Possible Murder Suspect Found
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Possible Murder Suspect Found
February 9, 1999
Reuters
(FORT SMITH) -- A man arrested in connection with a Texas murder is now
under
investigation by Fort Smith authorities as a possible suspect in a
similar
murder there in 1994. Larry Swearingen is already charged with the
murder of a
Houston, Texas college student. Police say the details of the murder are
remarkably similar to those involving Fort Smith resident Melissa Witt.
Witt
and the Texas victim were the same age, had the same first names, had
the same
body type, wore similar clothes, and both their bodies were found dumped
in a
national forest 50 miles from the scene of their abductions.
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The following appears courtesy of the 2/9/99 online edition of The
Southwest
Times Record newspaper:
Police get new lead in Witt case
Larry Swearingen
Southwest Times Record
BY MARCUS BLAIR, TIMES RECORD
Police say a man charged with the murder of a Texas woman could become a
suspect in the 1994 slaying of Fort Smith student Melissa “Missy” Witt
if they
can prove he was in the area at the time of her slaying.
Larry Ray Swearingen, 27, of Willis, Texas, was indicted Jan. 26 on
capital
murder charges in the slaying of a Montgomery College student,
19-year-old
Melissa Trotter. Police believe he abducted and strangled the woman and
dumped
her body in a remote, wooded area near Houston.
After the Times Record brought the Texas case to the attention of Fort
Smith
authorities, police found the resemblances too many and too striking to
ignore.
They immediately began collaborating with Montgomery County, Texas,
authorities
and looking for evidence that Swearingen was in Fort Smith at the time
of
Witt’s murder.
The women shared the same first name, age, appearance and build. They
were
wearing similar clothing at the time of their abductions, and both were
found
in wooded areas by hunters on National Forest land about 50 miles from
the
abduction sites. They were missing similar personal effects, and both
were
strangled. Each woman also was active in her church and was well-liked
and
active at her school.
And Trotter and Witt were abducted four years apart to the week.
Capt. J.C. Rider of the Fort Smith Police Department, who has been
heading the
Witt investigation from its beginning, said the cases are mirror images
of each
other and could be the work of a serial killer.
“I’ve been waiting for a guy like this to come along since the case
began,” he
said. “I’ve never seen two cases this similar, but I’ve also run into
more
coincidences in this case than any other. But the coincidence is almost
unbelievable.”
Rider has been placing one phone call after another since receiving the
information, hoping to find some record of Swearingen in Fort Smith.
So far, no traffic citations, offense reports, accident reports or pawn
slips
have yielded results. But Rider thinks the best hope of linking
Swearingen to
Fort Smith will come from his employment records.
Montgomery County investigators have formed a time line which tracks
Swearingen’s movements up to two years ago. 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. Rider thinks local
electricians might have records of Swearingen’s possible employment in
Fort
Smith.
“We’re just doing a process of elimination now,” Rider said. “Until we
can tie
him here, we’re not listing him as a suspect, and won’t question him
until we
find evidence.”
Hunting and fishing license records or credit card purchase records
could also
place Swearingen in Fort Smith, Rider said, but results from those
searches
will not be available for at least two weeks.
According to reports published in the Houston Chronicle and corroborated
by the
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Swearingen has a history of theft
and
assault convictions and is being held on a kidnapping charge on $500,000
bond.
He allegedly held a gun to a woman’s head last September in the same
section of
the Sam Houston National Forest where Trotter’s body was found.
Rider said Swearingen matches exactly the FBI profile of Witt’s killer.
“We were told we would be looking for a big beer drinker, driving a big
red
truck, a macho man with many girlfriends, a police-groupie and a
sportsman,” he
said. “We have learned that he fits this description.”
Authorities said Swearingen and Trotter met just days before her
disappearance,
and he allegedly admitted he talked with her the day she vanished at the
college where she was preparing for finals. He denied leaving the campus
with
Trotter, but authorities say they have both physical and forensic
evidence to
link Swearingen to Trotter’s death.
On Dec. 1, 1994, Westark Community College student Melissa Witt
vanished. Car
keys, later identified as Witt’s, were found in the parking lot at
Bowling
World in Fort Smith where her mother, Mary Ann Witt, was bowling. A
small
amount of blood was found on the keys.
The disappearance sparked a massive search effort. Thousands of flyers
and
bumper stickers with Witt’s picture and description were distributed
throughout
the area.
Three days later, Witt’s 1995 Mitsubishi Mirage was found in the bowling
alley’s parking lot. Police found more blood drops near her car, but
because
there are no records identifying Witt’s blood type, police do not know
if it
was hers.
Finally, after authorities spent six frantic weeks searching for Witt, a
trapper found her nude body lying face down near Turner Bend in Franklin
County. Her personal effects were never found.
Rider said police interviewed more than 215 people in the case and
developed
many suspects. Among the most promising is Ozark native Travis Crouch,
31, who
is in a Boulder, Colo., jail for an alleged sexual assault. Crouch was a
carpenter at a church camp north of Ozark where Witt’s body was found,
and
police say he was seen driving a bronze Chevrolet Caprice near Bowling
World at
the time of Witt’s disappearance.
Hair, fiber and stain samples taken from the car in March 1998 have been
sent
to the FBI for evaluation, but tests have not been completed, Rider
said.
Police said Crouch has a history of arrests involving violence and
sexual
assault. In 1997, Crouch was panhandling at a Boulder shopping mall when
he
started talking to a girl who later got into his vehicle. He then took
her to a
mountain and allegedly raped her, Boulder authorities have said.
Police said Crouch grew up in the Franklin County area where Witt’s body
was
found and often hunted there. Because Witt’s body was found during deer
season
in such a remote area, police believed only a hunter familiar with the
area
could have dumped the body without being caught.
Mary Ann Witt said even if her daughter’s killer is found, closure still
might
never come to her.
“It’s hard to say. When you’ve had a child murdered, I don’t know if
there can
be closure,” she said last week. “But I guess to get someone behind
bars, it
would bring me pleasure to know he’s not out there to stalk other girls.
Numerous lives would be saved.”
Anyone who is a relative of Larry Swearingen or knows him is asked to
contact
Rider at the Fort Smith Police Department at 709-5119 or call
Crimestoppers at
78-CRIME.
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The following appears courtesy of the 2/9/99 online edition of The
Houston
Chronicle newspaper:
February 09, 1999
No link seen in Arkansas, Trotter cases
By PAUL McKAY
Houston Chronicle
CONROE -- Police in Fort Smith, Ark., acknowledged Monday that they have
no
evidence linking the suspect in a Montgomery County abduction-slaying to
a
similar murder that remains unsolved in Fort Smith.
Still, Fort Smith police Capt. J.C. Rider said he has not ruled out the
possibility that Larry Ray Swearingen -- a Willis man charged with
capital
murder in the Dec. 8 slaying of Melissa Trotter -- could have been
involved in
the death of Melissa Witt.
Witt disappeared Dec. 1, 1994. Blood was found on her keys and in her
car,
which was parked outside a Fort Smith bowling alley.
Rider said he is amazed at the similarities between the cases -- and
between
the victims -- who were 19-year-old college students with the same first
name.
The women, who both died of strangulation, were found in remote and
heavily
wooded areas a considerable distance from where they had disappeared.
Trotter, who lived with her parents in Willis, disappeared from
Montgomery
College in The Woodlands after she was seen talking with Swearingen in
the
college library on the afternoon of Dec. 8. Her fully clothed body was
found in
the Sam Houston National Forest in northwest Montgomery County almost a
month
later.
Witt's body also was found in a forest weeks after she vanished.
Although Montgomery County authorities say Trotter was strangled with
pantyhose
and did not appear to have been sexually assaulted, Witt probably was
strangled
manually and most likely was sexually assaulted, Rider said.
Investigators note, however, that the two teens were about the same
height, 5
feet 5 inches, and that both had dark, shoulder-length hair and hazel
eyes.
"Putting the two cases side by side and looking at the pictures and
descriptions of the girls, they're real similar," Rider said. "In the
(Trotter)
case, I'm told they've never recovered her watch and backpack. The girl
in our
case had a purse and jewelry that were never found.
"She was very popular, very well thought of, and active in her church,"
he said
of Witt. "This case is going on five years old and I sure would like to
solve
it."
At least one other man is considered a suspect in the Fort Smith case.
He has
not been charged, although he is in a Boulder, Colo., jail facing
charges in a
1997 sexual assault.
Montgomery County sheriff's Lt. Dan Norris cautioned that neither his
investigators nor those in Arkansas have any evidence linking Swearingen
to the
Fort Smith case. He said Swearingen, a construction worker and
electrician,
once worked in states along the East Coast.
"Right now, we just can't place him in Arkansas, and I think it's
premature to
even suggest that he had anything to do with the case up there," Norris
said.
"I'm not saying he didn't do it, but I sure have nothing to indicate
that he
did."