TEXAS CITY, Texas Fourteen years after 13-year-old Krystal Jean Baker s body was dumped beneath the Trinity River Bridge in Chambers County, detectives believe a DNA match may have finally solved the case.
On September 22nd, Texas Rangers accompanied by detectives from Chambers County, Texas City and Port Arthur arrested 45-year-old Kevin Edison Smith at a refinery where he worked as a welder near Groves.
Smith had been arrested nine months earlier on a drug possession charge in Livonia, Louisiana. Standard protocol for the arrest mandated he provide a DNA sample. Once it was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, his profile matched DNA found at the scene of Krystal Baker s murder.
This is a miracle. This is a miracle from God, said Krystal s Mother Jeanie Escamilla.
Krystal was staying with her grandmother in Texas City on March 5, 1996. She and her grandmother had an argument and Krystal stormed out of the house and went to a corner payphone to call friends to come pick her up.
That was the last time anyone heard from her. Her body was found hours later in Chambers County. It took two more weeks to confirm her identity.
Thank goodness for technology, said Texas City Police Captain Brian Goetschius. That s what s evolved and that s what cleared this case.
Smith is held in Chambers County on $1 million bond while investigators conduct additional DNA tests for confirmation and begin building a timeline of his travels between 1996 and the present day.
I wish that I could wake up out of this nightmare and hold my little girl in my arms, said Escamilla. None of this is going to bring her back. Even killing the man is not going to bring her back. But he needs justice.
Detectives said they will also seek justice for other grieving families, comparing Smith s DNA profile to evidence from similar unsolved cases to see if additional matches can be found.
And I think this is the beginning of solving a lot of crimes to tell you the truth, added Escamilla. This man has traveled and there s no telling what he s done.
Among the photographs Escamilla shared of her daughter, she keeps a handwritten note Krystal wrote for her as a Mother s Day gift.
Time seems to fly, Krystal wrote of the time she spent with her mother. I can never get enough.
It s just a miracle that he got caught. He s been lucky all this time, said Escamilla. It s a miracle that he got caught.
Now the family must wait one more time, this time for a conviction. A conviction, the family hopes, for the death of Krystal Baker and all that stolen time.
