The Unsolved Murders of Harold and Thelma Swain
On the evening of March 11, 1985, Harold and Thelma Swain were holding their weekly Bible study class at the Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Waverly, GA when a man walked in and shot them both to death before fleeing. The only clue he left behind that could lead to his identity was a pair of glasses.
Harold Swain, the Deacon of the church, and his wife Thelma were well-respected members of their tight-knit community. On the episode of “Unsolved Mysteries,” in which their case was featured, Harold Swain was described as “a well-respected deacon, a member of the County Jury commission, and a spokesperson for the Black community.” The Swains had been married for 43 years.
On the night of the murder, 10 women were in the church for Bible study. According to the “Unsolved Mysteries” segment, one of the women excused herself early and left the study session at 8:50. As she was exiting, she encountered a young white man in the church vestibule. The mysterious man pointed to the Deacon and asked to speak with him. The other women in the church turned around to see who the man was, catching glimpses of the stranger. The main eyewitness who wished to remain anonymous when speaking to the “Unsolved Mysteries” producers, stated that “he was calm. I thought he was there for a handout. I didn’t see a weapon. He had scuffed boots and shoulder-length blonde hair.”
The eyewitness left to go to her car, and Mr. Swain came to the vestibule to see what the man wanted. There was some conversation that the remaining witnesses in the church didn’t hear. Suddenly, a shot rang out. Thelma Swain ran to see what was going on in the vestibule, where she was then shot. The nine women ran into the church office and locked the door. They attempted to use the phone to call for help, but there was no dial tone. They waited in fear for 20 minutes before one brave woman ran to her car to get help.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was on the scene within minutes and concluded that the assailant was likely a transient based on the location of the church. Located right off US-17, the Rising Daughter Baptist Church had seen transients come to the church looking for food or handouts. In his interview with “Unsolved Mysteries,” GBI investigator Joe Gregory also pointed to the glasses that were left by the murderer as proof of his transient status based on their condition. He believed that the motive was robbery. However, Mr. Swain had $300 in his pocket, and nothing else was missing. Furthermore, there was evidence that this murder was premeditated due to the phone lines being cut. Although multiple eyewitnesses had seen the man, the description they gave to investigators trying to create a composite all differed slightly. The case went cold for 15 years.
Then, in 2000, police arrested a man named Dennis Arnold Perry for the murders based off a tip they received from Perry’s ex-girlfriend’s mother, Jane Beaver, who told investigators that Perry held a grudge against Mr. Swain due to being denied a food handout just weeks prior to the murders. Eventually, Perry confessed to the murders to avoid the death penalty.
According to the New York Times, the prosecutors in Perry’s trial “relied in part on the woman’s testimony, and also on statements that investigators said Mr. Perry had made during unrecorded interviews. According to his lawyers, the jury did not learn that the woman who had testified against him had received $12,000 in reward money.”
In 2020, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published their findings in an award-winning piece of investigative journalism. The article cast doubt on the alibi of a man who was cleared early in the investigation named Erik Sparre. Sparre had been arrested for beating his ex-wife, Emily Head, though she dropped the charges. A year after the Swain murders, Emily was no longer married to Sparre but was the victim of constant harassment from him.
In a 1986 recorded phone call between Sparre and Emily’s twin brother, Sparre is quoted as saying “I’m the motherf----- that killed the two n------ in that church, and I’m going to kill you and the whole damn family if I have to do it in church” according to the case file obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Emily also recalled that Sparre lost his glasses around the time of the murders and told investigators that he was openly racist against Black people. Emily was certain that Sparre had committed the murders, and there was enough evidence for investigators to obtain a warrant to search his property. They found nothing that could tie him to the Swain murders.
A 1986 mugshot of Erik Sparre from the Swain case file.
Sparre also provided an alibi for the night of March 11, 1985. He told investigators he was working at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket when the murders occurred. Lead investigator Butch Perry found a number for the supermarket and spoke to the manager and asked if Sparre was working that night. The manager, who identified himself as Donald Mobley, told Kennedy he’d have to check with corporate to see the timecards from that night, considering it was a year after the crime. In a matter of weeks, Mobley called Kennedy back and told him that Sparre was working that evening. Mobley claimed that Sparre clocked in at 3:06 p.m. on March 11 and clocked out at 6:41 a.m. on March 12. With his alibi confirmed, Kennedy eliminated Sparre as a suspect before the “Unsolved Mysteries” first aired in 1988.
In 1998, Sparre’s second ex-wife, Rhonda Minder, contacted investigators with some information she had been keeping for a decade. In 1988, she claimed that Sparre had tried to smother her with a pillow and that he confessed to the Swain murders. Minder’s information was recorded, but detectives hadn’t paid it much attention since Sparre had an alibi. It wasn’t until 2019 when Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Joshua Sharpe found an employee of the Winn-Dixie supermarket that Sparre was working at in 1985, that Sparre’s alibi began to fall apart. This employee, who later became a manager of that Winn-Dixie, stated that there was never a Donald Mobley who managed that Winn-Dixie. The man’s wife, also an employee of the Winn-Dixie at the time, corroborated this. Sharpe decided to dig deeper into the source of Sparre’s alibi.
Sparre had given this alibi to GBI agent Joe Gregory. Gregory told Sharpe that he didn’t remember how he retrieved the number for the Winn-Dixie but did say that he would ask the suspects to provide phone numbers for their alibis. Sharpe had the phone number that Sparre gave to investigators, and after searching through public records, could never place the number to the Winn-Dixie.
Before publishing his findings, Sharpe spoke to Gregory and told him that Sparre likely gave him a fake phone number. Upon hearing he had been duped all those years ago, Gregory went from “shock to shame to regret to sadness in a matter of minutes” according to Sharpe.
In March 2020, modern DNA testing provided new hope for solving the case and freeing an innocent man from prison. A hair attached to the glasses left by the killer did not match Perry, but it did match Sparre. As a result of this new evidence, Perry’s lawyers filed a motion for a new trial. His conviction was overturned, and Dennis Arnold Perry is now a free man.
Gladys Sparre, Erik Sparre’s mother, was the one who provided her DNA to investigators to compare it to the hair found on the glasses, leading to a DNA match. Curiously, Gladys was found dead in her home just days after Perry’s conviction was overturned. However, there has been no information released about her death.
In November 2020, the body of Harold Swain was exhumed in hopes of finding more physical evidence to tie a suspect to the case. As of Jan 2022, the murders of Harold and Thelma Swain remain unsolved and the investigation is ongoing.
