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Chapter 1: What happened to Tara Baker and how was her family affected?
I'm Craig Melvin. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy. And now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way too. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges. Their stories are funny and quite candid. So I hope you'll join me each week. And who knows?
You might just come away with your own glass half full. Search Glass Half Full with Craig Melvin from today on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
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She was the light of our family. I can't tell you the pride I had in her. Why would anybody harm her? You just hear there's a house fire, there's a body.
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Chapter 2: What details emerged from the investigation into Tara's murder?
Yes. Went into the bedroom and she was laying on her back. I could smell the shampoo in her hair.
They said we're considering this a homicide. I'm just sobbing. I'm saying no, Tara, no. It was unbelievable that somebody did this on purpose. You're all roommates. You were close. Who were they asking you about? Just the people in her life. At the law school. At work. And then, of course, her boyfriend.
They take pictures of my body. They take pictures of my hands. I just lost it. Five or six persons of interest.
And nothing quite fit.
more than two decades finally you have a name like everybody get to headquarters it's painful i felt like i was the one on trial a young law student found dead in a fire evidence burned in the flames but the drive for justice burned far stronger i'm lester holt this is state live Here's Blaine Alexander with A Window of Time.
Can't you just imagine her rushing off to class or somewhere to study or heading to a football game here at the University of Georgia?
always pushing herself as far and as fast as she could go she had this sort of jump to her walk almost a lilt as if she were bouncing through her day very happy she was a brilliant person she wanted to do the best she could in everything she did what did she mean to you guys everything She was a girl in a hurry, but her family would need patience and perseverance if they would ever find justice.
Thursday night is party night in Athens, Georgia, just like it was 25 years ago. But on Thursday night, January 18, 2001, Tara Baker wasn't bar hopping. She was studying. This was her first year at UGA's law school, and she was buckled down at the law library with her friend Katie Lonstein.
I don't remember what we were working on. I think it was probably a paper. She turned on her computer. It made all of its very loud noise because it had a big fan. And then she leaned in and she went like this with her little crinkly nose.
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Chapter 3: How did the community respond to Tara's tragic death?
Firefighters arrived on the scene, kicked in the door and found a living room full of smoke. What do you see when you come over here?
See a red glow around this corner of this wall.
Firefighter Doug Whitehead remembers this house like it was yesterday and what he saw in the kitchen.
What is it? All four of those electric eyes were on high. The burners were turned off. The burners were on high and the knobs pulled off and placed on the countertop.
He then saw a locked bedroom and knew something was burning behind that door. You come inside this room. What do you see when you walk in?
Smoke, fire, and I see where the fire had broken through the roof and you could see daylight through the hole. What else did you see in here? We found a body on the floor.
A body on the floor? Yes. What could you tell about this person?
It appeared she maybe had just gotten out of the shower and a comb had been run through her hair and an electrical cord. around her neck.
This was no longer just a fire. They doused the flames, backed out and called police. What was it that stood out to you when you got to the scene?
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Chapter 4: What was the significance of the renewed investigation after years?
And when he opened his hand, there was one of the diamond-stud earrings. The earring you gave her? Mm-hmm. And that's when I knew. That's when I knew it was her. Now investigators had a name and a case that would become an Athens legend.
I could smell the shampoo in her hair, and I can smell it to this day.
But the search for a killer would be tainted by mistrust and lingering suspicion. This was a friend of yours?
Yes. I think we were all in shock.
I remember yelling that I love Tara, that I would never hurt Tara.
It would take a new generation to bridge the divide. People were sending you tips, like week after week.
Yes, hundreds of tips a week.
I was just staring at the ceiling in utter shock and disbelief. You couldn't even process it? No, uh-uh. If Tara Baker's bedroom held any clues about what happened to her, crime scene technician David Liedahl knew getting them would not be easy. What was the condition of the room?
Well, it was a crime scene investigator's nightmare because when that ceiling fell, all that insulation everywhere, it was about two or three inches deep and covered most of the room. So it became real difficult to try to get trace evidence like hairs and fibers, things of that nature.
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Chapter 5: What evidence led to the arrest of Edrick Faust?
Tara met her boyfriend, Chris, in undergrad, and they stayed together when she went off to law school at her top choice, UGA. It was an honor for her to be here. She took it seriously. This was her dream. And she had her eyes on the future. She knew what she wanted to do. She knew where she wanted to go. She definitely did. She definitely did.
I'd never have known a person who loved life as much as she did. When you say that she loved life, what did that look like? She got up every morning excited. Sometimes she would call me and just say, Mama, look up. Look at the sky. It's beautiful. It's a Tara Day. The blue sky and the white clouds. God made it just for me.
But now, on this dreary day in Athens, Georgia, there wasn't an ounce of beauty to be found. Nothing made sense. A murder, an arson, just out of the blue? Or maybe not.
A few weeks earlier, two of those buildings were on fire.
Both of them?
Two of them.
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You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.
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Chapter 6: How did the trial of Edrick Faust unfold?
Did the name change set him off? He had a tremendous ego, and he didn't like being rejected. She urged investigators to look into him. And they checked him out. They called him in at my request. Police spoke to him at least twice. They examined his alibi and could find no evidence he was in Athens at the time of the murder.
By then, they were increasingly focused on someone else, someone Tara did have a relationship with, her boyfriend, Chris Melton.
With Chris, because he was the boyfriend, you know, if these other factors were true, an emotional killing, had access to the house, then, you know, Chris is a suspect.
Police had done more than just take Chris's fingerprints. Two days after the murder, they had him back at the police station where they took blood and hair samples along with pictures of his body. What were police telling you about him? They didn't say anything at first, but then they were saying that he is a suspect. They told you that? Yeah. And they went a step further.
They urged Tara's friends to steer clear of Chris. This was a friend of yours. I mean, you all had known each other since undergrad. Was that jarring for you to hear, stay away from this guy?
Everything was jarring back then, though. I mean, I think we were all in shock still. And like, we didn't know who we were targeted. We didn't know, you know, so you're just scared.
When we wanted to respect the process, so if that would have been a part of the process, then we were going to do whatever we were told to do because we wanted an answer. Tara's family got the same warning from police, and the Bakers stopped talking to Chris. Was your dad thinking that Chris was possibly in some way responsible?
I think that he was, but he didn't flat out sit me down and say he did this. I just think that he was trying to make sense of it. And if that was what the police were telling him and pointing in that direction, then he was going to pursue it. My dad was so protective of his kids, and he was devastated.
As a six-foot-three, nearly 400-pound man, that he couldn't protect his daughter from the evil that happened.
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Chapter 7: What were the reactions of Tara's family during the trial?
They demonstrated that in my living room. It was a twisted game of charades. So officers were acting out for your family what they believe happened? Mm-hmm. to my mother, and then later walked it back. Said, no, that's not what happened. Later admitted that was wrong? Yeah. With every restart came renewed focus on the boyfriend, Chris. For the longest time, we were told this is who did it.
Whether or not we believed it, we were told. And so naturally, you don't reach out, you don't talk to that person. But police had, repeatedly. His answer never changed.
I loved her so much. It was so deep. It's painful to lose her and then it's painful to be looked at that way.
Chris says each time he talked to police, he gave them his alibi. He had not seen Tara in days. The night before the murder, he slept over at his parents' house, almost an hour from the crime scene. That morning, he went to work, stopping at a few places along the way. When they question you again, are they asking you different questions, new questions?
Most of the time, it's the same questions. It's like it landed on somebody else's desk, and now they're starting over.
It happened again and again. The phone would ring, and the questions would start.
Once they would reach out and talk to me, they would ask me questions, and I would return and ask questions myself. What about this? Or what about that? You know, and they wouldn't give me answers.
Did anyone ever come out and just tell you that you were a suspect?
You know, as far as actually saying that, I don't recall them actually saying that I was a suspect. It was just in the actions.
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Chapter 8: How did the case impact the community and lead to legislative changes?
They ran into each other at a crowded college bar.
We end up back to back, and I feel her hand reach around, like tickle my arm with fingernails.
And then I reach back and I hold her hand. And it's kind of silly to say this, but I remember, I gotta go to the restroom so bad.
But you're holding her hand.
Yes.
And you don't want to let it go.
And I'm not letting go. You could not have dragged me away.
They never got their happy ending. Instead, Chris says he tried to go on with his life. He built up a small business as a plumber and did his best to put the pain behind him. But one time, when yet another investigator made yet another call, Chris didn't hold back.
She asked me a question, and I had to take time to consider, you know, just, I need to answer the question. And then she aggressively flipped things around a little bit and said, well, didn't you say this or that or something?
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