Selena Collins was watching her six-year-old daughter, Faye Marie Swetlik, happily playing in the front garden, just beyond the porch, on that fateful day in February 2020. But in an instant, Faye vanished. Selena immediately ran outside to search for her, but after failing to find her, she knocked desperately on neighbours’ doors. Those who were home rushed out to help search, joining in the frantic hunt for the little girl.
It had been a wet and rainy week in South Carolina, so Faye had been wearing her favourite polka-dot rain boots when she went outside to play that day. Those boots would later become the key clue that helped police locate her.
In a heartbreaking 911 call, Selena could barely speak through her tears as she reported her daughter missing. “We can’t find my daughter. She was playing outside, and now I can’t find her,” she sobbed to the dispatcher, reported the Mirror.
The call handler tried to calm her down, gathering details as she gave Faye’s age, height, and the clothes she was wearing when she disappeared. “She was wearing polka-dotted rain boots, a flowered skirt, and a black t-shirt with a neon design,” Selena said, her voice breaking.
For three days, police scoured the area where Faye had gone missing from her Churchill Heights neighbourhood, while the family and community endured an agonising wait. The search led to a devastating discovery: one of Faye’s rain boots was found in a neighbour’s bin, alongside a soup ladle covered in dirt.
Tragically, Faye’s body was later found in a nearby woodland area. She had been strangled to death hours after vanishing and her body dumped in the woods. DNA found on the ladle and boot led to 30-year-old Coty Scott Taylor, Faye’s neighbour, who lived just 150 feet away from her home.
As investigators closed in on him, police received another 911 call reporting an injured man. Taylor had taken his own life. Investigators later confirmed that Taylor had abducted and killed Faye before hiding her body. “Evidence leads us to believe that the deceased abducted and killed six-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik,” said Cayce Director of Public Safety Byron Snellgrove.
Initially, police had interviewed Taylor, but nothing he said raised suspicion at the time. The Cayce Department of Public Safety described the events as “unspeakable evil” and expressed deep grief for the loss of Faye. “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,” the department said.
At her funeral, Selena read a poignant eulogy for her daughter, asking mourners to honour Faye’s memory by embracing “the most important magic.” She encouraged everyone to be kinder, compliment strangers, dance in the rain, stop and smell the flowers, and show more love to those they meet.
Selena wrote that Faye “loved everything and everyone,” and wanted everyone to be as happy as she was. “One look in her bright blue eyes and the world was OK again,” Selena shared, heartbroken.
