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this week's 48 Hours looks into the unsolved murder of a Texas school teacher in 1995 Mary Katherine Edwards
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was found dead in her bathroom the investigation was cold for 26 years but recent advances in forensic science
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helped police identify her killer and discover her surprising connection to her 48 Hours contributor Natalie Morales
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gives us an early look at her [Music] report tracking the killer of Catherine Edwards meant revisiting the 1995 crime
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scene 911 what your Martin say her parents called 911 my daughter's been murdered she's
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been murdered for Texas Ranger Brandon Bez almost everything about the case was different it was an unusual crime scene
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she's over the bathtub and she's obviously been assaulted and handcuffed behind her back were they police grade
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yeah cuffs there was always the worry that it was a police officer the DNA left at the scene did not match anyone
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they tested and the case went cold there was no sign of forced entry at the time
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right right did we believe it was someone she knew yeah more than 25 years later using the carefully preserved DNA
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from the crime scene and genetic genealogy best husband and wife detective team Aaron and Tina lellan and
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gen ologist Cheryl a point worked Around the Clock staying up till midnight every
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night it just was not going to happen without the DNA after almost 3 months of ups and downs and nearly non-stop work
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sherah hit pager honestly you know he was never on the radar Brandon B how you know good the suspect was not a police
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officer but he was someone Catherine knew hair on the back of my neck stood up I'm like this is our guy turns out
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Catherine was a bridesmaid at his wedding an absolute shock to everyone including
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the woman he married his ex-wife Diana Co I almost fell to the ground I was just like oh my God I oh God I can't
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believe he's done [Music] this Natalie Morales joins us now good morning so let's jump right into it how
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were investigators able to connect the murderer's DNA to the crime scene well n was from building out that family tree
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they had the suspect's name and it turns out he had a criminal record they were able to track him down in Ohio they had
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local police in Ohio do what they call a trash run where they took his trash and
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from the trash they were able to collect a piece of an item that they were able to gather his DNA they matched that DNA
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to the DNA at the crime scene and that's when they knew they definitively had their man without giving everything away
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what else can you tell us about the murderer well as you heard heard I mean from what people knew about him they
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thought he was the nice guy back in high school that everybody knew and loved well it turns out he had a criminal past
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but um you saw that he did have a connection he in fact was uh his wife was friends uh with Catherine and
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Allison her identical twin sister and Katherine and Allison had been bridesmaids at his wedding so
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investigators at that point realized there was a connection between them yeah um How did the Edward's family respon to
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finding out about him 26 years later well sadly uh the Edwards family her parents had had passed away since then
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but uh her sister Allison gave emotional testimony at trial she is now 61 years old and I said she's an identical twin
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so seeing her was somewhat haunting imagining what could have been what Katherine Edwards would be like now you
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hear these stories about the murderer being closer than you think and this is an example for that Natalie Morales
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can't wait to watch this we appreciate you and you can watch Natalie's of course you can watch Natalie's report
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tracking the killer of Mary Katherine Edwards on 48 hours tomorrow night at 109 Central here on CBS and streaming of
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course on Paramount Plus