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[Music] now would your Mar say my daughter's been murdered she's been murdered we absolutely were obsessed
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with this case January 13th 1995 was the last known contact with Catherine she's
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handcuffed she's been tortured it was always a big case within the department because it was the
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biggest case unsolved nobody felt safe anywhere nobody knew if it was a neighbor nobody
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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
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a detective at bont Police Department my sister's dead my parents are over there
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and I who's your sister Catherine Edwards I had no no idea who Catherine Edwards was but after I read Decades of
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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
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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
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on their lives 25 years later they were always close to me in my heart I'm d Diana Co and I was friends
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with Katherine and her twin sister Allison since middle school they were so sweet and so funny they had a cute laugh
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and everybody just loved them this was not an easy case to crack every free moment I would try to work
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this case while still maintaining my case load staying up till midnight every night it just was not going to happen
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without the DNA if there was no DNA in this case if that evidence had not been properly maintained no we'd never got
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there my name is Brandon bth Sergeant Texas Rangers company a Cold Case team the technology has changed so much
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since 1995 by the time we got to Katherine Edwards there were a lot more of these
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resources that were available we felt that genetic genealogy was going to be the answer to this case
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so you would do the police work you would do the genealogy work yes along with another genealogist my name is Shar
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brard La Point Tina had started a tree and we really think alike and work together to build this tree with
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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
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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
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family members to find the direct lineage of our suspect is this someone that knew her is
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this someone that was a stranger she had some you know ex-boyfriends there was always the worry that it was a police
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officer some criminal is not going to have a pair of Smith and Wesson handcuffs there was no sign of forced
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entry at the time right right did we believe it was someone she knew yeah [Music]
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[Music] the thing that really got me about the case was you don't expect to have the
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this beautiful young single school teacher be murdered in her own home she was such a great person came
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from such a great family for Texas Ranger Brandon Bess almost everything about the Mary
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Katherine Edwards case was different it was an unusual crime scene she's over the bathtub and she's obviously been
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sexually assaulted and handcuffed behind her back were they police Le grade yeah
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handcuffs handcuffs have always been a key piece of this January 14th 1995 it was a Saturday Catherine as most
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people called her didn't show up for a family lunch and she wasn't answering her phone when her mother and father
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went to check on her they had to see what no parent ever should what's happened ma'am we came over here and
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found her please send some okay we're sending someone ma'am and she but she shot or what uh we can't
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tell Catherine was 31 my mom is the one that told me Diana Co remembers hearing the news and so she
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said have you not heard about Catherine and I go my Catherine she had been friends with Catherine and her twin
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sister Allison since middle school I was new to the area so I knew no one and they just started talking talking to me
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asked me my name and we were friends from that point forward the sisters both School teachers look so much alike
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everyone had trouble telling them apart especially their young students Miss Edwards who was my second grade teacher
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helenah Adams remembers being in her classroom most of us grew up in a pretty tough environment and being around Miss
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Edwards was a joy originally they believed that she might have been drowned but there wasn't
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enough fluid in her lungs so then it kind of became a Suffocation by compression I just remember being told
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that our teacher wouldn't make it to class that day everyone just crying early investigators could not
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piece together what happened but those police grade handcuffs were a big clue that was almost talked about like a
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ghost story around a campire detective Aaron Luellen maybe it was somebody in law enforcement or somebody in security
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could it have been somebody that we knew in the weeks after the murder police focused on tracing the serial numbers of
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the handcuffs but came up empty they also zeroed in on an old boyfriend David Perry they focused on
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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
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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
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on until forensic science changed genetic genealogy technolog genetic genealogy by 2018 there was a way to
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take the DNA left at a crime scene and search for biological relatives a program Jed match scarfs up all the DNA
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from people who agreed to share it with law enforcement and upload it when they use sites like ancestry.com in 23 and me
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Ranger best approached me and he asked if I thought we had a case that would fit the bill for that type of
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investigation I said absolutely I know the perfect case for this and it was the kath Edwards case so in April 2020 the
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DNA from Katherine Edwards crime scene went to aam a lab outside of Houston for testing there they would give us
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familial matches and from there we would start trying to build a family tree to get us closer to our suspect yeah but
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the number of names to pursue was overwhelming when the family tree began to grow beyond my computer screen I
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started to get a little bit confused and that's when Tina jumped on board aon's wife Tina an auto crimes detective began
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using her off hours to help sort through it the matches were all cinjun cjun ancestry coming from the Louisiana area
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yes particularly Kaplan Louisiana so Tina went back to Catherine's journals looking for Clues to see if I could see
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a Cajun name that jumped out to me I did find a few French names and they were quickly eliminated and nowhere in our
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tree and as she was building out the branches one of the names on the family tree kept coming
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up Le Point as I'm researching the matches and building my trees and you're researching other people's trees I kept
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noticing Sher Le Point had built that tree and then I'm working some more I do some more research well shery Le Point
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built this tree and I'm like is she related to our suspect I had no idea who she was this is actually my
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great-grandmother Claudia and when they called her they found out Shar had been building her family tree it was my
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family's DNA kits that I had uploaded to Jed match and then they found out something that changed the course of the
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investigation sherah was known professionally as the Gene Hunter and already skilled at working these cases
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she'd identified one of the women buried along Interstate Highway 45 in the Texas
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Killing Fields case and she agreed to lend her expertise I told him that I was willing
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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
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cousins in this tree and I'm thinking oh my gosh you know could one of my grandfather's sisters grandchildren have
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have done this they lived here in Texas it was a complicated multi-layered process using publicly available DNA
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birth and death records finding parents siblings and cousins as you build those trees you look for information that is
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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
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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
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sideways there were almost 7500 names that's a lot of hours a lot of work and a lot of people in a family
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tree all the while Tina hardly slept working through most nights knowing there was a killer still out there every
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day counted every day mattered I need did to get it [Music] solved hunker down at their computers
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day after day constantly back and forth on the phone Tina lellan and genealogist
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chery Point are quickly becoming great Partners she was a team player from jump never had met me we talked so often that
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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
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husband Aaron and Texas Ranger Brandon Bess so from that point me Brandon Bess would drive around Texas and go talk to
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these people convincing someone to give their DNA up to give a piece of themselves up to you in homicide and
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investigation can be very difficult when we would sense um anxiety in someone Aaron would immediately tell
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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
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talking about well this guy's a Texas Ranger everything they do turns into a movie who do you want to play your role
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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
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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
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may actually be a killer who knows and every one of these cases that I've worked using DNA and genetic genealogy
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you have at least one person usually two or three that says you know what I had that weird Uncle Joe once the uploads
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were compared to the Killer's DNA if the amount of shared genetic material was low they knew it was a dead end there
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were times when we would come across a name and I'm like you get that the the butterflies in your stomach like hey
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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
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non-stop work sharah hit Pay Dirt it was about 10:30 at night she was working a family line very distantly related to
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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
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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
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the same school Catherine did at around the same time I put the names in the tree and I
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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
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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
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yes what were you saying this is them we found them just didn't know which one okay it's either Michael Foreman or
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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
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prior conviction for the sexual assault the hair on the back of my neck stood up
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I'm like this is our guy in 1981 a 19-year-old woman told police that clay Foreman bound her hands
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and raped her she had also gone to Forest Park High School where Clayton was the manager of the football team
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Foreman was convicted but was given probation and paid a fine but he did not have to give a DNA
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sample at that time this was back in the early ' 80s we didn't have sex offender
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registry uh no DNA database and then they found another connection it went all the way back to Diana Co Catherine's
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friend from middle school in high school Diana fell madly in love her boyfriend had graduated three years ahead of her
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and they got engaged he was so kind he had the most wonderful personality and when she started
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planning her wedding she immediately turned to her old friends Catherine and Allison and they were one of the first
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ones I thought of as a bridesmaid and and I asked them and they said Diaz and the groom the man Diana Co
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married back in 1982 now he was their number one suspect Clayton Foreman she in fact did know him yes in
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hindsight there were signs when Diana found out about Clayton's legal troubles the wedding was less than 3 months
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away and the wedding invitations had already been mailed out mhm and I said right
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I said oh there's no way but she never got any details and her fianceé explained it away he kept telling me it
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it was a big misunderstanding and so in my mind I thought well he must be telling the truth because if he got
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arrested he's not in jail but you didn't really believe it was rap right Diana's
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Sister Anne and her brother scooter were not so sure and neither were their parents parents who wanted her to call
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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
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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
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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
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went I went through with it Diana and Clayton stayed married for a little more than 11 years they had a son
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the relationship began to fray over for and lying about their finances and it ended after he had an affair and looking
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back Diana can see that he had an unhealthy fascination with police officers and the tools of their
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trade like handcuffs I remember that he had ordered those handcuffs well he had them hung
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over the rearview mirror and I I didn't think anything of it when Catherine was killed they were
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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
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I said somebody has murdered Catherine and and he goes oh really just like no emotion when we hung the phone
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up I can remember because I was like kind of squinting and kind of like going that's kind of odd with all the
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mounting evidence Foreman needed to be found he was 60 and no longer living in Bowmont they quickly tracked him to
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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
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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
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ensure that it's the the right guy correct uh so that's what they did they surveilled his house and then when
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snatched a bag of trash and sent it to me uh so I brought that stuff to Houston to the DPS crime
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lab and from there they tested it the likelihood that the DNA belonged to Clayton foran was a big number
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461 septillion it doesn't get better than that says Cheryl a point I mean you can't fight those odds you cannot fight
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those off and that was all they needed I got a text from a a DPS lab technician and she
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said go get his ass Aaron lellan and Brandon beess were about to hop a plane to Ohio ready to
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face the man they felt sure had killed Catherine Mr and while they were doing that Tina
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pays a visit to Diana Co did they tell you we had they had DNA though Tina told you that oh yeah yeah
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and I just went oh my God please don't tell me it was Clay I almost fell to the ground I was
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just like oh my God I oh God I can't believe he's done this what do you think of sharing your
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DNA with law enforcement to help solve a murder chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X
00:20:44
when Texas Ranger Brandon Bess and detective Aaron Luellen arrive at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office to
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confront Clayton foran they have a cover story it's about a lost item from one of
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Foreman's Uber rides we go in under the uh under the ruse of someone had left uh a purse in his car
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so he came in voluntarily to talk about a purse that was in the car it was April
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29th 2021 26 years after Katherine Edwards was murdered and they are sure they are
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sitting in front of the man who murdered her and we're asking you to visit with us about a crime that we're
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investigating okay did he immediately go uhoh no he didn't so the crime that we're looking at is the murder of Mary
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Katherine Edwards and she was murdered in 1995 I guess he pretty quickly realized
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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
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Allison were actually in your wedding right and 1982 82 okay do you ever remember anyone ever coming to you or
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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
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a bunch of hard Corners he claimed that he didn't even know that she was dead you didn't know that um Katherine
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Edwards was murdered no did not do you remember them from school do you remember the girls from
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school not really cuz they were freshman when you were a senior yes sir okay so on Mary Edwards Mary craft cther Edwards
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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
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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
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denying you know in these DNA cases when you whether you're going to get a confession or not you want to build up
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that background of hey did you know them number one did y'all have much acquaintance with them or was it just
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like a high school friend thing how did you know him there were bridesmaides for
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my Mike's life that's right did you ever go on a date never dated all the way up to did you ever
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have sex with this person never obviously had sex with her no never never did you go to college together did
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you do all everything was a no and we had those denials several times and then so towards the end of the interview we
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asked him well if all those things are true can you explain how your DNA ended up on her and on her her bed
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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
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made a DNA and I think that foreman knew enough about DNA that he thought he would have been
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caught already he knew that he had never submitted his DNA he had no clue that he
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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
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close all right that crime scene was process really well and your DNA was on Catherine's bed and was inside
00:24:07
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
00:24:14
okay um and that's by you putting it there okay do you understand that do you understand the implications of that the
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day that you died the night that she died your DNA is and her and your DNA is on her bed
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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
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of your mouth I want you to think very hard about that okay there's two people that know that
00:24:45
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
00:24:55
completely and tell us how did that I'm not going to say anything if I need an attorney
00:25:07
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
00:25:16
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
00:25:22
probably see us grinning at each other you have all your stuff that he thinks he's walking out of here
00:25:28
he thinks he's fixing to leave here so as he got out down the hallway headed towards the elevator we stopped
00:25:35
him and arrested him for the murder of cathine Edwards and after all those years and
00:25:40
all that work Aaron lellan and Brandon Bess had one thing left they needed to do uh if you remember back when we were
00:25:48
talking about the crime scene she was handcuffed so we had talked to the DA's office beforehand and got permission to
00:25:53
use those handcuffs the very handcuffs that bound Catherine the night she died how did it feel to put those handcuffs
00:26:01
on him very good there a moment I'll never forget you feel like you got to do something for
00:26:07
Catherine you know like physically got to do for her is take those cuffs that bound her when she was murdered and put
00:26:14
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
00:26:20
it felt good even though they had their suspicions about him the news that Clayton Foreman was arrested for the
00:26:27
murder of Katherine Edwards was still a shock for his ex-wife Diana Co and her siblings an and scooter and she calls me
00:26:35
and she says clay murder Catherine and I said do what your brain doesn't because it it knows him as
00:26:46
a person as a as as somebody that you you know your brother-in-law or your brother that was that
00:26:55
was that was hard yeah I thought of Allison and I just I I just couldn't believe
00:27:13
it my my thought immediately went to Allison and I just said Allison oh my God she's going to
00:27:22
hate me [Music] [Music] opening arguments began this morning Forman is charged with capital murder
00:27:44
guilty or not guilty not guilty March 12th 2024 this is not going to be easy uh for
00:27:52
a lot of people CU it's been a long time com nearly 30 years after Catherine Edwards was found dead in her townhouse
00:27:59
you got to remember this happened in 1995 Bowmont prosecutor Patrick canal and his colleagues Mike lar and sunny
00:28:08
ahart are ready for trial you're going to get to learn a lot about DNA and they're extremely confident about their
00:28:14
case against Clayton Foreman Mr Burbank you want to make an opening statement at this time honor Tom
00:28:21
Burbank is defending foremen he didn't really have anything and he knew it next witness the prosecution calls
00:28:28
Catherine's twin sister Allison we wanted to remind everyone this is about Catherine and her family and that's the
00:28:36
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
00:28:45
picture of my sister Catherine reliving the day she lost Catherine and then the next thing we know you know my mom and
00:28:52
dad drove up and told us what I mean they there were nowhere she was dead that was all
00:28:59
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
00:29:06
all I knew the pain and the loss still so palpable four years later I had a daughter and her name is
00:29:14
Catherine Catherine after my sister and she never got to know her that's the hardest
00:29:26
part it was a lie helenah Adams Katherine Edward's student when she was seven and now 37 sat in the
00:29:34
courtroom nearly every day it was times when they would show photos or when they
00:29:41
showed the videos of her on the floor it was as if your heart was breaking all over
00:29:48
again you measure the proximity of matching DNA detective Tina Luellen and genealogist chery point along with other
00:29:56
crime lab technicians walk the jury through the process of the genealogy and the DNA match Texas Ranger
00:30:05
B and detective Aaron Luellen go through the final stages of the investigation all carefully coordinated
00:30:11
to make the chain of evidence airtight and on the last day the prosecution calls all the women who had
00:30:19
been scarred by foremen and were alive to say so he was your supervisor that's correct an old coworker and when I ever
00:30:28
I opened up the drawer there was a pair of handcuffs a former fiance who found pictures of young girls he said to
00:30:37
me that he had them so that he could fantasize about taking their virginity his ex-wife Diana Co who agreed to
00:30:46
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
00:30:53
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
00:31:03
that Diana learned about what really happened to that 19-year-old woman in the months before she and Foreman
00:31:10
married it was the most terrific thing that I could have ever heard I couldn't imagine what she went
00:31:20
through and was so brave to get up and say what she said she was the Final witness returning to the night her car
00:31:29
got stuck and Foreman falsely claiming he was a policeman offered to help firsty he tied my hands back he tied
00:31:42
your hands behind your back yes did he threaten to cut your throat if you didn't yes this whole thing took a while
00:31:50
didn't it yes sir I'm sorry what happened then he he took me home did he say something that that you
00:32:01
felt was odd yes he said three things he said stop crying I'm sorry I hope I didn't hurt
00:32:12
you and there was another woman who did not testify but went on the record an alleged victim of Foreman's violence
00:32:20
also a high school friend of Diana who did not press charges she told investigators Foreman attacked her from
00:32:27
behind and put a gun to her head she had indicated back in 85 or ' 86 that he had uh come to her apartment
00:32:36
and knocked on the door and told her that he was having financial and marital problems with Diana and he needed
00:32:44
somebody to talk to and so she let him in prosecutors suspect Foreman used a similar ruse the night he appeared at
00:32:51
cathern Edward's door that's the way we thought he got to Catherine because Katherine was very very Christian very
00:32:58
given very naive and it's a wonderful thing to be except when you're faced with Clayton Foreman I've always
00:33:05
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
00:33:16
always I've always wondered but I thought I'll never know after 7 Days of prosecution
00:33:22
testimony the defense calls no Witnesses and attorney Burbank closed you heard different things and reference
00:33:30
to sex things and stuff like that okay still doesn't make him a murder you may not like him because of what people
00:33:39
say but I submit to you they have not proven murder Reasonable Doubt the prosecution
00:33:47
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
00:33:54
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
00:34:00
here he did now it would be up to a jury to decide Clayton forman's future Patrick Canal wants them to
00:34:09
remember Katherine Edwards didn't have one and I do pray that Mike and I have done a good job for G and
00:34:21
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
00:34:50
to come back with the verdict we the jury find the defendant guilty Clayton Foreman guilty sentenced
00:34:58
to life for the murder of Catherine Edwards it didn't take long cuz all the evidence was there once it got into the
00:35:07
DNA more or less sealed it for him Larry delhom juror number two says he and his
00:35:13
fellow jurors had very little to talk about he had no defense that it wasn't him there's no denial
00:35:20
there it felt like hey this thing does work for helenah Adams finally some justice for a favorite teacher after all
00:35:32
I wanted to close that door finally she meant so much to me and when you heard those words guilty
00:35:42
what was that like for you we did it was it was it emotional we did it this whole case was
00:35:51
emotional for detectives Tina and Aaron lellan genealogist chery a point and Ranger Brandon be say it was the ending
00:35:59
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
00:36:06
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
00:36:17
and she should have been able to to live a life and have children and go on that
00:36:21
is frustrating I never use the word closure I never use the word justice there's no
00:36:28
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
00:36:36
believe there is such a thing as closure not on this Earth Beth always wanted a confession they all wanted to know why
00:36:44
70% of the time you're not going to get that and and 100% of the time you're not
00:36:48
going to get the whole story anyway we all wanted those answers and because he was spineless and
00:37:00
didn't talk to us or give us any information we'll never know the details behind it and everyone was still reeling
00:37:08
asking themselves how it was that Clayton Foreman walked among them and no one saw his monstrous core all those
00:37:16
years hiding in plain sight so when we identified him I actually have mutual friends with him that were in shock they
00:37:27
could could not believe it was him because they knew he was such a nice guy he had fooled so many people for so
00:37:36
long I personally believe that there are more victims out there we just hadn't found them yet I find it hard to believe
00:37:42
that he has not assaulted other people I I really feel with all my with all of my
00:37:50
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
00:38:00
I can't I I don't understand it I don't know how he could like I always say it's like Dr
00:38:07
Jackal and Mr Hyde I have my own speculations I think somebody I think some people demon possessed or or demon
00:38:15
influenced because that's pure evil there's nothing else you can explain that's just evil I was married to a
00:38:21
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
00:38:33
she'd still be alive but in the wake of the trial it was time to turn away from foreman and
00:38:40
remember Catherine Edwards as she was and in her own words wow I didn't realize the timing on this
00:38:49
one December the 11th 1994 she was murdered a month later I have given my life to God and I will
00:38:59
follow his path for me that gives me a feeling of great relief and peace the human spirit is
00:39:07
stronger than anything that can happen to it the vibrant Beloved School teacher in her prime gone far too soon if you
00:39:16
could talk directly with Mary Katherine Edwards what would you wish to tell her my gosh
00:39:23
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
00:39:33
privilege to help give answers very honored very honored she was a very special person she really
00:39:44
was unfortunately it introduced me to real loss to trauma to fear to grief to heartbreak
00:39:56
[Music] it's all the feelings a podcast I watch they they would always ask aspiring
00:40:03
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
00:40:13
clayt foran took my light from me helenah is a student once again she's studying for
00:40:21
her Masters in criminal justice and plans to apply to law school a tribute to her
00:40:29
[Music] [Music] teacher CBS next Saturday a young mother is murdered she got shot in the car at
00:40:47
first this seemed like an open and shut case but finding the killer sh Police Department come out your hands up was
00:40:53
only the beginning it was only half the story 48 hours is all new CBS next Saturday 109 Central and streaming on
00:41:00
Paramount [Music] plus welcome back to a new episode of postmortem I'm CBS News correspondent
00:41:19
Natalie Morales I'm filling in for anarie green she is on assignment right now for 48 hours but I am here with the
00:41:26
fabulous producer of this hour Jenna Jackson and Mary Murphy to talk about our most recent report on the case of
00:41:33
Mary Katherine Edwards who was murdered in the mid1 1990s in Bowmont Texas and her case went cold for decades Mary and
00:41:41
Jenna thanks so much for joining me today to break down the case and all the work that went into putting this
00:41:46
together thanks for having us yeah now remember for you who are listening if you haven't listened to this 48 Hours
00:41:54
episode yet you can find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed just go take a listen then come
00:42:01
right back here for our conversation Mary and Jenna we can all agree that this is probably one of the
00:42:07
most remarkable cold cases I think that we have worked on right oh yeah I mean and the components between the familial
00:42:15
testing and the family tree just growing and growing and growing and what everybody had to do to whittle it down
00:42:22
and then there's just this kind of astonishing twist that no one could have predicted and you have a husband wife
00:42:30
detective team which is always fun and then you throw a Texas Ranger in the mix which what could we love more than that
00:42:38
I'll tell you I loved interviewing a Texas Ranger I mean he walked in with his faux crck embossed cowboy boots with
00:42:45
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
00:42:53
storytelling I mean Ranger best is is incredible Ranger best could have his own show yeah
00:43:00
he really could I mean he's the real deal and he's so committed I mean he realized when there was a major
00:43:05
breakthrough with the Golden State killer case that there was a possibility of using genetic genealogy perhaps to
00:43:13
solve some of these cases and this one immediately came to mind now just to remind those who are listening it all
00:43:20
started back in 1995 in Bowmont Texas 31-year-old school teacher Mary Katherine Edwards was found murdered
00:43:28
sexually assaulted and handcuffed in her own bathroom notably though the handcuffs that were used on her were
00:43:36
police grade which detective Luellen said it was sort of like a whispered ghost story in the hallways at Police
00:43:44
Headquarters he described it to us like people were trying to figure out who could it have been did this person have
00:43:50
a connection to the police but you know police were never really able to identify the perpetrator at the time
00:43:56
although did have DNA samples from the crime scene and those samples were so carefully preserved which was so key uh
00:44:05
however the forensic science was not Advanced enough yet so let's talk about genetic genealogy and how it's become a
00:44:13
game Cher in cases like this and specifically how it factored into this investigation I mean I think it's pretty
00:44:20
incredible that back in 95 first of all they preserved the evidence so well that
00:44:27
they still had enough DNA you know years later to do all of this testing not to mention the fact that they had tested
00:44:34
multiple people over the years the detectives wouldn't give up they kept going back to this case so the fact that
00:44:41
this genetic genealogy technology has come so far that they were able to put this DNA in the system and come
00:44:50
up with almost 7500 names I love when um detective Ain lellan says you know by the time time it got bigger than my
00:44:58
computer screen my wife had to jump in because he was like my mind was blown basically and what they did was a very
00:45:06
multi-layered complicated process where they were doing the family tree but they
00:45:11
were also researching the birth and death records Googling with certain things in mind like who's in education
00:45:18
who's near Bowmont Texas all things that they thought could lead them to the person who had the DNA at the crime
00:45:26
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
00:45:35
person they became sure was was the killer that was really pretty amazing and an unbelievable husband and wife
00:45:43
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
00:45:51
and suddenly she sees him floundering in front of the family tree and she already
00:45:55
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
00:46:04
night you know and not sleeping she knows there's a killer out there and she will not stop she goes into Mary
00:46:11
Katherine Diaries there's nothing the Tina didn't do to try to get to the bottom of this yeah because they knew
00:46:17
timing was of the essence because this is now more than two decades later so they don't know you know at the time
00:46:25
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
00:46:33
the detective work the incredible two Dynamic Duos that we saw in this hour which I love as you mentioned there's
00:46:40
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
00:46:47
the tree and she keeps running into this family Nam La point and then she runs into Shir keeps coming up Shira point
00:46:53
and she's saying who is this person why is she everywhere and could she be related to her suspect so she gets Aaron
00:47:00
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
00:47:08
distant connection she's also a professional genetic genealogist so suddenly they have this new person who
00:47:16
knows how to work these cases has done at least one with the Texas Killing Fields where she identified a woman in
00:47:23
that case who had been buried along the highway with all those other VI and they just Tina and Shir to this day
00:47:31
are really great friends it was a huge connection and they and they even described Shir was driving almost
00:47:39
through bont so they met and and he they said we sat we met in a coffee shop and
00:47:44
we were both wearing like the same cat eye glasses I mean this this sort of Mind meld was just it was just
00:47:51
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
00:47:59
they're trying to sort of put the pieces together who's still alive but also who
00:48:03
lived in Bowman around that time who went to possibly that High School even and then they passed off their info to
00:48:11
detective Aaron Luellen and Texas Ranger Brandon best to then try to track down any potential leads in person what I
00:48:19
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
00:48:25
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
00:48:30
day and age people are are you know very skeptical and and probably not going to
00:48:35
want to do that but they had a Charming way of going about it I want to play for
00:48:40
you a clip from that hour take a listen when we would sense um anxiety in someone Aaron would immediately tell
00:48:48
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
00:48:55
you talking about well this guy's a Texas Ranger everything they do turns into a movie who do you want to play
00:49:01
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
00:49:07
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
00:49:14
I I told Ranger best I think he's more of a Matt Damon type he was fine with that too he was
00:49:22
fine it really worked though um how they were able to get people to to give their
00:49:26
DNA up and also the relay and the teamwork among the four of them was really very extraordinary to watch and
00:49:33
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
00:49:40
talks about what it's like to be a Cold Case Investigator how they're just a different bre you know and that many
00:49:47
great policemen have already looked at a crime but the cold case people come in and they look at it sideways and he
00:49:53
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
00:49:59
they all did together yeah and it was really cool too how far Technologies Advanced but you
00:50:06
still can't do it without good oldfashioned detective work yeah what what is so incredible I mean this was a
00:50:11
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
00:50:20
less than three months right they were working at a fast and furious Pace though yeah Tina actually said in test
00:50:27
that had she build for overtime it would have amounted to something like $50,000
00:50:32
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
00:50:42
that family tree and get it to a point where she paired it down to two brothers Michael and Clayton foreman and it turns
00:50:50
out they went to the same high school as Katherine Edwards so what did they find
00:50:56
when they looked into Clayton and why how did that eliminate Michael well that's a very dramatic
00:51:03
moment Erin Luellen describes just running a check on both of them to see if they have a criminal record and
00:51:10
Michael is completely clean as a whistle but Clayton Foreman has a conviction for
00:51:17
aggravated assaults there are some similarities to what happened to Mary Catherine and suddenly they are off to
00:51:23
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
00:51:31
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
00:51:40
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
00:51:47
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
00:51:57
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
00:52:06
masterpiece in in police work and so fascinating to see how they sort of wo through the interrogation and then kind
00:52:14
of cornered Clayton Foreman so Ranger best and detective lell and they essentially tag team the whole thing but
00:52:21
then comes the real Clincher of the moment there right Mary yeah I mean these guys so much
00:52:29
heart went into what they were doing so they finally after all their hard work and all these years they've they've got
00:52:36
an arrest warrant for them and they have one thing just one more thing they really need to do and they worked it out
00:52:43
with the prosecutors they brought the very handcuffs that had bound Mary Katherine the night she died and they
00:52:50
slapped him on Clayton foreman and that was such a moment when when Ranger best talked to about it he just says it felt
00:52:59
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
00:53:06
to physically take the handcuffs off of her when she was murdered and to put them back on the guy who was responsible
00:53:13
for killing her I mean it was a huge deal and definitely for them a moment where I think they felt you know finally
00:53:20
job done and so symbolic it was just this sort of parting thing they they had to
00:53:37
do welcome back and now to the big twist in this case we interviewed Katherine's
00:53:43
childhood friend Diana Co who had once been married to Clayton foran Clayton foran was Catherine's killer Jen I think
00:53:52
listeners would be really surprised to know I mean you you were the booking producer you help helped get us all
00:53:57
these great people and characters but Diana took a long time she only agreed to to do this interview with us just
00:54:04
days before the broadcast aired how difficult was it to convince her to do it it took a while it was difficult her
00:54:11
brother scooter who was wonderful and her sister were really trying to convince her that she had nothing to be
00:54:20
embarrassed about that she was a victim in this as well and that you know people's me to hear that this guy was
00:54:28
hiding in plain sight and that none of them knew it I mean they described him being at Christmases and Easter Diana
00:54:36
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
00:54:43
truthful person that he wasn't the greatest husband but no signs of violence ever I just have to say my hat
00:54:51
is completely off to Jenna what she did and the delicacy that you must have when you're dealing
00:54:59
with victims and um Jenna just did a remarkable job with just respect and gained their trust they were a very nice
00:55:08
family I mean Natalie your interview with Diana and the siblings was just incredible it was great that she finally
00:55:15
felt comfortable talking and she told me after it was very cathartic for her well
00:55:20
and I think she recognizes and she realizes that if there are other victims of his out there you know she was doing
00:55:28
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
00:55:34
telling her story perhaps they will come forward too yeah I think that was very important to her and one of the deciding
00:55:41
factors but she did say she did feel some guilt for being the connection between Clayton and and her friends
00:55:49
Katherine and Alice and because they were the bridesmaids at their wedding she felt like perhaps she introduced
00:55:55
Katherine and into his orbit so there's that heartbreaking moment when Diana said I think if he wouldn't have married
00:56:03
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
00:56:12
and then she had to testify at the trial she was incredibly Brave um so were all
00:56:17
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
00:56:25
I think it was very emotional for Diana because she hadn't had to face him since
00:56:32
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
00:56:40
he had had so many other victims who had lived to tell what he had done to them before she married Clayton Foreman she
00:56:48
knew there had been something in his past but she didn't know really what had happened right Jenna it it was a
00:56:54
chilling moment for Diana later at trial when she realized before she married Clayton this woman who was a fellow
00:57:03
classmate of hers at the same high school had been raped by him and this woman came forward and testified you
00:57:11
know she hadn't spoken about this in almost 30 years as well it was incredibly hard and painful for her to
00:57:17
come forward but for Diana realizing that this had actually happened and that her future husband explained it way is
00:57:26
it's just he said she said misunderstanding and she believed in because she had no reason not to and
00:57:32
just hearing that woman's testimony was very hard for Diana I think the the hardest part of watching some of the
00:57:39
testimony I think was seeing Katherine's identical twin sister Allison up there on the stand and decades later how much
00:57:46
she still misses and loves and feels that connection to her sister and we should say Allison declined an interview
00:57:54
with us but we did hear her on the stand I want to play a clip from that I didn't
00:57:59
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
00:58:07
years later I had a daughter and her name is Catherine Catherine a after my sister and she never got to know
00:58:17
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
00:58:27
emotional heartbreaking I think that the identical twin bond is so sort of deeply
00:58:34
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
00:58:41
watching her testimony that it's not just you know hearing but also you see the possibility of what Catherine would
00:58:51
have looked like you know there she is Allison at 60 and she is the spitting image of what could have been I mean
00:58:59
they looked exactly alike to to the point where they would played pranks um and do a little Parent Trap switch and
00:59:07
they would switch places with each other and no one would know I mean we discovered there was a yearbook photo
00:59:13
that was mislabeled as Katherine and Allison and it in fact was the reverse the story went that Katherine would tell
00:59:20
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
00:59:29
she didn't want them thinking they were ignored well Clayton's defense attorney said in his closing arguments that while
00:59:36
he may have done terrible things to all of these women it didn't make him a murderer are authorities though looking
00:59:44
now into other possible cold cases to see if he may be connected to them I mean I think all of them said they
00:59:50
believe there's the possibility right yeah they all suspect that there are more victims that that either have not
00:59:57
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
01:00:05
connect any dots to any unsolved cases yeah and I think these detectives as we saw you know once they
01:00:13
sink their teeth into something they don't give up so they're all pretty committed to making sure his DNA is
01:00:20
loaded into all the systems well on the case of Mary Katherine Edwards it only took the jury less than an hour and they
01:00:29
found Clayton Foreman guilty for capital murder he was sentenced to life in prison but for Tina sharah Brandon and
01:00:36
Aaron who played such a pivotal role in this investigation take us back to when they heard the verdict and how they
01:00:43
reacted Aon said we did it and it was just very emotional because everything about the case was emotional and they
01:00:50
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
01:00:59
Mary Katherine is is just too difficult for them because this guy got to roam the Earth and have a family and get
01:01:06
married twice and live a life and Katherine got none of those things so and everybody I think had to go back and
01:01:14
dwell on the fact that he was just as Jenna said hiding in plain sight he was just there and nobody thought twice
01:01:22
about him and I think you know this is one of those cases that everyone said if not for technology advancements and this
01:01:31
incredible genetic genealogy this would never have been solved and these guys are continuing to
01:01:38
solve cases auam Labs who we spoke to who is very You Know instrumental in this case they're continuing to solve
01:01:46
cold cases daily which is incredible well I love how we end the hour um and really it's reflecting on
01:01:54
how Katherine lived her life and the impact she had as a school teacher and we have one of her students who sat
01:02:02
during the trial and was there when the verdict came in and she really wanted to
01:02:06
be there to see Justice um helenah Adams tell us about her connection to her teacher and what it meant for her to
01:02:14
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
01:02:24
I mean she lost her favorite teacher who had been such an impactful part of her life when she was seven years old and
01:02:31
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
01:02:39
know to the point where like you said Natalie she attended trial every day except for one um she's getting her
01:02:47
Masters in criminal justice right now and plans to go to law school she wants to be a part of the justice system that
01:02:55
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
01:03:01
love that Catherine had leaves a legacy of you know young children who she touched who have now grown into
01:03:09
incredible and productive human beings who perhaps could make a difference in the future exactly yeah well Jenna and
01:03:16
Mary thank you once again it was so great working with both of you on this and thanks for taking the time to talk
01:03:21
about the case it was great to work with you Natalie thank you so much thank you
01:03:27
Natalie an Marie is going to be back with you next week with a new postmortem I hope you enjoyed our conversation and
01:03:34
remember to rate and review 48 Hours on Apple podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast and you
01:03:42
can also listen adree on Amazon music wry Plus in the wry app or with a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple podcast
01:03:51
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