KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |Body found off of Highway 78 near Dyer County

Body found off of Highway 78 near Dyer County

(WMC-TV) - Dyer County sheriff's deputies, the TBI, and the Attorney General are investigating a body found in rural Dyer County Saturday afternoon.

Police blocked off a large portion of Harness Road near Highway 78 for most of Saturday afternoon and night.  That is where they found a decomposed body near the home of missing Dyer County mother Karen Swift.

Many residents were left wondering what was going on.

"I heard Karen Swift was found at the graveyard up here on Bledsoe," said resident Madeline Mann.

Mann said she has followed the case of missing 44-year-old Swift from the beginning.

"Whoever done it is sick," said Mann.  "You shouldn't do that to someone."

Swift, a mother of four, picked up her daughter from a Halloween party in late October and has not been seen since.  Days after her disappearance, her car was found near her home.  Her tires were split.

"You hope it's not her and she's alive, but if it is, her family can have some closure," said resident Amanda Tittle.

Tittle lives on Harness Road, a few miles from Swift and her husband.  She said Swift was a good mother and was always there for her four kids.

"We all know each other and know each other's comings and goings, so it's hard to see something like this that could happen just down the road," said Tittle.

Swift's disappearance hits home with Tittle and her family.

"My grandfather has been missing for six years, and she's literally down the road and been missing a little over a month or so, and it brings it all back," she said.

There has been no positive identification on the body found along Harness Road.  It has been sent to the Regional Forensic Center in Memphis for an autopsy.

Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Box said a positive identification could come as early as Monday or Tuesday.

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