Back in 2010, the name Sparre became synonymous with cruelty when then 19-year-old David Sparre lured 21-year-old Navy wife and mother Tiara Pool through Craigslist and stabbed her 89 times in Jacksonville, Florida, in what prosecutors rightfully called a thrill kill. I’ve covered his case from the arrest to the trial to the endless appeals where his lawyers tried everything from diminished capacity to “ineffective counsel.” Nothing ever changed the fact that Sparre himself bragged in a letter that he enjoyed the murder and wanted to do it again.

During those early days of coverage, members of the Sparre family even came onto my blog to defend David. They argued he was being framed, that evidence didn’t add up, and even tried to shift blame onto Tiara because she was married. But when David’s own words surfaced, the family suddenly fell silent. The excuses stopped. The defense evaporated. And what was left was exactly what prosecutors had said all along. David Sparre was a cold-blooded killer.

And yet, despite the brutality of the case, it never got the national attention it should have. I said it then, and I’ll say it now. The murder of a young Black mother in the South wasn’t treated with the same urgency it would have been if it had happened in the media-saturated Northeast or involved a white victim. That lack of coverage didn’t make the crime any less shocking; it just exposed how selective the national spotlight can be.

Now, 15 years later, the family name is back in the headlines. This time it’s David’s father, Erik Sparre, who is facing trial in Georgia. Prosecutors say Erik is responsible for the 1985 murders of Harold and Thelma Swain, a couple gunned down in their church in Spring Bluff. For decades the case went unsolved. Another man, Dennis Perry, was even convicted and spent years behind bars before being exonerated after DNA evidence cleared him. That same DNA, linked through Erik’s mother, pointed investigators right back to him.

Journalist Joshua Sharpe’s new book, The Man No One Believed (sponsored link), lays out the twists and turns of the Swain case and reveals the stunning connection. The accused church shooter is the father of a death row killer. David’s 2017 evidentiary hearing even featured both his father and grandmother as witnesses, tying the two generations together in a way nobody could have predicted.

So here we are. A father accused of murdering a beloved church couple in Georgia and a son sitting on Florida’s death row for a thrill killing that shocked Jacksonville. Two cases, decades apart, but bound by blood and a last name that has become shorthand for violence.

As Erik Sparre heads toward trial this October, it’s important not to lose sight of the victims, Harold and Thelma Swain, remembered as pillars of their community, and Tiara Pool, a young mother whose life was cut short because she trusted the wrong person.

(Source)

• Man accused in 1985 murder of husband, wife in Georgia is the father of notorious Jacksonville killer, new book reveals

UPDATE 10/30/2025: A mistrial was declared after a witness spoke out of turn about his past relationship with Erik Sparre, saying he met Sparre after he got out of prison.

No word on a new trial date yet.