BEAUMONT, Texas — A husband and wife detective duo were able to help Beaumont detectives crack the case of the murder of Beaumont teacher Mary Catherine Edwards back in 1995.
Clayton Foreman remains behind bars in the Jefferson County Jail and will soon be transferred to a state prison. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted of capital murder.
Genetic genealogy helped Beaumont Police find Foreman, nearly 30 years after the crime.
Detective Aaron Lewallen started researching the case in 2010.
"Back in 2010, did a bunch of research and created a cold case list and then we worked some beyond that, had some successes in some other cold cases," Aaron said.
This meant digging through crime scene photos and videos as well as checking into the dozens of suspects that detectives excluded in the early years of the investigation.
"We would go back to them and looking to see if witnesses' stories changed or if science has changed," said Aaron.
In this case, it was the science. In 2021 police worked with the Texas Rangers to send DNA evidence, including a cutting from Edwards' comforter, to a private lab in Houston. This led to a DNA profile of a suspect.
"I'm a very visual learner and once the genealogical tree grew beyond my computer screen, I was like I need some help, I was running out of post it notes, so Tina has had some experience with this… Tina was like move over junior, and let me step in and the rest is history," Aaron told 12News.
Aaron and his wife Tina were hot on the trail.
"I started working it that night and I probably had 100 people in the profile the first night," Tina said.
The Lewallens needed to find the suspect's closest living relative.
"As I kept adding people and working the trees, I kept seeing her name over and over again. That she was creating people with the same trees, I was researching," said Tina.
"She" was Shera Lapoint, a genetic genealogist.
"So then we started researching her and she ends up being excellent at what she does and great focus on what we need to focus on. The rest is history. We're best friends now," Tina said.
"I was lucky to be led here. I was absolutely lucky to be led here, it's been an honor," said Lapoint.
Lapoint's father-in-law showed up on the family tree of possible suspects.
"This works. This works. This is the crime fighting tool of the future, the genetic genealogy. And it's speaking for the victims who cannot speak for themselves," Lapoint told 12News.
"It was a lot of ruling out. A whole lot of ruling out. In fact, some of the people we ruled out, don't even know we ruled them out," Tina said.
For the Lewallens, this is a calling. They're proud to police together and honored to help close the case on one of Beaumont's most notorious murders.