With the help of modern DNA testing, the Texas Department of Public Safety recently identified a man it believes killed 86-year-old Mary Moore Searight in 1996 in the North Texas city of Paris. The city of Austin later memorialized her by naming a park after her environmental efforts in the capital city.
Nearly 30 years after her death, a Lamar County grand jury indicted David Paul Cady Jr., 54, on December 12, 2024.
On the night of August 18, 1996, Searight was found badly beaten and strangled inside her home by her unofficial caretaker, according to a DPS news release. She had also been sexually assaulted but was still alive and airlifted to a hospital in Dallas, where she died three days later. Since then, her death had been a mystery…