“I’m so grateful, I want people to know that prayers work,” Baker said. “Don’t ever stop praying, don’t ever stop having hope in your heart, because it can happen.”
That’s Virginia Baker, the mother of murder victim Tara Louise Baker, urging others affected by crime not to give up. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation held news conference Monday afternoon regarding the recent arrest in the 23-year-old cold case.
A University of Georgia Law student, Baker’s body was found in her apartment which had been intentionally set on fire. Last week, 48-year-old Edrick Lamont Faust was arrested and charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, arson, and aggravated sodomy.
“The recent events in the Tara Baker investigation also send a strong message that justice has no expiration and law enforcement in this state, state of Georgia, will never stop seeking answers to these tragic events,” according to GBI Director Chis Hosey.
The GBI’s cold case unit partnered with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department in the investigation. ACCPD Chief Jerry Saulters was an officer at the time of the murder.
“Twenty-three years ago, I was a young patrol officer, and I was at the horrific scene when Tara Louise Baker was brutally murdered in Athens-Clarke County,” Said ACCPD Chief Jerry Saulters. “It greatly affected our community, the university community, and also the police department.”
Authorities say the 2023 Coleman Baker Act established the cold case unit.
