TV show Will Feature McCown Case

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The story of Marilyn "Niqui" McCown, a Richmond woman who went missing nearly nine years ago, will be featured on Investigation Discovery's "Disappeared."


Footage for the television show is being filmed during a six-day period, beginning this week, in Richmond and Dayton, Ohio, but filming isn't open to the public. It will air this fall during the series' second season, said executive producer Elizabeth Fischer of NBC's Peacock Productions.

"We're always looking at stories that have sort of a multi-layered plot line, if you will," Fischer said. "This story was so compelling and so rich. The family's plight seemed especially significant to us."
McCown was last seen at a coin-operated laundromat at 1000 S. E St. in Richmond on July 22, 2001.

The missing-persons case was thrust back into the spotlight recently when Tommy Swint, considered by police to be a person of interest in the investigation, committed suicide Feb. 3. Swint died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in Phenix City, Ala., as authorities were closing in to arrest him as part of an unrelated murder investigation.

Swint and McCown were friends, according to McCown's family. They worked together at the Montgomery Education and Pre-Release Center in Dayton. They were both hired in 1994.
The hour-long show will feature interviews with members of McCown's family, local police and Palladium-Item reporter Robert Sullivan, who compiled the most recent in-depth review of the case for the newspaper.
Michelle McCown-Luster, one of McCown's sisters, said the television show is welcome exposure.

"This is something we're all looking forward to," McCown-Luster said. "They're going to put the show together nice."
She said the family still hopes the person responsible for McCown's disappearance will come forward.
"We still want everybody out there searching for Niqui, and if you have any questions, to come forth," McCown-Luster said. "This isn't about him (Swint). ... We don't know he did anything to Niqui."

Lt. Brad Berner of the Richmond Police Department said "Disappeared" is the second television program that has interviewed local police about the case.
"We did 'Unsolved Mysteries' a few years ago," Berner said. "Does it help? You know, if anything, it brings this to light again. I can't say we were flooded with calls after 'Unsolved Mysteries,' but with the recent series of events with Tom Swint, it could be one of those things where it jogs someone's memory or someone decides to talk with more information on it. That's why we do it."

Fischer said the show will give viewers a unique glimpse into the investigation and the impact McCown's disappearance has had on her Richmond family.
"We really try to get a very close and honest and sort of raw look at what it's like to have one's life kind of turned upside down in just a moment when a relative or loved one goes missing," Fischer said