Tara Louise Baker

Case background and investigation

Tara Louise Baker was a 23-year-old first-year law student at the University of Georgia, a cum laude graduate preparing for a legal career, living in an apartment on Fawn Drive in Athens, Georgia. She was last seen alive on the evening of January 18, 2001, at the UGA law library, where a friend saw her around 7:30 p.m. Later that night, at about 9:46 p.m., Tara called the same friend to make sure she had gotten home safely and mentioned she planned to leave the library around 10 p.m. It was the last time anyone heard from her.

The next morning, January 19, 2001, one day before Tara's 24th birthday, Athens-Clarke County firefighters responded to a blaze at her apartment. Inside, they found Tara's body. Investigators quickly determined that the fire had been intentionally set, apparently in an effort to destroy evidence and conceal the crime. Tara had been attacked and killed, and her laptop computer was taken from the home. The murder of a promising young law student horrified the university community and the city of Athens.

Despite an intensive investigation, the case went cold for years. Detectives collected biological and DNA evidence but could not identify a suspect with the technology available at the time. For more than two decades, Tara's family waited for answers as the case became one of Georgia's most prominent unsolved homicides, periodically revisited in the media and by cold-case investigators.

The turning point came after the GBI established a dedicated Cold Case Unit in July 2023, which launched an in-depth review of Tara's murder. Advances in DNA analysis linked the crime to Edrick Lamont Faust, and in May 2024 the 48-year-old Athens man was arrested and charged with murder, aggravated assault, arson, aggravated sodomy, and related counts. GBI Director Chris Hosey said the arrest showed that "justice has no expiration."

Faust stood trial nearly 25 years after the killing. On February 17, 2026, a Clarke County jury found him guilty on all 12 counts, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated sodomy, burglary, tampering with evidence, and first-degree arson, following a two-week trial; he was sentenced on February 19, 2026. Judge Lisa Lott sentenced Faust to two consecutive life sentences plus additional years, ensuring he will spend the rest of his life in prison. The conviction finally brought a measure of justice to Tara Baker's family and closed one of the longest-running cold cases in Athens history.