Mary Catherine Edwards: The 1995 Cold Case Solved by DNA

The 1995 Mary Catherine Edwards murder was solved in 2021 when forensic genetic genealogy identified Clayton Bernard Foreman, a high school acquaintance who had married one of Edwards’ close friends and had her serve as a bridesmaid at his wedding. Foreman was convicted of capital murder in March 2024 and sentenced to life in prison, and in January 2026 the Ninth Court of Appeals upheld the conviction.¹

What Happened on January 14, 1995

Mary Catherine Edwards was a 31-year-old elementary school teacher in Beaumont, Texas. On Saturday, January 14, 1995, she missed a family lunch and did not answer her phone. Her parents went to her Park Meadow townhome, and her mother found her body and called 911.²

Edwards had been sexually assaulted. She was found naked from the waist down, handcuffed behind her back with police-grade Smith & Wesson handcuffs, positioned on her knees with her head in a bathtub filled with water. Investigators initially concluded she had drowned, but later analysis pointed to suffocation by compression, because there was not enough fluid in her lungs.³

There were no signs of forced entry. Police believed Edwards knew whoever she let in. The handcuff serial numbers led nowhere, and DNA recovered from a bedspread and a sexual assault kit belonged to an unknown male whose profile did not match anyone in the CODIS national database.⁴ Traditional testing excluded a former boyfriend and several other suspects. The case went cold and stayed that way for a quarter century.

How Genetic Genealogy Solved the Case

Around 2020, Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham asked for a fresh look at the file.⁵ Texas Ranger Brandon Bess and Beaumont Police Detective Aaron Lewallen reopened the investigation and turned to forensic genetic genealogy, a technique that had matured since the original DNA was collected.

In April 2020, crime scene samples were sent to Othram, a Texas forensic lab, which performed whole-genome sequencing on a vaginal swab and fabric from the scene and identified more than half a million genetic markers. Local officials paid about $10,000 for the work.⁶

The enhanced profile was uploaded to GEDmatch, a public genetic database, and the results indicated the perpetrator had Cajun ancestry. Detective Tina Lewallen, working with Louisiana genealogist Shera LaPoint, built a family tree of more than 7,400 names from public DNA, birth, and death records.⁷ Investigators collected cheek swabs from more than 30 distant relatives to narrow the branches.⁵

The tree pointed to a Beaumont family with two sons who had attended Forest Park High School at the same time as Edwards. Attention landed on Clayton Bernard Foreman after investigators found he had a 1981 sexual assault conviction in which he had bound a woman’s hands, a detail that echoed the handcuffs used on Edwards.³ His 1981 conviction predated mandatory DNA collection, which is why he had never surfaced in CODIS.

The Bridesmaid Connection

The personal link that came out of the genealogy work was startling. Dianna Coe, a friend of Mary Catherine and her twin sister Allison since middle school, married Clayton Foreman in 1982. She asked both Edwards twins to serve as bridesmaids.⁸ Foreman had never been a person of interest in the original investigation, and detectives had not known about the wedding connection until the DNA work led them there.

Prosecutors later theorized that Foreman talked his way into Edwards’ townhome by claiming he needed to discuss marital or financial trouble with his wife. A witness testified that Foreman had used the same pretense in the mid-1980s to get inside the home of another of Coe’s friends.⁸

Foreman’s Prior Assaults

Trial evidence showed a pattern going back to Foreman’s teenage years. On July 2, 1981, when he was a student at Forest Park High School, he encountered a 19-year-old classmate stranded in the rain at a gas station. He offered her a ride, posed as a police officer, then stopped the car, bound her hands behind her back with a belt, held a knife to her throat, and raped her.⁹ He pleaded guilty and received three years of deferred adjudication.¹⁰

At the 2024 trial, another woman, Paula Ramsey, testified that Foreman had approached her when her car became stuck, falsely claimed to be a police officer, tied her hands behind her back, and threatened to cut her throat. After the assault, she recalled, he said, “Stop crying. I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t hurt you.” A third woman, an unnamed friend of Dianna Coe, told investigators Foreman had attacked her from behind in the mid-1980s and held a gun to her head; she did not press charges.³

Dianna Coe testified that Foreman had an “unhealthy fascination” with police officers and equipment and kept a pair of police-grade handcuffs hanging from his rearview mirror. She said she learned of the 1981 sexual assault before their wedding, but Foreman dismissed it as a “big misunderstanding.” They stayed married more than 11 years and had a son before divorcing. When Coe called Foreman in 1995 to tell him Edwards had been murdered, she said, he reacted with “no emotion.”³

A former fiancée, Teresa Brewer, testified that Foreman kept photographs of young girls and eventually told her he used them to “fantasize about taking their virginity.”² She said he refused to participate in a DNA testing project, telling her, “He didn’t want people to have his personal information, that’s how they find you.”¹¹

Arrest and Confirmation of the DNA Match

By 2021, Foreman was living in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, and driving for Uber. Working with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Texas investigators ran a covert “trash pull,” recovering items including a plastic fork, spoon, medicine bottles, and dental floss from his garbage. Testing confirmed his DNA matched the semen from the Edwards crime scene at a probability of 461 septillion to one.³

On April 29, 2021, Ranger Bess and Detective Lewallen lured Foreman to the sheriff’s office under the pretense that they were investigating a purse lost during one of his Uber rides. He denied knowing Edwards or that she had been murdered. When investigators showed him a photograph from his own 1982 wedding, with both Edwards twins standing among the bridesmaids, and confronted him with the DNA match, he asked for an attorney.³ He was arrested as he left. Ranger Bess used the same Smith & Wesson handcuffs recovered from the 1995 crime scene to take him into custody.¹²

A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Foreman on capital murder on September 22, 2021.¹³

Trial, Verdict, and Sentence

Trial began March 12, 2024, in Jefferson County Criminal District Court before Judge John Stevens. The state, represented by prosecutors Mike Laird, Sonny Eckhart, and First Assistant District Attorney Pat Knauth, did not seek the death penalty, capping the maximum punishment at life in prison.¹³ Foreman, represented by Tom Burbank, pleaded not guilty.¹

The prosecution’s case combined the septillions-to-one DNA match, a 53-minute recording of Foreman’s April 2021 interview in Ohio, testimony from Ramsey and the 1981 victim about his history of impersonating police and restraining women, and testimony from Coe and Brewer about his fixation on police equipment and his fear of DNA testing. Edwards’ twin sister, Allison Edwards Brocato, testified about her sister’s life and the loss to the family.¹⁴

On March 20, 2024, the jury returned a guilty verdict in less than an hour.¹¹ Foreman received a life sentence. His earliest parole eligibility is reported as 2054, when he would be over 90, though some sources cite 2061.³

Appeal

Foreman appealed, arguing that the 1981 assault should have been kept out, that his Fifth Amendment rights were violated during the Ohio interview because he was effectively in custody without Miranda warnings, that testimony about a firearm and handcuffs found in his car was improperly admitted, and that testimony about the genetic genealogy investigation was inadmissible hearsay.¹

On January 8, 2026, the Ninth Court of Appeals rejected every claim. It found the 1981 assault admissible on identity, intent, and motive, citing twelve specific similarities to the Edwards murder. It held that Foreman was not in custody during the Ohio interview, that the genealogy testimony supplied investigative context rather than hearsay, and that the firearm and handcuffs in his car were relevant to preparation. Foreman is serving his life sentence at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility.¹

1
12NewsNow. Appeals Court Upholds Conviction in 1995 Murder of Beaumont Teacher
2
The Examiner. Foreman Found Guilty in 1995 Murder of Mary Catherine Edwards
3
CBS News. Mary Catherine Edwards Murder and Clayton Foreman Trial
4
DNA Solves. Mary Catherine Edwards
5
Houston Chronicle. Genealogy DNA Testing Helps Crack Cold Case of Beaumont Teacher
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Texas Monthly. Othram Forensic Genetic Genealogy and Catherine Edwards Murder
7
Beaumont Enterprise. Debate Over Video in Clayton Foreman Murder Trial
8
People. Mary Catherine Edwards Bridesmaid Murdered by Groom Years Later
9
KFDM. Man in Custody in Ohio Charged With 1995 Murder of Beaumont Teacher
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The Examiner. Trial Continues for Man Accused in 1995 Slaying of Mary Catherine Edwards
11
Beaumont Enterprise. Clayton Foreman Guilty in Beaumont Cold Case
12
CBS News. Tracking the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards
13
The Examiner. Parties Prepare for Capital Murder Trial in 1995 Slaying
14
The Examiner. Trial Underway in 1995 Murder of School Teacher