True crime writer explores a shocking Texas murder

Houstonian Kathryn Casey writes true-crime books that tell the story of some of the state's most high-profile murder cases. Houstonian Kathryn Casey writes true-crime books that tell the story of some of the state's most high-profile murder cases. Photo: Melissa Phillip Photo: Melissa Phillip Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close True crime writer explores a shocking Texas murder 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

When a young Baptist pastor just outside Waco was found guilty of murdering his wife, "48 Hours" showed up. So did "20/20." And across the country, people started talking about Matt Baker.

Kathryn Casey knew this would happen. When the trial started in 2010, the Houston writer drove to Waco and showed up at the McLennan County courthouse. Day after day, she sat quietly in the courtroom, watching people, taking notes. And she was still there weeks later, when Matt Baker - a 38-year-old pastor and father of young daughters - was handed a 65-year sentence for killing his wife, 31-year-old Kari Baker, and staging her death as a suicide.

Soon after Matt Baker was found guilty, Casey, who has lived in Houston since 1980, got to work. She set up interviews with the prosecutor and defense attorney. She sorted through the physical evidence. Later, she sat down with family members, friends and people who had worked with Matt or Kari Baker - about 80 people in all.

The result: "Deadly Little Secrets," which was released this summer and is her seventh true-crime book.

"I specialize in Texas crime," Casey said recently at her home in northwest Houston. "Unfortunately, I don't have to leave the state; there's always something going on. I can't cover them all, there are so many."

Casey, who earned a journalism degree at the University of Houston, started out as a magazine and freelance writer.

"In all honesty, I didn't start out to be a crime writer," she said. "It just happened."

She was assigned by magazines to cover some of the state's big trials and crime stories, and in the early '90s, Casey realized that some of those stories would make fascinating books.

HarperCollins published her first, "The Rapist's Wife," in 1995. (It's since been reissued with the title "Evil Beside Her.") It was a case close to home, the story of a Clear Lake woman who couldn't convince police that the serial rapist attacking Houston-area women was her husband.

In fact, Casey's true crime books are filled with domestic unrest.

"Shattered," published in 2010, told the story of David Temple, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his wife in their Katy home. In 2005, "She Wanted it All" focused on Celeste Beard, who married a Texas millionaire and then took his life. And 2007's "Die, My Love" was the story of Piper Rountree, who killed her husband in a bitter divorce.

The case of Matt and Kari Baker, then, was an obvious choice for Casey. When Kari Baker died in 2006, the local police ruled it a suicide right away - and, apparently, without much thought.

"Can you imagine?" Casey said. "A 31-year-old woman on a bedroom floor. … There's a typed, unsigned suicide note, and no one ordered an autopsy. It's insane."

Some of Kari Baker's family members were certain she hadn't killed herself, and they wouldn't let it go. When the police wouldn't help, Kari's family investigated Matt Baker themselves until they found convincing evidence he could be her killer.

Before Kari died, she told a therapist and at least one friend that she suspected Matt might be planning to kill her. In her Bible, she wrote a prayer for her own safety. But no one took that suspicion seriously enough to act on it.

Casey's book - a methodical, chronological account - shows that Kari Baker might still be alive today if she and others hadn't hesitated to speak up, compare notes and voice their suspicions that her husband was not the virtuous man of God he claimed to be.

"These cases have a lot of lessons in them, and there are a couple in the Baker book," Casey said. "One of them is that when we see something's really wrong, we have to speak up. The other is that you can't assume law enforcement is going to do the right thing."

Casey said she often forms lasting relationships with her sources, who are the families and friends of the victims. They send her Christmas cards and show up at her book signings.

Defendants' families can be reluctant to talk to her - though some of them do.

"I understand that it's emotional for them," she said. "I understand that they really would prefer that I wasn't there."

Casey's books tell different stories, but they all show how relationships gone wrong can become dangerous.

"I get emails all the time from women who are in abusive relationships," Casey said, "and they say, 'I suddenly realized that I need to get out. This is not going to get better, and I could end up dying.' "

alyson.ward@chron.com