On Jan. 14, 1995, Mary Catherine Edwards, 31, a beloved elementary college instructor, was discovered lifeless in her townhouse in Beaumont, Texas.
Her dad and mom discovered her. It was a horrible scene: she was in her bathtub, handcuffed, and had been sexually assaulted. There have been no indicators of pressured entry, which made investigators suppose she should know her killer. The police-grade Smith & Wesson handcuffs have been at all times an enormous clue, however when detectives tried tracing the serial numbers, they got here up empty. Early investigators questioned numerous legislation enforcement officers and got here up with nothing both.
The case went chilly, however as Beaumont Police Det. Aaron Lewallen informed “48 Hours contributor Natalie Morales, “May it have been somebody that we knew?… It was nearly like a ghost story informed across the camp fireplace …” Morales reviews on the seek for solutions in an encore of “Monitoring the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards,” airing Saturday, Jan 10 at 9/8c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Texas Division of Public Security
Due to fastidiously preserved DNA from the crime scene and the arrival of genetic family tree, Det. Aaron Lewallen, his spouse Tina Lewallen, additionally a detective — together with Brandon Bess, a Texas Ranger within the chilly case division, and Shera LaPoint, knowledgeable genealogist — spent nearly three months working collectively in a nonstop push to lastly resolve the case.
After all of the early leads and the suspicion that somebody in legislation enforcement had been concerned, the household tree they constructed revealed another person. Their chief suspect turned out to be not a legislation enforcement officer, however a person who went to the identical highschool as Edwards: Clayton Foreman.
After which they realized that Edwards and her equivalent twin sister Allison had been bridesmaids in Foreman’s first marriage ceremony. The sisters have been good mates together with his first spouse, Dianna Coe, who additionally went to the identical highschool.
Coe remembers them fondly, telling Morales how type they have been to her when she moved to a brand new city and began a brand new college.
“I used to be new to the world … so, I knew nobody. And so they … simply began speaking to me and requested me my identify … and we have been mates from that time ahead,” Coe mentioned.
The sisters have been the primary folks Coe considered to be bridesmaids at her marriage ceremony. She and Foreman stayed married for 11 years. They have been divorced by the point of the homicide, however in hindsight, Coe started to see issues in a special, darker, gentle. She remembered her ex-husband’s fascination with the cops and their instruments of the commerce, like handcuffs and billy golf equipment. As Coe informed Morales, “He had a billy membership that he stored…by the mattress. You recognize, mentioned it was for cover. And I keep in mind that he had ordered these handcuffs … Effectively, he had them hung over the rearview mirror.”
Coe additionally remembered a disturbing dialog along with her ex-husband when she heard Edwards had been murdered and referred to as to speak about it.
“I feel I used to be, you recognize, crying and I mentioned, ‘oh, my God,’ I mentioned, ‘any individual has murdered Catherine,” Coe informed “48 Hours.” “And — and he goes, ‘Oh, actually?’ Identical to no emotion, which I believed that was odd.”
Jefferson County D.A.’s Workplace 
A DNA match rapidly established that Foreman had certainly been on the crime scene. And when Det. Aaron Lewallen and Ranger Bess went to query Foreman, that they had an arrest warrant. Additionally they introduced one thing with them — one thing very symbolic.
Collectively, that they had taken the time to work out an association with the prosecutors so they might use {the handcuffs} taken as proof on the crime scene. Once they arrested Foreman for the homicide of Edwards, they did so with the very handcuffs that had certain her the evening she died. He wasn’t one in every of them, however in the midst of the investigation, they realized Foreman had been falsely claiming to be a police officer.
{The handcuffs} — such a spotlight at first — got here full circle on the finish. Bess will always remember the way it felt. As he informed Morales, “It is a second I will always remember … you are feeling such as you bought to do one thing for Catherine there … You recognize, like bodily bought to do for her, is take these cuffs that certain her when she was murdered and put them again on the man that murdered her … It might appear small to some, however it was a extremely huge deal to us, and it felt good.”
The jury in Foreman’s homicide trial deliberated for lower than an hour earlier than discovering him responsible of the homicide of Edwards. Foreman was sentenced to life in jail.
