Faye Swetlik’s killer described himself as a ‘loner’ and ‘incel’ to those who knew him
The 30-year-old man who killed a 6-year-old Cayce girl was part of an online group known to hate women and have other misogynistic views, one of his friends said.
At least three people close to Taylor were interviewed by police after Faye Swetlik’s body was discovered and Taylor killed himself. Notes from the interviews were included in investigative documents released Friday by the Cayce Department of Public Safety. With the documents’ release, the department declared the investigation in Swetlik’s kidnapping and death closed.
A friend who had known Taylor for five years told police Taylor described himself as “asexual” and an “incel,” which is defined by Oxford Languages as “a member of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually, typically associated with views that are hostile toward women and men who are sexually active.”
Taylor was an online gamer, and the friend often played League of Legends with him. Taylor was “a loner who constantly had a negative outlook on life,” the friend said.
The friend also said Taylor once told him he “lived without hope.” Taylor never talked about women, and the friend said the one time he did show interest in a former co-worker, Taylor was too scared to ever talk to her.
One of Taylor’s former roommates who lived with him for six years told police, “Coty’s room was very dirty and had old food, liquor bottles and clothing piled everywhere.” He never talked about his family, said the roommate.
Taylor would not let people in his room and constantly kept his door locked, the roommate said. He also said that Taylor was very “weak” and could’ve only “committed a horrible act if he felt he would have had people behind him encouraging him such as a chat room online.”
On the day Swetlik’s body was found, a Lyft driver picked up Taylor from a Walmart after he purchased garden soil and other items used to conceal her body in a wooded area behind his house, according to the reports. The Lyft driver told police that Taylor acted nervous and made the driver uncomfortable.
The driver tried to talk to Taylor about gardening but Taylor “avoided the conversation,” reports said. The driver drove Taylor past local press and police that were gathered in the Churchill Heights neighborhood where Faye had gone missing. The driver asked Taylor if he knew the missing girl.
“I don’t know,” Taylor said several times, and finally, “I never met her before.”
After the bodies were found, investigators interviewed Taylor’s roommate and asked “if he observed any unusual behavior” when Faye was missing. The roommate said Taylor had sprayed air freshener around the house. The roommate thought Taylor was trying to cover up the scent of marijuana since police were around.
Taylor had never used air freshener before, the roommate told police. The roommate “had never smelled a dead person before but there was something not right.” In hindsight, the roommate believed Taylor was trying to conceal “the smell.”
Taylor grew up in Beaufort County and graduated from Bluffton High School. He attended the University of South Carolina from 2007 to 2009 but didn’t graduate.
