A Montgomery County grand jury on Wednesday indicted Swint on a murder charge in Ivery’s death. Swint, a former Trotwood police officer, apparently committed suicide soon thereafter, shooting himself in the head as officers were approaching his Phenix City, Ala., home.
Investigators planned to question Swint about several other unsolved cases, Betz said. Richmond, Ind., police described Swint as a suspect in the July 2001 disappearance of Marilyn “Niqui” Renee McCown.
“We’ll never know now,” Betz said. “He’ll never be questioned.”
Both Betz and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Maj. Dave Hale declined to say what led them to identify Swint as a suspect in Ivery’s death.
The detectives were investigating about 16 unsolved prostitute homicides from the late 1980s and early 1990s, Betz said.
A tree-trimming crew found Ivery’s partially nude body on Dec. 17, 1991 on Dayton Liberty Road near Calumet Lane.
Ivery, 33, had been beaten and strangled. Her body was wrapped in two semitransparent trash bags and then wrapped in a red, white and blue quilt. She was last seen about three days earlier.
Several days before Ivery’s body was discovered, the bodies of two other black females were also found. Carletta Roberts, 21, was found at the rear of 320 Kinnard Ave. The body of Sonya Snowden, 26, was found next to 5363 W. Third St. Both women had been beaten to death.
Swint was to be questioned about those deaths, Betz said.
McCown worked with Swint at the Montgomery Education and Pre-Release Center, a Dayton state prison. McCown’s family has said the two were friends.
McCown, then 28, is believed to be dead. She was last seen July 22, 2001, at a Richmond laundromat. A single mother, she was attending Sinclair Community College and planning her wedding.
The SUV she had been driving was found months later at a Harrison Twp. apartment complex.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2057 or lgrieco@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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