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"She Was a Puppetmaster with the Strings": How Woman Manipulated Her New Boyfriend into Murder
Why did Nadya Swartz want her ex-boyfriend, Kenny Bunn, dead? One friend alleged she had a "dark, romantic fantasy" of murder.
A dangerous game of cat and mouse between a woman and her ex-boyfriend ended with the murder of Kenneth Bunn in a small town in Georgia at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But police said Nadya Swartz didn’t act alone and named her new boyfriend, Justin Hooker, in the murder as well.
“I believe we all have the potential to kill somebody, but I believe that Nadya’s the one that brought it out of [Justin Hooker],” Whitney Yates, a former girlfriend of Hooker's, said to Snapped: Killer Couples, airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen. “Gave him that whole, ‘I can do this. I can go and shoot a guy.’ And so he did.”
Kenneth Bunn's Body Discovered
On March 16, 2020, a caller dialed 911 to report a body on a trail near a fishing area and a bridge along the Conasauga River in Murray County, Georgia.
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When police arrived, they saw there was blood pooled around the head of the body, as well as a wound on the torso, and determined the body hadn’t been thrown from the bridge or dragged to the area. There was no wallet, cell phone, or other form of identification found nearby.
At the same time, Pat Colvard called 911 to report her grandson, Kenny Bunn, 27, was missing. He lived with his grandmother and hadn’t come home since leaving to walk to a store not far from their residence around 7:45 p.m. the night before.
The medical examiner determined the body belonged to Bunn, and that he’d died of multiple gunshot wounds: three to the head and one to the chest.
Colvard told police Bunn’s ex-girlfriend, Nadya Swartz, 20, had also showed up at her home the previous night, searching for Bunn.
Surveillance video confirmed Swartz found Bunn the night he was killed. Images from Harry’s Convenience Store showed Swartz pulled up and parked at a gas pump. Later, Swartz and Bunn were seen talking by the gas pumps before he got in her car, and they drove away.
Kenneth Bunn and Nadya Swartz's Complicated Relationship
“Kenny and Nadya got together around October 2019,” Trenna Wilson, Bunn’s mother, told Snapped: Killer Couples. “He met her on social media, browsing after he had split up from his last girlfriend.”
Bunn’s grandmother told police at the time of Bunn’s death, he and Nadya had been broken up about three or four months, but that hadn’t stopped her from “coming around.”
“He felt strongly about Nadya,” Rachael Neal, Bunn’s friend, told Snapped: Killer Couples. “I think that Kenny knew she was a toxic person, and it was a toxic environment and relationship, but he was also just in love with the idea of being in love, so he would do anything to try to keep that connection and that relationship together.”
But Swartz had entered a new relationship since ending it with Bunn. Police learned she currently lived with her new boyfriend of two months, 20-year-old Justin Hooker.
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Officers interviewed Hooker and Swartz together about what happened the night Bunn was killed. Swartz told police Bunn wanted a ride to a friend’s house to buy marijuana, and it caused a fight between them, so she pulled over and let Bunn out of the car. She said she didn’t know where he went after this.
But the story was enough to get a reaction out of Hooker.
“You see Justin like, that tension,” Adam Jones, Georgia Bureau Of Investigations Special Agent, told Snapped: Killer Couples. “You can see the veins in his arms, so at this point, I’m thinking, OK, is he upset that Nadya has went and visited an ex-boyfriend, and he’s just now finding out about it?”
Hooker, though, told police he’d been visiting family the night of Bunn’s murder.
The investigation remained at a standstill — until officers got a call from a lawyer.
Kenneth Bunn and Justin Hooker's Feud Opens Up Investigation
The lawyer’s phone call revealed a man in custody claimed he had sold a gun to Justin Hooker on Saturday, March 14, 2020 — one day before the murder. The informant said he’d heard about the murder and was worried the gun he sold was involved.
“So, I had to call Justin,” the informant said, as heard on police audio tapes obtained by Snapped: Killer Couples. “I asked him, I said, ‘So did you f--king do it? Was it with my f--king gun, dude? And he said, ‘Don’t worry,’ and I said, ‘Was it with my goddamn gun?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’”
The informant told police Hooker claimed he was with his girlfriend, Swartz, when he did it.
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Authorities then discovered Hooker’s alibi was a lie: He was not with family that night. They also learned there was an ongoing fight between Bunn and Hooker that could be the motive for murder.
“The altercation had taken place a few months earlier, not long after Nadya and Kenny had broken up,” said Erin Barnett, reporter for WATE 6, to Snapped: Killer Couples. “Words were exchanged, and allegedly Justin had threatened to blow Kenny’s head off if he didn’t leave Nadya alone.”
What Was Nadya Swartz's Involvement?
On March 19, 2020, both Swartz and Hooker were arrested and questioned by police again.
Swartz claimed Bunn had been abusing her, and she’d told Hooker about it.
“Well, I can’t lie anymore because of guilt just eating me up,” Swartz claimed in police audio obtained by Snapped: Killer Couples. “I was talking to Justin about what Kenny basically did to me in the past, how much he put me in a depression. Because he was threatening to kill me ever since I got with him.”
Swartz alleged she and Hooker decided to confront Bunn about the threats together and picked Bunn up from the gas station.
“Kenny said he wanted me back,” Swartz said in police audio. “He was begging and pleading for me back, saying, ‘If you don’t come back with me, I’m gonna kill you.’”
Swartz claimed when she tried to get away from Bunn that night, he tried to strangle her.
“Justin freaked out and basically defended me,” Swartz alleged in police audio. “And Justin, basically, knew what he had to do to make sure I didn’t die.”
Swartz alleged Hooker shot and killed Bunn in self-defense, but police believed she was lying.
“She had no injuries on her that would suggest she was being strangled, or had been gripped violently in any way, so I knew Nadya was lying to me,” Jones said.
Family and friends also told police Bunn wasn’t violent.
“She is a manipulator,” Wilson, Bunn’s mother, said. “I think she controlled the relationship. I think she was actually the abuser in the relationship.”
Swartz and Hooker Plead Guilty to Bunn's Murder
Instead, police actually believed Swartz manipulated Hooker into killing Bunn.
“My opinion with Nadya is that she plays on the jealousy of Justin — to hop him up, to say, ‘Hey, if we’re going to have a good relationship, and love each other forever, Kenny can’t be in the picture,’” Jones said. “And eventually came up with this plan to ambush and execute Kenny.”
Facing murder charges, Swartz and Hooker each pled guilty to Bunn’s death.
“I don’t think Nadya’s remorseful for Kenny’s death at all,” said Jones. “I think she’s evil.”
In March 2021, each was sentenced to life in prison. They are eligible for parole in 2050.
“I think Nadya had a very weird, dark, romantic fantasy about murder, and it seemed to me she was just playing a game of ‘Who would kill for me?’” Neal said. “She didn’t care which one of them died, she just wanted somebody to kill for her.”
Watch new episodes of Snapped: Killer Couples on Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen, or in the Oxygen True Crime App.
