The Valley of The Shadow Of Death: Video 
The Valley of The Shadow Of Death
Matt and Kari Baker appeared to be the perfect Baptist couple. He was a charismatic minister in Waco; she taught Sunday school and happily raised their children. When she committed suicide after their baby daughter succumbed to brain cancer, everyone in their tight-knit community showered him with love and support. Everyone, that is, except Kari’s family, who accused him of being a sexual predator—and of getting away with murder.
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So what killed her? Johnston brought in another expert, Tom Bevel, who specialized in homicide crime scenes. Studying the photos the police had taken of Kari on the night of her death, he noticed significant bruising around her lips. The bruising, he told Johnston, could have been caused by someone using a pillow to suffocate her. The experts also noted that the paramedics who arrived at the Bakers’ home noticed lividity (a discoloration of the skin caused by the pooling of blood after death) in parts of Kari’s body. For such lividity to have taken place, they said, there was no way Kari could have died during the 45 minutes Matt said he was out of the house. Stafford, in fact, believed that a lethal dose of alcohol and sleeping pills would have taken as long as an hour more to kill Kari than the time frame described by Matt.
It remains a mystery why the Hewitt Police Department took several months to file murder charges against Matt. Some sources say the detectives and police chief were skeptical of the evidence Johnston and his team had found. Others say they didn’t want to reopen the case because they didn’t want to admit they had botched the initial investigation. But this past fall, after Linda testified about Kari’s death at a civil court proceeding, which led to front-page headlines and a public uproar—and after Matt Cawthon, a veteran Texas Ranger, reportedly called the Hewitt chief and said that if he didn’t file charges, the Texas Rangers would—a Hewitt detective finally filled out an arrest affidavit.
By then, Matt was working as a minister for the Baptist Student Union at Kerrville’s Schreiner University and as a substitute teacher for the public schools. A spokeswoman for the school district described him as “a wonderful person.” His arrest, she said, was “heartbreaking for all of us.” The head of the Hill Country Baptist Association told a reporter that Matt had done a good job at Schreiner, adding, “Hill Country Baptist leaders are praying for Matt.”
Within weeks, a fundraiser for Matt had been organized in Kerrville among friends of the family. His mother, Barbara, told reporters she had received hundreds of cards and calls from people saying that they believed her son was innocent and that they were praying for him. What really impressed his defenders was that Matt had agreed to let reporters come see him—a clear sign, they said, that he had nothing to hide.
And I have to say, during my visit with him, he didn’t seem fazed by any of my questions. When I asked him about Vanessa Bulls, he said they didn’t start dating until after Kari had died. “She was one of the few people I felt I could talk to,” he said. When I asked about a report that he had been looking at engagement rings with Bulls just weeks after Kari’s death, he explained that they had gone to a jewelry store only to buy earrings for one of his daughters. He also insisted that Kari never once accused him of having an affair with Bulls or anyone else. Nor, he said, had she ever accused him of trying to kill her and that the story she told her therapist about the pills was simply untrue. “I don’t know what was going on in my wife’s mind,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “I don’t know what she was thinking.”
Matt added that he did everything he could to make Kari feel better that spring, taking her on romantic dinner dates and going so far as to send her several e-mails a day professing his love for her. He admitted he did a Google search for “overdose by sleeping pill,” but he had only done so because he had noticed that Kari was taking more sleeping pills that spring than usual and that he was worried about her. He denied purchasing sleeping medication on the Internet. Instead, he said, he purchased a liquid concoction that was supposed to make him and Kari feel more sexual. And as for the mystery of the missing computer? Matt simply said he didn’t know what happened: Anyone could have stolen his computer because he rarely locked the door to his office.
Whether or not Waco residents believe anything Matt is saying, the fact is that his attorney will be able to provide him with a strong defense. According to Guy James Gray, no fibers were found in Kari’s nose, mouth, or lungs during the autopsy, which means there is no evidence to prove a pillow was used to suffocate her. That bruise around her mouth, Gray said, could very well have been caused by the mask the paramedics used to pump oxygen into her lungs. The oxygen could also have cleared out her throat, pushing away the vomit that might have choked her. As for the lividity, Gray claimed that the paramedics he interviewed said that only certain parts of her body were reaching that point, which suggests that Matt’s time frame still holds up.
What must also be remembered is that Gray will make sure a jury does not hear a word of testimony about Matt’s alleged sexual misconduct. Matt will be put on trial for murder, not for his personal life—if he’s ever put on trial, that is. According to some sources close to the investigation, prosecutors with the district attorney’s office in Waco are worried that they still don’t have enough evidence for a conviction, which could be the reason why they have yet to put the case before a grand jury. And if they do get an indictment, it’s doubtful they’ll be able to find an impartial jury in Waco, given all the publicity. Today the Web site that was started by Shannon Gamble is filled with angry postings from residents, almost all of whom condemn Matt in lofty biblical parlance. “Let all kinds of justice rain down on this evil man,” thundered one writer. “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,” someone else declared. At one point, to make sure people knew her opinions about the case, Gamble had a Johnny Cash song start playing whenever anyone visited the site. “You can run on for a long time,” Cash sang in his deep baritone, “but sooner or later God’ll cut you down.”
Besides the anger, Matt’s arrest has generated a painful wave of soul-searching among those who knew him. Linda and Jim, who’ve put themselves more than $200,000 into debt to pay Johnston and his team, admit they’ve gone to such expense, in part, because of what Linda describes as “our shame that we didn’t see Matt for who he really was.” Jill Hotz told me she will be “haunted forever” because she defended Matt when Kari was crying out for help. Even Lora Wilson, the former Baylor trainer, said she feels enormous guilt. “If I hadn’t done what Baylor told me to do and if I had done what was right and tried to get him arrested back in 1991, I think Kari would be alive today,” she told me.
And then there are some in Waco who are so distraught by what has happened that they have stopped going to church altogether. “I feel violated by Matt,” said Kimberly Berry, the young woman from Crossroads Baptist who once thought Baker was preaching directly to her. “When all this came out, I put my Bible in the trunk of my car. I don’t know where it is now, and I really don’t want to look for it.” According to the local gossip mill, Vanessa Bulls is so embarrassed that she fell victim to Matt’s charms that she now rarely goes to church at all. In an interview she recently gave to the Hewitt police, she admitted that she and Matt started dating after Kari’s funeral, but she added that what she now knows about him made her “want to throw up . . . I hate that I ever showed up at Crossroads and let Matt into our life.”
Yet what is perhaps most amazing of all is that Matt still doesn’t flinch. I told him that a lot of people in Waco see him as the personification of evil. I told him that his in-laws actually believe he first tried to make Kari commit suicide when he wrote her the e-mails blaming her for Kassidy’s death. When that didn’t work, he decided to murder her. His in-laws, I told him, are also convinced that his willingness to talk to reporters proves only that he’s utterly delusional.
Matt nodded his head solemnly and told me the story of Joseph, from the Old Testament, who was betrayed by members of his family and then falsely imprisoned. “And then he came back and helped the family that had tried to destroy him,” Matt said.
Once again, his eyes filled with tears and he gave me that sad, suffering look. “I have said a prayer asking God to forgive the Dulins,” he said. “And I have prayed for God to let me forgive them. But I don’t blame them. I understand they are hurting so deep inside that the only way for them to deal with it is to lash out at me.”
And what will happen, I asked at the end of the interview, if the Dulins win and he is sent to prison?
Matt paused for a long time before finally saying, almost in a whisper, “My call will never change. I will always tell people about God.” He stood up and quoted for me one of his favorite Bible verses, from the Book of Proverbs. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” he said. “In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Then, with tears still in his eyes, he shook my hand softly and walked out the door.
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