Naman Shrestha
In May 2013, 18-year-old John Swain disappeared into thin air from his Bismarck, North Dakota, rented property, which led the authorities to launch an extensive search. What started out as a missing persons case turned into something gruesome as his remains were found buried in a Montana property. All the intricate details related to the case and the investigation that followed are explored in the episode titled ‘I Slept With a Knife’ of ‘Signs of a Psychopath,’ which also features informative interviews with a few professionals helping the audience understand the crime better.
John Swain’s Remains Were Found in Another State More Than a Month After His Disappearance
Born on March 15, 1995, in Hong Kong, China, John David Swain was one year old when he went through a liver transplant operation due to some medical issues. When he was three years old, he was adopted by a couple whom he later called his parents — David and Patricia Swain. Growing up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, his adoptive parents also had another son named Ben Swain, but they never let him feel like he was not one of their own. A student at the Sioux Falls Christian School, John not only focused on his academics but also had many indoor and outdoor hobbies.
He loved playing video games, collecting penguins, spending time in nature, and water skiing and tubing at his brother’s lake cabin. Out of all his hobbies, playing soccer and skiing were the closest to his heart. He even taught skiing at Great Bear from an early age. At the age of 18, he left his home in Sioux Falls and moved to Bismarck, North Dakota, to find work and begin his professional career. Not long after his move, he went missing from his rented apartment on May 11, 2013. When he didn’t return after three days, his roommate reported him missing on May 14. After a long search, the authorities found the teenager’s buried remains at a property in Poplar, Montana, on June 26, 2013. The authorities later learned that he was brutally bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
The Killers Lured John Swain Into a Property in the Name of a Party
When the police began investigating John Swain’s disappearance, they could not find any trace of the missing teenager until a local Bismarck resident reported finding a garbage can filled with burned clothes in the back of her property’s shed on June 20, 2013. She claimed she saw a pair of pants, a coat, a jacket, and shoes inside the bucket, along with what looked like a piece of bone. The clothing turned out to be what John was wearing when he was last seen alive. She also told the detectives that there were traces of blood inside the house and that a man named Theo Crowe had been staying in her house while she was out of state.
As the case had cracked wide open again, the detectives were led to Theo, who was already in custody at Williams County Detention Center in Williston, North Dakota, for an unrelated assault charge. Thus, on June 23, they interrogated him and asked him if he had anything to do with John Swain and his disappearance. He refused to talk to them without the presence of his lawyer, so they tracked down his estranged wife, Dawnie, and brought her in for questioning. During the interview, she claimed that he had told her about the murder he committed with one of his friends, Joshua Clark, who was a fellow construction worker.
Next, they brought Joshua in for questioning. He told the detectives that he had recently met Theo, who suggested going out on the fateful evening. As per Joshua’s claims, they were drunk on beers when they saw John Swain playing with a soccer ball at a park and invited him over to Theo’s place for some beers. When John accepted their offer and was inside the property, Theo suddenly started hitting him with a hammer, according to Joshua. He claimed that his friend proceeded to threaten Joshua with a shotgun to help him get rid of the body. As per his accounts, Theo then dismembered the body in the bathtub, and he was made to wrap the parts in a blanket.
A few days later, on June 26, Theo told the detectives that he wanted to confess and tell them his side of the story. According to him, Joshua told him that he wanted to kill somebody and suggested that they do it with Theo’s hammer. So, when they found John at the park, they lured him inside the property. He confessed that he landed the first hammer hit on John but claimed that Joshua snatched it from his hand and repeatedly hit the victim 5-10 times. According to Theo, both of them dismembered the body together, after which they buried the remains in the backyard of his grandmother’s Poplar, Montana, property. In light of their confessions, the police arrested both Joshua and Theo and charged the latter with conspiracy to commit murder.
Joshua Clark and Theo Crowe Are Incarcerated at the Same North Dakota Prison Facility
While Theo Crowe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in October 2013, Joshua Clark decided to take his chances at trial as he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. In January 2014, in exchange for his admission to guilt, the former was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. A few months later, Joshua’s trial commenced, during which he took the stand and claimed that he did not think that Theo would follow through with their idea of killing someone. He apologized to the victim’s loved ones and said, “It was never my intention for this to happen.” In response, Ben Swain, John’s brother, said the defendant had many options in his hand, but he chose to make a series of wrong decisions, which cost him the life of his brother.
Finally, in July 2014, Joshua was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, and a few months later, in November, the 21-year-old convict was sentenced to life in prison but with the possibility of parole. In June 2015, Joshua appealed his conviction to the North Dakota Supreme Court as his attorney claimed that “there is no evidence to show that Clark agreed to murder someone with Crowe.” However, a month later, the court rejected his appeal as they believed that there was enough evidence to prove his guilt. As of now, both the perpetrators are serving their respective sentences at the North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck, North Dakota.
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