CNN report
More than two decades after authorities discovered a University of Georgia law student’s body at her apartment, where they say a fire was set intentionally, a man has been arrested and charged in connection with the cold case.
Tara Louise Baker was found dead in her Athens, Georgia, home by Athens-Clarke County firefighters on January 19, 2001, a day before her 24th birthday, according to a news release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
On Thursday, state and county investigators said Edrick Lamont Faust, 48, was arrested and faced several charges in connection with Baker’s death, including felony murder, aggravated assault, arson and aggravated sodomy, the news release says.
Faust, a resident of Athens, remains in jail on a $15,000 bond, according to Clarke County Sheriff’s Office jail records. CNN could not determine whether Faust has an attorney.
“Tara Louise Baker was a hardworking student with a bright future ahead of her,” GBI director Chris Hosey said in a statement. “Tara’s life was stolen from her in a horrific act of violence.”
Baker, a first-year law student from East Point, Georgia, was last seen alive by a friend at the UGA Law School Library on January 18, 2001, around 7:30 p.m., according to GBI’s unsolved homicide webpage on the case.
Authorities say Baker, while still at the library, called the same friend around 9:46 p.m. to make sure they had arrived home safely. Baker told her friend she planned to leave the library around 10 p.m.
The homicide investigation into Baker’s death ran cold for 23 years.
The GBI’s Cold Case Unit partnered with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department in September 2023 “to conduct an in-depth review and analysis of the ongoing investigation into Baker’s death,” according to the news release.
Athens-Clarke County police chief Jerry Saulters, who was an officer at the crime scene in January 2001, said in a statement that he’d hoped for years Baker’s family would find justice.
“I remember being there during that horrific time,” Saulters said. “Seeing this case now full circle, I appreciate the hard work of the detectives, from then and now. Knowing that the evidence collected at that time contributed to the arrest today gives me tremendous pride in all the officers who worked this case over the years.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/11/us/tara-louise-baker-georgia-murder-arrest/index.html
