Paris police have arrested a man in connection with the murder of Mary Margaret Searight, who was brutally beaten inside her home and succumbed to her injuries three days later, in a 1996 cold case.
According to reports, David Paul Cady was initially considered a person of interest in the brutal beating of Searight inside her home at 711 Pine Bluff on Aug. 18, 1996.
Cady had an unexplained laceration on his right hand and inconsistent explanations about the injury. Investigators at the time obtained a swab of his hand.
Searight was air-lifted to Baylor Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries three days later on Aug. 21, 1996.
In Sept. 2023, Paris Police Lieutenant Leigh Foreman, while reviewing the evidence in the cold murder case, submitted the swabs taken from Cady’s right hand to the Texas DPS Crime Lab for DNA Analysis.
The results of this analysis indicate a very high probability that Searight’s DNA was present on Cady’s injured right hand on the day of the aggravated assault.
Cady is currently incarcerated in the Hopkins County Jail on unrelated felony charges.
The case will be reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office and a Lamar County Grand Jury for prosecution.
