00:00:01
[OMINOUS MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont, Texas, 1995-- the worried parents of
Mary Catherine Edwards
00:00:17
let themselves into
their daughter's home. The scene they find will haunt
them the rest of their lives.
00:00:27
BRANDON BESS: Mr. Edwards
walks upstairs and finds the bedroom to be in disarray.
00:00:32
It looks like there's
been a struggle. And the mother finds Catherine
handcuffed, shower curtain
00:00:38
is laying on the ground. She was deceased
at that point. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): All
investigative leads go cold.
00:00:46
Then, a new company and new
forensic science offers a hope-- a hope of catching a killer.
00:00:56
I felt a sense of urgency. I had to identify him, and I
needed this to happen today.
00:01:04
NANCY GRACE: This is the
story of a 29-year-long hunt for a vicious predator
who is finally
00:01:12
brought down by his own DNA. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [THEME MUSIC]
00:01:45
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont, Texas, 1995-- Beaumont, located in
the southeastern part
00:01:50
of the Lone Star State. In the early 1900s, Beaumont,
the epicenter of the largest
00:01:57
oil boom in US history. In 1995, Beaumont is home
to Mary Catherine Edwards. Friends and family
call her Catherine.
00:02:09
She's a beautiful, vibrant,
31-year-old schoolteacher who is beloved not just by
her students, but all
00:02:19
across the local community. MIKE LAIRD: Everybody
talked about what a wonderful teacher she was,
how much she loved her students.
00:02:27
Without a doubt, the number
one thing in Catherine's life was her family. Her sister is her identical
twin, and they are best friends.
00:02:36
There was a point in time
where their photos were mixed up in the local yearbook, which was
a long standing joke about how
00:02:45
no one could tell 'em apart. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
January 13, 1995--
00:02:52
Mary Catherine Edwards
goes about her normal day. She's unaware of the
terror that awaits her.
00:03:01
MIKE LAIRD: Mary
Catherine Edwards was at work doing her usual
thing, teaching fifth grade.
00:03:07
She had left her dog at her
sister's, as she did every day. She went to her sister's,
got her dog, she went home,
00:03:15
had a glass of wine. She talked to her
sister on the phone. They had plans for the next day
to have lunch with the family,
00:03:22
as they normally did. Saturday afternoon, they were
planning on going to a movie.
00:03:25
AARON LEWALLEN: There was a man
that she was dating at the time that was out of the state,
and they spoke that evening,
00:03:30
probably around 10:30, 10:45. And then-- then she said she
was going to go walk the dog
00:03:35
and then come back. And they spoke again
and, to my knowledge, that's the last person
that had contact with her.
00:03:40
January 14, 1995,
Catherine had had plans to have a family lunch. And she did not show,
and they had not been
00:03:51
able to reach her by phone. And they were
concerned, so they went to her house to check on her.
00:03:57
Her house is in a very nice area
of town, very safe neighborhood normally. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Mary
Catherine Edwards' parents
00:04:08
are so concerned
she's not at lunch, they decide to go to
her home where they come across a horrible scene.
00:04:18
BRANDON BESS: Mr. Edwards
walks upstairs and finds the bedroom to be in disarray.
00:04:26
PATRICK KNAUTH: It looks
like there's been a struggle. Part of the bed
post was broken off.
00:04:30
There's some stuff
scattered on the floor. The sheet, the comforter, and
that were pulled off so you
00:04:36
can see part of the mattress. And the mother
finds Catherine draped over the bathtub, handcuffed,
naked from the waist down.
00:04:48
The shower curtain is
laying on the ground. She's screaming. TINA LEWALLEN: He did try
to see if she was alive.
00:04:57
He moved her, laid her down. In an absolute perfect
response of a father trying to protect his daughter, he
pulled her back from the bathtub
00:05:05
and covered her. Because she was naked
from the waist down. MIKE LAIRD: And the mother
said he started hugging her.
00:05:11
He was just holding her,
and crying, and weeping. She was deceased
at that point.
00:05:16
The 911 calls to
Beaumont Police began. TINA LEWALLEN: Being
a mother, I cannot imagine what she went through
that day making that phone call.
00:05:44
BRANDON BESS: So then Alison
also made a phone call to Beaumont Police, relaying
what her mother had said,
00:05:49
and in a very confused tone. You know, you could
tell immediately that the reality of what her
parents had called and told her
00:05:58
was not sinking in at all. MIKE LAIRD: When you go into
a crime scene like this,
00:06:25
you don't know what
becomes relevant. You never know what
you need to take and what you need
to leave behind.
00:06:30
So what they did was
they took everything that they could think of. It appeared as though
there was a struggle,
00:06:39
and possibly that Catherine had
been raped on top of that bed. So they took all the comforter,
sheets, pillowcases, everything.
00:06:48
MIKE LAIRD: They even took
greeting cards, journals that she wrote in. They took calendars.
00:06:55
They even took travel brochures
that she had, setting out, travel books that had
little notes in it.
00:07:01
They did a very thorough job of
grabbing everything they could think of and going through it.
00:07:07
SONNY ECKHART: And then
they dusted a number of different points
that would seem logical
00:07:11
where someone would touch-- the door and the door
frame around the bathroom where Catherine was found.
00:07:17
And there were a number of
prints and partial latent prints that were found. NANCY GRACE: The most
unusual, and perhaps
00:07:25
one of the most vital
pieces of evidence, are handcuffs that are used to
restrain Mary Catherine Edwards.
00:07:34
Police wonder who would
have access to handcuffs. BRANDON BESS: In my 32 years of
law enforcement and 20-something
00:07:48
years in investigative
services, I never worked another case that involved handcuffs.
00:07:54
NANCY GRACE: Mary
Catherine Edwards' parents and her
identical twin sister, Alison, try their best to cope
with their devastating loss.
00:08:04
Meanwhile, Beaumont detectives
try to track down a killer. Are the handcuffs a clue that
the perp works amongst them
00:08:15
within the police force? We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [OMINOUS CHORDS]
00:08:25
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
January 14, 1995--
00:08:33
the body of 31-year-old
Mary Catherine Edwards discovered by her distraught
parents in her Beaumont,
00:08:40
Texas, home. The school teacher, found
half-naked in her bathtub with handcuffs still on her wrists.
00:08:50
Police, concerned the
handcuffs indicate the attacker could be in law enforcement.
00:08:57
They hope autopsy will
reveal important clues. In Catherine's case,
it was determined
00:09:06
that her cause of
death was drowning, and that it indeed was a
result of homicidal violence.
00:09:14
Catherine had well over 30
injuries to her body, which indicated to me,
when reading that,
00:09:21
that she had put up a fight. However, just like we
use handcuffs to control people that we
arrest, the suspect
00:09:28
used handcuffs to control her. And it becomes a very
effective means of control,
00:09:32
and there's not a lot
of fighting you can do. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont detectives interviewed
00:09:38
Mary Catherine
Edwards' neighbors, in case they heard or saw any
suspicious activity that night.
00:09:46
PATRICK KNAUTH:
The neighbors that were right next to the apartment
had indicated that they had
00:09:50
heard some sounds during
the night, which could have indicated a struggle. AARON LEWALLEN: One was a
young boy that heard somebody
00:09:57
running down the stairs,
and then a door slam, and then a car drive
off with loud music.
00:10:02
Another was a neighbor that
shared a wall with her bedroom that heard some loud thumping
and wasn't quite sure what it
00:10:08
was, but just went back
to sleep and, of course, didn't tell anybody until
they were knocking on doors
00:10:12
to canvas the neighborhood. He heard thumps
for 60 to 90 seconds, and that was
probably her putting
00:10:20
a fight plus the sexual
assault occurring. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Two men
quickly become prime suspects
00:10:27
in the investigation-- Mary Catherine Edwards' current
boyfriend and an ex-boyfriend.
00:10:33
The man that she was dating
at the time was out of state. He cooperated and was able-- his
alibi was he was out of state,
00:10:40
and that was pretty
easy to establish. However, she did have an
ex-relationship, an ex-boyfriend
00:10:44
that had been the focus
of the investigation for quite some time. He lived in Houston at the time.
00:10:49
And he did come in, and was
interviewed, and participated in a polygraph, and
freely gave a DNA
00:10:55
sample in the form of a
blood sample in an effort to help the case. They cleared him
early on with DNA.
00:11:02
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The two boyfriends are ruled out as prime suspects. Detectives decide to re-examine
a crucial piece of evidence.
00:11:13
TINA LEWALLEN: With the use of
handcuffs, which law enforcement carry on them
every day, all day,
00:11:19
we absolutely could not
eliminate that the suspect was in law enforcement. They looked for prints
on them and got no results.
00:11:29
Then they tried to trace the
origin through the manufacturer of these handcuffs, and
we're not able to find
00:11:36
an original point of sale. AARON LEWALLEN: Smith and Wesson
is one of the major brands
00:11:40
of handcuffs in the
country, but there are several others, as well. You know, one of the things
that was kind of the elephant
00:11:45
in the room for years
was that, you know, it could've been
a police officer. It did kind of
lead us down a path
00:11:52
that maybe it was one
of our own that did it. TINA LEWALLEN: There
was a lot of law
00:11:55
enforcement interviewed,
a lot of DNA taken from law enforcement. Some was taken
voluntarily and some was
00:12:04
taken without them knowing it. PATRICK KNAUTH: All the
Beaumont police department
00:12:08
had-- every police officer had
to turn in their handcuffs, and they went through that.
00:12:12
They looked at prior
police officers that had had disciplinary
problems, that had been let go.
00:12:18
Two doors down, one
of the neighbors had been involved
in law enforcement, and they took a sample
from that person.
00:12:24
Of course, that person
was excluded as well. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
A male DNA profile
00:12:28
belonging to the killer is
created and then uploaded to the CODIS national database.
00:12:36
Law enforcement can take
a sample from someone, either the suspect or someone
that they've arrested,
00:12:42
and they can actually
send it into the database to see if it's a match. AARON LEWALLEN: In this
case, we did take a sample
00:12:48
from the sexual assault
kit, entered it into CODIS, and it didn't
generate any leads--
00:12:54
telling us either that our
suspect had never been arrested or at least never had
DNA taken from him.
00:13:00
Usually, these types of
cases, or these types of crimes involve someone that
the victim knew.
00:13:09
When that doesn't
produce any viable leads, you just continue to expand that
search, and expand that search,
00:13:17
and expand that search. And if no leads develop, then
obviously the case goes cold.
00:13:24
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): One by
one, every single lead runs dry. Months turn into years,
and Mary Catherine
00:13:32
Edwards' murder case goes cold. PATRICK KNAUTH:
Periodically, people would take a look at the
case to give it new eyes.
00:13:40
As the technology was advancing,
we were re-examining it. Checking this,
checking that, and would
00:13:49
rule out different
suspects through the years. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Police periodically
00:13:56
revisit Mary Catherine
Edwards' murder case throughout the years. DNA science also
continues to advance.
00:14:04
By 2019, a revolutionary
forensic technique is available to law enforcement
who are working on cold cases.
00:14:13
It's called investigative
genetic genealogy. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Forensic genetic genealogy
is a tool for law enforcement
00:14:24
to solve their cold cases. They utilize DNA databases. So once a profile is built,
it's uploaded to DNA databases
00:14:32
where that profile is matched
with its genetic relatives. AARON LEWALLEN:
There's a database
00:14:36
that we use called GEDmatch. And it's very much like a
commercial DNA database, except that the user has to
opt in to help law enforcement.
00:14:44
And that's the
database that we use. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Arthur M. Labs is a Texas-based
company specializing
00:14:52
in investigative
genetic genealogy, and Arthur M. contacts
Texas Ranger Brandon Bess.
00:15:00
BRANDON BESS: I was doing some
cold case work at the time. They learned of some cases that
I had worked with the FBI using
00:15:07
forensic genetic
genealogy to solve a 40-plus-year-old homicide. So they reached out and said,
hey, we're a new company.
00:15:15
This is what we do. We'd like to come talk to you. So we connected at
that point, and I
00:15:20
began looking at my
cases that had DNA that didn't have hits in them. AARON LEWALLEN: So
I was approached
00:15:26
by Ranger Brandon Bess. He had come into contact
with him on another case that he was working
and told me about the--
00:15:34
the wonderful things that
they were doing in DNA research and genetic genealogy.
00:15:38
I thought it was great. And Brandon asked me
if we thought we had a case that this would work on.
00:15:43
And I first thought
of Catherine Edwards. I said, absolutely, we do. NANCY GRACE: It's 2019.
00:15:49
Beaumont, Texas detectives
collaborate with cutting edge Othram Labs to try and solve
the 1995 murder of a beautiful,
00:16:00
young 31-year-old schoolteacher,
Mary Catherine Edwards. But will investigators be
able to harness groundbreaking
00:16:10
science and ID Catherine's
killer after 24 years? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:16:20
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont, Texas, 2019--
00:16:31
detectives partnered
with Othram Labs to try and solve a rape
and murder back in 1995.
00:16:39
That's when the body of
Mary Catherine Edwards, found in her home
by her own parents.
00:16:46
The 31-year-old school
teacher discovered handcuffed, half-naked in her own bathtub.
00:16:53
Othram, a leader in the
science of investigative genetic genealogy. This new forensic weapon
allows investigators
00:17:01
to use DNA from an
original crime scene to build a family tree, which
could lead to a prime suspect.
00:17:13
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: Othram is
the first lab in the world that was purpose-built to
identify perpetrators
00:17:17
and victims from crime scenes. By purpose-built, I mean we
built technology from the ground
00:17:23
up, called it forensic
grade genome sequencing, that allowed us to work with
the most intractable DNA
00:17:29
evidence from
forensic crime scenes and still be able to build DNA
profiles that can be uploaded
00:17:36
and compared to
fresh DNA profiles that people can send into DNA
databases for law enforcement
00:17:43
to search and help you
identify the matches necessary to identify the
perpetrator or the victim
00:17:49
from a crime scene. So we ended up meeting
with the DA's office and Othram went through
their sales pitch with them
00:17:55
and told them what
they were capable of. And it was a match made
in heaven at that point.
00:18:00
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: The
evidence that was given to us was cuttings from
the comforter that
00:18:05
contained semen of an unknown
male, and also the vaginal swab. We extracted DNA from
both, and the better
00:18:15
perpetrator DNA
fraction appeared to be from the vaginal swab. So we proceeded with
testing that sample
00:18:21
to build a DNA profile. It turned out that
this person belonged to a Cajun population, which
is an endogamous population.
00:18:31
In genealogy terms, it means
that the founding families for this population
are fewer and fewer,
00:18:37
and so you will look
like you're more related than you actually are. When we started
the investigation
00:18:44
and we saw what the
difficulties were going to be in a Cajun ancestry
case, we thought,
00:18:52
this is going to be brutal. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): The team at Othram Labs creates a DNA
profile belonging to the killer.
00:19:01
That profile is then uploaded to
a commercial and public website, GEDmatch, April 2020.
00:19:11
And then, in
January of '21, we got our first GEDmatch hit
that was some distant
00:19:16
relative of our suspect. From there, we started building
the family tree, you know,
00:19:21
using open source records. I was at the kitchen table
one day talking about it, and Tina's like, hey,
let me if I can help.
00:19:27
So then it became a partnership
amongst our own marriage and partnership of us working
together to solve this case.
00:19:34
She would work the family tree. When she would give me a name. We would look for commonalities
common to our case,
00:19:40
whether it be age, location
being Beaumont, any connection to Catherine along those lines.
00:19:45
And we would check different
databases that we'd have to try and develop suspects.
00:19:48
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] TINA LEWALLEN: I felt
a sense of urgency. I had to identify
him before he died,
00:19:57
and I needed this
to happen today. And as I'm building trees,
I keep seeing this lady's
00:20:04
name that she's building trees. So as I'm researching a person,
I see this other person has
00:20:11
already researched them and
they're on a family tree that she built. So
we'll reach out,
00:20:16
we'll contact her and see what
role is she playing in this. How far has she gotten?
00:20:24
I got a phone call
in January of 2021 from Detective Aaron Lewallen,
and he told me that they
00:20:33
were working a cold case. I told him that I was
a genetic genealogist, I helped adoptees, I had worked
a couple of law enforcement
00:20:41
cases before, and that I was
happy to help them in any way that I could. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Shera LaPoint
00:20:47
works as an independent genetic
genealogist and as a lecturer. Much of her genealogy
work has crossed over
00:20:56
with Detective Aaron Lewallen. The kit that matched their
information the highest,
00:21:05
I knew that was my
father-in-law's DNA kit. I knew it wasn't a
close relationship,
00:21:13
that it was at least a
second cousin or further. And I wasn't concerned that it
was one of his uncles or nephews
00:21:21
or anything like that. And I kept thinking
that this process works, and if it were my daughter
who was raped or murdered,
00:21:31
I would want every
lead to be followed. Most of the tree
working that we did was from generations back.
00:21:40
And then, as we built
down to the living, we were able to reach
out and get DNA samples.
00:21:47
There were times when
people would look at us really skeptically, you know,
like, I don't want
00:21:51
the government to have my DNA. And I would talk to them and
say, look, Google the police
00:21:55
department, to verify who we
were so that we would gain a level of trust with them.
00:21:59
And as this went on, we would
meet with them and they would give us either a buccal swab
to get their DNA that way,
00:22:05
or what we found
a lot of the time was that they had
already done one of the commercial DNA
companies, and they
00:22:10
would just give us their kits. Not everybody that
we approached, we wanted to approach that way.
00:22:15
Because it could
have been a suspect. Right? So there were times when we
might have had to do some things
00:22:20
that were surreptitious. I remember one time we
swabbed a door handle and a gas cap on a vehicle that
was at a university parking lot.
00:22:28
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont detectives work together almost nonstop. They collect DNA samples from
distant relatives of the killer.
00:22:37
And finally, a breakthrough,
they get a match. We found a gentleman who
matched my father-in-law.
00:22:46
His DNA was compared. He was almost twice the
amount as my father-in-law, so he was a closer match.
00:22:55
And what we did at that point
was build his family tree out. But we weren't sure if
it was on his mother's
00:23:01
side or his father's side. We actually did both. I gave them names. They contacted people on
both sides of the family.
00:23:13
And we were able to
finally determine determined that it was on his
mother's side of the family.
00:23:20
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont detectives take a closer look at the
mother's side of the family.
00:23:30
SHERA LAPOINT:
Census records showed that their parents lived
in the Beaumont area
00:23:35
and that they had two sons. And I remember finding
yearbook pictures of the sons.
00:23:45
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The two sons become prime suspects in
the 1995 brutal sex assault
00:23:52
and murder of a young school
teacher, Mary Catherine Edwards. We had DNA on both sides.
00:24:00
And when you're doing this work,
that's a signal that there's something to check into.
00:24:07
It had both led to
these set of parents, and that the suspect was going
to be an offspring of this set
00:24:15
of parents, the Foreman parent. We were in our
living room, and got very excited that
there were two brothers
00:24:23
that were from Beaumont. And they were the right
age range for the suspect we were looking for.
00:24:31
The actual names of the
brothers who were in Beaumont were Clayton Bernard
Foreman and Michael Foreman.
00:24:40
So I give my husband the
names of those brothers-- AARON LEWALLEN: And I
run it through a database
00:24:45
that we have access to. And as I'm scrolling
through it, looking at it, I find that this guy has a
sexual assault from 1981.
00:24:52
So that next day, I was still
communicating with the records supervisor, and I got
her to pull the case
00:24:57
file and send it to me. And as I read through it, the
clouds parted and angels sang.
00:25:03
It was just a wonderful
moment of discovery because we saw similarities. The suspect in the
'81 sexual assault
00:25:09
told the victim, that
he a police officer. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] We had that-- that
connection of the handcuffs
00:25:18
in Catherine's case. This guy's telling this victim
that he's a police officer, and then continues to--
00:25:24
to reassure her that he's OK--
an OK guy, because she went to school with his brother.
00:25:30
She had been stranded,
it had been raining, and he offered to
give her a ride. Ultimately, he did not
go directly to her home.
00:25:36
He took her to a secluded area
and sexually assaulted her. He pulled a knife on
her and ultimately bound
00:25:42
her hands behind her back. He did ended up bringing her
home and then made some sort
00:25:47
of apology, "I hope
I didn't hurt you," when he dropped her off. She ultimately did
come to the police.
00:25:53
There were so many things
that just went wrong. Our victim was 19 years old. She was absolutely traumatized.
00:26:02
How law enforcement handled
that case is not the way it would be handled now. We have so many checks, and
balances, and rules in place,
00:26:15
there would immediately
be a submission of DNA. He would immediately
go into CODIS.
00:26:23
If you're arrested for
a felony, any felony, your DNA goes into CODIS now. Had that happened, and had
CODIS been a thing in 1981,
00:26:33
his DNA would have went into
the system upon his arrest. Having been given a deferred
sentence, which allowed him
00:26:45
to basically not be a convicted
offender, not having to register himself, not having to
do all these things,
00:26:54
that would have solved
this crime in 1995. So then we did a quick
search of the brother,
00:27:01
who had a crystal
clean criminal record. BRANDON BESS: So you got
two people to look at.
00:27:06
Who is your most likely target? We have a sex crime and
we have a sex offender. He's our guy.
00:27:11
He's who we go for. PATRICK KNAUTH: He was
identified as Clayton Foreman. He did go to school with
her, as did his brother.
00:27:21
And we learned that
this is something he was absolutely capable of. All the evidence
strongly points
00:27:29
to one man and one man only-- Clayton Foreman. But where is Foreman now? Detectives need a DNA
sample from Foreman
00:27:39
to confirm, beyond
a doubt, he is the one that raped
and murdered Mary Catherine Edwards back in 1995.
00:27:48
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:28:01
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
April 2020, Beaumont, Texas-- police reopen the
1995 sex assault
00:28:07
and murder of 31-year-old
teacher Mary Catherine Edwards. Mary Catherine, found half-naked
and handcuffed in her bathtub.
00:28:18
Now, investigators using
investigative genetic genealogy to narrow down to one
suspect living in Ohio.
00:28:28
His name? Clayton Foreman. Being able to decipher
the source of the DNA on the vaginal swab was a
very important step in moving
00:28:38
that investigation forward. It was stalled for years
because they were unable to find
00:28:43
a match in CODIS. TINA LEWALLEN: The law
enforcement in Ohio obtained Foreman's
trash that was left
00:28:51
on the side of the road, and
they sent it to my husband, who got it to the lab. And the lab was able to make
a confirmation that the DNA
00:29:04
was the same as our suspect. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] AARON LEWALLEN:
We had our match,
00:29:12
that it was indeed Clayton
Foreman who had left his DNA in Catherine's home. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Detectives
00:29:18
believe it's time to tell
Mary Catherine Edwards' family about the suspect. Her parents and brother
had passed away,
00:29:27
but they are able to share the
news with someone very special-- her identical twin
sister, Alison.
00:29:37
I had never spoken to her. I had never met her
up until that night. I called her to get her address,
told her we had some news.
00:29:44
And there was an immediate
emotional moment. You know, she came
and gave me a big hug
00:29:50
and it was-- we
were both crying. So we sat down and I
gave her the information,
00:29:56
the identity of the suspect. And that's when she told us that
they'd gone to school with him
00:30:00
and that they knew his
ex-wife, and that both her and Catherine had been
bridesmaids in his wedding
00:30:04
in 1982. All throughout
all the journals, all throughout all the cards,
all throughout everything
00:30:12
that the police
went through, there was only one mention of Clayton
Foreman in the entire group.
00:30:19
And that was a letter from
his wife to the girls, or a card thanking them and-- and mentioning him in the card.
00:30:27
SONNY ECKHART: We believed
he used his relationship with his ex-wife as
a way to gain entry
00:30:36
into Catherine Edwards' house. TINA LEWALLEN: Beaumont,
Texas, detectives are building their case
against Clayton Foreman,
00:30:44
but they don't want him
to know they're after him. So they work carefully to
make sure he doesn't find out.
00:30:54
So it was kept very
quiet who our suspect was. He actually did have a lot of
friends in law enforcement.
00:31:01
We had a mutual friend
in law enforcement that I knew they did
not talk regularly,
00:31:07
but they were
friends on Facebook. So he was keeping
me posted if there was something I needed to know.
00:31:14
And it was either the next
day or two days later, after I tell him I need you to
monitor this and let me know,
00:31:22
he said, hey, just letting
you know they are packing up and moving out of state.
00:31:27
That's all I know. We just weren't sure where he
was going to move to, whether we
00:31:31
would lose him,
how long it would take him to show up on the radar
for us to locate him again.
00:31:37
We knew exactly where
he was right now. There was no need
to wait any longer. They flew me and
Brandon Bess to Ohio,
00:31:46
where we coordinated
with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. They went and did a knock and
talk with Clayton Foreman.
00:31:51
And the ruse was that there was
an investigation of a woman who was missing a purse, and he
was an Uber driver at the time,
00:31:57
and would he mind cooperating
in this investigation. So once they brought
him to the station,
00:32:02
we meet him in an interview
room and introduce ourselves as detectives from Texas,
and that we're here to talk
00:32:07
about Catherine Edwards. He already had an
arrest warrant, but we wanted to do a
noncustodial interview.
00:32:14
So we allowed him the
opportunity to leave. And he chose to engage
us in conversation
00:32:18
and could have
left at any point. We even gave him the option
of sitting at the chair
00:32:23
closest to the door, asking
him to check the lock, make sure it wasn't
locked, to reassure
00:32:27
him that he was not in custody. So from there, you know, we
had kind of already learned
00:32:31
that he was enamored
with police work, and we really thought
that him being interviewed
00:32:35
by a Texas Ranger
would get his tongue moving a little bit easier. So Brandon led the interview.
00:32:42
Did you know
who Catherine was? Did you ever date her? Did you ever have
dinner with her?
00:32:48
All his answers were, they
were just in my wedding. He seemed to be very
relaxed in all his answers.
00:32:56
And, of course, all
his answers were doing nothing but sinking
him further, and further,
00:33:01
and further. MIKE LAIRD: You
have DNA on someone, all they have to do is say I
had a relationship with them.
00:33:09
And that puts us
in a bad position, because there's a reason
for the DNA being there
00:33:13
and we have to disprove it. But when they deny any contact
with them or ever being there,
00:33:18
that's-- that's gold. So once we backed him
into those corners-- well, if all these answers are
no, and if all that's true,
00:33:26
then can you explain how
your DNA ended up on her? He goes, I don't think I
want to answer that question.
00:33:30
I think I need a lawyer. We got what we needed. He just didn't know that
we got what we needed.
00:33:34
He confessed without confessing. BRANDON BESS: So we allowed
him to walk out of the room.
00:33:39
My recollection is he made
it about probably 25 steps, around a corner, and we went
around and announced that,
00:33:46
Clayton Foreman, you were
under arrest for the murder of Catherine Edwards. We used the handcuffs
that he used on Catherine
00:33:55
to handcuff him with. MIKE LAIRD: He was told, the
last time these handcuffs got used, you left them behind.
00:34:02
Well, he was taken to
the local jail there, and then it became a
process of extraditing him.
00:34:07
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Beaumont Police, preparing for a trial they've
been waiting on nearly 30 years.
00:34:14
We find out what happens next
on "Bloodline Detectives." [OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS]
00:34:27
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
2021, Beaumont, Texas-- police arrest a suspect
in the 1995 sex assault
00:34:34
and murder of a beautiful
young school teacher, Mary Catherine Edwards. His name?
00:34:40
Clayton Foreman. But now detectives must
build a case against Foreman so he can be brought to trial.
00:34:51
PATRICK KNAUTH: When you have a
case that's almost 30 years old, people die, people
move on, record keeping
00:34:56
becomes not as good. It's better now than
it was back then, you know, and so you're trying
to piece together what happened
00:35:02
30 years ago and then
trying to, you know, get people to remember
what happened.
00:35:06
We knew one of the first
people we wanted to interview was his ex-wife here in town.
00:35:11
I told her that Alison said
she might be able to answer some questions for me. She told me about him not coming
home at night, all night long.
00:35:20
And they had one car
between the two of them. Something made her look
in the trunk of the car,
00:35:25
and in the trunk of
a car was a briefcase with pornographic magazines,
handcuffs, and a gun.
00:35:37
It was very obvious to me,
in the back of her mind, this had been haunting
her for years.
00:35:43
At trial, it came out that he
had some sort of weird obsession with the Edwards twins.
00:35:49
Even though they didn't know
him at all in high school, he told his ex-wife, who was
his then girlfriend, that he
00:35:58
felt protective of the
twins and thought they were such wonderful people. It's absolutely eerie.
00:36:06
His first wife and Mary
Catherine could be sisters, they look so much alike. It gave me chills.
00:36:15
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The
trial commences March 12, 2024. BRANDON BESS: I
love going to trial.
00:36:21
I love testifying. Some policemen are terrified. Some people are terrified
to speak in public.
00:36:27
But again, going back
to what I said earlier, that's the point where I really
get to speak for Catherine.
00:36:36
SONNY ECKHART: Looking for
jurors that will understand some of the complex topics that might
come up in a case like this,
00:36:46
especially if they have
to hear from a competing DNA expert from the defense. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Mary Catherine's
00:36:53
identical twin sister,
Alison, now 60 years old, and she bravely decides
she will testify at trial.
00:37:05
MIKE LAIRD: There wasn't
a dry eye In the house. Because just listening to
the gut wrenching sorrow
00:37:11
that she had for losing
her twin, I mean, it really was emotional
and impactful.
00:37:15
And it was important
for her, but it was more important for the jury. Because the jury needed to
know that it's not about him.
00:37:24
It's about this lady that was
a sister, who was a school teacher, who was a daughter,
a good person, that she
00:37:32
had been brutalized,
and that-- the effect it had on everyone else. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): The jury
00:37:39
also hears from
another woman who was sexually assaulted by
Clayton Foreman back in 1981.
00:37:48
Not one time did
his expression change. There was not any
sign of remorse. Even when the 1981
rape victim testified,
00:37:56
and we're all crying because
she just broke our hearts, not one tear. Not one-- not even one flinch.
00:38:05
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
The trial of Clayton Foreman lasts seven long days. 30 people testify,
but the jury is
00:38:14
quick to decide Foreman's fate. It did not take them
very long, about, I think, under 40 minutes.
00:38:23
And the verdict was a
guilty on capital murder. BRANDON BESS: And-- and
this led to a life sentence.
00:38:33
I believe that Clayton Foreman's
sentence was appropriate, and I believe that
the rest of his life
00:38:39
is going to be miserable. He's evil, and he's
a murderer and rapist, and I hope he spends
what short life he
00:38:45
has locked up and reflecting
upon the evils that he's done and the mess of his life.
00:38:54
TINA LEWALLEN: When
I think of justice, I think of the scales of
justice, and they're balanced.
00:38:59
Catherine's not here. In my heart, this isn't justice. This is the best we could
do with what we've got.
00:39:09
This case really hinged on
forensic genetic genealogy and on the DNA
testing, because they
00:39:15
really didn't have a good
lead on who the person was. MIKE LAIRD: I know that the
DNA put the nail in the coffin,
00:39:23
but we wouldn't have
gotten to the DNA without the forensic
genetic genealogy. My goodness.
00:39:29
Technology-- when I started
doing this seven years ago, what can be done now as to
what could even be done then
00:39:36
is mind blowing. And it's forever changing. AARON LEWALLEN: So her
brother passed the week
00:39:42
that we got our first
lead and, of course, her parents passing
years before, it is sad.
00:39:46
Because I would have liked
for them to have seen closure prior to
their passing here.
00:39:50
SONNY ECKHART:
Because of the good, kind-hearted people that
they were, finding the killer
00:39:57
was really an afterthought. Because what they really
wanted was their daughter. TINA LEWALLEN: Alison,
more than anything,
00:40:04
she wants her sister
to be remembered and for people to know
who her sister was.
00:40:09
A loss this deep is a scar. And it heals, but it's
never like it was before. [SOMBER MUSIC]
00:40:22
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
For Alison Edwards, the loss of her identical
twin sister, Catherine,
00:40:26
means a part of her
also left this Earth that winter's day, 1995. Her 29-year-long wait for
justice finally comes.
00:40:41
Why? Because of the amazing work
of detectives and scientists and, of course, genealogists who
would never quit until a killer
00:40:55
is behind bars. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:03
[OMINOUS CHORDS] [OMINOUS CHORDS] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]