A 36-year-old man who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis died while in federal custody in Texas on Wednesday, according to the agency.
Security personnel found Victor Manuel Diaz unconscious and unresponsive in his room at Camp East Montana in El Paso, according to ICE.
El Paso Emergency Medical Services were notified at 3:35 p.m. local time and were at the site attempting life-saving measures 10 minutes later, the federal agency said. Diaz died at 4:09 p.m.
“He died of a presumed suicide,” ICE said in a statement. “However, the official cause of his death remains under investigation.”
Diaz was arrested by federal officers on Jan. 6. According to federal officials, he was a Nicaraguan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico on March 26, 2024. He was encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents that same day.
“After processing, he was served a notice to appear before an immigration judge and released on parole pending his court date,” the federal agency said.
According to federal officials, an immigration judge ordered Diaz be removed from the country last August.
The federal agency says it provides “comprehensive medical care” to people in custody at its detention facilities, including “medical, dental and mental health intake screenings within the first 12 hours” of their arrival.
The Department of Homeland Security on Friday also confirmed the death of a Mexican citizen in a detention facility in Georgia. Heber Sanchez Domínguez, 34, had been in ICE custody for six days and was awaiting a hearing when he was discovered “hanging by the neck and unresponsive in his sleeping quarters,” according to DHS.
Herber was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. Federal officials said the cause of his death is under investigation.
According to DHS data, at least 15 people died while in ICE custody last year.
As of Thursday, ICE was holding about 73,000 individuals facing deportation in its custody across the U.S., the highest level recorded by the agency and an 84% increase from the same time in 2025, when its detention population was just below 40,000, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.
The Trump administration has said it’s working to be able to detain upwards of 100,000 immigration detainees at any given time, as part of its government-wide effort to carry out a deportation crackdown of unprecedented proportions.
A 36-year-old man who was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis died while in federal custody in Texas on Wednesday, according to the agency.
Security personnel found Victor Manuel Diaz unconscious and unresponsive in his room at Camp East Montana in El Paso, according to ICE.
El Paso Emergency Medical Services were notified at 3:35 p.m. local time and were at the site attempting life-saving measures 10 minutes later, the federal agency said. Diaz died at 4:09 p.m.
“He died of a presumed suicide,” ICE said in a statement. “However, the official cause of his death remains under investigation.”
Diaz was arrested by federal officers on Jan. 6. According to federal officials, he was a Nicaraguan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico on March 26, 2024. He was encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents that same day.
“After processing, he was served a notice to appear before an immigration judge and released on parole pending his court date,” the federal agency said.
According to federal officials, an immigration judge ordered Diaz be removed from the country last August.
The federal agency says it provides “comprehensive medical care” to people in custody at its detention facilities, including “medical, dental and mental health intake screenings within the first 12 hours” of their arrival.
The Department of Homeland Security on Friday also confirmed the death of a Mexican citizen in a detention facility in Georgia. Heber Sanchez Domínguez, 34, had been in ICE custody for six days and was awaiting a hearing when he was discovered “hanging by the neck and unresponsive in his sleeping quarters,” according to DHS.
Herber was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. Federal officials said the cause of his death is under investigation.
According to DHS data, at least 15 people died while in ICE custody last year.
As of Thursday, ICE was holding about 73,000 individuals facing deportation in its custody across the U.S., the highest level recorded by the agency and an 84% increase from the same time in 2025, when its detention population was just below 40,000, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.
The Trump administration has said it’s working to be able to detain upwards of 100,000 immigration detainees at any given time, as part of its government-wide effort to carry out a deportation crackdown of unprecedented proportions.
A Texas couple has pleaded guilty to federal charges after prosecutors revealed they used social media to defraud dozens of homeowners out of nearly $5 million under the guise of custom homes and renovations.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Christopher and Raquelle Judge, a married couple from Fort Worth, admitted to carrying out an elaborate scheme to deceive customers through their home renovation business, Judge DFW LLC, between August 2020 and January 2023.
The pair billed themselves as a one-stop shop for custom architecture, interior design and construction services, luring customers through social media to advertise their business while falsely claiming Christopher was an experienced architect.
Christopher and Raquelle Judge pleaded guilty to federal charges after prosecutors uncovered a nearly $5 million fraud scheme in which the couple scammed dozens of Texas homeowners over fake renovation projects.(Chris And Raquelle Judge/Instagram)
“They came out to our house… and really pitched themselves as like this Chip and Joanna Gaines type of vibe,” Lane Simmons, one of the Judges’ clients, told WFAA.
Federal prosecutors revealed the couple would present clients with below-market bids to secure building contracts, before starting projects that were never finished and ultimately left victims with incomplete residences.
In the town of Runaway Bay, Christopher Judge reportedly was slapped with a total of 424 citations for code enforcement violations, which ultimately led to the FBI taking up the case.
Christopher Judge pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to 20 years behind bars in federal prison. Raquelle Judge also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. (Chris And Raquelle Judge/Instagram)
“There were families whose kids did not get Christmas for a year or two,” Kalie Simmons, another victim of the Judges, told FOX 4. “There were families that filed bankruptcy.”
Plea documents indicate the Judges defrauded over 40 victims throughout six Texas counties, involving at least 24 different construction projects.
Court documents also showed the pair commingled victims’ payments in their primary business account, often pulling installment payments from individuals to fund unrelated construction projects – amassing a total of around $4.8 million in losses.
Federal prosecutors say the pair then spent the money on mortgage payments, living expenses and even plastic surgery while evading questions from their victims regarding delays in construction and incomplete projects.
“You just need to be careful about who you give the money to,” Roper, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, told FOX 4. “If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not true.”
“You gotta wonder what happened to the money,” Roper said.
Last month, Christopher Judge pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to 20 years behind bars in federal prison. Raquelle Judge also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
Fox News Digital was unable to immediately locate Christopher Judge’s attorney for comment. Raquelle Judge’s attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The pair is scheduled to be sentenced separately later this year, according to federal prosecutors.
Julia Bonavita is a U.S. Writer for Fox News Digital and a Fox Flight Team drone pilot. You can follow her at @juliabonavita13 on all platforms and send story tips to julia.bonavita@fox.com.
On Oct. 31, 2020, at around 5 a.m. Livye Lewis was found unresponsive in her car on the side of a road in Hemphill, Texas. Her ex-boyfriend, Matthew Edgar, said he had no memory of what happened to Lewis or how he ended up in the fetal position behind her car.
Livye Lewis, 19, was a recent high school graduate who had dreams of becoming a physician’s assistant.
Wandering Rose Photography
To find out what happened to Livye, investigators had to retrace her steps from the night before.
2:30 a.m. | A party turned sour
About two hours before Lewis was found in her car, she was at a friend’s pre-Halloween party. Edgar, her ex-boyfriend, and his ex-wife, Montana Bockel, were also there. Lewis had broken up with Edgar a few weeks before, and according to the party’s host, Bobby Ozan, Lewis and Bockel were enjoying the night while ignoring Edgar.
By 2:30 a.m., most people had already left the party except Lewis and Bockel. According to Bockel’s first interview with investigators, Edgar suddenly returned to Ozan’s house and overheard that Lewis was going to spend the night with Ozan.
Dents on Montana Bockel’s car after Bobby Ozan says Matthew Edgar “had kicked all the doors in her car and was punchin’ on the window.”
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
This made Edgar so furious that he started attacking Bockel, feeling she could have stopped Lewis. He was also kicking Bockel’s car.
Ozan tried to restrain Edgar, giving Bockel and Lewis a chance to escape. Bockel headed to Edgar’s grandparents’ home seeking refuge, but it is unclear where Lewis was headed.
Once inside Edgar’s grandparents’ home, Bockel began texting Edgar. Those texts would become key evidence in the case.
3:34 a.m. | Livye is “Dead”
Edgar was angry at Bockel because he said she knew about Lewis and Ozan. Bockel and Lewis had a friendly relationship.
Timestamps show Matthew Edgar and Montana Bockel were communicating by text at 3:34 a.m. on Oct. 31, 2020.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
At 3:34 a.m., Bockel texted Edgar asking where Lewis was. He responded: “Dead.”
3:30 to 5 a.m. | The crime scene
The text messages indicate Edgar was at the scene at around 3:30 a.m.. A pickup truck that belonged to Edgar’s cousin was parked behind Lewis’ car.
Livye Lewis was found shot dead inside her vehicle (foreground). A pickup truck belonging to Matthew Edgar’s cousin is behind Lewis’ car. Matthew Edgar was found on the ground in the fetal position between the car and the truck.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
“I think she pulled over to talk to him and I’ll tell you why,” Sabine County Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough told “48 Hours.” She was just sitting there with her legs crossed. Well, it indicates to me she was not afraid … It was not a fight or flight thing where she was prepared to just bolt out the car. She was actually, to some degree, comfortable with who she was speaking with.”
5:15 a.m. | A passerby calls 911
An image from bodycam video of the passerby who called 911 on Oct. 31, 2020.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
A 911 call was placed around 5:15 a.m. The caller had seen a car on the side of the road and stopped to help. She discovered a grisly scene. Lewis didn’t have a pulse. She was dead from a gunshot wound to the neck.
Around 6 a.m | Evidence at the scene
Matthew Edgar’s rifle – the murder weapon — was found at the crime scene.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
When first responders arrived, they discovered Edgar on the ground. While Edgar was transported to the hospital, investigators processed the scene. They located a rifle in the nearby grass that they later linked to a bullet fragment found inside Lewis’ car.
7:39 a.m. | A mother looking for answers
At around 7:30 a.m., Darci Bass arrived at the scene looking for her daughter Livye Lewis. Bass had gotten a call from a friend saying something happened to Lewis.
Darci Bass says she was not notified by police of her daughter’s death. Instead, she heard from a friend that Lewis was in trouble and showed up at the crime scene. Her anguished cries for answers were caught on police bodycam video.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
Bass’ interaction with officers at the scene was captured on bodycam footage. She asked at least 23 times where Lewis was, but authorities seemed reluctant to tell her. Finally, once they said Lewis was sitting in her car, Bass dropped to the ground, realizing her daughter had been killed.
7:28 a.m. | Hospital interview with Matthew Edgar
While the scene investigation continued,. MacDonough met with Edgar at the hospital. He captured the entire encounter on bodycam.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough interviewed Matthew Edgar at the hospital, where Edgar was later arrested and charged with Livye Lewis’ murder.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
A bloodied Edgar claimed he did not remember how he ended up on the ground on the side of the road. After admitting he drank an entire bottle of whiskey the night before, Edgar says the last thing he remembers is falling asleep on his porch and then waking up in the ambulance.
MacDonough informed Edgar that Lewis was found dead in her car. Edgar appears to cry but MacDonough wasn’t buying his story. MacDonough arrested Matthew Edgar for Livye Lewis’ murder while he was still on that hospital bed.
Around 8:15 a.m. | DNA evidence
Livye Lewis’ blood was found on the pants Matthew Edgar wore the night of her death.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
While at the hospital MacDonough also gathered Edgar’s clothing as evidence. DNA testing revealed a tiny drop of Lewis’ blood on Edgar’s pants that later became key evidence for prosecutors.
But Edgar’s defense attorney, Rob Hughes, argued it was impossible to tell how long the blood had been there.
Jan. 4, 2022: Matthew Edgar’s trial begins
Matthew Edgar and his mother Cindy Hogan leave the Sabine County Courthouse during his trial. Edgar, who was still out on bond, walked in and out of court like a free man.
Sabine County Reporter
Matthew Edgar was free on bail. On Jan. 4, 2022, Edgar went on trial, but he only faced the jury for two days.
On the third day of testimony, Edgar failed to show up to his own murder trial. His mother, Cindy Hogan, informed Hughes that her son was nowhere to be found.
Authorities say Edgar had let the battery on his ankle monitor die and escaped most likely on foot. The trial continued without him, and he was found guilty.
2022 | Where is Matthew Edgar?
With Edgar on the run, Bass put up wanted posters in hopes of finding her daughter’s killer.
Darci Bass posted homemade wanted posters around town after Matthew Edgar fled.
Darci Bass
“That time was — was horrible. It was scary. And I thought that he was going to just get away and nobody was looking, and I was having to make wanted posters and go hand ’em out at the flea markets or little events that they had around town, put ’em up in the store windows with people telling me to take it down,” Bass told “48 Hours.”
Dec. 29, 2022 | Matthew Edgar captured
A still from body camera video shows Matthew Edgar’s arrest on Dec. 20, 2022, after evading authorities for nearly a year.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
Nearly a year later, U.S. Marshals along with the Sabine County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens, found and arrested Edgar. It turns out the house where he was found was just yards away from his grandparents’ home. Investigators later determined that the home belonged to a family friend. Edgar’s mother Cindy Hogan was also found at the house when Edgar was captured.
Jan. 3, 2023 | Matthew Edgar formally sentenced
Matthew Edgar is seen leaving court after being sentenced for the murder of Livye Lewis.
KJAS
On Jan. 3, 2023, Edgar was formally sentenced to 99 years in jail with the possibility for parole after 30 years, for the murder of Livye Lewis.
On Dec. 16, 2021, Darci Bass was standing in her local convenience store when the man who stood accused of the shooting death of her 19-year-old daughter Livye Lewis strolled in. “When he came in the door … I just went — started — started throwing whatever at him and went for him,” Bass told “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant in an interview for “The Blackout Murder of Livye Lewis.”
An encore of the broadcast airs Saturday, Jan. 17 at 9/8c on CBS and and streaming on Paramount+.
It all began in the early morning hours of Halloween 2020, when Lewis was discovered on the side of a road in the tiny town of Hemphill, Texas. She was draped over the steering wheel of her car, dead from a rifle shot to the neck.
Darci Bass with her daughter, Livye Lewis
Bass says she was not notified by police of her daughter’s death. Instead, she heard from a friend that Lewis was in trouble and showed up at the crime scene demanding answers. “I just needed to know is she alive or is she dead,” Bass told Van Sant. Her anguished cries for answers were caught on police bodycam video. “I wanna see my child,” she shouted. “Livye Lewis! Where is she?”
Sabine County Sheriff’s Investigator J.P. MacDonough says that the minute he saw Lewis’ body, he knew that Lewis’ killer was no stranger to her. “She was just sitting there with her legs crossed,” he tells Van Sant. “Well, it indicates to me she was not afraid … She was actually, to some degree, comfortable with who she was speaking with.”
MacDonough says he didn’t have to look very far for a suspect. Also discovered at the crime scene was Lewis’ boyfriend, 23-year-old Matthew Edgar. “He was found in the fetal position behind the vehicle that Lewis was found in,” says MacDonough. Beside Edgar was his rifle.
Edgar was rushed from the scene of the crime in an ambulance. Bloodied but not injured, he is seen on police bodycam footage lying in a hospital bed, being interviewed by MacDonough.
“When was the last time you saw Livye?” MacDonough asks Edgar. “Tonight,” he answers, and then claims to have no memory of how he ended up at the crime scene. “You don’t know how you ended up on the ground behind the car … With the dead girl in it,” says MacDonough. “No, sir,” Edgar replies. “I have no clue.”
Matthew Edgar, seen in a still from bodycam video, is questioned by a Sabine County sheriff’s investigator about what happened on Oct. 31, 2020.
Sabine County Sheriff’s Office
But for Edgar’s defense attorney Rob Hughes, it was not an open-and-shut case. “We got all the DNA results back and … there were some holes in the case,” Hughes tells Van Sant. “There were no fingerprints taken or DNA lifted off the gun.”
Shaun Dunn, who calls himself a close friend of Edgar’s, tells “48 Hours” that he believes Edgar when he says he can’t recall how he ended up at the crime scene. Dunn thinks that, like Lewis, Edgar was a victim and that someone else pulled the trigger. “I believe it was someone that was … close to Matthew,” he says. “Someone that was involved in events of that evening.”
But where Dunn sees a victim, MacDonough saw a suspect and arrested Edgar while he was lying in that hospital bed. Then, months later, Bass says that while she was praying for justice, Edgar was released. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the courts and with no grand juries being convened, Texas law required that a still-unindicted Edgar be allowed out on bail.
It was months after Edgar’s release when he walked into that convenience store in Bass’ neighborhood. “And I just remember saying, ‘You killed my daughter … you killed my daughter.’” According to MacDonough, Bass chased Edgar into the parking lot, where she grabbed a chain in the bed of his truck and started slinging it across his windshield. Bass says she just wanted some answers: “She loved you and she was good to you and your kids and to your family. What made you think that this was the answer to anything that was going on?”
Edgar called the sheriff’s office and filed a complaint against Bass, who was then charged with assault caused by bodily injury, retaliation and criminal mischief. An arrest warrant was issued and Bass turned herself in. The charges were eventually dropped.
On March 16, 2021, four-and-a-half months after his arrest, a grand jury heard the evidence against Edgar and indicted him for the murder of Lewis. But Edgar, who was still out on bail during his trial, was not done breaking the law. On the fourth day of trial, Edgar let the battery on his ankle monitor die and went on the run. His trial went on without him, and the jury found him guilty. But it took authorities 11 months to capture Edgar, so he could be sentenced to 99 years, with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
HOUSTON (AP) — A blast of winter weather was set to bring snowfall and subfreezing wind chills across the Midwest and East Coast on Saturday as well as near freezing temperatures in parts of the South, including in normally warm Florida.
In northeastern Ohio, a snow squall — sudden bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds — was creating whiteout conditions, according to the National Weather Service. The snow squall conditions were moving into the Cleveland metro area on Saturday and expected to continue east into Pennsylvania and parts of eastern New York.
“Expect visibilities of less than a quarter of a mile and rapid snow accumulation on roadways. Travel will be difficult and possibly dangerous in the heavy snow,” according to the National Weather Service.
Below average temperatures were being forecast for the Central and Eastern U.S. this weekend into early next week, according to the National Weather Service.
“The next few nights are forecast to be very cold for much of the Central and Eastern United States,” the Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service, said Saturday. “Sub-zero wind chills are forecast from the Plains to the Midwest and Northeast, with the coldest wind chills expected in the Upper Midwest on Sunday night.”
Snowfall was expected by Sunday night to blanket Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with some areas getting up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow.
The cold weather wasn’t going to be limited to the northern parts of the U.S. as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida were expected to have near freezing temperatures through at least the weekend.
In Tallahassee, Florida, residents could see some snowfall on Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service. But if there is snow, it won’t last long.
“So here in Tallahassee, the likelihood of any snow accumulation is not zero, but it’s very low. I mean, the ground will be just too warm for anything to stick and accumulate,” said Kristian Oliver, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Tallahassee.
If there is snowfall in the Tallahassee area on Sunday, it would be the second time in as many years that Florida has experienced such winter weather.
In January 2025, up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow fell in parts of the Florida Panhandle. This snowfall was part of a record breaking snowstorm that impacted the deep South in late January 2025, according to the National Weather Service. Areas that don’t normally see snowfall, including Houston, New Orleans and parts of Florida, were hit by last year’s winter storm.
“On average w Associated Press e have an event like this maybe every few years. But having two, back to back, I’d say is pretty anomalous for the area,” Oliver said.
Up to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of snow could fall on Sunday in parts of central Georgia, areas located south of Atlanta.
“Plan on slippery roads during the snow, as well as on Sunday night into Monday morning as remaining water/snow refreezes,” said the National Weather Service’s Atlanta office.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Aloka the Peace Dog was reunited with the Walk for Peace monks for the first time since undergoing leg surgery following an injury during the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace in early January. The reunion happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Aloka briefly appeared in front of supporters during the group’s lunch stop. He appeared to be in good spirits. The monks say his spirits remain high and he is healing well. “We are happy to share that Aloka is recovering very well from his surgery,” the group wrote on a Facebook post after his surgery.Video below: More about the Walk for Peace and the monks’ stop in North CarolinaA team at the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center in Charleston, South Carolina, performed the surgery and assisted Aloka through the early stages of his recovery.The monks say Aloka received a professional therapy massage and red-light therapy. He will not be walking with the group for now so he can continue healing.Find a map of the monks’ path on sister statin WXII’s website.
Aloka the Peace Dog was reunited with the Walk for Peace monks for the first time since undergoing leg surgery following an injury during the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace in early January.
The reunion happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Aloka briefly appeared in front of supporters during the group’s lunch stop. He appeared to be in good spirits.
The monks say his spirits remain high and he is healing well. “We are happy to share that Aloka is recovering very well from his surgery,” the group wrote on a Facebook post after his surgery.
Video below: More about the Walk for Peace and the monks’ stop in North Carolina
A team at the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center in Charleston, South Carolina, performed the surgery and assisted Aloka through the early stages of his recovery.
The monks say Aloka received a professional therapy massage and red-light therapy. He will not be walking with the group for now so he can continue healing.
Former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales appeared to wipe away tears Wednesday as a doctor read aloud the injuries some of the mass shooting victims sustained the day of May 24, 2022.
Gonzales, who was one of the first police officers on scene the day of the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, is on trial for what prosecutors say was his failure to follow his active shooter training during one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
He has been stoic throughout the trial that is now in its second week, but on Wednesday, he showed some emotion as Cherie L. Hauptmeier, a doctor in Uvalde who helped care for some of the victims the day of the shooting, testified about the victims’ injuries, including fragments of bullets embedded in the skin, gunshot wounds, fractures and collapsed lungs.
Prosecution has argued that even though Gonzales couldn’t see the shooter, he should have run toward the sounds of gunfire. During Tuesday’s testimony, the court played an interview Gonzales gave one day after the shooting, in which he told a Texas Ranger that when he arrived on campus, he identified the wrong person as the threat.
That person was Melody Flores, who testified Wednesday.
Flores, a teacher’s aide at Robb Elementary, said on May 24, 2022, she was eating lunch inside the school when she got a radio call that a shooter was outside and jumping over a fence. Flores said she immediately went outside to instruct students to get inside.
As the students were running inside, Flores said she saw the shooter. She said she thought the shooter started firing at her. That’s when she fell to the ground.
She stayed on the ground for a couple of seconds but said she got up because she wanted to make sure the kids were safe. When she got up, she saw a police car drive up to her. She said she told the police officer, who she said was wearing a white, short-sleeve shirt and khakis, that the shooter was heading into the school through the south side and police needed to stop him. She said the police officer didn’t say anything back.
Flores made her way into the school and sheltered in a second grade classroom with students and a teacher. Flores closed the blinds and grabbed pieces of paper to tape them to cover the window on the classroom’s door. She put a chair under the door handle.
“I wasn’t going to let nobody hurt them,” Flores said about the students.
Flores would later find out that she hadn’t been shot. Nico LaHood, Gonzales’ defense attorney, questioned Flores about other parts of her testimony and suggested she might have “perception distortion” because of the traumatic event. LaHood claimed Flores got several parts of her testimony wrong, like what Gonzales was wearing (LaHood said he was wearing a dark police uniform), where the shooter entered the school (surveillance footage shows it was from the west side), and whether Gonzales stayed silent when Flores told him to find the shooter (Flores admitted Gonzales asked her where the fourth grade building was).
The court also heard from two victims’ parents, Christopher Salinas, the father of Samuel Salinas, who was 10 years old when he was shot. Christopher Salinas said certain things trigger Samuel, like popping sounds, violence on TV, slamming doors, and the color red.
Jamie Torres, the mom of Khloie Torres, who was in fourth grade when she was shot in the forehead and thigh during the mass shooting, also testified. She said Khloie gets headaches frequently from the shooting. Khloie was one of the students from room 112 who called 911 multiple times, but that wasn’t discussed during Jamie Torres’ testimony.
“I’m telling everyone to be quiet but nobody is listening to me,” she reportedly told the 911 operator. “I understand what to do in these situations. My dad taught me when I was a little girl. Send help.”
Mercedes Salas, who was the shooter’s fourth grade teacher at Robb Elementary years ago, and who was a fourth grade teacher the day of the shooting, testified about trying to comfort her students while they were in lockdown.
“I told them you need to pray, you need to pray,” Salas testified.
Salas told the court that she didn’t lie all the way down during lockdown because she wanted to be able to get up quickly to throw chairs at the shooter if he entered her classroom. She said one of her students showed her that he had grabbed a pair of scissors for protection.
“I didn’t tell him to put them away because those scissors made him feel safe,” Salas told the court.
She also said she could hear kids in other classrooms screaming.
“When they screamed, I heard the gunshots but I didn’t hear them anymore, so I knew something happened to them because I couldn’t hear them anymore,” Salas told the court through tears.
She said one of her students told her that the other kids in other classrooms were screaming. Salas tried to comfort her, telling her, “‘I know mija. They’re screaming because they’re scared just like you.’”
Salas added: “I had to lie to them.”
She said she told her students to keep praying. Police “eventually” evacuated her and her students, Salas said.
Emotional testimony from teacher about Uvalde shooting in trial of former cop – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Tuesday marked Day 5 in the trial of former Uvalde CISD police officer Adrian Gonzales over his response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary. CBS News reporter Karen Hua has the latest.
San Antonio has shut down its out-of-state abortion travel fund after a new Texas law that prohibits the use of public funds to cover abortions and a lawsuit from the state challenging the city’s fund.
City Council members last year approved $100,000 for its Reproductive Justice Fund to support abortion-related travel, prompting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue over allegations that the city was “transparently attempting to undermine and subvert Texas law and public policy.”
Paxton claimed victory in the lawsuit on Friday after the case was dismissed without a finding for either side.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed victory in the lawsuit after the case was dismissed without a finding for either side.(Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Texas respects the sanctity of unborn life, and I will always do everything in my power to prevent radicals from manipulating the system to murder innocent babies,” Paxton said in a statement. “It is illegal for cities to fund abortion tourism with taxpayer funds. San Antonio’s unlawful attempt to cover the travel and other expenses for out-of-state abortions has now officially been defeated.”
But San Antonio’s city attorney argued that the city did nothing wrong and pushed back on Paxton’s claim that the state won the lawsuit.
“This litigation was both initiated and abandoned by the State of Texas,” the San Antonio city attorney’s office said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “In other words, the City did not drop any claims; the State of Texas, through the Texas Office of the Attorney General, dropped its claims.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he will continue opposing the use of public funds for abortion-related travel.(Justin Lane/Reuters)
Paxton’s lawsuit argued that the travel fund violates the gift clause of the Texas Constitution. The state’s 15th Court of Appeals sided with Paxton and granted a temporary injunction in June to block the city from disbursing the fund while the case moved forward.
Gov. Greg Abbott in August signed into law Senate Bill 33, which bans the use of public money to fund “logistical support” for abortion. The law also allows Texas residents to file a civil suit if they believe a city violated the law.
“The City believed the law, prior to the passage of SB 33, allowed the uses of the fund for out-of-state abortion travel that were discussed publicly,” the city attorney’s office said in its statement. “After SB 33 became law and no longer allowed those uses, the City did not proceed with the procurement of those specific uses—consistent with its intent all along that it would follow the law.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law in August that blocks cities from using public money to help cover travel or other costs related to abortion.(Antranik Tavitian/Reuters)
The broader Reproductive Justice Fund remains, but it is restricted to non-abortion services such as home pregnancy tests, emergency contraception and STI testing.
The city of Austin also shut down its abortion travel fund after the law was signed. Austin had allocated $400,000 to its Reproductive Healthcare Logistics Fund in 2024 to help women traveling to other states for an abortion with funding for travel, food and lodging.
TEXAS — The University of Texas System has signed a new Space Act agreement with NASA after UT System Chancellor John Zerwas took a trip to NASA’s facility in Houston to make it official.
“The agreement builds on existing work and will facilitate deeper collaboration in areas like space exploration research, educational engagement in STEM fields, and workforce development in the aerospace, cybersecurity and semiconductor industries,” representatives with the UT System wrote in a post on X.
Chancellor @JohnZerwasMD looks out at the original 1965 Mission Control Room of the @NASA_Johnson Space Center as some 60 years on UT System institutions look to chart a new future with NASA. Today, UT System leaders visited the Center to sign a Space Act Agreement with NASA.… pic.twitter.com/Q62Rp6s5gu
— The University of Texas System (@utsystem) January 9, 2026
The UT System is one of the largest public university systems in the country and the world, with an operating budget of $33.3 billion according to the system’s website.
According to NASA’s records, this agreement marks the third active partnership the UT System has with NASA, with the other two signed in November 2025. Those two current contracts are valued at over $61,700 and are set to expire in September 2030.
Space Act Agreements (SAA) are “the most common legal instrument” used to facilitate partnerships with NASA, according to their website. NASA partners with a variety of entities, including federal agencies, foreign entities, colleges and universities, and research institutions. Space Act Agreements were created when the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 created NASA itself.
NASA utilizes partnerships to help with researching and technology, sharing facility space, facilitating collaborative opportunities with both domestic and foreign partners, and more. In recent years, they have relied more on commercial partners, like SpaceX, and academic partners.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Mikaylah Williams scored 20 points, capped by her 3 as the shot clock expired with 1:20 to go in the game, and No. 12 LSU handed second-ranked Texas its first loss this season, 70-65 on Sunday.
After Williams’ late 3 made it 66-59, she jogged back toward the defensive end with both arms triumphantly held high as an announced sellout crowd in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center erupted. The Tigers (16-2, 2-2 SEC) never let Texas (18-1, 3-1) get closer than five points after that.
Madison Booker scored 24 points, 14 after committed her fourth foul just 11 seconds into the fourth quarter. Kyla Oldacre had 16 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks. Jordan Lee added 12 points for the Longhorns.
Flau’jae Johnson, Milaysia Fulwiley, ZaKiyah Johnson and Jada Richard each scored 10 points for LSU, which led the entire second half.
Both teams scored far below their per game averages in a game defined by ramped-up and physical defensive play.
LSU came in averaging 101.8 points per game and Texas 91.9.
Texas committed 17 turnovers, with Booker losing the ball six times and Oldacre five.
Johnson, who’d scored 25 in a victory at Georgia on Thursday, didn’t hit the 10-point mark against Texas until her driving scoop in transition as she was fouled hard and knocked to the floor by Oldacre. She converted the 3-point play to give LSU a 55-47 lead.
Texas led briefly in the first half but never by more than four points.
LSU, which led by as many as 13, took its first double-digit lead when Grace Knox hit consecutive layups to make it 43-32 after half way through the third period. The lead was still 11 when ZaKiyah Johnson and Fulwiley each hit layups to make it 50-39 after three quarters.
Williams had 11 points and three steals during the first half. Her third steal, from Jordan Lee, sent Jada Richard breaking the other wat for a pull-up jumper at the halftime horn that made it 30-25.
Texas is at No. 3 South Carolina on Thursday.
LSU is at No. 5 Oklahoma on Sunday.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 05: U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth arrives for a briefing with bicameral congressional leadership at the U.S. Capitol on January 05, 2026 in Washington, DC. The briefing addressed U.S. actions in Venezuela, including the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Chip Somodevilla
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Pete Hegseth, the U.S. secretary of war, will visit Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth on Monday as well as SpaceX in Brownsville, where “patriots work tirelessly, not with rifles, but with hardhats and relentless dedication, to ensure our military remains the most lethal and capable fighting force in the world,” the Pentagon said Sunday.
Hegseth will deliver remarks to SpaceX employees alongside Elon Musk, the company’s founder.
This is part of Hegseth’s “Arsenal of Freedom” tour and a “direct follow-up to Secretary Hegseth’s call to action delivered to defense executives last fall at Fort McNair.”
“For too long, Pentagon bureaucracy has hindered the speed and might of our manufacturing base, obstructing innovation and warfare solutions from companies like SpaceX and Lockheed Martin,” the Department of War said in a statement Sunday. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we are unleashing the full power of our Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to advance our Peace Through Strength agenda.”
The Pentagon described Monday’s event as Hegseth’s “third major speech” since he was sworn in.
“This tour is intended to fuel a revival of our Defense Industrial Base, ensuring it can supply America’s finest with technologically superior products at the speed of relevance, the statement said. “This guarantees our dominance not just for today, but for generations to come.
Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility builds the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet for the Pentagon and foreign allies. In December, the company rolled out the first in a series of F-35A jets for Finland.
The F-35 is the most economically significant defense program in history, according to Lockheed, creating 290,000 U.S. jobs and contributing $72 billion to the economy annually.
Lockheed Martin has a $17.7 billion payroll in Texas, and the F-35 production facility in Fort Worth employs roughly 19,200 technicians, mechanics, engineers and support staff, and relies on nearly 900 Texas suppliers. The program has contributed $7 billion in local economic benefits, according to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, and supported over 30,000 jobs in the greater Fort Worth economy.
This story was originally published January 11, 2026 at 3:58 PM.
Matt Leclercq is senior managing editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He previously was an editor at USA Today in Washington, national news editor at Gatehouse Media in Austin, and executive editor of The Fayetteville (NC) Observer. He’s a New Orleans native.
The new college football landscape is dictated by the transfer portal.
Indiana and Miami have shown they can master the transfer window, and they will now battle for the College Football Playoff national championship on Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium.
24 hours ago, Steve Sarkisian’s Texas program was on the verge of being overrun by angry Longhorns fans demanding a change. Arch Manning had committed to stay for what is likely his last year of college ball, but they’d whiffed on numerous top transfer talents and were bleeding out in terms of roster depth.
But personifying how wacky and wild the transfer portal can be, there might not be a bigger winner of the 15-day transfer window thus far than Sarkisian after Sunday’s bombshells.
Not only did the Longhorns lock down the consensus best wide receiver of the portal, Cam Coleman, formerly of Auburn, but they then went out and pulled off an even greater coup.
Kalen DeBoer, like Sarkisian, was having a rough transfer portal season. Still, he had recruited top running back Hollywood Smothers from NC State and was seen as a favorite for the wideout Coleman.
Then, on Sunday, not only did Coleman go to Austin, but Smothers, in a crazy move, flipped his recruitment from Alabama to Texas. Over the course of a few hours, Texas landed what could be the best wide receiver and the best running back to pair with Arch Manning going into the 2026 season.
After this move, the Longhorns now possess a significant amount of sway heading into the second week of the 15-day window, with three offensive stars to attract more talent.
In Tuscaloosa, however, the heat is now directly under DeBoer, who is coming off the worst point differential loss Alabama has suffered in a quarter-century while also watching their prized signing flip to an SEC rival.
The transfer portal officially closes on Jan. 16, 2026.
Tracking the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards – CBS News
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A schoolteacher is murdered in her own home. Years later investigators discover she was a bridesmaid at the killer’s wedding. “48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales reports.
For Texas Ranger Brandon Bess, almost everything about the Mary Catherine Edwards case was different.
Ranger Brandon Bess: The thing that really got me about the case was, you don’t expect to have this beautiful, young, single, schoolteacher be murdered in her own home …. She was such a great person, came from such a great family.
Ranger Brandon Bess: It was an unusual crime scene. She’s over the bathtub and she’s obviously been sexually assaulted and handcuffed behind her back.
Natalie Morales | “48 Hours“ contributor: Were they … police-grade handcuffs?
Ranger Brandon Bess: Yeah. … Handcuffs have always been a key piece of this.
On Jan. 14, 1995, Mary Catherine Edwards, 31, was found dead by her parents in her townhouse in Beaumont, Texas. She was in her bathtub, handcuffed, and had been sexually assaulted. There were no signs of forced entry, which made investigators think she must have known her killer.
Texas Department of Public Safety
Jan. 14, 1995. It was a Saturday. Catherine, as most people called her, didn’t show up for a family lunch and she wasn’t answering her phone. When her mother and father went to check on her, they had to see what no parent ever should.
911 OPERATOR: What happened ma’am?
MARY ANN EDWARDS: We came over here and found her. … Please send someone over –
911 OPERATOR: OK, we’re sending someone ma’am. Is she — was she shot or what?
MARY ANN EDWARDS: Ah … we can’t tell.
Catherine was 31. Dianna Coe remembers hearing the news.
Twins Allison, left and Mary Catherine Edwards.
Allison Edwards Brocato
The sisters, both schoolteachers, looked so much alike everyone had trouble telling them apart — especially their young students.
Heleniah Adams: Ms. Edwards … was my second-grade teacher.
Heleniah Adams remembers being in her classroom.
Heleniah Adams: Most of us grew up in … a pretty tough environment. … And being around Ms. Edwards was a joy.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Originally, they believed that she might’ve been drowned, but there wasn’t enough fluid in her lungs, so then it kind of became a suffocation by compression.
Heleniah Adams: I just remember being told that our teacher wouldn’t make it to class that day … Everyone just crying.
The police-grade Smith & Wesson handcuffs were always a big clue, but when detectives tried tracing the serial numbers, they came up empty.
Jefferson County D.A.’s Office
Dianna Coe: My mom is the one that told me … And so she said, “have you not heard about Catherine?” … and I go, “my Catherine?”
She had been friends with Catherine and her twin sister Allison since middle school.
Dianna Coe: I was new to the area. … so I knew no one. … and they … just started talking to me … asked me my name … and we were friends from that point forward.
The sisters, both schoolteachers, looked so much alike everyone had trouble telling them apart — especially their young students.
Heleniah Adams: Ms. Edwards … was my second-grade teacher.
Heleniah Adams remembers being in her classroom.
Heleniah Adams: Most of us grew up in … a pretty tough environment. … And being around Ms. Edwards was a joy.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Originally, they believed that she might’ve been drowned, but there wasn’t enough fluid in her lungs, so then it kind of became a suffocation by compression.
Heleniah Adams: I just remember being told that our teacher wouldn’t make it to class that day … Everyone just crying.
Early investigators could not piece together what happened, but those police-grade handcuffs were a big clue.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: It was almost talked about like a ghost story around a campfire.
Aaron Lewallen is a detective with the Beaumont Police Department.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Maybe it was somebody in law enforcement or somebody in security. … Could it have been somebody that we knew?
In the weeks after the murder, police focused on tracing the serial numbers of the handcuffs but came up empty.
They also zeroed in on an old boyfriend — David Perry.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: They focused on him early on because … there was no forced entry.
But Perry was out of town that night. He gave a DNA sample and it was not a match.
David Perry: I wasn’t there. It’s not me.
The crime scene DNA stayed well preserved and the years dragged on and on — until forensic science changed.
FINDING THE KILLER’S RELATIVES: DNA LEFT BEHIND AT THE CRIME SCENE IS TESTED
By 2018, there was a way to take the DNA left at a crime scene and search for biological relatives. A program — Gedmatch — scarfs up all the DNA from people who agree to share it with law enforcement and upload it when they use sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Ranger Bess approached me … and he asked if I thought we had a case that would fit the bill for that type of investigation. I said, “absolutely. I know the perfect case for this.” And it was the Catherine Edwards case.
So, in April 2020, the DNA from Catherine Edwards’ crime scene went to Othram, a lab outside of Houston, for testing.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: There, they would give us familial matches. And from there, we would start trying to build a family tree to get us closer to our suspect.
But the number of names to pursue was overwhelming.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: When the family tree began to grow beyond my computer screen, (laughs) I started to get a little bit confused. And that’s when … Tina jumped on board.
Det. Aaron’s Lewallen’s wife, Tina Lewallen, an auto crimes detective, began using her off hours to help sort through it.
Det. Tina Lewallen: The matches were all Cajun.
Natalie Morales: Cajun … ancestry –
Det. Tina Lewallen: Yes.
Natalie Morales: — coming from the Louisiana area.
Det. Tina Lewallen: Yes.
Natalie Morales: Specifically.
Det. Tina Lewallen: … particularly Kaplan, Louisiana.
So Det. Tina Lewallen went back to Catherine’s journals looking for clues.
Det. Tina Lewallen: … to see if I could see a Cajun name that jumped out to me. … I did find a few French names and they were quickly eliminated and nowhere in our tree.
And as she was building out the branches, one of the names on the family tree kept coming up: LaPoint.
Det.Tina Lewallen: I’m researching the matches and building my trees and you’re researching other people’s trees … I kept noticing Shera LaPoint — had built that tree, and then I’m working some more, I do some more research. Well, Shera LaPoint built this tree. And I’m like, is she related to our suspect? … I had no idea who she was.
And when they called her, they found out LaPoint had been building her family tree.
Shera LaPoint: It was my family’s DNA kits that I had uploaded to GEDmatch.
And then they found out something that changed the course of the investigation. LaPoint was known professionally as “The Gene Hunter” and already skilled at working these cases. She’d identified one of the women buried along Interstate Highway 45 in the Texas killing fields case.
And she agreed to lend her expertise.
Shera LaPoint: I told him that I was willing to help.
Even if it meant taking a hard look at her own relatives.
Shera LaPoint: It was kind of scary because I’m putting my own second cousins in this tree and I’m thinking, oh my gosh, you know, could one of my grandfather’s sister’s grandchildren have — have done this, they lived here in Texas.
It was a complicated, multilayered process using publicly available DNA, birth and death records — finding parents, siblings and cousins.
Shera LaPoint: As you build those trees, you look for information that … is pertinent to the case that you’re working on. We had a tag for people who were in Beaumont … She was a teacher. As you build tree, you look at people who are in education.
The tree grew up and down and sideways – there were almost 7,500 names.
Shera LaPoint: That’s a lot of hours, a lot of work and a lot of people in a family tree.
All the while, Det. Tina Lewallen hardly slept, working through most nights — knowing there was a killer still out there.
Det. Tina Lewallen: Every day counted; every day mattered … I needed to get it solved.
THE FAMILY TREE PAYS OFF: IDENTIFYING A SUSPECT WITH A SURPRISING CONNECTION TO MARY CATHERINE
Hunkered down at their computers day after day, constantly back and forth on the phone, Det. Tina Lewallen and genealogist Shera LaPoint are quickly becoming great partners.
Det. Tina Lewallen: She was a team player from jump. Never had met me. … we talked so often that we became friends.
Natalie Morales: Best buds.
Shera LaPoint: Best buds. I don’t know what else to say.
And when they needed DNA, they turned to Det. Tina Lewallen’s husband, Det. Aaron Lewallen, and Texas Ranger Brandon Bess.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: So, from that point, me and Brandon Bess would drive around Texas and go talk to these people.
Ranger Brandon Bess:Convincing someone … to give their DNA up, to give a piece of themselves up to you in a homicide investigation can be very difficult.
Ranger Brandon Bess: When we would sense, um, anxiety in someone, Aaron would immediately tell them, “hey, who do you want to play you in the movie …”
Ranger Brandon Bess:And they would look at Aaron like he was crazy … and say, (laughs) um, “what are you talking about.” “Well, this guy’s a Texas Ranger, everything they do turns into a movie. Who do you want to play your role in this movie?” (laughs) That calmed them down every time … and I of course threw out there, “hey, I’ve already got Brad Pitt. So, you know, you can’t — you can’t be Brad – cause Brad’s playing me.”
Natalie Morales: Was there ever a time though that somebody actually thought … my uncle may actually be a killer. Who knows?
Ranger Brandon Bess: In every one of these cases that I’ve worked using DNA and genetic genealogy, you have at least one person, usually two or three that says, you know what, I had that weird Uncle Joe …
Once the uploads were compared to the killer’s DNA, if the amount of shared genetic material was low, they knew it was a dead end.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Cause there were times when we would come across a name and I’m like — you get that that butterflies in your stomach … like, “hey, maybe this is our guy” … And then … turns out it’s not our guy.
After almost three month of ups and down and nearly nonstop work, LaPoint hit paydirt.
Shera LaPoint: It was about 10:30 at night.
She was working a family line very distantly related to her own.
Shera LaPoint: It was a very common Cajun name, Thibodeaux. … I got to a couple who were in Beaumont … I was able to see from, uh, records that they had two sons.
This was a major lead: a family, in Catherine’s town, with two sons who went to Forest Park High – the same school Catherine did — at around the same time.
Shera LaPoint: I put the names in the tree and I messaged Tina and I said, um, “there’s a couple in Beaumont.”
Shera LaPoint: I’m tired, I’m going to bed. And I turned my cellphone off and I fell asleep on the sofa … and when I woke up the next morning, my phone had just blown up.
Natalie Morales: And it was you on the other end?
Det. Tina Lewallen: Yes.
Natalie Morales: What were you saying?
Det. Tina Lewallen: This is them. We found them. Just didn’t know which one.
Natalie Morales: OK … it’s either Michael Foreman or Clayton Foreman. What did you do to — to figure that out?
Clayton Foreman went to the same high school as of Mary Catherine Edwards.
Dianna Coe
Det. Aaron Lewallen: The first name I ran was Clayton … And when I came across his prior conviction for the sexual assault, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I’m like, “this is our guy.”
In 1981, a 19-year-old woman told police that Clayton Foreman bound her hands and raped her. She had also gone to Forest Park High School where Clayton was the manager of the football team. Clayton Foreman was convicted but was given probation and paid a fine.
Natalie Morales: But he did not have to give a DNA sample at that time.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: No. This was back in the early ’80s. We didn’t have sex offender registry, uh, no DNA database.
And then they found another connection: it went all way back to Dianna Coe, Catherine’s friend from middle school.
In high school, Coe fell madly in love. Her boyfriend had graduated three years ahead of her, and they got engaged.
Dianna Coe: He was so kind. … He had the most wonderful personality.
And when she started planning her wedding, she immediately turned to her old friends Catherine and Allison.
Dianna Coe: And they were one of the first ones I thought of as, uh, bridesmaid and — and I asked them and they said yes.
And the groom? The man Coe married back in 1982? Now he was their number one suspect: Clayton Foreman.
Natalie Morales: She in fact did know him.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Yes.
In hindsight, there were signs. When Coe found out about Clayton Foreman’s legal troubles, the wedding was less than three months away.
Dianna Coe: … and … the wedding invitations had already been mailed out.
Dianna Coe: And I said, “rape?” I said, “oh, there’s no way.”
Clayton Foreman and Dianna.
Dianna Coe
But she never got any details and her fiancé explained it away.
Dianna Coe: … he kept telling me, it — it was a big misunderstanding … And so in my mind, I thought, well, he must be telling the truth because if he got arrested, he’s not in jail.
Natalie Morales: But you didn’t really believe it was rape?
Dianna Coe: Right.
Coe’s sister, Anne Anderson, and her brother, Scooter Daleo, were not so sure and neither were their parents who wanted her to call it off.
Scooter Daleo: And I said, well, “Dianna, why don’t you just wait?” … And she didn’t wanna wait. She wanted to marry Clay. She was in love with him.
Anne Anderson: … she’s believing him and she’s wanting to get married, then — then we have to support as a family.
Dianna Coe: And he was like, I’m so, so sorry. … I love you. I want us to be married. I want us to have a family. … And so, I was like, OK, you know. So I went — I went through with it.
Dianna and Clayton Foreman stayed married for a little more than 11 years and they had a son. The relationship began to fray over Foreman lying about their finances and it ended after he had an affair. And looking back, Coe can see that he had an unhealthy fascination with police officers and the tools of their trade — like handcuffs.
Dianna Coe: I remember that he had ordered those handcuffs. … Well, he had ’em hung over the rearview mirror … And I — I didn’t think anything of it.
When Catherine was killed, they were divorced, but Coe remembers calling her ex-husband to talk about it.
Dianna Coe: I think I was, you know, crying and I said, “oh, my God,” I said, “somebody has murdered Catherine.” And — and he goes,” oh, really?” Just like no emotion … When we hung the phone up, I can remember ’cause I was like kind of squinting and kind of like going, God, that’s kind of odd.
With all the mounting evidence, Foreman needed to be found. He was 60 and no longer living in Beaumont. They quickly tracked him to Reynoldsberg, Ohio.
Natalie Morales: What was he doing there?
Det. Aaron Lewallen: He was an Uber driver at the time. … I was able to send a lead, uh, to a field office up there … and basically did what we call a trash run.
Natalie Morales: You need to collect a piece of DNA so that you can ensure that it’s the — the right guy, right?
Trash recovered from Clayton Foreman’s home was tested for his DNA.
Jefferson County D.A.’s Office
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Correct. Uh, so, that’s what they did. … They surveilled his house … and then went and snatched a bag of trash … and sent it to me.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Uh, so, I brought that stuff to Houston, to the DPS crime lab. And from there they tested it.
The likelihood that the DNA belonged to Clayton Foreman was a big number — 461 septillion. It doesn’t get better than that, says LaPoint.
Shera LaPoint: I mean, you can’t fight those odds. You cannot fight those odds.
And that was all they needed.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: And I got a text from a — a DPS lab technician. And she said, “go get his ass.”
Det. Aaron Lewallen and Ranger Bess were about to hop a plane to Ohio, ready to face the man they felt sure had killed Catherine.
And while they’re doing that, Det. Tina Lewallen pays a visit to Coe.
Natalie Morales: Did they tell you we had — they had DNA, though? Tina told you that?
Dianna Coe: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Dianna Coe: And I just went (gasps) “Oh my God, please don’t tell me it was Clay –”
Dianna Coe: I almost fell to the ground. … I was just like, “oh, my God.” Like, “oh, God, I can’t believe he’s done this.”
CONFRONTING CLAYTON FOREMAN
When Ranger Bess and Det. Aaron Lewallen arrive at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to confront Clayton Foreman, they have a cover story – it’s about a lost item from one of Foreman’s Uber rides.
Ranger Brandon Bess: We go in under the — uh, under the ruse of someone had left, uh, a purse in his car. So he came in — voluntarily to talk about a purse that was in the car.
It was April 29, 2021 — 26 years after Catherine Edwards was murdered, and they are sure they are sitting in front of the man who murdered her.
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): We’re asking you to visit with us about a crime that we’re investigating. OK?
Natalie Morales: Did he immediately go, uh-oh, you know —
Det. Aaron Lewallen: No, he didn’t
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): So, the crime that we’re looking at is the murder of Mary Catherine Edwards. … and she was murdered in 1995.
Natalie Morales: I guess he pretty quickly realized he wasn’t there to give up a purse.
Ranger Brandon Bess: He did …
Dianna Coe, center, with her bridesmaids Allison, left and Mary Catherine Edwards.
Dianna Coe
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): And we found a picture of — a wedding picture that she and her sister, uh —
DET. AARON LEWALLEN: Allison.
RANGER BESS: — Allison were actually in your wedding.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Right.
RANGER BESS: And —
CLAYTON FOREMAN: 1982.
RANGER BESS: — 82. OK.
RANGER BESS: Do you ever remember anyone ever coming to you — about that crime?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No.
RANGER BESS: Were you aware of the crime even?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No.
RANGER BESS: You didn’t know the crime occurred?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No, sir.
RANGER BESS: OK.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: … we backed him into a bunch of hard corners. He claimed that he didn’t even know that she was dead.
Clayton Foreman, left, is questioned by Texas Ranger Brandon Bess and Beaumont Police Det. Aaron Lewallen on April 29, 2021, in Ohio.
Jefferson County D.A.’s Office
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): You didn’t know that, um, Catherine Edwards was murdered?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No, sir. Did not.
RANGER BESS: Do you remember them from school? Do you remember the girls from school?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Not really. Because they were freshmen.
RANGER BESS: When you were a senior?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Yes, sir.
RANGER BESS: OK.
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): So, on Mary Edwards, Mary Catherine Edwards. Um, didn’t know her well? Did you ever visit with her at all?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No.
RANGER BESS: Um, did you ever go in her house at all? Any house that she ever lived in?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No.
RANGER BESS: OK.
During questioning, Clayton Foreman denied knowing Mary Catherine Edwards – or that she was murdered.
David Perry
Det. Aaron Lewallen: You know, “did you know where she lived?” No. Had no idea.
Natalie Morales: So, and he’s denying, denying …
Ranger Brandon Bess: He is denying … you know, in these DNA cases, when you — whether you’re gonna get a confession or not, you wanna build up that background of, “hey, did you know them?” Number one.
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): Did y’all have much acquaintance with them or was it just like a high school friend thing?
RANGER BESS: How did you know them?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: I think they were bridesmaids for my — my ex-wife.
RANGER BESS: That’s right.
RANGER BESS: Did you ever go on a date?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Never dated.
Ranger Brandon Bess: All the way up to, “did you ever have sex with this person?”
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): Never obviously had sex with her.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: No.
RANGER BESS: Never?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Never.
Ranger Brandon Bess: Did you go to college together? Did you do all — everything was a no,
Det. Aaron Lewallen: And we had those denials several times. And then, so, towards the end of the interview, we asked him, well, if all those things are true, can you explain how your DNA ended up on her and on her bed?
RANGER BESS (Foreman questioning): Do you understand DNA?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Mm-hmm.
RANGER BESS: And do you understand how DNA works? You understand you’re made of DNA?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Right.
RANGER BESS (referencing Det. Aaron Lewallen): He’s made of DNA. I’m made of DNA.
Ranger Brandon Bess: I think that Foreman knew enough about DNA that he thought he would’ve been caught already. He knew that he had never submitted his DNA —
Ranger Brandon Bess: He had no clue that he was going to be arrested that day.
RANGER BESS (Foreman interview): Clay, I’mma level with you. Right here and now, I want you to hear me real close.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: All right, sir.
RANGER BESS: That crime scene was processed really well. … and your DNA was on Catherine’s bed and was inside Catherine.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: OK. I mean, I don’t know how it got there, but, if you say it was there.
RANGER BESS: There’s only one way for it to get there.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: OK.
RANGER BESS: Um, and that’s by you putting it there.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: OK.
RANGER BESS: Do you understand that?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Uh —
RANGER BESS: Do you understand the implications of that? The day that she died, the night that she died, your DNA is in her and your DNA is on her bedspread. … Now I don’t want you to say anything right this second. I want you to think about the next words that come out of your mouth. I want you to think very hard about that. … OK?
RANGER BESS: There’s two people that know that story. … You’re one of them and she’s the other. And she can’t talk.
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Mm-hmm.
RANGER BESS: What I ask you is now to be honest with us completely and tell us, you know, how did that happen?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: I’m not going to say anything. I probably need an attorney now, I think.
RANGER BESS: You probably need one or you do need one?
CLAYTON FOREMAN: Well, if you’re saying I did that, then I’ll probably need an attorney to talk to.
RANGER BESS: Well, that’s all we got then. We’re going to let you walk out of that door just like we told you.
Ranger Brandon Bess: It’s a grainy video, but you can probably see us grinning at each other — that he thinks he’s walking outta here, he thinks he’s fixing to leave here.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: So, as he got out, down the hallway, headed towards the elevator, we stopped him and arrested him for the murder of Catherine Edwards.
And after all those years and all that work, Aaron Lewallen and Brandon Bess had one thing left they needed to do.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: Uh, if you remember back when we were talking about the crime scene, she was handcuffed. … So, we had talked to the DA’s office beforehand and got permission to use those handcuffs.
When Clayton Foreman was arrested and charged with the 1995 murder, they did so with the very handcuffs that had bound Mary Catherine Edwards the night she died.
Brandon Bess
The very handcuffs that bound Catherine the night she died.
Natalie Morales: How did it feel to put those handcuffs on him?
Ranger Brandon Bess: Very good … it’s a moment I’ll never forget … you feel like you got to do something for Catherine there .,.. you know, like physically got to do for her, is take those cuffs that bound her when she was murdered and put them back on the guy that murdered her. It’s — you know, it may seem small to some, but it was a really big deal to us, and it felt good.
Even though they’d had their suspicions about him, when Det. Tina Lewallen broke the news to his ex-wife Dianna Coe that Clayton Foreman was arrested for the murder of Catherine Edwards was still a shock.
Scooter Daleo: … she calls me … And she says, “Clay murdered Catherine.” And I said, “do what?”
Anne Anderson: Your brain doesn’t — because it — it knows him as a person, as a — as — as somebody that you — you know, your brother-in-law or your brother.
Dianna Coe: That was — that was — that was hard. … I thought of Allison … And I just — I — I just couldn’t believe it. … my — my thought immediately went to Allison and I just said … “Allison. … oh, my God, she’s gonna hate me.”
But Det. Tina Lewallen assured Coe, on the contrary, that Allison was very concerned for her.
Dianna Coe: And — and she said, she’s – “she’s worried for you.” And she said, “do not — do not think that.”
THE TRIAL OF CLAYTON FOREMAN
On March 12, 2024, nearly 30 years after Mary Catherine Edwards was found dead in her town house, Beaumont prosecutor Patrick Knauth and his colleagues Mike Laird and Sonny Eckhart are ready for trial.
Mike Laird: This is not going to be easy, uh, for a lot of people, cause it’s been a long time coming. … you gotta remember this happened in 1995.
MIKE LAIRD (in court): You’re gonna get to learn a lot about DNA.
And they are extremely confident about their case against Clayton Foreman.
JUDGE JOHN STEVENS (in court) : Mr. Burbank, do you wanna make an opening statement at this time?
TOM BURBANK: No, your honor.
Tom Burbank Is defending Foreman.
Patrick Knauth: He didn’t really have anything. And he knew it.
The prosecution calls Catherine’s twin sister Allison.
Patrick Knauth: We wanted to remind everyone, this is about Catherine and her family. And that’s the way we wanted to start off with …
Allison Edwards Brocato testifies at the trial of the man suspected of killing her twin sister in 1995.
KFDM/Pool
Here at 60, sitting before them, was the spitting image of what could have been.
ALLISON EDWARDS BROCATO (in court): That is a picture of my sister Catherine.
Reliving the day she lost Catherine.
ALLISON EDWARDS BROCATO (in court): … and then the next thing we know, you know, my mom and dad drove up (crying) and told us what — I mean, they — there were no words. She was dead. That was all that mattered. … I didn’t know how, what or anything. … I didn’t know what happened to her, it was just that she was gone was all I knew.
The pain and the loss still so palpable.
ALLISON EDWARDS BROCATO (in court): Four years later, I had a daughter, and her name is Catherine (crying), Catherine Ann after my sister and she never got to know her. … That’s the hardest part …
Heleniah Adams, Catherine Edwards’ student when she was 7, is now 37 and sat in the courtroom nearly every day.
Heleniah Adams: It was times … when they would show photos or when they showed the videos of her on the floor … it was as if your heart was breaking all over again.
Detective Tina Lewallen and genealogist Shera LaPoint, along with other crime lab technicians, walk the jury through the process of the genealogy and the DNA match.
Ranger Bess and Det. Aaron Lewallen go through the final stages of the investigation. All carefully coordinated to make the chain of evidence airtight.
And on the last day, the prosecution calls all the women who had been scarred by Foreman – and were alive to say so.
TOM BURBANK (in court): He was your supervisor?
KRISTY WEIMER: That’s correct.
An old co-worker.
KRISTY WEIMER (in court): Whenever I opened up the drawer, there was a pair of handcuffs.
A former fiancée who found pictures of young girls.
TERESA BREWER (in court): He said to me that he had them so that he could fantasize about taking their virginity.
His ex-wife, Dianna Coe, who agreed to testify.
TOM BURBANK (in court): Did you think at the time you were in love with the defendant?
DIANNA COE: Yes.
Natalie Morales: When you saw him at trial … How hard was that for you?
Dianna Coe: That was very hard … And uh — it was very embarrassing to me and — and I do feel ashamed.
And it was during the trial that Coe learned about what really happened to that 19-year-old woman in the months before she and Foreman married.
Dianna Coe: … it was the most horrific thing that I could have ever heard. … I couldn’t imagine what she went through and was so brave to get up and say what she said.
She was the final witness, returning to the night her car got stuck and Foreman — falsely claiming he was a policeman — offered to help.
PAULA RAMSEY (in court): First he — he tied my hands back.
MIKE LAIRD: He tied your hands behind your back?
PAULA RAMSEY: Yes.
MIKE LAIRD: Did he threaten to cut your throat if you didn’t?
PAULA RAMSEY: Yes.
MIKE LAIRD: This whole thing took a while, didn’t it?
PAULA RAMSEY: Yes, sir. I’m sorry.
MIKE LAIRD: What happened then?
PAULA RAMSEY: He — he took me home.
MIKE LAIRD: Did he say something that — that you felt was odd?
PAULA RAMSEY: Yes. He said three things. He said, “stop crying. I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
And there was another women who did not testify but went on the record. An alleged victim of Foreman’s violence — also a high school friend of Dianna Coe who did not press changes. She told investigators Foreman attacked her from behind and put a gun to her head.
Pat Knauth: She had indicated back in ’85 or ’86 that he had, uh, come to her apartment and knocked on the door and told her that he was having financial and marital problems with Dianna, and he needed somebody to talk to. And so … she let him in.
Prosecutors suspect Foreman used a similar ruse the night he appeared at Catherine Edwards’ door.
Pat Knauth: That’s the way we thought he got to Catherine, ’cause Catherine was very, very Christian, very giving, very naïve … And that’s a wonderful thing to be, except when you’re faced with Clayton Foreman.
Dianna Coe: I’ve always wondered, did he say something about me? Hey, it’s Clay and, you know, I need to talk to you about — something about Dianna. It’s always — I’ve always wondered, but I thought I’ll never know.
After seven days of prosecution testimony, the defense calls no witnesses, and attorney Burbank closes.
TOM BURBANK (in court): You heard different things in reference to sex things and stuff like that, okay, still doesn’t make him a murderer.
TOM BURBANK (in court): You may not like him cause of what people said, but I submit to you, they have not proven murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
The prosecution wraps up its case.
PAT KNAUTH (in court): And it’s so easy to believe that evil doesn’t exist … It is here in this courtroom here today.
PAT KNAUTH (in court): These are things I wish I didn’t know exist and I’m sorry I had to talk to you about it, but I didn’t bring us here, he did.
Now it would be up to a jury to decide Clayton Foreman’s future.
Knauth wants them to remember Catherine Edwards didn’t have one.
PAT KNAUTH (in court): And I do pray that Mike and I and Sonny have done a good job for Catherine, and you. I hope we’ve done our job.
THE AFTERMATH: LOOKING BACK
It takes less than an hour for the jury to come back with a verdict.
Clayton Foreman is found guilty and sentenced to life for the murder of Catherine Edwards.
Larry Delcambre: It didn’t take long ’cause all the evidence was there, … once it got into the DNA …more or less sealed it for him.
Larry Delcambre, juror No. 2, says he and his fellow jurors had very little to talk about.
Larry Delcambre: He had no defense that it wasn’t him … there’s no denial there.
Heleniah Adams: It felt like, hey, this thing does work.
For Heleniah Adams – finally some justice for a favorite teacher after all.
Heleniah Adams: I wanted to close that door, finally. She meant so much to me.
Natalie Morales: And when you heard those words guilty, what was that like for you?
Det. Aaron Lewallen: We did it.
Natalie Morales: Was it — was it an emotional, we did it?
Det. Tina Lewallen: This whole case was emotional.
For detectives Tina and Aaron Lewallen, genealogist Shera LaPoint and Ranger Brandon Bess, it was the ending they’d all worked for, but it left lots of room for reflection.
Shera LaPoint: And I think the justice system has worked and he’s where he needs to be. … But to say that that’s honestly justice for Mary Catherine, it’s frustrating to know that he lived a life … and she should have been able to — to live a life and have children and go on. That is frustrating.
Det. Tina Lewallen: I never used the word closure. I never used the word justice.
There’s no justice. He got to live 26 years that he got to get married. He got to have kids. She did not. There’s no justice.
Ranger Brandon Bess : I don’t — I don’t believe there is such a thing as closure. … Not on this earth.
Bess always wanted a confession, they all wanted to know why.
Ranger Brandon Bess: 70% of the time you’re not gonna get that and — and 100% of the time you’re not gonna get the whole story anyway.
Det. Tina Lewallen: We all wanted those answers and because he was spineless and didn’t talk to us or give us any information, we’ll never know the details behind it.
And everyone was still reeling, asking themselves how it was that Clayton Foreman walked among them and no one saw his monstrous core — all those years hiding in plain sight.
Det. Tina Lewallen: So, when we identified him, I actually have mutual friends with him that were in shock. … They could not believe it was him because they knew he was such a nice guy. He had fooled so many people for so long.
Det. Aaron Lewallen: I personally believe that there are more victims out there. We just hadn’t found them yet.
Dianna Coe: I find it hard to believe that he has not … assaulted other people. I — I really feel with — all my — with all of my being, I feel that there are others.
Scooter Daleo: I believe that.
Anne Anderson: I believe it ,too.
Natalie Morales: And how do you think he was able to conceal this darker side?
Anne Anderson: That’s the part I cannot — I can’t — figure that out.
Dianna Coe: I can’t — Uh, I — I don’t understand it. I don’t know how he could. Like I always say, it’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Larry Delcambre: I have my own speculations. I think somebody — I think some people are demon-possessed or — or demon-influenced, cause that’s pure evil. There’s nothing else you can explain. That’s just evil.
Dianna Coe: I was married to a monster is what I was married to and didn’t know it.
Anne Anderson: And didn’t know it.
Dianna Coe: I think if he would — if he wouldn’t have married me, she’d still be alive.
:I had no idea who Catherine Edwards was … but after I read decades of her journals … I feel like I know her,” said Det. Tina Lewallen.
Allison Edwards Brocato
But in the wake of the trial, it was time to turn away from Foreman and remember Catherine Edwards as she was and in her own words.
Det. Tina Lewallen: Wow, I didn’t realize the timing on this one. December the 11th 1994. She was murdered a month later. (Reading from Catherine’s journal): “I have given my life to God and I will follow his path for me. That gives me a feeling of great relief and peace.
Det. Tina Lewallen (reading from Catherine’s journal): “The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it.”
The vibrant beloved schoolteacher in her prime, gone far too soon.
Natalie Morales: If you could talk directly with Mary Catherine Edwards, what would you wish to tell her?
Shera LaPoint: Oh my gosh. (crying) Um, I think I would say I love her and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry this happened to her. … And, um, I was honored to be given the privilege to help give answers, very honored, very honored. She was a very special person. She really was.
Heleniah Adams: Unfortunately, it introduced me to real loss — to trauma, to fear, to grief, to heartbreak. To all the feelings.
Heleniah Adams: A podcast I watched, they — they would always ask aspiring lawyers, “when did you fall in love with law?” And I think that’s when I fell in love with law, in the second grade, when Clayton Foreman took my light from me.
Adams is a student once again. She is studying for her master’s in criminal justice and plans to apply to law school — a tribute to her teacher.
Clayton Foreman is eligible for parole in 2061. By then, he will be 101 years old.
“48 HOURS” POST MORTEM PODCAST
“48 Hours” contributor Natalie Morales and producers Jenna Jackson and Mary Murphy examine the DNA technology that cracked the cold case of Mary Catherine Edwards’ murder. They discuss a detective and genetic genealogist who sifted through nearly 7,500 names on a family tree to identify a single killer, Clayton Foreman, and how police and a Texas Ranger arrested him. They also discuss how the Smith & Wesson handcuffs used to bind Mary Catherine came full circle and the revelation that she had been a bridesmaid at the Foremans’ wedding.
Produced by Mary Murphy. Jenna Jackson is the development producer. Doreen Schechter is the producer-editor. Shaheen Tokhi is the field producer. George Baluzy, Grayce Arlotta-Berner and Chris Crater are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Tijuana, Mexico — After a month away, Catherine Vermillion came home to her San Diego apartment and an empty parking space.
“I looked up and realized my car was gone,” Vermillion told CBS News. “I remembered that I had an AirTag in the car, so I checked my phone, and the AirTag showed that my car was in Tijuana, Mexico.”
When she saw where the AirTag popped up, she said she was in “shock and disbelief.”
Disbelief turned into frustration after she said local police couldn’t help.
“They just said that because it’s across the border, they’re not able to go and get it even though I could show them it was only 45 minutes away,” Vermillion said.
It’s a frustration shared by the California Highway Patrol.
“When it comes to country borders, we cannot cross that line,” CHP Lt. David Navarro said.
Navarro warned that organized theft rings are going after high-end SUVs, pickups and performance cars, stealing them in the U.S., then smuggling them into Mexico. He said it’s lucrative, hard to track and often impossible to recover those cars once they cross the border.
In just the last four years, CHP data shows the number of stolen vehicles tracked crossing the border from California, Arizona and Texas jumped 79%.
“If a vehicle’s stolen in the middle of the night, and the victim does not wake up till 7 in the morning, well if it’s stolen at 2, you have roughly five hours to transport that vehicle,” Navarro said. “If that vehicle’s not reported in the system, and it passes through that camera, then no, it’s not going to be alerted at all.”
That’s exactly what happened to Vermillion’s Jeep. The difference was she knew exactly where it ended up — 46 miles away, over the border in Tijuana.
Catherine Vermillion’s car was tracked to this lot in Tijuana, Mexico.
CBS News
Enter Phil Mohr, a repo man who has spent the last 20 years as a stolen car bounty hunter in Mexico.
Mohr said a lot of stolen cars end up next to the airport in Tijuana, a few hundred yards from the U.S.-Mexico border.
“This is a organized drop-off point,” Mohr said.
Organized in many cases by cartels, who federal agents told CBS News drive the cars into Mexico and use them to traffic drugs and weapons.
Mohr worked with local law enforcement in Mexico to repossess Vermillion’s car and bring it back to San Diego.
“It feels like a win,” Mohr said. “It feels like you made it right, that you righted a wrong in the world.”
A neighbor of Vermillion’s took a picture to capture the moment when Mohr brought her car back.
“I just have my hands up, like, whoa,” Vermillion said. “It was like the best day ever.”
For Vermillion, it was the best day ever, but for most, that day never comes.
Anecdotal data suggest there is also an exodus of regular people who load their belongings into rental trucks and lug them to another state.
U-Haul’s survey of the more than 2.5 million one-way trips using its vehicles in the U.S. last year showed that the gap between the number of people leaving and the number arriving was higher in California than in any other state.
While the Golden State also attracts a large number of newcomers, it has had the biggest net outflow for six years in a row.
Generally, the defectors don’t go far. The top five destinations for the diaspora using U-Haul’s trucks, trailers and boxes last year were Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Texas.
California experienced a net outflow of U-Haul users with an in-migration of 49.4%, and those leaving of 50.6%. Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Illinois also rank among the bottom five on the index.
U-Haul didn’t speculate on the reasons California continues to top the ranking.
“We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves,” John Taylor, U-Haul International president, said in a press statement.
While California’s exodus was greater than any other state, the silver lining was that the state lost fewer residents to out-of-state migration in 2025 than in 2024.
U-Haul said that broadly the hotly debated issue of blue-to-red state migration, which became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernible trend.
Though U-Haul did not specify the reasons for the exodus, California demographers tracking the trend point to the cost of living and housing affordability as the top reasons for leaving.
“Over the last dozen years or so, on a net basis, the flow out of the state because of housing [affordability] far exceeds other reasons people cite [including] jobs or family,” said Hans Johnson, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
“This net out migration from California is a more than two-decade-long trend. And again, we’re a big state, so the net out numbers are big,” he said.
U-Haul data showed that there was a pretty even split between arrivals and departures. While the company declined to share absolute numbers, it said that 50.6% of its one-way customers in California were leaving, while 49.4% were arriving.
U-Haul’s network of 24,000 rental locations across the U.S. provides a near-real-time view of domestic migration dynamics, while official data on population movements often lags.
California’s population grew by a marginal 0.05% in the year ending July 2025, reaching 39.5 million people, according to the California Department of Finance.
After two consecutive years of population decline following the 2020 pandemic, California recorded its third year of population growth in 2025. While international migration has rebounded, the number of California residents moving out increased to 216,000, consistent with levels in 2018 and 2019.
Eric McGhee, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, who researches the challenges facing California, said there’s growing evidence of political leanings shaping the state’s migration patterns, with those moving out of state more likely to be Republican and those moving in likely to be Democratic.
“Partisanship probably is not the most significant of these considerations, but it may be just the last straw that broke the camel’s back, on top of the other things that are more traditional drivers of migration … cost of living and family and friends and jobs,” McGhee said.
Living in California costs 12.6% more than the national average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. One of the biggest pain points in the state is housing, which is 57.8% more expensive than what the average American pays.
The U-Haul study across all 50 states found that 7 of the top 10 growth states where people moved to have Republican governors. Nine of the states with the biggest net outflows had Democrat governors.
Texas, Florida and North Carolina were the top three growth states for U-Haul customers, with Dallas, Houston and Austin bagging the top spots for growth in metro regions.
A notable exception in California was San Diego and San Francisco, which were the only California cities in the top 25 metros with a net inflow of one-way U-Haul customers.
On Jan. 14, 1995, Mary Catherine Edwards, 31, a beloved elementary school teacher, was found dead in her townhouse in Beaumont, Texas.
Her parents found her. It was a terrible scene: she was in her bathtub, handcuffed, and had been sexually assaulted. There were no signs of forced entry, which made investigators think she must know her killer. The police-grade Smith & Wesson handcuffs were always a big clue, but when detectives tried tracing the serial numbers, they came up empty. Early investigators questioned various law enforcement officers and came up with nothing either.
The case went cold, but as Beaumont Police Det. Aaron Lewallen told “48 Hours contributor Natalie Morales, “Could it have been someone that we knew?… It was almost like a ghost story told around the camp fire …” Morales reports on the search for answers in an encore of “Tracking the Killer of Mary Catherine Edwards,” airing Saturday, Jan 10 at 9/8c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
On Jan. 14, 1995, Mary Catherine Edwards, 31, was found dead by her parents in her townhouse in Beaumont, Texas. She was in her bathtub, handcuffed, and had been sexually assaulted. There were no signs of forced entry, which made investigators think she must have known her killer.
Texas Department of Public Safety
Thanks to carefully preserved DNA from the crime scene and the advent of genetic genealogy, Det. Aaron Lewallen, his wife Tina Lewallen, also a detective — along with Brandon Bess, a Texas Ranger in the cold case division, and Shera LaPoint, a professional genealogist — spent almost three months working together in a nonstop push to finally solve the case.
After all the early leads and the suspicion that someone in law enforcement had been involved, the family tree they constructed revealed someone else. Their chief suspect turned out to be not a law enforcement officer, but a man who went to the same high school as Edwards: Clayton Foreman.
And then they learned that Edwards and her identical twin sister Allison had been bridesmaids in Foreman’s first wedding. The sisters were good friends with his first wife, Dianna Coe, who also went to the same high school.
Coe remembers them fondly, telling Morales how kind they were to her when she moved to a new town and started a new school.
“I was new to the area … so, I knew no one. And they … just started talking to me and asked me my name … and we were friends from that point forward,” Coe said.
The sisters were the first people Coe thought of to be bridesmaids at her wedding. She and Foreman stayed married for 11 years. They were divorced by the time of the murder, but in hindsight, Coe began to see things in a different, darker, light. She remembered her ex-husband’s fascination with the police officers and their tools of the trade, like handcuffs and billy clubs. As Coe told Morales, “He had a billy club that he kept…by the bed. You know, said it was for protection. And I remember that he had ordered those handcuffs … Well, he had them hung over the rearview mirror.”
Coe also remembered a disturbing conversation with her ex-husband when she heard Edwards had been murdered and called to talk about it.
“I think 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 like no emotion, which I thought that was odd.”
The police-grade handcuffs found on Mary Catherine Edwards were later used to arrest her killer.
Jefferson County D.A.’s Office
A DNA match quickly established that Foreman had indeed been at the crime scene. And when Det. Aaron Lewallen and Ranger Bess went to question Foreman, they had an arrest warrant. They also brought something with them — something very symbolic.
Together, they had taken the time to work out an arrangement with the prosecutors so they could use the handcuffs taken as evidence at the crime scene. When they arrested Foreman for the murder of Edwards, they did so with the very handcuffs that had bound her the night she died. He wasn’t one of them, but in the course of the investigation, they learned Foreman had been falsely claiming to be a police officer.
The handcuffs — such a focus in the beginning — came full circle at the end. Bess will never forget how it felt. As he told Morales, “It’s a moment I’ll never forget … you feel like you got to do something for Catherine there … You know, like physically got to do for her, is take those cuffs that bound her when she was murdered and put them back on the guy that murdered her … It may seem small to some, but it was a really big deal to us, and it felt good.”
The jury in Foreman’s murder trial deliberated for less than an hour before finding him guilty of the murder of Edwards. Foreman was sentenced to life in prison.
Just like in the 2025 Texas Michelin Guide, Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants disappoint in OpenTable’s 2026 awards.
OpenTable rallied its 2026 wishlist based on other guides, awards and credible lists to compile a comprehension of the best restaurants in the country.
The wishlist roundups all accolades recognized in Michelin guides, James Beard Awards, New York Times lists, Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurants and Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs.
Though no Fort Worth restaurants are mentioned by OpenTable, there were a few recommended by the 2025 Michelin Guide. For two years in a row, Goldees BBQ, Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez and Panther City BBQ have made Texas’ list.
Here are other Texas restaurants that have gained national recognition.
North Texas restaurants that are best in US
Only one restaurant in Dallas-Fort Worth made Open Table’s 2026 wishlist, and that is the Michelin acclaimed Mamani.
Mamani in Dallas had only opened in September by Chef Christophe De Lellis and earned its first Michelin star in November. This is the second restaurant in the Metroplex to be awarded a star. The first was Tatsu, an omakase sushi restaurant.
The restaurant in Uptown Dallas serves French cuisine with a mild Italian influence.
Other Texas restaurants with national recognition
Other restaurants recognized by Open Table’s 2026 wishlist include:
Ella Gonzales is a service journalism reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She is part of a team of local journalists who answer reader questions and write about life in North Texas. Ella mainly writes about local restaurants and where to find good deals around town.
