Warrant for alleged Hathaway killer identified through stolen gold coins
- Jamie Duffy
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. ---The family told Allen County detectives they’d spoken to him around 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
Twelve hours later, a friend who’d arrived at Roger Swedzinski’s country home in the 700 block of Hathaway Road to pick up some supplements discovered his lifeless body in the basement office.
Swedzinski, 67, died of a bullet wound to the head and another to his chest, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Detective Gabe Furnish with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department.
Thursday, Michael Chavez Gustin, 22, was charged with murder, felony murder and burglary.
The man who found him followed several strange clues. After he found the front door locked, he walked around to the northwest side of the home and found Swedzinski’s cell phone on the sidewalk.
That was odd.
He didn’t check the basement door because he said it was never used and always locked. But a sliding glass door was open.
He opened that door and yelled for the victim, but there was no response. Then he made his way to the basement where he noticed the safe door was open.
That was odd, too, because the safe door was never left open. Then he noticed blood on the floor which led him to the basement.
Then he called police.
When Furnish got there, he saw a black Samsung cell phone on the sidewalk and what appeared to be blood on the door that led to the basement. Then he observed a small trail of blood that led to the basement exterior door and eventually to Swedzinski with a large amount of blood around him.
The gun safe in the basement was open, but didn’t appear to be ransacked other than that the lock box was open. However, there were 10 1/10 oz. 2006 American Eagle gold coins missing and those were the ones that Swedzinski was selling on Facebook Marketplace, according to the man who found him, court documents said.
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Furnish contacted Detective Joe Lyon with the Fort Wayne Police Department, who has for years expertly tracked stolen goods through all the area pawn and coin shops, and told him to keep a look out for the coins.
Monday there was a hit. A man named Bronson Gustin, so he said, called in asking to trade 2006 1/10 oz. American Eagle gold coins for a gold bar.
That day, Chavez Gustin, driving a silver Audi, came through the door and made the trade. During the investigation, the shop turned over the video to Furnish for identification.
Chavez left further tracks by contacting the Fort Wayne Police Department to report his 9mm Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol stolen. Then Chavez called back to say he was missing two pairs of socks, a “common gray pair” and a pair with “the painted screaming lady.” And he was worried that the socks could be “traced back to him if someone chose to wear them while committing a crime,” court documents said.
Furnish got search warrants for Gustin’s apartment and his phone.
At his apartment in northeast Fort Wayne, detectives found a magazine for the stolen Smith & Wesson. Gustin turned over his phone and the password to get into it, court documents said.
During a police interview with Furnish and Detective Keith Wallin, Gustin fabricated a story about selling shoes for coins because he’d been off work for a few weeks with a back injury. He claimed he’d been denied workers compensation and started to sell shoes for money. When he sold the shoes, he bought coins and he’d been collecting silver and gold for a couple of years.
He said he thought it was good to “have silver and gold in case stuff gets crazy, it’d be easier to barter with," court documents said.
He’d been buying and selling shoes for a few years and that he estimated he sold about 10 pair each year.
Then he went deeper into the story. Sometimes, he said, he bought silver and gold through private trades or sales, but most of the time he traded through Fairfield Coins, a Fort Wayne store. He said he hadn’t had any transactions for the last month or two, but he did admit he traded 10 1/10 oz. gold coins for a one ounce china gold bar with a snake on it.
Then, he said his gun had been stolen on July 14, but he didn’t report it stolen until July 26, the day of the homicide. He chose that day because “he found out he could get in trouble if someone used the firearm in a crime and it could come back to him."
He said he used a lot of socks because he’s a skateboarder and needs to keep his feet dry. He was worried “those” socks could come back to him if someone else used them while committing a crime.
As to his stolen cell phone? Well, he had three cell phones all tied together through Apple connect. He reported the phone stolen, because, again, if someone committed a crime when he had Gustin’s cell phone, it could come back to him, court documents said.
Why was his Audi at the scene of the crime, according to phone mapping? Well, he’d loaned out his Audi to someone on Friday at 9 p.m. and didn’t get his keys back until Saturday at 10 a.m.
When detectives asked him if the DNA from the person who borrowed his Audi would be on the steering wheel, Gustin replied “I doubt it. He’s a drug dealer and very careful.”
Lyon checked with Fairfield Coins. They had no record of dealings with Chavez Gustin at the shop and didn’t recognize his photo, court documents said.
The probable cause also details Gustin’s movements. At least twice, once before midnight on July 25 and then, after midnight, Gustin’s vehicle is at Swedzinski’s property. The second time, he is at the victim’s home at 1:41 a.m. and doesn’t leave until 2:22 a.m.
The probable cause seems to indicate that Gustin scoped out the property from the electric grid adjacent to the property before he allegedly killed his victim.
Gustin also researched his victim on Facebook, according to his Google searches.
The Probable cause will include a mugshot from the Allen County Sheriff's website once it is available. Currently there is a warrant for his arrest.