Born in Morgantown, West Virginia, Swindler later served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, working on tankers in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Swindler assisted police in many criminal cases, notably the searches for serial killers Gary Ridgway (a.k.a.
A number of cold case investigations are under review after a search of Swindler's archives revealed eight sets of skeletal human remains.
Samples were collected for DNA profiling by Dr. Katherine Taylor, who is with the King County, Washington Medical Examiner Office and also is a UW forensic anthropologist faculty affiliate, and sent as forensic evidence with the remains to law enforcement agencies in Washington state and Michigan.
[4] Among remains found in Swindler's archives was the partial skull of a child mailed in a box labeled "Books" from Bay Center in Pacific County, Washington to the UW Department of Anthropology in 1980.