Cavce public safety officers gathered a mountain of evidence in their search for 6-year-old Faye Swetlik.

Unfortunately, it was too late to save her life.

The 6-year-old was already dead before anyone knew she was missing.

Tests showed Faye’s DNA and her killer, Coty Taylor’s in a laundry bag in his home.

Police had surveillance video also showing:

• Taylor bought gardening soil at a Walmart hours before Faye’s body was discovered.

• A man believed to be Taylor dumping the soil in an area where her body was found.

Cayce Public Safety Chief Byron Snellgrove found her body in woods the morning of Feb. 13.

Police say Taylor, 30, abducted and killed Faye.

His body was found with a knife wound in his neck after Faye’s body was found.

Police found in Taylor’s trash can Faye’s polka dotted boot and a dirt-covered tool he probably used to hide her body.

Taylor was an honors student at Bluffton High in Beaufort County, attended UofSC from 2007 to 2009 without graduating and had no criminal record.

The Lexington County coroner said she was killed by asphyxiation the day she was abducted.

Chief Snellgrove said his department was deeply affected by the crime.

5 officers retired and Snellgrove is retiring in December.

A year after Faye’s death, her mother, father and grandmother said they wanted Faye remembered as a bright, fun-loving child – not for how she died.