Inside the Florida 'Sex House' Homicide: A Seemingly Loving Marriage, a Second Home, and a Brutal Killing By KC Baker 67

Known for the festive New Year’s Eve party they threw every year, Herbert Swilley and Timothy Smith loved playing host to their many friends and neighbors at their Ocala, Fla., home.

The longtime couple was five months away from another celebration — their eighth wedding anniversary — when tragedy struck on March 25, 2023.

Smith, then 59, was found dead in an apartment the couple rented as a second residence, for sex dates with other people, in nearby Citrus City, wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shoes, and with red marks around his neck.

The investigation into his murder is the focus of the next episode of People Magazine Investigates. Titled “Sex House Homicide,” the epsidoe airs Monday Jan. 26 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery and streams on HBO Max. 

The mystery began on Thursday, March 24, 2023, when Swilley and others grew concerned when Smith wasn’t responding to numerous calls and texts.

Their worry intensified when Smith failed to show up for work at the senior living center where he was executive director.

On Friday, March 25, 2023, Swilley, then 55, drove over to the apartment, saw Smith’s Jeep parked there, and knocked on the door — but got no answer.

Swilley didn’t have a key to the apartment with him and called 911 to ask for a welfare check.

While Swilley waited outside, a Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy entered the apartment.

Nothing seemed amiss in the living room and kitchen, but the deputy was taken aback when he entered a bedroom and found a swing with chains hanging from the ceiling, a standing tool box containing various sex toys, whips hanging on the wall and a massage table.

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Next, he went into the master bedroom, where he found a horrific scene: Smith’s body was laying on the floor between the bed and a closet. He had a dark ligature mark around his neck and, the coroner later ruled, suffered from blunt force trauma to his face and genitals as well as a fracture to his cervical spine.

Faced with many questions, authorities set out to determine whether Smith’s murder inside what looked like a sexual pleasure palace was a hate crime, revenge, or a sex date gone awry.

People Magazine Investigates: Sex House Homicide, airs Jan. 26 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery and streams on Max.