For 23 years, the family of Tara Louise Baker prayed for answers in her brutal killing.
“I am Tara’s mother, I always will be Tara’s mother,” Virginia Baker said during a news conference Monday. “There’s so many people to thank. I am so grateful. I want people to know that prayers work, don’t ever stop praying. Don’t ever stop having hope in your heart because it can happen.”
Last week, those answers finally arrived and an arrest was made in the 2001 case.
Edrick Lamont Faust, a 48-year-old Athens man with a lengthy criminal history, was charged with aggravated assault, concealing the death of another, arson, possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, tampering with evidence and aggravated sodomy. He was booked into the Athens-Clarke County jail. Faust was denied bond Friday.
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
During the Monday news conference, GBI Director Chris Hosey said a Cold Case Unit created last summer began reviewing Baker’s homicide in September. Both forensic and DNA evidence linked Faust to the case. Hosey declined to discuss specifics citing the ongoing investigation and forthcoming prosecution.
In September, the GBI Cold Case Unit partnered with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department to look into Baker’s death, with Faust becoming a suspect by late April, according to arrest warrants. Faust is accused of strangling Baker, stabbing her in the neck and causing blunt force trauma to her head.
Faust is alleged to have sexually assaulted Baker before setting her home on fire in an attempt to hide what he had done, according to warrants. Faust was 25 at the time.
Hosey said investigators have not found that the two were previously connected.
On Jan. 19, 2001, firefighters responding to a call at an off-campus rental home Fawn Drive in Athens found Tara Baker’s body. The Lovejoy native was one day shy of her 24th birthday.
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage
Baker was a first-year law student at UGA and had earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgia College & State University. In 2004, the university posthumously awarded Baker a law degree.
“Please think of our Tara sometimes and the remarkable person she would have become,” her mother said Monday. “Hers was a life so full of promise.”
Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Jerry Saulters was a young patrol officer when he was sent to what he called a horrific crime scene.
“It greatly affected our community, the university community and also the police department,” Saulters said Monday. “Throughout the years we have put many resources trying and partnering with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to try and get a lead on this case. For many years, we’ve met with the family and I thought and prayed that one day we would be standing here to announce an arrest in this case.”
Former police chief Jack Lumpkin made the Baker case a priority, Saulters said. And he did the same when named chief. It was the partnerships with various agencies, including the FBI, that led to the arrest.
Since he was a teenager, Faust has been in and out of custody, including serving time in prison from 1997 to 1999 on aggravated assault, robbery and simple battery charges, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage for the AJC
Credit: Elijah Nouvelage for the AJC
Shortly after Baker’s death, Faust was charged with aggravated assault and pleaded guilty in that case, before being granted probation, court records show. He was indicted in July on charges of driving under the influence, reckless driving and violation of the open container law in Oglethorpe County, court records show.
At the time of his arrest, Faust was working for a pressure washing company his warrant states. He previously ran a lawn care business, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.
The Coleman-Baker Act, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in April 2023, allows families to request law enforcement agencies review and reinvestigate cold homicide cases.
“While we can never bring Tara back, her memory and her work is still live today,” state Rep. Houston Gaines said Tuesday.
Interest in Baker’s case rose after the death of nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed near UGA’s intramural fields Feb. 22. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was indicted Tuesday on charges of murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault with intent to rape, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and tampering with evidence.
Another cold case, the 2003 death of Kelvin McDuffie, a UGA student who was found in a remote part of Clarke County remains unsolved.
