By Tavia D. Green, The Leaf-Chronicle
Original publication date: Nov. 30

Clarksville, Tenn. — A Clarksville man called 911 three times Sunday night to report a murder and stabbing in the Evans Road area, setting off a four-hour, three-agency manhunt involving search dogs and a helicopter.

The report was a hoax. When the investigating detective interviewed him, he said he made the calls because he was bored and hadn’t had a cigarette in two days.

Alex Lee Baker first called 911 at 7:13 p.m. and said he witnessed a murder at 1804 Evans Road, according to a news release from Officer Jim Knoll. Baker gave the dispatcher a description of a man in a white car, then hung up.

Call takers made several attempts to call the number back, but it went to the voicemail of a man named Alex or to a wireless automated message.

At 7:26 p.m., dispatchers received a second call from an unidentified man who said he’d been pushed out a door, stabbed and was in a wooded area near Shaw Road. The man then hung up.

In the third call, at 7:49 p.m., an unidentified man said he was in the woods dying and that Alex Baker killed his girlfriend and buried her in Woodlawn, the release said.

All the calls originated from a phone owned by Alex Baker. The calls were pinpointed to the area where Baker lived, the release said.

When police contacted Baker at his home on Evans Road, he denied making the calls and said he hadn’t seen his cell phone for quite some time, the release said.

Several CPD officers, along with two deputies and a K-9 team from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, as well as two Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and a THP helicopter, were involved in a four-hour search of the wooded area.

Detective Eric Ewing determined that Baker had placed the calls, making up all of them, the release said. Baker said he made the calls because he was bored and anxious after not having had a cigarette in two days.

Baker, 20, who gave an 1804 Evans Road address, was charged with three counts of false report. His bond was set at $15,000.

About the Author
Tavia D. Green is crime/courts reporter for The Leaf Chronicle. Contact her at 245-0742 or [email protected].

c. 2010 The Leaf-Chronicle. See www.theleafchronicle.com for more news and information about Clarksville and Montgomery County, Tenn., and Fort Campbell.