True Crime Junkie

TRUE CRIME JUNKIE

WITH JOHNNY FLETCHER

THE MURDER OF KARI BAKER

PICTURED: KARI BAKER WITH HUSBAND, MATT BAKER

While not one of the more high profile true crime cases over the last 15 years, the murder of Kari Baker has nonetheless been documented by Dateline and other programs for one very compelling reason: her husband, Matt Baker, was a pastor at the time who enjoyed flirting with young women and also engaged in extramarital affairs. That's the sensationalist side of it. And yet, there are plenty of other elements that make this case a fascinating study. For starters, Kari, an elementary school teacher and mother of two daughters, was reportedly found unresponsive in her bed - naked - with a typed suicide note nearby, something that is rarely seen; most notes of this nature are hand-written. And then there's the odd 911 call placed by Matt, during which he claimed to have partially dressed his wife while on the phone. Investigators later determined that to be a virtual impossibility. But perhaps the most intriguing thing about Kari's murder is the involvement of Matt's mistress, Vanessa Bulls. Here we have a woman who not only willingly entered into a relationship with a married man but ultimately knew about the plan to eliminate her competition and did nothing to stop it - and effectively suffered no consequences, legally speaking.

To set the scene, the year was 2006. Matt Baker, a married pastor residing near Waco, Texas, was living a double life and plotting ways to rid himself of his wife Kari. Considering that the couple had recently suffered the loss of a baby daughter, this seemed especially cruel - but it provided the perfect cover for a staged suicide. Via Matt's devious plan, Kari would prematurely say goodbye to the world in the hopes of being reunited with her child in the afterlife. After all, he claimed that she'd been depressed for some time, heartbroken over the tragic death. Matt just needed to figure out a way to kill Kari that wouldn't look suspicious, so he took to the internet, searching for pills that could do the job. And while it was never proven that he actually purchased Ambien and Unisom (two medications found in Kari's system during the autopsy) online, an examination of the couple's computer showed that Matt took the initial steps to do so before backing out of the sale. It was just more circumstantial evidence to connect the dots.

According to Matt, on the night of April 8, 2006, he left home to run an errand and upon returning, discovered his wife Kari naked and unconscious in bed with the aforementioned typed suicide note on the dresser. He called 911 and EMS arrived; however, she was pronounced dead at the scene. But there was so much more to this story. The big breakthrough came when investigators uncovered his affair with Bulls, who, despite repeatedly denying an intimate relationship with Matt, eventually caved after multiple interrogations, divulging his murderous scheme - and yet escaping punishment herself. Thanks primarily to Bulls' testimony, Matt was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

"Via Matt's devious plan,

Kari would prematurely say goodbye to the world in the hopes of being reunited with her child in the afterlife.