Forensic Files

On May 20, 2001, Carrie Nelson, then 20, was beaten to death while working alone in a park office. The case went unsolved for six years until May 2007 when, in a routine check of DNA samples of prison inmates in South Dakota, police found a match with DNA samples gathered from the crime scene. The samples linked Randy Leeroyal Swaney, 35, to the murder. In August 2008, Randy Swaney was sentenced to life in prison.