True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: The Dark Secrets of a Small Town: The Murders of Brooke Baker & Erika Norman

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

The search for answers continues as Brooke Baker’s investigation takes a darker turn. After uncovering disturbing allegations and facing warnings to stop, the ambitious young journalist refuses to back down. In Part 2 of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha dives deeper into Brooke’s final days, the threats surrounding her investigation, and the unanswered questions left behind. As the timeline unfolds, one question remains: who wanted Brooke silenced, and what really happened to the student determined to expose the truth? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And now they're on a search for who the sample 137F belong to. Their first person of interest is finally brought in for an interview. Steve. He admits to police that they were in a casual on and off relationship and they were not exclusive. And he does add that he was with her on Saturday. He goes through the time that they hung out at home at the subway. And then when he saw her at the party that night, he told detectives he was at the party she attended on campus.

This was the first party. This was the one where she met up with Tommy. and then they left for the soccer player's house. Steve says he was drinking a lot that night, but he did see her. However, she left and he stayed for the rest of the night. He says he doesn't know where she went or who she was with. They pressed Steve.

They wanted to know why he didn't leave with her. If they were kind of seeing one another more seriously than other guys in her life, what was the story? They want to know, was there a fight or anything? And he insists that there wasn't. They had already hung out that day, and it's typical to run into each other when they're hanging out with other people. He said to ask his friends, he never left and there was no fight. However, his friends were all drunk that night, and none of them can provide a solid alibi for Steve.

However, he sticks to the same story even after detectives pressed him for several hours, and he willingly gives them a DNA sample. He's released until they get the results back. So now they turned their attention to Tommy. He was the last person seen with Brooke at 1 a.m. walking through the student union towards her house. Tommy actually comes in on his own accord before they even asked him to drop by. And Tommy was not a current student at the university. He was an alumni. And he was in town visiting friends.

He does admit that he was with Brooke most of the night. They walked home from party number two at the soccer player's house and they had sex at Brooks. He left for the night around what he believes is 1.30 a.m. The issue that they have with Tommy's account of events is what he did afterward. They couldn't find anyone that had seen him until 3 in the morning when he was spotted walking through campus. By 5 a.m., his friends that he was staying with said they saw him asleep on their couch. There were a few hours there that were unaccounted for. So they asked him for a DNA sample, which he willingly gives.

But if you know science, you're watching videos. like this, there is probably going to be semen that matches Tommy's DNA. But will it match 137F? That's the question. And I had a question. How did they know that 137F is the perpetrator's semen? Because if I'm being straight up with you, if Tommy had sex with Brooke, I'm guessing the only way that his DNA wouldn't be there is if he used protection. But that was never discussed in all of my research. So that has been something on my mind throughout this entire case. I'm going to guess that he wore a condom because 137F is the sample that police are focusing in on. I'm not going to go too deep down that rabbit hole, but it just kind of made me think. And they know one sample that definitely

doesn't match and that's Steve's. So they rule him out for now. At this point, Weeks have gone by and Brooks family didn't feel like they were being included in the investigation. They were speaking out left and right to any and all media outlets that would give them the opportunity to go public with their concerns, which was the lack of communication and lack of updates from the police. They had to consistently and constantly call in and beg for information and they found that to be very inconsiderate. So they organized their own community meetings, not only to discuss Brooks murder and to gather their own tips, but to talk about the unsolved ones that still plague Knox County. The meeting had a name. It was called Citizens for Accountability and Government.

And Brooke's mom, Janet, told reporters that she felt sick, that the killer was still in the loose. She said Brooke is not here anymore. She can't breathe. She can't laugh or talk or sleep. And her brother will have to live with what he saw for the rest of his life. Someone stole her life and stole her from us. Every day that goes by is another day of freedom for the killer and another day further from the truth of finding out who took Brooks' life. Then Brooks' dad, Maurice, added, I know our police officers are probably working as hard as they can with their limited amount of resources and manpower. But our biggest fear is lack of community support and that people will forget what has happened.

Both of Brooke's parents said they know that nothing will be. bring Brooke back. But catching who did this will bring closure to such a traumatic event. The family kept pushing for the FBI to get involved, saying that Knox County police were over their heads. Brooke's mom provides some new information to investigators. One of the most promising leads to date, the campus security officer. You know the one that saw Tommy and Brooke walk through campus? He's the one that's Brooke's landlord. And she's wondering, could he have given police that information to divert their attention. But why would he do that? Well, it turns out, Brooke had mentioned to a number of close friends and family that he was okay at first, but then she felt

really uncomfortable. And when I found out about some of the things that she said were going on, it made me really mad. And I'm sure you'll understand why in just a moment. This landlord conveniently had properties right near a university. He has young girls coming in and out, and it's just a rotating basis of women year after year, semester after semester for, I don't even know how long. He had access to Brooke's home anytime he wanted to go inside and he used that privilege. According to Brooke, she was worried about living there because he would just show up inside her house. Brooke told Shauna that she thought he was obsessed with her, not for nothing. On one occasion, she had just gone out of the shower.

even dressed at. She was just wearing a towel wrapped around her. And to her shock, he was standing in her living room. She was terrified. And she was definitely caught off guard. No call, no knock on the door, nothing. So she yells at him and she says, what do you think you're doing in here coming in here unannounced? He tells her to calm down. He said, oh, I didn't know you were home. And he insisted that he already told her he would be over that day to spray for bugs. Another time, she told her mom that she saw him drive down the back alley and shine a flashlight into her window and that's creepy. I really don't like people who abuse their power. And she told a friend he had come onto her, especially because he kept seeing men coming in and out from Brooks house. So apparently he assumed he

could work his way in, even offering her free rent in exchange for sex. And that is scummy. Detectives need to look into this man's background. And sure enough, y'all, women had rented from him in the past and they started coming forward with all kinds of allegations that he would spy on them, all kinds of weird stuff going on in that house. This definitely piqued their interest and made him the prime suspect. He saw Brooke that night. He could have easily walked over there, seen Tommy leave, let himself in with his own key. It definitely made sense considering there was no force entry. So they bring him in and he's angry. He's completely bent out of shape with these allegations and he tells them those are lies. He's just a responsible landlord and security officer doing his job. He admits he's gone into

Brooks House several times without permission, but insist he's always had good intentions and good reason, and he never did anything inappropriate. He said it was at times when he thought she was not home. He explained it was his right to do that, and he needed to take care of things. He always let his tenants know that he went in, but now it's his word against others. He takes a polygraph test, and it's inconclusive. Detectives do get a sample of his DNA, and they really think they finally found their man. I'll let you know right now,

neither Tommy's DNA nor the landlords were matched to 137F. Tommy is not completely ruled out yet because he doesn't have an alibi, and I'm thinking his seaman had to have been somewhere on that scene, but again, I don't know. Clearly, if they're only focusing on this one sample and they've already tested his, they don't think it's him.

But what if the landlord came in, after the person left 137F behind. Maybe the sex with the person who belonged to 137F was consensual. So they can't rule out the security guard yet because he doesn't have an alibi. There's another theory that's being looked into, though. It just so happens that Brooke was actively looking for roommate and had put a listing in the trailblazer. Detectives are scared that someone might have responded to that listing

and they were somehow able to gain access to Brooks Place. They test the DNA of 50 potential suspects and none of them are a match. They are back at square one, which is beyond frustrating until they get a major break in the case. Brooks' parents had been consistently holding those meetings at the town hall once a week. A lot of people were in attendance every time,

and the police were not exactly thrilled. because it seemed like an us against them type of thing. Even more upsetting to police was the fact that Brooke's family kept putting up these signs all around town featuring all of the people who had been murdered in Knox County without the killers ever being caught.

And they wondered if Brooke would become another statistic. Their group was starting to get riled up. They were discussing those five most prominent unsolved murders. Brooke, of course, Lisa McCracken, Brent Brand, Kathy Westfall, and Sherry. Gibson. However, there was one positive thing that happened as a result of these meetings. The topic of Brooke's latest piece about the fraternity comes up. As we know, there were issues

between Brooke and the members and a lot of rumors swirling around. Plus, detectives were given the emails, the threatening emails, the ones telling Brooke to stop writing the story or else, and this was huge. They bring in all the students and professors from the judge. journalism department. These are the people that Brooke spent the most time with, and that made sense considering how serious she was about her future in journalism. They have nothing but positive things to say about Brooke, and they're mourning her loss. They had just attended her candlelight vigil, and hundreds of students came out to pay their respects. People said they could feel the fear all around campus, and no one felt safe. Now her classmates want to provide any information

they could to help find the man who did this. They're all on edge, especially Deborah. She tells police she's upset about how many girls are still partying and walking home late at night on campus, and she tells police, you need to find the killer. She recounts her hearing a girl say to a friend that she was so drunk last night that she didn't come home until 6 a.m. and she didn't even know where she was. Well, Deborah wanted to turn to her and say, you can't do that anymore. She wanted to sort of scold her and said, you shouldn't have done it before, but you can't do that now. If the fellow journalism student who walked with Brooke to the concert on Saturday was ruled out, so now they turned their focus and their attention to this controversial story that Brooke was working on,

the bakers are convinced someone in that fraternity was responsible for what happened to Brooke. Broke's professor, Mr. Mullins, was the one who initially saw the email threatening Brooke to stop. It said something to the effect of you don't know what you're getting yourself into. If you write this story, you'll be sorry. Leave us alone. Mind your own business. The emails were tracked to a couple of guys in the fraternity, but both of their DNA results were not a match.

Now a detective's turned to the prosecuting attorney in the alleged fraternity cover-up. It was determined that the sex was consensual, and they had evidence to prove it. It was just a bunch of rumors, and Brooke was caught up in the middle of it, wanting so badly for this to turn into a real captivating story where she could uncover all these secrets and expose the fraternity. But now a different story is starting to emerge, and it was in regard to Brooke's investigation. Detectives find out that Brooke had a little habit of embellishing the truth, and perhaps that was

just part of her storytelling style. She liked to maybe use her imagination to create these captivating situations with a lot of suspense and drama because there was no evidence that she was even writing a story. Not at all. Her professors know her and normally she takes a lot of notes. She's always busy compiling evidence, creating drafts, but they find nothing, nothing at all. And this is all investigated at the journalism lab in her personal paperwork, her desk, her workspace. There was just a pure lack of interview notes, rough drafts of the story. no files containing anything. It was actually assumed that Brooke

was kind of eating up all the attention she was getting and she was doing it for clout. But her family insists that that is not there, Brooke. She's not like that. She was a serious and dedicated student that wouldn't just make things up. She wouldn't make things up for a story. And investigators do find some truth to her story.

There was a woman who reported one of the frat boys for forcing himself on her. but as it turns out, she had been really wasted. And she was already talking to him. It was consensual. But she just regretted it. So she filed a fake report for revenge. Detectives thought Brooke being very good at her job would have known this right away.

She would have had to do very little investigative work to find out that this has already kind of been resolved. That's why detectives assumed that Brooke most. likely made up some of the circumstances to develop it into something more mysterious and publish worthy. Nevertheless, the detectives do have to look into it, so they gather DNA of more than 100 men from the fraternity and not one of them is a match to 137F. As the case comes to a standstill, Brooks family lay her to rest. Her gravestone is one of the prettiest ones I've ever seen. And I don't know why I'm saying this because it's very unusual thing to think about, but I want to show it to you. Her father designed it. She loved the sun, the moon, and the stars. And at the bottom, it reads,

shine on, you crazy diamond. Brooke was such a light in her friends and family's lives, but her case went dark. Police had conducted over 400 interviews and had a database of 572 people that were involved in the case, yet not one of those leads matched 137F. The only hope they had is of a very morbid nature. They wait until he strikes again. Life goes on for the residents of Vincennes as Brooke rests in peace. Then two years later something happens. Something that felt too familiar to police in Vincennes and you'll find out exactly what made the hair on the back of their neck stand up. It's Monday, July 5th, right after the July 4th weekend. They find themselves in

another bloody apartment only seven blocks from where Brooke was found. The apartment belonged to another Vincennes University student named Erica Norman. Erica Elaine Norman was born November 13th, 1977 to Dean and Elaine Norman. She has three siblings, Christopher, Timothy, and Rhonda. This girl was smart and talented and beautiful. During junior high in high school, she was on the academic team, was a royal ambassador. She played softball. She was in gymnastics, in the drama club for three years, in the science club, so was I. And a member of the Spanish club for four years. She was also in the Spanish Honor Society. At this time in 1999, Erica was 21 years old, and she was a foreign language major. She also took classes in

broadcasting at the university. She was a loyal sister in the Alpha Theta Chi sorority, where she served as their vice president. She was only four feet, 11 inches tall, which is exactly how tall I am, and she was about 90 pounds. She was just this cute little petite girl, her friends her. She was sweet. She was always smiling, always cracking witty jokes. She sounds like me. And making people laugh. She enjoyed music and singing and was active in her church. She was just an all-around vibrant, happy person. And she was very close to her family, especially her mommy lane and her sister Rhonda, even though they lived 100 miles away. She also had a cute little dog that she absolutely adored named Smokey. Erica was very involved on

campus. She was the host of the campus radio station, The Rock, and she had the perfect voice and personality for radio. Her broadcasting professors kept encouraging her to keep going because they thought she was just made for it. Her best friend, Ileana, knew Erica since high school, and the two of them spent a lot of time together. She met Erica the first day of school when they were just teenagers. Erica had a helpful heart. She loved to assist. anyone I need and Erica noticed that Ileana she looked left out and alone so she left her own friends table at lunch to go sit with Ileana that's the type of person she was the friends were attending different colleges now in 1999 but they kept in touch weekly because they had plans

to move to Honduras and finish out their studies there Erica wanted to perfect her foreign language skills and Ileana planned to study medicine they also dreamed of traveling the world together. But now Erica is missing. Yes, she is nowhere to be found and it's like she vanished without a trace. A call had come in to the Vincennes Police Department and it was from a tenant in Erica's apartment. He said he heard something really strange coming from inside when he walked by on Sunday afternoon and it sounded like rushing water and it was really loud and it was extremely noticeable and he found it to be odd but he let it go. However, The next morning, when he walked past again, he could still hear water running.

So he knocked on the door, but no one answered. He had this gut feeling that something wasn't right, so he tried the door, and it was unlocked. So he let himself in. He's walking toward the sound of the running water. And he noticed, when he got to the bathroom, that both the sink and the bathtub faucets were on full blast. He reaches over, he turns them both off, and that's when he sees blood on the walls. He immediately runs out and gets a landlord who eventually calls 911. Now, police are standing in Erica's apartment trying to piece together what could have happened to her.

From the looks of it, it doesn't look good. The apartment is a complete mess. It looks like a very intense struggle ensued. There were, I'm going to show you this, couch cushions that were scattered, one of them is missing. There are things just strewn around all over. There are blood smears on the wall and the vanity. a broken table was overturned. There was a pair of shorts on the floor,

but there's one thing that made them stop dead in their tracks. All the memories of standing in Brooks House came flooding back. The bathtub. It's full of water. And inside, they see the couch cushions and a tote lid in a duffel bag. One of the officers had this gut feeling.

He knew that whoever did this was the same person that killed Brooke. The items in the back, The bathtub just gave him the chills. It was like Brooke Baker's Place all over again. Like the assailant was trying to clean up. Except there's no Erica. Where is she? There was no force entry.

The door was unlocked. Anyone could have come in or out. They don't suspect a robbery because there was cash still laying there. Erica's purse was still there and that's actually not a good sign. Most people don't leave home without taking their purse. They think, okay. Okay, there's blood here. What if she had an accident?

Could she possibly be at the hospital? So they call and she's not there. One thing's for sure. Whoever left that blood was badly injured. They make a call to Erica's mother to inform her that her daughter is missing. And Elaine is stunned. She could not believe it because it didn't make sense. She had just spoken Erica.

She said that Erica had a holiday weekend plans and she sound excited and now she's missing. her mother calls Ileana and she is just as concerned and confused. Ileana knew that Erica was sometimes too quick to trust people. She just saw the good in them and may have overlooked the bad. Ileana was supposed to see Erica that day since another one of them had classes on the weekend, but Erica never reached out. Detectives start where they always do from inside her social circle and make their way outward. They were informed that Erica,

with a roommate, but that they were in Colorado that weekend. So after interviewing people closest to Erica, they determined that no one had seen or heard from her since Saturday night. They knew they had to start there and work their way up to Monday. So Saturday, July 3rd, Erica leaves her apartment and goes to work, where she arrives around 6 p.m. to start her shift

as a waitress at the Market Street Restaurant and Pub in town. Saturdays are very busy, especially in a college town, college town and on a holiday weekend. A lot of people coming in and out all night while she's working. Her shift lasted till about 10 p.m. That's when she clocked out and went to a bar called C.W. Dandies in the holiday inn with some friends. While she was there, more of her friends joined their group and they stayed there until last call. That's when Erica invited everyone to come over to her place to hang out, but most of her friends had plans for the next day, so they declined. But one of said sure Brian Jones friends did see them get into his car and drive toward Erica's

place that was the last time anyone saw her Erica and Brian had known each other for a while they both worked at Garfield's restaurant which is where Erica first worked when she moved to Vincennes and Brian was still employed there as a cook now Erica worked at the pub but they were both part of the same friend group detectives questioned people from the pub and the bar where they were last seen and a bartender remembers them. He says that he overheard Brian telling his friends that he was going to take one of these girls home tonight, kind of just bragging, but that's not too out of the ordinary for her dude.

So it doesn't really raise any red flags. They already know that Erica and Brian went back to Erica's together. When they questioned Erica's friends that were there that night, they said she was completely comfortable bringing Brian back to her place. They plan to hang out and watch a movie. Brian's a nice guy. He's from Evansville, Indiana, which is about an hour away, and he moved to Vincennes to attend college.

He was a good listener. He was kind of reserved, but liked to have a good time with friends, attend parties, drink, the normal college activities. Friends say he also wasn't one to make waves. But he had a large group of friends on campus, and he got along with everyone. He majored in architectural drafting, and he was smart.

However, he had withdrew from VU back in 1996. Three whole years ago, when he was only five classes away from graduating. This was as a result of a really high paying job he landed that was providing him with a solid income at the time. Most of the time that he did attend college, he had a girlfriend and they dated for at least two years. At this point, he was currently single

and just playing the field. He lived about two blocks away from the school, and although he wasn't a student, he was still involved in all of the extra-curricular party activities. No one had anything really negative to say about Brian. Just that he was a normal guy and his friends told police there was in no way that he could be involved. But detectives have to bring him in for an interview anyway. That's just the way it is. Everyone has to be interviewed. Brian is nervous at first, but that is to be expected.

And during the intense three-hour interview, he tells police all about himself, he's from, what he does for work, where he lives, and how we met Erica while working at Garfield Drestraun in the Holiday Inn. He explains that they're friends. They hang out in the same friend group and he does admit to going home with her that night to watch a movie, but he claims that she fell asleep while they were watching it, so he felt like it was time for him to go. He explains he kind of nudged her to let her know he was leaving and she was pretty much still sleep so he put a blanket on top of Erica while she was laying there on the couch and he let himself out. Brian is completely cooperative and he also seems to be telling the truth. Nothing stood out

except for when he admitted that he did try to have sex with her but she didn't want to. So they just decided to watch a movie and hang out. And I'm thinking, okay, is that sketchy or not? Not sure. He allowed them to do a search of his car in his apartment and he also willingly provide a DNA sample. Meanwhile, detectives are questioning Erica's neighbors to find out if anyone had seen or heard anything that night. It's a busy college town, and it's during a holiday. So most of the tenants report hearing the normal sounds of people partying. But a few of them mention hearing something out of the ordinary around 4 a.m. like people moving things around or something falling onto a hard surface, but no one really gave it a second thought. It's a fairly large building with a decent amount. of tenants. However, there was a couple who lived next door to the building and they had a different story. It was also about something they heard at 4 a.m. a scream. But that's not really that unusual for this town. Detectives now fear something very bad has happened to Erica. They begin to look all around the vicinity of her building for a body. If she was killed, it means her

body was moved. They believe the altercation happened on her her couch. That's why the couch cushions were brought to the tub. The person who did this had to move her body if she was deceased. That's not an easy job, but their search turns up nothing. Now detectives are looking through their paperwork and they notice something that caught them off guard. It turns out that one of Brian's previous roommates, Jason Laundack, he used to hook up with Brooke. Jason, Brooke's old roommate. He had even been over to Brooke's house and as a matter of fact he was with Jason and Brooke the night that she attended those frat parties to get that information but he says he never had a sexual relationship with

her. This is a close-knit community so would it really be that odd if he knew both Brooke and Erica they need to find Jason and question him so they track him down at his home at 324 Hart Street. He said that Brian used to live with him back in the fall of 1997 When Brooke had moved out, he moved in. And now Brooke's place was only three blocks away. Jason told detectives that not only did Brian know Brooke, but he walked her home on at least one occasion he knows about. He also said that Brian left town right after Brooke was found dead.

Detectives already ran Jason's DNA during Brooks' investigation, but they realize that Brian's DNA was never taken. So they're thinking, was it a coincidence that Brian left town? Was it to avoid being caught? After the interview, Jason, detectives hone in on Brian. They interview his former boss from Lewis Bakery where he was employed in the fall of 1997. And sure enough, he's absent from work several days after September 5th, 1997. And due to his absence, he was fired on September 10th.

Brooke was found on September 7th. A little caveat here. This is the high paying job that Brian got that made him withdraw from college. So it would be a big deal if he decided not to come into work and risk being fired, which is exactly what happened. So something, something bigger than his dream job, so to speak, had to have happened, detectives believe, for him to skip town. town. During the initial interview with Brian, he turned over all the clothes that he was wearing that Saturday night, including a pair of shoes. They hadn't been thoroughly examined yet, but now they decide they need to take a real close look at them. And that's when they discover a small spot

that looks like blood. And they appear to have been washed. They recall Brian saying that he had been doing laundry that whole day when they just kind of took a look inside of his house. One investigator remember something. He says that there was a pair of jeans hanging from the bathroom door. They were wrinkled and they looked as though they had been hung up to dry. They believe that Brian came home and showered with his clothes on. Kind of odd, but this was to make sure all the evidence was washed away. But he just didn't do a good enough job with the shoes. However, they don't have a body and they don't have Erica's DNA. They had to do a reverse DNA match and this is by obtaining swabs from Erica's mom and dad because

you get half your DNA from each of your parents so they test the reverse DNA sample against the blood on the shoe and it's a match but as they say nobody no crime then a light switch goes off if he killed Erica he might have killed Brooke so they have his DNA they call the lab and they asked for a rush on testing his DNA against 137F. The team worked over 40 hours straight. The call finally comes into the station after midnight almost two days later and the officer almost dropped the phone. It's a match. And when I hear that, it gives me chills. On July 13, the 1999, Brian Jones is arrested for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Brooke Baker. They just walked up to him, put the handcuffs on,

and were finally able to say, you are under arrest for the murder of Brooke Baker because they had waited so long to say that. Brian is no longer cooperative. He has nothing to say about knowing Brooke at all. But they have enough evidence and information from interviews and everything they gather to piece together a theory of what happened that night.

According to some of Brian's friends. Brian had somewhat of an insatiable sexual appetite. They referred to him as a male, horror. They also talked to a few women that told them he had tried to force himself on them. So here is the working theory that detectives have. Brian was attending a party just a block away from Brooke's house. He's intoxicated. He walks over there. He knocks. She either let him in because she knew him or he forced his way in. Then he most likely tried to come on to Brooke and she resisted. He decided to restrain her and do it anyway. After he realized what he had done, he decided to take her life.

cleans up after himself then walks three blocks home to Jason's he leaves town and avoids being interviewed and because he's not a student they don't really consider him someone that needs to be interviewed like he's not on a list of the students attending that were in the vicinity so when he gives his DNA in the relation to Erica's case he wasn't worried about Brooks case because it had been two years and Erica is still missing when Brian was trans from the jail to the courthouse on the day of his arraignment, the entire community seemed to flock in front.

Brooke's mother had to be held back because she was on the verge of jumping on him. Here's a picture. She is with several other residents of the community just screaming in Brian's face. She yelled, you're going to hell, and someone else was heard shouting, killer.

Meanwhile, Erica's mother Elaine and Father Dean were pleading to police to find the their daughter. Elaine is just sobbing as she's watching Brian being escorted into Knox County Superior Court. He was the last person to see their daughter and her blood was found on his shoes. Erica's father tells the investigators that they should be looking near the cornfields and in ditches near the woods. He already suspects that Erica is no longer alive and he just wants her found so that they can lay her to rest. He said the family just wanted closure and that it was pure health. finding out that your child is missing.

And he thinks about her constantly. He explained that he can think about something for five seconds, but then it's back to her. And everything in their home reminds them of her. Now everyone is focused on Brooke and her murder. And it seems as though Erica, whose disappearance has led to the arrest of Brooke's killer has been pushed aside.

The spotlight is now back on the Baker family. And all the reporters are crowding around Brooke's mom and dad in the courtroom, eager to get a chance to hear their reaction to Brian's arrest. I understand this since they've waited two years for justice, two years for closure, and now they're closer than ever to putting Brooks Killer behind bars, but I do feel bad for Erica and her family. Brooks' mom let reporters know that she hated Brian.

She said, I want this man's life. I want him to have the death penalty. I want him to be put to death or life in prison without parole. I don't ever want him to walk on the streets again. Maurice added, I want to seek the most punishment by law that can be done. Brian was escorted into the courtroom wearing a bulletproof vest. He made no comments, even though reporters were brushing over. They wanted to get a statement from him.

No. He answered the judge very calmly, and he did not seem phased by the crowd of people. He pled not guilty and let the judge know he planned on retaining an attorney. Just about a week later, on July 20th, police get a call from a man in Illinois. He thinks he found something in a cornfield. This is the type of place that Erica's dad had suggested that the detective search, but they didn't have to. It turns out, a 29-year-old farmhand named James Hill was repairing some sprinklers on the fringe of the cornfield. He wouldn't usually be out there in that area until harvest, which was in mid-September, but something was amiss.

When he got closer, he noticed the smell first. It was putrid. He went closer to investigate, and that's when he saw a badly decomposed human body. When the sheriffs arrived from both Indiana and Illinois, they had reason to believe it was the body of Erica Norman. The cornfield was straight across the Wabash River that separates Indiana from Illinois. This was approximately three miles from Erica's apartment. The temperature and the humidity was so high. that the detectives began to sweat as soon as they left their vehicles.

You can only imagine in those conditions what would happen to a body. Detectives search around the immediate area and they locate a wallet. It has Erica's driver's license inside. They still need the autopsy to confirm it's Erica, but they have no doubt in their minds that it was her. They believe Brian disposed of her in the cornfield because he believed correctly that no one would be in that area until the corn was being harvested in mid-September. which was more than enough time for her body to become part of the earth.

It just hidden beneath the soil, just a skeleton. However, that didn't go as planned. The autopsy began that evening at 6 p.m. And a forensic dentist was called in to compare dental records. This process took two weeks to complete. Meanwhile, there was a memorial service that was held on July 26th, and it was at a chapel on the campus. Over 300 people were in attendance,

and it was so much overcapacity that they had been. people sitting outside listening on an intercom system. One of Erica's friends Tara, who had met her while working at the same restaurant, talked about how much fun Erica was. She said that they became friends very fast and they used to spend weekends at Tara's just swimming and laying up in the pool and they had just hung out on July 2nd a few days before she went missing. They went shopping and Tara just said that Erica was a perfect example of what a human being should be like. She never gossiped and never had an unkind word to say about anyone. And she wanted to fall in love with someone and have a fairy tale romance. Erica's father told the crowd

that if God was looking for an angel, he got the perfect one. The autopsy was still being conducted back in Illinois, but as they wait, detectives got back to work, making sure they had enough evidence to link Brian to Erica's crime. On that initial walkthrough, of Brian's home, they didn't do like a thorough search because they needed an official search warrant and they had one now for his car and his house. They found Erica's blood in his shower and on the walls of his office and in the trunk of his car,

which they believe he used to transport her body. They had all they needed to charge Brian with her murder. In order to avoid the death penalty, Brian takes a plea deal and he has to plead guilty to killing Erica, but he still denies what happened to Brooke Baker. By September, the coroner's report is back in regard to Erica's cause of death. And unfortunately, there was not enough forensic evidence to know for sure how she died.

But in the coroner's expert opinion, her manner of death was a homicide. Almost all her skin and internal organs were gone, and there was no damage to her skeletal remains. However, they know that her apartment showed signs of a struggle and there was blood present. We will never truly know what happened to her that night. we can only imagine. Brooks case went before jurors the first week of December 2000. This trial was of high public interest. There were reporters just clamoring to get inside for gavel to gavel coverage.

The very first words out of the prosecutor's mouth, which I'm going to have to bleep, were you-h-hipped her. Then they went on to prove that the semen and the skin cells underneath Brooks fingernails, which produced DNA 137F, matched Brian, Eugene, Jones. There was also a witness that took the stand and said they saw a scratch across Brian's face the day after Brooke's murder. The prosecution made sure to show the knife with the broken handle that had Brooke's blood on it and a piece of her flesh and they also made sure to show that Brian was a liar. He said he never had sex with Brooke but the DNA proves otherwise. And that was the defense's argument by the way, that he merely

had sex with Brooke. Totally consensual. The defense also argued that there was very little evidence to show that Brian hurt Brooke, but there were several other individuals with a motive and opportunity. Who? Well, the other guys that Brooke was having relations with. Yeah. They actually tried to paint her as though she was asking for it. Because she was seeing a number of men.

This is victim blaming at its finest. They really tried to put poor Brooke on trial instead of Brian. The jury wasn't happening. after just five hours of deliberation, they reached a verdict, guilty on all counts. They didn't know this, but he was already sentenced to 60 years in prison for pleading guilty to Erica's murder. And now on top of that sentence, he was given life

without the possibility of parole for the murder of Brooke Baker. It's closure for the families, but it's just sad that Erica had to die so that Brooke's murder could be solved. There's a couple other things that I wanted to tell you. Brian never spoke at the trial, but years later, he wrote a letter to Brooks family. And in it he said that he had searched and searched for the right words to convey to them how terrible he felt for taking such a wonderful person from this world. Brooke's mom didn't care what he had to say.

She wondered why he hadn't thought of that before he killed Brooke. Sadly, Brooke's mother passed away December 9th, 2000. at the age of only 47. She's buried right next to Brooke, and here are there, gravestones. One more thing, a very important one. I want to read you something so special that was put on a plaque on the back of Brooks' gravestone.

It's a piece that she wrote when she was younger, and it's about heaven, and what she thought it would be like. I want to share it with you because I know that she wanted to be remembered for her writing, and it's a little long, but I appreciate it's a little long, little long but I promise it's worth it. It's called a place to imagine and it goes like this. As I start to fade into that unknown realm I can feel the warmth like a summer's breeze

fluttering across my face. The darkness surrounds me making me feel so alone. I am scared because I know not only what awaits me. Then suddenly light. It's a light I've never seen or felt. The light totally engulfs me. Not only can I see the orange-purple light, but I can feel it too. The warmth takes over. I feel safe. Then I enter the light. What is before me is a place like nothing I've ever seen or dreamed. Great gates of pearls overpower me. The feeling of a presence much greater than myself is waiting as I pass through the gates. To my left is a celestial chorus. The figures in flowing white gowns with hair of wheat blowing in a zenith wind.

Seeing with voices that make all my emotions swell, the beauty of the chorus is nothing compared to what is before me. A glorious white castle. So tall. I can barely distinguish where it begins nor where it ends. is open to everyone. Streets paved with gold so rich that it makes me squint,

yet I can look right at it in front of me. The grass is emeralds crushed to that of the softest velvet. The bluest sky I've ever seen is set behind the great castle. I look closer and see huge white clouds floating like suds in a fresh bath. At a closer glance, I see the archangels floating along with the clouds. Their golden harps playing a tune that could only be heard in such a place as this.

I see a river of crystal flowing from an unknown source. A tree stands before me and I know that the leaves of this tree could heal the mortal world. A rainbow joins the clouds in the beautiful sky. This is God's promise to never again send floods to destroy the other place. I walk toward the castle trying to take in all the beauty at once, but I know I have forever. As I pass through the doors of the great castle, the scent of a spicy cinnamon incense fills my nose. It is much better than what I've smelled in the past. Archangels Michael and Gabriel meet me with smiles, and in a heavenly voice say, he's waiting.

I approach the great light and see a face that is neither man nor woman. but a great white light with no real distinguishing features. I feel so peaceful. And then he speaks. The voice is overpowering, and I can feel the greatness. He tells me that I will walk an eternity of happiness, and all of my dreams will be fulfilled. There will be no pain in this place.

This is a place where all religions meet on common ground, where no one hurts, and where everyone is happy. Everyone I've ever known and loved is here. Together, we can walk the emerald pastures. The suffering I've felt in the previous world is no longer here. All I feel is an overwhelming sense of exhilaration. I have reached my final home, heaven. Wow, that was extremely deep and very moving and very sad.

And I just want to thank all of you for watching this video. I will see you in my next one. Bye.