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00:00:02tonight on dateline she was the light of our family i can't tell you the pride i had in her
00:00:11why would anybody harm her you just hear there's a house fire there's a body yes went into the
00:00:20bedroom and she was laying on her back i could smell the shampoo in her hair they said we're
00:00:27considering this a homicide i'm just sobbing saying no tara no it was unbelievable that somebody did
00:00:35this on purpose you all were roommates you were close who were they asking you about just the
00:00:39people in her life at the law school at work then of course her boyfriend they take pictures of my
00:00:45body they take pictures of my hands i just lost it five or six persons of interest and nothing quite
00:00:53fit more than two decades finally you have a name like everybody get to headquarters
00:01:02it's painful i felt like i was the one on trial a young law student found dead in a fire
00:01:09evidence burned in the flames but the drive for justice burned far stronger i'm lester holt
00:01:17and this is dateline
00:01:27here's blaine alexander with a window of time
00:01:35can't you just imagine her rushing off to class or somewhere to study
00:01:40or heading to a football game here at the university of georgia always pushing herself as far and as
00:01:48fast as she could go she had this sort of jump to her walk almost a lilt as if she
00:01:56were bouncing
00:01:57through her day very happy she was a brilliant person she wanted to do the best she could in
00:02:03everything she did what did she mean to you guys everything she was a girl in a hurry but her
00:02:11family
00:02:11would need patience and perseverance if they would ever find justice
00:02:19thursday night is party night in athens georgia just like it was 25 years ago but on thursday night
00:02:25january 18th 2001 tara baker wasn't bar hopping she was studying
00:02:31this was her first year at uga's law school and she was buckled down at the law library with her
00:02:36friend katie lonstein i don't remember what we were working on i think it was probably a paper
00:02:42she turned on her computer it made all of its very loud noise because it had a big fan and
00:02:47then she
00:02:48leaned in and she went shh like this with her little crinkly nose they worked for a couple of hours
00:02:54and then i hit 9 9 30 something like that i'd had enough i wanted to go home for the
00:02:58day
00:02:58so i packed up and i knew she was staying until at least 10
00:03:03because that was her grand plan and she she told me to call when i got home because she always
00:03:09worried about me when i walked home katie made it home safely but she forgot to call
00:03:14so tara called me at about 9 40 9 45 and she said ma'am you did not call me
00:03:22and i said i know i'm so
00:03:23sorry tara i'm home i'm fine everything's okay then tara went home herself around 10 katie's sure of it
00:03:31because her friend always stuck to her plan for tara this was home a little place on fawn drive on
00:03:39the
00:03:39outskirts of athens rain clouds were gathering the next morning as the call came into firehouse 5
00:03:48that little house on fawn drive was on fire firefighters arrived on the scene kicked in the
00:03:54door and found a living room full of smoke what do you see when you come over here see a
00:03:59red glow
00:04:01around this corner of this wall firefighter doug whitehead remembers this house like it was yesterday
00:04:06and what he saw in the kitchen what is it all four of those electric eyes were on high the
00:04:13burners
00:04:14were turned on the burners were on high and the knobs pulled off and placed on the countertop he
00:04:20then saw a locked bedroom and knew something was burning behind that door you come inside this room
00:04:26what do you see when you walk in smoke fire and i see where the fire had broken through the
00:04:32roof and
00:04:32you could see daylight through the hole what else did you see in here we found a body on the
00:04:37floor
00:04:37a body on the floor yeah what could you tell about this person it appeared she maybe had just gotten
00:04:43out of the shower and a comb had been run through her hair and an electrical cord around her neck
00:04:52this was no longer just a fire they doused the flames backed out and called police
00:04:59what was it that that stood out to you when you got to the scene there was a lot of
00:05:04fire still
00:05:05there a lot of police officers detectives and media was starting to show up jerry salters was a young
00:05:11patrolman back then he was asked to stand guard in the kitchen i had looked on the refrigerator and i
00:05:18seen a bunch of pictures and it was college-aged females just looked like they were having a good time
00:05:23basically just friends and really touched me that you know this is this is going to be bad
00:05:30police learned three young women lived in that house valerie ashley and tara officers had no way
00:05:36of knowing who lay dead in the bedroom so they ran the plates on the only car parked in the
00:05:41driveway
00:05:42the owner tara baker an officer called her mother virginia and she said miss baker there's been a fire
00:05:50in athens at tara's house and i said oh my goodness i said we'll be right there because i
00:05:57thought shoot tara was going to be upset and i wanted to go comfort her because she lost her things
00:06:01you're thinking yes and so i said we'll be down there very soon she said you need to come right
00:06:07now we
00:06:08have a body virginia lived some 80 miles away she called tara's boyfriend chris melton she asked me
00:06:16is tara with you i said no there's not with me virginia told him what she had just heard
00:06:26i remember all the noise in the room stopped and then i recall someone saying in my name and
00:06:36bringing me back around chris left his plumbing job and a co-worker drove him to athens about an hour
00:06:42away
00:06:43so when you guys get to athens your first stop is the police department that's correct what did they
00:06:48tell you when i walk in they started informing me that yes indeed there was a fire and then that
00:06:55there
00:06:55was a body found in the fire and they need help to identify and they're asking you and i recall
00:07:06at first
00:07:07saying i can't i can't do this and he says you know if if you don't do this her family's
00:07:14gonna have to
00:07:14identify her and that convinced you that convinced me police took chris to the crime scene where
00:07:21someone brought him a photo of the victim inside i could not make her out it was horrible and
00:07:30i could not positively say yes this is her and then it did come to me that i had previously
00:07:39given
00:07:39her for an anniversary gift i had given her diamond studded earrings for our two-year and she always wore
00:07:47them and i told him i said if this is tara she's wearing diamond studded earrings moments later one of
00:07:55those emergency workers came back with proof delicate heartbreaking proof and he he came up to me with
00:08:04a closed hand and when he opened his hand there's one of the diamond stud earrings the earring you gave
00:08:10her
00:08:12and that's when i knew so i knew it was her
00:08:19now investigators had a name and a case that would become an athens legend i can smell the shampoo in
00:08:27her hair and i can smell it to this day but the search for a killer would be tainted by
00:08:32mistrust
00:08:32and lingering suspicion this was a friend of yours yes i think we were all in shock i remember yelling
00:08:38that i love tara that i would never hurt tara it would take a new generation to bridge the divide
00:08:46people were sending you tips like week after week yes hundreds of tips a week i was just staring
00:08:52at the ceiling in utter shock and disbelief you couldn't even process it no uh-uh
00:09:10if tara baker's bedroom held any clues about what happened to her crime scene technician david lidahl knew
00:09:17getting them would not be easy what was the condition of the room well it was it was a crime
00:09:24scene
00:09:25investigators nightmare because when that ceiling fell all that insulation everywhere it's it was about
00:09:32two or three inches deep and covered most of the room so it became real difficult to try to get
00:09:39trace evidence like hairs and fibers things of that nature was it immediately clear to you that she
00:09:46didn't die in the fire once i moved some of the insulation away i could see the stab mark
00:09:51in the neck and she also had other injuries to her eyes were black and blue swollen a little bit
00:09:59they found a knife by her body and signs of blunt force trauma to her head the cord around her
00:10:05neck came
00:10:05from her printer at the time did you know anything else about her other injuries sexual assault we
00:10:13suspected yes she had no clothing on in the position that she was in later at tara's autopsy the medical
00:10:20examiner determined she had been raped but a sexual assault kit did not provide any useful evidence
00:10:27as the crime scene technicians worked detectives wanted to talk to anyone close to tara including her
00:10:32boyfriend chris when you were in there they were asking you questions but there were more than just
00:10:37questions they asked you for your fingerprints that's true that's true at the time had they told
00:10:43you much about what had happened to tara no nothing as tara's family headed to the police station in athens
00:10:53they knew even less i'm thinking to myself maybe somehow she fell asleep and one of her candles caught
00:10:59things on fire but it can't be her she can't be gone that's can't i kept telling myself there's no
00:11:04way
00:11:04it could be her i'm just sobbing i was using my sweater as a as a tissue and i'm just
00:11:10laying in my
00:11:12uncle's arms just absolutely sobbing i was like this is not real it's a mistake it's not her meredith
00:11:19schroeder is tara's sister she was 15 years old at the time so we pulled up there was some folks
00:11:27waiting for us outside we walk in there they lead us to this conference room and we went in and
00:11:34we
00:11:34sat down and we waited for a while and then this detective came in and he said well i'm going
00:11:41to
00:11:41talk to you all in just a minute but you're going to have to excuse me i gotta go get
00:11:44a cup of coffee
00:11:45because i've been out in the rain all day that's what he said to you that's exactly what he said
00:11:49to
00:11:49me at this point has anyone officially confirmed to you no what's happened that she's no and when he left
00:11:57the room to get his coffee that young woman that had called me was in the room and she said
00:12:03well
00:12:04we've determined that it is tara and we're considering this a homicide at this time and i
00:12:12i think all of us let out screams almost
00:12:18and i remember going in i guess it was shock i was just couldn't the nausea was incredible
00:12:25and we kept asking what happened what happened they wouldn't tell us what happened they just said
00:12:32she's gone tara's roommates valerie lowe and ashley hall were away that friday morning they rushed back
00:12:39to athens we were just trying to make sense of it it was just it was horrible yeah and you're
00:12:44young
00:12:44students at the time and then have something like this well you just didn't think anything
00:12:48like that could could happen to you the next day tara was supposed to have been celebrating her 24th
00:12:55birthday instead her grandparents were bringing her 10 year old brother kevin to athens and my dad sat on
00:13:02bed and he said there was a fire at tara's apartment my first reaction is is she okay is she
00:13:12in the hospital i want
00:13:13to go see her and he said no she didn't make it i walked in there and his little fists
00:13:21were balled up
00:13:22and he was just screaming no tara no i just his world was shattered meredith always referred to her as
00:13:31the north star that they would sit there you know kind of follow her path tara was the oldest of
00:13:38four
00:13:38and she had her own special bond with each of her siblings adam was the oldest boy adam and tara
00:13:45were
00:13:45so close meredith was next in line she was very doting and protective of me i had very low self
00:13:54-esteem
00:13:55growing up and she would always be like oh isn't my sister so pretty she would do my hair um
00:14:00tell me
00:14:01you know it's okay kevin was the youngest tara called him her baby darling tara
00:14:08was my person if i knew she was coming home i would pace the door looking outside like a lost
00:14:14puppy
00:14:15waiting for her to drive up the people close to tara say she had a strong sense of justice
00:14:20and an even bigger sense of humor she was one of the funniest people i know and she didn't try
00:14:26tara could tell you to go straight to hell and make you look forward for the trip because she would
00:14:31say it in such a nice way she definitely was very much the person that would come and talk to
00:14:40the
00:14:40kid at the lunch table that was sitting by themselves she always wanted to see everybody succeed
00:14:44tara met her boyfriend chris in undergrad and they stayed together when she went off to law school
00:14:49at her top choice uga it was an honor for her to be here she took it seriously this was
00:14:56her dream and
00:14:57she had her eyes on the future she knew what she wanted to do she knew where she wanted to
00:15:00go she
00:15:01definitely did i'd never have known a person who loved life as much as she did when you say that
00:15:08she
00:15:08loved life what did that look like she got up every morning excited sometimes she would call me and
00:15:14just say mama look up look at the sky it's beautiful it's a tara day the blue sky and the
00:15:19white clouds god
00:15:20made it just for me but now on this dreary day in athens georgia there wasn't an ounce of beauty
00:15:26to be
00:15:26found nothing made sense a murder an arson just out of the blue or maybe not a few weeks earlier
00:15:36two of
00:15:37those buildings were on fire both of them two of them
00:15:54it wasn't long before the killing on fond drive became front page news in the athens banner herald
00:16:01crime scene tech david ledal was on the scene until late into the night
00:16:05combing through the charred remains of tara baker's bedroom he'll never forget it i could smell the
00:16:13shampoo in her hair and i can smell it to this day never it never left a lot of times
00:16:21of course
00:16:21investigators talk about different moments from a scene or a particularly disturbing scene that just kind
00:16:27of really drives home how brutal this was yes this was that moment yeah
00:16:35it also told him something important tara was most certainly killed after she got out of the shower
00:16:41her roommates helped police develop a timeline of the crime
00:16:46tara was very much a creature of habit yes she was she had a very specific morning routine yes
00:16:52walk me through that she'd get up like 6 30 shower and then make her cheese grits that was her
00:16:58breakfast
00:16:59yes every day yep and then go back and get ready in fact patrolman jerry salters saw tara's bowl in
00:17:07the
00:17:07sink seeing that bowl sitting there and going about her day and just being in there and seeing that was
00:17:16it's pretty hard after her last breakfast she would have gone to blow dry her hair in her bedroom
00:17:21like she always did her hair is very thick so she'd sit usually at the foot of her bed flip
00:17:26her head over
00:17:27and just sit there and just blow dry it investigators noticed another detail sealed in by the fire itself
00:17:35she had a clock in her bedroom and the clock quit at 9 32. because of the heat because of
00:17:42the heat
00:17:42yeah so that helps you kind of narrow down a window of time of death yes yes sometime between
00:17:517 30 and 9 30 they figured initially as you're walking through you don't see any evidence that you
00:17:57know somebody gone through drawers or tried to take
00:18:00anything none at all it was later on we discovered that her laptop was taken
00:18:06truth was the entire home felt violated tara's collection of memories photos of all those people
00:18:13she loved were charred almost lost in the ruin and when investigators saw melted fabric on the kitchen
00:18:21burners they knew exactly how the killer started the fire the suspect had taken a blanket
00:18:29and put it on the stove in the kitchen and when he went back into the bedroom he took the
00:18:36burning
00:18:36blanket and threw it on the bed it was my blanket so they used my blanket to do that you
00:18:42know i mean
00:18:43that detail is just so chilling to me because blankets are just they're comforting yeah
00:18:49when you got to the stove and you realized what had happened what the blanket had been used for
00:18:55someone had to really think this through you know it's almost like a switch flipped you know at that
00:19:00moment we weren't college students anymore wayne ford has been a reporter for the athens banner herald
00:19:06since 1982. in the community at the time there were some arson fires so there was speculation is it an
00:19:14arsonist that he actually come into the house maybe surprise tara and kill her and then go about setting the
00:19:22place on fire and those previous fires were within a stone's throw of tara's home a few weeks earlier
00:19:30two of those buildings were on fire both of them two of them just after the murder police also got
00:19:38specific tips about a man walking alone in the rain around the time of the killing and from what i
00:19:45was
00:19:45told back then they reached out to their sources you know might have been involved in different criminal
00:19:51activities and a name never came up one of the first things investigators wanted to know of course
00:19:58was how did the killer get inside the doors were locked when firefighters arrived but doug whitehead noticed
00:20:06something i can't tell you for 100 percent but that screen was out of that window the window screen
00:20:12right here this window screen and was propped against the side of the building so you're thinking
00:20:16maybe whoever did this came in and out through this window maybe so but the killing was so violent
00:20:23so up close it looked like a crime of passion not a random act could you get a sense in
00:20:31those early
00:20:31days maybe of what direction police were going by the questions they were asking you at the time
00:20:36they were just asking about any male in her life whether it be at the law school or at work
00:20:42or you know
00:20:43in her personal life police heard about one law school classmate who had gotten himself a nickname
00:20:51one day one of the police people asked me if i knew who suit boy was and i said yes
00:20:58he was called
00:20:59suit boy because on fridays he would dress in a suit in order to ask women out on dates
00:21:05i knew that he that suit boy had asked tara out at least once probably just the one time um
00:21:11but she
00:21:12was with chris so she definitely said no asking girls out was one thing what katie told police next
00:21:18sounded much more suspicious the friday morning that tara died he had come in and he'd had a injury on
00:21:26his
00:21:26head an injury the morning of the murder that would get police looking in suit boy's direction but he
00:21:33wasn't the only one they needed to talk to tara's mother had an idea one disturbingly close to home
00:21:40it at one point occurred to me what if it could have been her biological father
00:21:59on behalf of the university of georgia law school three weeks after tara baker was killed her family
00:22:04joined faculty and students for a memorial at her beloved law school tara's stepfather lindsay baker told
00:22:12them tara had been living her dream but i never met anybody in my life more confident in who they
00:22:18were
00:22:19what they were doing and where they were going with my little tara in the end she never even got
00:22:27to
00:22:27finish her second semester as you go through your lives practicing law remember that was tara's dream
00:22:36that's what her dream was as you do it terrible practice law to see him standing there and talking
00:22:42about his little girl and trying to choke back tears was just it was tough everything was tough for the
00:22:55baker's in those early weeks especially the not knowing as she grieved virginia asked herself
00:23:00repeatedly who could have done this she started to wonder about someone who was no stranger to the
00:23:07family her first husband tara's father he threatened me when i divorced him a lot and he his threats to
00:23:15me were hitting me in the head to the point that you couldn't recognize my face tara's family had been
00:23:20told few details about what had happened to her nothing about the rape or stabbing but they did
00:23:26know she'd suffered blunt force trauma to the head tara was eight years old when her parents divorced
00:23:32growing up she thought of lindsay as her dad and wanted no contact with her biological father
00:23:38she refused to answer us phone calls she just didn't want anything to do they didn't have a relationship
00:23:43absolutely not and she made that clear when she changed her last name taking her stepdad's name
00:23:49and dropping her biological father's but just days before she was killed tara got a letter from him
00:23:56she was very upset that he had found her she had been withholding her address from him i don't know
00:24:03how he got it apparently they had a conversation and he said that he did learn that she had changed
00:24:10her name that was in the letter also and the letter was forwarded from her previous address to this address
00:24:16and she was a little concerned now the wheels were turning in virginia's mind did the name change
00:24:24set him off he had a tremendous ego and he was didn't like being rejected she urged investigators to
00:24:33look into him and they checked him out they called him in at my request police spoke to him at
00:24:39least twice
00:24:40they examined his alibi and could find no evidence he was in athens at the time of the murder
00:24:45by then they were increasingly focused on someone else someone tara did have a relationship with
00:24:51her boyfriend chris melton with chris because he was the boyfriend you know if these other factors
00:24:58were true in emotional killing had access to the house then you know chris is a suspect police had done
00:25:07more than just take chris's fingerprints two days after the murder they had him back at the police
00:25:12station where they took blood and hair samples along with pictures of his body what were police telling
00:25:18you about him they didn't say anything at first but then they were saying that he is a suspect they
00:25:23told you that yeah and they went a step further they urged tara's friends to steer clear of chris
00:25:31this was a friend of yours i mean you all had known each other since undergrad was that jarring for
00:25:35you to
00:25:36hear stay away from this guy everything was jarring back then though i mean i think we were all in
00:25:40shock
00:25:40still and like we didn't know who we were targeted we didn't know you know so you're just scared when
00:25:46we wanted to respect the process so if that would have been a part of the process then we were
00:25:50going
00:25:51to do whatever we were told to do because we wanted we wanted an answer tara's family got the same
00:25:58warning from police and the bakers stopped talking to chris
00:26:02was your dad thinking that chris was possibly in some way responsible
00:26:07i think that he was but he didn't flat out sit me down and say he did this i just
00:26:12think that he
00:26:13was trying to make sense of it and if that was the what the police were telling him and pointing
00:26:18in
00:26:18that direction then he thought so he was going to pursue it my dad was so protective of his kids
00:26:27and he was devastated as a six foot three nearly 400 pound man that he couldn't protect his daughter
00:26:38from the evil that happened he said if you've got something on him i want to know if you've got
00:26:45if if he
00:26:46was tying his shoe down the street i want to know he did that with more than just chris
00:26:53nothing was recovered from the crime scene to rule chris in or out no fingerprints no dna
00:26:59forensic investigators did find hair in tara's hand but testing determined it was her own
00:27:07the killer didn't leave behind anything he came in and killed tara then he left
00:27:13with so little evidence the investigation was stuck and police would return again and again to the
00:27:21same place i was yelling in the phone i felt like they had nothing not on me but just for
00:27:28the case
00:27:43the months were slipping by in january 2002 the one-year anniversary of tara's death came and went
00:27:51with no arrest for the baker family the unanswered questions were agonizing they knew police had to
00:27:59hold back details about the investigation but they wondered if they were even getting basic facts
00:28:05i was getting it very sporadically oh this happened oh well this also happened and then this happened
00:28:11every so often the bakers would pile into the car and drive the 80-odd miles to the athens-clark
00:28:17county pd i was in the car with them when they would drive up there to make the police talk
00:28:22to them
00:28:23and i would just be you know sitting out in the lobby twiddling my thumbs so you remember this from
00:28:28a teen's perspective your parents just the frustration frustration the anger the feeling
00:28:33of helplessness that they couldn't do anything for tara anymore this this is all that they could do
00:28:40the investigation was constantly changing hands and to the family no one seemed to be in charge
00:28:46kevin went from a little boy to a young teen watching investigators come and go you hit a
00:28:52a wall and then a new team starts over and said okay well we'll figure it out well we're going
00:28:58to
00:28:58start at the beginning virginia says some of the information they did get in those first few years
00:29:04was bizarre and flat out wrong the police came to my house and demonstrated how somebody had snuck up
00:29:14behind her and one pretended to be tear on the other was you know the culprit and pretended how she
00:29:20was
00:29:21her throat was cut from behind so she died quickly they demonstrated that they demonstrated that in
00:29:26my living room it was a twisted game of charades so officers were acting out for your family what
00:29:32they believe happened to my mother and then later walked it back said no that's not what happened
00:29:39later admitted that was wrong yeah with every restart came renewed focus on the boyfriend chris for the
00:29:48longest time we were told this is who did it whether or not we believed it we were told
00:29:53and so naturally you don't reach out you don't talk to that person but police had repeatedly his answer
00:30:00never changed i loved her so much it was so deep it's painful to lose her and then it's a
00:30:07painful to be
00:30:09looked at that way chris says each time he talked to police he gave them his alibi
00:30:15he had not seen tara in days the night before the murder he slept over at his parents house almost
00:30:21an hour from the crime scene that morning he went to work stopping at a few places along the way
00:30:27when they question you again are they asking you different questions new questions most of the time
00:30:32it's the same questions it's like it landed on somebody else's desk and now they're starting over
00:30:39it happened again and again the phone would ring and the questions would start once they would reach
00:30:45out and talk to me they would ask me questions and i would return ask questions myself what about this
00:30:50or what about that you know and and they wouldn't give me answers did anyone ever come out and just
00:30:56tell
00:30:56you that you were a suspect you know as far as actually saying that i don't recall them actually
00:31:04saying that suspect it was just in the actions chris says it was excruciating because all he ever
00:31:11wanted to do was spend the rest of his life with tara he says he knew she was special just
00:31:16a few weeks
00:31:17after their first date they ran into each other at a crowded college bar we end up back to back
00:31:22and i feel
00:31:23her hand reach around like tickle my arm with the fingernails and then i reach back and i hold her
00:31:32hand
00:31:32hand and it's kind of silly to say this but i remember i gotta go to the restroom so bad
00:31:37but
00:31:38you're holding her hand yes and you don't want to let it go and i'm not letting go you could
00:31:44not
00:31:44have dragged me away they never got their happy ending instead chris says he tried to go on with
00:31:50his life he built up a small business as a plumber and did his best to put the pain behind
00:31:55him but one
00:31:57time when yet another investigator made yet another call chris didn't hold back she asked me a question
00:32:05and i had to take time to consider you know just i need i need to answer the question and
00:32:12then she
00:32:14aggressively flipped things around a little bit and said well didn't you say this or that or something
00:32:19and then that's when i just kind of lost it do you remember what you said i remember yelling
00:32:26that i love tara that i would never hurt tara and i needed her to know this and i was
00:32:33yelling in the
00:32:34phone and i felt like they had nothing not on me but just for the case still chris says he
00:32:43always
00:32:43picked up the phone when investigators called because maybe it would finally be the call that mattered
00:32:49i'm waiting on the phone call that says chris we we have somebody we've got the person we have this
00:32:57information we can share this with you now and then the next phone call i get is another question
00:33:03then four years after the murder someone new took over the case would he see something everyone else
00:33:10had missed so let me make sure i have that straight this is one of the very few people who
00:33:15has a key to
00:33:15this apartment he was there at the crime scene and police never interview him
00:33:32it became a cruel ritual year after year tara's close friends
00:33:38came together to mark the anniversary of her death you graduated you moved on with your lives
00:33:45and still there were no answers that was tough it's been very difficult you know all these years not
00:33:52knowing you know the why and what truly happened as the years passed the relationship between the athens
00:33:59clark county pd and the baker family deteriorated one of the most egregious things we did was
00:34:07miscommunicate with the baker family early on there were some investigators that told them things about
00:34:13the case file that were just not true david griffith a civilian crime analyst with the athens pd
00:34:21began looking into tara's case four years after she was murdered i'll never forget meeting meredith
00:34:28baker for the first time introducing myself and she's dismissive and she tells me to my face you're
00:34:35just another face in this long drawn out investigation and next year you probably won't be here and wow
00:34:42they felt burned they felt burned yeah griffith resolved to turn the situation around what was
00:34:48different about the way david griffith handled this well for the first thing he was patient enough to
00:34:52listen to me yell at him that's saying a lot it does and he kept us cool by the time
00:34:58he got his hands
00:34:59on the tara baker case file it was thousands of pages thick griffith hit reset he started in a familiar
00:35:06place in my mind initially it lent itself more to a domestic violence type scenario so i think that made
00:35:15me personally suspect chris melton initially maybe it was a lover's quarrel that went really sideways
00:35:22a crime of passion supported by the fact that tara's killer didn't arrive armed with a murder weapon
00:35:28the knife came from a knife block in the kitchen disorganized is how we classified it all of the
00:35:36tools that were used to commit the crime are sourced right there from the scene of the crime what does
00:35:42that tell you about the type of person who could have done this what it told me is that we
00:35:47weren't
00:35:47dealing with a criminal mastermind griffith re-examined chris's alibi in a new round of interviews
00:35:54the police interviewed chris melton's parents his parents see him go to bed in his bed at their house
00:36:01his father gets up at 5 30 in the morning and sees chris's truck out in the driveway so believes
00:36:06he's at
00:36:06home chris's assistant told police he picked chris up for work at 7 15 a.m so he has a
00:36:12pretty good
00:36:13alibi he's got a pretty good alibi and the the best piece of his alibi is at the 9 a
00:36:19.m hour he's
00:36:20caught on camera making a withdrawal at a at a bank over by his parents house at that point he's
00:36:26an hour
00:36:27away from the crime scene notes in the file indicated police saw the video of him making that withdrawal
00:36:33they're allowed to view the video but the bank employees won't give them the videotape and ask
00:36:40them to go through wachovia's legal department to get a copy of the security footage did they follow
00:36:47up evidently there was no follow-up because there's no mention of that videotape after that
00:36:52in the case file so griffith sent a detective back to the bank to get a time-stamped receipt for
00:36:58chris's
00:36:58transaction we were confident in the timeline that we had put together for chris melton
00:37:03and we felt like he would have had to have been able to bend space and time to have killed
00:37:09tara baker
00:37:10griffith reinvestigated other possible suspects tara's biological father and that awkward law
00:37:16student they called suit boy who gave police an alibi griffith ruled them both out but as he was
00:37:23digging through the file a name caught his eye someone who had easy access to tara's home
00:37:29the maintenance man at her development william bryant barrett has a master key and that really
00:37:35makes us wonder is william bryant barrett possibly the killer when we start looking at his timeline we
00:37:43know that he shows up on the crime scene at some point the day that her body's found and local
00:37:51affiliates
00:37:52filming outside the crime scene actually capture him on video what's he doing he's watching from
00:37:59outside the crime tape as the firefighters work and there was more the night after tara's murder police
00:38:05asked him to help secure the building he gets to talking with investigators about theoretically how
00:38:12somebody could have made entry and he demonstrates how to open one of the windows with a knife blade so
00:38:18let me make sure i have that straight this is one of the very few people who has a key
00:38:22to this
00:38:22apartment he was there at the crime scene he shows investigators how to open and close the window
00:38:28with a knife blade and police never interview him no how does that happen i don't know the answer to
00:38:34that plane it was just one of the lapses and investigative effort that happened in this case
00:38:40in it in my mind it's probably the biggest lapse by the time police finally sat barrett down for an
00:38:46interview jerry salters had gone from patrolman to detective he conducted the interview there were
00:38:52some discrepancies on what time he was where and did he have time to commit this i did move into
00:38:58more
00:38:59of an interrogation where i became accusatory uh with him just to really to gain a response and how
00:39:06did he respond he didn't ask to leave he stayed there what does that tell you tells me either
00:39:10one he's being honest or two uh he's pretty good at lying the maintenance man did give them something
00:39:18highly suspicious something he shouldn't have known what police call hold back information it's
00:39:24details of the crime scene that only the killer would know and investigators would know what does
00:39:30he tells us about the ligature that was used and that she's badly beaten and that's not information
00:39:37that's been publicly released at least we believe so in the moment as we're conducting this interview
00:39:43did he volunteer this hold back information he did during the course of the interview but he
00:39:48disavows having anything to do with tara baker's death and sticks to his story and again there was no
00:39:55forensic evidence to link the maintenance man or anyone else to tara's brutal death still
00:40:01william brian barrett becomes person of interest number one and what do you do we flail for years
00:40:10believing that william bryant barrett's involved in the death of tara baker and just not having enough to
00:40:21get a warrant for his arrest so the infuriating cycle continued questions no answers
00:40:29something would have to change and when it did somebody new was asking the questions you are
00:40:36getting new information absolutely liz called me and said we have a name i was just freaking out i'm like
00:40:45everybody get to headquarters
00:40:46tara was never far from meredith's mind 18 years after her sister's murder meredith was 33 years old
00:41:08with children of her own what were those years like for you my wedding day was difficult
00:41:15she should have been my maid of honor
00:41:23having my children was difficult explaining to my children they had an aunt tara that would have
00:41:28absolutely adored them for much of that time tara was never far from david griffith's mind either
00:41:35he had analyzed and agonized over the case but it never led to an arrest in 2019 as griffith was
00:41:42preparing to leave the athens clark county police department he decided tara's family should know what
00:41:48he knew so he called meredith who had become the family point person there were things in the case
00:41:54file that we had not divulged to the family i proposed that we divulge everything we knew about
00:42:00the case fall to meredith he sits me down with a whole host of other folks and he walks me
00:42:07through
00:42:07the whole timeline huh like this is when your sister got up this is when she ate breakfast this
00:42:14is when she went to go blow dry her hair this is when we believe the attack began he told
00:42:20her the
00:42:20horrific details the cord found around tara's neck and how she was stabbed beaten raped and all of this is
00:42:28new information to you being presented in a chronological yes yeah was all new because
00:42:37i still did not have confirmation as to whether or not she was sexually assaulted
00:42:41the facts almost two decades later were hard to face but still better than not knowing virginia realized
00:42:49the absence of facts had sent her suspicions in the wrong direction like her ex-husband she says she
00:42:55never would have insisted police investigate him if she'd known the whole story we didn't even know
00:43:00about you know the sexual assault at the time keep that in mind we didn't know about the stabbing
00:43:04griffith told meredith about his number one person of interest he gave me the the maintenance man
00:43:10theory but it was still a theory at that point he also shared something else something no previous
00:43:17investigator had ever said he told me absolutely chris didn't do it that was huge news for years their
00:43:25family had shunned chris i felt guilty knowing that he suffered in silence and that we never reached back
00:43:33out and knowing what all he had gone through by now any student who knew tara baker firsthand had long
00:43:43left
00:43:43with each new class her murder became more like a memory passed down through campus memorials or
00:43:49newspaper articles that's how a young freshman named cameron j harrelson first heard her name
00:43:56it was an anniversary piece like that the red and black newspaper had done on her death at the time
00:44:01you were a true crime fan yourself yes a fan of dateline a fan of podcasts a few years later
00:44:08cameron
00:44:08decided he wanted to launch his own podcast and tara baker's case he thought was the perfect place to
00:44:14start but first he had to convince virginia baker a random guy like me calling miss virginia baker for
00:44:22the first time i believe her first response to me was who are you and who are you with i
00:44:27said i don't
00:44:28even know what a podcast is so you're gonna have to explain some of this to me and why would
00:44:32i want to
00:44:32talk to you and at the time i had no podcast name had no idea what i was doing and
00:44:37said i'm just me
00:44:39and i want to learn about your daughter he convinced me that he cared about tara and wanted to tell
00:44:44her
00:44:44story and that's all i've ever wanted is to tell her story yeah and he said maybe we can bring
00:44:49in you
00:44:50know some some clues maybe we can bring in you know some tips maybe the podcast also opened a door
00:44:57that chris melton thought was closed for good how did you find out that there was a podcast about
00:45:03tara's case meredith had actually reached out via email what did you think it was an emotional moment
00:45:12because there's so much time had gone by since i'd heard from the family the email led to a phone
00:45:17call
00:45:17and that conversation was pretty you know pretty emotional you know and she was trying to urge you
00:45:27to to talk to talk on this podcast she's like would you participate and help us move forward
00:45:34and absolutely you would i would cameron launched the podcast in july of 2020 welcome welcome welcome
00:45:43the story of tara louise baker will be the focus of season one of classic city crime family and
00:45:51friends told cameron all about tara and also vented their frustration and anger at the investigation
00:45:57what would you say to the police department don't ever do this to anybody else and if you don't know
00:46:06what you're doing get help my goal is to remind people of her life tell people what happened
00:46:13show them the investigation and then hopefully as a result of that law enforcement could solve it
00:46:19it's not my job it's theirs he interviewed chris about the years he spent under suspicion did police
00:46:26continue to follow up with you and interrogate you or they did come after me i would go and give
00:46:30hair
00:46:31samples blood samples tissue and cameron asked about his feelings for tara she was just such a beautiful
00:46:40person on the inside when she smiled she bit the tip of her tongue and it just i really thought
00:46:47that
00:46:48was the best and people were listening over two years the podcast audience grew to hundreds of thousands
00:46:55it wasn't just people listening people were calling in people were sending you tips like week after week
00:47:03yes hundreds of tips a week and vetted a lot of that and the things that we believe were vetted
00:47:08enough
00:47:09we took to the air still after dozens of episodes and all those tips no new leads for police two
00:47:18years
00:47:18in cameron ended it without any real ending and i did not think it would be ethical for me to
00:47:25continue
00:47:26producing content with tara's family just for the heck of it without answers without answers but then he
00:47:32had another idea one that would put tara's case in an even bigger spotlight this is not just a law
00:47:39this
00:47:40was appropriations we're talking money
00:47:55by the spring of 2022 the athens clark county police department had a new leader you're the police chief
00:48:01now you're at the very top yes in 2001 he was that rookie cop standing in tara baker's kitchen
00:48:08by 2006 he was a detective interviewing potential suspects now he was chief jerry salters he'd always
00:48:16carried tara's case with him as the chief i want to the community to feel safe and know that they
00:48:23have a
00:48:23police department that cares about this community will do anything to solve the case
00:48:28still to tara's mom it all felt like deja vu even with a new chief there was no movement in
00:48:35the case
00:48:35and i called the station and asked to speak to him how was that conversation oh that poor man
00:48:44you gave him an earful oh i did and it was not all kind i don't think you can unhurt
00:48:50someone but i do
00:48:52believe that letting the family uh gain trust in the police department and our intentions with the
00:48:58case i think it went a long way but good intentions only go so far and tara's family was becoming
00:49:04resigned they might never find tara's killer but while cameron jay had stopped reporting on tara's case
00:49:11he still had a few ideas i said well tara was such a fierce advocate for justice
00:49:18that wouldn't it be amazing if we could make sure that she effected change for others he wanted to
00:49:24find a way to get more resources dedicated to cold cases and so i started researching in the process of
00:49:30doing that i'm googling online and just so happened to see that there's another unsolved murder in the
00:49:36town next door to where i grew up and their families kind of sort of advocating for the same thing
00:49:42so i called that family the coleman family 18 year old ronda coleman was found murdered in 1990
00:49:50and her case was never solved and so we united forces then together cameron helped the coleman and baker
00:49:58families push for a new law one that would create and crucially fund a brand new cold case unit in
00:50:05the
00:50:05georgia bureau of investigation at what point did this go from okay we're doing a podcast to
00:50:10hey we're pushing for new legislation to be passed it was a shock i never envisioned doing anything like
00:50:20that i thought we were just going to do this podcast and that would be the end of it and
00:50:23i
00:50:23went with cameron and my children to the capitol and we lobbied with congressmen and some of the
00:50:31senators from the state so you're going into the gold dome you're shaking hands you're talking to people
00:50:35yes absolutely telling tara's story yes the campaign worked in the spring of 2023 the coleman baker act
00:50:43passed and georgia's governor brian kemp signed it into law today we're helping to restore hope for
00:50:48those still grieving hope for justice and hope for closure and so what did the coleman baker act do
00:50:54it number one funded a cold case unit at the georgia bureau investigation to the tune of five million
00:51:01dollars and that's big because this did not exist before no there really was not just a law this
00:51:06was appropriations we're talking money what was your hope with this bill that it would solve cases for
00:51:12other families i felt like tara's case had gone so long there was no hope for that but i wanted
00:51:18to
00:51:18see it help someone else and i wanted to see it be part of her legacy still tara's family applied
00:51:24for
00:51:24her case to get a second look under the new law just in case and soon meredith found herself
00:51:29walking into the office of the georgia bureau of investigation to meet yet another team of
00:51:35investigators i'm like okay i guess we're doing this this is just kind of our last hail mary see
00:51:41if anything comes of this if not you know we tried yeah so you were assigned two agents yes what
00:51:50were
00:51:50their names liz and jeremy special agents liz biggum and jeremy howell so what are you thinking when you
00:51:57get this assignment i better solve this no i mean it was in privilege that i was trusted enough and
00:52:05they had enough confidence in me to be assigned the case in the first place honestly the case has
00:52:11always had this mythology here in athens so it was exciting to have an opportunity to see the evidence
00:52:18to see the case file to read it and go through it i can remember the file drawer that it
00:52:23sat in it was
00:52:24the bottom file drawer in the hallway and it took up the entire file drawer it was such a large
00:52:29case
00:52:29tell me about that first meeting your first conversation with them i was shocked by they
00:52:36were professional but the amount of empathy that they expressed you felt something in that meeting like
00:52:42i believed the words that they were saying but meredith and her family had seen this movie before
00:52:48so you're thinking okay great they're sincere they're kind they care but what are they going
00:52:52to do right what were they going to do well they were about to take a new look at an
00:52:58old piece of
00:52:59evidence and it would change everything we were all obviously really excited about the fact that we had a lead
00:53:20it had been 22 years in the making the case that just couldn't be solved now georgia bureau of
00:53:27investigation special agents liz biggum and jeremy howell were stepping up to the plate determined to
00:53:33do what their predecessors could not this is a case that has been examined re-examined looked at any
00:53:40number of different ways since 2001 why might this time be different i think what makes it different
00:53:48is that we're given the gifts of of time resources uh and a supervision structure that allows us
00:53:58pretty much uninterrupted to be able to start this process and see it through i knew something was
00:54:04happening when they started calling me asking for information that i had files that i had finally
00:54:11a law enforcement agency was asking to see six years worth of work and not just local but the state
00:54:18law enforcement state agency yes it was huge were you optimistic going into this i'm wildly optimistic
00:54:24about cases such as this the agents also had the advantage of modern day science and a cutting-edge
00:54:31crime lab there's a big difference between 2001 and 2024 yeah there's new and modernized techniques
00:54:37that we can utilize in order to re-examine certain things we knew there was a ton of evidence that
00:54:42was
00:54:42kept at the athens clark county police department so we wanted to make sure that if there was anything
00:54:48that could be done with that at the lab that we got that process rolling we came to the conclusion
00:54:52that call it maybe 10 or so pieces of evidence could go back to the lab for additional testing or
00:54:58re-examination
00:55:00evidence like that cord around tara's neck along with the knife and knife block from the kitchen
00:55:06there was also a power block connected to the printer the hope that forensic science had evolved
00:55:12enough to reveal fingerprints investigators couldn't detect back in 2001. Liz called me and told me that
00:55:19they were going to be resubmitting things to the gbi crime lab and i was like oh she said that
00:55:23they were
00:55:24resubmitting the knife block that they were resubmitting the knife that they were resubmitting the
00:55:28transformer power block i was like okay you send those items off any luck did you get anything no
00:55:34nothing new no no and i'm not surprised uh with that uh given the dynamics of this scene you mean
00:55:40the fire the fire exposure to water everything that you don't want to have happen in a crime scene
00:55:46happened in this crime scene so it made it difficult to get those anything from those items absolutely we
00:55:52started getting notifications that all right there's nothing on this there's nothing on that
00:55:58like okay all right that's fine i suspected that would be the case the agents then turned to another
00:56:04piece of old evidence tara's sexual assault kit back in 2001 that kit yielded no clues
00:56:11and then it's just kind of sat there since 2001. now two decades later the agents wondered whether
00:56:19dna science had caught up with the evidence our dna manager had been exposed to some training
00:56:26and had some experience with a different way to test a sexual assault kit and it was essentially
00:56:33testing for male dna and he just said hey you know this has never been tested for male dna let's
00:56:40let's try it that's something that wasn't available back in 2001 that was not available these techniques
00:56:44were not available back then she said that they were resubmitting the rape kit and i went huh
00:56:49you didn't even know that existed i didn't know that it was still there i told her i said i
00:56:53thought
00:56:54that all the evidence dna evidence had been exhausted and she said i don't think they knew what
00:57:00they had so she's laying this out for you and it's like this treasure trove of new information i was
00:57:06just in disbelief and i'm at work i'm standing in the conference room with the door closed listening to
00:57:10heard i'm like okay i think that's the first time that i had a glimmer of hope like this could
00:57:16happen
00:57:17there might be something there it could be a long process the agents warned likely nine months before
00:57:24they had any results so i was like okay all right but what's nine months to 25 years yeah what
00:57:33is the
00:57:33waiting period like for you each waiting for that result to come back i mean of course we were on
00:57:38pins
00:57:38and needles in the sense that we were really hoping we would get something from it and we were just
00:57:44kind
00:57:44of waiting for that phone call in a case where months had turned to years then decades finally
00:57:51something happened in record time just two and a half months later the results of that test come back
00:57:58what did they show uh i mean essentially it was that we had male dna we were all obviously really
00:58:04excited about the fact that we had a lead a lead at long last and there was something else something
00:58:12that would bring these agents back to the beginning do you all re-interview chris melton we do
00:58:18if there was ever a time to be 100 on the record it is now i was thinking here we
00:58:28go again
00:58:43finally a break in the tara baker cold case and it was big dna from an unknown male recovered from
00:58:50tara's sexual assault kit while investigators were looking into that the lab called back they'd also
00:58:57detected chris melton's dna given that chris was tara's boyfriend his wasn't that surprising
00:59:03but the agent still wanted to talk to him do you remember what you thought when you got a call
00:59:08from the gbi i was thinking here we go again we've got some information back from her sexual assault kit
00:59:16so there's been some dna that's come back to you the dna raised questions about the timeline
00:59:22questions chris had been asked before specifically when was the last time he saw tara before she was
00:59:29murdered we've got lots of questions some of them were kind of invasive they wanted verification of when
00:59:36the last time we had seen each other or been intimate it was almost two weeks what i can recall
00:59:44in like 10 days 10 days was not the answer agents were expecting and they were like well hang on
00:59:50that
00:59:51that's not gonna that that doesn't work out right that was a problem for two reasons it's highly unlikely dna
00:59:58would still be detected 10 days after a sexual encounter this evidence is it doesn't last long
01:00:07where it was and even more confusing back in 2001 chris told police they had seen each other five days
01:00:15before she was killed was it five days ten days you originally you said that you hadn't seen her in
01:00:22five days and then it changes to ten days i just remember ten days i don't know why i say
01:00:28that if
01:00:28there was ever a time to be 100 on the record it is now time had gone by so many
01:00:38decades have gone by
01:00:39and i was confused i genuinely didn't do anything to her were you concerned about that discrepancy not
01:00:47necessarily because it's been 24 years and memories change and fade they weren't concerned because they
01:00:54knew chris had a solid alibi what's more they had explosive new information about that other dna
01:01:00profile from the unknown male the lab ran it through the fbi database and got a hit
01:01:07liz called me and said we have a name i was just super excited
01:01:12i was just freaking out and calling my boss calling jeremy called our analyst and i'm like
01:01:21everybody get to headquarters and she was like we have a match and i was just staring at the ceiling
01:01:30in utter shock and disbelief you couldn't even process it his name edrick fast had you heard it
01:01:39before no seen it before no what's your next step we just wanted to learn everything we could about
01:01:44edrick they learned edrick fast had a rap sheet convictions for criminal trespassing aggravated
01:01:51assault battery attempted robbery and carrying a concealed weapon the biggest thing that we were
01:01:58kind of taken aback by is that he lived 585 feet from tara's residence wow very close very close you
01:02:07could essentially stand in edrick's front yard and see the back door of tara's residence now they
01:02:12needed to figure out if faust and tara knew each other you want to establish if there's any sort of
01:02:18known relationship any known connection any chance meeting between the two you're kind of cross-referencing
01:02:24their daily routines to see where they might have overlapped where they might have intersected absolutely
01:02:29naturally we could find no connection or relationship between edrick and tara meaning no
01:02:36reasonable explanation why his dna would have been present absolutely no reasonable explanation
01:02:40whatsoever and if faust was tara's rapist they believed he was also her killer at that point we
01:02:47felt comfortable arresting him so in may of 2024 more than two decades after her murder officers arrested
01:02:56edrick faust in a walmart parking lot they took him to the athens clark county pd where agents biggum and
01:03:02howell sat down to talk to him howell sat down to talk to him hey how are you good how
01:03:06are you good
01:03:06how are you he was cordial he answered our questions um you know for a while how are you
01:03:14how are you miss faust i am 48 are you sure okay
01:03:22and what's your home address for you having dispatched with the pleasantries biggum turned up the heat
01:03:28and faust's demeanor changed we've got a torch they are for a myriad of charges that range from
01:03:39arson to murder the agents held off on telling faust about the dna evidence our game plan going in
01:03:49was to visit if there was any known relationship between the two and so you wanted to see what he
01:03:57would say yes did you know her no connection to her no no that's when they told faust they had
01:04:05his dna
01:04:12man it's been a long time we've made so many advancements and things
01:04:18if you can help us understand why your dna's in that house help us
01:04:25he never gave them an explanation instead he said he needed a lawyer he ended it with yeah you
01:04:32can go ahead and take me to jail and did you in fact take him to jail we obliged
01:04:40authorities charged edrick faust with tara's murder rape and arson that cleared the maintenance man who
01:04:47for years had been the number one person of interest when they came and said we made an arrest
01:04:53i didn't know how to breathe i was like how do i react to this for over two decades investigators
01:05:01have
01:05:01worked tirelessly to find answers for the family and friends of tara louise baker and bring some amount of
01:05:08closure and healing to this horrific event i was elated i was shocked i was emotional then you hear
01:05:22the name edrick faust yes what did you think who's this guy who is edrick faust i was like i
01:05:31don't i
01:05:31know who this person is i've never seen this person before in my life just the fact that this person
01:05:35was in my peripheral the whole time it was terrifying he was close by mm-hmm this is somebody
01:05:42who had been living just right by your house yeah i'm like did i see him like is this somebody
01:05:47i
01:05:47passed in the street yeah maybe waved hello to at some point we certainly wouldn't have thought that
01:05:52anyone would have been stalking us or watching us we were in a safe college town
01:05:58meredith learned about faust's criminal past including that he'd stabbed someone in the neck
01:06:02just two weeks after tara's murder what are you thinking as you're reading this how is this person
01:06:09still around tara's gone she was denied a life and this guy has lived 25 years of wreaking havoc
01:06:17and and ruining other people's lives like why why tara's loved ones hoped their questions would
01:06:24be answered at trial i was ready to see the person who created and caused all this to have to
01:06:29face
01:06:30its consequences i figured that i was gonna have to be involved somehow because i was her boyfriend
01:06:37have a seat little did he know just how involved he would be chris melton's dna chris melton told law
01:06:45enforcement chris melton's actions it just seemed like i was the one on trial why didn't you cry
01:06:56and i was the one on trial for the state of georgia versus edrick faust for 25 years you all
01:07:11were
01:07:12wondering and waiting and now you're in the same room as this person i can't even explain the feeling
01:07:18i tried not to look at him most of the time other times i felt like my glance was burning
01:07:24through the
01:07:25back of his head when the trial of edrick faust began in early february of 2026 tara baker's family
01:07:31and many of her friends were there in court katie lonstein had envisioned this moment for years 25 years
01:07:39of this i wanted a monster and i got a boring man in a tan shirt district attorney kalki yalaman
01:07:48chile led
01:07:49the prosecution what is the key thing that you need to drive home to the jury the dna the dna
01:07:54and the
01:07:55lack of any type of connection between tara baker and edrick faust assistant da chris bolden handled the
01:08:04opening statement who killed tara baker ladies and gentlemen edrick faust killed tara baker and now
01:08:15the final chapter begins today remember how neighbors told police they saw a man walking near
01:08:23tara's house the morning of the murder to see somebody walking those witnesses took the stand the
01:08:28person had on a orange shirt of some sort it's the memory that stands out male female yeah male young
01:08:34male white african-american african-american the prosecution explained to the jury how faust's dna
01:08:41was found on tara's body and then the jury heard faust tell the gbi he never met tara no connection
01:08:48to her
01:08:48no no i don't know i never i mean the only time i see that the only time i seen
01:08:53that was it was in the
01:08:54newspaper you need to make it clear to the jury that there's no reason that his dna would have been
01:08:59within proximity of tara baker that's correct it seemed like a fairly straightforward case
01:09:05until it wasn't the prosecutor knew chris's dna was also detected and knew the defense was planning
01:09:11to make chris the center of its case so the prosecutor addressed that head on let's talk about what chris
01:09:18was
01:09:18doing on january the 19th of 2001 chris was investigated so thoroughly at the beginning of
01:09:27this case we felt like all of that evidence was really strong for us to show chris's alibi and that
01:09:34in fact it was not possible for him to have been the individual who murdered tara witnesses testified
01:09:41they saw chris throughout that early morning and on bank security video time stamped around 9 a.m
01:09:47this witness was the branch manager in 2001 we watched chris entering the bank um coming in and
01:09:54filling out the withdrawal slip and then going to the teller and getting the cash the prosecutors knew
01:10:00they had to put chris on the stand he told the jury about every place he went that morning and
01:10:05answered
01:10:06questions about himself and tara how was the state of you and tara's relationship you know in those months
01:10:15leading up to her murder everything was wonderful it was difficult for us not to see as much see each
01:10:23other as much as we would have liked but we were both in the understanding that we were pursuing future
01:10:30paths for us to have a better future together and then it was the defense's turn anyone listening to
01:10:39false attorney ahmad cruz this is chris melton might have thought it was chris melton on trial
01:10:44chris melton stated chris melton's behavior chris melton's dna chris melton's actions
01:10:51in his opening statement cruz said chris melton's name nearly a hundred times i found out more
01:10:57about chris miller than i did edric faust and in cruz cross-examination of chris this was his first
01:11:03question why didn't you cry when just now why didn't any tears fall out of your eyes
01:11:14they are falling out during trial the defense attorney barely challenged the dna evidence against
01:11:19his client instead he focused on chris melton's emotions his alibi and his changing story about when
01:11:26he last saw tara did you have sex with miss baker the day of her death no sir chris was
01:11:32now sure he
01:11:33last saw tara on sunday five days before the murder from the beginning i said i saw her the weekend
01:11:41prior
01:11:43from the beginning you've said that yes sir that you've seen her the weekend and that has always been
01:11:49what you said there was a time that i was confused and it was 20 plus years later the defense
01:11:58asked chris
01:11:59to look at a photo of tara taken after the murder this is the photo that you were shown to
01:12:04ask to identify
01:12:05miss baker no this is not the photo i don't believe that was the photo it was a photo chris
01:12:13had never
01:12:13seen before he must have cherry picked some of the the worst picture that i have ever seen from the
01:12:21crime
01:12:21scene it seemed to be more of of an autopsy picture
01:12:32i just i had never seen something so bad mr melton you're just shown
01:12:42the photograph of his papers ceased and you have not shed a tear
01:12:47oh no i felt like i was being tortured and you felt like that crossed the line yes
01:12:55that's what i was doing attorney cruz showed the jury a few pictures as well
01:12:58photos of chris's hands taken during his second police interview two days after tara's death these
01:13:05are chris melton's hands after miss baker's death chris melton said he punched a wall in anger and
01:13:12frustration two days after the murder my injuries injuries came from punching the wall and a detective
01:13:18backed him up telling the jury that on the day of the murder chris's hands showed no signs of injury
01:13:24were those marks on his hands on january 19th of 2001 when you interviewed him and then
01:13:32fingerprinted they were not okay if they had been would you have taken pictures of them the way you
01:13:38did on january 21st yes okay then the defense homed in on the hair found in tara's hand you will
01:13:45hear
01:13:45evidence in this case that there is not a shred of evidence that puts mr false let alone a black
01:13:54person in miss baker's home all of the evidence including the gift miss baker left in her hand
01:14:03for police it's it's it's caucasian hair the defense attorney told the jury that the caucasian
01:14:11hair found in tara baker's hand was a gift for police what was he trying to do there he was
01:14:17trying
01:14:17to convince the jury that mr melton was the perpetrator of the crime because it was caucasian
01:14:22hair that's correct but prosecutors made sure the jury knew what investigators had known for years
01:14:28that the hairs in miss baker's hands were her own hairs the number one rule is you don't lie to
01:14:35a jury
01:14:36you don't over promise and the moment he said that i wrote down on my pad they're hers that's
01:14:43her hair so either he doesn't know that or he is intentionally misleading the jury tara's family
01:14:52thought the whole defense was a weak attempt at smoke and mirrors but with the case headed for the jury
01:14:58not everyone agreed this is just shocking and then like i say it's so unbelievable
01:15:19for those with eyes on the athens clark county courtroom the trial of edrick faust had seemingly
01:15:25taken a detour it just seemed like i was the one on trial i couldn't believe it i couldn't believe
01:15:31it
01:15:31it was maddening but outside the court the defense's words appeared to be landing
01:15:38we met protesters including some of faust's family members who believe he was wrongly accused
01:15:43this is just shocking and then like i say it's so unbelievable yeah justice for edrick faust i want edrick
01:15:51files to walk free and like faust's defense attorney they pointed the finger at chris melton he lied he
01:15:57lied he lied he lied because he had not seen her in two days chris there are some people who
01:16:02may be
01:16:02watching this who believe that you killed tara baker what do you want to say to those people i would
01:16:10say
01:16:10that i did not kill tara baker i did not kill her i loved her ladies and gentlemen the state
01:16:18has rested
01:16:19back inside the courtroom defense rest defense rests almost immediately no witnesses was that a shock to
01:16:28you yes yeah absolutely for closing arguments both sides gave it their all they falsely accused him
01:16:36and they tried mightily mightily to bury the truth there is not one shred of evidence not one
01:16:47single shred of evidence that indicates that chris melton was angry with tara would hurt tara or wanted her dead
01:16:59then the jurors had the case they asked to review testimony dna reports 12 hours later
01:17:07to the judge the jury is ready to deliver the verdict i was so terrified so terrified that we were
01:17:14going
01:17:14to come out the other side no different as he waited in the courtroom kevin baker was suddenly the
01:17:20heartbroken little boy of 25 years ago that person that is a grown man that is married that has a
01:17:28family
01:17:28those layers peeled off and that 10 year old boy was left sitting there and inside it was that 10
01:17:35year old
01:17:35boy crying in that same hotel room the jury finds the defendant on the following counts count one
01:17:43malice murder guilty that first guilty just rocked everything back rocked us all back i was writing
01:17:54it down as they were like count one guilty count two guilty guilty on all counts murder rape and arson
01:18:05when they read the verdict and said guilty to all 12 counts my heart lipped but i couldn't show any
01:18:15emotion i did not want to make it any harder on his family by showing joy or you know because
01:18:24i i know how
01:18:25hard it would have to be to think that somebody in your own family could be capable of this type
01:18:31of thing
01:18:33police warned chris to stay away from the courthouse for the verdict he heard it hunched over a cell
01:18:38phone and it was a hallelujah moment and a release and we just celebrated amongst us that
01:18:51they had come to the right decision
01:18:55but for tara baker's family still no peace the trial had triggered a social media storm
01:19:01and the verdict only made it worse with chris tara's family even tara herself all under attack
01:19:09there was a lot of online social media commentary yes which made everything so much worse i mean some
01:19:16of it got bad some of it was painful at times i can't believe people can be that cruel did
01:19:20that
01:19:20almost kind of cast a shadow of sorts over this this moment that you'd waited so long for more than
01:19:26a
01:19:26a shadow a blanket of pain chris's life and business were upended the anger on social media forced him to
01:19:36take down his company's website my beloved sister at false sentencing tara's brother adam spoke directly
01:19:43to his sister's convicted killer tara and i were more than siblings
01:19:49we were best friends today sitting in this courtroom face to face i can honestly say
01:19:54i have forgiven you i'll harbor no hate in my heart i've given that all to god i mean tara's
01:20:00been gone
01:20:01for 25 years it doesn't change that 25 years it doesn't change the 25 years that are to come she's
01:20:05still gone but to know that we finally got justice i i can't i can't describe that feeling
01:20:14voss was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus 45 years in prison we asked voss and his defense
01:20:22attorney for interviews fost did not respond his attorney declined free agent force
01:20:30fost is appealing his conviction and his supporters are raising money for him the chief of police hopes
01:20:36the community can move forward as a chief i'm responsible for the safety of this community and
01:20:42also building meaningful relationships and during times like this when you have a verdict where people
01:20:48think one thing or the other i think you just have to trust in the courts not long after sentencing
01:20:56meredith had dinner with chris and met his wife jenny they talked for hours i've had multiple
01:21:03conversations where i apologized for the silence what did he say to you don't apologize it's painful
01:21:13but there's no animosity whatsoever at uga posing at the arch is a graduation rite of passage
01:21:24it's where tara's friends come to remember her what do you think about tara now as you stand here by
01:21:30this
01:21:30arch one she's thrilled that this case has been solved but two she's probably mad at us because it took
01:21:3525
01:21:36years i have never had my life changed so much by someone that i've never met and tara baker did
01:21:44that for
01:21:45me and for so many people that is tara's legacy what made tara special was the ability to connect with
01:21:56every single person she comes in contact with that's one thing that i keep hearing is that she made so
01:22:01many
01:22:02people feel special yes i've heard so many people tell me that when if they hadn't seen her in a
01:22:07long
01:22:08time when they saw her again she would make them feel like it was a happiest day of her life
01:22:16that's all for this edition of dateline and don't forget to check out our talking dateline
01:22:21podcast in which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode available wednesday in the dateline
01:22:27feed wherever you get your podcasts we'll see you again next friday at 9 8 central i'm lester holt for
01:22:36all of us at nbc news good night
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