Kriti Mehrotra
It was just around midnight on April 8, 2006, when a 911 call about a family woman’s death resulted in not only the state of Texas but also the entire Bible Belt being left baffled to the core. That’s because, as explored in ABC’s ’20/20: Dirty Little Secret,’ the woman in question was Kari Lynn Dulin Baker, an elementary school teacher, a reputable minister’s wife, and a loving mother. Her death was initially ruled as suicide, but it soon came to light that it was actually her husband, Crossroads Baptist Church minister Matt Dee Baker, who had killed her so as to start afresh.
Matt Baker Was Once a Pillar of Society Due to His Position and His Family’s Resilience
Although Matt Baker was born in 1971 in Kerrville, Texas, as the second and the youngest child of Barbara and Oscar Baker, he grew up surrounded by his sister and several foster kids. After all, his religious parents had decided to move into a bigger place when he was just a year old before converting it to a group home to give back to their community by helping children. Their facility reportedly shut down a few years later, but the sense of leadership and responsibility the young boy had begun undertaking persisted, which eventually blended in with his faith, too.
Therefore, by the time Matt was a teenager, he knew he wanted to pursue ministry as a career, driving him to enroll at Baylor University in Waco as a Church Recreation and Athletic Training major. That’s where he first came across Utah native Kari Lynn Dulin, only for them to quickly fall head over heels in love – they actually even tied the knot at her parents’ home within three months. It was then that he attended George W. Truett Theological Seminary to become a Baptist pastor, following which the couple settled in Hewitt, Texas, and welcomed three daughters into this world.
Matt and Kari named their girls Kensi, Kassidy, and Grace, and while they seemed to have an idyllic life, things changed when their second born (youngest at the time) was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1998. She did receive the proper extensive treatment in a local hospital before being discharged after it appeared as if she was well on the road to recovery, but tragedy soon struck. Kassidy sadly passed away in March 1999, leaving both her parents, but especially her loving mother, heartbroken. In fact, as per reports, Kari grieved for her lost daughter for a long time.
Matt Baker Was Accused of Murder Over a Year After His Wife’s Demise
Since the Bakers had stuck together through thick and thin, it genuinely seemed like they were a happy, resilient unit, especially after welcoming Grace into their lives in the early 2000s. However, everything soon turned upside down as Matt called 911 around midnight on April 8, 2006, claiming his wife had died by suicide when he was out buying gas and renting a video. There was even a typed note at the scene, sitting on Kari’s dresser alongside an empty bottle of sleeping pills, so officials soon closed the case owing to the primary evidence indeed indicating suicide.
Kari died on Friday night/Saturday morning, and her funeral was held on Monday, during which all her loved ones expressed their concerned disbelief over her possibly taking her own life. Yet, none of them really questioned it further owing to her note even referencing her late daughter Kassidy, that is, until her parents became suspicious of foul play at her husband’s hand. They reportedly learned that Matt had allegedly been making passes at other women throughout his marriage and had once even been accused of sexual assault in college, so they began digging.
The first thing they did was check Matt and Kari’s phone bills since they were added to their plan, only to discover that he had made around 180 calls to her number within weeks of her death. This was strange to them since nearly all calls had been picked up, driving them to hire a private investigator, who identified that he had given his late wife’s cell to a younger woman from church. When questioned over time, Vanessa Bulls confessed to not only having an affair with the minister (until July 2006) but also knowing he had killed Kari – she said he had even disclosed all the details to her. As a result, the Dulin’s filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him, and he was even arrested for murder on September 21, 2007.
Since His Conviction and Sentencing in 2010, Matt Baker Has Remained Behind Bars
According to reports, Matt spent 25 days in jail before being released on a $500,000 bond, with the murder indictment against him clarifying he was accused of giving his wife drugs and suffocating her to death with a pillow. He stood trial for the same more than three years later, during which his ex-mistress Vanessa Bulls was the star witness against him since she didn’t hesitate to reveal all that she knew in front of the jury. According to her testimony, Matt had begun flirting with her in late 2005, and once it became much more, he consistently brought down his wife, said negative things about her, or admitted he had cheated before, too. Yet, more importantly, Vanessa revealed it was right after their first sexual encounter in February 2006 that Matt said he would “find a way out” of his marriage if they ever fell in love.
He then ran his murderous ideas by her, she said, even going as far as to email her about it, if they succeeded, and what he could do to improve until he eventually did accomplish what he had set out to do. In the end, as per records, the minister took apart some sexual stimulant capsules, filled them with sleeping pill powder, and gave them to his wife before taking her to bed, tying her up, and killing her. The prosecutors backed these claims with proof of his emails and the fact he had looked up “overdose by sleeping pills” on his computer before also alleging it was evident he was unhappy in his marriage since he also spent a lot of time on pornographic websites. On the other hand, the defense stuck to the assertion of suicide and argued that the timeline didn’t make sense as it wouldn’t have been possible for Matt to kill his wife, leave home to have an alibi, and then return to call 911 in 45-50 minutes.
Nevertheless, with the autopsy of Karin’s exhumed body changing her cause of death from suicide to undetermined, her toxicology reports indicating drugs in her system, and other pieces of evidence, he was found guilty after seven and a half hours of deliberations. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison in January 2010, and during his sentencing, four women also accused him of making unwanted sexual advances toward them over the years. One of them had even gone to the police but to no avail. So, at the age of 53, Matt remains incarcerated at the Michael Unit men’s prison in unincorporated Anderson County. As per the Texas Department of Corrections records, he will become eligible for parole on December 19, 2039.
Read More: Vanessa Bulls: What Happened to Matt Baker’s Ex-Mistress?
