A Texan woman and man who have been missing for two weeks have been found dead in a hidden grave in Oklahoma.
Jenna Scott, 28, and Michael Swearingin, 32, were found dead in Clearview, Oklahoma, on Wednesday.
They had been missing since January 3 when they vanished from Swearingin’s home in Temple, Texas, at 3am. His car was later found in Austin.
They were found following the arrest of Scott’s ex-boyfriend, Cedric Marks, in Grand Rapids, Michigan – more than 1,200 miles from the gravesite or where they vanished from.
On January 9, a day after Marks’ arrest, Texan police who were looking for Scott and Swearingin focused their search on Oklahoma but they will not say what led them there beyond that it was ‘new information’.
Marks has not been charged with their deaths and was brought into custody on an outstanding warrant for breaking into Scott’s house in August.
Police will not say what information led them to Oklahoma and they are yet to formally identify the bodies but they believe they belong to Scott and Swearingin.
Marks is awaiting extradition from Michigan to Texas. Another one of his exes, April Pease, has been missing since 2009 and vanished while they were in the midst of a custody battle.
Temple police received information on January 9 concerning the disappearance of Jenna Scott, 28, and 32-year-old Michael Swearingin. The duo have been missing since January 4 at 3am
He and Scott broke up acrimoniously after meeting on Tinder in 2015.
In July, she applied for a protective order against him after he broke into her home and threatened her and her nine-year-old daughter.
Scott’s ex-boyfriend Cedric Marks, 44, was arrested on January 8 in Grand Rapids, Michigan
In his burglary arrest affidavit, it was claimed he was angry at her for ending their relationship.
Whenever she tried to break it off in the past, he ‘choked’ her and threatened her life, the affidavit said.
On August 28, he broke into the home she lived in with her daughter through the garage.
Scott was alerted to it by an alarm which told her where he was in the house.
When she confronted him, he grabbed the phone she was carrying out of her hand. She yelled to her daughter, who she had told to stay in her bedroom, to call 911 but Marks ordered her not to, the warrant states.
He then told her it was ‘her word against his’, that he had friends in the police department and that if she reported him, she would be in so much danger she would have to enter a witness protection program.
Another missing ex: Marks’ ex-partner April Pease has been missing since 2009. She vanished while they fought over custody of their son and has never been found
‘You know what I am capable of… your entire family and all of your friends will need witness protection if you call the police,’ he is alleged to have told her.
She was granted a temporary protective order which banned him from contacting her or coming within 50 yards of her and her family but when she asked for it to be made permanent this September, Judge Paul LePak denied her request.
Marks has a lengthy criminal record which includes arrests for making false reports to police, interfering with a 911 call, assault, harassment, threatening, issuing bad checks, carrying an illegal weapon, assault and battery, armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and disorderly conduct.
He has been arrested in Texas, Washington and Oklahoma.
The bodies were found in a hidden grave in rural Okfusee County, Oklahoma, above. It was 350 miles from where they vanished from
Scott, pictured with her nine-year-old daughter Emerie, sought a permanent protective order to keep Marks away from her in September but it was turned down
Swearingin is pictured with his girlfriend, Rachel Foster. He and Scott were friends
Before he met Scott on Tinder, he dated April Pease, a Minnesota woman who has been missing since 2009.
She disappeared while the pair were in the midst of a bitter custody battle over their son in Washington State.
He was questioned over her disappearance in Minnesota but was never arrested.
On Wednesday, Bloomington Police spokesman Mike Hartley said: ‘April Pease was reported missing in 2009 and since that time the case has been open and all leads actively investigated by our agency.
‘We are aware of the developments in Texas and will follow up on any new information that may be pertinent to the disappearance of April Pease.’
Police investigating that case now say he is a person of interest in their investigation into what happened to her but they will not name him as a suspect.
Scott’s brother has since told how Marks continued to stalk and harass her.
Marks has a lengthy criminal history which includes 22 arrests. He and Scott met on Tinder in 2015. Last year, she told police he choked her when she tried to break up with him and caused her to lose consciousness twice but he was never arrested for it
She and Swearingin were last heard from at 3am on January 4.
The pair have been described as friends and Swearingin was in a long-term relationship with girlfriend Rachel Foster.
She has been pleading for information which could lead to finding him on social media along with Scott’s family and friends.
Home surveillance equipment is said to be missing from Swearingin’s home, leading investigators to believe something took place there before they vanished.
His car was found in Austin two days after he and Scott were last heard from.
A GoFundMe set up to help find the mother-of-one and Swearingin has more than $21,000 and had an original goal of $10,000.