Shelbyville's Paul Baker was honored by the Indiana State Police as an investigator of the year.
The Indiana State Police held an annual awards ceremony in Indianapolis to recognize ISP personnel for 2021 special awards. The ceremony includes naming a Trooper of the Year, Dispatcher of the Year, Laboratory Technician of the Year and an Investigator of the Year.
27 year Indiana State Police Veteran, Detective Paul Baker of Shelbyville, was named the Investigator of the year. Baker was nominated because of his role in a cold case investigation and the successful prosecution of a man connected to several Shelby County home invasions and rapes between 1982 and 1985. In 2002 Baker was assigned to the case and asked to re-examine evidence from the crimes, with the intention of utilizing current technology to identify a suspect. The analyzation of the evidence revealed DNA from an unknown male subject that was involved in an incident August 17, 1985. That DNA was unable to be matched with any known person.
In 2004 a task force was formed including Detective Baker and officers from the Shelby County Sheriff's Office and the Shelbyville Police Department. Unfortunately none of the new leads led to the positive identification of a suspect and the case was classified as a cold case.
In 2019 the task force reconvened and the Indiana State Police Laboratory, utilizing new technology, was able to identify a suspect. A subsequent investigation led to the arrest of Steve Hessler on several charges. After a jury trial in March 2022, Hessler was convicted of 2 counts of rape, 6 counts of unlawful deviate conduct, seven counts of burglary resulting in bodily injury, three counts of criminal confinement and one count of robbery. He was sentenced to 650 years in prison.
"Detective Baker was pivotal in preparing the case for trial, where we called 27 witnesses and introduced over 300 pieces of evidence. He did much of the work himself and oversaw assisting officers. I cannot stress enough what an important role several members of the ISP and the ISP Lab played in achieving this outcome. The efforts of Detective Paul Baker and all he did to help bring this case to a successful prosecution, to provide some closure to our several victims, and to ensure that an extremely evil, dangerous man was brought to justice. Various agencies played key roles to bring this case to trial, but Detective Baker and Shelby County Sheriff’s Detective David Tilford were the ones who organized everything that the various departments gathered into a case sufficient to convict a violent serial home-invasion rapist 37-39 years after his various local attacks," said Shelby County Prosecutor Brad Landewerlen.
