Rising Daughter Investigation

Rising Daughter Baptist Church was the site of the stunning murders of Harold and Thelma Swain on March 11, 1985. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Video: Introducing the Rising Daughter investigation

Reporter Joshua Sharpe covers crime and criminal justice for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A 2020 court filing by the Georgia Innocence Project says new DNA testing, prompted by Sharpe's reporting, may implicate an earlier suspect and not the man who has served 20 years in prison. (Tyson Horne / Tyson.Horne@ajc.com)

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Rising Daughter Baptist Church was the site of the stunning murders of Harold and Thelma Swain on March 11, 1985. (RYON HORNE RHORNE@AJC.COM)

News The Imperfect Alibi: An AJC Investigation

Harold and Thelma Swain are buried in the cemetery next to the church where they were murdered in 1985.

A timeline of the ‘Rising Daughter’ case

In 2003, Dennis Perry was convicted in the Glynn County Magistrate Court in Brunswick for the 1985 murders of Harold and Thelma Swain. on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Perry has always maintained his innocence. A court filing by the Georgia Innocence Project says new DNA testing matches Erik Sparre, an earlier suspect. New testing came after learning that AJC reporting uncovered problems with Sparre's alibi. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

The team that brought you "The Imperfect Alibi" and how it was reported

Features

What is the Georgia Innocence Project?

Harold and Thelma Swain were shot in the vestibule of Rising Daughter Baptist Church in 1985. Harold's body lay in the far left corner of this recent image and Thelma's lay in a doorway to the sanctuary on the far right side. In 1985, the vestibule had two sets of double-doors leading into the sanctuary. The church has since been renovated so that those entrances have been replaced by a single set of double-doors, seen here at right. (Hysosub Shin / hyosub.shin@ajc.com)

From the editor: A note to readers

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GBI exhumes body of deacon murdered at Georgia church in 1985

Dennis Perry, center, standing beside wife Brenda Perry gets emotional while thanking the team from the Georgia Innocence Project after they worked to get his release from 20 years behind bars, Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Nicholls, Ga. (Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Crime & Public Safety

PHOTOS: Dennis Perry freed in Ga. church murders case

Lawyers from King and Spalding, who are representing convicted murderer Dennis Perry, wait outside of the courtroom in Glynn County on July 13, 2020. Dennis Perry has been incarcerated for 20 years for the murders of Harold and Thelma Swain, who were killed during Bible study at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Camden County. New evidence unearthed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently led to a DNA test tying a previous suspect, Erik Sparre, to the crime scene where the couple died in 1985. The test led to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reopening the 35-year-old case, as well as Perry's attorneys with the Georgia Innocence Project and the King & Spalding law firm filing a motion for new trial, which is being heard in court. Ryon Horne/RHORNE@AJC.COM

PHOTOS: Testimony about conviction in Ga. church murders

Rising Daughter Baptist Church was the site of the stunning murders of Harold and Thelma Swain on March 11, 1985. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

Video: Introducing the Rising Daughter investigation

Butch Kennedy, former Camden County chief sheriff's deputy, tried for seven years to solve the 1985 murders at Rising Daughter Baptist Church. He believes that Dennis Perry, the man who another investigator later helped send to prison, is innocent. Kennedy is haunted by guilt that the case wouldn't have ended such a way if he'd solved it himself. (Tyson Horne/Tyson.Horne@ajc.com)

Photos: How the Rising Daughter case unfolded

Thelma Swain and her husband, Harold Swain, were killed in 1985 at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Camden County, Georgia. (WJXT TV)

Video: AJC reporting leads to DNA match in murders

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