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Published on January 25, 2025
Texas Cold Case Cracked: DNA Evidence Indicts Tenant in 1996 Murder of Austin Philanthropist Mary Moore SearightSource: Texas Department of Public Safety

After nearly three decades of uncertainty, a Texas cold case has finally seen a major breakthrough, bringing closure to a community and the family of Mary Moore Searight. According to a news release from the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory Division, as detailed by KSAT, David Paul Cady Jr., now 54, has been indicted for the 1996 murder of 86-year-old Searight in her Paris, Texas home. Mary Searight, a woman with a remarkable legacy in the city of Austin, was found on the night of the incident by her caretaker, having been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled. She later succumbed to her injuries in a Dallas hospital.

Investigators managed to link Cady to the murder through the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) by DPS, a program funded by the Department of Justice. As per FOX 7 Austin, after Cady's DNA was submitted in 2023 and matched with DNA evidence from the crime scene, he was indicted by a Lamar County grand jury in December 2024. At the time of the murder, Cady, aged 25 then, was one of Searight's tenants. It was noted that on the night of the crime, he tried to hide a cut on his hand and his story kept changing. Despite having DNA from his hand, it did not lead to any significant advancement in the case initially.

The turn of events came when, under the SAKI program, the swabs taken from Cady's hand were tested in DPS’s crime laboratory in Garland, Texas, which uncovered Mary Searight’s DNA on those swabs. KSAT reports that Cady was arrested in February 2024, though he was already serving time in the Hopkins County Jail for an unrelated crime, and he remains in custody.

Mary Searight had deep ties to Austin, owning and managing a ranch there and making her mark as a philanthropist. With her family, she came to Austin when her father was appointed acting Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. As a widow, she turned down multimillion dollar offers for her ranch, desiring it to become a park rather than be developed. In an enduring gesture to the community, she struck a deal in 1988 with the city where they purchased 88 acres of land, and she donated an additional 206 acres. Today, the Mary Moore Searight Metropolitan Park stands in her honor, a testament to her vision for the city she loved, according to FOX 7 Austin.