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Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

Tara Baker Cold Case Murder SOLVED After 23 YEARS

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime

4.72.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On January 19, 2001, Tara Baker was murdered in her apartment.

The perpetrator sexually assaulted her and then lit the apartment on fire. The case went cold in the town of Athens, Georgia, for over 20 years.

On this episode of "Body Bags," Joseph Scott Morgan will break down the science of solving a cold case and Dave Mack will fill in the blanks of the story that shocked Northern Georgia for over 20 years.

Recently the murder of Laken Riley brought the Tara Baker homicide back into the conversation and with great detective work and with biological evidence and DNA science, the cold case became hot again, as hot as the fire the suspect set to destroy evidence of the horror he created.  

 

 

 

 

Transcript Highlights 

00:00:09 Introduction of influence 

00:01:24 Tragic Cold Case Solved, Tara Baker 

00:04:11 Discussion of Tara Baker case and Laken Riley 

00:08:32 Discussion of fire in apartment 

00:09:24 Talk about find body  

00:14:32 Discussion of accelerants 

00:19:21 Discussion of death investigation in fire 

00:24:41 Discussion of time involved in the attack 

00:27:58 Talk about predators selecting their victim 

00:31:33 Discussion of how to determine sex assault when body is burned 

00:37:20 Discussion of how a burned body is examined 

00:38:47 Talk about unsolved cold case 

00:41:50 Case solved; Edrick LaMont Faust arrested 

00:44:46 Conclusion, Faust is 48, Tara Baker died at 21 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Bodybags with Joseph Scott Morgan. Now looking back in Tom, there's some characters out there if you are into literature that kind of influence.

0:27.0

I think the way you think, particularly when you're a kid and you're learning about these literary giants. They influence you I think the way you

0:37.4

look at the world and I gotta tell you there's one character in particular that has always fascinated me and

0:44.6

there's been various iterations of this character throughout Tom but probably this is

0:50.5

the first and his name was Faust and Faust actually is known for having made a deal with the devil

1:07.4

now this comes through, they say at least, that he had a dissatisfaction with his life and he was unfulfilled, but as a result of this deal with the devil, he was able to become

1:21.0

legendary in his knowledge of all things and he could experience anything that he wanted to experience,

1:30.0

almost on tap if you will.

1:40.0

Today... almost on tap, if you will. Today we've got an actual case of tragedy.

1:55.0

Involving a young woman who was only 21 years old at the time of her death and also a man named Faust.

2:00.7

I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body bags.

2:06.0

Brother Dave, you know, I gotta tell you, man.

2:17.4

I think that most people, they hear me talk about forensics on the show and I think that I am just by default a science guy and you know kind of a nerdy dude and I guess guess I am, actually I embrace the term nerd

2:25.0

because I always tell my son who's 22 now

2:28.4

and he's in a very technical career

2:32.3

that he's being educated in at university right now.

2:35.0

I've always told him, I said, son, nerds rule the world.

2:40.0

And so, and that's the truth, but I got to tell you, science was, I've always been a science guy, science was never necessarily my passion.

2:49.0

And when I was in high school, my favorite subject in the world was actually English and literature.

2:59.0

That's the one AP class I actually did in high school back during those times.

3:04.3

And my professor or teacher was a guy named Dr. James Cook.

3:10.1

And Dr. Cook has passed on now,

...

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