Police-style handcuffs on murder victim made police fear killer was among them

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Sneak peek: Tracking nan Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards

Sneak peek: Tracking nan Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards 03:38

On Jan. 14, 1995, Mary Catherine Edwards, 31, a beloved simple schoolhouse teacher, was recovered dormant successful her townhouse successful Beaumont, Texas.

Her parents recovered her. It was a unspeakable scene: she was successful her bathtub, handcuffed, and had been sexually assaulted. There were nary signs of forced entry, which made investigators deliberation she must cognize her killer. The police-grade Smith & Wesson handcuffs were ever a large clue, but erstwhile detectives tried tracing nan serial numbers, they came up empty. Early investigators questioned various rule enforcement officers and came up pinch thing either.

The lawsuit went cold, but arsenic Beaumont constabulary Det. Aaron Lewallen told "48 Hours" contributor Natalie Morales, "It was almost talked astir for illustration a shade communicative astir a campfire. Could it person been personification that we knew?" Morales reports connected nan hunt for answers successful "Tracking nan Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards," airing Saturday, Nov. 9 astatine 10/9c connected CBS and streaming connected Paramount +.

Thanks to cautiously preserved DNA from nan crime segment and nan advent of familial genealogy, Det. Aaron Lewallen, his woman Tina Lewallen, besides a detective — on pinch Brandon Bess, a Texas Ranger successful nan acold lawsuit division, and Shera LaPoint, a master genealogist — spent almost 3 months moving together successful a nonstop push to yet lick nan case.

After each nan early leads and nan suspicion that personification successful rule enforcement had been involved, nan family character they constructed revealed personification else. Their main fishy turned retired to beryllium not a rule enforcement officer, but a man who went to nan aforesaid precocious schoolhouse arsenic Edwards: Clayton Foreman.

And past they learned that Edwards and her identical copy sister Allison had been bridesmaids successful Foreman's first wedding. The sisters were bully friends pinch his first wife, Dianna Coe, who besides went to nan aforesaid precocious school.

Coe remembers them fondly, telling Morales really benignant they were to her erstwhile she moved to a caller municipality and started a caller school.

"I was caller to nan area … so, I knew nary one. And they … conscionable started talking to maine and asked maine my sanction … and we were friends from that constituent forward," Coe said.

The sisters were nan first group Coe thought of to beryllium bridesmaids astatine her wedding. She and Foreman stayed joined for 11 years. They were divided by nan clip of nan murder, but successful hindsight, Coe began to spot things successful a different, darker, light. She remembered her ex-husband's fascination pinch nan constabulary officers and their devices of nan trade, for illustration handcuffs and billy clubs. As Coe told Morales, "He had a billy nine that he kept…by nan bed. You know, said it was for protection. And I retrieve that he had ordered those handcuffs…Well, he had them hung complete nan rearview mirror."

Coe besides remembered a disturbing speech pinch her ex-husband erstwhile she heard Edwards had been murdered and called to talk astir it.

"I deliberation I was, you know, crying and I said, 'oh, my God,' I said, 'somebody has murdered Catherine," Coe told "48 Hours." "And — and he goes, 'Oh, really?' Just for illustration nary emotion, which I thought that was odd."

A DNA lucifer quickly established that Foreman had so been astatine nan crime scene. And erstwhile Det. Aaron Lewallen and Ranger Bess went to mobility Foreman, they had an apprehension warrant. They besides brought thing pinch them — thing very symbolic.

Together, they had taken nan clip to activity retired an statement pinch nan prosecutors truthful they could usage nan handcuffs taken arsenic grounds astatine nan crime scene. When they arrested Foreman for nan execution of Edwards, they did truthful pinch nan very handcuffs that had bound her nan nighttime she died. He wasn't 1 of them, but successful nan people of nan investigation, they learned Foreman had been falsely claiming to beryllium a constabulary officer.

The handcuffs — specified a attraction successful nan opening — came afloat circle astatine nan end. Bess will ne'er hide really it felt. As he told Morales, "It's a infinitesimal I'll ne'er forget…you consciousness for illustration you sewage to do thing for Catherine there…You know, for illustration physically sewage to do for her, is return those cuffs that bound her erstwhile she was murdered and put them backmost connected nan feline that murdered her…It whitethorn look mini to some, but it was a really large woody to us, and it felt good."

The assemblage successful Foreman's execution proceedings deliberated for little than an hr earlier uncovering him blameworthy of nan execution of Edwards. Foreman was sentenced to life successful prison.