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S.C. 6-year-old died of asphyxiation hours after being abducted by neighbor

Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A South Carolina coroner said Tuesday that a 6-year-old girl who was found dead after vanishing from her yard last week died by asphyxiation.

Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said Faye Swetlik died a few hours after she was abducted by her neighbor, 30-year-old Coty Taylor on Feb. 10, according to an autopsy.

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Autopsy results also showed that Taylor died by suicide from an "incised wound to the neck."

Byron Snelgrove, director of the Cayce Department of Public Safety, said DNA evidence showed that Taylor abducted and killed the girl and that police have no other suspects in the case.

Shortly before Faye's body was found, police found a child's polka dot boot and a soup ladle with freshly dug dirt in it.

"The DNA, once tested, connected the unknown pieces of this horrific crime," he said.

Faye's body was found Thursday in a wooded area of her neighborhood after she disappeared Feb. 10 while returning home from school.

Snelgrove said Taylor was interviewed by police on Wednesday afternoon and gave consent to investigators to look through the house.

At the time agents did not see anything "that alerted them to believe that he had knowledge or was any way involved in Faye's disappearance," Snelgrove added.

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"Evidence further shows that Faye's body was moved during the shadow of night to behind the townhouses where she was found in the early morning hours on Thursday morning, under the cover of darkness," he said.

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