The life of Casey Shawn Edward Shaffer, a 30-year-old White male from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, ended on September 6, 2024. He had been staying for a couple of days at an apartment at 808 West Bailey Street, a residence that would become a crime scene.
In the early morning hours of September 7, the woman who lived in the apartment called police, asking them to remove an individual from her home so she and her child could return. When officers arrived, they found the apartment door partially open. Inside, they discovered Shaffer deceased on the living room floor. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds from a small-caliber handgun. Investigators recovered several shell casings from the living room and kitchen, but the murder weapon was not found.
The investigation revealed that the day before, the woman had accused Shaffer of sexually assaulting her six-year-old son, an allegation Shaffer denied in a text message exchange.
Phone records showed their last text was sent at 5:18 p.m. on September 6. Shortly after, between 5:20 p.m. and 7:20 p.m., several phone calls were placed between the woman and Dylan Tyler Farmer, a 30-year-old associate of both parties.
In a bizarre twist, Farmer had tried to confess to the murder hours before Shaffer’s body was even discovered. He had gone to the Minnehaha County Jail on September 6 and told officers that he had shot a man in the face because the man "touched a boy." With no report of a crime, no body, and few details from Farmer, authorities dismissed his confession, believing he might be a publicity seeker or mentally unwell, and let him go.
The discovery of Shaffer’s body changed everything. Farmer’s credit card was found at the scene, directly linking him to the apartment. Once police located him, Farmer confirmed the victim’s name was Casey. He was arrested and charged with first and second-degree murder.
Dylan Tyler Farmer was held on a $1 million cash-only bond. His murder trial commenced in February 2026.
