It is rare that a woman knows what she wants to do with her life at age nineteen. Brook Baker, however, knew she wanted to be a journalist and went full throttle into being the best writer she could. A sophomore at Indiana’s Vincennes University, Brook was a star reporter for the school’s newspaper. She dreamed of having her writings and picture appearing on the front pages of newspapers across the Hoosier state and beyond.

Brook Baker’s name and likeness began appearing daily in Indiana newspapers during September 1997. The coverage, however, had not resulted from articles she had written; the aspiring journalist was instead the subject of an awful story. She had been raped and murdered in her apartment on the evening of September 7.

The brutal murder of Brook Baker shook the small town and college community of Vincennes. The crime was solved after two years, unfortunately at the cost of another life.

Brook Baker

Vincennes sits on the lower Wabash River, just across the Illinois state line in southwest Indiana, one-hundred-twenty-five miles southwest of Indianapolis, and halfway between fellow college towns Evansville and Terre Haute. The town is Indiana’s oldest continually inhabited European settlement, and the university’s newspaper, The Trailblazer, pays homage to that distinction.

Journalism student Brook Baker was a reporter and writer for The Trailblazer. In the spring of 1997, she began investigating rumored illicit activities at a college fraternity house the previous year. A date rape had allegedly occurred at a fraternity party. Brook aggressively pursued the story, interviewing several women who had had harassing encounters with fraternity members.

A Hot Story

Brook’s investigation was not welcomed at the fraternity house where the alleged rape occurred. Several frat boys are believed to have sent emails threatening her if she fingered them in her story; Brook told journalism professor Michael Mullen that one member had even threatened to kill her.

While Brook spent an evening at a friend’s dorm, a truckload of young men threw objects at the window as they shouted threats at her. The culprits were believed to be fraternity members.

Harassed Over Her Investigation 

Spooked by the experience, Brooke moved into a house across the street from the Vincennes campus. She chose it because of its proximity to the school and because the landlord was a campus police officer. Soon, however, he was also making her feel uncomfortable.

Brook told her parents the landlord seemed be developing a romantic interest in her and appeared jealous when she had male friends in the house. She was agitated when she arrived home to find him prowling around the house and outright uncomfortable when he entered the home when she was showering. Brook’s parents also say she told them he had awakened her one night by shining a flashlight through her window.

Maurice and Janet Baker told their daughter to file a complaint with University officials. They believe she did so, but Vincennes spokesmen say they have no record of any complaints being received. Brook’s parents believe University officials destroyed the complaint because the landlord was a member of a locally prominent family who were benefactors of the University.

A Meddlesome Landlord

Brook and several friends attended two parties the evening of Saturday, September 6. One friend escorted Brook home afterwards, arriving at approximately 1:30 a.m. on September 7.

After not hearing from and being unable to reach his sister for the entire day, Brook’s brother Braun arrived at the house to check on her at 9:30 p.m. He came upon a gruesome site; his sister’s lifeless body lying nude on her bed. She had been stabbed to death. An autopsy showed she had also been raped.

Police believe Brook was killed by someone she knew as they found no signs of forced entry into the house. She appeared to have fought for her life as the bedroom showed signs of a struggle.

Brook is Brutally Murdered

In addition to fraternity members and the landlord, police also found another source of suspects.

In August, two weeks before the fall semester began, Brook had placed an ad in The Trailblazer for a roommate.

Brook’s Ad

The potential pool of suspects generated from the newspaper ad, however, did not prove to be the key to solving Brook’s murder; instead, as it with many other cases, it was the DNA pool that led to her killer’s identity.

The DNA found on Brook’s body cleared her boyfriend of any involvement in her murder. Two years later, following the murder of another Vincennes student, it identified the killer as an acquaintance of her boyfriend.

DNA Saves the Day

On July 5, 1999, twenty-two months after the murder of Brook Baker, Vincennes police searched the apartment of Erika Norman who had been reported missing.

The twenty-one-year-old University student had not been seen since leaving a local restaurant with a student named Brian Jones several days earlier. Two weeks later, her body was found in a cornfield in a plastic tub. Like Brook Baker, she had been raped and stabbed to death.

Erika Norman

Brian Jones had previously been a roommate of Brook’s boyfriend. The day after Erika  disappeared, he was seen with notable scratches on his face. Jones voluntarily gave police a sample of his DNA. It matched semen found on Brook’s body and under her fingernails.

Jones was a member of the fraternity rumored to have committed the date rape that Brook was investigating. I could not find anything stating whether or not he was involved in the alleged rape or if the incident was ever proved to have occurred.

Jones confessed to the murder of Erika Norman in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty for the murder of Brook Baker. He received a sixty-year-sentence for Erika’s murder and a life sentence without parole for Brook’s murder.

Brian Jones

Authorities believe Brook Baker and Erika Norman are the only victims of Brian Jones. One investigator said he believed Jones would have kept killing if he had not been caught.

The DNA linking the two cases likely stopped a potential serial killer.

Brian Jones’ Only Known Victims

Jones had left the bathtub faucet running at both women’s residences. Shortly before Brook’s murder, he was found to have rented the movie Curdled in which a man stabs a girl to death and washes the knife in a sink.

I cannot help but wonder if Jones had also watched Home Alone, in which the bungling bandit Marv, much to cohort Harry’s dismay, insists on leaving the water running in the houses they burglarize.

Inspired by the Wet Bandits?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10643492/brook-elizabeth-baker 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22126662/erika-elaine-norman

SOURCES:

• Chicago Tribune
• Indianapolis Star
• Kokomo Tribune
• Rushville (Indiana) Times
• Unsolved Mysteries