Community remembers South Carolina 6-year-old found dead near home at memorial service
CAYCE, SC -- Friends, family and community members came together Friday evening to say goodbye to a 6-year-old girl whose body was found three days after she went missing from her front yard.
Family members hosted a memorial service for first-grader Faye Marie Swetlik on Friday night. A procession of police officers, bikers and tow truck drivers brought her remains to Trinity Baptist Church in Cayce, South Carolina.
Family members asked everyone in attendance to wear bright colors, especially pink and purple, to honor the young girl's bright spirit.
Journals were also left at the church for neighbors to leave a note or drawing for Faye or her family.
Tuesday, authorities in South Carolina said Faye died by asphyxiation.
Her body was found in the woods nearby moments before a neighbor was found bloody and dead on the patio of his home.
Investigators said previously that they found a clue to Faye's disappearance on Thursday in the trash can of 30-year-old Coty Scott Taylor. By then, three days had passed since the girl disappeared.
In a news conference Tuesday, Byron Snellgrove, Cayce's director of public safety, revealed that the key pieces of evidence found in the trash can were a child's polka-dot boot and a soup ladle that had "freshly dug dirt in it."
He said "evidence leads us to believe that Taylor abducted and killed Faye," noting that DNA collected from both scenes connected the killer and victim.
Taylor was the "sole perpetrator" of the crime, Snellgrove said.
He added that Faye's body was moved during the cover of night to behind the townhouses where she was found.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher wept as she expressed her condolences for Faye's family. She then announced that Faye's death was a homicide and it took place within a few hours of the little girl being abducted.
Fisher also said an autopsy performed on Taylor showed his death was the result of "an incised wound to the neck." The manner was determined to have been suicide.
Faye was last seen getting off of a school bus in Cayce, a suburb of the state's capital Columbia.
WATCH: Video of missing South Carolina girl on school bus day she disappeared
Faye's mysterious disappearance garnered national intrigue. The FBI joined many other organizations going door-to-door and scouring any source for possible leads in the case.
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