Verdict and Final Reflections

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We've got all the links in our episode notes The opinions expressed in the following episode do not necessarily reflect those of the Minds of Madness podcast Listener disiscretion is advised When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. It was eighteen ninety when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote these words for Sherlock Holmes in the classic tale, The Sign of the F. This simple line of reasoning would form the bedrock of deductive reasoning and fiction for the next century It sounds clean Logical Almost comforting The idea that truth is simply what's left standing after everything else has been ruled out. But real life is rarely as neat as fiction In january two thousand one quiet subdivision on the outskirts of a college town in Georgia A young woman was murdered in her own home Killer set the place on fire to cover his tracks, so police did what Holmes would prescribe. They eliminated the impossible generated tens of thousands of pages of reports, conducted hundreds of interviews And when they were done They were left with nothing The case went cold for more than twenty years Then, in twenty twenty three, the case was reexamined using the latest DNA technology And there was a match A name that had never once appeared in twenty three years of investigative files This would become one of the most controversial prosecutions in Georgia history case that tested whether the state could convict a man on a single pillar of evidence when every other traditional marker of guilt was absent. Join me now. As we dive into the shocking murder of Tara Baker Griffin Young Law student whose life was stolen just one day before her twenty fourth birthday You'll hear how an airtight alibi cleared the most obvious suspect, despite decades of suspicion And how a breakthrough in forensic science revealed the killer hiding in plain sight J just five hundred and eighty five feet away from the crime scene twentywenty five years ago, Katherine Lonstein, now an attorney in Washington, DC, was a first year law student at the University of Georgia. It was here during orientation that she first met Tara very first day of law school, we were in orientation. And that was that was the moment Literally from that moment, Tara and I and another woman named Jenia became very good friends. I don't remember many moments of law school after that that we weren't together, studying, walking, anything. Like many first year law students, Catherine quickly realized just how intense the experience would be You are in class eight hours a day, then you are studying another five to six hours a day. If you're lucky you sleep some, eat some but it is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my entire life From the beginning, the pressure created a kind of bond between them Baker was twenty three years old Originally from Lovejoy, Georgia, she had graduated cum laaude from Georgia College in Millichville in nineteen ninety eight. Before law school, she worked in several law firms as a real estate agent paralegal, gaining experience that set her apart from many of her classmates And according to Catherine, that shared intensity shaped the friendships they formed You form these bonds Through the stress that you're going through, you're all learning the same thing, you're all studying the same things and you're all exhausted in the same way peopleople would get People form friendships that would turn into marriages. People would form friendships that turn into lifelong friendships It's just Unlike anything I've been through before, it's like being in the trenches, I suppose, although You know, I don't know other way to describe it From early on, I called her one of my best friends And I know It feels too short. but I don't know how to describe it other than you don't go through that sort of very difficult thing with someone and it bonds you in this really particular way She was the most organized, so she had a definite plan, whereas peopleeople like me were like, I'll try harder. but the end of our first semester was probably a bit of a shock to all of us or you know, grades are hard. so her plan was to be more rigorous about her time in the library and to sort of make it into a job, you know. terrorist approach was deliberate She treated her study time with the same discipline she planned to bring to her career. schcheduled, committed, and following through without exception Goal was clear a career in law where she could help others. And she understood that the path there ran straight through the law library Katherine remembers exactly how Teror works So the law library always, but there are different parts of the law library. There's this sort of first room you come into that has these big windows and it's very sun filled but it's a more casual part where people sometimes have a conversations. So sometimes you would study there if you were doing a study group or if you were just reading and it wasn't too intense And then there's this walkway you can go through and you go into the quiet part of the library And that's where you would go if you were studying for an exam, trying to write a paper, trying to focus I think she got there around seven, seven hundred thirty It was Thursday evening, january eighteenth, two thousand one. Tara met Katherine at the Law Library on UGA's North campus just after seven PM By around nine o'clock, Catherine was ready to call it a night here wasn't. planl to stay until closing Yeah Katherine would head home alone Something Tara never took lightly I had been at the library before she had joined me there. So at that point, I was ready earlier than she was to go home. So I probably left around I want to say around nine. couldould have been a little bit later, but probably around nine I had to walk to school from based on where I lived. I lived just over the railroad tracks above where the blind Pig Tavern used to be. And so not the safest of routes So anytime I had left the library or school or anywhere, before her, she would insist that I call her when I got home And that was their routine In thine night Blank Katherine forgot to call a short time later Clder instead I was supposed to call her when I got home. I did not She she call me about nine hundred thirty, mayaybe nine forty five And then She admonished me, scolded me because I had failed to call her. I just Didn't mean anything bad, I just forgotten I think the last thing she ever said to me was I said, hello. and she said, you did not call me And I said, I know I'm so sorry. And she said, but you're okay said I am, and she said, All right. I'll talk tomorr That was kind of it It would be the last time they spoke In the last confirmed time, anyone heard from Tara Baker After leaving the law library back home to her house at one hundred sixty Fnd dririve A small house on the outskirts of Athens, about five miles from campus She shared the place with two roommates. Ashley and Valerie. grraduate students at UGA been living together since the previous summer. That Thursday night Neither roommate was home. Both had left town earlier that day for weekend plans It would be a rare stretch of time where Tara had the house to herself Even with her twenty fourth birthday coming up that Saturday, january twentieth Still She wasn't planning to spend it alone She'd already made plans to celebrate the night before, meeting friends and coworkers at a bar after class Boyfriend, Chris Melton, was also expected to join them He was driving in from Covington and planning to spend the weekend with her But for that one morning, january nineteenth. terrorist home He alone Later that day, when she didn't show up for class didn't immediately raise an alarm Katherine remembers how they tried to make sense of it She did not show up for any of our classes. No I recall my friends and I discussing it, but we thought, well, it's her birthday weekend maybe she slepppt in, you know So we had all planned to meet at a bar called the winery just after class. And we did go. herer friends and I went and she was not there. Catherine was surprised, Tera stood up her guests at her own party But not enough. Yet, to suggest something was wrong, realization wouldn't come until the next morning Katherine received a call from a classmate The next morning on january twentieth, a friend of mine from law school named Jim Davis called me And he said, Kday, I'm so sorry, but Terrors died and I yelled at him and I was I was very mean I told him he was n bunny And then I hung up on him And then I called our friends. We called them the Erics because they lived in the same house So I called to Erics and one of them answered And I said, Eric, Jim has said the most insane thing to me And he said that Terra died. So I need you to go get your paper then Tell me he's wrong. And he did, he went out and when he came back onto the line, he was just V' shaken After that I asked or I asked the friend that I was with to get me a newspaper So that person did purchase me a newspaper And then I saw the headline, stududents lane And and then the next thing I remember as I just I fell down And then I started crying and I I don't know when I stopped But that's how I found out Have you ever left a meeting thinking, Well that was productive? And then ten minutes later, you're peeing someone like, Wait, what are we doing? Yeah, that's me. Or worse, you've been heads down the entire meeting, fiurcely typing notes instead of actually listening. and now your camera's off and your brain is fried Meetings are a mess. Granola fixes that. Granola is an AI powered noteepad built for the way real people actually meet. Here's how it works. You take rough notes like you normally would, and in the background, Granola securely transcribes the meeting. 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Ai slash madness to get your time back. Three months free at granola. Ai slash madness The article gave a grim overview of how just twenty four hours earlier Catastrophe had unfolded at Terrace House Assistant DA Chris Bolden describes what responders encountered that morning. On january the nineteenth of two thousand one at eleven twenty two AM Ses nine e one started receiving telephone calls in the area of Deer Park Regarding a fire at one hundred and sixty Fallen dririve And so when they get this call at eleven twenty two in the morning The fire department is immediately en route The firefighters actually kick in the door, the front door to Tara's house Um, because it was a locked When they did so, they encountered smoke. in the main living room area of the house So these firefighters kick in the door and the first thing that they notice apart from the smoke is back in the right corner, which is where the kitchen is located throughrough the smoke, they can actually see the eyes of the stove. It's one of those old school stoves that has the circular ating elements. they can see those glowing red And so through the smoke, they go over there to the stove They realize that the knobs that would turn on and off those eyes have actually been removed from the stove itself and say the firefighters put those knobs back on and turn the stab off. Outside Firefighters noticed a single car parked in the driveway, giving them reason to believe there could still be someone inside They move through the house, trying to locate the source of the fire They open the back door to the house to ventilate to help start getting the smoke out of the room To this point, I don't think they've completely ascertained exactly where the fire was coming from left bedroom of the house, and there's actually a bathroom door right next to it are closed And so they go over there And they kick those doors in as well And when they kick open that bedroom door They are immediately met with flames rushing out over their heads firefighters enter and extinguish that fire They discover Terra bedroom, they found her. inside what remained of the room. Terrorace body only at the foot of the bed She's naked She's in between the mattress and the footboard to her bed The footboard had been ripped away from the bed frame itself So she's in that little Th shapes, space in between They notice a computer cord What appears to be a computer record is wrapped around her neck. And so realizing what they've seen, the firefighters back out and turn the scene over to the police And law enforcement does arrive Upon arrival, Athens Clark County Police starts processing the scene Pcessing it would be difficult More than a dozen firefighters had already moved through the home. Water had soaked everything with soot covering every surface An evidence left behind had been compromised. There were still details investigators couldn't ignore Ter's body despite, you know, having obviously been in a room that was consumed by fire. hair was actually still intact Several witnesses actually recall The smell of shampoo still coming from her hair A againgain There was a printer cord wrapped around her neck The printer itself was there in the room. And there's one thing that the police Notice that firefighters hadn't was that Tera actually had a stab wound to the right side of her neck The knife was right underneath her body B blood on it. Officers also noticice a clock on the wall in Tarah's room that clock. had stopped at nine hundred and thirty two It was clear almost immediately. wasn't a fire. It was a homicide Someone had beaten Tara strrangled her. her and then tried to burn all the evidence away Investigators also noticed signs at the scene had been deliberately altered In processing the scene, officers noted that it appeared as if the doors and windows had been wiped clean. There's a screen to the back that back window, one that's right next to the back door that showed signs of having been tampered with The doors had been dead bolted from the inside But a disturbed screen on the rear window suggested another possibility that whoever did this had come and gone through there And the fire itself It wasn't accidental The bed, Tara's bed was the source Love that fire There was a blanket that had been in the living room on the back of a recliner. That blanket had been removed from the recliner Taken over to the stove set on fire and then thrown on Tara's bed. Theres actually still some remnants of that blanket on the stove itself Best efforts very little useful evidence could be recovered There were no fingerprints of any evidentiary value that were taken in the house. or off of Terr's body. Hirs were collected. from her body and from her room her laptop was missing Although Tera's laptop was missing Nothing suggested a burglary gone wrong. Valuable items like cash and jewelry were left in plain sight And the other rooms in the house appeared to be undisturbed wasasn't random And it felt Targeted And the autopsy would confirm Just how personal the attack had been. Tar's body was taken over to Atlanta to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations' Department of Forensic Sciences The next day, Saturday, the twentieth, her birthday And an autopsy was conducted by a medical examiner named Dr. Andrew Falzon That stab wound that the officers noted when they got in to her bedroom had actually severed her jugular bvein The liigature mark was encircling her neet Hyoid bone, which is bone in your neck had been broken sub arachnoid hemorrhage. to her head, which is indicative of blunt force trauma. Densive wounds, defensive type wounds to her hands Dr. Falzon, after conducting the autopsy, listed her cause of death as lgature strangulation and a stab wound with another significant condition being blunt force trauma to the head He ruled the manner of death, obviously a homicide. As part of the autopsy, a sexual assault kit was taken Contusions surrounding Terra's vagina and anus. As part of the autopsy, head hair and pubic hair was retained and fingernail and toenail clippings were taken The autopsy revealed Tera had been sexually assaulted and that she'd fought back But even then, There was nothing investigators could use to identify who'd done it testing failed to reveal the presence of any seminal fluid. And she took microscopic examinations of the vaginal smears and observed npermatazoa or partially intactpermatazzoa basased on the existing technology and the existing protocols back in two thousand one, there was nothing further that could have be done with that sexual assault kit. Did confirm that the blood on Tarars's fingernails belong to Terra There was blood on the knife And the DNA from that blood also only belonged to Terra And there was no blood on the toenails that were taken There was nothing that would help in the investigation at that time The sexual assault kit yielded nothing. The hairs collected from the scene belong to people already known to Terra. Her roommates, her boyfriend Nothing out of place Nothing pointed to someone new. From the beginning, investigators were left with two very different possibilities On the one hand Dor suggested, someone who had a key. Someone who knew Tara would be home alone On the other hand Damaged window screens suggested a break in by someone Tera W wouldn't have Willing let inside was a stranger who noticed only one car in the driveway saw an opportunity And that divide would follow this case for decades forensics offering no clear path ives turn to the fundamentals. Who is Tara Baker What were her routines her relationships And could any of that help explain what happened Those who knew Tera described someone disciplined Almost methodical She was an early riser. structured creature of habit Friends and classmates said Tara went out of her way to include people. make sure no one felt left out former high school classmate reacting to the news, put it simply. Who in the world would murder her? She doesn't have an enemy in the world As investigators spoke with friends, family and classmates, ure of Terrorists final hours began to take shape What we know about Tara on Thursday, january eighteenth We know that both Ashley and Valerie were leaving for the weekend. They were both leaving that Thursday. Ashley left late that afternoon. She and Tara had been at home together before Ashley left We know that Approximately seven hundred thirty to approximately nine thirty Tara was at the Law Library here on North campus She's there with a friend named Katie Lonstein Kara Carter at nine hundred forty six that night. to make sure Katie gotten home That is the last time. Anyone isn't known who was spoing to Terra Interviews with Terrace roommates revealed a morning routine It was as consistent as everything else in Terra's organized life Tara's morning routine. If she had a nine hundred thirty class, she did that Friday property law class on the nineteenth. Then she was pretty early riser. Up around six thirty in the morning, first thing she'd do is take a shower, she'd come out and eat her breakfast. Every morning, same thing, cheese grits And she'd come out and eat those cheese grits, her hair is still wet. and then she'd go back into her room and sit on the floor in front of her bed to blow dry her hair That took a while Tera had a lot of hair It was a routine she followed closely and it offered investigators something they hadn't had before A starting point crime scene, multiple investigators noted the smell of shampoo in Tara's hair even after the fire This suggests it' something important. Tera must have already been up and showered before the attack occurred So sometime after six thirty AM at the earliest Police canvassed the Deer Park neighborhood, looking for anyone who might have seen something One witness recalled seeing a white male running in the area open area behind Terra's House and near Terra's house around seven hundred forty five that morning. Multiple witnesses talk about a black male with an orange shirt or sweatshirt at various places in Der Park around eight o'clock to eight fifteen that morning One of those witnesses lived just down the street, Tiffany Schroeder In that morning as she was leaving for class Something caught her attention I was leaving for class in the morning between eight, eight, thirty and saw a young gentleman walking down our street right near our driveway I was just walking towards my car, opening the door, and he was walking in my direction towards my driveway. saw each other, I continued to get into my car and then proceeded to wait for him to pass my driveway so that I could back out younger African American man wearing jeans, either a red orange hoodie, medium complexion, clean hair was of shorter to medium length I would just say the time of day to see somebody walking through the neighborhood considering the earlier hours The weather don't usually see people walking at that time when I'm leaving for class basased on her description Along with another witness, police created a sketch Both accounts pointed to the same individual. Witnesses also helped to narrow down when the fire may have started One witness described Selling a faint odor of smoke as he was leaving for work around eight forty, eight hundred forty five that morning At the time, there's just not much to go on as it related to that canvas The leads were thin And despite the canvas, there was little to anchor the investigation Except for one person, detectives kept coming back to Terrist boyfriend This message is sponsored by Raycon. Well, the weather finally turned warm and I got my bike out and it was the first time I got to try my Raycon esssential open ear buds on my ride. and right away I noticed how wear I felt. I could hear cars, people, everything around me, but still had my music. It just makes being outside feel more natural and a lot safer If you're someone who likes getting outside, whether it's going for walks, running errands, or just getting some fresh air, it's nice to have something that fits effortlessly into your day. 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And if you don't like them, they have a thirty day guarantee. The essential open earbuds are the perfect addition to your everyday routine. Go to buyracon dot com slash Minds of Madness Open to get fifteen percent off Thanks, Raycon for sponsoring. Chris Melton had known terror for years he first met his undergraduates at Georgia College, introduced their mutual friends. Tara threw actually one of the cheerleaders and his sister was one of Tara's closest friend, if not best friend. That was how we had the introduction Their first date came not long after The first date we had was a her sorority formal And she did not have a date And I was approached, you know with be interested in being her companion for the evening and That was all for it. The night of the formal, we kind of had a spark And while I was at the school, we kind of just cross paths and so forth. but Our relationship took off after she had left after I had left and she had moved back to her parents and we got reconnected During that time before she left, before I had left, she had found me on campus and made sure that I had her information, her phone number, her address, and she had written it on an index card And I Once she handed that to me, I folded up, put it in my wallet and Make sure it I never lost it What started out casually didn't stay that way. after Chris moved back home to Covington He reached out Our first conversation, it was like we had been talking the whole time And I recall spending two plus hours with her on the phone and it just came naturally and I recall her just being, you know so funny, so smart She was intriguing. She just bragged about her family, her siblings, her parents, what they did. And the conversation would just just naturally roll out that made me want to continue to speaking with her and further on. And then we spoke day after day after day. and And then I was invited out to her home for our first visit and pretty much our first date Ands that's when it really became an exclusive relationship After dropping out of Georgia College, Chris decided to begin building a career in plumbing Tera moved to Athens for law school Time Chris located to be closer to her Daily commute. which was now nearly an hour each way, eventually became too much By january two thousand one, he'd moved back in with his parents to cut down on drive time. This also allowed Tera to focus more on her studies done long distance before Now they were going to have to do it again Chris promising to visit on weekends in nearly every homicide involving young women Investigators look hardest and first at the romantic partner Chris Melton was no exception. DNA had been found on Terrace's body But that, in itself, wasn't unexpected been in an intimate relationship and had been together the weekend before her murder Still, he couldn't be completely ruled out According to prosecutor, Chris Bolton Chris had fully cooperated from the beginning early in the investigation, Chris was always under the microscope as it related to Teror's murder He was asked to give blood He was asked to give a sample of his head hair. He was asked to give a sample of his pubic hair Chris was subjected to repeated interviews by law enforcement Every time anything's ever been asked of him, his answer' always been the same whatever you need The question for police was, Wh Chris had been on the morning of Tera's murder? Chris had an answer. One that investigators would work to verify Chris was doing on january the nineteenth of two thousand one. He spent the night before Thursday night into Friday at his parents' house in Covington and from seven fifteen that morning until long after Tara's body is discovered, his whereabouts are accounted for At seven hundred fifteen or thereabouts, a coworker named Josh McCurdy came over to Chris's house, or Chris's parents' house to be clear, and Josh was with Chris all day. H's a brief period of time around lunch where they were not together, obviously after the fire. But other than that, they were together all day madeade numerous stops throughout the day. nine hundred eight that morning. Chris went into a Wakovia in Loganville And at nine hundred and twelve that morning, he withdrew four hundred and eighty dollars from the teller He's got a truck He's in the plumbing business. He needs a pipe rat He needs a ladder rack. So he gone to this place called Chuck Customs First stop time, I think maybe around ten o'clock. secondecond time later in the afternoon And it's at that second trip to truck customs where Chris gets a call from Tera's mother By seven fifteen that morning Chris was confirmed to be in Covington From nine AM to at least ten thirty AM He was in Loganville, making purchases tied to his work Every step of his day accounted for Corkers, buy receipts, buy bank records Based on the timeline, investigators had established placing the attacks sometime after six thirty AM And before the fire was reported at eleven twenty two There was no realistic window where Chris could have made it to Athens and back It wasn't until later that afternoon Chris had learned something was wrong When I was on the phone with Ms. Baker, she had stated there was a body in the fire and they did not know where Vally or Ashley were at that moment They hadn't made contact So I reached out to Athens Clark County and called and I went straight to the police department It's where I was told to go from the police department. They said, come come straight here Once I was there, they had ask me a few questions in a room And then They asked me If I were identify herer body becausecause he did not want the parents to have to identify the body and I could save them some grief. So I agreed After identifying Tara's body, Chris was taken to the police headquarters, where he was fingerprinted and asked questions at length and maintained his composure throughout But later, at home Oh are broke once we entered my apartment My parents were with me and I started having an extreme emotional moment and undue recall parents coming to me and wrapping their arms around me and trying to get me to calm down And then that moment I actually felt claustrophobic I felt restraint And I remember pulling away from my father to get away from him And then I spun around and there was a wall in front of me at the bottom of the stairwell. And it was the sheet rock wall and I just remember unleashing my emotions on the sheet rock wall punished it. I don't know it might be thirirty times, maybe more It's crrashed my hands up It's w my hands up fortunately, I didn't break anything and I guess fortunately I didn't find a stud in the wall. It was mainly she rock. police saw Chris again the next day, on january twentieth. They photographed the injuries to his hands. findinding them suspicious So when investigators checked with the officers who had interacted with Chris the day of the murder None of them had observed any injuries Not even the officer who handled his hands while taking fingerprints Chris's parents also confirmed the wall punching incident Dill. The image of Chris's bloody knuckles would leave a residue of suspicion that clung to him for more than two decades the scale of the investigation, nothing led detectives to terrace killer Chris Boldon describes just how much work had gone into the case And how little it produced There was a lot of work being done on this case But there was nothing that would point the police in the direction of Teris Kelliller. There are Tens of thousands of pages of police reports, records. There are hundreds of hours of interviews. Dozens of persons of interest who are identified, but ultimately ruled out. work Frankly just didn't result in any relevant evidence. With all this investigation going on and no leads being developed, the case goes cold. Over time The absence of answers began to take its toll on Terith's familyily Her father, Lindsseay, refused to let her case fade and channeled his grief into a public campaign to keep his daughter's case alive Each year on january nineteenth family returned to the University of Georgia. Pacing a reef of the Archong canvas Tera's younger sister, Meredith, continued to speak out as well ushing for attention for movement for answers And for Chris Melton The suspicion never fully disappeared I could see that there was distance occurr or just starting it started fading away. friends and even I hate to say even family members that would Just stop communication and If it was discussed or brought up O if I was in an area or a room that people knew of what it had happened to Tarum I felt that I was being looked at as person that would have caused this And that's the perception that I was feeling.' that's feelings that I was getting. twenty eighteen Terra's father suffered a stroke and died before he could see justice for his daughter case wasn't over. Not yet. In twenty twenty three, something changed Chris Balden explains in twenty twenty three Something called the Coleman Baker Act was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp The baker Part of that act is named after Tera. This is a law designed to address cases exactly like this one where all leads have been exhausted and no likely perpetrator has been identified. What the law does is it directs new eyes to be placed on the file see if all appropriate forensic testing and analysis was done in the first instance or if additional testing might produce evidence relevant to the investigation And so at this point, enter into our story, agents Liz Bigam and Jeremy Howell with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Biggham, Agent Howell are longtime agents with the GBI And they joined that cold case unit after the law was enacted The goal was simple Bring in new investigators with fresh eyes to review the evidence again. Cheerfully determine whether anything had been missed and whether any advances in forensic testing could reveal something that hadn't been possible before Soon after, two agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were assigned to take on another look Liz Bingham and Jeremy Howell. Now part of a newly formed cocase unit. Tara's case was among the first they reopened and almost immediately found something. In December of twenty three they started looking at this case. And one of the first things they did was a dogged reexamination of all the physical evidence in Tara's case, including the sexual assault kit that had been taken at her autopsy In February of twenty four, Prime lab was able to find first mail DNA and then obtain a DNA profile From item two I, labeled oral swab B. Uon further testing of two I, there is a partial major profile. of male DNA. But that profile that partial major profile from item two I was eligible to be submitted into something Hodis the combined DNA index system. CodIS is a national database of known DNA profiles. And once that profile from Items twoI was uploaded into CodDS, on april thirtieth, twenty twenty four There was a hit Edric Cs That is the first time in twenty three years and tens of thousands of pages of this law enforcement file that Mr. Faust's nameame shows up. For more than two decades, there'd been nothing No usable DNA No clear direction Then suddenly, There was a name Have you ever heard a true paranormal story that's stuck with you for years? Like, you wish you could forget it, but you can't. That's exactly what you get on Monsters Among us podcast. Every week, real people call in and share their true encounters with the unexplained ghosts, strange creatures, missing time, things that just don't make sense And here's the twist. you hear these stories in the witness' own voices, so it feels a little too real. likeike Julie, who drove past a fatal car accident, then realized she had a ghostly hitchhiker, the deceased victim, or a caller who saw three strange entities in the woods, moving in unison, then lost E whole hours without any explanation, Or Mac from Mississippi, who broke his back when he fell out of his tree stand, only to be nursed back to health by a maternal sasquatch. Literally. Yeah, that one stuck with me. The show's hosted by Derek Hayes, who pulse these calls together into something that feels like a late night radio show You probably shouldn't be listening to alone. It's got the classic unsolved mystery vibes, mixed with the eerie storytelling style of Art Belle. There are over five hundred episodes already waiting for you, so if you're into the paranormal or even just a little curious, this is a deep rabbit hole. So go check out Monsters Among Us on Apple Podcasts Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts DNA recovered from Ter' sexual assault kit led investigators to a name forty eight year old Edrick Lamont Faust And he was already known to law enforcement in Athens Clark County Court records documented numerous arrests and convictions, stretching back decades, involving multiple arrests, convictions, and time spent in prison Three details stood out First was timing Just sixteen days after Teror was murdered by being stabbed. Edric was arrested for stabbing another person in the neck, and it was in Athens. The victim survived, and Edrich later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault The second Revelation wasas his appearance Photos taken at the time of his arrest in early two thousand one closely resembled the compass' sketches created from every eyewitness accounts the same witnesses who described a man walking through Terrace neighborhood around eight AM The morning she was killed Detail was the most staggering For more than twenty years, they'd searched far beyond Athens Fllowing leads across counties, even across state lines End all that time. Edric Faust had been living just down the road So what do we know about Mr. Faust Lved it threeree hundred and fifty cooper road Three hundred and fifty Cooper Road is literally Five hundred and eighty five feet from one hundred sixty fawn drive What happenensed? Agents Biggham and How obtain a warrant to get mis. Faust's buckle swabs, cheek swabs And the purpose of that is to get a known sample of his DNA five hundred and eighty five feet A man whose DNA had been found on Terra's body had been living less than two football fields away Armed with the Codice hit and a confirmed match from the buckle swwabs, GBI agents made the arrest and charged Eedrick with murder And he agreed to speak with investigators Agents Bigghham and Howell interviewed Mr. Faus That took place on may the ninth of twenty twenty four and it happened at the Athens Clark County Police Department. mister Faus had been placed under arrest for the murder of Tara. He was read his rights and he agreed to talk with him mr. Foul said that he'd been living at three fifty Cooper Road off and on For forty years. to include the time frrame back in two thousand one During the interview, Mr. Faust denies ever dating anyone in Deer Park, ever knowing anyone in Deer Park. or that Anyone from Deer Park ever came over to his house. Edrick admitted he'd lived on Cooper Road, on and off for decades, including in two thousand one. But he denied knowing Terror denied knowing anyone in Deer Park Denight ever being inside that home Investigators gave him the opportunity to explain If you can help us understand why your DNA is in that house pose I'm here to exonerate Just as much as I am to hunt But Edric didn't offer an explanation Instead, he ended the interview by asking detectives to just take him to jail In february twenty twenty six twenty five years after the murder. Eric Faust went to trial Day one. case centered on a single question DNA evidence on its own Who's Nurder? The prosecution argued that it could Heedrick's DNA had been found on oral and vaginal swaps taken from Teras's body Yet Edric denied ever having contact with Tera and offered no explanation for how it got there according to the state There was only one explanation Jack The rape And the murder that took place on january nineteenth, two thousand one defefense challenged the prosecution on two fronts First Arguing that the entire case was built on a single piece of evidence and that a single piece of evidence was not enough to convict beyond a reasonable doubt. The state is bringing Mr. False before you today to accuse him of crimes that he did not commit. The state presented no evidence that Mr. False's DNA means murder That Mr. Falals' DNA means rape that Mr. False's DNA means burglary The state presented no evidence that mrter False DNA means arson or any of the other charges that they charged him with in this indictment. What evidence does the state have Pacing Mr. Fals in Ms Baker's home But their argument didn't stop there pointed the jury in another direction Ward, Chris Melton. Chris Melton Chilling Miss Baker is not only a reasonable theory, it is supported by the evidence He's living his life. He's not hurt. He's going on date. She has a candter lightight visual. He skips it He didn't love Ms Baker. He hated Miss. Baker And the manner of her death supports the exact same thing. You don't have a stranger Breaking your house. A stranger, never been there before, just picked your house out of any house in the neighborhood breaking your house and kill in this type of manner. This is a overkel ersal And I'll tell you this, if there's no evidence in the house of Mr. Fauls's presence, this is something simple you can remember No house, no fououse. If there's no evidence of Mr. False in the house No house, no fouse The center of that claim was DNA Chris's DNA had also been found during the reinvestigation Prosecution experts explained Genetic material can remain after consensual contact up to seven days in some cases but less time in others They also explained The window for detection is much shorter in other areas of the body. Seventy two hours or less. The defense argued that the presence of Chris's DNA particularly in the rectal swab to his account of when he'd last been with Tera The prosecution disagreed Arguing that the DNA was the result of transfer during the attack itself, And that the science supported that explanation Only mr. Fost's DNA is in the mouth. Mr. Melton and Mr. Fst's DNA is in the vagina And then mister Melton's DNA is found at a rate one in sixty thousand as opposed to billions and octillions in the anal swabbing What miss Hinkel testified is that that timer resets with penetration So when Mr. Foss rapes Miss Baker vaginally five days after Mr. Melton and Miss. Baker have had sex at her parents' house. That is the point at which the timer starts. I would submit to you that when you're talking about matches in the tens of billions, seventy billion and octilions. And then you're talking about a fragment or a sample of DNA so small that it reduces to one in sixty thousand. You're talking about the type of DNA sample that comes from transfer or from drainage. after a rape has occurred by Mr. Fst. That's completely consistent with the physical evidence We learned that Mr. Fos's DNA was present in Tarra's mouth and vagina. evenven though he denied ever having spoken with her or had any contact of any kind with her or anyone who lived in Deer Park When he was given an opportunity to explain why his DNA was present Mr. Foss chose to end the interview by asking to be taken to jail The prosecution also emphasized what Chris's alibi showed. that he could not have been there As police investigated the cases, you've heard. they looked at Chris hard. from the very beginning That's where the police always look first, The romantic relationship or someone in a close relationship with the victim. You've heard that Chris cooperated fully with police Pleice listen to what Chris has to say and the very next day start calling Bill Teter and Josh McCurdy, who are the people that he identified and they confirm the major points of his alibi. They later confirm his alibi further with his father and even further with the objective evidence from the bank. There is not one single shred of evidence that indicates that Chris Mounton was angry with Tera Tara or wanted her dead. In fact, the exact opposite is what her best friend said She said he was the sweetest guy in the world. I never saw him be anything but kind towards her was unusually contentious throughout. constant quarrels igniting between the judge and defense counsel. after a motion for mistrial was denied. defense told the judge trial has been worse than practicing in communist Russia In the end The defense called no witnesses, and Dedrich Faust chose not to testify After nine days The jury returned with its verdict The jury finds the defendant on the following counts, malice murder, felony murder, burglary, aggravated sodomy, rape, aggravated assault, aggravated sodomy, arson in the first degree, possession of a knife during commission of a felony, guilty Edric Faust was found guilty on all counts and was sentenced two days later This court finds based upon the evidence presented at trial and the jury's verdict that a sentence involving rehabilitation is not appropriate in this case And I'm going to sentence you, Mr. Faust as follows The order of the court are two consecutive life sentences to be imposed plus an additional forty five years to be served in confinement That'll be the order of the court. You are in custody. Thank you. Court is adjourned. Save more on what you need to get the job done right. Right now, add Lowe's! Get fifteen percent off, select custom entry and interior doors. Plus, save eighty dollars on the D Walt twenty Volt Max two tool combo kit, now just one hundred sixty nine dollars. And at the Lowe's Pro desesk, bring us your materials list and get a quote in minutes. Handwritten, a photo, or even a sticky note is all you need Keep your jobs moving faster and on budget at lows. Valid through sevenenty eight while supplies last. 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Tara's mother, Virginia had her impact statement read by her son in law. she spoke of carrying her daughter's burnt body through endless roads in her dreams Thankaking God Cred her life for Terrorace called the verdict the final chapter in a twenty five year nightmare. Baker Family's fight for justice had spanned an entire generation Vginia, never stop praying Terr's sister Meredith Never stopped fighting T. push the Coleman Baker Act into law creating the very Cold case unit that would ultimately crack the case. twenty five years People who love Tara Baker refused to let the world forget her fought through grieve. frustration. and against a system Tes seem to have given up. Because They knew that Terra would have fought just as hard for them Sending Meredith stood in court Facing the man, convicted of her sister's murder, And she reminded everyone Tera was. Because beyond the DNA The science investigation There was a person at the center of it all for all those interested parties I will tell you who Tara was she was our North star O champion. She was kind She was determined She wasn't perfect but she was close to it.