Fauquier Police: Homicide suspect in cold case confessed

UPDATE: Tuesday – 1/15/2013, 4:20pm ET – Fauquier County police say Ronald Richard Cloud confessed to the 1980 shooting death of Brad Baker.

Police said that in 2012, new investigative techniques and “avenues of inquiry” led to Cloud’s confession.

Officials held a press conference to discuss the 32-year-old cold case Tuesday.

Court records listed Cloud’s address as Mt. Olive, W.Va.

Officials filed formal charges against Cloud, 64, Tuesday. He faces charges of first degree murder, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, burglary, and maliciously discharging a firearm in an occupied building.

Monday – 1/14/2013, 6:17pm ET – WASHINGTON – The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office says it has solved a murder case more than three decades later.

A suspect has been identified by authorities in the 1980 New Year’s Eve death of 30-year-old Brad Baker, who was killed in his Kinloch Farm home in Northern Fauquier, the sheriff’s department says.

Officials say they solved the case using new investigative techniques.

The suspect has not been charged yet, but he is in custody in West Virginia and is awaiting extradition, a spokesman says.

Police did not release the suspect’s name. More details are expected to be released at a news conference Tuesday.

Baker was found with shots to his head and groin, with the front door window panes smashed out of the two-story farmhouse where he lived.

Baker managed the farm at the estate owned by relatives of Stephen Currier, of the famed Currier and Ives prints.

This story has been modified to clarify that the suspect was not in custody for charges related to Baker’s death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow @hsilverbergwtop and

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