"That little girl was something else," Rotenberry said. "All she wanted was a mom, and
she got one who was crazy."
10/11/2010 - The home where Zahra Baker was said to have been abducted on 21st Avenue NW in Hickory.
Groups donate hearing aids to 81 people,
10 May 2010
Groups donate hearing aids to 81 people News14.com(with video)
By Jennifer Moxley 05/10/2010 06:56 PM
CONCORD,
N.C. – A 10-year-old girl who battled and beat cancer received a new gift to help her recovery.
Zahra Baker
was one of 81 people who received free hearing aids to improve their quality of life Monday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Baker has a hint of an Australian accent and a faint speech impediment from her hearing loss, a result of her fight
with cancer. She also lost her leg, but she didn't lose her will.
"A lot of people don't understand
that treatment does tend to take other things away from you," said her mother Elesa Baker, at an event at Charlotte Motor
Speedway.
The speedway, Starkey Hearing Foundation the National Rifle Association and Speedway Children's Charities
invited the children and adults to receive free hearing aids Monday.
"The hearing aids are so expensive. So
some of them are going to be able to have hearing aids where they can actually hear sounds instead of a muffled noise,"
said Saundy Hutto, of Speedway Children's Charities.
As Baker moved from station to station, her hearing improved
with the donated device.
"Better than without them, so I can actually hear more than without my hearing aids
in," she told multiple news crews Monday.
Racing legend Richard Petty helped some people fit their new devices.
He even took out his own hearing aids to show that he understood their plight, as someone who also suffers from severe hearing
loss.
Screenshot of Elisa Baker talking to News14, 10 May 2010
Amber alert for missing Hickory girl, 10 October 2010
By Hickory Record staff Published: October 10, 2010 Updated:
October 10, 2010 - 9:00 PM
Hickory -- Police are continuing to searching for missing 10-year-old Zahra Claire
Baker. She was reported missing around 2 p.m Saturday, said police.
She was discovered missing Saturday afternoon.
The girl's parents told police she was last seen sleeping in her bed around 2:30 a.m. They reported her missing
around 2 p.m., said police.
Her parents said they searched for the girl for an hour before reporting her missing.
She was last seen wearing a camouflage army T-shirt, black knee length tights and has a left prosthetic leg below
the knee. Police said that her prosthetic leg was not found in the home.
Her parents said this is uncharacteristic
of her, according to police.
Zahra is white, about 5 feet, 1 inches tall, weighs 85 pounds and has brown hair and
blue eyes. She is hearing impaired.
Hickory police Captain Thurman Whisnant said half of the detectives in the
department are searching for her now, in addition to the regular patrol units.
"We're concerned for her
safety. We feel this is a suspicious crime, and we are looking into it," said Whisnant.
Police ask that anyone
with any information, please call the Hickory Police at 828-328-5551 or call 911.
Richard Gould contributed to
the report.
Search warrant for two vehicles registered
to Adam and Elisa Baker, issued 10 October 2010
Missing Zahra Baker, 10, not seen by outsiders for weeks, 11 October 2010
Missing Zahra Baker, 10, not seen by outsiders for weeks Charlotte Observer
Ely Portillo Posted: Monday, Oct. 11, 2010
Authorities
and residents intensified their search for a 10-year-old Hickory girl reported missing on Saturday, as unsettling details
emerged Monday – including the existence of a ransom note and police dogs' detection of possible human remains.
Hickory police were still trying to piece together a timeline of Zahra Baker's disappearance. But they were "questioning
the validity" of the ransom note.
Police said no one beyond Baker's immediate family had seen Zahra in
weeks.
While police haven't ruled out the possibility of a random kidnapping, they arrested the girl's
stepmother, Elisa Baker, on unrelated charges and named her a "person of interest" in the case.
Police
said they discovered inconsistencies in Baker's story and that she has been uncooperative. Her husband, Adam Baker, was
asked Monday on "Good Morning America" if he believed his wife was involved in his daughter's disappearance.
"I wouldn't like to think so. On what I've heard so far, it could be possible," he said, but didn't
elaborate.
Several neighbors on Monday told the Observer they had never seen Zahra at her parent's rented house
since the Bakers moved in about six weeks ago, and were surprised to learn a girl reportedly lived there.
"I
never saw a sign of their daughter," said next-door neighbor Charles Bost. He chatted regularly with Adam Baker over
the fence separating their backyards, but he said Baker never mentioned having a daughter.
"I've been
out in the backyard quite a bit, and I've never seen that little girl," Bost said.
Family friends and
relatives said Monday that Zahra was an exceedingly polite girl, brave in the face of bone cancer and adorable with her Australian
accent.
She and her father were living in Australia when Adam Baker met his wife-to-be online about two years ago.
Zahra lost her left leg below the knee to bone cancer, so she used a prosthetic leg. She also suffered hearing loss.
Zahra was home-schooled.
Kayla Rotenberry, a former neighbor, called Zahra "the best kid anyone could
ever wish for."
But she and others said they'd seen bruises and other signs of trouble that made them
worry for Zahra's safety.
Brittany Bentley, 21, filed a complaint accusing Elisa Baker of communicating threats
in May after she says Baker threatened to kill her and her 7-month-old baby during a family dispute. Court records show those
charges were dismissed with leave, meaning prosecutors reserved the right to refile them, in August after Baker failed to
appear in court.
Bentley said Zahra would sometimes stay with her family, and seemed sad when she had to go home.
"She told my mom, 'This is the best place in my life,'" Bentley said.
Bentley also said
she sometimes saw facial bruises on Zahra. When they asked her what had happened, Zahra seemed frightened.
"She
was scared to death. She wouldn't say anything," said Bentley, a relative by marriage who says her family hadn't
seen or heard from Zahra in two months.
Kayla Rotenberry, who once lived next door to the Bakers, said Elisa Baker
seemed short with her stepdaughter.
About six months ago, Elisa Baker showed Rotenberry her hand, which was red
and swollen. Rotenberry asked what had happened.
"She told us she'd broke her hand falling," said
Rotenberry, 22. But she said Elisa Baker later acknowledged the injury came from hitting her hand on Zahra's prosthetic
leg.
Authorities were first called to the Bakers' house on 21st Avenue N.W. about 5 a.m. Saturday, in response
to a mulch fire in the yard and a report that gasoline was poured into an SUV.
A search warrant says officers found
a ransom note on the SUV addressed to a "Mr. Coffey," who was identified as Adam Baker's boss. The mostly unpunctuated
note read: "Mr. Coffey, you like being in control now who is in control we have your daughter and your ... son is next
unless you do what is asked 1000000 ($1 million) unmarked will be in touch soon."
"No cops" was
also written on the note.
Police checked on Coffey and found his family was fine.
About 2 p.m. Saturday,
Adam Baker called police again, this time to report Zahra missing. Baker told police that his wife said she last saw
Zahra asleep in her bed about 12 hours earlier.
Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said Monday that police hadn't
received any further demands in connection with the ransom letter.
Cadaver dogs alerted them to the possible presence
of human remains in the SUV with the ransom note, and in another car parked at the Bakers' house, according to the search
warrant.
Police arrested Elisa Baker on about two dozen outstanding charges not related to the girl's disappearance.
The charges are mostly misdemeanors, with one felony charge of larceny by an employee, said Libby Grigg, assistant to the
Hickory police chief.
During a Monday news conference, Adkins said it is "very unlikely" the girl ran
away.
"The hearing aids being there (at the house) is a pretty good indication that she didn't run away,"
he said.
Zahra's biological mother lives outside the United States, police said. Relatives said she is in Australia.
Hope for Zahra's safe return was fading Monday afternoon, as Chief Adkins asked anyone who's seen the girl
to contact police immediately.
"We're running out of time, folks," he said.
Search warrant reveals K-9 detected human remains, 11 October 2010
Search warrant reveals K-9 detected human remains Hickory Record
By the Record Staff Published: October 11, 2010
HICKORY
A search warrant for two vehicles registered to Adam and Elisa Baker reveal that a search and rescue dog "gave
a positive alert for the presence of human remains."
A copy of the warrant obtained by the Record stated that
a Chevrolet Tahoe and a Toyota Camry were on the property where the Bakers live.
Police and fire investigators
were at the Baker home after a fire behind the house was called in early Saturday. Later, the Bakers reported Zahra missing.
A ransom note was discovered on the windshield of the Tahoe.
"Mr. Coffey, you like being in control
now who is in control we have your daughter and your pot smoking red head son is next unless you do what is asked 1,000,000
unmarked will be in touch soon."
The note also had "no cops" written on it.
Mark David
Coffey owns the house in which the Baker family lives.
He and his only daughter, Lauren, were interviewed at the
Baker residence, the search warrant states.
The warrant says Adam Baker told police that someone had poured gasoline
in his car and left a note "saying that they had his bosses' daughter. Adam Baker believes they took his daughter,
Zahra Baker."
Later Saturday, Maria Claxton of the South Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association arrived
with her K-9 dog.
The association specializes in providing canines trained in the recovery of people and bodies,
according to a statement on the search warrant.
Claxton's dog detected remains "on or in" the Tahoe
and the Camry, the warrant states.
Police impounded the two vehicles. The warrant was obtained to search the cars.
The warrant was granted Sunday. It asserts the facts "provide probable cause to believe that a crime of Kidnapping
and Arson and that the items listed to be seized (the vehicles) is relevant to the prosecution of these crimes."
Since then, police — including Police Chief Tom Adkins at two news briefings Monday — are not referring to the
case of Zahra Baker as an abduction, but refer to it as "her disappearance."
Timeline
in the disappearance of Zahra Baker
Oct. 7, Thursday p.m.: Adam Baker said he last saw his daughter
in bed after he returned home from work that night.
Oct. 9, Saturday, 2:30 a.m.: Zahra was reportedly last seen
sleeping in her bed in her Hickory home by her stepmother, Elisa Baker.
Saturday, 5:20 a.m.: Hickory firefighters
respond to small grass fire at Baker home, 21 21st Ave. NW.
Saturday, 5:30 a.m.: At the home, a Hickory police
officer finds the passenger door of a 1996 Chevy Tahoe open, the smell of gasoline coming from inside and a handwritten ransom
note on the front windshield. Ransom note says the daughter of Mark Coffey, the home's owner, has been taken, and his
son would be, too. But police see Coffey and his daughter, Lauren Coffey, at the home and they are OK.
Saturday,
6:41 a.m.: Hickory police and fire department leave the home, after investigating fire and refers to it as arson.
Saturday 2 p.m.: Adam calls police and said someone poured gas in his vehicle, left a note saying they had his boss's
daughter, and that he thinks someone took his daughter, Zahra.
Oct. 10, Sunday, 10:45 a.m.: Elisa Baker, Zahra
stepmother, is arrested on several charges unrelated to the case. The charges include writing bad checks and failing to return
property.
Sunday: Police gather surveillance video from businesses near the home to put together a better timeline
of events leading to Zahra's disappearance.
Sunday 1 p.m.: Search and rescue dog gave a positive alert for
the presence of human remains in or on two vehicles, the Chevy Tahoe and a 1999 Toyota Camry. Police impound both vehicles.
Sunday afternoon: Hickory police officers went door to door throughout Zahra's neighborhood, talking to dozens
of residents and handing out Zahra's photograph. Officers asked permission to search peoples' out-buildings, like
sheds, the woods.
Oct. 11, Monday, 8 a.m. Adam Baker appears on "Good Morning America" with Hickory Police
Chief Tom Adkins to plead with anyone with information to come forward.
Monday, 3 p.m.: At news conference, police
reveal that search warrants have been issued for the Bakers' vehicles. Adkins says investigators were having trouble finding
anyone who has seen Zahra in the last few weeks.
The following article was written in 2007 - just after the McCanns
were made arguidos - and is based, at least in part, on the advice of Maria Claxton of the South Carolina Search and Rescue
Dog Association - the lady, and dogs, involved in the search for Zahra Baker.
Can you trust a cadaver dog if there's no cadaver?
A cadaver-sniffing dog seeks a body
By Torie Bosch Posted Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007, at 6:11 PM ET
The parents of Madeleine McCann, the 4-year-old British girl who went missing in Portugal in May, were officially
named suspects on Sept. 7 by Portuguese police. The change came after developments in the case, including sniffer dogs detecting
the "smell of death" on Madeleine's Cuddle Cat toy and her mother's clothes. They did not, however, find
a body. Can you trust a cadaver dog if there's no cadaver?
Not really—especially if a lot of time has
elapsed since the body was removed from the scene. Cadaver dogs can find the remains of people who have been dead for years
or even decades. But it's much harder for the dogs if the bulk of the remains are gone. In that case, they can pick up
the scent from small amounts of body tissue, like a blood stain or nail clippings, or even from materials that came into contact
with the tissue. But in the absence of an actual body, the smell of death will dissipate. There's speculation that Madeleine
died on the night her parents reported her disappearance—which would mean that she passed away four months ago. It's
not clear if a detectable scent could linger on her mother's clothes for all that time.
Researchers are trying
to determine how long the scent lingers when the body is no longer present, but there are no conclusive results yet—it
may be two weeks, or it may be longer. One former Scotland Yard dog handler talking about the McCann case hypothesized that
the scent wouldn't last more than a month.
The dogs couldn't necessarily prove anything even if Madeleine's
body had been in recent contact with her mother's clothes. Since they didn't turn up any actual remains, investigators
had to rely on the "smell of death" itself, an odor that stems from the decomposition process. Without a body, they
can't be certain that the animals didn't make a mistake. Cadaver dogs do mess up from time to time: The McCanns have
sought out attorneys who convinced a judge in Wisconsin that certain dogs were accurate just 22 percent to 38 percent of the
time. (The prosecution claimed a success rate of 60 percent to 69 percent.)
Cadaver dogs learn to spot the "smell
of death" and find its source during the training process, which involves exposing them to either actual human remains—blood,
teeth, bones—or pseudoscent, an artificial substance that re-creates the death odor. (One chemical company markets several
pseudoscent formulas for training cadaver dogs—recently dead, post-decomposition, and drowning victim.) The dogs also
learn to differentiate human remains from animal remains.
A dog's utility depends on the skill of its handler.
Identifying false signals is an important part of working with a cadaver dog, and results should be backed up with forensic
testing. When a dog gives a signal, such as barking or sitting down, to indicate that it has smelled a corpse, a handler can
only say something along the lines of, "My dog is giving an indication consistent with human blood." He can't
say definitively that, yes, a body was present, without further confirmation—in the form of a blood stain, for example. Explainer thanks Maria Claxton of the South Carolina Search and Rescue Dog Association, Larry Myers of the Auburn
University College of Veterinary Medicine, and Andrew Rebmann of K9 Specialty Search Associates.
By Steve Lyttle and Ely Portillo Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010
Zahra Clare Baker, the 10-year-old girl who police say has not been seen for more than a month, was living a troubled
home life, relatives say.
One relative, referring to speculation that Zahra has been the victim of violence, told
a nationwide television audience "this was something ... we knew was going to happen."
Zahra was reported
missing Saturday by her parents in Hickory, but police say they are having trouble finding anyone outside the household who
has seen the girl for at least a month.
Brittany Bentley, who is married to a nephew of the missing girl's
stepmother, Elisa Baker, appeared Tuesday morning on the CBS "Early Show" and said Zahra showed signs of being unhappy
at home. Elisa Baker has been called a "person of interest" in the case by Hickory police.
Speaking to
CBS on Tuesday morning, Bentley said, "I just think this was something for a long time that we knew was going to happen
-- everybody that was close to the family."
Bentley, 21, said she sometimes had Zahra at her house for a weekend,
and that the young girl, a cancer survivor who has a prosthetic leg and requires the use of hearing aids, would become upset
when it was time to return home.
Bentley said Zahra told her she was locked in her room much of the time and was
allowed "five minutes a day to eat, and that was all."
"She was beat almost every time I was over
there for just the smallest things," Bentley added. "Elisa would get mad, she would take it out on Zahra, things
the kid didn't deserve. She just had a horrible home life."
Bentley also said she sometimes saw facial
bruises on Zahra. When she asked her what had happened, Zahra seemed frightened, Bentley said.
"She was scared
to death," she said. "She wouldn't say anything."
Bentley also said she and her family had not
seen Zahra in two months.
On Tuesday afternoon, a woman who lived next door to Adam and Elisa Baker in Caldwell
County, before they moved to Hickory, said she and her fiancee saw bruises on the young girl. They also say they saw a Department
of Social Services employee visit the Bakers' residence at least once, and maybe twice.
In Hickory, neighbors
were surprised to learn that a 10-year-old girl lived with Adam and Elisa Baker.
"I never saw a sign of their
daughter," said next-door neighbor Charles Bost. He said he chatted regularly with Adam Baker over the fence separating
their backyards, but he said Baker never mentioned having a daughter.
"I've been out in the backyard quite
a bit, and I've never seen that little girl," Bost said. Observer staff writer Franco Ordonez contributed.
Missing girl's stepmother admits writing ransom note, 12 October 2010
Police have
charged the stepmother of a missing 10-year-old girl with felony obstruction of justice after they say she admitted writing
a ransom note, and have cancelled the AMBER Alert for her and said the case is now a homicide investigation.
Zahra
Baker was reported missing Saturday. But police say no one outside her immediate family has reported seeing her in weeks,
and say they have no idea how long she has really been missing.
The case is now a homicide investigation, Hickory
Police Chief Tom Adkins said. No one has been charged with murder. Adkins said Elisa Baker, 42, admitted writing the ransom
note and then requested an attorney.
Stepmother's MySpace page: 'I am Gothic', 12 October 2010
Elisa
Baker, the stepmother of missing Zahra Baker, describes herself on her MySpace page as a "Gothic" and said in one
posting that "your kids rip your heart out."
Baker, 42, has been described as a "person of interest"
by Hickory police in what investigators now say is a homicide case.
Police say they cannot find anyone -- other
than her father and stepmother -- who has seen 10-year-old Zahra Baker in at least a month, although Elisa Baker and her husband,
Adam, didn't report her missing from their Hickory home until Saturday afternoon.
Hickory police were called
to the Bakers' house about 5 a.m. Saturday after a report of a brush fire on the property, and a search warrant indicates
officers found a ransom note in a vehicle at the house. Hickory police Chief Tom Adkins said Tuesday that Elisa Baker admitted
to writing the ransom note and has been charged with felony obstruction of justice.
Elisa Baker's MySpace page
is titled "Miss Gothicfairy" and includes a mix of rock and country music, a number of personal notes from Baker,
and photos that seem to show Zahra Baker and her stepmother's other children.
One photo of Zahra has a caption
-- one would assume, written by her stepmother -- that describes the young girl as "the dark child LOL."
In a post written Feb. 22, 2009, Baker wrote,. "I am so sick of people judging me by how I look. I am Gothic and very
proud of it."
The post, full of spelling and grammatical errors, continues, "all i hear is you'll
grow out of it one day or when you gonna be normal. well first of, its something ur born into so you dont just grow out of
it and to me this is normal."
She added, "I'm E'lesa by god and thats who I am til I die."
On June 16, 2009, Baker wrote, "And your kids rip your heart out. Its a never-endin circle."
On
the same day, she wrote that she has an "amazing husband" and said he keeps her positive, "even when everyone
else treats me like c***."
One person posted a response to that note late Tuesday morning, writing, "Yeah,
we can tell family means nothing to you. What did you do to that little girl. Where is Zahra?"
By Ely Portillo, Steve Lyttle and Franco Ordonez Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 12,
2010
Hickory police said late Tuesday morning they have canceled the Amber alert for missing
10-year-old Zahra Baker and now consider the case a homicide investigation.
Police also said Elisa Baker, the missing
girl's stepmother, has been charged with a felony after admitting she wrote a ransom note that was found at the family's
house last weekend.
Meanwhile, a woman who lived next door to Elisa Baker and her husband, Adam, when the family
lived in Caldwell County said a Department of Social Services employee visited Elisa and Zahra Baker at least once several
months ago, to investigate what the neighbor said were bruises on the child.
Biting his lower lip and apparently
trying to fight off tears, Hickory police Chief Tom Adkins said during a late-morning news conference, "We are handling
this as a homicide investigation."
Zahra Baker was reported missing Saturday. But Adkins said Tuesday morning,
"We cannot confirm that anyone (outside the household) has seen Zahra in the last month."
Investigators
also took samples of possible blood from the family’s SUV.
Adkins said police have charged Elisa Baker, 42,
with felony obstruction of justice, in connection with her admission under questioning Monday night that she had written the
ransom note. The police chief said Baker then asked for an attorney and did not answer additional questions.
Adkins
said police continue to try and form a timeline, to determine when the last time Zahra Baker was seen by anyone outside the
household. Neighbors told the Observer on Monday that they had not seen the girl in the six weeks that her parents, Adam and
Elisa Baker, had been living in their current house, on 21st Avenue N.W. in Hickory.
The Bakers moved to Hickory
from the Caldwell County town of Hudson.
Kayla Rotenberry, who lives on Phillip Road in the Caldwell County town
of Hudson, says the Bakers lived next door to her before moving to Hickory. She told the Observer on Tuesday that she saw
a man visit Elisa and Zahra Baker at least once.
After the man left, Kayla Rotenberry said she called Elisa Baker
and asked, "Who was that?"
"Elisa told me it was someone from DSS," Rotenberry said.
She said the investigator came because DSS had received reports that Zahra had bruises on her body and was being kept in
her room most of the time. Rotenberry's fiancee, Bobby Green, told the Observer he saw bruises on the young girl.
"That little girl was something else," Rotenberry said. "All she wanted was a mom, and she got one who was
crazy."
She said Tuesday that Caldwell County's DSS didn't find anything wrong because "Zahra
wouldn't say anything."
The case surfaced Saturday afternoon, when Adam Baker called Hickory police and
reported his daughter was missing.
But that wasn't the first time police had visited the Bakers' home,
on 21st Avenue N.W., that day. Authorities were called to the house about 5 a.m. Saturday, in response to a mulch fire in
the yard and a report that gasoline was poured into an SUV.
A search warrant says officers found a ransom note
on the SUV, addressed to a "Mr. Coffey," who was identified as Adam Baker's boss, Mark Coffey. The mostly unpunctuated
note read: "Mr. Coffey, you like being in control now who is in control we have your daughter and your ... son is next
unless you do what is asked 1000000 ($1 million) unmarked will be in touch soon."
The words "no cops"
also were written on the note.
Police checked on Coffey and were told his family was fine.
Late Tuesday
morning, Hickory police said Elisa Baker admitted under questioning Monday night that she had written the ransom note. She
immediately asked for an attorney and stopped answering additional questions, police said.
10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker is now believed to be dead, 12 October 2010
10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker is now believed to be dead Charlotte Observer
Stepmother charged with obstruction after police say she admitted writing a fake ransom note to thwart
investigation.
By Ely Portillo and Franco Ordonez Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010
Police suspect a missing Hickory girl who impressed people with her winning smile and polite manners
is probably dead, and now call the case a homicide as the search for her body continued Tuesday.
Hickory police
reclassified the missing-person case and charged the girl's stepmother with felony obstruction of justice, after they
say Elisa Baker admitted writing a fake ransom note to throw off the investigation into Zahra Clare Baker's disappearance.
Late Tuesday, Hickory police and search dogs were canvassing an area in Burke County, according to the Observer's
partner, WCNC-TV. A man who lives near the property told WCNC that crews also combed the area off of Hartland Road Monday.
That neighbor said a police officer told him a search dog smelled blood on a mulch pile and a wood chipper on the
property.
Earlier, new details broadened the story of how a little girl who had survived cancer moved from Australia
and wound up with a stepmother who has a petty criminal past and a MySpace page that features violent imagery and music as
well as photos of Zahra.
Trouble in the family had previously been reported to the Caldwell County Department of
Social Services, according to a neighbor and relative of the Bakers, after witnesses saw Zahra with a black eye and other
bruises. The family lived in Caldwell until roughly six weeks ago when the Bakers moved to neighboring Catawba County.
Caldwell DSS officials didn't respond to repeated messages Tuesday, and the Catawba DSS director declined to be
interviewed because Zahra's death hasn't been confirmed.
Zahra was reported missing by her parents Saturday,
but Tuesday police canceled the AMBER alert seeking the public's help in finding her alive.
The announcement
came a day after cadaver search dogs detected possible human remains in the Bakers' vehicles parked outside their home,
according to a search warrant made public Monday. The warrant says investigators took swabs of possible blood from the Bakers'
SUV.
Biting his lower lip and fighting back tears, Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said during a news conference
Tuesday, "We are handling this as a homicide investigation."
Elisa Baker, 42, was named a person of interest
in Zahra's disappearance after she was arrested Sunday on unrelated charges, including writing worthless checks and a
felony larceny charge.
Adkins said Baker admitted to police she had written the bogus ransom note, then stopped
answering questions and asked for an attorney.
Zahra's father, Adam Baker, 33, hasn't been charged in connection
with the case and has remained largely out of the public eye except for a Monday appearance on Good Morning America where
he acknowledged it was possible his wife might have been involved in Zahra's disappearance based on what he'd been
hearing.
Police said Tuesday they don't know how long Zahra has really been missing because no one outside
her household has reported seeing the girl for at least a month.
Several neighbors of the Bakers' rented home
on 21st Avenue N.W. in Hickory said they had never seen a child at the house since the family moved in about six weeks ago.
Police were first called to the Bakers' home about 5 a.m. Saturday in response to a yard fire.
While
they were there, police found a ransom note on the Bakers' SUV, demanding $1million from "Mr. Coffey," who has
been identified as Adam Baker's boss. The note said kidnappers had taken Mark Coffey's daughter, but when police checked
they found the family was fine.
The Bakers called police again about 2 p.m. Saturday to report Zahra missing.
Relatives of Elisa Baker on Tuesday said she had a history of making up stories to get attention.
Her sisters,
Sherry Fairchild and Vicky Baird, both said Elisa Baker often complained about fake illnesses she and her children suffered.
"She's a pathological liar and a hypochondriac," Fairchild said.
The MySpace page that shows
Elisa Baker as posting blog items and photos includes one post claiming that she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer
three times and is suffering from an unidentified debilitating disease.
Baker once showed up at her father's
house with an unbelievable story, says Fairchild.
"She brought her daughter around in a wheelchair saying
she had leukemia," Fairchild said, and that the girl was dying. But she never got sick, Fairchild said.
Court
records show Elisa Baker has been charged with some two dozen criminal offenses since the early 1990s, most of them cases
of worthless checks. She has been convicted seven times of passing worthless checks.
Zahra Baker was born in the
southeast Australian town of Wagga Wagga, according to the Australian Daily Record. She lost her left leg below the knee to
bone cancer when she was 5, and the disease also left her hearing impaired.
She moved to the United States last
year with her father after he struck up an online romance with Elisa Baker.
The family moved in with Elisa Baker's
father.
There were signs of trouble from the beginning, relatives and neighbors said.
"They kept
Zahra locked in the bedroom all day, every day," Baird, 52, told the Observer.
Elisa Baker was also using
drugs, specifically pain medication, Baird said. A search warrant says police discovered drug paraphernalia at their Hickory
home, but doesn't specify what kind.
One of Zahra's relatives, Brittany Bentley, said she saw Zahra with
black eyes when the girl came to visit.
On Tuesday, Bentley, 21, said in an online debate among Observer readers
that her family reported Elisa Baker to DSS. She also appeared on national TV.
"I just think this was something
for a long time that we knew was going to happen, everybody that was close to the family," Bentley said on CBS' "Early
Show."
Bentley, who is married to Elisa Baker's nephew, said she would have Zahra over for weekends and
the girl would get mad when it was time to return home.
Zahra "was locked in her room, allowed five minutes
out a day to eat, that was it," Bentley said.
Bentley filed charges of communicating threats against Elisa
Baker earlier this year.
In court records, Bentley said Baker had threatened to kill her and her 7-month-old daughter
during a dispute over money. Bentley claimed Baker had a Taser and claimed she had a gun in her car.
The charges
were dismissed with leave - meaning prosecutors reserved the right to file them again - after Elisa Baker failed to show up
in court.
Kayla Rotenberry, a former neighbor of the Bakers' in Caldwell County, told the Observer that a few
months ago she saw a man visit the Bakers' house. After he left, Rotenberry said she called Elisa Baker and asked, "Who
was that?"
"Elisa told me it was someone from DSS," Rotenberry said.
She said the man
was an investigator who had come by because DSS had received reports that Zahra had bruises and was being kept in her room
most of the time. Rotenberry's fiancé, Bobby Green, told the Observer Tuesday he also has seen bruises on the young
girl.
Elisa Baker is being held in the Catawba County jail on $74,000 bond. No one else had been charged late Tuesday.
Staff writers Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Steve Lyttle, staff researcher Maria David and the Associated Press contributed.
Investigators search Burke site again,
13 October 2010
By Richard Gould Published: October 13, 2010 Updated: October 13, - 2010 6:52 AM
MORGANTON -- Tuesday night, Hickory
police cars and a Hickory City brush truck with hydraulic grappling arm arrived at the property of Real Tree Services as authorities
again searched the property looking for the body of 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker.
Burke County EMS crews arrived
in the twilight towing portable floodlights to illuminate the search that neighbors thought was complete after officers spent
two days looking for Zahra. The vehicles made their way past a Burke County deputy posted to keep people out of the crime
scene about 100 yards past his patrol cruiser.
Investigators are looking through a 50-foot-by-100-foot brush pile
with the truck. Neighbors had speculated the truck would be used to search under piles of wood chips on the property where
Real Tree Services keeps its heavy equipment and wood chipper.
News crews milled around while a news helicopter
flew in slow circles overhead. They were all waiting for what had come to seem inevitable.
Hickory Police Chief
Adkins arrived on the search scene at 9 p.m. and did not address the media.
The man who helped Adam Baker, Zahra's
father, get his job working for the tree trimming and lawn maintenance crew was at the scene. Bobby Green said he lived next
door to the Bakers in Sawmills and his three children used to go to the Bakers' home to play with Zahra.
Now
he thinks the Bakers may have murdered their daughter, and he wonders if he put his children in harm's way by letting
them visit the Bakers' home.
He described Zahra's mother, Elisa Baker, as a mean woman who could not be
trusted.
"I think she's evil. She lied about everything all the time," he said. "She had a short
fuse, especially with Zahra, because she was jealous of the time she spent with her father."
Green said Elisa
was physically abusive toward her stepdaughter and suspects she's behind Zahra's disappearance. He added that he suspects
that Adam Baker may also be involved in the crime.
Many now wonder if Adam Baker was involved in his daughter's
murder.
Baker's boss doesn't think so.
But Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said he hasn't
ruled out any suspects.
Fred Causby is the foreman for Real Tree Services and operates the company from his home
on Hartland Road north of Morganton. He hired Baker as a laborer about six months ago.
"He started in March
or April," Causby said. "He's just a hard working individual."
Saturday Causby gave his permission
for law enforcement to search his property with a K-9 unit. He said they were looking for Zahra's remains on his industrial
wood chipper and a 4-foot high pile of wood chips.
Causby said the dog alerted on the chipper and the pile but
two days of intense searching by a combined force of Hickory police, Burke County deputies, SBI agents and FBI agents failed
to turn up any evidence.
"I thought it was a waste of time when they came out to search," he said in
the afternoon before authorities returned Tuesday night. "I have a difficult time believing this. I like to think I'm
a pretty good judge of people, and I'd like to think I'm still not wrong."
He described Baker as a
quiet man, a self-directed worker who can be funny at times and tells stories about working on a sod farm and a sugar mill
in his native Australia.
Causby met Elisa Baker a couple of times when she'd come to pick her husband up after
work and those brief encounters left him feeling unsettled.
"He (Baker) may not have had good judgment,"
Causby said referring to the woman Baker met on the Internet and moved to America to wed. "I think the elevator doesn't
go all the way to the top. She seemed very controlling."
Causby's not the only one with that impression.
Family members say they suspect Zahra's stepmother physically abused her.
Brittany Bentley, who lives in Granite
Falls, is married to Elisa Baker's nephew and told CBS' "Early Show" her suspicions Tuesday. She said she
would have Zahra over for weekends and knew something was wrong.
Zahra "was locked in her room, allowed five
minutes out a day to eat, that was it," Bentley said. "She was beat almost every time I was over there for just
the smallest things. Elisa would get mad, she would take it out on Zahra, things the kid didn't deserve. She just had
a horrible home life."
Search for missing Zahra Baker focuses
on Burke County property, 13 October 2010
Search for missing Zahra Baker focuses on Burke County property Charlotte Observer
Stepmother charged with obstruction after police say she admitted writing a fake ransom note to thwart investigation.
By Steve Lyttle, Ely Portillo and Franco Ordonez Posted: Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010
Searchers worked under the glare of floodlights late into the night Tuesday, scouring property in Burke County for
answers to the puzzling disappearance of 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker.
The focus of what Hickory police Chief
Tom Adkins calls a "homicide investigation" seems to have moved to the wooded property off Hartland Road, north
of Morganton. Residents told reporters Tuesday that search dogs have picked up the scent of blood at the site.
The
sheriff's office in Burke County said the search will resume at daybreak today.
In Hickory this morning, Elisa
Baker, the missing girl's stepmother, is scheduled to appear in court for an initial hearing on felony obstruction of
justice charges.
Adkins said Elisa Baker admitted to investigators Monday that she wrote a ransom note found at
the family's home in Hickory on Saturday.
That ransom note, police contend, was designed to throw investigators
off-track in their search for answers in the case.
In Burke County, crews used backhoes and other equipment to
scour a wooded area, including a 50-foot-wide pile of mulch. It was the third time that searchers have been on the property,
neighbors said.
They said searchers spent several hours at the property during the day Tuesday, then returned about
5 p.m. for another look. The mulch pile was the center of attention, but searchers also scoured nearby wooded areas.
The property is owned by Real Tree Services, where Adam Baker, Zahra's father, is employed. The company has mulching
equipment on the land, and one company official told reporters that Adam Baker would have had access to the property.
Adam Baker was on the scene Tuesday, Burke County Sheriff John McDevitt told WCNC-TV, the Observer's news partner.
McDevitt told WCNC that Baker was "not exactly cooperative" in the search.
Alvin Webb, who lives
near the search site, told WCNC that a sheriff's deputy tolod him a search dog picked up the scent of blood on a wood-chipping
machine.
An ex-employee of the company told NewsChannel 36, "There's a lot of places to get rid of somebody
over here."
Hickory police also had representatives at the Burke County site.
Tuesday's search
came on the same day that Hickory police reclassified the missing-person case and charged the girl's stepmother with felony
obstruction of justice, after they say Elisa Baker admitted writing a fake ransom note to throw off the investigation into
Zahra Clare Baker's disappearance.
New details that emerged during the day broadened the story of how a little
girl who had survived cancer moved from Australia and wound up with a stepmother who has a petty criminal past and a MySpace
page that features violent imagery and music as well as photos of Zahra.
Trouble in the family had previously been
reported to the Caldwell County Department of Social Services, according to a neighbor and relative of the Bakers, after witnesses
saw Zahra with a black eye and other bruises. The family lived in Caldwell until roughly six weeks ago when the Bakers moved
to neighboring Catawba County.
Caldwell DSS officials didn't respond to repeated messages Tuesday, and the
Catawba DSS director declined to be interviewed because Zahra's death hasn't been confirmed.
Zahra was
reported missing by her parents Saturday, but Tuesday police canceled the AMBER alert seeking the public's help in finding
her alive.
The announcement came a day after cadaver search dogs detected possible human remains in the Bakers'
vehicles parked outside their home, according to a search warrant made public Monday. The warrant says investigators took
swabs of possible blood from the Bakers' SUV.
Biting his lower lip and fighting back tears, Hickory Police
Chief Tom Adkins said during a news conference Tuesday, "We are handling this as a homicide investigation."
Elisa Baker, 42, was named a person of interest in Zahra's disappearance after she was arrested Sunday on unrelated
charges, including writing worthless checks and a felony larceny charge.
Adkins said Baker admitted to police she
had written the bogus ransom note, then stopped answering questions and asked for an attorney.
Zahra's father,
Adam Baker, 33, hasn't been charged in connection with the case and has remained largely out of the public eye except
for a Monday appearance on Good Morning America where he acknowledged it was possible his wife might have been involved in
Zahra's disappearance based on what he'd been hearing.
Police said Tuesday they don't know how long
Zahra has really been missing because no one outside her household has reported seeing the girl for at least a month.
Several neighbors of the Bakers' rented home on 21st Avenue N.W. in Hickory said they had never seen a child at the
house since the family moved in about six weeks ago.
Police were first called to the Bakers' home about 5 a.m.
Saturday in response to a yard fire.
While they were there, police found a ransom note on the Bakers' SUV,
demanding $1million from "Mr. Coffey," who has been identified as Adam Baker's boss. The note said kidnappers
had taken Mark Coffey's daughter, but when police checked they found the family was fine.
The Bakers called
police again about 2 p.m. Saturday to report Zahra missing.
Relatives of Elisa Baker on Tuesday said she had a
history of making up stories to get attention.
Her sisters, Sherry Fairchild and Vicky Baird, both said Elisa Baker
often complained about fake illnesses she and her children suffered.
"She's a pathological liar and a
hypochondriac," Fairchild said.
The MySpace page that shows Elisa Baker as posting blog items and photos includes
one post claiming that she had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer three times and is suffering from an unidentified
debilitating disease.
Baker once showed up at her father's house with an unbelievable story, says Fairchild.
"She brought her daughter around in a wheelchair saying she had leukemia," Fairchild said, and that the
girl was dying. But she never got sick, Fairchild said.
Court records show Elisa Baker has been charged with some
two dozen criminal offenses since the early 1990s, most of them cases of worthless checks. She has been convicted seven times
of passing worthless checks.
Zahra Baker was born in the southeast Australian town of Wagga Wagga, according to
the Australian Daily Record. She lost her left leg below the knee to bone cancer when she was 5, and the disease also left
her hearing impaired.
She moved to the United States last year with her father after he struck up an online romance
with Elisa Baker.
The family moved in with Elisa Baker's father.
There were signs of trouble from
the beginning, relatives and neighbors said.
"They kept Zahra locked in the bedroom all day, every day,"
Baird, 52, told the Observer.
Elisa Baker was also using drugs, specifically pain medication, Baird said. A search
warrant says police discovered drug paraphernalia at their Hickory home, but doesn't specify what kind.
One
of Zahra's relatives, Brittany Bentley, said she saw Zahra with black eyes when the girl came to visit.
On
Tuesday, Bentley, 21, said in an online debate among Observer readers that her family reported Elisa Baker to DSS. She also
appeared on national TV.
"I just think this was something for a long time that we knew was going to happen,
everybody that was close to the family," Bentley said on CBS' "Early Show."
Bentley, who is
married to Elisa Baker's nephew, said she would have Zahra over for weekends and the girl would get mad when it was time
to return home.
Zahra "was locked in her room, allowed five minutes out a day to eat, that was it," Bentley
said.
Bentley filed charges of communicating threats against Elisa Baker earlier this year.
In court
records, Bentley said Baker had threatened to kill her and her 7-month-old daughter during a dispute over money. Bentley claimed
Baker had a Taser and claimed she had a gun in her car.
The charges were dismissed with leave - meaning prosecutors
reserved the right to file them again - after Elisa Baker failed to show up in court.
Kayla Rotenberry, a former
neighbor of the Bakers' in Caldwell County, told the Observer that a few months ago she saw a man visit the Bakers'
house. After he left, Rotenberry said she called Elisa Baker and asked, "Who was that?"
"Elisa told
me it was someone from DSS," Rotenberry said.
She said the man was an investigator who had come by because
DSS had received reports that Zahra had bruises and was being kept in her room most of the time.
Rotenberry's
fiancé, Bobby Green, told the Observer Tuesday he also has seen bruises on the young girl.
Elisa Baker is
being held in the Catawba County jail on $74,000 bond. No one else had been charged late Tuesday. WCNC-TV,
Observer staff writer Cleve R. Wootson Jr., and staff researcher Maria David contributed.
HICKORY
-- Zahra Clare Baker is the little girl who never was to neighbors on 21st Avenue, NW.
"I've never seen
her," said Eddie Mitchell, who lives across from the Baker house.
"Nobody ever saw her," said Elisabeth
Goderstad, whose house is nearby on 22nd Street.
In fact, Mitchell says he saw Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker,
once.
"I walk two or three times a day," Mitchell said Tuesday evening. Usually, he walks briskly a mile
or so along 21st Street.
Occasionally, he'll try N.C. 127 North, just steps from his house and the Bakers'.
It was one of those occasions when he saw Zahra's father, Adam Baker, drive up with his wife. There was no child
with them when they got out of the car.
"I'm always out," Mitchell said. "I never noticed them
(the Bakers) until about three weeks or a month ago."
Mitchell has lived at the same location for two years.
"He was always out at the mailbox, and I would say hello, but I couldn't get a reaction. He wasn't a
very sociable guy."
He said some of the neighbors told him they saw Elisa Baker from time to time.
Mitchell said he was surprised Sunday morning when a Hickory police officer asked him if he had seen Zahra.
Then,
it was the officer's turn to be surprised when Mitchell said never.
The Baker house is a simple, one-story
structure, with a tarp over part of the roof, stacks of firewood in the backyard, a log splitter and a truck from Real Tree
Services of Morganton.
An adult dog and a puppy stay in the back yard. A neighbor, according to a passerby, waters
the dogs.
However, Mitchell said he never heard any commotion or machinery being operated on the property.
"This is a quiet neighborhood," he said. Several older people live on the street.
"He (Adam Baker)
was always out front, but I didn't notice anything going on behind the house — but then the house screens the yard."
Mitchell said he heard the siren Saturday morning when the fire was reported in the Bakers' back yard.
"But I hear them all the time, so I didn't think much about it."
He said police asked to look around
his property Saturday. Mitchell consented.
Then, Sunday morning, "They took the stepmother away in handcuffs."
Police looked around Mitchell's place again.
He said he's looked for Zahra when he walks, and checked
out some nearby woods.
Nothing.
"It's crazy," Mitchell said.
On 22nd Street,
there are lots of children who get out and play, according to Goderstad. But none of the kids ever saw Zahra.
"We
thought the house was vacant," she said.
Many of the children are in Zahra's age group. There's a
spot nearby the Baker house where the children like to play.
"None of the children saw her," Goderstad
said, adding that police talked to the children, but to no avail.
"Nobody's letting their kids out now,"
she said. "You can't leave your children out. You don't know what's going to happen."
Goderstad
said the child of one of her relatives went to school with Zahra in Caldwell County last year.
The girl was described
as a loner. And one day, Zahra was no longer in school.
"I hope they have the right person in jail,"
Goderstad said, referring to Elisa Baker.
"Then another child won't get hurt."
The news
that the investigation into Zahra's disappearance is now a homicide case is disturbing, Goderstad said.
"It's
so sad," she repeated.
Still, she hopes for the best for the little girl who beat cancer, the girl whose disappearance
was still a mystery Tuesday evening, the girl that nobody in the neighborhood ever knew.
Zahra Baker Exclusive: Photo Shows Girl's Black Eye, Friend Says, 13 October
2010
Homicide Investigation Leads to Wood Chipper, Stepmom Appears in Court in Handcuffs
By YUNJI DE NIES and LEE FERRAN HICKORY, N.C., Oct. 13, 2010
A new photograph
of missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker with a bruise under her eye surfaced today as the search for her body focused on a wood
chipper and mulch piles for any sign of her remains.
The missing North Carolina 10-year-old, who lost her left leg and hearing in a battle with childhood cancer,
is seen in a dimly lit cell phone image with what Baker family friend Brandy Stapleton called a visible bruise under her right
eye. Stapleton said she took the photo, obtained exclusively by ABC News, on Aug. 9 -- the last day she saw the little girl.
Several former neighbors, along with one relative, have claimed Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, repeatedly
physically abused the girl. Baker, who was already in custody on unrelated charges, admitted Tuesday to writing a $1 million
ransom note in connection with the case.
After that admission, she was charged with felony obstruction of justice
and appeared in court today. She is being held on $40,000 bond.
The stepmother appeared in court briefly today
handcuffed and in a pink jumpsuit and answered simple "yes" and "no" to the judge's questions.
District Attorney Jay Gaither told reporters it is a "very emotional time" for law enforcement.
"I think the images you see, the smile, a handicapped girl that age, is just emotionally upsetting," Gaither said.
"Law enforcement doesn't show it, but I think that they are affected by it."
Police Chief Tom Adkins
struggled to keep his composure Tuesday when he announced that he was canceling the Amber Alert for Zahra and turning the
investigation into a homicide case.
A lawyer for Baker said Tuesday his client claims she had nothing to do with
Zahra's disappearance.
"She is scared to death," attorney Scott Reilly told ABC News' Charlotte
affiliate WSOC today. "It's scary coming out here and seeing all the court reporters and courtroom of people who
are so much against her right now."
Stapleton said on the day she took the picture of Zahra, the child seemed
down and so she thought a picture could cheer her up. Baker initially told her not to take the picture, Stapleton said, because
Zahra's eye was bruised. But Stapleton insisted because she wanted to see the little girl smile.
At the time,
Stapleton said she didn't think much of the bruise because Zahra's stepmother would often say her daughter was clumsy.
Bobby Green, a former neighbor, told reporters Tuesday that Zahra frequently had bruises but that Elisa Baker would
always explain them away. "It's always she fell down, or she rolled out of bed or she didn't have her leg on
right and couldn't walk right and fell. It's always Zahra's fault, for her injuries," Green said.
The girl was reported missing Saturday, but police said they can't find anyone beyond her parents who has seen her in
weeks.
The wood chipper and nearby debris became the focus of the search after cadaver dogs made positive "hits"
on the equipment Monday, officials told WSOC. Earlier, dogs signaled they had discovered signs of human remains in both vehicles
belonging to the Bakers.
Missing girl's stepmom has first court appearance, 13 October 2010
Missing girl's stepmom has first court appearance Hickory Record
By Sarah Newell Williamson Published: October 13, 2010
HICKORY -- As Elisa Baker walked into the courtroom in her bubblegum pink jail-issued uniform, she looked down at the floor,
her dark brown hair hiding her face from those seated in the gallery. Her hands and feet clinked in the handcuffs and shackles.
The Catawba County Sheriff's Office brought in additional detectives and deputies for security prior to Baker
coming into the courtroom.
Baker is the stepmother to Zahra Clare Baker, 10. Zahra was first reported missing at
2 p.m. Saturday, although Hickory police suspect she may have been missing longer than that. No one other than family has
seen Zahra in more than a month.
On Sunday, Baker was arrested on nine unrelated charges to Zahra. Hickory police
went to the Catawba County jail on Tuesday and interviewed Baker, where she admitted writing the ransom note found on one
of the Bakers' car, demanding $1 million. An arrest warrant was taken out for obstruction of justice.
When
she appeared Thursday morning before Judge Greg Hayes for a first appearance on this charge, Baker kept her lips pursed much
of the time, looking meek and timid.
Hayes told Baker the charge of common law obstruction of justice, a class
H felony, carries with it a maximum of 30 months in jail, and asked if she understood it. She quietly said yes.
Baker
had with her two attorneys — Scott Reilly, who was court-appointed for the obstruction of justice charge, and Jared
Amos, who was appointed for the larceny by employee charge in Burke County.
Reilly said he planned to file a motion
for bond reduction.
"Forty thousand (dollars) is in far excess for this charge," he said.
Reilly
said he would like the bond to be set closer to the $10,000 guideline for an obstruction of justice charge. He hopes the bond
reduction hearing will be set as early as Monday.
Baker's total bond is set at $72,200. This includes the obstruction
of justice charge, as well as the previous charges of larceny by employee, four counts of communicating threats, four counts
of driving while license is revoked, six counts of worthless checks, unsafe tires, operating a vehicle with no insurance and
fictitious or revoked registration/tag.
"She's scared to death," Reilly said. "She's emotional."
He said he can't talk about what Baker has said about Zahra.
"She's upset with being in jail
and away from her family," Reilly said.
District Attorney Jay Gaither called the Zahra case one that has demanded
the community's utmost attention.
"This is a high priority for law enforcement and it will be a high priority
for the district attorney's office when we get it," he said.
Gaither said it's been emotionally straining
on the community, particularly because the photos of Zahra have tugged at people's hearts.
"The smile
of Zahra sticks out," he said. "She's such a darling child. We fear the worst, but hope for the best."
Baker's probable cause hearing is set for Nov. 3.
Zahra Baker - Stepmother's court
appearance, 13 October 2010
Search continues for Zahra Baker; drained pond turns up nothing, 14 October 2010
Search continues for Zahra Baker; drained pond turns up nothing Charlotte Observer
Candlelight vigil draws hundreds for missing girl
By Ely Portillo and Franco Ordonez Posted: Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
HICKORY -- Several hundred people gathered at a local church for a candlelight vigil for 10-year-old
Zahra Baker Wednesday night, as police expanded their search for the missing girl and drained a pond near the tree-trimming
company where her father has worked.
The search at the Burke County pond ended before midnight, and investigators
said they did not find anything to help in the case. The pond was near the same property where searchers looked Tuesday.
Searchers used hoses to drain the pond, which is about 4 feet deep, but found nothing.
"It's very
disappointing," Burke County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Becky Weatherman told reporters. "If she's deceased,
we would like to provide closure for the family."
Authorities in Burke County told reporters there are no
further plans for a search there, unless they receive additional information from police in Hickory or from state or federal
officials.
Early Wednesday, Zahra's stepmother Elisa Baker made her first appearance in court on obstruction
of justice charges after investigators said she admitted she wrote a phony ransom note found at the family's home on Saturday.
Police say the note was designed to throw off investigators in their search for answers in the girl's disappearance,
a case they're now calling a homicide.
At Wednesday evening's vigil, people sang and prayed for Zahra outside
East Hickory Baptist Church, their children playing on swings and a jungle gym nearby.
"We just want to lift
up little Zahra as we think about the tragedies in her life," deacon David King told the crowd.
At the vigil,
Lindsey Parker told the crowd that family members had reported suspected abuse of Zahra to the Department of Social Services
on three occasions. She said she was speaking on behalf of Brittany Starbuck, one of Elisa Baker's three children from
a previous marriage.
"DSS was called three times," Parker said of the family. "They tried. They
really tried."
DSS officials in Caldwell County, where the family recently lived, have not responded to requests
for information.
Elisa Baker, 42, dressed in a pink jumpsuit and shackled at her wrists and legs, quietly answered
"yes" as Judge Gregory Hayes asked if she understood the charge against her. She's being held on a $40,000 bond.
The case has drawn nationwide attention to this community at the foot of the N.C. mountains. Reports of possible mistreatment
of Zahra have raised questions about what should have been done to protect the little girl.
Zahra, who is hearing
impaired and has a prosthetic leg, was reported missing on Saturday. But police say they cannot confirm that anyone outside
the household has seen her in the last month.
"She's a beautiful child," Milly Humphrey, a family
friend said of Zahra at the vigil. "We don't know anything. We just hope she's found - and found safe."
Elisa Baker's attorney, Scott Reilly of Newton, said his client was "scared to death" and extremely
upset about being held in jail.
He would not answer questions about whether Baker had discussed her stepdaughter.
The FBI has been called in to assist local police with the search and conduct any needed lab work.
Authorities
worked late into Wednesday night to drain a pond near property owned by Real Tree Services, where Adam Baker, Zahra's
father, is employed. The property includes large piles of wood chips and heavy equipment, and is surrounded by woods.
Weatherman, of the sheriff's office, said the lack of specifics on where to look was making the search more difficult.
"It's very hard," she said. "Especially if (someone is) buried underground or you don't know
where exactly to look."
In Hickory, police again visited the Bakers' house on 21st Avenue N.W. Officers
and search dogs didn't turn up anything, although investigators removed a restaurant Dumpster near the house to search
it for evidence.
No one answered the Bakers' door Wednesday afternoon. Next-door neighbor Charles Bost said
he hasn't seen Adam Baker in at least two days as news of his daughter's disappearance spread.
Adam Baker,
33, hasn't been charged in connection with the case and has remained largely out of the public eye except for a Monday
appearance on "Good Morning America," where he acknowledged it was possible his wife might have been involved in
Zahra's disappearance.
Douglas Proctor, who identified himself as Elisa Baker's son, contacted the Observer
Wednesday to request privacy for his family and express gratitude to the dozens of people offering to help search for Zahra.
He declined to discuss the case, but said finding Zahra is the family's top priority.
On Tuesday, Hickory police
called off an Amber Alert seeking help in finding Zahra alive and declared the case a homicide after cadaver search dogs detected
possible human remains in the Bakers' vehicles parked outside their home, according to a search warrant.
Police
were first called to the Bakers' home about 5 a.m. Saturday in response to a yard fire.
While they were there,
police found a ransom note on the Bakers' SUV, demanding $1 million from "Mr. Coffey," who has been identified
as Adam Baker's boss. The note suggested kidnappers had taken Mark Coffey's daughter, but when police checked they
found the family was fine.
Zahra Baker was born in the southeast Australian town of Wagga Wagga, according to the
Australian Daily Record. She lost her left leg below the knee to bone cancer when she was 5, and the disease also left her
hearing impaired.
She moved to the United States last year with her father after he struck up an online romance
with Elisa Baker.
Observer staff writer Steve Lyttle, researcher Maria David and Observer news partner WCNC-TV
contributed.
Friends: Missing girl had happy life in Australia, 14 October 2010
Friends: Missing girl had happy life in Australia Mercury News
By MITCH WEISS Associated Press Writer Posted: 10/14/2010 12:16:07 AM PDT Updated: 10/14/2010 03:00:00 PM PDT
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Though Zahra Clare Baker was battling cancer
that forced her to wear hearing aids and a prosthetic leg, friends who knew her in Australia say she was an outgoing, caring,
happy girl.
Then her lonely single father moved her halfway around the world to North Carolina so he could live
with a woman he met on the Internet. Now the 10-year-old with the freckles and wide smile is missing and presumed dead, and
friends and family thousands of miles away are waiting anxiously for word about her fate.
"She was one of
the bravest little girls you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting," Kim Wright, 44, a close friend of the family,
told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Giru, Australia, where Zahra lived until two years ago. "She was
always thinking of others."
A photo of missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker hangs on a fence as people gather
for a vigil for her in Hickory, N.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010. ((AP Photo/Nell Redmond))
Zahra's
father and stepmother reported her missing over the weekend, saying they had last seen her in her bed at their home in Hickory,
about 50 miles northwest of Charlotte, early on the morning of Oct. 9.
Police say they don't believe them.
They've had trouble finding anyone outside Zahra's house who has seen her alive in recent months. That's made
it difficult to narrow down places to search.
"We've been going back and talking to everyone we can,"
Hickory Deputy Chief Clyde Deal said Thursday.
Zahra's stepmother, 42-year-old Elisa Baker, is jailed, accused
of trying to throw off investigators with a fake ransom note. Her court-appointed attorney, Scott Reilly, says she is "scared
to death" and very emotional about everything.
Zahra's father, Adam Baker, 33, hasn't been charged,
but investigators haven't ruled him out as a suspect. Several telephone messages left for Adam Baker were not returned
Thursday.
Wright said friends and family in Australia still hope Zahra is alive. She became friends with the little
girl four years ago at a cancer fundraising event. She was sitting in a chair waiting for her head to be shaved to raise money
when Zahra approached, took her hand and told her not to be scared.
Wright became something of a surrogate mother
to the girl, whose biological mother left when she was a baby. Adam Baker raised her after that with help from his parents,
Wright said, taking time off from the sugar mill where he worked so he could be with Zahra when she was diagnosed with bone
cancer about five years ago.
Wright described a phone call from Zahra when she was in a children's hospital
waiting to have her leg amputated.
"She told me they were having trouble with her leg because she was really
sick. But then she said: 'It's OK because I'm going to be getting a Barbie leg so I don't want you to get
upset,'" Wright said. "That little kid was more concerned about what I was feeling than what she was going through."
A few months later, doctors discovered tumors in her lungs. She had chemotherapy, but the treatment led to a partial
hearing loss. Still, she remained upbeat, attending a camp for children with cancer and inspiring her fellow campers by taking
part in all of the physical activities.
"She was missing a limb but she could still do anything that the other
kids could do," said camp manager Mark McGregor. "She was an unbelievable kid and we're hoping like hell that
you find her alive and we can get her back here."
Police say that's not likely. Documents and interviews
with friends and neighbors in North Carolina paint a starkly different picture of Zahra's life there.
They
say Elisa Baker had a short temper and would hit Zahra, that Social Services was called to investigate, but nothing was ever
done.
"I watched her beat her and tried to stop her," said former neighbor Karen Yount, who filed a complaint
against Elisa Baker for threatening to harm her daughter and her friends.
Former neighbor Kayla Rotenberry said
she saw Elisa Baker hit Zahra and noticed bruises on the girl's face and body. She also said that Elisa Baker told her
that Social Services was investigating.
"She was angry that people were getting into her business,"
she said. "We all tried to stop her. That little girl was so sweet. Always smiling through it all. She just wanted to
be loved."
Wright says friends in Australia were suspicious of Elisa Baker when Adam Baker met her
online in early 2008 and invited her to visit.
Elisa Baker told them she was she was a police officer who was
shot in the line of duty. She also said she was a bounty hunter and had met celebritites.
"She told a lot
of stories that never quite rang true," Wright said.
They were married that July in a small ceremony in Adam
Baker's parents' backyard. In November, they moved to North Carolina. The family was less than thrilled, especially
since Zahra's medical treatments were free in Australia.
"Adam was on his own for eight years with Zahra
before he met (her) and I think he was lonely and I think that was his biggest downfall, really," Wright said.
The last time Wright saw Zahra, the little girl said she didn't want to leave her grandparents and friends. Wright hugged
her and told her she would get to go to Disneyland.
"But she was nervous," Wright said. "She said
she wanted to go for a day, but wasn't sure she wanted to live there. But when you're a 7-year-old kid, you don't
get a choice. Your parents tell you what to do and that's the end of that discussion."
Money and legal trouble follow Zahra's parents, 16 October 2010
Money and legal trouble follow Zahra's parents Hickory Record
By Richard Gould Published: October 16, 2010
Zahra
Baker's father and stepmother, Adam and Elisa, have an extensive criminal history and the majority of the charges currently
pending against them are tied to money problems. Charges were filed, arrests were made and the Bakers established a pattern
of not showing up for their court dates.
A criminal records check in Catawba and Caldwell counties revealed that
the couple is facing a combined total of 18 charges of writing bad checks worth a combined $2,054.58. All but one of the checks
were written at area grocery stores. The remaining check, written for $595, was for back rent, said the Bakers' former
landlord Mark Sims.
Sims said the Bakers rented a singlewide mobile home in Country Manor Estates in Hudson. He
charged $115 per week, according to court documents accompanying the eviction notice he served on Adam Baker in December 2009.
Baker owed $1,114 in back rent.
Three months later, Sims filed an eviction notice against Elisa Baker, who owed
$1,612 in back rent.
Sims was unclear on the circumstances surrounding the Bakers' evictions and said he couldn't
remember why two separate eviction notices were served on them.
Sims said he didn't speak to the Bakers often,
but when he did they were polite. When he called Baker to tell her she was late on her rent, "She said, 'I will bring
you by a check today,' and she brought one by," Sims said. When the $595 check bounced, she apologized and brought
Sims a cash payment for part of what she owed.
"She was never angry with me," he said.
Her
teenage neighbors remember her differently.
Corrine Yount, 15, and her friend Brandy Hefner, 16, took out an arrest
warrant on Baker for communicating threats on May 23, 2010.
Yount said the incident began when she and her friend
noticed Zahra crying as she walked up a steep hill behind her house.
"She was making Zahra walk up the hill
by herself because that's how she would punish her because she (Elisa) knew it would hurt Zahra's leg," Yount
said.
Baker came out of her trailer and started screaming and threatening the girls.
"She said,
'I'm going to teach these two teenagers a lesson and whip their butts,'" Yount said.
Baker continued
to shout threats until Hefner's mother came out of the house and asked what was going on and Baker left, according to
the arrest warrant.
Yount said she spoke to Zahra a few times and saw that she was a very sweet girl. She also
said people in the neighborhood knew Baker was abusive to Zahra and they tried to get law enforcement involved.
"You
could hear Zahra screaming and Elisa yelling at her, so we would call the police," Yount said. "We called DSS (the
Caldwell County Department of Social Services) on her too, but they never did anything."
Adam and Elisa Baker
were arrested for communicating threats against their family members too.
They were arrested on May 22, 2010 and
charged with communicating threats against Elisa's niece Brittany Bentley, her fiancé Zackery Tyler and the couple's
7-month-old daughter. The threats stemmed from an outstanding debt Bentley owed them, according to the arrest warrant.
"He (Adam Baker) chased me and my fiancée. He literally tried to run us off the road twice," wrote
Tyler in the complaint accompanying the warrant. "He got in the opposite lane, swerved at the driver's side and we
had to swerve to keep from getting hit, then he passed us and slammed his brakes. We had to slam our brakes and still almost
hit him."
The couple went home and gave Baker the money she was owed, but she demanded more. She and Adam
threatened the couple with Tasers, according to the arrest warrant.
"They said they would kill me and Brittany
Bentley and that they knew where our daughter was and they would kill her if I didn't pay her," Tyler wrote.
Bentley's complaint is similar but provides additional detail.
"Then she went to my mom's where
my daughter was with a supposed gun after she threatened to kill my daughter," Brittany wrote. "I fear for mine
and my daughter's and fiance's life."
The Bakers were charged with communicating threats as a result
of the incident. Adam was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly trying to run the couple off the road.
In March 2010, the Bakers were arrested and charged for failing to return a laptop computer, a 42-inch Zenith television,
a stereo and a living room suite worth $2,411.69, according to court documents. The couple had rented the furniture and electronics
from Bestway Rent to Own in Lenoir.
On the rental application Baker filled out she lists her occupation as "disabled"
and her monthly income as $591.
As with the above charges, the Bakers failed to appear at their scheduled court
date on June 30, 2010.
Elisa Baker is in the Catawba County jail under a total bond of $72,200 secured –
$32,200 for more than a dozen charges unrelated to Zahra's disappearance and $40,000 on a charge of obstruction of justice.
She was charged with obstruction of justice Tuesday after confessing to police that she'd written a fake ransom note demanding
$1 million.
Adam Baker is cooperating with investigators as they search for Zahra, said Hickory Police.
Anyone with information about Zahra's disappearance or her location is asked to call 911, or the Hickory Police Department
at 328-5551.
Canine teams continue search for missing girl, 19 October 2010
Zahra Baker's stepmother will be in court Wednesday for bond hearing in her obstruction case.
By Franco Ordoñez Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010
HICKORY As canine-led police teams continued their search Monday for missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker, her stepmother, Elisa
Baker, is preparing to return to court.
Baker, who has been charged with felony obstruction of justice, is scheduled
to appear in Catawba County Superior Court on Wednesday morning for a bond hearing. Her attorney, Scott Reilly, has filed
paperwork asking the court to reduce her $40,000 bond, which he says she can't afford.
Police arrested Elisa
Baker, 42, after she admitted to writing a phony ransom note.
Zahra, who is hearing-impaired and has a prosthetic
leg, was reported missing 10 days ago. However, police have not been able to confirm that anyone other than family has seen
the girl since Sept. 25, when she was spotted at a furniture store with her stepmother and another woman.
Pat Adams,
a floor manager at In Your Home Furnishings, said she recalls seeing Zahra. Adams remembers the girl dressed in a T-shirt
and stretchy pants. She seemed mesmerized by a cartoon playing on TV in a room of kids furniture.
"You could
see her little freckles," Adams said.
Police said Monday they're seeking any other confirmed sightings
of Zahra since that day.
Investigators have received more than 200 tips from the public. Canine teams from North
Carolina and other states have searched in Catawba and Burke County, among other areas.
Police thanked local volunteers
and restaurants for donating time and food to search teams.
However, police are also warning the public of a group
that is seeking donations in Zahra Baker's name. The group claims to "support the efforts of law enforcement,"
but it has no connection to the Hickory police, officials said.
Hickory police officials said they intend to investigate
the group.
Donors contribute as questions raised about organization
By Larry Clark Published: October 19, 2010
HICKORY
-- Hickory police are looking into of an organization soliciting funds for Zahra Baker.
The Zahra Baker Fund, Creating
a Legacy Out of Tragedy, was formed by the Spiritual Counseling Network.
The Hickory-based network says the fund
was "created to assist in the investigation and/or prosecution of the disappearance of Zahra Claire Baker. The Fund exists
to support law enforcement's efforts to investigate and prosecute the case, to provide access to counseling services to
those impacted by the case, to give Zahra a rightful funeral (in the event of her death) and to support organizations that
fight child abuse and exploitation."
Hickory police, in a news release, said the department has not
been contacted by this group or has been given any information of their intent for this fund. HPD intends to explore this
matter in greater detail without diverting resources from the investigation of Zahra.
Brandon Greeson, spokesman
for Spiritual Counseling Network and the fund for Zahra, said Monday that the organization e-mailed and faxed the police department
about the fund for Zahra on Monday.
Police officials went on to say that the department has been working with Team
Adam from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
"Team Adam provides rapid, on-site assistance
to law enforcement agencies and families in cases of missing, abducted, and exploited children," a police news release
stated.
"Its members are retired law-enforcement professionals with years of investigative experience at the
federal, state, and local level. Team Adam Consultants rapidly deploy to sites where cases are unfolding, providing on-the-ground
technical assistance and connecting local law enforcement with a national network of resources."
Two Team
Adam consultants are in Hickory assisting with the case. One consultant has been in Hickory since the second day after Zahra
was reported missing, police said in the news release.
Greeson said the Zahra Baker Fund has been in contact with
folks from Australia and are aware that her family there wants to be with her.
"The fund is prepared to use
its resources to see that she is able to go home with her family and receive the proper memorial service she deserves,"
Greeson said.
There are no immediate plans to give to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,
"but we suspect that a donation will be made to that organization in the near future," Greeson said.
Over
the weekend, Dr. Timothy Curtis, president of the network board of directors said in an e-mail, "We are standing in the
gap for Zahra.
"We want to pull together all of the resources of our community and assist law enforcement
in finding Zahra, provide support for those impacted by this tragedy and support ongoing efforts of other organizations to
see that this doesn't happen again to another child.
"When the national spotlight is over, we want Zahra's
legacy to live on. Her life is more important than the tragedy of her death. And the impact of this tragedy will affect our
community for months to come," he said in an e-mail announcing creation of the fund."
A website devoted
to the fund showed seven contributors as of Monday evening. One is from Canada. Another is from Massachusetts.
Among
the donors is Walmart Outreach of Granite Falls with a $432 gift.
Other donors sent as little as $5 and as much
as $100. Notes are attached to the donations.
"My heart is so broken about this;" "Lord help the
police find her;" "We are all praying for her;" donors wrote.
Not all of the responses to news of
the fund have been complimentary.
A reader e-mailed the Record saying Greeson was in court in 2006 for obtaining
property under false pretenses. Records show the two charges were pleaded. A third charge was dismissed.
The writer
said the group was at a Walmart on Sunday, with Hickory Police Department used on signs and mentioned verbally to solicit
donations.
Greeson responded, "At my request, I act solely as a spokesperson for the Zahra Fund. I do not
have access to financial records, nor do I handle money or accounting.
"My concern, like many in our community,
is for little Zahra. I will not allow those who desire to throw stones to affect the commitment of my walk with the Lord or
the things that He has called me to do. I strive — today — to live my life above reproach and fully transparent
to those to whom I am accountable."
The Spiritual Counseling
Network describes itself as a a non-profit Christian ministry that provides Christian counseling and pastoral care services
to Catawba, Burke, Caldwell and surrounding counties.
The network is incorporated as a church, and is not required
to file with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Rev. Brandon Greeson, director of marketing and outreach.
"Since we officially formed in June of this year, we have not yet made the determination on rather to incorporate as
501(c)3 — a process that takes a number of months to complete, in itself," Greeson said.
According to
the website, "It is the mission of Spiritual Counseling Network to follow the Lord's call, as given to us in the
Gospel of Luke 4:18 — to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to set at liberty those who are oppressed
and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
"This mission shall be accomplished by bringing together
all of the resources of our community to heal hearts and touch lives through quality, affordable and non-judgmental services."
The board of directors also includes Dr. Timothy Curtis, director of operations and Christian counselor; and the Rev.
Uziel Medina, director of quality and services and Latino outreach coordinator.
According to Greeson and Curtis,
"Spiritual Counseling Network is a registered non-profit corporation with the State of North Carolina and can be found
by searching the 'Corporations' section on the N.C. Secretary of State's website."
From the printed comments accompanying the above articles:
Greeson,
Brandon Ray Hickory, NC Taylorsville, NC
First Name BRANDON Middle Name RAY Last Name GREESON Primary
Address N/A City N/A State N/A ZIP Code N/A Phone Number N/A Date of Birth N/A Race CAUCASIAN Height 72" Weight
235 LBS Hair Color BROWN Offense Date 20061020 Court CATAWBA Source State NC Offense 14-100 OBT PROP BY FALSE PR/CHTS/SER
Disposition NEGOTIATED PLEA Gender MALE
First Name BRANDON Middle Name RAY Last Name GREESON Primary
Address N/A City HICKORY State NC ZIP Code 28601 Latitude 35.7459 Longitude -81.32758 Phone Number N/A Date of Birth
19830623 Street 1032 5TH ST NE Race CAUCASIAN Offense Date 20061020 Source State NC Offense 14-100 CONVICT:OBTAIN
PROPERTY FALSE PRETENSE Disposition JUDGE (TRIAL BY JUDGE OR GUILTY PLEA BEFORE JUDGE AT DISTRICT COURT LEVEL, GUILTY PLEA
AT SUPERIOR C Gender MALE
First Name BRANDON Middle Name RAY Last Name GREESON Primary Address N/A City HICKORY
State NC ZIP Code 28601 Latitude 35.7459 Longitude -81.32758 Phone Number N/A Date of Birth 19830623 Street 1032
5TH ST NE Race CAUCASIAN Offense Date 20061020 Source State NC Offense 14-113.20 ARRAIGNED:IDENTITY THEFT Disposition
DISMISSAL WITHOUT LEAVE BY DA Gender MALE
Zahra Baker Fund : About The Fund, website
screenshot, 19 October 2010
Police confirm prosthetic leg is Zahra
Baker's, 02 November 2010
Transponder inside the device matched missing girl's medical records.
By
Ely Portillo Posted: Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2010
A prosthetic leg found last week in rural Caldwell County
belonged to a 10-year-old Hickory girl who has been missing for three weeks and is presumed dead, police confirmed Monday.
Police got the serial number from the leg by using a special scanner to read a transponder implanted inside. That
number was matched to medical records from Australia, where Zahra Baker was born and lived until last year.
Zahra,
who also was hearing impaired, used the prosthetic leg since her lower left leg was amputated several years ago due to bone
cancer.
On Monday, authorities also returned to the Baker family's Hickory home, where they've been searching
since early last week, to continue combing the house and yard for possible evidence. A police official said they would wrap
up their search at the house Monday afternoon.
The search for Zahra has drawn international attention and taken
search crews to several houses where the family has lived, along with a Caldwell County landfill and Burke County site used
to mulch trees.
Authorities have found several leads - including a mattress matching one belonging to Zahra, possible
blood swabs taken from the family's vehicles and now the prosthetic leg. But so far, Zahra remains missing.
No
one has been charged with abducting or killing Zahra, reported missing by her father on Oct. 9. Police have treated her disappearance
as a homicide investigation for several weeks.
Zahra's father and stepmother have both been arrested on other
charges.
Elisa Baker, 42, was charged with obstruction of justice after police say she admitted writing a phony
ransom note related to her stepdaughter's disappearance. She remains in jail on $65,000 bond.
Zahra's father,
Adam Baker, 33, was arrested last week on unrelated charges, including assault and writing bad checks. He was released from
jail last week under $7,000 bond.
NC Missing Girl: Crews Find Possible
Human Remains, 11 November 2010
NC Missing Girl: Crews Find Possible Human Remains wspa.com
By Media General News Service Published: November 11, 2010
GRANITE FALLS, N.C. -- When investigators searched the Dudley Shoals area in Caldwell County on Wednesday,
they found possible human remains in connection with Zahra Baker's homicide.
The evidence is being sent to
the SBI lab in Raleigh to be analyzed. Hickory police is saying the evidence "could provide valuable information in the
Zahra Baker case."
On Wednesday, Gunpowder Creek was searched, as well as the brush along the banks. A BOB-CAT
was also brought in to trim the brush farther up the banks. In one area, investigators searched about 10 feet from the banks
of Gunpowder Creek. At this spot, there is now a two-and-a-half foot deep hole that gapes 10-feet wide. The hole wasn't
visible on Wednesday, before law enforcement closed the road to traffic around mid-day. Inside this hole is a smaller, distinct,
round hole in the dirt. All of the dirt from the hole was also taken with the investigators.
A white evidence flag
was marked at the edge of the hole. At previous search sites, a white flag was used to mark bones.
The hole was
about 25 feet from the end of where a paved access road ends.
The Dudley Shoals area has been searched at least
twice before Wednesday in connection with Zahra Baker's disappearance. On Oct. 25, Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker,
was spotted in the backseat of a vehicle that was at the scene briefly.
Two women came to the site of the Dudley
Shoals Road search on Thursday to see if investigators had found anything.
"I hope they find (Zahra). It gives
you cold chills," said Cristal Jackson. "There's no telling what they've done to her. Everybody wants answers."
Looking at the hole that was dug, Jackson said she thinks investigators may have found something of importance.
Her friend, Brandy Gragg, said she hopes Zahra can be put to rest.
"I just want them to find her,"
she said. "I don't see how anyone could do that to a child."
On Thursday, investigators returned
to the Christie Road location a few miles away. Earlier in the week, Hickory police had said they were finished with the site.
New leads led them back there, though, resulting in the road being shut down while investigators continued their search.
Christie Road is where Zahra's prosthetic leg was found on Oct. 26. A bone now being tested at the SBI lab was
found there Nov. 3.
Hickory police would not comment on whether any evidence has come back from the SBI lab, saying
they did not want to jeopardize the case.
Zahra, 10, has been missing for a month. She was first reported missing
by her father, Adam Baker, on Oct. 9. On Oct. 12, the Amber Alert that was issued was cancelled and the case was changed to
a homicide investigation. Someone outside of the family last saw Zahra on Sept. 25. Elisa, 42, is currently in jail for writing
a false ransom note in which she demanded $1 million. Because of that, Elisa has been indicted on one count of felony obstruction
of justice. She has also been arrested on several other charges unrelated to Zahra's disappearance. Adam was arrested
as well, for several charges unrelated to the case. He has since bonded out of jail.
Hints of 'valuable' new clue in search for Zahra Baker, 12 November 2010
Hints of 'valuable' new clue in search for Zahra Baker Charlotte Observer
Hickory police decline to say what was found; missing girl's distraught birth mother flies to U.S.
By Franco Ordoñez Posted: Friday, Nov. 12, 2010
HICKORY -- As Zahra Baker's biological mom flew to North Carolina on Thursday, investigators said they may have located
a significant piece of evidence as the search for the missing 10-year-old girl entered its second month.
It was
another day of twists in the story of the pretty 10-year-old girl whose smiling photos – and plight as a victim of bone
cancer – have captured worldwide attention since she disappeared on Oct. 9.
In Australia, media reports had
Emily Dietrich, the distraught birth mother who gave up Zahra as a baby, headed for the scene of the investigation. But Hickory
police refused to confirm those reports, despite neighborhood talk that Dietrich was seen at Zahra's house in the early-morning
hours Thursday.
Police did announce that search teams in Caldwell County located evidence that "could be valuable"
in prosecuting the case. A source close to the investigation told the Observer's news partner, WCNC, that searchers had
found human remains. But Major Clyde Deal of the Hickory police declined Thursday night to say what the new evidence is.
Also late Thursday, police confirmed that Zahra's father, Adam Baker, was back at the Hickory Police Department.
But police would not say why Baker was there. And they provided no information about the possible evidence found in
neighboring Caldwell County on Wednesday night.
Police said the evidence would be analyzed at the State Bureau
of Investigation's lab.
"We must be cautious in prematurely releasing information so it will not jeopardize
any future criminal proceedings," police said in a statement.
Zahra was reported missing on Oct. 9 by her
father, Adam Baker, 33, and her stepmother, Elisa, 42. Police said she has not been seen by anyone outside of her family since
Sept. 25.
No one has been charged in Zahra's disappearance, but Elisa Baker is in jail on felony obstruction
of justice charges after police say she admitted writing a phony ransom note to throw off the investigation into the missing
girl.
Zahra's case has become one of the most high-profile searches ever for a missing child in North Carolina.
Nona Best, supervisor of the N.C. Center for Missing Persons, said the search for Zahra has captured international
attention in a way similar to other missing children, including Asha Degree in Cleveland County in 2000.
The hunt
for Zahra has sent exhausted investigators across Catawba, Burke and Caldwell counties seeking evidence. They've examined
two ponds, homes where the Bakers lived, several wooded areas, and a Caldwell County landfill.
Zahra's prosthetic
leg was found in Caldwell, near Christie Road, and a bone that investigators said may be related to the case was also found
in the county. The bone was sent to the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for inspection, and Deal said Thursday police
have "received some results" on the earlier evidence. He wouldn't confirm if the bone was Zahra's.
Wednesday's discovery of additional evidence also came in Caldwell, along a creek near Dudley Shoals Road, about five
miles from the Christie Road location.
The site is known as an illegal dumping spot for deer carcasses. Tommy Courtner,
Caldwell County EMS director, said teams spent the day searching in the creek and along the bank.
Investigators
cleared much of the leaves and rocks from the area. A white evidence flag marked the edge of a large hole left by investigators.
At previous sites, the flags have been used to mark bones.
Zahra's birth mother, Dietrich, was reported en
route to North Carolina accompanied by an Australian television crew. Police wouldn't confirm her arrival, but did say
she had asked for privacy if she did come to North Carolina.
Dietrich has not had contact with Zahra since she
was a baby. She told Australia's Channel 7 News that she was trying to find Zahra when she learned she had disappeared.
She said she surrendered Zahra during a time of severe postnatal depression.
"I felt robbed before she was
taken. Now I just feel broken," Dietrich told the Australian television station. "I never got to say goodbye."
For weeks near Zahra's home in Hickory, mourners have deposited photos, personal notes, and more than 100 stuffed
animals – creating a shrine to the young girl.
"When you see the amount of cars going by, you realize
how many people in the community this has affected," said Carolina Turner, who lives a few houses down.
A
vigil is planned for Tuesday. It's Zahra's birthday. She'll be 11 years old.
Hickory police conclude Zahra Baker is dead, 13 November 2010
Bone found was from missing 10-year-old girl. Hickory police chief says investigators 'devastated.'
By Franco Ordoñez Posted: Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010
HICKORY On the 35th day of the search for Zahra Baker, Hickory police Chief Tom Adkins stood before television cameras on
Friday and made a tearful announcement.
"I've been dreading this moment," Adkins said. Authorities
have found enough evidence, he said, to prove the child is dead.
"Investigators, agents, and officers who
worked on this case are devastated that they could not find Zahra alive and bring her home safely," he said.
Adkins, who has overseen the investigation since the freckled 10-year-old with the wide smile was reported missing last
month, said DNA taken from a child's bone discovered last week on Christy Road in Caldwell County matched a DNA sample
taken from Zahra's belongings at her house.
Additional human remains found along a creek five miles away are
consistent with those of a child, he said. Those remains will be sent to the State Bureau of Investigation lab for positive
identification.
The possibility that Zahra's remains have been discovered in at least two places sent shudders
through the community.
"We can't believe this happened to a child," said Charles Estes, 68, who was
among a group of Hickory residents awaiting news about Zahra outside the police department. "We're sad it was way
too late for Zahra. We continue to pray for her and hope justice is done."
No charges were filed on Friday.
District Attorney James Gaither Jr. said investigators are continuing to piece together findings in the grisly case.
"We're continuing to put a case together," he said. "The DA's office is working with law enforcement
and hope to see some resolution in this case that will result in charges being filed in the near future."
The
search for Zahra, who had lost part of her leg to bone cancer, began on Oct. 9 when she was reported missing by her father,
Adam Baker, 33, and her stepmother, Elisa Baker, 42. Police said she has not been seen by anyone outside of her family since
Sept. 25.
The case, one of the more notorious in the state, has drawn worldwide attention. Television crews from
Australia, where Zahra was born, traveled to Hickory, nestled at the foot of the N.C. mountains, to cover the story.
Zahra moved to North Carolina about two years ago with her father from Australia after he met his soon-to-be wife online.
Zahra's friends and relatives in Australia described her as an outgoing, happy girl despite the cancer, and said she didn't
want to come to the U.S.
The SBI will build a DNA profile for Zahra from cheek swabs collected from her biological
father, Adam Baker, and her biological mother, Emily Dietrich, who arrived on Thursday from Australia.
Elisa Baker
has been provisionally assigned a public defender specializing in capital cases, in anticipation of possible murder charges.
She is currently in jail on felony obstruction of justice charges after police said she tried to throw off their investigation. Search began in October
The case came to light in October
with a backyard fire and a phony ransom note.
Based on emergency calls, the Bakers appeared to suggest that Zahra
might have been kidnapped while her father and stepmother were dealing with an early-morning fire. Firefighters discovered
a ransom note appearing to come from someone who claimed to have abducted the daughter of Baker's boss and landlord, Mark
Coffey. But the Coffey family was fine.
In a second call later that day to report Zahra missing, Adam Baker told
an emergency operator that the alleged kidnappers might have taken his daughter by mistake.
Days later, Elisa Baker
was arrested after police say she admitted writing the phony ransom note intended to thwart their investigation.
People who knew the family since they arrived in North Carolina last year said Zahra was frequently locked in her room for
hours at a time, sometimes all day. Family friends and neighbors said they saw her with bruises and black eyes.
Elisa
Baker described herself on her MySpace page as "Gothic." One posting on the page, that has since been taken down,
reads: "your kids rip your heart out." The page, titled "MissGothicfairy," also contained violent music
and graphics on a skull-and-crossbones background.
One posted photo showed Zahra dressed in black and smiling.
The caption read: "the dark child!!!lol."
The owner of a crime memorabilia website is selling two letters
he claims he received from Elisa Baker saying that her husband did something "horrifying" to the girl after her
death.
"We didn't really kill her but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying," says one of
the letters Eric Gein claims he got from Elisa Baker. "Makes me scared of him." Staff writers Cleve R. Wootson Jr.,
Ely Portillo and the Associated Press contributed.
Map: Key events in the Zahra Baker case,
13 November 2010
Elisa Baker's bid for lower bond claims she told police where to find child's scattered remains, but doesn't
tell how she died.
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. Posted: Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010
Zahra Baker's body was dismembered and the remains hidden across several rural locations, a court document said
for the first time Monday, days after police said that the 10-year-old cancer survivor is dead.
The court filing
is a motion by Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, asking the court to reduce her $65,000 bond for obstruction of justice.
The motion, filed Monday afternoon in Superior Court, provides specific and at times grisly details of what Elisa Baker says
happened to the young girl's body.
The document doesn't indicate how Zahra died or who may be responsible,
but the motion argues that Baker's bond should be reduced because of her extensive and continuing cooperation.
"The only credible evidence released to the public by law enforcement related to this case is evidence that was collected
after Elisa Baker told law enforcement where to look and what to look for," the motion says.
Elisa Baker's
attorneys met with her for two hours Monday, but declined to speak with reporters. They couldn't be reached for comment
Monday night.
It wasn't clear Monday why Elisa Baker, in admitted some knowledge of Zahra's death, could
be asking for a lower bond. Police haven't given a motive in the case.
Speculation has centered around Elisa
and Adam Baker, Zahra's father, since shortly after the girl was reported missing on Oct. 9.
A family member
interviewed by CNN's Nancy Grace described talking with Elisa Baker in jail.
"As we talked with her, she
cried over missing Zahra and how her husband has left her to take all the blame for what has happened when he played a big
part in this terrible situation," the cousin said in the interview. The cousin spoke on condition of anonymity because
of death threats the family has received.
The owner of a crime memorabilia website is selling two letters he claims
he received from Elisa Baker saying her stepdaughter, Zahra, is dead, and that her husband did something "horrifying"
to the girl after her death.
"We didn't really kill her but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying,"
says one of the letters Eric Gein claims he got from Elisa Baker, who is in jail. "Makes me scared of him."
In Monday's motion, they say she has been instrumental in the investigation into the death of the girl who moved to
the United States from Australia in 2009, after her father Adam married Elisa Baker.
Zahra Baker, who was hearing-impaired
and walked with the help of a prosthesis after losing her left leg to cancer, was reported missing by her father in a call
to police.
On Friday, after more than a month of investigating, police said they had credible evidence that Zahra
was dead, and had unearthed remains of a child they believe was Zahra.
Both Adam and Elisa Baker have denied any
wrongdoing in the case. Elisa Baker was arrested on Oct. 10 on unrelated charges, then charged with obstruction of justice
on Oct. 12 after investigators say she admitted writing a bogus ransom note.
According to Monday's motion to
reduce bond, Elisa Baker told her attorneys on Oct. 22 that she had information about the disappearance and death of Zahra
Baker.
Elisa Baker's defense attorneys notified police the next morning, indicating that Baker was willing
to cooperate with investigators. But, they said, investigators had to move fast because weather could destroy evidence, according
to the document.
Investigators were told that Zahra Baker was deceased, that her body had been dismembered and
that body parts would be discovered at different sites. The defense team suggested that Baker needed to be present because
of the remote locations of the sites.
Baker went out with law enforcement agents to three sites on Oct. 25, according
to the court document. At each site, she described what would be found there and told officers where to look.
At
one point, she was photographed by television news cameras inside a red SUV being driven by law enforcement agents.
The document says officers recovered the gel liner of the prosthetic leg near Christie Road in Hudson because of Baker.
The site is near where Elisa Baker used to live.
Investigators also found evidence at two other sites because of
Baker, the document says: a bone later identified as Zahra Baker's at the Christie Road site and remains believed to be
those of Zahra Baker at another Caldwell County location along Dudley Shoals Road.
The document says Baker also
directed investigators to other sites where possible evidence was located, including the dumpster where Zahra's mattress
was discarded and undisclosed items found at the family's home.
Baker has continued to cooperate with authorities,
the motion says. She was still in Catawba County jail Monday night. It was unclear Monday evening when a judge is expected
to rule on the motion.
