Waynesville Man Arrested for 1985 Double Murder at Georgia Church
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has arrested Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, of Waynesville, Georgia, in connection with the 1985 murders of Harold and Thelma Swain. Sparre has been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Sparre was taken into custody in Waynesville, Brantley County, without incident and booked into the Camden County Jail.
Case Background
On May 13, 2020, the GBI and the Camden County Sheriff’s Office reopened the investigation into the Swain murders, citing possible new evidence. Harold and Thelma Swain were fatally shot at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Woodbine, Georgia, in 1985.
66-year-old Swain served as a deacon at the Rising Daughter Baptist Church. He was at a Bible study class with his wife Thelma when a man walked in and shot them. The case remained unsolved until 2000, when Dennis Perry of Jacksonville, FL, was arrested.
The case was initially closed in 2003 after Perry was convicted of the murders and sentenced to two life sentences. However, in July 2020, a Superior Court Judge ordered a new trial for Perry, 58, following a contested hearing in Glynn County, Georgia. During the hearing, attorneys from the Georgia Innocence Project and co-counsel King & Spalding presented evidence that exonerated Perry and implicated an alternate suspect.
For over three decades, Perry maintained his innocence. His legal team filed an Extraordinary Motion for New Trial in April 2020 after investigators collected DNA evidence that was matched to DNA recovered from the 1985 crime scene. This evidence excluded Perry and pointed to another individual. Perry was released from prison on July 23, 2020.
In July 2021, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins dismissed all charges against Perry, officially exonerating him.
“It took a long time, but I never gave up,” Perry said at the time. “I knew that eventually someone else would see the truth, and I’m so grateful to Georgia Innocence Project and King & Spalding for bringing the truth to light. This indictment has been hanging over my head for over 20 years, and it’s such a relief to finally not have to worry about being accused of this awful thing.”
In January 2022, Georgia legislators filed a bill to compensate Perry $1.4 million for his wrongful conviction. The bill, enacted into law in April 2022, paid him $1.23 million.
Investigation Developments
On August 6, 2020, the GBI executed a search warrant at 1680 Stafford Road in Waynesville, the residence of the late Gladys Sparre and her son Erik Sparre. Investigators collected evidence as part of the ongoing investigation to determine Sparre’s connection to the Swains’ deaths.
The GBI continues to investigate this case.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the GBI regional investigative office in Kingsland at 912-729-6198. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
