Here's How Catherine Edwards' Killer Was Finally Caught
In 1995, 31-year-old Beaumont, Texas, teacher Mary Catherine Edwards was found sexually assaulted and killed in her home. After more than two decades, a suspect, Clayton Bernard Foreman, has been arrested for the crime. It turns out that Edwards knew her killer all along and even went to high school with her, as reported by 12 News. Not only that, Edwards was also a bridesmaid at Foreman's wedding to his first wife.
The cold case of Catherine Edwards' murder has seemingly been solved with DNA evidence. The police took DNA from Edwards' body and items that were found in her home. In the '90s, however, DNA technology was still in its infancy, so the authorities resorted to other methods of investigation, according to Fox News. Investigators looked at Edwards' circle of friends and her lifestyle, but the case went cold.
In 2006, cold case detectives revisited Catherine Edwards' case, and the DNA that was gathered at the scene was tested. Although they were able to get a DNA profile, it did not lead to any suspects when compared to existing profiles in their database. At that point, their only hope was that a DNA match would happen when more criminal profiles were added to the database.
Genealogy website leads to arrest
When Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham entered office in 2014, one of his main goals was to solve Catherine Edwards' cold case. As reported by Beaumont Enterprise, the suspect's DNA profile was entered on a genealogy website, and the results showed distant family members of the suspect. Through that information, the detectives gathered 30 profiles from the identified family members, which they provided willingly. Through extensive research, the outcome provided two names — Clayton Bernard Foreman and his brother.
Detectives looked into the brothers, and although Clayton's brother's record turned out clean, his weren't. Clayton was involved in a 1981 rape case that had strikingly similar details as those found at the Catherine Edwards crime scene, as Oxygen reported. The victim in that case also attended that same high school as Edwards and Foreman.
According to the New York Post, the police obtained Clayton Foreman's DNA on a piece of trash that he disposed of outside his home. Upon testing, his DNA profile reportedly matched the samples from the semen tested at the crime scene.
Clayton Foreman is facing charges for the sexual assault and murder of Catherine Edwards.