Tara Louise Baker: Georgia authorities arrest a man in connection with the 2001 murder of a law student

CNN
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More than two decades after authorities discovered the body of a University of Georgia law student in her apartment where a fire was allegedly intentionally set, a man has been arrested and charged in connection with the cold case.

According to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Tara Louise Baker was found dead by Athens-Clarke County firefighters in her home in Athens, Georgia, on January 19, 2001, the day before her 24th birthday.

On Thursday, state and county investigators said 48-year-old Edrick Lamont Faust was arrested and facing multiple charges in connection with Baker’s death, including aggravated murder, aggravated assault, arson and aggravated sodomy, the release said.

According to Clarke County Sheriff’s Office jail records, Faust, an Athens resident, remains in jail on a $15,000 bond. CNN was unable to determine whether Faust has an attorney.

“Tara Louise Baker was a hard-working 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 terrible act of violence.”

Baker, a first-year law student from East Point, Georgia, was last seen alive by a friend in the UGA Law School library at about 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2001, according to the GBI’s unsolved murder webpage on the case emerges.

According to authorities, while Baker was still at the library, he called the same friend around 9:46 p.m. to make sure they had gotten home safely. Baker told her friend that she planned to leave the library around 10 p.m

The murder investigation into Baker’s death was stalled for 23 years.

The GBI’s Cold Case Unit worked 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,” the release said.

Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jerry Saulters, who was at the scene in January 2001, said in a statement that he had hoped for years that Baker’s family would find justice.

“I remember being there during that terrible time,” Saulters said. “As this case has now come full circle, I appreciate the hard work of investigators then and now. Knowing that the evidence collected then contributed to today’s arrest gives me great pride in all the officers who have worked this case over the years.”

The Baker family says they have waited a long time for their arrest to be announced, but “it is not a day without grief and unanswered questions,” they said in a statement from Athens true crime podcast host Cameron Jay Harrelson, who covered the story Series covered in an interview with students in the “Classic City Crime” podcast.

“Our family is forever grateful to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Cold Case Unit, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their dedication and diligence in bringing us closer to the truth that has eluded us for 23 years . “ was the family’s statement.

Harrelson, who contacted Baker’s family four years ago through a mutual friend of Baker’s sister, said the family has long advocated for progress in the cold case.

“A mother’s heart never gives up, she has never given up the search for the truth,” Harrelson told CNN about Virginia Baker, the mother of Tara Louise Baker.

The late law student, who received her law degree posthumously from UGA’s School of Law in May 2003, is remembered by family, friends, colleagues and classmates as a “champion of justice” who was “extremely loyal,” according to Harrelson, he said interviewed hundreds of those who knew Baker for the podcast series.

“She believed in the application of the law. She believed in fighting for people who were less fortunate or who might be viewed by society as outcasts or left behind and forgotten,” Harrelson said.

“I heard many stories about how she was never afraid to express her feelings, but always with kindness,” he added.

According to CNN affiliate WRDW, the Coleman-Baker Act was passed in Georgia last year and named in honor of Baker and Rhonda Sue Coleman, an 18-year-old high school student who was killed in Jeff Davis County, Georgia, in Year 1990.

Faust’s arrest in the Baker case is the first case solved by the GBI’s new cold case unit, a GBI spokesman told CNN on Saturday.

Harrelson says he advocated for the bill alongside the Baker and Coleman families.

“We didn’t know that this bill would ever create change for the Baker family itself,” Harrelson said. “We’ve talked many times about how even if this doesn’t help Tara’s case, there are countless families that (the bill) could help on second thought.”

He added: “I could not have imagined a better way to honor Tara Baker’s life and legacy, a legacy of fighting for justice and believing in the law, than by having this bill not only named after her, but also implemented “Justice for them.”