Edrick Faust: Where is the Killer Now?

When 23-year-old Tara Louise Baker was killed in her apartment in Athens, Georgia, in early 2001, the police found it difficult to follow the clues as the property was burned by the perpetrator, Edrick Faust, after the murder. For more than two decades, the case remained unsolved, and the killer was not linked to Tara’s homicide until advanced DNA technology allowed the detectives to reinvestigate the case. NBC’s ‘Dateline: A Window of Time’ delves deep into the killing and the decades-long investigation that ensued, ultimately leading to Edrick’s conviction.

Edrick Faust Killed Tara Baker and Set the Crime Scene on Fire to Eliminate Evidence

Born in 1975, Edrick Lamont Faust reportedly got into trouble with the law enforcement for the first time in his teenage years when he attempted a burglary in the early 1990s in Oglethorpe County. For that, in 1993, he was sentenced to two years in prison. A few years later, Edrick got involved in a criminal trespassing and battery, for which he was sentenced to one year each in 1996. After serving time from August 1997 to July 1999, he crossed paths with a 23-year-old first-year law student named Tara Louise Baker studying at the University of Georgia. Edrick entered Tara’s apartment off Fawn Drive in Athens sometime between 9:45 pm on January 18, 2001, and 11:30 am on January 19, 2001, and stabbed her in the neck with a knife, struck her in the head with a blunt object, and strangled her with a cord.

During the attack, Edrick also reportedly sexually assaulted the law student before setting her apartment on fire using a blanket in order to destroy evidence that could link him to the murder. On the morning of January 19, Athens-Clarke County firefighters found Tara dead inside the burning apartment. For more than two decades, Edrick managed to evade justice for the gruesome crime, but he went in and out of prison for other crimes over the years. That same year, he was charged with aggravated assault for attacking a man with a knife. He pleaded guilty on September 6, 2001, and received a six-year probation with one year of confinement.

DNA Evidence Ultimately Led to Edrick Faust’s Arrest More Than Two Decades Later

Over the next decade or so, he was arrested for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, obstruction of an officer, driving under the influence of alcohol, improper or erratic lane change, driving on a suspended license, and more. In 2011, he received an eight-year imprisonment sentence for the possession of cocaine, one year for obstructing a law enforcement officer, and one year for violating motor vehicle law. Two years later, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and one year for obstructing a law enforcement officer. In 2016, he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Clarke County, for which he pleaded guilty.

A few years later, he was arrested on March 3, 2022, for disorderly conduct, simple battery, and criminal trespass. On November 14, he took a guilty plea and served 50 hours of community service and 12 months of probation. After more than two decades of unanswered questions in Tara Baker’s murder case, in 2023, the GBI Cold Case Unit and Athens-Clarke County investigators reexamined the evidence found at the crime scene through specialized and updated DNA technology after the passing of the Coleman-Baker Act. It led the authorities to Edrick Faust, who was finally arrested on May 9, 2024, for killing Tara Baker in 2001. He was charged with murder and held at a county jail, awaiting trial.

Edrick Faust is Currently Incarcerated at a Georgia Prison Facility

In early February 2026, Edrick Faust’s homicide trial got underway. In the two weeks that followed, the prosecution presented DNA evidence linking the defendant to the murder of Tara Baker. On the other hand, the defense questioned the reliability of the DNA that was over 20 years old and argued that no physical evidence linked Edrick to the crime scene. The defense also tried to shift the blame to Tara’s boyfriend at the time of the murder. The jury deliberated for two days before reaching the final verdict on February 17, 2026. Edrick was found guilty of all 12 charges he faced, including felony murder, malice murder, burglary, aggravated sodomy, first-degree arson, aggravated assault, and tampering with evidence.

Two days later, on February 19, 2026, his sentencing hearing took place. Before the sentencing was announced, the son-in-law of Tara’s mother, Virginia Baker, read a victim impact statement on her behalf. It read, “Members of the court, there are no words to fully express the horror of what this monster did to my daughter, Tara. For weeks, I have sat in this courtroom, forced to look at evil, to hear details I never wanted to know. I have endured it only for her sake. January 19th, 2001, was the collision of pure good and incomprehensible evil. Over these 25 years, the truth has emerged slowly, each new piece more terrible than the last. The question that never leaves me is why I have asked God this question thousands of times. I still have no complete answer, and the pain remains.”

Addressing Edrick, the statement read, “He did not only end her life and her dreams, he tried to erase her completely by setting the fire. Our family did not know violent crime before that day. Her absence still wounds her siblings, her friends and all who loved her. The pain is constant, even in moments that should be joyful.” On the other hand, Edrick’s family members defended him, telling the judge that he was not a monster and was wrongfully convicted. In the end, he received two consecutive life in prison sentences, with an additional 45 years in confinement. As of today, the killer is serving his sentence at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

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