ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — Matthew Baker has been charged with molesting multiple children, and now he’s charged with trying to silence some of them by having them harmed and likely killed, according to police and prosecutors in St. Charles County.
On Thursday, prosecutors charged Baker, 50, with four counts of tampering with a witness in a felony prosecution after O’Fallon police said he asked a cellmate to have someone on the outside of the jail walls hurt at least two of his five known victims. Those victims are 9 and 10 years old, according to court documents.
"The depths of evil in this person are something I haven't seen very often in my career,” said St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar.
The murder-for-hire scheme unraveled in February when a man who once shared a cell with Baker told police that Baker wanted him to deliver a letter to one of his victim’s families.
“So, he sits down with the detective and he relays all the info, but before he does he says, ‘This is a bad guy. I’m scared what this guy might be capable of, and I think it’s important. I don’t want anything, I’m not asking for anything, I just want you guys to know this,’” Lohmar said of Baker’s cellmate.
In the letter to one of his victim’s families, Baker wrote, in part:
“(Parent’s first names) I’m sorry for the pain inflicted to your child and all the others. I hope you’re not the kind of person who holds a grudge … I have a mental disease + I will get the help I need. Will you please have (victim’s name) tell police I never did anything? I will never hurt or sexually touch children no more, you are the only hope I have. Will we still be friends? Please forgive me. My friend is bringing this to you … I’m trusting you will help me. I will make it worth your while. I sent someone to hurt (victim’s names). I’m sorry, please keep an eye on them.”
From there, O’Fallon police detectives determined Baker asked another man incarcerated with him at the St. Charles County jail to hire someone to keep the children quiet, according to court documents.
“We know his aim was to harm the children to keep them from testifying so you could make a natural assumption and assume he did, in fact, want to kill these kids,” Lohmar said.
Four of the victims were molested inside Baker’s O’Fallon home in 2018, according to court documents. Another victim alleges the abuse took place at the Beaumont Scout Reservation in south St. Louis County.
At the time of the alleged abuse, Baker was volunteering as a Cub Scout den leader for Cub Scout Pack 986 in O'Fallon, Missouri. More specifically, he was a 'wolf leader,' which means he oversaw children who are either 8 years old or in the second grade. Cub Scout Pack 986 is affiliated with Twin Chimneys Elementary School in the Fort Zumwalt School District.
Boy Scouts of America issued a statement at the time saying Baker had been stripped of any of his involvement with the organization and urged parents who believe their children might have been victimized to call police.
Lohmar said authorities fear other victims might still be out there based on all that Baker told the cellmate who contacted police about the letter.
RELATED: Cub Scout den leader accused of sexually assaulting another child, and there could be more victims
That cellmate took notes after every conversation he had with Baker about the cases, and the information the cellmate gave authorities was only something Baker could have told him, Lohmar said.
He told police about other cases Baker told him, which are now being investigated, Lohmar said.
But he did not know why Baker wanted to harm the two victims in question, and not the others.
Lohmar suspects it’s because Baker felt like he knew the victim’s families well enough to ask them to tell their children to stop cooperating with police.
So, how close did Baker come to pulling off his plan?
"We're not sure how far it got down the line, but fortunately we had somebody who was an inmate who was his confidant, who realized the severity of this and realized these children's lives could be in real danger,” Lohmar said.
The inmate Baker is alleged to have asked to harm the children denied that Baker ever asked him to do so, according to court documents.
But the details the cooperating cellmate told investigators help his credibility, Lohmar said, and that he didn’t want anything in exchange for his cooperation.
“For something like this to come together the way that it did was extraordinarily rare,” Lohmar said.
Baker remains held on a $500,000 bail at the St. Charles County jail.
O’Fallon police have asked anyone with information about this case to contact Det. R.S. McDermott at (636) 379-5659 or rmcdermott@ofallon.mo.us.