Transcript of Talking Dateline: A Window of Time New

Mm.

Well, hello, everybody. I'm Keith Morrison, and we are talking Dateline. Today I'm joined by Blaine Alexander to talk about her episode Window of Time. Interesting title for this one. If you haven't seen it, you can watch the episode on Peacock and/or listen to it in the Dateline podcast feed and then come right back here. And later, Blaine will share a clip from Chris Melton's first-ever television interview what he had to share with Blaine about moving on after Tara's brutal murder. And we'll answer viewer and listener questions from social media, which could be interesting. Okay, let's talk Dateline.

Let's do it.

Blaine, this was a really interesting one. And, you know, we have done a lot of cold cases over the years at Dateline, but this one just seemed to be more, I don't know, more full of angst as it went along and just attracted a lot of attention.

It really did. I mean, I think that for one, the setting had a lot to do with it. I mean, you're talking about a young lady who was in her first year of law school there in UGA. And if you've been to Georgia, you know that UGA Athens, it is certainly a focal point. I think that's putting it lightly here in the state of Georgia. You can't walk 20 feet without finding somebody who has some sort of tie to UGA, whether they're a Dawg themselves, whether their kids went there, their parents, they went to UGA Law, whatever it is.

I mean, I think if I poked you, I'd discover you have a tie to UGA too.

Indeed I do. Indeed I do. I'm a dog by marriage. That's what I say. My husband is a very proud Georgia Bulldog. So it's kind of become my adopted campus as well. Not to mention the fact that just as a local reporter here, I've reported on UGA stories, I mean, dozens of times. And so this really is an important place in the state of Georgia. Then you talk about the fact that you're referring to a student, um, somebody who was found dead in her home. Um, a home that, you know, it's supposed to be a safe place. The last time that she was seen, she was studying at the law library with her friend. Um, you know, leaves, goes home. The next morning, there's a call that her house is on fire, and she is found brutally murdered inside. Um, and then over the next few decades, No one's able to solve the crime. Uh, they look at her boyfriend Chris Melton, who now we know was not Tara's killer. They look at the maintenance man. They look at, you know, one of her law school classmates. All of these people are under the suspicion of police until finally, more than two decades later, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, um, is able to go back, re-examine DNA evidence that was pulled from her sexual assault kit, and ultimately get a name— Edrick Foss.

And so 25 years after Tara Baker was killed, uh, a man was convicted earlier this year, uh, and sentenced to life in prison. You know, how brutal this crime was, Keith. I mean, you're talking about stabbing, strangulation, blunt force trauma, sexual assault, and then setting the whole house on fire. All of that wrapped up really just kind of made this a focal point for so many people.

That's crazy. I mean, it looks like a rage killing, and yet it must be more than a rage killing because of all those various things that were done.

So many things. And the other piece that I thought was interesting, and this is something that we heard, from one of the investigators on this was that none of the items, none of them were actually brought in by the killer. And so the knife was from the knife block in her kitchen. The cord around her neck was her own printer cord. They were all taken from there in the house.

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That would have probably, at the time they discovered that, have made them think, "Okay, this is somebody who knows her, who was probably in her house visiting her." And then things got out of hand.

That's what one would think, right? And that's why I think so many times it came back to Chris Melton, the boyfriend, right? Because a lot of people, you know, investigators would look and say, okay, this is what makes sense. And I mean, you know this from our Dateline stories, that's always who police look at first, the romantic interest, the partner, whoever it is, that's always going to be the first focus.

So tell me what you— you went to the actual house, didn't you? In the shooting of this story?

We did. We did. And that's not something— I've got to say, in my time at Dateline, that's not something that I think I've done, to actually be able to go inside the crime scene where something happened. I mean, oftentimes, we can, you know, go up to the street or, you know, shoot outside of it or get video outside or something like that. But to actually go inside the house, especially when you're talking about a crime where fire was involved. But no, we were able to go inside the actual home. I have to give a tremendous thanks to the family who lived there, including their little boy. Baby and their dog because they went outside. They let us actually come inside and take a significant amount of time in their home, which was just, you know, very kind of them that we were able to actually go inside and do that. So we were able to walk inside. I mean, the home, it's been refurbished inside, obviously, but it's in the exact same floor plan. So I think it added a lot to the story to be able to go inside with the original firefighter who was there on the scene and kind of feel what he felt that day, to walk through this living room, have him describe how it was dark, it was smoky, except for this odd red glow.

And then to kind of go around this corner and see the 4 eyes of the stove that were on. I mean, that just in and of itself was a very eerie thing.

Did you also get an eerie feeling about that young woman being there and how she would have lived in that space and what that would have felt like for her? Not just at that time of the crime, but just what it would be like to live in there? What would it be like to be in that space?

Yes, because it is very much a home that you can imagine students living in. I, I, I keep defaulting to say college students. They were, you know, she was in law school, so, but yes, you can very much imagine students living in that house. It's small, it's cute, right? It's not too far from campus. There's nothing unfamiliar about that. In fact, it did feel very familiar. And so going in, even kind of seeing the small bedrooms and, you know, you could just imagine students living there. And then I think on top of that, after speaking with Tara's mother, Virginia Baker, um, who we'll talk more about who was just a lovely woman. She talked about the fact that Tara just loved antiques. Her roommates talked about that too. She had this collection of antiques, and she really just made this room her own. Her personality kind of came out so much in the way that she decorated it. And so, yes, walking in there, it was a kind of eerie feeling to know that this horrendous crime had happened there in that house.

Have you done other fire-related stories, Blaine?

I have. In fact, my second Dateline story was a fire story. It was, this was before I officially joined Team Dateline. And so I was still, you know, I remember that out there trying my hand at this. Do you remember this? It was, it was my second story. It was a couple years ago now. And it was a little boy, unfortunately, who came home, found the house on fire. And, you know, found out his mother had, had been killed and the killer was trying to cover up the tracks. But same type of thing. How about you? I'm sure you've done more than your share of fire stories, Keith.

Quite a few.

Yeah.

And And often, the question of how the fire started, or how it burned, or, you know, whether windows were open or not, would play a significant part in determining who committed the crime and whether or not it would get solved.

I have a question for you, Keith.

Sure.

Having many more Datelines under your belt than I do. I mean, typically, the killer comes in, starts a fire in hopes of you know, wiping the crime scene clean. It seems though that, I mean, when we do these stories, that doesn't seem to work. Have you come across stories? I mean, where—

Well, the ones that do work, we don't hear about. That's because they do work. True.

Because they do. And we never find a killer. That's true. Yeah.

Yeah. Although, I think as a way of covering up a crime, it probably is less successful than the panicky killer would think it would be. I'm going to get rid of this evidence by burning it. But sometimes they end up just pointing a finger at themselves. Because there are always clues in a fire to show or to suggest how it started, who may have started it, when it may have started. And they'll leave things around like a gas can sitting in the room where the fire began. Or, I don't want to give instructions here, but you know, or they'll start a fire in 6 different places in the house.

This has now turned into how not to start a fire, by the way, or how to not successfully start a fire and cover your tracks.

Yeah. Well, what was it like dealing with the family who seemed to be very— I was— they were wonderful to hear. And they were very engaged with this storytelling you were doing, I think.

They were a lovely, lovely group of people. I spent a lot of time talking to Virginia Baker, Tara's mother, and Meredith, her little sister. And, you know, oftentimes, Keith, in these stories, I mean, it's families who always stick with you, because you're sitting down, you're sitting across from someone who really, before you came face to face, were perfect strangers. And they have to pour out their hearts about what is the most devastating, tragic part of their lives. There's nothing natural about that. And so, What we have to do.

And to do it in front of a whole— knowing that they're doing it in front of millions of people.

Yes, exactly.

And yet, they can be almost, you know, tell you as if you were a priest or a parson or something and tell you, you know, tell you intimate things.

Exactly. In speaking with Virginia Baker and Meredith Baker, one, it was very clear that they were and had always been very, very determined to get justice for Tara. And I think that especially with Meredith, she's a paralegal. She's somebody who understands the legal system. She knows how this works. As soon as she became old enough— she was just 15 when her sister was killed— as soon as she became old enough, she really kind of became almost the family, the spearhead of this entire thing. I mean, she was the one who was calling for information. She was the one who was taking meticulous notes and keeping her spreadsheets and, and documenting everything that she possibly could. She was the one who, you know, the investigator called when he was getting ready to retire to say, hey, let me tell you everything that I've got. And she sat and listened for hours to, you know, what they had found so far in this case. And so When you have a family member like that, I mean, it really does— you can kind of feel that passion, right, that she had, that had been driving her home, driving her toward all of this.

And so sitting and talking with her was certainly remarkable. And then Virginia Baker, and I had to call her Miss Virginia. I just, I can't address moms as just their first names. So I called her Miss Virginia. Southern thing, I don't know. But I called her Miss Virginia because she really did just have this regal sense. About her. She was somebody who clearly had just been weighed down by this tragedy. But she also just had this strong feeling of just a strong matriarch of the family. And it was really such an honor to meet her. And I think that came across in our interview, too.

It's a trait you see in the South a lot. That kind of matriarchal regality that some special women have.

Yeah.

Actually, I have a question for you, Keith. What do families tell you, just typically, after you finish these interviews? Because they're so emotional. And what are some of the things they say afterwards about how they feel?

Usually, they wind up, in my experience, being glad they took part. And we will stay in touch frequently for years afterwards. And that always makes me feel better, knowing that we have done a good job as far as the people who are most directly affected are concerned. But the families are so terribly important, I think.

Is there— do you hear it, Keith? I hear it in your— in your—

what am I— what are you hearing?

It's like a little tweet, tweet, tweet. It sounds like a little bird or like a little alarm.

Oh, there is a bird.

Yeah. Do you have a bird?

It's a lovely sunny day here in where I am in Southern California. I have the door open to my office and the door is letting the sun come in and it's also letting the sound of birds come in. Family of birds who have— they hang around the tree outside the door here a lot. Yeah.

Can I just say that that sound is giving just an added note of whimsy to this very, uh, dark conversation that we're having about this crime? It's a beautiful sound. I love it.

I could go close the door, I suppose.

No, no, please keep the bird. We love the bird.

When we get back, Blaine is going to share an extra clip from her interview with Chris Melton, Tara's boyfriend, about the life he has built in the years following Tara's murder. Would this case have been solved, do you think, Blaine, uh, had DNA evidence not advanced as much as it has in recent years? And I ask you that because wasn't the amount of evidence that could be tested shrinking and shrinking and shrinking and shrinking as the years went by?

Had it not been for the advance in DNA technology, no, I don't think that this case would have been solved because that's what made all the difference, right? I think that this is one of those stories where so many different things came together to allow this case to be solved.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it was, yes, the podcast that kept this case at the front of people's minds. It was the pushing for this law. It was the fact that the law passed and then it went to this cold case unit that was newly created within the GBI. Right? I mean, all of these different things came together to get them to the place where they could use this new technology and ultimately solve this case.

Yeah. Just getting money for cold cases is tremendously important. Those cities and counties that have been able to do that are solving cases at a great clip because there are so many more technologies that can be put to good effect in doing so. Um, I— Where I live, um, I— I communicate with the local police department fairly often, not to do stories, but just about stuff they're working on. I hear about it. And almost every year there's at least one, and sometimes several cases that go back 35, 40, even 50 years that are being solved because they've got familial DNA. They have DNA testing that wasn't available years earlier. And it's because they have a cold case department that can look into these things.

It's something that we see. I mean, certainly, like you said, you've done more than your share of cold cases over the years. But it is almost kind of like, I've come to kind of think of it as almost kind of like a time capsule. You're taking the same investigation. I mean, you can't reinvestigate a scene decades later. You can't go back and get new evidence, but you're taking the exact same stuff that's always been there. Fast forwarding, bringing it into the future, which is now, and applying new technology, applying new investigative tactics, and using the old evidence to solve these cases, which really is just, it's just a fascinating type of thing when you, when you think about it.

Let's talk about just the central character in this, Tara. What did her family tell you about her? What was she like?

Hmm.

You know, her family did a fantastic job of painting a very vivid picture of who Tara Baker was. I walked away knowing how she walked. I walked away knowing her mindset on most days, what drove her. They did a great job of just painting a picture of this incredibly optimistic, very positive, very bright young lady. Somebody who was hilarious, somebody who was like this older sibling and just looked out out after her younger siblings, almost like they were her baby ducklings. But I think that you see splashes and bits of her personality kind of come out throughout the story.

And what about Chris, the boyfriend who was a suspect for so long? What was he like?

Yeah.

And he sat for an interview and obviously talked to you for a long time. What was he like during that interview? What was your impression of him?

I have to give a tremendous amount of credit to our intrepid producer, Dorothy Newell, because Dorothy has been on the story for a good long time. I mean, We've been following it for years, building relationships with the family, the investigators, all of these different things. But getting Chris Melton to sit down with us, he was very, very, very hesitant to do so. He wanted to talk, but he was concerned how he would be seen. And so, after talking to Dorothy, he, you know, came to one of our shoots. We talked to him. I talked to him. I mean, really just kind of helping him understand—

He wanted to meet you specifically, I think. Pardon my interruption.

He did. He— no, no, no, it's fine. He did, he did. He wanted to meet me and he wanted to meet me specifically, which I think makes sense because, you know, at the end of the day, he could have the best relationships with our producers, but we're the ones that they're talking to. So you, you wanna feel comfortable in the person that you're talking to, which of course, uh, makes a lot of sense. And so yes, he and I had a good conversation. I had a conversation with his lovely wife and, um, he ultimately decided to, decided to do it and tell his story. Um, but even as we sat in the interview, Keith, I mean, there was a lot of trepidation. He's somebody who's very thoughtful about everything that he said, everything that he's been through. And I think that had the effect of him wanting to make sure that he said everything correctly. He's so used to being interrogated, being asked about the same set of events over and over and over, that he really was very specific in how he wanted to say it. So, yeah, he's somebody who's certainly been through a lot.

And I'm glad that he decided to sit down and talk to us about it.

Did you have to stop at all during the interview as you're talking to him so he could kind of gather himself?

Plenty of times. Plenty of times. I have to say, Keith, I think this was probably the longest Dateline interview I've done. I mean, between starting, stopping. Yes, just kind of allowing him to take a few moments. We were in it for, I mean, almost the entire day.

It must be such a complicated business. Maintaining kind of the fact that you love somebody who is dead, but you're now married to somebody else. It's a balancing thing, huh? It has to be confusing sometimes for people.

It is. I mean, I can only assume, but yes, talking with Chris, but also speaking with people who have lost loved ones to any number of things, people who have lost a spouse along the way, and then kind of moving on. There is a piece of your heart that always lives with that person. But then there's, you know, the piece of your heart that then goes on and continues to live your life, or so I'm told. But I can't imagine, and I would imagine there's nothing easy about kind of walking through that and trying to balance that.

Well, and in fact, Chris shared the moment with you when he realized his life was going to continue. So let's take a listen to that from your interview with him.

I felt such guilt. And I had an emotional moment. And I'm on the floor on all fours, pounding the concrete floor, asking God, what should I do? Terri, what should I do? Help me. And that very moment, the phone rang. It was Jenny.

And you took that as a sign.

I took that as a sign. And now here we are, 21 years later. 2 children, 2 beautiful children. I was given a gift, and that's how I got to move on. And she saved my life. And it is difficult, but I love her dearly. And there always will be a piece of me that— piece of my heart that's with Tara that will always be there. And she has such a big heart, she understands that. She accepts that. And there's always been moments through our relationship that maybe even mentally that I'm distant because I reflect on things. And this not knowing who had taken Tara's life is a big part of this. It's a struggle. In this new future that I see, I know now— I know this man is behind bars. I want to have that part closed and settled.

Mm-hmm.

And I want to give that— all of that to my family and to my wife. She deserves it. I'll always have a love for Tara. But I would love to just give more. And that's what I see as my future.

And so that was really a moving part of the interview. I have to say, Keith, that his wife was actually there in the interview. And so I am glad that we, that we spoke about that because again, I mean, it takes a special person to—

Yeah, indeed.

—want to, right, to marry and understand that that's always going to be part of your spouse's life as well. Yeah.

Did you get a chance to get a sense of how she was dealing with that?

I did. I did a bit. They met at the gym, because that was what Chris was using to kind of, you know, work through his pain and his trauma. And that was how they connected. And so she always knew that this was— she knew that this was a part of him. And, you know, it was something that became essentially part of their story together.

And the guy who eventually was fingered for the crime and put on trial, Henrik Foss, who happened to live not very far away at all, was he on the investigators' radar at all during the course of the investigation?

Not at all. He wasn't a name that was in the case file. He wasn't, you know, of all the people that were looked at, his name was not there. But again, once that DNA came back, And showed, I think there was a point at which, you know, on the stand, they described the odds of that DNA belonging to someone else, and it was some astronomical amount. So investigators were very, you know, very clear, very sure. And then once they started looking at his criminal record, looking at how close he lived to Tara, it was very clear that this was, you know, the person that they were looking for.

Do they suspect he did a lot of other stuff? He must have. You don't just instantly do a crime like that out of nowhere. He did.

He had other criminal convictions, other violent criminal convictions.

Were there fires in the background of his case?

One of the investigators we spoke to says he does believe that, you know, it's possible that Faust was connected to the other arsons that were in the area, to the other fires that were in the area. But he's never been charged with those.

What puzzles me about this, about this Edric Faust character, is the public outcry that mostly followed the trial, right? It wasn't so much— not when he was arrested. There wasn't much reaction at all. But later it built up. And I don't understand that. Have you been able to analyze that and figure out why that occurred?

Well, I mean, I think that, you know, as you all know, we live in an age where so many people follow so many of these trials online. And this trial as it played out, had a lot of people watching it. And as you kind of look at the way the defense went about its case, I mean, Chris Melton's name was one that was heard constantly and, uh, and was said by the defense attorney a number of times. And then you look at some of the online commentary, and you saw a number of people saying that they believed Chris Melton was the guilty party in this. Again, this is a small group of people. This is not by any means the overwhelming majority, but small number of people who said that they believed that Edric Foss wasn't responsible, that he was being brought up and just kind of putting out a number of different theories, you know, as a way of putting it as to why they believe that he wasn't guilty. Fact-free, essentially, huh? Yes. And that's important to point out. Again, the facts of the case are indisputable. That's something that, you know, all of that was presented in court, but it certainly hasn't quieted those who disagree with the jury's finding verdict.

Up next, your questions from social media. Welcome back. We had several questions on our social media and voicemail this week. A reminder, by the way, that you can call in with questions and have them answered on Talking Dateline. Maybe if you're lucky by Blaine, who is very good at answering these questions. You're so kind. So let's take a listen.

Hi, this is Kathy Letty Callahan, an avid fan. The show last night was brilliant, and I thought they came to the right conclusion. But then I had a slight doubt. There was just something about the boyfriend's hands. It looks like his hands were from a very violent episode, not punching a wall. So my best regards to everybody. Lane was Brilliant. I just absolutely love Dateline.

Well, Kathy, thank you. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you for loving Dateline, and we love you right back. Um, I think that the, the injuries on Chris Melton's hand certainly was something that became an issue at trial. That was something that came up. Um, you know, his explanation was that he punched through wall out of anger, out of, you know, the, the, you know, the grief of losing Tara. Um, but you saw the defense attorney really kind of going back and saying, okay, well how does it look like that, etc., etc. I think the one thing that was very important though was that you heard on the stand from an investigator who said when Chris Melton was at police headquarters right after, uh, Tara was killed the day of the crime, he had no injuries on his hands. There were no injuries that day. It wasn't until they brought him back 2 days later that the injuries were present. And so I think that that was certainly a very key, uh, piece of testimony, in terms of showing that, again, he was telling the truth about his hands.

But this may not have been such an issue had the defense not been so determined to bring up Chris Melton as an alternative suspect. Also true. Yeah. Well, up next, a question about writing for the episodes.

Hi, my name is Carolyn. I have wondered, I almost always listen to the show as a podcast. But I have wondered, is there any difference in the way you produce the shows or you edit the shows with that thought in mind that some people are only listening to it? I've just always been curious about that.

Hmm. Carolyn, thank you for your question. Um, you know, what's interesting is that when we produce the shows, we, you know, we have our incredible team of producers and all of us who come together to put together this 2 hours of television. And that's what we're creating, 2 hours of television. And then And then after that, the audio that comes from it comes and goes straight into podcast form. But our first kind of priority and our first client, if you will, is putting together a television program.

This is our final question. It's one about Edric Foss' trial. Hi, Dateline. My name is George Roberts.

My wife and I are huge fans of the show. My question is for Blaine. I was curious, when you were interviewing the protesters outside of the courthouse. Did you happen to ask any of them, uh, since they thought the accused was innocent, uh, could they explain how his DNA got inside of the victim?

Um, well, George and wife, thank you so much for, for listening and, and watching Dateline. You know, some of the protesters told us that they believed that it could have been possible that Tara and Edric Foss had a consensual relationship. But it's important to point out none of the evidence showed that to be the fact. And even when Edrick himself was speaking to the GBI agents, he denied any knowledge or contact or any sort of relationship with her. I want to say, I want to reiterate that, you know, we reached out to Edrick Faust, we reached out to his attorney to ask them for interviews. Edrick Faust never got back to us from prison, and his attorney declined to speak with us.

All right. Thank you. Well, Well, fascinating episode, Blaine. Thank you, Keith.

Thank you, as always.

That's it for Talking Dateline this week. And remember, if you have any questions for us about stories or about Dateline, you can reach us 24/7 on social media at DatelineNBC. DM us your audio or video on our socials at DatelineNBC, or leave us a voicemail at 212-413-5252 for a chance to be featured. And thank you for listening.