The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages and is intended for a mature
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Welcome back everyone.
This is Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And here at Cold and Missing we focus on...
Cold cases.
And unresolved missing person cases.
And this week we are focusing on a...
Cold case.
A cold case.
Yeah.
Should we get started?
Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it.
Today we are talking about the cold case of Sherri Swalley.
And just as a content warning at the top, this case does involve violence and sexual
assault of a child.
This case takes place in December of 1973 in Atlanta, Georgia.
But first a little bit about Sherri.
Sherri is 8 years old in 1973.
She was born June 7th, 1965 and she would be 57 years old today.
Sherri lived in Columbus, Ohio with her parents and her younger brother, Michael.
She was a third grader at Westgate Elementary School.
Her father, John Clark Swalley said, quote, she was a bright, friendly child who did well
in school.
End quote.
Now we will get into the timeline of events.
On Saturday, December 22nd, 1973, John had decided to take Sherri and Michael to Walt
Disney World as a Christmas treat.
John's plan was to drive to Atlanta on Saturday and spend the night and all day Sunday with
a former co-worker, Clyde Williamson, at his apartment in Northwest Atlanta.
Clyde lived at the Pace Setter apartment complex, which was located on Skipper Drive.
John wanted to stay on Sunday because he was worried that since a lot of gas stations were
closed on Sunday and there was a national gas shortage happening at this time, that
it would be difficult to refuel the car on country Georgia roads.
And he didn't want to run the risk of running out of gas with his kids in the car.
So John, Sherri, and Michael arrive at Clyde's apartment Saturday evening.
Sunday, December 23rd, 1973.
Sherri spends the day playing with kids of the apartment complex.
Late Sunday afternoon, witnesses say they saw Sherri with a young teen boy wearing an
army jacket.
At around 6.30 p.m., John sees Sherri playing with other children.
That evening, Sherri was at the apartment of Caroline Ellis.
Lots of kids had gathered there to play while Caroline made dinner.
Between 7.30 and 8 o'clock, Caroline sent Sherri to get her father, Clyde, and Michael
and invite them all for dinner.
According to Officer E.G.
Krebs, Sherri was not seen alive after leaving Caroline's apartment.
At 9.32 p.m., police receive a call from a young-sounding male who refused to ID himself.
He tells police that there is a dead girl at the apartment complex.
Police and an ambulance is dispatched, but nothing is found, so they leave.
At 10.30 p.m., John calls the police to report his daughter missing, but police won't return
to the apartment complex that night.
The next morning, December 24th, 1973, this is Christmas Eve, police return to the apartment
complex as Sherri had not come home that evening.
At around 10.30 a.m., Sherri's body is discovered on a wooded hillside, about 40 yards behind
one of the complex buildings.
Her body was in full view of 150 apartments.
Sherri was only wearing a blue sweater.
The rest of her clothes were found about 20 yards away.
She had been sexually assaulted and was stabbed about 25 times with what investigators described
as a thin bladed knife.
Police immediately begin going door to door to interview neighbors.
The next day, Tuesday, December 25th, Christmas Day, police continue their door to door canvassing.
They'll interview around 50 people between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
An Atlanta radio station reports that police are holding a man as a material witness, but
he was not considered a suspect at this time.
Police refuse to confirm if this is true.
Detective S.T. Hinshaw says, quote, we are questioning people with any knowledge, but
we don't have any suspects, end quote.
Residents of the apartment complex are worried as this is the fifth murder in nine months.
On March 26th, 1973, two adult sisters were found handcuffed and shot to death inside
their apartment.
On August 7th, a young woman visiting a friend was shot in the face when she answered the
apartment door.
And two weeks before Sherri's murder, an off-duty police officer was shot when he interrupted
a burglary.
Police say that Sherri's murder is not connected with any of these deaths.
On Wednesday, December 26th, 1973, police say that Sherri's body had been moved.
They say that she was killed in the woods, but then later moved about 70 feet to a more
visible spot.
Police theorize that whoever called on December 23rd at 9.32 p.m. to report a murdered girl
had watched police search for her in vain.
After police left, they think that the killer then moved Sherri's body to the spot where
she was found the next morning.
On Saturday, December 29th, Sherri's funeral is held at 11 a.m. at the Jerry Spears Funeral
Home in Columbus, Ohio.
And then three weeks after Sherri's death, on January 14th, 1974, a fifth-grade girl,
Patricia Ann Walker, is found murdered in a wooded area behind her school.
This is about three miles from where Sherri was murdered.
The manner of death is different.
Patricia died from compression injuries to the neck.
But circumstances are similar.
Patricia was sent by her mother to a neighbor's apartment to grab a couple cans of beer.
When she failed to return, her mother called the cops, and they found two full beer cans
on the sidewalk where she would have had to pass.
An investigator, who refused to be named, said that the murders were similar to each
other and that the force used on the victims indicated, quote, a deranged mind or a pathological
condition induced by drugs, end quote.
Eventually, a 15-year-old boy will be charged in Patricia's death.
He'll never be named an official suspect in Sherri's case.
No one has ever been named an official suspect in Sherri's case.
And that is actually all the information I could find on Sherri's death.
There hasn't been any updates since 1974 that I could find.
So if you know anything about the murder of Sherri Swalley in December of 1973, please
call the Atlanta Police Department at 404-614-6544.
Or to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.
And the sources for today's podcast come from the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the Greenville
News, the Times Recorder, the Newark Advocate, the Tampa Tribune, Dayton Daily News, the
Daily Advocate, Tyler Morning Telegraph, the Marion Star, the Galleon Inquirer, and the
Atlanta Constitution.
So that is the case of Sherri Swalley.
Yeah.
So what do you think happened?
Because it seems like there's an overwhelming amount of evidence.
Although I don't really understand what went wrong there.
Yeah.
Well, I'm interested in the thread about the teenage boy, just because witnesses put
her with a young teen earlier in the day.
And then the 911 call was by a younger sounding male.
So I put that as a teen as well.
And something about watching the police search for the body and then going back to move it
to a more visible space, there's just something that seems very juvenile overall about the
case.
But on the same token, I feel like if things were done correctly in 1973, if the chain
of command is correct and they were able to save evidence that this would be a case that
could be solved with today's technology, or at least move it forward if not solved.
So you think that just no one has been arrested for it?
Or they're just they just don't can't do it or won't do it?
Yeah, I mean, it just doesn't seem like this case was ever worked again.
Outside of the few weeks surrounding it, I couldn't find any updates.
And it seems since Sherri was from Columbus, Ohio, and not from Atlanta, there was no
pressure on the Atlanta police to solve it.
There was no family there requesting updates.
There was nobody there to put pressure on them.
And they didn't vote in Atlanta elections.
So it just seems like they didn't care to solve it.
Or there was no pressure to solve it.
So it got put to the back burner, put to the back burner, and now here we are in 2023,
and it's still not solved.
I'm sure a lot of our listeners are familiar with the Atlanta child murders.
And this case would have happened.
They put the Atlanta child murders starting at 79.
So this would be a few years beforehand.
And Sherri doesn't really fit the profile of those at all.
But I just wanted to put that out there that this is a few years before that, just because
it might come to the mind of some of our listeners.
Yeah, I mean, even when I googled her name, there were so many missing and murdered children
from all walks of life that popped up during that time period.
Just typing in her first name, there were so many other pictures and names from 1970
to 1980 of just a lot of old or missing cases of specifically children.
I mean, yeah, you know, it was before amber alerts were created and really before technology
that assisted in police departments of being able to like talk to each other and communicate
with each other and be quick to share information about a missing child.
And when they could, they didn't want to because politically, it mattered so much at the time
because there wasn't the internet.
So local support of what you were trying to do, I think, mattered significantly more because
word of mouth was the way.
And I think most cities don't necessarily want a missing and murdered case connected
to their physical location, really.
So if it's a case that can be forgotten about or swept under the rug, it seems like that's
something that happens with political motive.
Yeah, I mean, why publicize on the year anniversary, the two year anniversary of an unsolved child
murder if nobody's asking about it?
Yeah, I think where I'm getting my thought process from is from, you know, watching Mindhunter,
which is a dramatization of, or at least season two, Atlanta's missing and murdered.
And there was so much political stuff that I learned that I didn't understand, you know,
when I first took interest in true crime, specifically marginalized people in true crime.
I had zero awareness around political influences.
And it's sad that that's even a factor when a child has been, you know, brutally discarded
in this way.
That's the thing is like, it seemed like so many of the clues were there, like how I'm
just echoing you, I guess.
It's like, it seems like there were a lot of arrows and evidence and the fact that her
body was there.
And a child walking around then even with like a younger looking adult, like a teen,
like a young girl walking around with an older boy wouldn't have looked as odd back then
as it would now.
Like I would immediately notice that especially if anything looked off.
And I know you would too.
But back then, I mean, kids would get into cars because they were just learning in real
time that you really should not do that like stranger danger.
I think what I'm, I guess I'm just affirming myself in yes, there is a lot of evidence.
But even if people saw them, look, saw them walking around and saw what he looked like,
the descriptor like the your brain wouldn't pull to fill in the details because it wouldn't
have looked odd.
Even though it's maybe evidence walking right in front of you.
Right.
So I guess I'm speaking to the time because right now I'm saying how is this not solved.
But I want to make space for the fact that maybe of course it wasn't at the time.
You know, my mom grew up.
She was around this age in 1973.
And her stories from childhood are very similar to this of just like getting out of the door,
running around and coming back when lights turned on.
So to me, there's nothing like peculiar about her running around this apartment complex
and like playing with the kids at the apartment complex.
Like there's nothing strange in that or like, and all it takes is a moment for like someone
to walk by and just be like, hey, come with me.
And it's if there's enough people around enough moving parts, it doesn't look or present
as odd.
Right.
And, you know, she was sent from Carolyn's apartment to go invite her dad and you know,
everybody over for dinner.
You know, whatever happened, I think happened right there is before she got to the apartment,
she ran into whoever it was.
And honestly, I would say when the 911 call comes in, so between Caroline says she sent
Sherry between 730 and eight o'clock and the 911 call comes in at 932.
So that leaves an hour and a half to two hours depending on the exact time she left that
apartment.
You know what I mean?
So I really think it's those two hours is like where it happens.
I don't think it went overnight.
I don't think you know what I mean?
Like I think the time of death was shortly after she left the apartment.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I but again, I don't know.
I really think this is a case that could be solved or again, at least move forward.
I think there could be a DNA profile developed and put into CODIS.
And, you know, if nothing comes back, nothing comes back.
But it seems like it should be there.
Oh, and I'm sure someone knows something, whether they're alive or dead, I don't know.
And I don't necessarily mean the people involved specifically with her, her murder, Sherri's
murder.
But there wasn't one other set of eyes on it who maybe like helped cover it up, helped
the boy out if it was him, you know, like, yeah.
And you know, her when her body was found the next morning, it was later in the morning.
It was around 1030.
And granted, it was Christmas Eve.
So people are usually, you know, not on their usual schedules that day.
Any any way.
Yeah.
You know, things are usually a little disrupted.
But according to all the newspaper reports, she was within view of 150 apartments.
So it's like somebody saw something.
Yeah.
Like just statistically, how is it?
Right.
It's yeah, it's like too probable that someone saw something.
Somebody had to have seen unless everyone was gone.
You know, I don't know.
And I mean, and we know that they weren't because police were able to talk to around
50 people between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
So people were there.
Yeah.
And and again, that time period people are like, not my business, not my problem.
Right.
Like if you see even like people, you don't necessarily see that it's a child, but you
see like a tussle.
Even like if it's like not your family, you are taught to like, that's not your business.
Yeah.
So yeah, even if you did notice something, it's like maybe.
So again, if you know anything about what happened to Sherri Swalley in December of
1973, please call the Atlanta PD at 404-614-6544 or to remain anonymous, you can call Crimestoppers
at 404-577-8477.
Because again, this is solvable.
It feels like it's right there.
And if we just went back and looked at it, applied today's technology.
Yeah.
If not solved, it could be punted forward.
I think that's a sports term.
Punting.
It's in football.
Yeah.
But does that, does it move it forward?
Yeah.
It's like when the kicker kicks the ball and it goes through the goal post and like, go,
you know.
So that works here.
Yeah.
Take it.
Okay.
We will be posting some photos of Sherri.
A listener of ours that is very dedicated was so great this week and helped us in some
of our research.
So I just want to give a shout out to Hannah, who is in Columbus, Ohio, who was able to
look some things up for us, which was so helpful.
So thank you so much if you're listening.
Truly there is like a community effort behind this podcast that we just don't talk about
because you know, we're talking about the cases themselves, but it is a community effort
called and missing for sure.
We have a lot of friends who help us out on on the research end.
And you know, while you're getting ready to listen to your next podcast here in the app,
if you just want to go ahead and subscribe so you don't miss an episode, we come out
with new episodes every single week.
And if you review it helps other people find us, which helps other people hear about these
cases because here at cold and missing where we are only covering cold cases and unresolved
to missing person cases.
So we want as many people to hear these stories and to get these names back out there as much
as possible.
So thank you if you've already done that.
I really appreciate you.
But that's all I have.
So have a good week and stay safe.
Stay safe.
Stay Safe y'all