‘Anything is possible at this point,’ cops say in search for missing Cayce girl
The search for a missing 6-year-old Cayce girl continued Tuesday, with the FBI joining hundreds of local and state law enforcement officers.
Authorities are looking for Faye Marie Swetlik, who was reported missing Monday from her home in the Churchill Heights neighborhood, Cayce officials said.
The Cayce Department of Public Safety implored residents of the neighborhood to turn over home security camera footage. Police are looking for footage in Churchill Heights from Feb. 10 between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Anyone in the neighborhood with security systems such as a Ring doorbell camera or other similar recording devices are asked to call a hotline set up to receive tips about Faye’s location, Cayce Public Safety Director Byron Snellgrove said. The number to the hotline is 803-205-4444.
Police will pick up any security camera footage. The footage “may be key to us proceeding with this case,” Snellgrove said. The hotline has been “extremely effective.”
Police received about 75 tips Tuesday on the line.
Footage police already obtained has helped in the search, according to Snellgrove.
Faye returned home on a school bus Monday and was last seen by family at about 3:45 p.m., Sgt. Evan Antley of the Cayce Department of Public Safety said.
Faye’s family reported her missing to law enforcement at about 5 p.m., and within 40 minutes there were 50 emergency responders searching for the girl near her home at 16 Londonderry Lane, Antley said.
That’s near the junction of Edmund Highway, or S.C. 302, and Interstate 26, and about two miles from Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
She was “last seen playing in front of her residence ... at approximately 3:44 p.m.,” the Cayce Department of Public Safety reported.
“Anything’s a possibility at this point,” Antley said. “We’re hoping for the best, we want to get Faye back home. We’re not leaving any stone unturned ... we’re exhausting every resource we have and then some.”
Among the possibilities authorities are investigating are abduction — by a stranger or someone who Faye knows — and that the child got lost in the woods, according to Antley.
Police are still searching the mile radius around where she was last seen, Snellgrove said.
All of Faye’s family members have been contacted by law enforcement and said they haven’t had contact with the girl since she went missing, the Cayce Department of Public Safety said.
The child’s father, mother and the mother’s boyfriend have been cooperating with authorities, police said.
In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Faye’s family called her “a bubbly and happy little girl.”
“She always wants to play and have fun. She’s not the type of kid that will up and walk away,” the Swetlik family said, according the WHNS-TV of Greenville. “Her mom was very attentive in watching Faye. Faye pays attention to her surroundings. Her grandmother is very distraught about what has happened because they are very close. We just want to find Faye and bring her home.”
An Amber Alert has not been issued for the first-grade student at Springdale Elementary School. Investigators are working with the Lexington 2 School District to speak with school employees and Faye’s classmates.
Cayce officials described her as white with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing polka dot boots and a black T-shirt with the word “PEACE” on it. Faye’s hair is shorter than pictures currently circulating of her, according to Snellgrove. Her hair is about shoulder length now.
She has a speech impediment and is lactose intolerant, according to Antley.
Search efforts Tuesday included investigators going door-to-door in her family’s subdivision and stopping vehicles driving in the neighborhood.
In addition to homes and vehicles, the search covered a wooded area in and around the neighborhood, as well as terrain at nearby Congaree Creek, which has risen with all of the recent rain, Antley said.
In addition to the Cayce Department of Public Safety and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, other law enforcement agencies assisting with the search include the FBI, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Richland County Sheriff’s Department, South Carolina Highway Patrol, Springdale Police Department, and the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
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This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 7:35 AM with the headline "‘Anything is possible at this point,’ cops say in search for missing Cayce girl."
