New Details in Swainson Case expected Thursday

ELGIN, S.C. (WOLO) — As the search for a missing Midlands teenager intensifies, authorities prepare to release new details in the case of 15-year-old Gabrielle Swainson as early as Thursday. The scene in front of Freddie Grant’s Elgin home was much more serene Wednesday, a far cry from Tuesday’s set-up of hundreds of law enforcement agents swarming the perimeter. Residents in the area, meanwhile, are still on edge. Meanwhile, authorities prepare to release new details about the case sometime Thursday. Neighbors say the 52-year-old Grant came to the Midlands from Florida years ago. He is behind bars on kidnapping charges in the Swainson case, and police are also questioning him about the disappearance of 28-year-old Adrianna Lester, also from Florida, that reportedly happened in September 2011. Investigators claim Grant forcibly took Swainson from her Northeast Columbia home in the middle of the night, August 18th. Swainson’s mother, who reportedly had a previous relationship with the suspect, told investigators she had left the house around 2am to go to work. When she returned, her daughter was missing and has been ever since. An intensive search by local, state and federal officers turned up the teen’s DNA on bloody duct tape and ‘other items’ in and around Grant’s residence. Neighbors are on alert and some of them say the incidents have prompted them to revisit the idea of public safety with their own children.