No justice on Earth

If you have read this blog for a long time, you might remember me blogging about a third grade teacher from our little Elementary school who died of an intentional overdose in April 2006. Her name was Kari Baker. (You can read those post here and again here.) Our little school was broken hearted at the loss of this young mother and teacher. But what I remember most (that I did not dare blog about at the time) were the immediate whispers of many who suspected that Kari did not take her own life. I mean it was in the first 24 hours after her death that people started suspecting her husband. Those whispers grew to groans as people saw her husband dating just weeks after Kari's death. But he was a minister, and no one wants to think a minister.... I can't even finish the sentence.

Though I do not think it is good to listen to gossip, it was really hard to believe that Kari Baker would abandon her kids. She was not he happiest person I ever met, but she loved her girls and her family dearly. The weekend of her death she had planned a family gathering to celebrate her Grandmothers good report from MD Anderson. Third grade was busy getting ready for the TAKS test that was just a week and a half away. Kari decided that she wanted to teach older kids and had a great job interview the very afternoon before the night she died. She told friends the interview went great and was very excited. Kari had made plans to meet people on Saturday and had volunteered to watch other peoples kids the following week. It just didn't add up.

Over the last year and a half the the suspicions and doubts have turned into accusations, evidence, and cries for justice. The local police department really botched the investigation from the beginning by letting Kari be embalmed and buried without an autopsy, and by not treating her house as a crime scene. Kari's parents had to hire their own investigators and experts to plea for their daughters case to be reexamined. It has been very hard on them. But they have never given up and have remained steadfast in their belief that their daughter would not and did not take her own life. Kari's husband took the girls and moved away. The girls have not had a much relationship with their grandparents since because of their Dad.

Today this was the lead news story in our town. The headline says it all...Preacher Arrested for Murdering Wife (I'll post the whole article in the post prior to this one in case the link does not work.)

As happy as I am that Matt Baker, a man who may have robbed two little girls of their mother, two parents of their beloved daughter and 20 third graders of their teacher, might finally be brought to justice, it just seems a little too little a little too late. Maybe Kari's girls will know she did not leave them on purpose. Kari's name will have the awful stigma of suicide removed from it. Maybe justice will be served.

But no matter what the courts decide about Matt Baker's role in Kari's death, two little girls will not be getting their Mommy back. Two loving parents will carry the aching whole in their heart left by the death of their beloved daughter with them to their graves. Our little school, and more importantly the 20 kids who had Kari as a teacher, will never be the same. Her friends still miss her. Nothing the courts do to Matt Baker will change that. Is there really any true justice in this world?

It makes me really happy to know that this life, while wonderful at times and full of blessings, is not all there is. It makes me smile to think of Kari and her daughter Kassidi (who died from cancer in 2001) someday waiting at the gates of Heaven to hug her parents and thank them for never giving up on her. And then someday I pray she will be able to welcome her two girls, who she loved so much, to heaven with open arms. I hope she will be able to tell them how much she has always loved them and never wanted to leave them. I get a little teary eyed thinking of that sweet reunion that seems so very far away.

The case against Matt Baker is not all that strong when it comes to physical evidence, or so it seems thus far. I pray for everyone involved, that if he killed Kari, he will just confess and get this whole ordeal over with as soon as possible. It seems the end of all this is still very far off. But today was a victory for Kari, and no matter what the courts say, the people who knew and loved her know that she did not kill herself. Please pray for this family and this situation. God bless them all!