Where is Michael Swartz?

By Trace Hentz

2024: I have read new comments on this case. If you have information, please email me: tracelara@pm.me

It will be kept confidential.

Back in 2011, I posted a story on this blog about the book SUDDEN FURY and the grizzly murder of Maryland adoptive parents Kay and Larry Swartz who had adopted three children, Larry, Michael and Annie. (This old post is still getting comments and questions.)

In the book (right) it stated that Michael Swartz was a Native American adoptee who was removed from his family at age 4 and adopted by the Swartz couple in Maryland.

Three days after their parents' funeral, adopted son Larry Swartz confessed that he was the killer.

What Happened to Michael Swartz?

Michael continued to get into trouble and at age 25, he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole, for participating in robbing and murdering a man. Today Michael would be 48 years old.

Here is a profile of the case from 2004:

Profile of Larry Swartz

I have contacted Leslie Walker, the author of Sudden Fury, to ask her if she followed up on this case and if she might be able to help me locate Michael.

If you know where he is, what prison, please email me: tracelara@pm.me

EARLIER POST:

https://blog.americanindianadoptees.com/2015/01/where-is-michael-swartz.html

Couple Bob And Kay Swartz Slain In Brutal Stabbing | An Unexpected Killer

Larry Swartz - How it all Began •
Caryl Sweet, who visited Larry in prison
http://carylsweet.com/index.php/stories/non-fiction-memoir/larry-swartz-how-it-began

We will be posting more information on Michael Schwartz when we can get it.

Sudden Fury: Infamous murder in Maryland involves adoptees!

Editor NOTE: This is one of our most popular posts so we are reblogging it.

If you do know where Michael Schwartz is, please leave a comment on this blog. Read this post to the end, as to his life in prison conviction.

(2011) You know everything happens for a reason. I just received the book “Sudden Fury” about an adoptee who killed his adoptive parents in Maryland. I opened to page 378 and saw this …"Early in 1989, Michael began searching for the natural parents and siblings he left behind when he was four. ‘I’d like to know where I’m from. All I know is I’m an Indian from somewhere.’” This book was published in 1989.

Michael’s adopted brother Larry confessed to murdering their parents alone and did not indict his adoptive brother Michael.

This is the news I found…

Cape St. Claire killer Larry Swartz dies at age 37

By ERIC HARTLEY, Staff Writer (2005)

Annapolis, Maryland - A man whose brutal slaying of his adoptive parents nearly 21 years ago became one of the county's most infamous murders, inspiring a book and a made-for-TV movie, died Wednesday night of an apparent heart attack, his former attorney said.

Larry Swartz, released in 1993 after serving nine years in prison, had moved to Florida, was married and had an 8-year-old child, said his longtime lawyer, Ronald A. Baradel. He was 37.

"It was like losing a son," Baradel said. "He and I had developed pretty much of a fondness. We'd been out of contact for a couple of years, but re-established contact a couple of weeks ago."
To protect the family's privacy, Baradel declined to say where in Florida Mr. Swartz was living.

On the night of Jan. 16, 1984, 17-year-old Larry Schwarz fatally stabbed his father Robert, a computer technician, in a downstairs clubroom. Kay Swartz, a teacher at Broadneck High School, was stabbed and bludgeoned with a splitting maul after being chased through the community. Her nude body was found next to the family's swimming pool.

County police arrested Larry, the oldest of the Swartzes' three adopted children, a week later after determining that his footprints were in the snow near his mother's body and a bloody handprint was his.

The police investigation found that Mr. Swartz suffered from a personality disorder and had suppressed his anger against his parents for years.

Robert and Kay Swartz were devout Catholics, and their household was described as one of strict discipline. Kay Swartz was unable to have children of her own, and her husband, an anti-abortion activist who picketed Planned Parenthood offices, was eager to adopt unwanted children.

Larry's sister Anne was at home during the murders, but his brother Michael had drug and behavior problems that had landed him Crownsville Hospital Center.

In 1990, Michael Swartz helped to murder a man for a jar of quarters. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. (note: this is the adoptee who is Native American or perhaps not)

Larry Swartz finally snapped one night after drinking in his bedroom. He first stabbed his mother, then attacked his father, who tried to stop him. After pleading guilty to second-degree murder, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was released Jan. 23, 1993.

The case inspired a book, "Sudden Fury: A True Story of Adoption and Murder" by reporter Leslie Walker. It became a New York Times best-seller. A 1993 television movie based on the murders, "A Family Torn Apart," starred Neil Patrick Harris of "Doogie Howser, M.D." as Larry Swartz.

Mr. Swartz died without any warning, Baradel said. An autopsy was planned and funeral arrangements weren't available. Baradel said he was always confident that Mr. Swartz could have a normal life if given the chance. He never thought the murders reflected Mr. Swartz's true character.

"It's not the kind of person he was," Baradel said.

[source: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi...5/01_01-03/TOP]

photos from book

Adoption Themes in the Movies 2012 BEST AND WORST

My TOP FAVES:

1- The Lost Child-2000 TVM; Mercedes Ruehl, Jamey Sheridan; Rebecca goes in search of her natural parents. After her adoptive father dies, Rebecca decides to find the family her dad had described to her. In response to her search, she is contacted by a woman on the Navajo reservation who is looking for her twin siblings who were stolen from their mother soon after they were born. The women soon realize that they are sisters and Rebecca is welcomed. But when her husband, Jack, comes to see them, the differences between the two cultures rise to the surface.

2- Breakfast on Pluto - This dark comedy stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender adoptee/orphan searching for love and her long-lost mother in small town Ireland and London in the 1970s.

3- Sudden Fury - A Family Torn Apart is a 1993 television film directed by Craig R. Baxley, based on the novel Sudden Fury: A True Story of Adoption and Murder by Leslie Walker, which itself is based on a true story. One of the adoptees in the family is Native American and he was thought to be the murderer of his adoptive parents but he wasn't.

4- The Italian - see this stunning movie for the brilliant ending. (Subtitles)

5- Bambi - Animated film about a young deer, Bambi, growing up in the wild after his mother is shot by hunters.

6- Stolen Babies-1993 TVM; Lea Thompson, Mary Tyler Moore; Social worker exposes the Tennessee Children’s Home Scandal. Mary Tyler Moore plays the evil babyseller Georgia Tann.

7- Liebestraum: 1991 adoption-theme thriller with dark twists (see my review on Dec. 30, 2010.   http://splitfeathers.blogspot.com/2010/12/liebestraum-1991-adoption-theme.html)

Not the Best:

1 - Sioux City aka Ultimate Revenge-1994; Lou Diamond Phillips plays the role of a doctor who gets suspended on his birthday. At his adopted parent’s home, he has a party and one of the gifts is an American Indian necklace with a note from his birth mother who he has not heard from since he was given up for adoption when he was very young. In the note she wishes to see him. So he leaves to visit her only to arrive a few days after her death. He visits the local sheriff because he is curious of the circumstances of his mother's death. He then heads to the reservation in search of any relatives. He runs into his grandfather who is kind of a witch doctor. On the way back to town he is attacked by some of the sheriff's men who try to kill him. They leave him for dead, but he is rescued. He does a vision quest to try to identify why he was attacked. He discovers the reason he was given up for adoption: his father was the local sheriff. He didn't love the birthmother and ordered her to give him up for adoption...

2 - Flirting with Disaster-1995; Ben Stiller, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin; Farce about an adoptee searching for his birthmother. I was disappointed.

3 - Mommie Dearest-1981; Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid; about the adopted family life of Joan Crawford; several of her adopted children were stolen by the Tennessee Children’s Home and Georgia Tann. I hurt to watch this film.

4- Juno:  Juno is a smart teen confronting an unplanned pregnancy by her classmate Bleeker. With the help of her friend Leah, Juno finds her unborn child a "perfect" set of parents: an affluent suburban couple, Mark and Vanessa, longing to adopt. Luckily, Juno has the total support of her parents as she faces some tough decisions. Even as popular as this movie was, it disturbed many adoptees including me.

5 - Orphan: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1148204/ Disgusting!

6 - The Blind Side: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/ Propaganda at it’s finest.