00:00:02
[Music] now what your say daughter been murdered she's been murdered we absolutely were obsessed
00:00:14
with this case January 13th 1995 was the last known contact with Catherine she's
00:00:21
handcuffed she's been tortured it was always a big case within the department because it was the
00:00:29
biggest Cas unsolved nobody felt safe anywhere nobody knew if it was a neighbor nobody
00:00:37
knew if it was a police officer because of the handcuffs being used my name is Tina lellan Aaron lellan I'm a detective
00:00:45
I'm a detective at bont Police Department my sister's dead my parents are over there I who's your sister
00:00:51
Catherine Edwards I had no idea who Catherine Edwards was but after I read decades of
00:01:00
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
00:01:08
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
00:01:17
on their lives 25 years later they were always close to me in my heart I'm Diana Co and I was friends
00:01:28
with Catherine and her twin sister Allison since middle school they were so sweet and so funny they had a cute laugh
00:01:38
and everybody just loved them this was not an easy case to crack every free moment I would try to work
00:01:48
this case while still maintaining my case load staying up till midnight every night it just was not going to happen
00:01:55
without the DNA if there was no DNA in this case if that evidence had not been properly maintained Noe we' have never
00:02:02
got there my name is Brandon Beth Sergeant Texas Rangers company a Cold Case team the technology has changed so much
00:02:12
since 1995 by the time we got to Catherine Edwards there were a lot more of these
00:02:18
resources that were available we felt that genetic genealogy was going to be the answer to this case
00:02:24
so you would do the police work you would do the genealogy work yes along with another genealogist my name is
00:02:31
Shera Bruce AR La Point Tina had started a tree and we really think alike and worked together to build this tree with
00:02:40
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
00:02:48
what I found just back and forth I blew her phone up trying to get to the bottom
00:02:54
we had to narrow down the different family members to find the direct link lineage of our
00:03:02
suspect is this someone that knew her is this someone that was a stranger she had
00:03:07
some you know ex-boyfriends there was always the worry that it was a police officer some criminal is not going to
00:03:15
have a pair of Smith and Wesson handcuffs there was no sign of forced entry at the time right
00:03:21
right did we believe it was someone she knew yeah