David Swift appears in two separate images after two separate arrests – in August 2022 and July 2023. (Dyer County Sheriff’s Office; Jackson County Sheriff’s Office)
A man out on bond ahead of his murder trial in Tennessee for the death of his first wife is now in jail back home in Alabama for stalking his second wife – who recently finalized her long-sought divorce.
David Glen Swift, 55, stands accused of one count of stalking in the first degree in Jefferson County, Alabama. He was arrested on Friday by deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Jefferson County Jail records reviewed by Law&Crime, the offense allegedly occurred on July 9.
In comments to AL.com, sheriff’s office officials said detectives determined that Swift had been following his ex-wife around for some time – and had even parked outside her home during the late night and early morning hours.
“I’m very pleased with the hard work that our deputies put into helping this victim,’’ JCSO Lt. Joni Money told the online news outlet. “She was not even aware of the extent to which she was being followed.”
Law&Crime reached out to the JCSO for additional details on the stalking charge but no response was immediately forthcoming.
Marriage, and the various ways to end that union, have figured prominently in the defendant’s life for well over a decade.
In June 2022, Swift’s second wife began the process of divorcing him – which was finalized in March of this year, court records show.
In August 2022, as Law&Crime previously reported, he was arrested while leaving his divorce attorney’s office for the murder of his first wife.
Karen Swift, 44, disappeared in October 2011. The mother of four was last seen alive by the defendant when she left a Halloween party at the Dyersburg Country Club at The Farms. The defendant would tell law enforcement that she left the party early to pick up one of the couple’s daughters from a sleepover because the girl was feeling sick.
David Swift reported his wife missing the next morning.
Karen Swift’s 2004 Nissan Murano was found later that same day – a few miles away from the couple’s house; a tire was shredded, her purse was missing, and her Halloween costume was still inside.
The deceased woman’s body was found nearly six weeks later, in a cemetery near the couple’s home, by a group of hunters, under decaying kudzu vines. Karen Swift’s body was partially clothed; she had been beaten to death; and was suffering from multiple fractures; her official cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
David Swift eventually moved to Alabama. He would go on to marry his second wife in Mobile in 2016.
Prosecutors took over the murder investigation in 2019.
“I really do appreciate the patience of the citizens of Dyer County while we investigated this terrible crime,” Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Box said when David Swift was arrested in the Yellowhammer State last summer, in comments reported by Jackson, Tennessee-based ABC/CBS affiliate WBBJ. “It took nearly 11 years but we can now go through the process of extraditing Swift back to Dyer County to face this charge at a trial.”
After his extradition, the defendant posted $200,000 bond and moved back to his home in Bessemer, Alabama.
He is still being detained on the stalking charge as of this writing.
The District 29 District Attorney’s Office, which covers the Volunteer State’s Dyer and Lake counties, told Law&Crime that a petition to revoke Swift’s pretrial bond had already been filed and that a hearing on that matter is currently slated for Aug. 11.
His murder trial is scheduled to begin in January 2024 and will be covered by the Law&Crime Network.
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