Jody Swoap

1979 - 2022

By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

BOWLING GREEN - Jody Swoap, a Wood County sheriff's sergeant known for his skill across multiple duties, from special response team commander to crash reconstructionist, died Sunday in Wood County Hospital. He was 42.

He'd been responding well to chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma when he contracted coronavirus, his wife, Suzanne Swoap, said.

Hired by Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn in 2007 to work in the county jail, Sergeant Swoap advanced to road patrol duties and won promotion.

"There are people he arrested who will tell you what a nice guy he was," his wife said. "He understood human nature. He said, 'People make mistakes. I'm here to uphold the law.'"

He served for most of his career on the team that responds to active crime scenes and when an armed person barricades himself in a building. He became the unit's commander. In serious crashes, of motor vehicles and aircraft, he calculated what happened and how. And he was one of the sheriff's drone operators.

"We're here to serve the public. Jody exemplified that because he was a true public servant," Sheriff Wasylyshyn said. "He was valuable in our office.

"He wore a lot of hats, and I really admired the family man he was. He was a foster parent. All of those things take a lot of time," the sheriff said. "It's giving of others, doing for others. He was easy going and laid back and sensitive to other people's feelings."

Erin Zalewski, a longtime friend of Sergeant Swoap's wife, said: "He just had a quiet confidence about him. He understood everyone's paths were different."

He was born June 22, 1979, and grew up in western New York. He was a graduate of Fredonia High School, where he played football and was on the swim team. He enlisted in the Marine Corps afterward, inspired by the example of his uncle Gerry Rogers, a Marine veteran. With his swim team background, Jody Swoap was assigned to a unit that accompanied a Navy SEAL team, his wife said. He was stationed in Japan, at Guantanamo Bay, after the Sept. 11 attacks, and in South America.

Afterward, he moved to northwest Ohio, where his brother settled. He had an associate degree in criminal justice from Owens Community College and had nearly his bachelor's degree coursework at Bowling Green State University.

He and his wife had four dogs - "two big mutts and two little mutts," she said - but temporarily took in others from two rescue organizations.

Sergeant Swoap was an Honor Flight volunteer the last decade and accompanied a veteran to Washington and a tour of the war memorials there. He was a member of the Lybarger-Grimm American Legion Post 441 in Tontogany and Wood County Lodge, F&AM.

Survivors include his wife, the former Suzanne Youngpeter, whom he married May 29, 2015; stepdaughters Kennedy and Elliana Brown; mother and stepfather Janet and Hasan Tezel; brother, Jake Swoap, and sisters Jaimee Durham and Jayde Johnson.

Visitation will be from 2-7 p.m. Thursday at Deck-Hanneman Funeral Home, Bowling Green, where funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Friday. The family requests that attendees wear a face mask. Funeral and graveside services will be livestreamed via the Hanneman Family Funeral Homes' Facebook page.