Tracking the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] now would your Mar say my daughter's been murdered she's been murdered we absolutely were obsessed
with this case January 13th 1995 was the last known contact with Catherine she's
handcuffed she's been tortured it was always a big case within the department because it was the
biggest case unsolved nobody felt safe anywhere nobody knew if it was a neighbor nobody
knew if it was a police officer because of the handcuffs being used my name is Tina lellan Ain lellan I'm a detective I
a detective at bont Police Department my sister's dead my parents are over there
and I who's your sister Catherine Edwards I had no no idea who Catherine Edwards was but after I read Decades of
her journals 1986 1989 9194 I feel like I know her things are looking up in my life I'm going to teach second grade
next year I know I meant to do this there were so many of her students that came forward to share the impact she had
on their lives 25 years later they were always close to me in my heart I'm d Diana Co and I was friends
with Katherine and her twin sister Allison since middle school they were so sweet and so funny they had a cute laugh
and everybody just loved them this was not an easy case to crack every free moment I would try to work
this case while still maintaining my case load staying up till midnight every night it just was not going to happen
without the DNA if there was no DNA in this case if that evidence had not been properly maintained no we'd never got
there my name is Brandon bth Sergeant Texas Rangers company a Cold Case team the technology has changed so much
since 1995 by the time we got to Katherine Edwards there were a lot more of these
resources that were available we felt that genetic genealogy was going to be the answer to this case
so you would do the police work you would do the genealogy work yes along with another genealogist my name is Shar
brard La Point Tina had started a tree and we really think alike and work together to build this tree with
7,49 people in it oh my gosh I would call her no less than five times a day we were on the phone constantly tell her
what I found just back and for I blew her phone up trying to get to the bottom we had to narrow down the different
family members to find the direct lineage of our suspect is this someone that knew her is
this someone that was a stranger she had some you know ex-boyfriends there was always the worry that it was a police
officer some criminal is not going to have a pair of Smith and Wesson handcuffs there was no sign of forced
entry at the time right right did we believe it was someone she knew yeah [Music]
[Music] the thing that really got me about the case was you don't expect to have the
this beautiful young single school teacher be murdered in her own home she was such a great person came
from such a great family for Texas Ranger Brandon Bess almost everything about the Mary
Katherine Edwards case was different it was an unusual crime scene she's over the bathtub and she's obviously been
sexually assaulted and handcuffed behind her back were they police Le grade yeah
handcuffs handcuffs have always been a key piece of this January 14th 1995 it was a Saturday Catherine as most
people called her didn't show up for a family lunch and she wasn't answering her phone when her mother and father
went to check on her they had to see what no parent ever should what's happened ma'am we came over here and
found her please send some okay we're sending someone ma'am and she but she shot or what uh we can't
tell Catherine was 31 my mom is the one that told me Diana Co remembers hearing the news and so she
said have you not heard about Catherine and I go my Catherine she had been friends with Catherine and her twin
sister Allison since middle school I was new to the area so I knew no one and they just started talking talking to me
asked me my name and we were friends from that point forward the sisters both School teachers look so much alike
everyone had trouble telling them apart especially their young students Miss Edwards who was my second grade teacher
helenah Adams remembers being in her classroom most of us grew up in a pretty tough environment and being around Miss
Edwards was a joy originally they believed that she might have been drowned but there wasn't
enough fluid in her lungs so then it kind of became a Suffocation by compression I just remember being told
that our teacher wouldn't make it to class that day everyone just crying early investigators could not
piece together what happened but those police grade handcuffs were a big clue that was almost talked about like a
ghost story around a campire detective Aaron Luellen maybe it was somebody in law enforcement or somebody in security
could it have been somebody that we knew in the weeks after the murder police focused on tracing the serial numbers of
the handcuffs but came up empty they also zeroed in on an old boyfriend David Perry they focused on
him early on because there was no forc inury but Perry was out of town that night he gave a DNA sample and it was
not not a match I wasn't there it's not me the crime scene DNA stayed well preserved and the years dragged on and
on until forensic science changed genetic genealogy technolog genetic genealogy by 2018 there was a way to
take the DNA left at a crime scene and search for biological relatives a program Jed match scarfs up all the DNA
from people who agreed to share it with law enforcement and upload it when they use sites like ancestry.com in 23 and me
Ranger best approached me and he asked if I thought we had a case that would fit the bill for that type of
investigation I said absolutely I know the perfect case for this and it was the kath Edwards case so in April 2020 the
DNA from Katherine Edwards crime scene went to aam a lab outside of Houston for testing there they would give us
familial matches and from there we would start trying to build a family tree to get us closer to our suspect yeah but
the number of names to pursue was overwhelming when the family tree began to grow beyond my computer screen I
started to get a little bit confused and that's when Tina jumped on board aon's wife Tina an auto crimes detective began
using her off hours to help sort through it the matches were all cinjun cjun ancestry coming from the Louisiana area
yes particularly Kaplan Louisiana so Tina went back to Catherine's journals looking for Clues to see if I could see
a Cajun name that jumped out to me I did find a few French names and they were quickly eliminated and nowhere in our
tree and as she was building out the branches one of the names on the family tree kept coming
up Le Point as I'm researching the matches and building my trees and you're researching other people's trees I kept
noticing Sher Le Point had built that tree and then I'm working some more I do some more research well shery Le Point
built this tree and I'm like is she related to our suspect I had no idea who she was this is actually my
great-grandmother Claudia and when they called her they found out Shar had been building her family tree it was my
family's DNA kits that I had uploaded to Jed match and then they found out something that changed the course of the
investigation sherah was known professionally as the Gene Hunter and already skilled at working these cases
she'd identified one of the women buried along Interstate Highway 45 in the Texas
Killing Fields case and she agreed to lend her expertise I told him that I was willing
to help even if it meant taking a hard look at her own relatives it was kind of scary because I'm putting my own second
cousins in this tree and I'm thinking oh my gosh you know could one of my grandfather's sisters grandchildren have
have done this they lived here in Texas it was a complicated multi-layered process using publicly available DNA
birth and death records finding parents siblings and cousins as you build those trees you look for information that is
pertinent to the case that you're working on we had a tag for people who were in bont she was a teacher as you
build tree you look at people who are in education every one of these lines are built out the tree grew up and down and
sideways there were almost 7500 names that's a lot of hours a lot of work and a lot of people in a family
tree all the while Tina hardly slept working through most nights knowing there was a killer still out there every
day counted every day mattered I need did to get it [Music] solved hunker down at their computers
day after day constantly back and forth on the phone Tina lellan and genealogist
chery Point are quickly becoming great Partners she was a team player from jump never had met me we talked so often that
we became friends best buds best buds I don't know what else to say and when they needed DNA they turned to Tina's
husband Aaron and Texas Ranger Brandon Bess so from that point me Brandon Bess would drive around Texas and go talk to
these people convincing someone to give their DNA up to give a piece of themselves up to you in homicide and
investigation can be very difficult when we would sense um anxiety in someone Aaron would immediately tell
them hey who do you want to play you in the movie they would look at Aaron like he was crazy and say um what are you
talking about well this guy's a Texas Ranger everything they do turns into a movie who do you want to play your role
in this movie that calmed him down every time and I of course do out there hey I've already got Brad Pitt so you know
you can't you can't be Brad cuz Brad's playing me was there ever a time though that somebody actually thought my uncle
may actually be a killer who knows and every one of these cases that I've worked using DNA and genetic genealogy
you have at least one person usually two or three that says you know what I had that weird Uncle Joe once the uploads
were compared to the Killer's DNA if the amount of shared genetic material was low they knew it was a dead end there
were times when we would come across a name and I'm like you get that the the butterflies in your stomach like hey
maybe this is our guy and then it turns out it's not our guy after almost 3 months of ups and downs and nearly
non-stop work sharah hit Pay Dirt it was about 10:30 at night she was working a family line very distantly related to
her own it was a very common Cajun name Tibido I got to a couple who were in bont I was able to see from uh Records
that they had two sons this was a major lead a family in Catherine's town with two sons who went to Forest Park High
the same school Catherine did at around the same time I put the names in the tree and I
messaged Tina and I said there's a couple in bont I'm tired I'm going to bed and I turned my cell phone off and I
fell asleep on the sofa and when I woke up the next morning my phone had just blown up and it was you on the other end
yes what were you saying this is them we found them just didn't know which one okay it's either Michael Foreman or
Clayton Foreman what did you do to to figure that out the first name I ran was Clayton and then when I came across his
prior conviction for the sexual assault the hair on the back of my neck stood up
I'm like this is our guy in 1981 a 19-year-old woman told police that clay Foreman bound her hands
and raped her she had also gone to Forest Park High School where Clayton was the manager of the football team
Foreman was convicted but was given probation and paid a fine but he did not have to give a DNA
sample at that time this was back in the early ' 80s we didn't have sex offender
registry uh no DNA database and then they found another connection it went all the way back to Diana Co Catherine's
friend from middle school in high school Diana fell madly in love her boyfriend had graduated three years ahead of her
and they got engaged he was so kind he had the most wonderful personality and when she started
planning her wedding she immediately turned to her old friends Catherine and Allison and they were one of the first
ones I thought of as a bridesmaid and and I asked them and they said Diaz and the groom the man Diana Co
married back in 1982 now he was their number one suspect Clayton Foreman she in fact did know him yes in
hindsight there were signs when Diana found out about Clayton's legal troubles the wedding was less than 3 months
away and the wedding invitations had already been mailed out mhm and I said right
I said oh there's no way but she never got any details and her fianceé explained it away he kept telling me it
it was a big misunderstanding and so in my mind I thought well he must be telling the truth because if he got
arrested he's not in jail but you didn't really believe it was rap right Diana's
Sister Anne and her brother scooter were not so sure and neither were their parents parents who wanted her to call
it off and I said well di why don't you just wait and she didn't want to wait she wanted to marry clay she was in love
with him she's believing him and she's wanting to get married then then we have to support as a family he was like I'm
so so sorry and I love you I want us to be married I want us to have a family and so I was like okay you know so I
went I went through with it Diana and Clayton stayed married for a little more than 11 years they had a son
the relationship began to fray over for and lying about their finances and it ended after he had an affair and looking
back Diana can see that he had an unhealthy fascination with police officers and the tools of their
trade like handcuffs I remember that he had ordered those handcuffs well he had them hung
over the rearview mirror and I I didn't think anything of it when Catherine was killed they were
divorced but Diana remembers calling her ex-husband to talk about it I think I was you know crying and I said oh my God
I said somebody has murdered Catherine and and he goes oh really just like no emotion when we hung the phone
up I can remember because I was like kind of squinting and kind of like going that's kind of odd with all the
mounting evidence Foreman needed to be found he was 60 and no longer living in Bowmont they quickly tracked him to
Reynoldsburg Ohio what was he doing there he was an Uber driver at the time sir I was able to send a lead uh to a
field office up there and basically did what we call a trash run you need to collect a piece of DNA so that you can
ensure that it's the the right guy correct uh so that's what they did they surveilled his house and then when
snatched a bag of trash and sent it to me uh so I brought that stuff to Houston to the DPS crime
lab and from there they tested it the likelihood that the DNA belonged to Clayton foran was a big number
461 septillion it doesn't get better than that says Cheryl a point I mean you can't fight those odds you cannot fight
those off and that was all they needed I got a text from a a DPS lab technician and she
said go get his ass Aaron lellan and Brandon beess were about to hop a plane to Ohio ready to
face the man they felt sure had killed Catherine Mr and while they were doing that Tina
pays a visit to Diana Co did they tell you we had they had DNA though Tina told you that oh yeah yeah
and I just went oh my God please don't tell me it was Clay I almost fell to the ground I was
just like oh my God I oh God I can't believe he's done this what do you think of sharing your
DNA with law enforcement to help solve a murder chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X
when Texas Ranger Brandon Bess and detective Aaron Luellen arrive at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to
confront Clayton foran they have a cover story it's about a lost item from one of
Foreman's Uber rides we go in under the uh under the ruse of someone had left uh a purse in his car
so he came in voluntarily to talk about a purse that was in the car it was April
29th 2021 26 years after Katherine Edwards was murdered and they are sure they are
sitting in front of the man who murdered her and we're asking you to visit with us about a crime that we're
investigating okay did he immediately go uhoh no he didn't so the crime that we're looking at is the murder of Mary
Katherine Edwards and she was murdered in 1995 I guess he pretty quickly realized
he wasn't there to give up a purse he did and we found a picture of a wedding picture that she and her sister uh
Allison were actually in your wedding right and 1982 82 okay do you ever remember anyone ever coming to you or
about that crime were you aware of the crime even no you didn't know the crime occurred no sir okay we backed him into
a bunch of hard Corners he claimed that he didn't even know that she was dead you didn't know that um Katherine
Edwards was murdered no did not do you remember them from school do you remember the girls from
school not really cuz they were freshman when you were a senior yes sir okay so on Mary Edwards Mary craft cther Edwards
um didn't know her well did you have her visit with with her at all um did you ever go in her house at all any house
that she ever lived in no okay you know did you know where she lived no had no idea so and he's denying denying he is
denying you know in these DNA cases when you whether you're going to get a confession or not you want to build up
that background of hey did you know them number one did y'all have much acquaintance with them or was it just
like a high school friend thing how did you know him there were bridesmaides for
my Mike's life that's right did you ever go on a date never dated all the way up to did you ever
have sex with this person never obviously had sex with her no never never did you go to college together did
you do all everything was a no and we had those denials several times and then so towards the end of the interview we
asked him well if all those things are true can you explain how your DNA ended up on her and on her her bed
do you understand DNA MH and do you understand how DNA works you understand you're made of DNA right he made a DNA I
made a DNA and I think that foreman knew enough about DNA that he thought he would have been
caught already he knew that he had never submitted his DNA he had no clue that he
was going to be arrested that day play I'm a level with you right here and now and I want you to hear me real
close all right that crime scene was process really well and your DNA was on Catherine's bed and was inside
Catherine okay I mean I don't know how it got there but PR say it was there there's only one way for it to get there
okay um and that's by you putting it there okay do you understand that do you understand the implications of that the
day that you died the night that she died your DNA is and her and your DNA is on her bed
spread now I don't want you to say anything right this second I want you to think about the next words that come out
of your mouth I want you to think very hard about that okay there's two people that know that
story you're one of them and she's the other and she can't talk MH what I asked you is now to be honest with us
completely and tell us how did that I'm not going to say anything if I need an attorney
now you probably need one or you do need one if you're saying I did that then I find an attorney to talk to well all we
got then we're going to let you walk out of the door just like we told you it's a grainy video but you can
probably see us grinning at each other you have all your stuff that he thinks he's walking out of here
he thinks he's fixing to leave here so as he got out down the hallway headed towards the elevator we stopped
him and arrested him for the murder of cathine Edwards and after all those years and
all that work Aaron lellan and Brandon Bess had one thing left they needed to do uh if you remember back when we were
talking about the crime scene she was handcuffed so we had talked to the DA's office beforehand and got permission to
use those handcuffs the very handcuffs that bound Catherine the night she died how did it feel to put those handcuffs
on him very good there a moment I'll never forget you feel like you got to do something for
Catherine you know like physically got to do for her is take those cuffs that bound her when she was murdered and put
them back on the guy that murdered her it's you know it may seem small to some but it was a really big deal to us and
it felt good even though they had their suspicions about him the news that Clayton Foreman was arrested for the
murder of Katherine Edwards was still a shock for his ex-wife Diana Co and her siblings an and scooter and she calls me
and she says clay murder Catherine and I said do what your brain doesn't because it it knows him as
a person as a as as somebody that you you know your brother-in-law or your brother that was that
was that was hard yeah I thought of Allison and I just I I just couldn't believe
it my my thought immediately went to Allison and I just said Allison oh my God she's going to
hate me [Music] [Music] opening arguments began this morning Forman is charged with capital murder
guilty or not guilty not guilty March 12th 2024 this is not going to be easy uh for
a lot of people CU it's been a long time com nearly 30 years after Catherine Edwards was found dead in her townhouse
you got to remember this happened in 1995 Bowmont prosecutor Patrick canal and his colleagues Mike lar and sunny
ahart are ready for trial you're going to get to learn a lot about DNA and they're extremely confident about their
case against Clayton Foreman Mr Burbank you want to make an opening statement at this time honor Tom
Burbank is defending foremen he didn't really have anything and he knew it next witness the prosecution calls
Catherine's twin sister Allison we wanted to remind everyone this is about Catherine and her family and that's the
way we wanted to start off with here at 60 sitting before them was the spitting image of what could have been that is a
picture of my sister Catherine reliving the day she lost Catherine and then the next thing we know you know my mom and
dad drove up and told us what I mean they there were nowhere she was dead that was all
that mattered I didn't know how what or anything I didn't know what happened to her it was just that she was gone was
all I knew the pain and the loss still so palpable four years later I had a daughter and her name is
Catherine Catherine after my sister and she never got to know her that's the hardest
part it was a lie helenah Adams Katherine Edward's student when she was seven and now 37 sat in the
courtroom nearly every day it was times when they would show photos or when they
showed the videos of her on the floor it was as if your heart was breaking all over
again you measure the proximity of matching DNA detective Tina Luellen and genealogist chery point along with other
crime lab technicians walk the jury through the process of the genealogy and the DNA match Texas Ranger
B and detective Aaron Luellen go through the final stages of the investigation all carefully coordinated
to make the chain of evidence airtight and on the last day the prosecution calls all the women who had
been scarred by foremen and were alive to say so he was your supervisor that's correct an old coworker and when I ever
I opened up the drawer there was a pair of handcuffs a former fiance who found pictures of young girls he said to
me that he had them so that he could fantasize about taking their virginity his ex-wife Diana Co who agreed to
testify did you think at the time you were in love with the defendant yes when you saw him at trial how hard was that
for you that was very hard and uh it was very embarrassing to me and and I do feel ashamed and it was during the trial
that Diana learned about what really happened to that 19-year-old woman in the months before she and Foreman
married it was the most terrific thing that I could have ever heard I couldn't imagine what she went
through and was so brave to get up and say what she said she was the Final witness returning to the night her car
got stuck and Foreman falsely claiming he was a policeman offered to help firsty he tied my hands back he tied
your hands behind your back yes did he threaten to cut your throat if you didn't yes this whole thing took a while
didn't it yes sir I'm sorry what happened then he he took me home did he say something that that you
felt was odd yes he said three things he said stop crying I'm sorry I hope I didn't hurt
you and there was another woman who did not testify but went on the record an alleged victim of Foreman's violence
also a high school friend of Diana who did not press charges she told investigators Foreman attacked her from
behind and put a gun to her head she had indicated back in 85 or ' 86 that he had uh come to her apartment
and knocked on the door and told her that he was having financial and marital problems with Diana and he needed
somebody to talk to and so she let him in prosecutors suspect Foreman used a similar ruse the night he appeared at
cathern Edward's door that's the way we thought he got to Catherine because Katherine was very very Christian very
given very naive and it's a wonderful thing to be except when you're faced with Clayton Foreman I've always
wondered did he say something about me hey it's Clay and you know I need to talk to you something about Diana it's
always I've always wondered but I thought I'll never know after 7 Days of prosecution
testimony the defense calls no Witnesses and attorney Burbank closed you heard different things and reference
to sex things and stuff like that okay still doesn't make him a murder you may not like him because of what people
say but I submit to you they have not proven murder Reasonable Doubt the prosecution
wraps up its case and it's so easy to believe that evil doesn't exist it is here in this courtroom here today these
are things I wish I didn't know exist and I'm sorry I've had to talk to you about it but I didn't bring this
here he did now it would be up to a jury to decide Clayton forman's future Patrick Canal wants them to
remember Katherine Edwards didn't have one and I do pray that Mike and I have done a good job for G and
you I hope we've done our job [Music] is this verdict a unanimous one yes sir it takes less than an hour for the jury
to come back with the verdict we the jury find the defendant guilty Clayton Foreman guilty sentenced
to life for the murder of Catherine Edwards it didn't take long cuz all the evidence was there once it got into the
DNA more or less sealed it for him Larry delhom juror number two says he and his
fellow jurors had very little to talk about he had no defense that it wasn't him there's no denial
there it felt like hey this thing does work for helenah Adams finally some justice for a favorite teacher after all
I wanted to close that door finally she meant so much to me and when you heard those words guilty
what was that like for you we did it was it was it emotional we did it this whole case was
emotional for detectives Tina and Aaron lellan genealogist chery a point and Ranger Brandon be say it was the ending
they had all worked for but it left lots of room for reflection and I think the justice system has worked and he's where
he needs to be but to say that that's honestly Justice for Mary Catherine it's frustrating to know that he lived a life
and she should have been able to to live a life and have children and go on that
is frustrating I never use the word closure I never use the word justice there's no
justice he got to live 26 years he got to get married he got to have kids she did not there's no justice I don't
believe there is such a thing as closure not on this Earth Beth always wanted a confession they all wanted to know why
70% of the time you're not going to get that and and 100% of the time you're not
going to get the whole story anyway we all wanted those answers and because he was spineless and
didn't talk to us or give us any information we'll never know the details behind it and everyone was still reeling
asking themselves how it was that Clayton Foreman walked among them and no one saw his monstrous core all those
years hiding in plain sight so when we identified him I actually have mutual friends with him that were in shock they
could could not believe it was him because they knew he was such a nice guy he had fooled so many people for so
long I personally believe that there are more victims out there we just hadn't found them yet I find it hard to believe
that he has not assaulted other people I I really feel with all my with all of my
being I feel that there are others and how do you think he was able to conceal this darker so that's the part I cannot
I can't I I don't understand it I don't know how he could like I always say it's like Dr
Jackal and Mr Hyde I have my own speculations I think somebody I think some people demon possessed or or demon
influenced because that's pure evil there's nothing else you can explain that's just evil I was married to a
monster is what I was married to and didn't know it didn't know it I think if if he wouldn't have married me
she'd still be alive but in the wake of the trial it was time to turn away from foreman and
remember Catherine Edwards as she was and in her own words wow I didn't realize the timing on this
one December the 11th 1994 she was murdered a month later I have given my life to God and I will
follow his path for me that gives me a feeling of great relief and peace the human spirit is
stronger than anything that can happen to it the vibrant Beloved School teacher in her prime gone far too soon if you
could talk directly with Mary Katherine Edwards what would you wish to tell her my gosh
um I think I would say I love her and I'm sorry I'm so sorry this happened to her and um I was honored to be given the
privilege to help give answers very honored very honored she was a very special person she really
was unfortunately it introduced me to real loss to trauma to fear to grief to heartbreak
[Music] it's all the feelings a podcast I watch they they would always ask aspiring
lawyers when did you fall in love with law and I think that's when I fell in love with law in the second grade when
clayt foran took my light from me helenah is a student once again she's studying for
her Masters in criminal justice and plans to apply to law school a tribute to her
[Music] [Music] teacher CBS next Saturday a young mother is murdered she got shot in the car at
first this seemed like an open and shut case but finding the killer sh Police Department come out your hands up was
only the beginning it was only half the story 48 hours is all new CBS next Saturday 109 Central and streaming on
Paramount [Music] plus welcome back to a new episode of postmortem I'm CBS News correspondent
Natalie Morales I'm filling in for anarie green she is on assignment right now for 48 hours but I am here with the
fabulous producer of this hour Jenna Jackson and Mary Murphy to talk about our most recent report on the case of
Mary Katherine Edwards who was murdered in the mid1 1990s in Bowmont Texas and her case went cold for decades Mary and
Jenna thanks so much for joining me today to break down the case and all the work that went into putting this
together thanks for having us yeah now remember for you who are listening if you haven't listened to this 48 Hours
episode yet you can find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed just go take a listen then come
right back here for our conversation Mary and Jenna we can all agree that this is probably one of the
most remarkable cold cases I think that we have worked on right oh yeah I mean and the components between the familial
testing and the family tree just growing and growing and growing and what everybody had to do to whittle it down
and then there's just this kind of astonishing twist that no one could have predicted and you have a husband wife
detective team which is always fun and then you throw a Texas Ranger in the mix which what could we love more than that
I'll tell you I loved interviewing a Texas Ranger I mean he walked in with his faux crck embossed cowboy boots with
the uh Texas Ranger seal on it he had the ring he had the Hat I mean it was the full effect and the great
storytelling I mean Ranger best is is incredible Ranger best could have his own show yeah
he really could I mean he's the real deal and he's so committed I mean he realized when there was a major
breakthrough with the Golden State killer case that there was a possibility of using genetic genealogy perhaps to
solve some of these cases and this one immediately came to mind now just to remind those who are listening it all
started back in 1995 in Bowmont Texas 31-year-old school teacher Mary Katherine Edwards was found murdered
sexually assaulted and handcuffed in her own bathroom notably though the handcuffs that were used on her were
police grade which detective Luellen said it was sort of like a whispered ghost story in the hallways at Police
Headquarters he described it to us like people were trying to figure out who could it have been did this person have
a connection to the police but you know police were never really able to identify the perpetrator at the time
although did have DNA samples from the crime scene and those samples were so carefully preserved which was so key uh
however the forensic science was not Advanced enough yet so let's talk about genetic genealogy and how it's become a
game Cher in cases like this and specifically how it factored into this investigation I mean I think it's pretty
incredible that back in 95 first of all they preserved the evidence so well that
they still had enough DNA you know years later to do all of this testing not to mention the fact that they had tested
multiple people over the years the detectives wouldn't give up they kept going back to this case so the fact that
this genetic genealogy technology has come so far that they were able to put this DNA in the system and come
up with almost 7500 names I love when um detective Ain lellan says you know by the time time it got bigger than my
computer screen my wife had to jump in because he was like my mind was blown basically and what they did was a very
multi-layered complicated process where they were doing the family tree but they
were also researching the birth and death records Googling with certain things in mind like who's in education
who's near Bowmont Texas all things that they thought could lead them to the person who had the DNA at the crime
scene but to build it up and down and sideways and then have it be almost 7500 people to get to one to get to the
person they became sure was was the killer that was really pretty amazing and an unbelievable husband and wife
Tina yeah I was gonna say Tina wasn't even assigned to the case she's an auto crimes detective he's the homicide guy
and suddenly she sees him floundering in front of the family tree and she already
knows a little bit about it and so she just jumps in and the obsession level just goes off the chart and she's up all
night you know and not sleeping she knows there's a killer out there and she will not stop she goes into Mary
Katherine Diaries there's nothing the Tina didn't do to try to get to the bottom of this yeah because they knew
timing was of the essence because this is now more than two decades later so they don't know you know at the time
like how old is this killer is he still alive so it's sort of a Race Against Time right and so it really came down to
the detective work the incredible two Dynamic Duos that we saw in this hour which I love as you mentioned there's
the men work in the case and then there's the women as part of sort of the sleuthing team so Tina's building out
the tree and she keeps running into this family Nam La point and then she runs into Shir keeps coming up Shira point
and she's saying who is this person why is she everywhere and could she be related to her suspect so she gets Aaron
to do the calling Aaron calls her up and not only is she uploading her family tree and it turns out there may be some
distant connection she's also a professional genetic genealogist so suddenly they have this new person who
knows how to work these cases has done at least one with the Texas Killing Fields where she identified a woman in
that case who had been buried along the highway with all those other VI and they just Tina and Shir to this day
are really great friends it was a huge connection and they and they even described Shir was driving almost
through bont so they met and and he they said we sat we met in a coffee shop and
we were both wearing like the same cat eye glasses I mean this this sort of Mind meld was just it was just
incredible so these two had to had to meet and it's a bond for ever that they'll have and as you said Mary
they're trying to sort of put the pieces together who's still alive but also who
lived in Bowman around that time who went to possibly that High School even and then they passed off their info to
detective Aaron Luellen and Texas Ranger Brandon best to then try to track down any potential leads in person what I
loved is you know as we talked to Ranger best how he told me he and Aaron they would then have to knock on people's
doors and say you know will you give us a sample of your DNA which is I mean that's not an easy thing to do in this
day and age people are are you know very skeptical and and probably not going to
want to do that but they had a Charming way of going about it I want to play for
you a clip from that hour take a listen when we would sense um anxiety in someone Aaron would immediately tell
them hey who do you want to play you in the movie and they would look at Aaron like he was crazy and say um what are
you talking about well this guy's a Texas Ranger everything they do turns into a movie who do you want to play
your role in this movie that calmed him down every time and I of course do out there hey I've already got Brad Pit so
you know you can't you can't be Brad cuz Brad's playing me you know I do think there's a movie script in this although
I I told Ranger best I think he's more of a Matt Damon type he was fine with that too he was
fine it really worked though um how they were able to get people to to give their
DNA up and also the relay and the teamwork among the four of them was really very extraordinary to watch and
the way they work together I mean at one point branded best says to you Natalie um and it doesn't make the show but he
talks about what it's like to be a Cold Case Investigator how they're just a different bre you know and that many
great policemen have already looked at a crime but the cold case people come in and they look at it sideways and he
called it like looking it at it from the 10 Mile Mark you're just get above it look look at everything and that's what
they all did together yeah and it was really cool too how far Technologies Advanced but you
still can't do it without good oldfashioned detective work yeah what what is so incredible I mean this was a
cold case for more than two decades and when it came to they were able to solve the crime and Crack the Case in a little
less than three months right they were working at a fast and furious Pace though yeah Tina actually said in test
that had she build for overtime it would have amounted to something like $50,000
so that's a lot of hours and then it turns out that sharah hits Pay Dirt with the DNA and she is able to build out
that family tree and get it to a point where she paired it down to two brothers Michael and Clayton foreman and it turns
out they went to the same high school as Katherine Edwards so what did they find
when they looked into Clayton and why how did that eliminate Michael well that's a very dramatic
moment Erin Luellen describes just running a check on both of them to see if they have a criminal record and
Michael is completely clean as a whistle but Clayton Foreman has a conviction for
aggravated assaults there are some similarities to what happened to Mary Catherine and suddenly they are off to
the races this is our guy we we are on the right track at that point they felt like okay this has to be our guy you
know the mo is the same this is too close and so they find Clayton Foreman he's living in Ohio at the time and they
contact the police in Ohio and say will you do us a favor basically and go grab his trash from the curb in front of his
house so they did they brought back the trash to Bowmont Texas had it tested in the DPS lab and it was a match so then
those guys are like okay let's go get him yeah um we saw the remarkable police interrogation I mean that was sort of a
masterpiece in in police work and so fascinating to see how they sort of wo through the interrogation and then kind
of cornered Clayton Foreman so Ranger best and detective lell and they essentially tag team the whole thing but
then comes the real Clincher of the moment there right Mary yeah I mean these guys so much
heart went into what they were doing so they finally after all their hard work and all these years they've they've got
an arrest warrant for them and they have one thing just one more thing they really need to do and they worked it out
with the prosecutors they brought the very handcuffs that had bound Mary Katherine the night she died and they
slapped him on Clayton foreman and that was such a moment when when Ranger best talked to about it he just says it felt
so good and that we had done something for Catherine it's a moment he said he was doing that for her as if he was able
to physically take the handcuffs off of her when she was murdered and to put them back on the guy who was responsible
for killing her I mean it was a huge deal and definitely for them a moment where I think they felt you know finally
job done and so symbolic it was just this sort of parting thing they they had to
do welcome back and now to the big twist in this case we interviewed Katherine's
childhood friend Diana Co who had once been married to Clayton foran Clayton foran was Catherine's killer Jen I think
listeners would be really surprised to know I mean you you were the booking producer you help helped get us all
these great people and characters but Diana took a long time she only agreed to to do this interview with us just
days before the broadcast aired how difficult was it to convince her to do it it took a while it was difficult her
brother scooter who was wonderful and her sister were really trying to convince her that she had nothing to be
embarrassed about that she was a victim in this as well and that you know people's me to hear that this guy was
hiding in plain sight and that none of them knew it I mean they described him being at Christmases and Easter Diana
and Clayton Foreman had a child together she had no idea I mean there were some signs of that maybe he wasn't the most
truthful person that he wasn't the greatest husband but no signs of violence ever I just have to say my hat
is completely off to Jenna what she did and the delicacy that you must have when you're dealing
with victims and um Jenna just did a remarkable job with just respect and gained their trust they were a very nice
family I mean Natalie your interview with Diana and the siblings was just incredible it was great that she finally
felt comfortable talking and she told me after it was very cathartic for her well
and I think she recognizes and she realizes that if there are other victims of his out there you know she was doing
this for them as well she wants them to be able to have a voice and to be able to come forward and she's Feels by
telling her story perhaps they will come forward too yeah I think that was very important to her and one of the deciding
factors but she did say she did feel some guilt for being the connection between Clayton and and her friends
Katherine and Alice and because they were the bridesmaids at their wedding she felt like perhaps she introduced
Katherine and into his orbit so there's that heartbreaking moment when Diana said I think if he wouldn't have married
me she'd still be alive I mean that just gutted me when she said that yeah that was so it was wrenching just wrenching
and then she had to testify at the trial she was incredibly Brave um so were all
the women who came in and testified you have to get up on the stand and look at him while you're up there testifying and
I think it was very emotional for Diana because she hadn't had to face him since
she found this out it was still very surreal to her but she also found out so many other things that he had done and
he had had so many other victims who had lived to tell what he had done to them before she married Clayton Foreman she
knew there had been something in his past but she didn't know really what had happened right Jenna it it was a
chilling moment for Diana later at trial when she realized before she married Clayton this woman who was a fellow
classmate of hers at the same high school had been raped by him and this woman came forward and testified you
know she hadn't spoken about this in almost 30 years as well it was incredibly hard and painful for her to
come forward but for Diana realizing that this had actually happened and that her future husband explained it way is
it's just he said she said misunderstanding and she believed in because she had no reason not to and
just hearing that woman's testimony was very hard for Diana I think the the hardest part of watching some of the
testimony I think was seeing Katherine's identical twin sister Allison up there on the stand and decades later how much
she still misses and loves and feels that connection to her sister and we should say Allison declined an interview
with us but we did hear her on the stand I want to play a clip from that I didn't
know what happened to her it was just that she was gone was all I knew the pain and the loss still so palpable four
years later I had a daughter and her name is Catherine Catherine a after my sister and she never got to know
her that's the hardest part when I saw the first time that testimony I mean I cried you can't watch this and not get
emotional heartbreaking I think that the identical twin bond is so sort of deeply
ingrained it's just got to be awful it was awful to listen to her and see her and and we point out um as you're
watching her testimony that it's not just you know hearing but also you see the possibility of what Catherine would
have looked like you know there she is Allison at 60 and she is the spitting image of what could have been I mean
they looked exactly alike to to the point where they would played pranks um and do a little Parent Trap switch and
they would switch places with each other and no one would know I mean we discovered there was a yearbook photo
that was mislabeled as Katherine and Allison and it in fact was the reverse the story went that Katherine would tell
her young school children if you see me on the street and say hello and I don't answer it's because it's my sister out
she didn't want them thinking they were ignored well Clayton's defense attorney said in his closing arguments that while
he may have done terrible things to all of these women it didn't make him a murderer are authorities though looking
now into other possible cold cases to see if he may be connected to them I mean I think all of them said they
believe there's the possibility right yeah they all suspect that there are more victims that that either have not
come forward or that they haven't found and so there is an ongoing look at all the places he lived to see if they can
connect any dots to any unsolved cases yeah and I think these detectives as we saw you know once they
sink their teeth into something they don't give up so they're all pretty committed to making sure his DNA is
loaded into all the systems well on the case of Mary Katherine Edwards it only took the jury less than an hour and they
found Clayton Foreman guilty for capital murder he was sentenced to life in prison but for Tina sharah Brandon and
Aaron who played such a pivotal role in this investigation take us back to when they heard the verdict and how they
reacted Aon said we did it and it was just very emotional because everything about the case was emotional and they
all said a version of yes it's the ending we wanted and yes it's what we worked for but to call it justice for
Mary Katherine is is just too difficult for them because this guy got to roam the Earth and have a family and get
married twice and live a life and Katherine got none of those things so and everybody I think had to go back and
dwell on the fact that he was just as Jenna said hiding in plain sight he was just there and nobody thought twice
about him and I think you know this is one of those cases that everyone said if not for technology advancements and this
incredible genetic genealogy this would never have been solved and these guys are continuing to
solve cases auam Labs who we spoke to who is very You Know instrumental in this case they're continuing to solve
cold cases daily which is incredible well I love how we end the hour um and really it's reflecting on
how Katherine lived her life and the impact she had as a school teacher and we have one of her students who sat
during the trial and was there when the verdict came in and she really wanted to
be there to see Justice um helenah Adams tell us about her connection to her teacher and what it meant for her to
finally see this story you know come to at least a conclusion that she can live with and now move on I think um helenah
I mean she lost her favorite teacher who had been such an impactful part of her life when she was seven years old and
when we were talking to her it was like it was yesterday she was so moved by Miss Edwards as she called her and you
know to the point where like you said Natalie she attended trial every day except for one um she's getting her
Masters in criminal justice right now and plans to go to law school she wants to be a part of the justice system that
finally brought brought this to a close she was very inspired by that so it was incredible to talk to her and I and I
love that Catherine had leaves a legacy of you know young children who she touched who have now grown into
incredible and productive human beings who perhaps could make a difference in the future exactly yeah well Jenna and
Mary thank you once again it was so great working with both of you on this and thanks for taking the time to talk
about the case it was great to work with you Natalie thank you so much thank you
Natalie an Marie is going to be back with you next week with a new postmortem I hope you enjoyed our conversation and
remember to rate and review 48 Hours on Apple podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast and you
can also listen adree on Amazon music wry Plus in the wry app or with a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple podcast
again thank you all for listening

investigators discover a schoolteacher was a bridesmaid at her killer’s wedding.

Watch "Tracking the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondent Natalie Morales and producers Jenna Jackson and Mary Murphy on "Post Mortem" as they examine the DNA technology that cracked the cold case of Mary Catherine Edwards’ murder. They discuss a detective and genetic genealogist who sifted through nearly 7,500 names on a family tree to identify a single killer, Clayton Foreman, and how police and a Texas Ranger arrested him. They also discuss how the Smith & Wesson handcuffs used to bind Mary Catherine came full circle and the revelation that she had been a bridesmaid at the Foremans’ wedding.

00:00 Tracking the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards 41:08 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://apple.co/3ZyUTut

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the murder of Katherine Edwards and the investigation leading to Clayton Foreman's arrest through genetic genealogy.

Key points

The Murder of Katherine Edwards. Katherine Edwards, a beloved teacher, was found murdered in her home in 1995.
DNA Technology Breakthrough. Advancements in genetic genealogy lead to a breakthrough in the cold case investigation.
The Confrontation. Detectives confront Clayton Foreman, the prime suspect, about Katherine's murder.
Clayton Foreman's Arrest. Foreman is arrested for the murder of Catherine Edwards, shocking his ex-wife and family.
Trial Begins for Foreman. Opening arguments commence in the trial of Clayton Foreman, charged with capital murder.
Guilty Verdict. The jury finds Clayton Foreman guilty, sentencing him to life for Catherine's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You don't expect to have this beautiful young single school teacher be murdered.

Brandon Bess expresses disbelief over the case.

4:26WatchFeb 14, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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