Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - STUNNING UGA LAW STUDENT BRUTALLY BEATEN IN SMOLDERING OFF CAMPUS APT

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Just after returning to classes at the University of Georgia for the spring semester, Tara Baker heads to the law library for a study session. At a quarter to 10, Baker calls her friend from the library to make sure she got home safe, mentioning she's heading home shortly. The next morning, Baker misses her 9:30 class.   In the mid-morning hours of January 19th, Athens-Clarke County firefighters are called to an apartment fire at 160 Fawn Drive. Firefighters break down a locked door to access the unit, and find a fire had broken out in the bedroom and burned through the roof. Among the rubble, fire-fighters discover the body of a young woman, later identified as first-year law student Tara Louise Baker.  Police do not release Baker’s cause of death, but tell the public they believe she was murdered, the attacker a stranger to Baker. Investigators consider the possibility that Baker’s murder is connected to a Christmas day arson at a complex just a block from Baker’s. No one was home when someone entered the unit and set fire to a pile of clothes. Police also look at Baker’s boyfriend, but he passes a polygraph test and his alibi is confirmed. Investigators focus on a theory that a stranger broke into Baker’s apartment. Police reveal that Baker was beaten, stabbed, strangled, and potentially sexually assaulted.   23 years after Tara Baker’s body is found in her burning apartment, the GBI in partnership with Athens-Clarke County Police arrest a man suspected of her murder. Edrick Faust, 48, is put behind bars for 9 charges related to Baker’s sexual assault and murder. Joining Nancy Grace Today:  Fran Longwell - Former Deputy State’s Attorney (Calvert County, MD), Former Assistant State’s Attorney (Prince George’s County, MD) Deputy States attorney in Calvert County specializing in child abuse, sex offenses and homicides  Dr. Angela Arnold - (Atlanta, GA) Psychiatrist, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital, Voted My Buckhead’s Best Psychiatric Practice of 2024, AngelaArnoldMD.com Shera LaPoint -  Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogist with DNA Labs International, Author: “The Gene Hunter”  Nicolle Brock - Firefighter, EMT, and arson expert Sheryl McCollum- Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder, ColdCaseCrimes.org, Host of new podcast: Zone 7, Twitter: @ColdCaseTips  Dr. Kendall Crowns- Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University Alexis Tereszcuk –(CA) CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, leadstories.com, @swimmie2009  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Breaking news tonight, a stunning UGA law student found brutally beaten in her smoldering off-campus apartment. Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. I want people to know that prayers work. Don't ever stop praying. Don't ever stop having hope in your heart because it can happen. And I pray today for the Coleman family and for all the others with cold cases that they will get some answers as well. Please think of our Tara sometimes and the remarkable person she would have become. Hers was a life so full of promise. You know, I thought I knew it all about grief and mourning when my fiance was murdered many years ago just before wedding. But now that I have children, I cannot imagine the strength it took Virginia Baker to stand

behind that podium and talk about her daughter. Oh, my stars, beautiful, smart as a whip. She went to she had a double major in undergrad. That's not easy. Then she goes to law school to become a prosecutor, but then she changes her mind midstream and says, you know, I want to be a lawyer very badly, but in something happier than violent crime. And then she focused on real estate, just eating it up, just brilliant crackling with intelligence. And then to see her mother behind that podium talking about trying to solve her

murder case. Again, thank you for being with us. What happened? How did this beautiful first year law student end up dead, brutally attacked in a smoldering apartment? Listen. Tampa's apartment is about a 15-minute drive from campus. Baker's two roommates left earlier that evening for a weekend trip out of town. Friday morning, Baker misses her 9.30 class. Okay, right there. How much time are we losing? Because she is supposed to come home from law school library,

but nobody realized something is amiss until she misses class class 9.30 a.m. And can I tell you from experience, you don't want to miss a law school class because if you miss a class, you get so far behind that moves so rapidly. She misses the class and right there, everybody knows something is horribly wrong. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right there, everybody knows something is horribly wrong. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now, but straight out first to Cheryl McCollum joining us, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, star of a hit series, podcast Zone 7, but more important for my purposes, she is a forensic expert and is actually joining us from her patrol car. Thank you for making time, Cheryl McCollum. Cheryl, does it never end? You and I were both just at UGA campus investigating

the Lakin Riley case where Lakin was out jogging in broad daylight, broad daylight. And why do I emphasize that? It shows the brazenness of the defendant to attack in broad daylight. That said, Cheryl McCollum, it's like college campuses. I mean, think of Ted Bundy in the Chi Omega house. It's like they're hunting grounds for killers. Nancy, killers know that these kids are normally this the first time they're away from their parents. It is the first time they're away from their parents. It's the first time they're away from their home. Chances are they don't have any kind of weapon.

Most of them don't have any kind of dog or alarm system. They're either in a dorm or a rental house. So they are somewhat more vulnerable than the rest of society in a way. They also know that a lot of times they stay out late. So now they're coming and going like in Tara's case from the library by herself, entering her home by herself. If that house had been under any kind of surveillance, they possibly know she's entering that home now alone. It just, this girl's life was just starting. She gets into law school. She's full of hopes and dreams. She's studying. This is not a girl hanging out at a bar, not judging, not on the corner of the street trying to score

a five bag, a pot or crack. This is a girl studying at 10 o'clock at night. And now the next thing we know, she misses class. What happens next? Listen. In the mid-morning hours of January 19th, Athens-Clarke County firefighters are called to an apartment fire at 160 Fawn Drive. Firefighters break down a locked door to access the unit and find a fire had broken out in the bedroom and burned through the roof. Among the rubble, firefighters discover the body of a young woman later identified as first-year law student Tara Louise Baker. Again, joining me in all-star panel, but in addition to Cheryl McCollum joining us, Dr. Angela Arnold is here, renowned psychiatrist, joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Just voted my Buckhead's best psychiatric practice of 2023. Wow. And she worked at Grady

Memorial Hospital. Whenever I needed a witness or a defendant, I would go straight to either the Fulton County jail or Grady because somebody would have been shot or sliced, have a hole in their leg, something, and they'd be at Grady. My point is never a lack of business at Grady Memorial Hospital. They've saved a lot of lives there. So this doctor has seen her share of cases. Dr. Angela Arnold, you know what's so jarring for me in this case is that maybe I'm projecting when I learned about Keith's murder, but here is a perfectly normal day, a beautiful young girl, a 1L first year law student. She's studying, everything's fine. And all of a sudden she misses class. Now I find out she's dead in a burned out apartment off campus and not in a bad area off campus, a good area off campus, low crime

rate, the dichotomy, the jarring dichotomy between everything's fine. She's skipping out the front door of the library and now she's in a burned out apartment dead. Well, and Nancy, I think that what that makes everyone feel is so unsafe. So, you know, you go along, like you said, she had started her spring semester. This happened on January the 19th. And everybody sort of settled in. They're settled into their routine. They're settled into their new place where they live. And she's going along studying. She felt safe leaving the library at 10 o'clock at night and going home.

And now there's going to be a sense that no one is safe because this could happen to anyone, regardless of what neighborhood you live in. You know, Dr. Angie Arnold, you're right. That's exactly what it is. Because very often, and I've discussed this with you many, many times, we as the public, we look at a crime. Let's just take, for instance, Molly Tibbetts, who was out jogging and was attacked and murdered. People say, oh, she shouldn't have been out jogging on a remote rural road. What was she thinking? Or Karina Vetrano. We say, wow, she should have jogged with her dad. Why was she just wearing a jogging bra, not a shirt? Why does she have

earbuds in? We think of ways to differentiate ourselves from the victim to make ourselves feel safe in our little bubble, but that's absolutely not true, Dr. Angie. Right. And people think, well, if I live behind these gates or if I live in a safe neighborhood or, you know, oh, I would never come home at night at 10 o'clock by myself from the library. Well, why wouldn't you? That's what law students do. Law students say this was this was just a crime. She was in the right place at the wrong time, Nancy. And I'm going to tell you something. This is because this is what everyone needs to remember.

Sociopaths live amongst us. So we really all, we need to have, we need to keep, we always need to keep our eyes and ears open because sociopaths live amongst us and they don't walk around with signs on themselves. Okay. Joining me now, Alexis Terescha, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter with a unique insight on this case because she also attended UGA. She knows where the law library is. She knows where the parking lots are. She knows where the off-campus housing is.

Bring me up to this point, Alexis Tereschuk, before we go to our expert firefighter and EMT, Nicole Brock. Alexis, bring me up to this point. What happened? So she is studying at the law library. Now the law library at Georgia is different than the main library. It's smaller. It's much more quiet. There are obviously less students. It's a great place to get your work done. And this is where she was. She calls her friend. Her friend was studying with her. That's what you do. You go as partners. You don't do anything alone. The friend says, I need to go. It's time for me to leave. Even she's so responsible, she tells her friend, I'm going to contact you when you get home.

She calls her friend from the library just to make sure that she got home safely. And then she tells her friend, I'm going to leave here about 10 o'clock. And that is the last anybody ever heard of her. So she leaves the law library and she goes to her home. As you said, it was about a 15 minute drive, which isn't that far in Athens, a nice neighborhood. She's got a rental home. And that is where the firefighters were called several hours later. There was a fire in the apartment.

Nothing could have given them a clue that inside that she would have been in there murdered. Joining me right now, arson expert, firefighter, EMT, Nicole Brock. Nicole, thank you for being with us. Having prosecuted many, many arsons in Fulton County myself, they're very difficult. And I'll tell you why. Because first, you've got to prove a crime even happened. You've got to prove that a fire was intentionally set, that somebody didn't leave a gas stove on or the oven on or dropped a cigarette on a blanket. And there are ways to determine that.

Now, when you find a dead body dead by other means than by fire or asphyxiation, that's the big red flag that the fire was to cover up a dead body. But very often you cannot get a cause of death, a COD on a burned body. And that's when we're going to go to Dr. Kendall Crowns to explain that. But Nicole Brock, several things jumped out at me. The firefighters had to break down a locked door to access her unit. The fire broke out in her bedroom and burned up through the roof. That tells me, based on the accelerant pattern and where the fire burned more intensely or did the most damage, that's where the fire started. Okay, Nicole Brock, break it down for me.

Yes. So, absolutely, you're right. Location of the fire is incredibly one of our most, I would say, intense ways of looking at fires and determining whether it's an arson or a naturally created fire, say someone's smoking in the bed and she's clearly not a smoker. So that rules that out. There are no space heaters in the room. So that will rule things out. And you're absolutely right. An accelerant pattern is the key way to determine whether or not a fire has broken out from an arson, you know, if it's an intentionally set fire. So coming into the, a locked, behind a locked door and the fire starting off in the

bedroom, it's a telltale sign that this is an arson, this is an arson situation to begin with. And you're, you're, you're correct too. When we go into a building building we don't go in with the intention or the thought that whether or not this is a arson related fire we just go in you know with the job and intent of extinguishing the fire it's not until after everything is said and done and we're you know we're concluded and we've extinguished a fire that we're actually now looking for an exact cause but do do know that when we walk in and we know that there is a fire in a particular space and place, it's immediately we understand that this is an arsenal related situation. Man, Nicole Brockwood, I love to put you on the stand on direct examination. Okay, when you go into a fire scene and you're trying to determine was this intentionally

set or not, you mentioned accelerant pattern. Accelerant, that could be toluene, like fingernail polish remover. It could be gasoline, which leaves an intense smell even though it's burned up. But what do you see with the naked eye if there has been an accelerant poured on the floor? So you will see the V pattern and you will see charring more in one area. And there's just a pattern that goes with the actual fire behavior as a part of fire behavior. So you're looking for that and you're looking for if there's one space that's more intensely burned than others. And also, again, we're going back to location.

A lot of criminals believe that for some reason, I don't know, and maybe because it used to work back in the day, but a lot of arsonists believe that if I burn this up, then it erases all sense of evidence, which is incorrect. Even when it comes to DNA, it's been proven that DNA, despite the intense temperatures that a fire will burn at, DNA will still be discovered. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Don't let her story be that of the girl that was killed in Athens that day in 2001. She was so much more than that.

Let it be about the story of who she was. Smart, loyal, kind, and even maybe a tad bit shy. She was a friend, a classmate, a sister, and most importantly, she was a beloved daughter. You are hearing there Tara Baker's brother speaking. The strength that must have taken that family to stand up and speak, specifically the mother who continues to talk about the person Tara could have been had she not been bludgeoned, dead, raped, and then set on fire in her off-campus apartment. She was a 1L, a first-year law student. What more do we know?

We know the frame of the mind of the killer who had the wherewithal to try and hide the evidence by burning it up. Very often when caught red handed, which this guy was not, you will look back and you will see this is a history of murder suspects that they, if they know what they're doing, try to hide the evidence that leaves them in the position of having no way to claim insanity. The insanity test in our country is based on old common law brought here from Great Britain, and it is called the Old McNaughton Test. Simply put, did the defendant know right from wrong at the time of the incident? And I would argue yes, or why else try to dispose of the evidence? Joining me, an all-star panel, but I want to

remind you of another and much more famous case, the case of Teresa Hallback, I say her name because she was the murder victim. The defendant tried to render down to nothing by burning her. All that was left of her were the studs on the back of her Daisy Fuentes blue jeans and some teeth. But guess what? Those teeth had DNA in them. You may know the name of the killer better because he was made famous, a media darling. Stephen Avery, may he rot in hell, the star of Making a Murderer that made its debut on Netflix. Listen. Stephen Avery is arrested and charged with the murder of Teresa Hallback after investigators find his DNA and bloodstains

found in Hallback's Toyota RAV4 and Teresa Hallback's charred bone fragments in a burn pit near Avery's home. Stephen Avery becomes the subject of a documentary project called Making a Murderer that airs on Netflix. Avery claims he's being set up by local officials because of the lawsuit he files against the county and county officials. Stephen Avery is found guilty of intentional homicide and is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole

in the murder of Teresa Hallback. And we've never heard the end of it. Thanks, Netflix. Her teeth and studs off of her jeans are found in the defendant's backyard of his auto salvage business. His relatives and friends say he burned the fire pit and stirred it all night long. Teresa Holbeck worked for something like an auto trader magazine and he had specifically requested her, creepy, to come out and take photos of some of his cars for the auto trader. That's the last time she was seen alive. After his defense of an elaborate setup, kind of like OJ Simpson did, he was found guilty,

but then enter Netflix, who only showed portions of evidence that tended to exonerate him instead of the full story. Joining me right now to focus not on Teresa Hallback, but on this case, Tara Baker, Dr. Kendall Crowns. I'm sure you know his name, all of you legal eagles. He's a renowned chief medical examiner. That's not easy to become chief medical examiner. When you're in charge of a lot of brilliant MDs, how'd you get to the top of that heap? Dr. Kendall Crowns, chief medical examiner, Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth. And he is a lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, Texas Christian

University. Dr. Kendall Crowns, a lot of questions for you before we bring in our DNA expert, Cheryl LaPointe. Dr. Kendall Crowns, how hot does it have to be to totally burn a body, to render it down till there's nothing left but teeth? You would have to get the fire extremely hot for that. It's several hundred degrees, probably close to a thousand because you can't really, a crematorium can burn down a body. Usually when we see people who try to burn bodies without a crematorium, the ones that

are successful get a high amount of heat, usually using tires. The best one I've ever seen is an old newspaper van that was delivering newspapers. They'd lit that on fire and burn that person up. You have to have a lot of combustible material to overcome the body's water content to be able to burn someone completely down to teeth. From cases I've tried before, and correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Kendall Crowns, the temperature in a crematorium to totally turn a body to ashes, making it impossible to get DNA from just ashes, is 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. And fires, I think about your oven, you rarely get over 450 degrees in an oven. So it basically has to be at crematorium levels and temperature levels.

I don't know that that can be duplicated or replicated outside of a crematorium. I mean, can it, Dr. Kendall Crowns? So it's very difficult, but it can be done. But usually you have to dig a pretty good sized pit and have a lot of combustible material and keep working at it to burn everything away. Though like I said, a couple of times I've seen them be successful. They've used a lot of tires, newspaper, and then the heat in and then the mattress burned so heavily it brought the temperature of the shack up to a very high level. Straight out to Cheryl McCollum joining us who has just returned from the UGA campus where she walked the campus as it relates to the murder of another young and beautiful UGA co-ed. On February 22nd, 2024, at approximately 12.07 p.m.,

the University of Georgia Police Department received a call from an individual concerned for a friend who had gone jogging at the intermural fields. Our officers responded to that area and immediately began a search of the area to attempt to locate the individual. Officers located the individuals in the area behind Lake Herrick at approximately 1238. The individual was unconscious and not breathing and had visible injuries. Officers immediately began rendering medical aid. Emergency medical responders determined that the individual was deceased upon their arrival. You are hearing Chief Jeff Clark at the UGA PD to Cheryl McCollum. We just, just lived through

the Laken Riley murder. Also, you know, looking on a grad degree, full of potential, her life in front of her. And once again, same M.O. The victim was attacked, was beaten, was raped. Same thing all over again. Female victims, predators like this defendant, they go to college campuses like they're wolves out on the Serengeti watching the gazelle at the watering hole. And they wait. They wait until one of the victims is alone, like Lakin out jogging in broad daylight, like Tara, who's coming out of the law library right under street lights

in front of God and everybody. And they pounce. Here's what I want to take away from both of those cases, Nancy. In both of those instances, those women either were checking on somebody or had somebody checking on them. That is really important to me. Lakeland's friend did not wait. She didn't sit around and go, well, I guess she decided not to come back or not to go to class. In Tara's case, Tara was actually checking on a friend prior to leaving the library to make sure she was okay. College campuses by far are a safe place. The University of Georgia has their own police department that is outstanding. And if you look at what has happened here, two things. In Lakeland's case, they made an arrest so fast. Nancy, everybody

was on that thing, as you know, even you, you sent me there. In Tara's case, the FBI, the Georgia State Patrol, you know, Athens-Clarke County, the UGA police, the GBI, everybody came together. And that's what I want perpetrators to really take witness to. They're coming. They're coming for you, whether it's been 30 years or 30 minutes. The comparison between these two young victims. What do we know about Lakin to compare to Tara? Listen.

Lakin Riley spends four years running cross-country track for her high school, River Ridge in Woodstock, Georgia. Her love of running continues during her studies in Athens at the University of Georgia. There, Riley is an active member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and after earning her undergraduate degree last year, Riley begins her studies to be a nurse. Riley sits out on a morning run. She grabs her phone, telling her roommate that she'll be back after a half run at the UGA campus intramural fields. When Riley doesn't return for hours, her roommate calls campus police 911 at 12.07 p.m. I mean, Cheryl McCollum, I look for connections. I look for similarities in cases. If you don't know what will happen, look at what has happened.

So in this case, you've got two females similar in hairstyle, similar in physicality. They weighed about the same. They have many, many similarities, both at UGA, both getting a postgraduate degree, both of them hard, hard studiers, not partiers. Both of them speak to their roommates to identify where they are, when they will be back, both of them in a sorority, which makes me wonder, was a sorority house a target like in the Chi Omega killings by Ted Bundy? The first victim, Tara Baker, was an 80 Pi, Alpha Delta Pi. Coincidentally, the very first sorority ever founded in our country. Lakin Riley, Chi Omega, Alpha Chi Omega member. So there's so many similarities in this case, Cheryl, not necessarily telling me a connection between

those two cases, but they're telling me what will happen in the future. Agree? Disagree? More than one thing happened to those victims. Blunt force trauma, strangulation, a straight edge weapon was used with Tara. Any one of those things would have and could have killed her. You didn't need to do all three. With Lakeland, we believe that she was hit in the head and then strangled. Again, one of those things could have killed her. It doesn't take both of those things, so it speaks to this type of killer. Both of these victims were also ambushed. They were ambushed doing something that they've done a hundred times.

Lakeland jogged all over that city. Tara went in and out of her house a thousand times. But when you are ambushed, you are at a disadvantage from the perpetrator because you are not prepared to be in that fight. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Joining me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Alexis Tereschak. Alexis, you and I worked the Golden State Killer case. Do you remember him? And when police came to arrest him so many years later, he goes, wait a minute, I've got a roast in the oven. You know what?

Roast my rear end, man. This guy had so many rapes, sodomies, murders. He had actually been a police officer that they wisely got rid of off the force. But what he didn't count on is that decades later, somebody like our expert Cheryl LaPointe could come in and nail him. Remember him? He would wait like this perp waited on Tara, like the perp with Lake and Riley waited until the right moment when she was running around that lake at UGA. He waited to watch to see the husband leave the home and then he would break in. He never thought that decades later, somebody like

Cheryl LaPointe could bust him on DNA. Remember Golden State Killer, Alexis? I do. And the thing that always scared me the most about him is the way that he would climb into bedroom windows that were like on ground level in the summer because people would have their windows open. And then I just find that so terrifying. Climb in and then attack like a 13-year-old in the house. He was terrifying, terrorized the whole state. But that's exactly what happened here. Tara had just left law school, left the library, went home, and that's where she was ambushed. She was murdered in her home. Not, well, she may have been murdered somewhere else, but it was probably in her home.

That's what the police have said. She was murdered and raped there. It does. It's not logical to think she was murdered and raped elsewhere, then transported to her own off-campus apartment, and then staged, and the place goes up in flames. Uh-uh. No. And just as in Golden State Killer, the same methodology was used in this case. To Cheryl LaPointe, Tara Baker's body was incinerated. She was burned. Guys, with me, Cheryl LaPointe, forensic investigative genetic genealogist with DNA Labs International,

author of The Gene Hunter, as in G-E-N-E. Now, Cheryl LaPointe, you're brilliant. We're not. Could you break it down and regular people talk? How was the Golden State Killer, D'Angelo, caught after all those years? So he was caught using forensic genetic genealogy. They had DNA from crime scenes that was put into sites that we use as genealogists, such as GEDmatch, and biological relatives were found, and family trees were built. You form clusters, you look for relatives who match each other.

And you make connections through a family tree to identify these perpetrators. And that's exactly how this was done. Cheryl LaPointe, author of The Gene Hunter. Okay, you're saying family tree. Everybody has a relative that is all about genealogy. And when you look at the family trees that they create, it goes not just to your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, it goes all the way back. And amazingly, I just found out somebody on the gray side fought the Revolutionary War. Never knew that. It's very difficult to create this elaborate family tree. Why do you have to do that? Then you follow it all the way down and find out who was in this area at the time of the

murder, which person connected to this family tree was there. So I don't understand why do you have to go back all the way to the Revolutionary War to catch a guy that murdered Tara Baker? So, Nancy, it really, every case is different. It depends on the actual matches that we have to work with, which means who the DNA

or connections to the perpetrator in these cases. And, you know, I may have a number of matches and their most recent common ancestor may have been a couple back to the early 1800s. And when that is what happens, you have to figure out who that couple's children are and their children are. And it becomes very time consuming. You have a lot of people you put in these trees because ultimately you're looking for the person who committed this crime who normally is in today's time. To Cheryl McCollum and joining us, forensics expert and star

of Zone 7 podcast. Cheryl, what is also very critical is not just a scientist like Cheryl Point to make sense of everything, but how that evidence is initially gathered and kept, gathered and kept. How do you gather it and how do you keep it? You got to gather it legally and scientifically. So in the case of Tara, they clearly had biological evidence and we know that because the suspect was charged with sodomy. In these cases, when you collect anything biological, whether it's seminal fluid, blood, a sweaty jacket, whatever it is, you're going to keep it in some type of paper, not plastic, so it doesn't degrade. They clearly kept it perfectly all of these years so that when technology caught up,

they were able to assess it, then develop a profile, and subsequently then get to the perpetrator we hope that the criminal justice system that tara believed in serves justice in the correct way but again remember that this is just a step her story isn't finished the book isn't closed on her if you think about it the cruel irony is is that she was killed 23 years ago just before her 24th birthday. She's been gone about the same time that she was here. This family has been through hell for 20 plus years and finally because of DNA technology, genetic genealogy. We have an answer. The biological evidence as police and GBI are referring to it as and DNA science collaborate with investigation from multiple law enforcement sources. That would be the UGA police, the GBI, the Athens-Clarke

County police, and they solve this case. Amazingly, Alexis Tereschuk, much like in Lake and Riley, her defendant had an extensive rap sheet. But here, this guy, before the case was solved, after he rapes and murders Tara, he then goes and stabs a guy in the neck. I mean, his rap sheet is prolific, Alexis. He has spent he has been in prison two separate times. He spent time in prison twice in the last 20 years. Wait, you think he's been behind bars twice? Let's just go all the way back to 93. Battery, battery, trespass, 2001. That had to be jail time. Aggravated assault,

public indecency. Like I want to see his penis. No. 2011 DUI, 2011 possession, cocaine, another felony, 13 obstruction of a cop. Man, he's got, he's got 13, obstruction of a cop. Man, he's got some nerve to attack a cop. 2003, another felony that carries 20 to life. Possession cocaine, intent to distribute. 2016, DUI. 2018, terroristic threats. 2019, aggravated stalking. Why? I wonder if he was stalking the Chi Omega house or the law library stalking. 2022 battery. And now he's got another line for his resume, Alexis Tereschuk.

And it was like a revolving door with him. You know, you just said in March of 2022, he was arrested for battery disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. He pleaded guilty. Do you know what his punishment was? 50 hours of community service and 12 months probation. Okay. What was that for? On what offense? Simple battery disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. I could like that, you know, to Cheryl McCollum. Did you have that? Did you hear that after 20 years of violent crimes, some judge who obviously does not know his own rear end from a hole in the ground gives him community service. Like you want this guy next to you, washing school buses in Athens, Georgia. No, no, you know, don't want that. But that's what a judge thought was okay.

After he murders Tara, he then stabs another guy in the neck. Does it never end, Cheryl? And Nancy, this is one of those things that you have to keep, you know, just teaching people. Nobody is gonna rape and sodomize and bludgeon and stab to death one time. They're not. They're not going to stab this man in the neck and never do anything else.

You're going to keep seeing this guy over and over and over until somebody says that's enough. You're done. You're going to be put away forever so that you can't hurt anybody else. Let's take a look at his new charges again. Of course, there's murder. And now we're learning more about the evidence. This is where the DNA comes from. Aggravated sodomy. That's either oral or anal rape. First degree arson, tampering with evidence, that means moving the body around or setting the place on fire, concealing the death, that's the fire, possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of attempt to commit felonies. So, was that COD an aggravated assault? To Dr. Kendall Crowns, renowned chief medical examiner, Tarrant

County, if a body has been burned of all, let me just say soft tissue, and that's a nice way of saying skin, fat, muscle, how do you look at skeletonized bones that have been through a fire and determine that a knife or a blunt instrument was used? So there can be marks left by the knives, in particular on the bones that match up, or tool mark evidence that can be used to match up to a murder weapon. When you see those type of injuries to the bone, you know they're not natural injuries. One problem with burning of the body is they can cause fractures or fire-related fractures. As the body burns, the muscles start kind of pulling in into what they call a pugilistic posture, which looks like a boxer, but that pulls in.

And that can cause fractures of the long bones. The head itself, as it heats up, will burst or explode open, and you can get fractures that way. So you do have to look at the fracture patterns themselves to determine if it's from the fire or if it's from blunt injury. Tool marks, on the other hand, are pretty unique. And when you see those, you know that that's caused by a tool. But fractures themselves, you have to differentiate between the fire and between blunt force injuries. You know, Dr. Kendall Crowns, I could listen to you all day long. I guess I understand about 65% of what you're saying. And I want to point out something about our guests that join us here at Crime Stories.

They're not just talking heads that you dig up by watching some other network. These are real life heroes. every single one of them. Think about it. Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist who focuses specifically on women and their issues and helping so many people and going behind the scene of a crime to tell us why. Cheryl LaPointe is a world-renowned geneticist and author. Nicole Brock, firefighter, arson expert, who runs into the blaze, not away from the blaze. Cheryl McCollum, who's literally joining us from the field, forensic expert, Dr. Kendall Crowns.

Well, what more do I need to say? He's conducted over 10,000 autopsies. Alexis Tereschuk, who comes over every detail of a case before she reports it. Another case solved. What can we learn from it going forward? Our thoughts and prayers with the families of both of these victims, Lakin and Tara. And now we stop to remember American hero, Lieutenant Milton Resendez. Lieutenant Resendez shot and killed during police pursuit. San Benito, Texas, 26-year vet of the police force. He leaves behind a grieving wife,

Melissa, and his family in Texas. American hero, Lieutenant Milton Resendez. I want to thank all of our guests, our amazing guests, for being with us tonight and to everyone being with us tonight here on Crime Stories Tonight and every night. Nancy Grace signing off. Good night, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.