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