the end, she was unable to make a positive identification. The murder charges against Barrentine were not pursued. But he was subsequently convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to five years in federal prison.
One year later, the murder investigation took a new direction. Agent Gregory came across a face in a state crime bulletin which exactly matched the identikit picture created by one of the witnesses at the church. He says that it gave him a chill when he saw the composite because of its exact match to the one made by the witness. He notes that there are hundreds of thousands of combinations to make a composite. He wondered what the odds were that two would be the exact same.
The suspect in the bulletin was wanted for burglarizing several churches in Kansas in October and November 1981. He had also asked for some gas money from a priest at one of them. He was never taken into custody. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation could not even give Agent Gregory his name. They had never developed any leads in this case. All they knew was that he drove an older car with a Florida license plate.
Years later, the brutal murders of Harold and Thelma Swain remain a mystery. Were they just random killings committed by a violent transient? Or were they a planned and premeditated murder? And if so, why? Agent Gregory said everything that night pointed to a transient attempting to pull a robbery. Sheriff Smith, however, believes that the killer intended to murder Harold that night. He points to the following facts: the killer did not take any money; he searched for and cut the phone lines; he singled out one person in the church, brought him to the vestibule, and shot him several times with the intention of killing him (shooting him at least once in the temple).
Agent Gregory said that this case has haunted him. It is one that he will never forget. He drives by the church every day and always thinks about Harold and Thelma when he sees it.
Authorities believe that the killer may have talked about his crime to someone. Perhaps someone will remember a casual conversation which could lead to new evidence in this case.

Suspects: The killer is described as a clean-shaven Caucasian male in his late twenties or early thirties (in 1985). He is believed to be between 5'6" and 5'8" with a slight or medium build, weighing between 130 and 140 pounds. However, the eyewitnesses gave differing descriptions of him. Some thought he was wearing glasses, while others did not. Vanzola described him as having shoulder-length blond (or light-colored) hair. She also said he was wearing scuffed boots. He was reportedly seen leaving the church in a 1965 to 1970 medium brown Dodge Dart or Plymouth Duster. He used a small caliber weapon in the murder.
A man fitting the killer's description (White with blond hair and glasses) stopped at Reed's Store, a few miles north of the church, about an hour and a half before the murder. According to the store's proprietor, the man behaved strangely and barely had enough money to pay for a Pepsi. He was wearing a jean jacket with dark jeans and a shirt. His vehicle was described as an orange or burnt orange Plymouth-type vehicle. When he left, he drove in the direction of the church. A Pepsi bottle was later found at the scene. It is not known for certain if the man was the killer, however.
Five blue plastic shirt buttons were found at the scene that did not belong to the victims. Some of the witnesses described the killer as wearing dark clothing, which could be consistent with the buttons. The glasses found at the scene are metal safety ones. The lenses are thick, with the surface pocked by a welding torch. The earpieces do not match; the right one was wrapped with tape. They appeared to have been assembled from parts of two or three separate pairs. They would have been worn by someone "extremely" far-sighted with astigmatism in the right eye. Transmission fluid residue was found on them.
Based on the glasses, authorities suspected that the killer may have been a transient, machinist, or welder. Transients were known to visit the church. Robbery was investigated as a motive; it was suspected that a transient or motorist pulled off the highway, intending to rob church members. However, $300 was left in Harold's wallet. It was speculated that the killer may have shot him when he resisted a robbery.
Donnie Barrentine is considered a possible suspect in this case. While at a party, he allegedly bragged about being involved in the murder of a Black preacher and his wife in a South Georgia church. Three witnesses at the party confirmed this. He even showed them the gun allegedly used in the murder. One witness said that Harold's murder was a "tactic" to draw out his son-in-law, who owed a drug debt to Barrentine's cousin (although Harold and Thelma did not have a son-in-law, their adopted daughter's stepfather was involved in drugs and in hiding at the time). The witness also said that when Barrentine was arrested, he was on his way to shoot and kill a man on the orders of his cousin. The cousin had specifically told him to cut the telephone lines before going into the house.
However, Barrentine later told police that he lied when he made the statements. His employment records showed that he worked on March 11 (the day of the murder) and March 13, but not March 12. During a lineup, Vanzola noticed that he was wearing the same type of boots as the killer. However, she was unable to determine if he was actually the man that she had seen that night. An arrest warrant was prepared but never submitted to a judge because the D.A. believed that the witnesses were unreliable.
The unidentified Kansas robbery suspect has also been investigated in connection with this case. His composite matched exactly to one of the ones made in the Swain case. He also asked a priest for gas money, which is what some suspect the killer did with Harold.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the November 2, 1988 episode.
  • It was also featured on The Trail Went Cold and Undisclosed podcasts.
  • During the segment, the actual glasses found at the scene were shown to the audience and held by host Robert Stack. They were sent there by Sheriff Smith.
  • Fearing for her life, Vanzola did not appear on camera and was not named during the broadcast.
  • The show incorrectly stated that the murder occurred on a Tuesday night.
  • Some sources state that the church was named "Rising Daughter Baptist Church", that it was located in Spring Bluff, Georgia, that the meeting was for the missionary society, and that Thelma was sixty-two.

Results: Unresolved. In July 1998, Sheriff Smith got clearance to spend $40,000 in recovered drug money to hire a full-time investigator named Sgt. Dale Bundy, to work solely on this case. He discovered that many of the witnesses had not been interviewed since the murder. He decided to reinterview them. When talking to Cora, he learned that someone had shown her a photograph of a man about seven years after the murder. She "froze up" when she saw it and said that he was the killer. She was afraid to identify him but said that his grandfather lived near the intersection of Spring Bluff Road and Dover Bluff Road. Based on this information, Sgt. Bundy believed that she was talking about thirty-six-year-old carpenter Dennis Arnold Perry.
Perry had been a suspect early in the investigation; in 1988, an anonymous tipster had said that he looked like the composite of the killer. He had lived in the area until 1984, when he moved to Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta, and got a job at a concrete company. Investigators at the time spoke with his boss, who said that he was working in Jonesboro, nearly 300 miles from Waverly, until 5pm on the day of the murder. Investigators did not believe he would have had enough time to travel to the church to commit the murder. He apparently did not have a vehicle at the time either. Also, Vanzola failed to pick him out of a photo lineup. As a result, the original investigators cleared him.
However, based on Cora's statement, Sgt. Bundy decided to look further into Perry. He located a mugshot of him from 1990 and showed it to Cora and Vanzola. Both women identified him as the killer. He then determined that the woman who had previously shown Cora the picture of Perry was Camden County resident Jane Beaver. She was the mother of Perry's ex-girlfriend, Carol Ann. She was also the tipster who called the police (and the telecenter) saying that he looked like the composite. She claimed that she called the Sheriff's Office several times with this information, but Sgt. Bundy was the first person to act on it.
Jane told Sgt. Bundy that two weeks before the murder, Perry told her that Harold had laughed at him when he asked to borrow money. According to her, he also threatened to kill Harold, although he only referred to him as his "grandfather's Black neighbor". When interviewed by Sgt. Bundy, Carol Ann claimed that Perry had called her the day before the murder, saying that he had ridden down from Jonesboro on the back of a motorcycle, broken into his grandparents' house (which was near the church), and was riding back the same night. Two of his acquaintances also stated that he had used glasses for reading that were similar to the ones found at the scene.
In August 1998, Sgt. Bundy interviewed Perry at his home in Jacksonville, Florida. He said he was in Atlanta at the time of the murder, knew of Harold but never met him, would "never do something like that", and did not own a handgun. However, he also mentioned that Harold had "strong hands of a pulpwooder"; Sgt. Bundy thought that was strange since he said he had never met Harold. The Sheriff's Office later felt that there was enough information to make a case against Perry. A Camden County grand jury indicted him on two counts of malice murder. On January 13, 2000, he was arrested near his home.
When questioned after his arrest, Perry maintained that he was in Jonesboro on the night of the murder. He also said that he had been at a party there at the time that it took place. However, it was confirmed that no such party occurred. According to Sgt. Bundy, after the interview ended, Perry mentioned that he could have taken a motorcycle trip down to Camden County around the time of the murder. The interview then resumed.
According to investigators, Perry said he was drinking and using drugs at the time of the murder. He then said that he could have been in the church that night but could not remember. Sgt. Bundy claimed that he said he was in the church that night. He also reportedly said "yes" to the following inquiries: whether the shooting was an accident, whether the gun went off by accident, and whether he would "make it right" if he could. When asked about a hypothetical motive, he said, "I think someone ran out of gas and needed money." However, when investigators asked where the gun used in the murder was located, he said they were "putting words in [his] mouth". He recanted his earlier statements and ended the interview. He was later offered a plea deal, in which he would plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a twelve-year sentence; he refused.
In February 2003, Perry was tried for the murder. His defense claimed that the prosecution's case was based on "suggestive and tainted" work by investigators, particularly Sgt. Bundy, who made him the "prime suspect" within a week. They believe that he failed to look at other suspects. They also criticized investigators for losing physical evidence in this case and not recording Perry's alleged confession. They pointed to Barrentine being the real killer. Prosecutors gave him immunity in exchange for his testimony; he maintained that he did not commit the murder. Perry's coworker testified that they had been together until about 5pm on the day of the murder.
After three hours of deliberation, a jury found Perry guilty of the murder. In order to avoid the death sentence, he waived his right to appeal his conviction; he was then given two consecutive life sentences. Relatives agreed to this deal to avoid going through another trial in appeals court.
Despite his conviction, doubts remained regarding Perry's guilt. In 2004, he wrote to the Georgia Innocence Project and asked them to look into this case. There were several things that seemed to point to his innocence. A large amount of evidence from the original investigation had been lost by the time of the trial, including the metal phone box, the vestibule mirror, tapes of witness interviews, crime scene and police line-up photographs, investigators' notes regarding his alibi, and the glasses found at the scene. It is believed that they were lost after being sent to Unsolved Mysteries. Agent Gregory notes that sending them there in the first place "broke the chain of custody" for them.
Interestingly, DNA testing showed that the hairs found attached to the glasses were not Perry's. An eye examination determined that he had 20/20 vision and had no need for a prescription to correct extreme far-sightedness. However, the DNA also did not match Barrentine, so his defense attorneys decided not to bring it up at trial (other than in their opening statement). At the trial, prosecutors claimed that the glasses "weren't relevant".
During the initial investigation, Perry also had an alibi witness (his boss) that placed him at work that afternoon, far away from the scene. However, by the time of his arrest, the company had shut down, and his employment records were not available. Carol Ann, while testifying at the trial, could not remember the date that he had made the phone call to her about driving to Camden County.
By the time of the trial, many of the church eyewitnesses had passed away. His attorneys noted that the eyewitness descriptions of the killer were unreliable, as they only saw him briefly. Also, they may have suffered from "cross-race effect", which occurs when witnesses try to describe and/or identify suspects of a different race. All of the witnesses were Black and the killer was White. Researchers have determined that individuals are less likely to remember, and later recognize, the face of someone who is of another race versus someone of their own race.
The description of the killer varied greatly between each witness: by hair color, length, type, facial hair, clothing, and whether he was wearing glasses or not. Cora also gave descriptions of him that varied over time (mainly involving the length and color of his hair). Although the jury heard that he was described as having blonde hair, at least three witnesses said his hair was a different color.
Perry's attorneys also noted that Cora and Vanzola's identifications of him were "contaminated". They were the only witnesses who identified him as the killer. The identification took place thirteen years after the murder, and after they were shown the photograph of him by Jane. Also, Cora was shown it by Sgt. Bundy in a "less than ideal" setting, after she had fallen down and was waiting for an ambulance. Furthermore, both witnesses were shown a single photograph of Perry, instead of in a photo lineup. Additionally, they were not asked to identify him in the courtroom at the trial. During it, Cora was shown a photograph of Barrentine; she said she thought he also looked like the killer.
Furthermore, investigators did not record Perry's alleged confession, despite the fact that one of them had a tape recorder with him. Also, only one of them took notes which were later destroyed after a summary of them was made. The interview was nearly three hours long, however, the summary was only two pages. Certain parts of the alleged confession were not included in the summary. Perry claimed that he never confessed. Several witness interviews (including Carol Ann's) were not recorded either.
In March 2015, the Georgia Innocence Project filed a motion seeking a new trial for Perry, based on advancements in DNA testing. They petitioned the court to have touch DNA testing done on the following items that were found at the scene: shirt buttons that did not come from the victims' clothing, telephone wires, and shell casings. DNA testing was later completed by the project. However, no usable DNA was found on the items.
In 2018, the Undisclosed podcast began working with the Georgia Innocence Project on this case. They found evidence that suggested that Perry's constitutional rights were violated at his trial. They discovered that Jane had asked for a $12,000 reward the day after his arrest. She later received it, however, this information was not given to the defense attorneys or the jury. Some jurors cited her testimony as playing a critical role in their decision. They were also not told that Jane reportedly had "lost touch with reality" and suffered from delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia. Other interviews and evidence were also reportedly not disclosed to the defense. Carol Ann also told the podcast that she did not believe Perry was guilty.
Joshua Sharpe, a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, decided to look into one of the former suspects that was mentioned by the podcast: fifty-six-year-old Erik Sparre. He grew up in Brunswick, Georgia, and spent time in the Waverly area. He came onto investigator's radar in March 1986, after he allegedly told his ex-wife, Emily, that he committed the murder. He also harassed and threatened her family, claiming that he was responsible for killing two people in a church. He said, "I'm the mother f----- that killed the two n------ in that church," Her family recorded the threats and played them for police; the tape has since been lost.
Emily said that sometime during the week of the murder, Sparre left their house in the morning wearing dark clothing and came home the next morning wearing only a white t-shirt ("dark clothing" matches the killer's clothing description and the buttons found at the scene). She said he often wore a pair of lizard-skinned boots (like the ones worn by the killer).
Furthermore, Emily said Sparre had a pair of beat-up glasses he had constructed using three pairs of his father's glasses. She said he lost them sometime before the murder. She identified the pair found at the crime scene as belonging to him (from a pair of three). She said he worked as a welder (a welding torch was used on them). She also said he owned several guns and was abusive to her. She and others also claimed that he was racist and did not like Black people. It was noted that he fired a shotgun at his former in-law's house and had pulled a gun on a "Black or Asian man", kicked out his windshield, and threatened his life. He also matched the description of the killer.
Sparre claimed he was working at a Winn-Dixie in Brunswick on the night of the murder. Agent Gregory obtained the store's number and talked to Donald Mobley, who said he was the manager. He said Sparre was working all night. As a result, he was cleared by investigators in 1986. However, as Sharpe looked into the alibi, he discovered that none of the identifying details in police files about Mobley matched any person by that name. The work phone number listed belonged to a woman (now deceased). Her daughter told Sharpe that she had a phone in her back shed that someone could have used to call Agent Gregory.
Sharpe located the store's manager at the time of the murder: David Mobley. None of the details in the police file matched him either (such as his address, birth date, SSN, and phone numbers). He said he did not remember talking to police about Sparre and had no employee named "Donald Mobley" at the time. Agent Gregory now believes that Sparre gave him a fake name and number for his manager.
Another ex-wife of Sparre's came forward in 1998, saying that during an argument in 1988, he held her down on their bed with a pillow over her face. She screamed and said, "Don't kill me!" She then was able to free herself. She brought up the murder, saying, "You could have killed those people in Camden County." He responded, "Yeah, I could have killed those people." She also said that around the time of the murder, police came to his house and he "acted very nervous". She further said he was abusive, a drug user, had several firearms, had threatened that he could have someone killed, and was racist. When Sharpe interviewed her in 2019, she added that he had explicitly told her that he had killed Harold and Thelma. She also said that he used to change his voice and pretend to be other people over the phone.
The Georgia Innocence Project decided to conduct DNA testing to see if the hairs found with the glasses were Sparre's. In February 2020, they collected DNA from his mother, Gladys. In March, the DNA testing determined that the hairs most likely belonged to him. The results showed that they belonged to someone from his maternal line; it excluded over 99% of the population. He has since claimed that he is not racist, is "not missing glasses", and has never been to the church. He initially claimed that he never confessed to the murder, however, he later said he did it to "scare [his] ex-wife."
In late March 2020, Perry's attorneys took the DNA results and other evidence to Brunswick D.A. Jackie Johnson. However, she refused to give her consent to a new trial. In April, his attorneys and the Georgia Innocence Project filed an "Extraordinary Motion for a New Trial"; they argued that he likely never would have been tried if the DNA results (and other evidence against Sparre) were available. In May, citing the new evidence, D.A. Johnson asked the GBI and the Camden County Sheriff's Office to reopen their investigation into the murder. Then, in July, Judge Stephen Scarlett overturned Perry's conviction and granted him a new trial; he said that, had the DNA evidence been available at the trial, it probably would have produced a different verdict. On July 23, he was released from prison on his own recognizance.
Interestingly, Gladys was found dead in her home a few days after Perry's conviction was overturned. Her cause of death has not been released and it is not known if foul play was involved. In November, Harold's body was exhumed in hopes of finding more DNA evidence. Investigators were able to gather evidence during the exhumation, however, it is not known what was found.
In July 2021, Keith Higgins, the newly appointed D.A., dismissed the charges against Perry; as a result, he was exonerated. He addressed the court, saying that he hoped that the real killer would be found. In April 2022, he was awarded $1.2 million by the state for his wrongful imprisonment. The investigation into the murder remains active and ongoing. As of yet, no charges have been filed against Sparre or anyone else.
Vanzola, Jane, and Emily have since passed away.
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