The Georgia Church Murders Part 1: A Wrongful Conviction, a Fake Alibi, and the Reporter Who Cracked the Case
Gone South
Audacy Podcasts
4.8 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1985, Harold and Thelma Swain were shot and killed during Bible study at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Spring Bluff, Georgia. The double murder went unsolved for years — until a man named Dennis Perry was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to two life terms for a crime he almost certainly didn't commit.
In 2019, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Josh Sharpe began investigating the case for the Georgia Innocence Project. What he found was damning: a botched investigation, unreliable witnesses, and a key suspect — Eric Sparre — whose alibi turned out to be completely fabricated.
This episode of Gone South follows Sharpe's six-month investigation into the Georgia Church Murders, the wrongful conviction of Dennis Perry, and the evidence pointing to the man many believe actually pulled the trigger. Based in part on Sharpe's book, The Man No One Believed.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the trusted team behind 48 hours, welcome to case-by-case. |
| 0:04.1 | Your weekly update on the biggest true crime stories unfolding right now. |
| 0:08.7 | Nick Ryder remains in custody without bail. |
| 0:11.0 | Luigi Mangione accused of stalking and gunning down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. |
| 0:16.0 | From high-profile trials and stunning evidence to major breaks in cold cases. |
| 0:22.2 | We'll follow it all case by case. |
| 0:24.8 | Follow and listen to 48 hours case by case wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:33.6 | In the fall of 2019, the Georgia Innocence Project reached out to a reporter named Joshua Sharp. |
| 0:41.3 | Josh worked for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the largest newspaper in the state. |
| 0:46.3 | He was part of the paper's Crime and Public Safety Team, where he typically cranked out two to three articles per day. |
| 0:53.3 | But his passion was for deep dive investigations. |
| 0:57.0 | At the AJC, I was never on the investigative team, |
| 1:00.0 | but I was somebody who was always investigating, you know. |
| 1:03.0 | And I was always covering South Georgia. |
| 1:06.0 | Figuring out things will never not be fun to me, |
| 1:10.0 | especially things that other people want to know. |
| 1:12.3 | Other people are trying to know. |
| 1:14.9 | In his spare time, Josh spent months investigating a potential cancer cluster in his hometown of Waycross, Georgia, |
| 1:22.5 | and whether industrial pollution might have caused it. |
| 1:25.9 | He'd also reported on the Fort Stewart 3, |
| 1:28.3 | soldiers at a local army base who'd spent 25 years in prison for murder |
| 1:33.3 | before their convictions were overturned. |
... |
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