A law enforcement official has said that authorities will not be releasing any new information about the Faye Swetlik murder investigation until the case file is closed.
Swetlik, 6, was found dead on February 13 in a wooded area in the Churchill Heights neighborhood of Cayce, South Carolina, where she lived and was last seen three days earlier after getting off the school bus. Shortly after authorities discovered the six-year-old girl’s body, police found Coty Taylor, a neighbor who lived only yards away from where Faye’s body was found, dead of an apparent suicide, his throat cut.
The following week, the Cayce Department of Public Service said they believed Taylor was Faye’s killer. A medical examiner determined that Faye had died of homicidal strangulation, and said in a February news conference that Faye was not killed at the location where her body was found, and that she had died within hours of her abduction on February 10.
On Thursday, Cayce Department of Public Service spokesperson Sgt. Even Antley told CrimeOnline there were no immediate plans for a news conference to share updates on the investigation.
He said his department was “trying to let the case take its natural course” and “getting all the documents together.”
Antley didn’t have a specific timeline on when his department would be able to release further information in response to public records requests but said he believed it would be a matter of weeks, not months.
Antley indicated that authorities do have answers to some key lingering questions––including where Faye or her body was in the days between her disappearance and when she was found dead––but said he did not know yet how much detail would be shared with the public about the circumstances of Faye’s apparent kidnapping and death.
He said that investigators were extremely confident that Taylor is the only suspect.
“There is absolutely no evidence that would lead any reasonable person to believe” anyone else was involved, Antley said.
“We are working towards addressing all the concerns that everyone has,” the spokesperson said, adding that the Cayce CPS was encouraging members of the media to send specific questions. Still, it is unclear if authorities plan to hold another news conference or release documents beyond those provided in response to public records requests.
“There’s a lot of reasons why we are doing it the way we are doing it, and I think once we release more information it will be clear why we handled it the way we did,” Antley said.
Read More:
‘We were definitely going to that house’: New information in suicide of Faye Swetlik murder suspect
Six-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik killed by neighbor
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