When a six-year-old schoolgirl disappeared from her front garden, the police only discovered her whereabouts after finding haunting clues in a neighbour’s property
Faye disappeared whilst playing in her front garden(Image: CAYCE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY)
Selena Collins was keeping an eye on her daughter Faye Marie Sweltik as she played happily in the front garden, just beyond the family’s porch.
But suddenly, on that fateful day in February 2020, her six-year-old vanished. Selena immediately went outside to look for her daughter, and unable to find her, started desperately knocking on her neighbours’ doors. Those who were at home jumped into action and came outside to join the frantic hunt for the little girl.
It had been a wet, rainy week in South Carolina where the family lived, so Faye had headed out to play that day in a pair of polka dot rain boots. These would end up becoming the heartbreaking clue that finally led to police discovering her whereabouts.
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In a harrowing 911 call released by the police of Selena reporting her daughter missing, the mother was utterly beside herself. “We can’t find my daughter. She was playing outside, and now I can’t find her,” she sobbed to the emergency dispatcher.
The call handler from the Lexington Police Department attempted to calm the mumadown during the heartbreaking call, who told the emergency worker her daughter’s age. “She is six, she will be seven in June,” she frantically explained.
The call handler explained to the distressed mother: “I’m gonna stay on the line with you, so I’m gonna get Cayce PD on the line too, so don’t hang up, okay?”
Faye was wearing polka dot rainboots when she vanished(Image: Cayce Department of Public Safety)
Selena bravely gave all the details she could in the call, explaining Faye was 3ft 10in tall and weighed about 65 lbs. She choked back tears as she explained what the young girl had been wearing when she disappeared without a trace. “She was wearing polka-dotted rain boots, a flowered skirt (pink rose skirt), a black t-shirt that has a neon design on it,” the mum said.
For three days, the Cayne Police searched high and low for the little girl after she went missing from her Churchill Heights neighbourhood, with Faye’s family and the local community living through a nightmare.
Eventually, they found a heartbreaking clue: one of Faye’s polka dot rainboots in her neighbour’s bin, alongside a soup ladle covered in dirt.
Shortly afterwards, the police tragically found Faye’s body in nearby woodland. They found that the young girl had been strangled to death hours after she had vanished, and her body later dumped in the wooded area.
An autopsy found the cause of Faye’s death was asphyxiation(Image: Facebook)
Faye’s DNA was present on the ladle and boot, as was her neighbour’s, 30-year-old Coty Scott Taylor.
Almost immediately after finding Faye’s body, the police received another call: a neighbour called 911 reporting that a man was injured.
Taylor, who lived just 150 feet away from Faye, was found dead. He had taken his own life as investigators closed in on him.
The two deaths were formally linked by investigators, who stated that he had abducted the little girl and killed her, before moving her body to the woodland.
“Evidence leads us to believe that the deceased abducted and killed six-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik,” Cayce Director of Public Safety Byron Snellgrove told CNN.
The police had interviewed Taylor in the aftermath of Faye’s disappearance, but nothing he said to them initially aroused their suspicion and made him a suspect.
Coty Scott Taylor was found dead shortly after Faye’s body was discovered(Image: Facebook)
“Last week was an unimaginable week for our city,” the Cayce Department of Public Safety said after Faye and Taylor’s bodies were found.
“A child went missing and won’t be coming home. In the search for her and in our grief we all became part of Faye’s family and we thank her family for sharing her with us. What happened was unspeakable evil.”
Selena wrote a heartbreaking eulogy paying tribute to her daughter, which was read out at her funeral and asked mourners to honour the young girl’s memory through “the most important magic”.
The mum asked people “to be a little bit more kind, to compliment a stranger, to dance in the rain, to stop and smell the flowers, to show just a little more bit love to everyone you meet.”
The devastated parent wrote that Faye “loved everything and everyone…She wanted everyone to be as happy as she was.”
“One look in her bright blue eyes and the world was OK again,” she wrote.
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