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Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, was jailed on charges of felony
murder and aggravated assault in the killings of Harold and
Thelma Swain, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a news
release Monday. Sparre was arrested nearly four decades after
the couple was fatally shot inside Rising Daughter Baptist
Church in coastal Camden County.
Sparre became the focus of a renewed investigation into the
Swains' deaths after authorities concluded they had initially
prosecuted the wrong man.
Dennis Perry was sentenced to life in prison when a jury
convicted him in 2003 of murdering the Swains. He spent two
decades in prison before a Superior Court judge ordered a
retrial in 2020. The judge dismissed all charges against Perry
in 2021 after prosecutors asked to drop the case.
Investigators and the courts took a fresh look at the case after
attorneys for the Georgia Innocence Project tested DNA from
hairs found in the hinge of a pair of eyeglasses left next to
the victims' bodies. They said the DNA matched Sparre, who had
once been considered a suspect, and not Perry.
Meanwhile, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that
Sparre’s alibi that he was working at a grocery story when the
killings occurred, could not be true. The newspaper also raised
doubts about Perry's conviction, noting that jurors were never
told a key witness was paid a $12,000 reward before testifying.
The GBI said Sparre was arrested in Waynesville, where he lives,
about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Savannah, Georgia,
and booked at the Camden County jail.
Sparre has previously denied killing the Swains. A phone number
listed for Sparre wasn’t working Tuesday and it was not
immediately known if he had an attorney to represent him.
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