(Editors note: The executive producer of an upcoming documentary about the disappearance and death of Missy Witt in 1994 takes another look at one of the suspects in the decades old case, Larry Swearingen, who faces the death chamber in November in another murder case).
Larry Swearingen, convicted of killing Montgomery College student Melissa Trotter in 1998 and dumping her body in the Sam Houston National Forest, is scheduled for execution in the Huntsville, Texas death chamber on November 16, 2017.
Over the years, Swearingen has successfully avoided execution for the rape and murder of the 19-year-old coed on several different occasions.
Swearingen’s repeated requests for additional DNA testing that have become the crux of his legal case.
For years, his lawyers have argued that crime scene DNA taken from evidence near Trotter’s body could hold the keys to prove his innocence.
But prosecutors - and higher courts - have repeatedly deemed such testing unnecessary due to the “mountain of evidence” pointing to Swearingen’s guilt.
Swearingen and Trotter were seen in the college’s library together on Dec. 8, 1998 - the day of the teen’s disappearance. Afterward, a biology teacher spotted Trotter leaving the school with a man. Hair and fiber evidence later showed that she’d been in Swearingen’s car and home the day she vanished.
Swearingen’s own wife testified that she came home that evening to find their trailer a mess - and in the middle of the room she discovered Trotter’s lighter and cigarettes. Swearingen later filed a false burglary report, claiming his home had been broken into while he was out of town.
That same afternoon, Swearingen placed a call routed through a cell tower in Willis, Texas — a spot he would have passed while heading from his house to the Sam Houston National Forest where Trotter’s decomposing body was found 25 days later.
Swearingen was convicted and sentenced to death in 2000. He went on to file what prosecutors described as “an abundance of habeas corpus applications, pro se motions, mandamus petitions, civil-right actions, and amended pleadings in both state and federal courts.”
Through it all, Swearingen has maintained his innocence in Trotter’s murder.
Just as he has maintained his innocence in the murder of Melissa Witt.
In February of 1999, Swearingen became a person of interest by authorities in Fort Smith as they reviewed the case file of Melissa Witt.
Melissa Witt disappeared from the parking lot of Bowling World in Fort Smith, Arkansas on the evening of December 1, 1994. Her nude body was recovered in the Ozark National Forest roughly six weeks later on January 13, 1995.
Investigators say the details of the murder of Melissa Witt and Melissa Trotter are remarkably similar and the circumstances warrant a closer look at Swearingen in Witt’s abduction and murder.
Important points that seem to tie the cases together:
1) Larry Swearingen had ties to Arkansas, including family that live within 150 miles from the location of Melissa Witt’s abduction.
2) Both girls had a first name of Melissa.
3) Both girls were the same age.
4) Both girls had the same type of physical appearance.
5) Both had personal possessions taken from them by the killer. Melissa Witt’s clothing, purse and jewelry were taken. Melissa Trotter’s backpack and jewelry were taken.
6) Both girls were dumped in a national forest located 50 miles away from the site of the abduction.
7) Both were college students.
8) Both girls were abducted in the same week, exactly four years apart.
9) Both girls were found with cigarette butts near their body.
10) Both girls had a lack of defensive wounds on their body.
11) Both girls had been strangled.
Investigators put together a timeline which tracked Swearingen’s movements close to the months surrounding the time of the murder of Melissa Witt. Police have learned he was a journeyman electrician who traveled through the Southeast, along the east coast and as far north as New England in search of work.
To date, Swearingen’s attorney refuses to allow him to speak to anyone regarding the Melissa Witt case.
So the question remains: Did Larry Swearingen kill Melissa Witt?
If anyone has information about Larry Swearingen and his connections to Arkansas, please contact [email protected].