Everything to Lose | Full Episode

He was upset. I think he was angry. He parks around the corner because he doesn't want to be seen. He walks in. He waits. And he's watching. He waits over an hour. He waits for the lights to go off. And I don't think she had a fighting chance. The nature of this crime was a very personal crime. Did he pop her in the mouth first and then the head blow?

There was no other motivation for this murder but to kill Dana Claire Edwards.

It just was hard not to like her. Everybody liked her.

Well, Dana was my little sister. She was so full of energy from such a young age through her entire life.

She had beautiful green eyes.

And when she smiled, her eyes smiled. She loved people. She had beautiful green eyes and when she smiled her eyes smiled. She loved people, she was happy and then it was cut off, it was stopped. She was laying face down on the floor. I just wanted to see her green eyes. The pieces didn't fit for me. The strangulation just seemed so deep and so personal. It had to have been someone who knew her very well.

The first people you go to in a murder are friends and acquaintances and lovers.

A wonderful girl. Full of energy, full of life.

Thomas Ford was Dana Clare's boyfriend for a number of years.

Thomas Ford became a suspect very early on.

Sorry I had to ask you these hard questions.

When she was dating Thomas, after they'd gotten serious, she really had thought that they would get married and have a family.

Dana Clare Edwards and Thomas Ford broke up in the fall of 2008.

Common Sense says Thomas Ford was the most logical suspect because he had just broken up with Dana Clare. But Common Sense isn't evidence.

Evidence was lost.

The fingernail clippings of the right hand.

Lost underwear.

If they're that sloppy about what they lose, how sloppy are they about what they bring to the jury?

From the beginning of working on this case, I did not doubt that John Thomas Ford was guilty.

Thomas Ford did not kill Dana Claire Edwards and does not know who did.

There's nothing more frustrating as a prosecutor than to think that he might get away with this.

I'm Richard Schlesinger. Tonight on 48 Hours, everything to lose. It's a place where I come to decompress.

I can relax out here, be away from everything, spend the night in the country, get up in the country.

It takes a lot to get defense attorney Dick DeGaran away from his cattle and into a courtroom. He's one of the most famous defense lawyers in Texas. He can pick and choose his cases. And he's chosen the case of Thomas Ford.

Look very carefully at the evidence. You will find that Thomas Ford is not guilty.

Thomas Ford is 43 years old, from one of the best families in one of the best neighborhoods of San Antonio. He's charged with killing his former girlfriend, Dana Claire Edwards.

I'm worried that an innocent man could be convicted.

DeGaran will do battle with three of San Antonio's top prosecutors, led by Katherine Babbitt.

And you guys are going against Dick DeGaran? Her co-counsel, Kirsta Melton.

I am rock solid in the truth. And Kathy Cunningham

knew well what they were up against. The Fords had everything they could want. We object to it and she... The best attorney, a lot of money. So we were behind the eight ball and even if we lost it we were going to fight as hard as we could for Dana and for the Edwards. ♪♪

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January 2, 2009, Dana Clare's body was found face down in her condo.

You try to think, well, what could have happened? You can never imagine that someone

would murder your child.

We thought Dana was in the safest place in the world. You can never imagine that someone would murder your child.

We thought Dinah was in the safest place in the world.

Deborah and Darrell Edwards raised Dinah Clare in the Tony San Antonio neighborhood called Alamo Heights.

Dinah didn't look down on anyone, whether it was the poorest person or the richest person.

We were in cheerleading together. We really bonded over that.

Dana Clare's close friend, Cornelia Sawatsky.

And I just, I miss her, miss her a lot. She was a positive energy and a positive spirit.

I mean, she was just always full of life and love.

Dana's older brother, DJ.

The ultimate ultimate you know American girl she loved horses and she loved dogs dogs cats ducks anything that walked she was constantly bringing him home

but it was grit a Jack Russell Terrier mostly, who was her favorite. She rescued him and he became her constant companion.

Grit was always kind of her main little baby and he's a special little critter.

Dana went to medical school but had to drop out after seriously injuring her back in a car accident. She worked in the family construction business near her childhood home in Alamo Heights. When Dana Clare was murdered, of course Thomas Ford, her ex-boyfriend, was a logical suspect. But most people say he's not an obvious suspect. What kind kind of guy is he? He's a really decent nice guy. He had a great upbringing

Popular in high school had a lot of friends

Dana Clare and Thomas began dating in 2006. It seemed like a

healthy, you know, kind of solid relationship. We did like Thomas very

much. Darrell and Deborah Edwards treated Thomas like family. Fun person to be with. He was at our ranch a lot of times. Like Dana Clare, Thomas Ford worked for his family's company, also in construction.

From the beginning, I didn't see it as a match, as a good match.

But DJ and his girlfriend, Tammy Trasher, thought that even though Dana and Thomas had some things in common, they were still an odd couple.

They seemed too different. She wanted to settle down. He was more in the single mindset.

In October of 2008, after a two-and-a-half-year relationship, Dana Clare broke up with Thomas. But the two moved in the same social circles and remained friends. Then, just before Christmas, Thomas asked Dana Clare over to his house. Her mother says he told Dana he was having a hard time with the breakup.

She told me that it had been a really hard meeting, but he was going on and on and crying, and she was worried, and she said, finally, I just had to leave, Mother.

If Dana Clare was worried about Thomas, she was looking forward to her own future. She got ready for New Year's Eve in Alamo Heights and said goodbye to her parents, who were going to the family ranch.

I went in and told her, I said, we're going to go to the ranch a day early. And she said, let me walk you to your car, mom. Gave me a big hug and a kiss, stood at the car door and said, y'all have fun. I'll call you.

Dana Clare rang in 2009 at this party.

Happy New Year!

Thomas was also there. She went home shortly after midnight. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The next day, New Year's Day, her parents expected to hear from Dana. The Edwards called their daughter dozens of times, but of course, she never answered.

Hadn't gotten a call fromah on New Year's Day. We looked at each other and just said, we gotta go.

Darryl and Deborah Edwards drove to their daughter's apartment as fast as they could. I opened the door and I yelled for Dinah and there was no sound back and no dogs. The apartment was pitch black as they went inside.

And how long were you in the house before you found her? Less than five minutes. She was lying on the bathroom floor in a big pool of blood, and I felt her leg, and it was cold.

Dana Clare's face was covered with a towel.

It was very hard, and I kneeled on the floor next to her and pushed the towel off of her head And looked at her beautiful green eyes I have no idea how long I was there. It was till the police made me get up and leave

At 2 30 a.m. On January 2nd, the police arrived and began videotaping the scene.

Evidence item one, blood.

Despite blood droplets, rolled up carpet and a rumen disarray, police chief William McManus says at first police thought Dana Clare had fallen and hit her head on the sink. The case was considered an accidental death.

I believe that they felt there was something suspicious about it, but they believe that it was not a homicide.

But there were a lot of questions. What happened to Dana Clare? Where was Grit? Dana Clare was almost never without her dog and he was nowhere to be found.

Hours later on January 2nd, police called with the results of Dana Clare's autopsy.

They said homicide, ligature, strangulation.

She'd been strangled. Yes. The autopsy also revealed Dana Clare was hit in the head repeatedly.

But whatever happened here, it did not look like a robbery. There was no sign of forced entry, and nothing was taken.

When I heard, I just knew it had been deeply personal, just because the way the killing was perpetrated.

The news that Dana Clare had been murdered came as friends had gathered to comfort the Edwards family. And one of the people who came to the Edwards house was Thomas Ford.

He gave me a hug, and then he kind of stood around and talked to a few people. He wouldn't look at me. He wouldn't look me in the eyes.

But if Ford was avoiding Mrs. Edwards' eyes, he was not avoiding the police. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate that. Oh, absolutely. He agreed to be interviewed by detectives the next day

without a lawyer. I spent it been tough. Sure. Do you have any idea why somebody would have...

No.

Wanted to hurt her?

No. I have no idea.

And the detective questioned Ford about this New Year's party. He and Dana both attended just hours before she was killed. Ford said he left the party before midnight and went to sleep shortly after that.

You go home, change, and within a few minutes you're out. Watch a little TV and went to bed.

But within a few days, police found evidence that made them doubt Ford's story. This dark and grainy surveillance tape from a camera across the street from Dana Clare's condo complex. What do you think you can tell from that tape?

You could at least tell that it was a white SUV,

the type that Thomas was driving.

That white SUV entered and left the complex twice, between 11.20 and midnight. Then, a few minutes later, someone is seen walking into the complex. Police thought that figure was Thomas Ford, wearing the same clothes he wore to the party.

Do you remember what you were wearing tonight?

Jeans, a red shirt, and a tan vest.

Investigators asked Ford for those clothes in the weeks after the murder, but he refused to turn them over, and then promptly hired a lawyer. Two weeks into the investigation, the battered remains of Dana Clare's dog, Grit, were found

near the Olmos Dam, almost two miles from her house.

That dog was Dana's dog.

That was her baby.

Prosecutor Kathy Cunningham believes that Grit was murdered and the only person who could have killed him was Thomas

Ford.

Killing the dog, he did not like that dog because that dog was probably more important

to her than he ever would be.

But as the murder investigation dragged on for most of 2009, Thomas Ford remained a free

man. I wanted him to know I was thinking about him and that he needed to think about me.

So she began writing Thomas Ford on February 14th, 2009, Valentine's Day. You sent Thomas Ford a valentine? Mm-hmm. He said, I'm thinking of you. She sent notes for months. One read, Mother's Day, never the same. Another one sent from Dana Clare's own email account said, how long were you planning this murder? It's an unusual

move, don't you think? I don't know. what does a mother do when she's seen her daughter laying in a pool of blood.

Nearly one year after the murder police finally got their break. DNA that analysts called consistent with Thomas Ford's was found on the towel that covered Dana Clare's face.

Police arrested Ford and charged him with murder. From the beginning, I did not doubt that John Thomas Ford was guilty.

But when Catherine Babbitt got the case, she and her two colleagues knew proving Ford guilty would be difficult, to put it mildly.

Every aspect of our case, we had a problem.

The biggest problem, lost evidence, and plenty of it. Investigators lost fingernail clippings taken from Dane LeClaire. They lost the underwear she was wearing when she was killed. The question has to be to an outsider,

how does that happen? I mean, you can understand one mistake, but not this

many. It was troubling. Anytime you lose a piece of evidence that should be produced at trial, it's always going to be an issue.

And it didn't stop there. Prosecutors were counting on much clearer footage from a second surveillance camera. That was until that footage was also lost. And now they are stuck with this.

Couldn't tell you male, female. Couldn't tell you type and make of car.

To be honest with you, there were points in the case that we were despairing, that we were depressed. Tears. A lot of things.

Yes. Absolutely. Because we know we did it

Even though they were facing a bungled investigation and a high-powered defense attorney

Prosecutors were ready to go. My biggest fear was that justice might not be done here here. It took more than one year to arrest Thomas Ford for killing Dana Claire Edwards and her dog, Grit. It took two more years to get the case to trial.

What we know about the rumor mill is that it started almost immediately.

When the trial finally began, on the streets of Alamo Heights, neighbors had already reached their verdict.

Thomas Ford, the ex-boyfriend. It must be him.

You going to talk to him or Thomas?

Thomas.

From the day he was interviewed, shortly after the the murder Ford has denied having anything to do with it But his videotaped interview with police

Is the first thing prosecutors showed to the jurors is a calculated move on our part to start with that statement

It's like been deaf they know they are taking a risk

What made me nervous about that is that he looked like the guy next door He acted like the guy next door and he teared up at the appropriate times. Oh, God.

But it was part of their strategy.

I mean, we needed to start with him a liar, and we built from there.

Ford says he was home by midnight.

Once you get home from the party, you went straight home?

Yeah.

But two prosecution witnesses cast doubt on that. Dana Clare's close friend Melissa Fetterspiel and Alan Tarver, Thomas Ford's lifelong friend.

So I've known him, I think it's probably second grade.

On New Year's Eve 2008, Melissa and Alan were with Ford at that party where Dana Cl Claire was last seen alive.

I'm the one eating.

They were playing a game called Apples to Apples.

It's for ages 6 to 12.

It's a word association game that involves a lot of what is supposed to be good natured teasing. The game turned to the word marriage and Melissa made some jokes at Ford's expense. He had only recently split up with Dana Clare and Melissa says he got upset.

He turned to me and said he didn't think that was funny at all.

But defense attorney Dick DeGaran is quick to point out that detail was not in Melissa's account to police just days after the murder.

But what you told Detective Carrion about the party was that everything was fine. Wasn't that the perfect opportunity?

DeGaran wants jurors to believe Melissa is lying.

I'm not trying to leave a false impression of what I felt.

You're being objective of non-responsiveness.

Am I being too rough on you?

Objectively.

When the game ended, Ford got up and left. Before midnight. Remember, he told police he went straight home.

No, I just went straight to my house.

But prosecutors think they can prove that is a lie. Shortly after midnight, the party broke up. Dana Clare went home, and so did Alan and Melissa. But minutes later, Alan and Melissa drove past Ford's house to return a beer cooler he had left behind.

We drove by Thomas' house.

But they did not see his Chevy Tahoe in the driveway where he usually parked. And they also didn't see it in the church parking lot, where Ford would sometimes park.

He looks to the right in the parking lot, drives through the parking lot, and there's no Tahoe there.

Tarver asked Ford about that, after Ford became a suspect.

He told me that he couldn't really remember where he parked. He thought he parked in back somewhere. I just thought sort of, well, you know, that's not what I saw.

Did you ever talk to him again?

I do not believe so.

You didn't look all through that parking lot, did you? In this dark corner, late at night, shaded by trees, the Tahoe very well could have been

there, couldn't it?

After a day and a half, Alan got so confused, I think he questioned himself. And so what started out as a fairly solid witness is now saying, well, maybe I did miss it.

It's one thing to attack Alan Tarver, but now DeGaran has to somehow cast doubt on a grieving mother's story.

She was laying face down on the floor.

You could hear a pin drop when Deborah Edwards described sitting on the floor next to her daughter's body.

So I pushed the towel back some and just looked, I just looked at my baby.

DeGaran keeps Mrs. Edwards on the stand for almost two days.

When did you start the campaign of harassment?

Asking her about every one of those messages she sent to Ford and his family.

The tile is so cold. Happy anniversary.

Did you send that?

Yes, I did.

The evil in your soul sustains you.

Yes, I did send him that.

It's true.

15, 16, 17.

He showed me the cards. I said, yes, I did that. Yes, I was upset. 21, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Was it hard to keep your composure though? I had prayed for grace when I

prayed for justice. But the cross-examination is tough. Remember how

you ended her life with a photograph of Dana Clare saying, Happy New Year, Dana Clare as a child.

You did that?

Yes, I did that.

As tough as he's been, DeGaran has yet to put on the heart of his case. It is the police investigation and all the mistakes, starting with the first mistake, calling Dana Clare's death accidental.

Wasn't it apparent to you that this was something more than just somebody keying over a knife?

At the time, no, sir.

And he goes through every single piece of mishandled evidence, the lost fingernail clippings, the lost surveillance tape, the lost underwear, and that towel with Thomas' DNA on it? Police left it at the crime scene for roughly one week.

How do you trust evidence that's gathered by these bumbling crime scene people that lose evidence?

Investigators did find that DNA on the towel, but DeGaran says it proves nothing because Ford spent plenty of time in that apartment.

He was in the condo shedding his DNA all over the place

just 10 days before she was found.

DeGaran is having a field day.

And we object to this giving Emily, sir.

Not a response.

Prosecutors are worried.

We knew that Dick DeGaran would come in and try to confuse the issue.

Krista Milton should know. When she was in law school, one of her professors was Dick DeGaran.

I took advanced criminal defense. Did you do well in class? I got the highest grade in the class when I took it.

I mean, was that strange for you to be up against one of your former students?

No, it was kind of flattering, frankly.

But Degaran now has to consider.

The real defense in this case is alibi.

Did he teach her too well? And prosecutors are about to reveal their most damning piece of evidence. They say it's more powerful than the DNA, more important than the surveillance video. They say they can put Thomas Ford at the scene of the murder.

We realized, oh my gosh, we know exactly where he's gonna be. No, I want y'all to know that I will do everything to help out.

Thomas Ford, who didn't say a word during his trial, was about to learn why suspects get the warning.

Anybody else use your phone that night?

No, that would have been impossible.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in court.

Once you get home from the party, you went straight home?

Yeah. Prosecutors used almost everything he told police against him. They argue the interrogation locks Ford into a story that is a lie.

I was home, I was asleep, I didn't leave the bed until 7 a.m. the next day.

They say these surveillance images prove he wasn't sleeping.

He was driving his SUV to Dana Clare's house. If you just looked at that tape, not knowing anything, and you saw a white SUV come in, two minutes later, come out, head south, come back, come in, come out, head north, your first thought is, what's that guy doing? I mean, are they casing the joint? What's going on here?

When you put that with the time he says he left the party, that's when you sort of start to build that timeline.

It's a very common vehicle.

But Ford's attorney, Dick DeGaran says, as blurry as these pictures are, nobody can tell anything about that car.

You know, you cannot identify this as being Thomas Ford's car.

Prosecutors knew they needed more than that surveillance tape to make their case, and they think they found it just before trial, in a pile of Ford's cell phone records which police subpoenaed but never fully analyzed.

When we did that, I still have chills thinking about it.

Cathy Cunningham realized what she was looking at could change everything. Cell records have the latitude and longitude for the towers the phone is using. Prosecutors used Google Maps to locate the towers and believed they could now say where Ford went and when. They called an AT&T engineer named Ken Dahl.

If you tell somebody that you were home all night long and you really weren't, then if you took your cell phone with you, we're liable to find that out.

Dahl created this map showing the towers that picked up Ford's cell phone signals

throughout the night. We tracked the defendants activities from 830 that

evening until 9 a.m. the next morning. Remember Ford told police he went home

from the party was in bed before midnight and turned his phone off. But the records seem to tell a different story. At 1145 he received a call that went straight to voicemail. Prosecutors say the signal should have bounced off this tower that serves Ford's home. But it didn't. According to prosecutors it bounced off this tower that serves Dana Clare's apartment in Gallery Court. It showed that his phone was was

near her apartment. Correct. That 1145 call is key to this case because minutes before that call the white SUV entered then left the condo complex and then this blurry figure is seen walking in. Prosecutors believe Ford parked nearby and entered the complex to lay in wait.

So you now know that the person that is walking into Gallery Court is John Thomas Ford.

One hour later, Dana Clare's car arrives. And then a half hour after that, a text goes to Thomas Ford's phone. Once again, say prosecutors, the signal bounces off the cell tower that serves Dana Clare's condo.

That means, they say, Ford's own cell phone records place him near Dana Clare's condo for 90 minutes.

How long do you think it took to kill her? I think it took 15 to 20 minutes

Prosecutors say the cell phone records even provide evidence about what happened to Dana Claire's dog grit at 132 a.m. Ford's phone is registering with this tower. It serves the area where Grit's body was found, the dam near Dana Clare's condo.

What would be the only reason is pinging near the Olmos Dam.

That device would have had to have been near the Olmos Dam.

Prosecutors believe it was Ford who brought Grit there. But how did he get there? The same camera that showed a figure walking into the condo complex shows no one walking out before that 132 call. Prosecutors have a theory. They say Ford did not walk out the entrance,

that he came out of the condo and jumped over this wall carrying Grit's body. Then they think he drove to the dam, disposed of Grit, and returned here, jumping back over the wall.

And think about how ridiculous that is. Thomas weighed 250 pounds at least when this happened. Even someone in good physical condition would have a tough time getting over that high wall.

Maybe he wasn't at the Olmos Dam.

Well, his phone sure was.

Historical cell phone tower usage is voodoo. It's junk science.

Voodoo?

Yes. The defense has found experts who insist it is not possible to pinpoint a phone's location based on what tower it used. But DeGarren has to get Ken Dahl to concede that the cell phone records can be unreliable.

You cannot say to a certainty that it was actually in that sector, came in.

I think you have a very, extremely high degree of accuracy on that. We make multi-billion dollar decisions based on what this tool tells us.

Sure.

Prosecutors argue jurors can believe Thomas Ford or they can believe the cell phone records, but they cannot believe both.

He had an alibi.

The cell phone records pierced that alibi.

It's been a tough four weeks of trial. DeGaran's last word to the jury?

The state has not proved.

The evidence leaves much more than just reasonable doubt. But Katherine Babbitt tells jurors that Ford snapped after being rejected by Dana Claire And asked them to focus on the lives that were ended that night and how did he describe her full of life?

Full of energy full of life full of energy full of joy And if that in the picture that I don't know what is. And so is this little

guy. And how dare he.

Lawyers have done what they can do.

The jury, it's time for you to begin your deliberations.

It's all in the jury's hands now. You're going to be in a buzz when you have a verdict. jury's hands now. For all sides in any trial, this is the hardest part. Waiting while a jury deliberates.

I really felt that they would look at it and make a good decision.

But the Edwards family was not waiting alone. They're the only ones who knew it, but in his backpack, Mr. Edwards carried the ashes of Dana Clare and her dog, Grit, to court throughout the trial. You bring them to court every day with you?

Every day.

Why did you do that?

The quest for justice for my daughter.

We owe this to her to find justice.

And if you have unanswered questions, that's a reasonable...

Prosecutors in the Thomas Ford case were worried that Dick DeGaran had swayed some jurors.

The FBI can't tell what kind of car...

All it takes for Dick is to confuse one juror. We have to convince all 12.

I was optimistic going into it and I believe that there were jurors who were on the fence. According to the jurors

DeGaran was right. I just wasn't convinced that he was guilty. Some jurors went into the jury room unconvinced. You were one of the not guilties and you were

one of the not guilties. Just couldn't say that he was

guilty beyond reasonable doubt at that point. I needed to sleep on it. The jurors

were at an impasse and were dismissed for the night. When they came back the next morning they sent out a note asking to review the cell phone evidence.

Is that a good thing for you or bad thing? Our first thought was they're right where they need to be. Now just stay there. That's what we said to each other.

Shortly after that request, the jurors took a vote. After eight hours of deliberating, it wasn't easy, but they had a verdict.

Is it a unanimous verdict? Yes, ma'am, it is. Mr. Ford, would you please stand? We, the

jury, find the defendant John Thomas Ford guilty of murder as charged in the indictment.

Ford is convicted. It's what Dana Clare's family and the prosecutors have spent more than three years fighting for.

And know that we gave each one of the prosecutors a kiss. Thank you so much. And I meant plans better.

He said, thank you for giving me back my life. And so when you talk about doing this kind of job, that's really what it boils down to, is you're giving that family back, hopefully, some peace and some peace of mind.

But it wasn't completely over. Later that day, the jury had to recommend Thomas Ford's

sentence.

Think about the pressure she felt around her neck as the ligature began to tighten.

Prosecutor Kirsten Melton reminds the jurors of why they just convicted Ford. Honor your

verdict. Stand for what is right. I understand that you all have reached a verdict. The jury

didn't take long to decide on a sentence.

We assess his punishment at confinement for a term of 40 years, and we assess no fine.

40 years. If he lives long enough, Ford could be in his 80s by the time he gets out. The outcome of this trial was an especially sweet victory for the three prosecutors who took a case that had so many problems, at times they weren't sure it would even get

to court.

When you are fighting for what you know to be right, that when God brings justice through that jury, it breaks your heart with gratitude and thankfulness for seeing the truth prevail.

It's been more than three years since Dana Clare was murdered. For the Edwards, time and justice have helped ease their pain.

I guess what was a little bit of amazing was I could feel All my daughter's good memories come back to me without Thomas and all of that I Felt like I had her back

it's hard to remember Dana Claire without remembering grit and Following their deaths Dana Claire's brother DJ found a way to

Memorialize them both. I didn't want it to be down. I didn't want it to be depressing.

And then he said, you said puppies.

Puppies?

Puppies.

You said puppies.

Puppies from the local animal shelter were available for adoption at Dana Claire's memorial.

There were all these sweet little homeless helpless pets. She would have loved it. Almost 500 people walked past these puppies.

Everybody's playing, handing them off.

And every one of them had been adopted.

That was important to give them what Dana would have wanted to give them.

Love and life and homes just what Dana Clare had done years earlier when she

found Grit. I know that she was happy when she was looking down on us and found Grit. I know that she was happy when she was looking down on us and seeing those sweet little animals being offered a second chance, it was very special.