GUILTY TX - Krystal Baker, 13, abducted & murdered, Texas City, 5 March 1996

(Sept. 25) -- A Louisiana man has been charged with the murder of a Texas teenager, 14 years after her body was found.

Kevin Smith, a 45-year-old welder, was arrested at his workplace on Wednesday. Police say DNA records led them to him.

Prosecutors say that Smith killed Krystal Jean Baker, 13, then left her body under a bridge.

The arrest "is a miracle from God and all the angels,'' said the girl's mother, Jeanie Escamilla, according to the Houston Daily Chronicle.

Baker was last seen storming out of her grandmothers' house in Texas City on March 5, 1996, after the two had an argument. Later in the day, the girl made calls from a nearby tire shop asking friends and family members to come pick her up. They didn't get to her in time.

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/articl...r/19648646?icid=main|aim|dl1|sec1_lnk1|173254

I'm glad this creep has finally been caught. Her grandmother's words broke my heart...it isn't going to bring her back. I remember feeling the same way when Taylor Behl's murderer was arrested.

One thing in the article I didn't understand. If she had been reported missing already, why did it take so long to identify her. The article states it had also only been a matter of hours before her body was found. I'm tired and it's early, so maybe I'm just not getting it.

lizzybeth said:

I'm glad this creep has finally been caught. Her grandmother's words broke my heart...it isn't going to bring her back. I remember feeling the same way when Taylor Behl's murderer was arrested.

One thing in the article I didn't understand. If she had been reported missing already, why did it take so long to identify her. The article states it had also only been a matter of hours before her body was found. I'm tired and it's early, so maybe I'm just not getting it.

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The body was found in a different county and connection wasn't made between the girl who was assumed to have been a runaway, and the body.
“They kept calling her a runaway,’’ Escamilla said, adding that “she was too girly-girly to be a runaway.’’
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/side2/7216137.html

Good. I remember reading about this; she was included in a list of other girls and women who were missing in the Houston area. It was thought possible she was the victim of a serial killer operating in the area. I wonder if any other victims can be tied to this guy? (A side note, Krystal was distantly related to Marilyn Monroe, I have read.)

A bit of good news! I hope this helps the family, even though it will never bring their Krystal back! Gotta love DNA evidence!

Thankfully another old case is solved with DNA!

<snip>

District Attorney Cheryl Lieck said she expected the not guilty plea.

“Hopefully, there will be a guilty plea eventually,” she said. “This is the ultimate criminal case. It’s a murder charge. He just met his lawyer and so what his lawyer wants to do is take some time to prepare for a trial.”

Lieck said because Smith gave a recorded statement, she is not pursuing the death penalty.

more here

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/199450

From April 2012:

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Man-convicted-in-1996-slaying-of-girl-3514233.php

Kevin Edison Smith, 45, was convicted of capital murder in the death of 13-year-old Krystal Baker, whose body was found dumped under a Chambers County bridge over the Trinity River in 1996...

On Thursday, Smith received an automatic life sentence.

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