On October 29, 2011, people gathered at The Farms, a country club in the small town of Dyersburg, Tennessee.
A Halloween costume party was in full swing.
One of the attendees was 44-year-old Karen Swift.
She was the life of the party — usually.
That night, though, she felt off.
She had come as the plus-one of her friends Bill and Cathy Bona.
And she wasn’t having much fun.
It was after midnight by the time she, Bill, and Cathy left the party and went to the Bona home where Karen planned to spend the night.
But Karen got a call from her 9-year-old daughter, Ashley, who wanted to be picked up from a sleepover and go home.
David Swift stayed up to make sure his wife and daughter got home safe.
Karen and Ashley went to bed in the same room.
But Ashley woke up in a different room, and her mother wasn’t there.
Or anywhere.
That morning marked the start of a long and hard search for the missing mother of four.
It also marked the start of an even longer search.
A search for the truth behind what happed to Karen Swift…
For the full story, watch “After the Halloween Party” on Peacock now.
You can also watch on the NBC app or listen to it on our podcast.
After you’ve finished the episode, you can watch Karen’s family and friends reflect on the loving person she was.
Plus, hear from one of the jurors in the case, who describes tension in the deliberation room.
And listen to this week’s Talking Dateline with Blayne Alexander and Keith Morrison in which they take you behind the scenes of the episode.
