# Murderers That Thought They Got Away With It | 219

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 1 May 2026, 30 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO1361181237.mp3

Don't forget to drop a comment saying what you're doing while you watch or listen to the podcast. Also don't forget to hit follow. Episode 219 of the true crime podcast btw. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 unsolved mysteries, true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, cold cases, true crime, true crime solved, 5 true crime cases

## Transcript

[0:00] On June 13th, 1996, eighteen year old Angie Dodge was found
[0:05] brutally slain in her Idaho Falls apartment.
[0:08] That morning, two of her Co workers, worried when she didn't
[0:12] show up for work, discovered her body on the floor of her
[0:16] bedroom. In the midst of their grief,
[0:19] Angie's loved ones held on to 1 Hope.
[0:22] The attacker had left behind a clear DNA profile, and they
[0:26] believe this genetic evidence would quickly lead police to the
[0:29] perpetrator. But as weeks turned into months
[0:33] with no arrest, the investigation struggled to find
[0:36] a suspect. And when they did, this would be
[0:39] a story with more twists and turns than anyone could imagine.
[0:45] By early 1997, the Idaho Falls police were under intense
[0:50] pressure to solve Angie's case. A break came in January when a
[0:54] man named Benjamin Hobbs, part of Angie's social circle, was
[0:58] arrested in Nevada on an unrelated indecent assault
[1:02] charge. This prompted investigators to
[1:05] question Hobbs's Idaho friends, including 20 year old Chris Tap,
[1:10] who had been seen with Angie the night before her slaying.
[1:13] With no physical evidence tying Tap to the crime, detectives
[1:17] leaned heavily on intense interrogation techniques.
[1:22] Over the course of about 25 hours of questioning spread
[1:25] across multiple days, Tap told a patchwork of inconsistent
[1:29] stories. In fact, he told as many as six
[1:32] different accounts of what happened.
[1:34] Under intense pressure and deceptive tactics, he gradually
[1:38] shifted from denying any involvement to implying he was
[1:41] present but not involved directly, and eventually to
[1:45] confessing outright. The interrogation methods used
[1:51] on tap would later come under severe criticism.
[1:54] Police officers repeatedly threatened him, mentioning that
[1:58] his options were either the gas chamber or life in prison.
[2:02] They accused him of repressing memories, fed him details about
[2:06] the crime, and offered leniency in exchange for cooperation.
[2:10] Notably, many of the details offered weren't things that were
[2:14] publicly known about the crime, significantly tainting the
[2:18] confession. They even dangled an immunity
[2:21] deal at one point, only to withdraw it when his story
[2:25] didn't perfectly match the evidence.
[2:28] Bit by bit, the frightened young man was coerced into saying he
[2:32] had been part of a group attack on Angie, initially tap named
[2:36] Hobbes. Then, when DNA from the crime
[2:39] scene didn't match either of them, he implicated another
[2:42] friend as well. When that didn't turn out, the
[2:46] authorities concluded that he was likely covering for an as
[2:49] yet unknown third party. On the strength of this
[2:55] manufactured confession, prosecutors charged Tap with the
[2:59] offense, even though the DNA evidence from Angie's body still
[3:03] pointed to an unknown man. At trial in 1998, the
[3:07] prosecution acknowledged that Tap's DNA didn't match the
[3:11] biomaterial left at the scene. To explain this discrepancy,
[3:15] they proposed that multiple people had been involved in the
[3:18] attack, an assertion based solely on Taps questionable
[3:22] story. The defense argued that Taps
[3:25] confession was coerced and unreliable, but the jury
[3:28] ultimately found him guilty. He was sentenced to life in
[3:32] prison with a minimum of 30 years to be served behind bars.
[3:39] After Tap's conviction, significant doubts about the
[3:43] case persisted. The most glaring problem was the
[3:46] DNA tests on the biological evidence from the crime scene
[3:51] all indicated the same unknown man, definitively excluding TAP
[3:56] as the source. In the early 2000's, the Idaho
[4:01] Innocence Project and other advocates for wrongful
[4:03] conviction review took up Tap's case.
[4:09] They pointed out the red flags of a false confession and the
[4:12] lack of any physical evidence linking him to Angie's slaying.
[4:17] Additional DNA testing in 2008 confirmed that none of the
[4:20] genetic material at the scene came from TAP, further
[4:24] undermining the prosecution's theory.
[4:27] This test also confirmed with absolute certainty that the
[4:31] material recovered was from a single source only.
[4:35] Still, appeals in the courts failed one after another, and
[4:39] Tap remained in prison. One person's perspective was
[4:44] slowly changing during these years.
[4:47] Chris Tap was about to acquire a powerful ally in his fight for
[4:50] exoneration, Angie's mother, Carol Dodge.
[4:55] In the immediate aftermath, Carol had been eager to see Tap
[4:59] punished. At one point, she even pushed
[5:02] for the death penalty, convinced he was involved.
[5:06] But as time wore on, with no evidence of the supposed second
[5:09] perpetrator and more revelations about the interrogations,
[5:13] Carol's certainty eroded. In 2013, she watched the tapes
[5:19] of TAPS police interviews herself and was struck by how
[5:22] blatantly officers seemed to be feeding him information and
[5:26] coercing his statements. Carol came to believe that Taps
[5:30] confession was false and that her daughter's real killer was
[5:34] still out there. In a remarkable turn around, she
[5:38] became 1 of Taps strongest advocates determined to find the
[5:42] truth to both set an innocent man free and of course, for
[5:46] Angie's sake. With Carol's support, the effort
[5:51] to exonerate TAP gained momentum and lawyers with the Innocence
[5:55] Project and local Idaho attorneys pressed for new
[5:58] hearings. By 2017, this pressure produced
[6:03] a partial victory. Taps original conviction was
[6:06] vacated in a deal with prosecutors, and after serving
[6:10] 20 years in prison, he was released.
[6:13] However, the agreement didn't fully clear his name, and he
[6:16] wasn't officially exonerated. In the eyes of the law and the
[6:20] public, he was officially still a monster, but one who had done
[6:24] his time. In 2018, with Carol's
[6:29] encouragement, Idaho Falls authorities teamed up with a
[6:32] genetic genealogy company to re examine the DNA from Angie's
[6:36] case. This technique, which had then
[6:39] recently gained fame for catching the Golden State
[6:41] Killer, involved comparing the unknown suspect's DNA profile to
[6:46] data from millions of people. These people had voluntarily
[6:50] submitted their DNA to databases, and a family tree
[6:54] could be built out to find who the actual perpetrator was.
[6:58] The work was tough and the technology wasn't what it is
[7:01] today. Finally, in 2019, the
[7:07] painstaking genealogical detective work paid off.
[7:11] The research pointed to a new name that had been overlooked
[7:14] before, Brian Drips. Not only did Drips fit the
[7:19] genetic and demographic profile of the potential perp, he also
[7:23] had a direct tie to the case's original facts.
[7:27] Back in 1996, Drips had lived right across the street from
[7:31] Angie Dodge's apartment. He had been interviewed briefly
[7:35] in the initial neighborhood canvas, but he was never a
[7:38] suspect during the original investigation as attention had
[7:42] focused on Tap and his friends. Now, decades later, Drips
[7:48] emerged as the prime suspect through DNA, and the fates of
[7:52] Drips and Tap were about to intersect once again.
[7:56] Detectives tracked him to his new residence in Caldwell, ID,
[8:00] and in May 2019 they picked up a cigarette butt that Drips
[8:05] discarded on the street. Testing confirmed that the DNA
[8:09] on that tar filled tobacco torpedo exactly matched the
[8:13] genetic material from the crime scene.
[8:17] Confronted with this evidence, the 53 year old Brian Drips
[8:21] didn't hesitate to confess. He admitted that on the night of
[8:24] June 13th, 1996, he alone attacked Angie Dodge and he
[8:30] affirmed that Chris Tapp had no part in the crime.
[8:34] After nearly 23 years, the mystery of Angie's slaying was
[8:37] finally solved. In July 2019, an Idaho judge
[8:43] formally vacated Taps remaining conviction and dismissed all
[8:47] charges against him, fully exonerating him.
[8:51] And I have to mention it here since it's the elephant in the
[8:53] room, But there is, of course, a certain poetic element to a man
[8:58] called Tap being exonerated by Drips.
[9:01] Brian Drips later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in
[9:05] prison in 2021. Chris Tap, who served 20 years
[9:11] in prison for a crime he had no part in, eventually ended up
[9:15] suing the city of Idaho Falls. He reached a negotiated
[9:19] settlement for just over $11 million.
[9:22] This is where you may expect the saga of Chris Tap to end, but
[9:26] unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all.
[9:30] And some people simply have a terrible lot in life.
[9:35] On October 29th, 2023, Chris was allegedly slain by Daniel
[9:40] Rodemer, a former professional wrestler and politician.
[9:44] According to reports and allegations, Chris had offered
[9:48] Daniel's stepdaughter a bump of the Colombian Yeti confetti, to
[9:52] which Daniel didn't take kindly. Daniel Rodemer pleaded not
[9:56] guilty in March 2024 and remains innocent until proven guilty in
[10:01] a court of law. Rita Curran was a 24 year old
[10:06] woman living in the college town of Burlington, Vt in 1971.
[10:11] She was beloved by her family and well liked in the community.
[10:15] Rita had a passion for music. She sang in a barbershop quartet
[10:20] and was known for her kindness and generosity.
[10:23] During summer break, Rita took graduate courses at the
[10:27] University of Vermont and worked by day as a maid at a local
[10:30] hotel to earn some extra money. She was a second grade teacher
[10:35] looking forward to the new school term in the fall, and she
[10:39] had recently moved into an apartment near campus to enjoy a
[10:42] taste of independence. No one imagined that her bright
[10:46] future would soon be violently cut short.
[10:51] On the night of July 19th, 1971, Rita returned home around 10:00
[10:57] PM after a singing practice with her quartet.
[11:01] Two roommates shared the apartment with her, and shortly
[11:04] after Rita got home, they went out for a late snack, leaving
[11:07] her alone. Rita changed into her nightgown
[11:11] and prepared for bed. Sometime before midnight, an
[11:15] intruder slipped in, likely through an unlocked door, and
[11:19] attacked her in her bedroom. When the roommates came back
[11:23] after midnight, they walked into a nightmare.
[11:27] Rita's lifeless body was on the bedroom floor.
[11:30] She had been brutally beaten, subject to indecent assault and
[11:34] then strangled. There were no signs of forced
[11:37] entry, nothing of value was stolen, and the only strange
[11:41] clue was a discarded smoke near her body.
[11:45] Rita never lit up, so this clearly belonged to the perp.
[11:50] Burlington police launched a major investigation into Rita's
[11:54] slaying, and it was reported to be one of the most investigated
[11:57] cases in Burlington police history.
[12:00] Detectives interviewed many people, including every neighbor
[12:03] in her building. Among them was 31 year old
[12:07] William Deruse, who lived upstairs with his wife.
[12:11] Deruse claimed he knew nothing and his wife insisted he had
[12:14] been home with her all night, an alibi that led police to rule
[12:18] him out at the time. Investigators instead focused on
[12:22] other leads as they sifted through hundreds of tips and
[12:26] potential suspects. Physical evidence from the scene
[12:30] didn't match any known person back then, and DNA wouldn't have
[12:34] a forensic usage for decades. By the 1980s, Rita Curran's case
[12:41] had became one of Vermont's most notorious cold cases.
[12:45] With no answers, rumors and theories swirled.
[12:49] Some even speculated that Ted Bundy, who was born in
[12:52] Burlington, might have been responsible.
[12:56] For a time, investigators did consider Bundy as a possible
[12:59] suspect, but there was no evidence linking him to Rita's
[13:03] attack, and Bundy himself denied any involvement.
[13:07] Rita's sister Mary even wrote to Bundy in prison years later, but
[13:12] he never confessed or provided answers.
[13:15] Ultimately, the Bundy theory was dismissed and the case was left
[13:18] with no leads. For decades the current family
[13:24] lived with heartbreak and unanswered questions.
[13:27] In 2014, more than 4 decades after the crime, Burlington
[13:33] police tried a new tactic. They re examined the old
[13:37] evidence with modern forensic methods and managed to extract a
[13:40] male DNA profile from that long held cigarette butt.
[13:45] It was a significant find, but when they ran the DNA through
[13:49] national databases, it matched no known offender.
[13:54] That said, what it did definitively prove is that Bundy
[13:58] truly wasn't involved in the attack.
[14:01] Putting to rest this speculative theory, the file remained open
[14:06] and investigators continued to hope that one day science would
[14:09] provide a breakthrough. In 2019, the cold case got a
[14:16] fresh look with cutting edge tools.
[14:18] Detectives turned to investigative genetic genealogy,
[14:22] hoping to find the perpetrator's identity through DNA matches.
[14:27] The suspect's DNA from the cigarette was sent to a
[14:30] specialized lab. Interestingly, this technique
[14:33] pointed to a single name, William Deruse.
[14:38] The discovery was stunning. Deruse was the same former
[14:41] neighbor who had lived above Rita in 1971.
[14:45] Rita and Deruz likely hadn't even met prior to the attack,
[14:49] and she had only moved into the building a couple of weeks
[14:51] prior. After decades of dead ends,
[14:55] science led the police back to someone who had been under their
[14:58] noses the whole time. Police sought further
[15:01] confirmation. They tested DNA from Rita's
[15:05] clothing and other preserved evidence, and again, it pointed
[15:08] to Deruz. With evidence mounting,
[15:12] detectives approached his former wife.
[15:15] Confronted with the facts, she finally admitted that she lied
[15:18] about her husband's alibi all those years ago.
[15:22] On the night of the attack, she now revealed, the couple had
[15:25] fought and Daruse stormed out for a cool down walk at the
[15:29] critical time. He returned later and told her
[15:32] not to mention that he had been out and out of alleged fear and
[15:36] misguided loyalty, she kept his secret.
[15:39] This long hidden truth, combined with the DNA evidence, gave
[15:44] investigators what they needed to close the case.
[15:46] At last, in February 2023, Burlington's police chief
[15:53] announced at a press conference that the mystery had been
[15:55] solved. After committing the crime in
[15:58] 1971, de Ruse quietly left Vermont just days later.
[16:04] He eventually travelled overseas to Thailand and spent several
[16:07] years there as a Buddhist monk. A few years afterward, he
[16:11] resurfaced in California, where he remarried and lived under an
[16:15] assumed name, even becoming known by the nickname Dutch as a
[16:20] local guru. Those later chapters of his life
[16:24] appear to have been an attempt to either run from his violent
[16:27] past or atone for the extreme evil he committed.
[16:33] However, while this may have been his intent, things turned
[16:37] out a bit differently. Investigators discovered that
[16:40] Deruse had a history of aggression, even after his
[16:43] Buddhist rebrand. His second wife reported that he
[16:47] attacked her, choking her until she passed out, running counter
[16:52] to the supposed nonviolent philosophy he now ascribed to.
[16:56] He also stabbed a friend of the couple in an altercation.
[17:02] Crucially, William Deruse never faced justice in his lifetime
[17:06] for the slaying of Rita Curran In 1986, at age 46, he died of
[17:13] an overdose in a San Francisco hotel room under circumstances
[17:17] that aren't well understood. It remains unclear at this time
[17:21] why his first wife, who was abandoned days after the attack
[17:25] on Rita, never came forward to the authorities while he was
[17:29] still alive. It's also unclear if she knew
[17:32] his fate when she admitted what she knew, and it's possible that
[17:36] she was still living in fear of De Ruse, who was quite obviously
[17:40] an extremely violent man. On a quiet Saturday in January
[17:47] 1995, tragedy struck the city of Beaumont, TX.
[17:52] Mary Catherine Edwards, a 31 year old school teacher, failed
[17:56] to show up for a planned family lunch on January 14th, 1995.
[18:02] When repeated phone calls went unanswered, her concerned
[18:05] parents drove to her townhouse to check on her.
[18:09] Nothing could have prepared them for the scene they found.
[18:13] Mary Catherine was discovered dead, lying partially over her
[18:17] bathtub with her hands cuffed behind her back.
[18:21] In their horror and grief, her parents called 911, ushering
[18:25] local police into an investigation that would span
[18:28] decades. From the beginning, detectives
[18:33] faced intense pressure to solve the case, but the investigation
[18:36] proved challenging. The Beaumont Police Department
[18:40] scoured Catherine's townhouse for evidence, collecting items
[18:44] like a bedspread and the handcuffs used by the assailant.
[18:49] Crucially, they obtained the perpetrators DNA from the crime
[18:52] scene. However, in 1995, genetic
[18:56] profiling was in its infancy, and when they ran the sample
[19:00] through available databases, no match was found.
[19:04] The unknown DNA profile would sit in police storage for years
[19:08] as a silent witness, waiting for technology and luck to catch up.
[19:15] Investigators turned their attention to Catherine's
[19:17] acquaintances. Operating on the theory that she
[19:20] knew the perpetrator, an ex-boyfriend, David Perry
[19:25] emerged as an early person of interest.
[19:28] He had dated Catherine recently, and with no forced entry, it
[19:33] made sense to question someone who might have been welcomed
[19:35] into her home. Detectives tracked Perry down
[19:39] and inquired about his whereabouts on the night of the
[19:42] slaying. Perry had a solid alibi.
[19:45] He was out of town at the time of the crime, and he voluntarily
[19:49] provided adna sample. In a significant turn, Perry's
[19:53] DNA didn't match the crime scene evidence definitively ruling him
[19:57] out. Other leads and theories were
[20:02] pursued as well. Police tried tracing the serial
[20:05] number on the handcuffs, hoping it might lead to a purchaser or
[20:09] a link to a supplier, but this turned out to be a dead end.
[20:13] Over time, dozens of potential suspects were identified and
[20:18] their DNA compared to the crime scene profile.
[20:21] But one by one, these leads were eliminated.
[20:24] Each disappointment was a blow to Catherine's family and the
[20:27] detectives, who grew increasingly frustrated.
[20:31] By the late 1990s, despite the best efforts of the Beaumont
[20:35] police, the trail had gone cold. In April 2020, the authorities
[20:43] sent the DNA from Catherine's crime scene to Othram, a
[20:46] specialized private lab in Texas that could tease more
[20:49] information out of old genetic evidence.
[20:52] Othrum's advanced testing produced a detailed DNA profile
[20:56] suitable for genealogical analysis.
[20:59] The results that came back we're both encouraging and daunting.
[21:03] There were hits, and lots of them.
[21:06] The DNA didn't point to one person, but rather to a whole
[21:09] network of people who shared segments of the perpetrator's
[21:12] genetics. It appeared the unknown suspect
[21:18] had distant cousins who had uploaded their DNA, and many of
[21:22] these matches had something in common Cajun ancestry from
[21:26] Louisiana. This was a clue to the perp's
[21:29] heritage, but it also meant the suspect's family tree was likely
[21:34] large and deeply rooted in that region.
[21:37] The authorities began building out a massive family tree of the
[21:40] suspect's relatives based on the DNA matches.
[21:44] The workload ballooned quickly and the family tree grew to
[21:48] include nearly 10,000 names, a huge web of 3rd, 4th and 5th
[21:53] cousins spanning generations. Investigators noted that one of
[22:00] the key DNA matches was managed by a woman named Shara Lapointe.
[22:05] She had uploaded several of her family members DNA profiles to a
[22:08] public DNA profile used by law enforcement.
[22:12] In other words, a large chunk of the Cajun genetic matches were
[22:16] part of Shara's extended family tree in one way or the other.
[22:20] But that's not where investigators fortune stopped.
[22:25] It turned out that Cheryl Lapointe was no ordinary
[22:28] genealogy enthusiast. In a serendipitous twist, she
[22:32] was a professional genetic genealogist nicknamed the Gene
[22:36] Hunter, known for solving cold cases and identifying unknown
[22:40] crime victims. She ended up joining forces with
[22:43] the authorities, who leveraged her expert knowledge of
[22:46] interconnecting Cajun family trees.
[22:51] After months of exhausting work, a pivotal discovery was made
[22:56] late one night. Cheryl Lapointe was following a
[22:59] distant branch of the family tree, one with the common Cajun
[23:03] surname Thibodeau. She traced descendants of a
[23:07] particular couple to Beaumont, TX.
[23:10] This Beaumont couple, it turned out, had two sons.
[23:13] Digging further, she learned these sons had attended Forest
[23:17] Park High School in Beaumont, the very same school Mary
[23:20] Catherine Edwards had gone to in the 1980s.
[23:26] Now the investigative team had to determine which one might be
[23:29] their culprit, with their belief that based on their ages, it
[23:33] could be either man. Detectives started digging into
[23:37] both men's backgrounds for any red flags, and what they
[23:40] discovered made the decision on who to focus on shockingly easy.
[23:45] Clayton Foreman, the older of the brothers, had a very dark
[23:49] secret in his past. Records showed that back in
[23:53] 1981, when Clayton was in his early 20s, he had been arrested
[23:58] and charged with indecent assault on a young woman.
[24:02] Notably, this woman was a former high school classmate, and he
[24:07] also bound her hands. Clayton was convicted of the
[24:10] assault, but in a bizarre reflection of the era's
[24:13] leniency, he received only probation and a fine.
[24:18] And no, you don't have to rewind.
[24:20] He received a slap on the wrist for one of the worst crimes
[24:23] imaginable. Crucially, because this occurred
[24:28] long before modern DNA databases or even offender registries,
[24:33] Clayton's DNA was never collected.
[24:35] At the time, he had remained under the radar of law
[24:39] enforcement databases, which explained why the crime scene
[24:42] DNA in Catherine's case had never hit on his name.
[24:46] The connection between Catherine and Clayton was about to get
[24:49] much more direct. However.
[24:54] Clayton had a social link to her.
[24:56] Catherine had been a bridesmaid in Clayton Foreman's first
[24:59] wedding back in 1982. One of Catherine's close friends
[25:04] was marrying Clayton, and both Catherine and her twin sister
[25:09] stood in the wedding party for their friend.
[25:12] This revelation was the unexpected twist that gave
[25:15] everyone pause. The gentle, caring teacher who
[25:18] was slain in the most horrific way had once smiled for photos
[25:23] at the wedding of the man now suspected of ending her life.
[25:28] The authorities began the hunt for Clayton, which wasn't hard
[25:32] to do given his deep local roots.
[25:35] After his marriage failed, he eventually left Beaumont and
[25:39] over the years drifted far from Texas, living in several states
[25:43] over the years. By 2021, the then 60 year old
[25:47] Clayton Foreman was living a quiet life in Reynoldsburg, OH,
[25:52] where he worked as an Uber driver.
[25:55] And yeah, just consider that for a second.
[25:58] This is a guy who likely had intoxicated women get into his
[26:02] vehicle with him alone at night because they thought that was
[26:05] the safer thing to do. Armed with this knowledge,
[26:10] Beaumont police and the Texas Rangers prepared to move in on
[26:13] Clayton Foreman. But before they could make an
[26:16] arrest, they needed one more piece of irrefutable evidence, a
[26:21] direct DNA match to tie Clayton to the crime scene.
[26:25] The DNA profile pointing to him was strong, but it was built
[26:29] through relatives. An exact match was necessary to
[26:32] clinch the case. To obtain Clayton's DNA without
[26:35] tipping him off, investigators organized a covert operation
[26:39] known as a trash pole. In early 2021, officers in Ohio
[26:45] quietly surveilled Clayton's residence and waited for him to
[26:49] put out his garbage on the curb. Once the trash was in a public
[26:53] area, law enforcement swooped in and collected discarded items
[26:58] that might contain Clayton's genetic material.
[27:02] The bag of trash was shipped to the Texas Department of Public
[27:05] Safety Crime lab for analysis, where forensic scientists
[27:09] eagerly tested the contents for DNA.
[27:12] The cops hit pay dirt and one of the items in his trash contained
[27:16] his genetic material. They compared this profile
[27:19] directly to the DNA from the 1995 crime scene and got an
[27:23] astronomically precise match. The odds were on the order of
[27:28] one in 461 septillion that the DNA could belong to anyone other
[27:33] than Clayton Foreman. On April 29th, 2021, Texas
[27:40] Rangers and Ohio police made their move.
[27:43] In a poignant touch, the officers brought along a very
[27:46] special set of handcuffs for the occasion.
[27:49] The same pair of police issue handcuffs recovered from
[27:52] Catherine's bathroom in 1995. Those cuffs, which had once been
[27:57] a grim piece of evidence binding A victim, were now snapped shut
[28:01] around the wrists of the accused perpetrator.
[28:06] After his arrest, Clayton Foreman was extradited back to
[28:10] Texas to stand trial. It took nearly 30 years from the
[28:14] day of the crime, but in March 2024, the case of Mary Catherine
[28:19] Edwards finally went before a jury in Beaumont.
[28:23] I'm probably not going to surprise you when I say that the
[28:25] forensic evidence presented to the jury was absolutely damning.
[28:30] Experts testified about the genetic genealogy trail and the
[28:34] astronomical probability that anyone other than Clayton
[28:37] Foreman could have left the DNA at the crime scene.
[28:41] Jurors learned about the old assault case from 1981,
[28:45] establishing a pattern of behavior.
[28:47] Foreman's defense, by contrast, had little to counter with.
[28:51] In fact, Foreman's attorney declined to make any substantive
[28:54] opening statement, perhaps recognizing the weight of
[28:57] evidence against his client. After a week long trial filled
[29:02] with evidence and heartfelt testimonies, the case went to
[29:05] the jury. It didn't take long, under an
[29:09] hour of deliberation for the jury to return with a verdict of
[29:13] guilty. At 63 years old, Clayton Foreman
[29:19] was sentenced to life in prison with the earliest possibility of
[29:23] parole decades away. In fact, he'll not even be
[29:26] eligible for parole until he has served 30 years, by which time
[29:30] he'll be in his 90s. In all likelihood, he'll spend
[29:34] the rest of his days behind bars, perhaps reminiscing over
[29:38] those years of freedom he got to undeservingly enjoy.
[29:42] For Mary Catherine's family and friends, the verdict was a
[29:46] long-awaited deliverance. Outside the courthouse, they
[29:50] expressed gratitude to the investigators who persisted and
[29:53] the scientists who provided new tools to crack the case.
[29:59] Foreman lived all over the country, and given that he put
[30:02] himself in a position where he had access to vulnerable people
[30:05] as an Uber driver, there may be more horrific crimes associated
[30:09] with him. For now though, the reality is
[30:13] he'll never see the light of day again.
[30:16] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here. Just thanking you for tuning in
[30:19] and sticking around till the end.
[30:21] If you made it this far, please take a moment to follow my
[30:24] podcast and leave a rating since it really helps me out in the
[30:27] algorithm.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.