The Paris Police Department, in cooperation with the Lamar County District Attorney's Office, has announced the arrest of David Paul Cady for the murder of Mrs. Mary Margaret Scaright. Mrs. Scaright, aged 81, was found brutally beaten inside her residence at 711 Pine Bluff on August 18, 1996.
David Cady became a person of interest early in the investigation due to an unexplained laceration on his right hand and inconsistencies in his explanations regarding the injury. Investigators had collected a swab of Cady's injured hand during the initial stages of the inquiry. Mrs. Scaright was airlifted to Baylor Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries three days later on August 21, 1996.
In September 2023, Paris Police Lieutenant Leigh Foreman, while reviewing 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 the analysis revealed a very high probability that Mrs. Scaright's DNA was present on David Paul Cady's injured right hand on the day of the aggravated assault.
David Paul Cady has been in the Hopkins County Jail since October 11, 2023, on unrelated felony charges. The case will undergo review by the District Attorney's Office, and a Lamar County grand jury will consider it for prosecution on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and murder.
