Zahra Clare Baker #5 10/28/10 - 11/4/10

[pfaubush]

OK, so I know we don't have the full story between biomom and AB, but a couple of things keep running through my mind. Why, if there was a joint custody agreement, and she was paying child support, could she not petition the court to get his location? If he had a bank account for deposit, there should have been an address and if he had moved, couldn't they have stopped the payments until he contacted them with an updated residence?? Maybe, I just don't understand how the system works over there, but I would guess that since there is a custody agreement in place that he should have to hold up his end of it and that if he didn't then there should have been a way to get him to comply, or at least get a location. I don't feel that we have the full story from either side.

[Northern Rose]

Stepmother abused her, neighbors say
Second of two parts

Zahra Baker wanted a bicycle.

It was last spring when she lived with her father and stepmother, Adam and Elisa Baker, in Country Manor Estates, a trailer park in Hudson, a community in Caldwell County.


Neighbor Renee Bobbitt liked to watch her grandson and the other children play outside. Zahra, the 10-year-old girl with the Australian accent, joined right in despite the prosthetic leg she used after her left leg was amputated above the knee because of bone cancer.

“You’d see her on the one good leg, and she’d hop as fast as they could run,” Bobbitt said.

But Elisa Baker, who the neighbors knew as Lisa, didn’t think Zahra had made enough progress on her prosthetic to deserve a bicycle.

“She told her the only way she’d get a bicycle is if she learned to run,” Bobbitt said.

The Bakers’ rented single-wide trailer was on a sloped road that ends in a cul-de-sac.

The cul-de-sac is a place where everybody knows what’s going on. The trailers are close to each other, and people peer around their curtains if a strange car drives in. People step outside to smoke and talk and watch the kids play.

Neighbors saw Lisa Baker repeatedly making Zahra run up and down that hill. Sometimes it seemed to be for therapy; sometimes for punishment.

“I’ve seen her smack her a couple of times and (be) all up in her face because she wasn’t running,” Bobbitt said.

There was another side to Lisa Baker’s relationship with Zahra.

In May, Lisa Baker took Zahra to Charlotte Motor Speedway. In Victory Lane there, Speedway Children’s Charities and other groups delivered hearing aids to children and adults in need.

Although Zahra had lost her leg to bone cancer, her hearing loss came from treatment for tumors that had developed in her lungs. Her cancer was in remission, but the chemotherapy led to a partial hearing loss of high frequency sounds. She had difficulty hearing “s” and “f” sounds.

When a worker asked Zahra what happened to her leg, the 10-year-old Aussie joked: “An alligator ate it.”

Lisa Baker fought back tears as volunteers at the track showed Zahra how to use the hearing aids and racing legend Richard Petty stood nearby.

A hearing-resource teacher at Hudson Elementary School had suggested that the family try to get the hearing aids for Zahra through the Speedway Children’s Charities giveaway.

“(The teacher) said this would be a wonderful opportunity to open up other opportunities,” Lisa Baker said.

Moving to North Carolina
Zahra attended third grade at Hudson Elementary for the last several months of the 2009 school year. Adam Baker married Elisa in Australia in July 2008 and the couple moved to North Carolina, where Elisa Baker was from, in December 2008.

The single father and his future wife met in an online community where people use 3-D avatars to interact.

They lived with Elisa Baker’s father in Hickory until a falling out over money in the summer of 2009.

Adam, Elisa and Zhara moved into an apartment in Granite Falls in July 2009, and Zhara would spend most of the fourth grade at Granite Falls Elementary School.

In Granite Falls, the family lived on Congress Street in an apartment next door to apartment manager Shirley Mims and her husband, Darrell.

The Mimses were unaware that the couple even had a daughter.

“We saw the little girl when they moved in, but we didn’t see her no more after that,” Shirley Mims said. “When I saw the little girl, I assumed it was a grandchild or a visitor, because I never saw her again.”

A few weeks after they moved in, she started hearing Adam and Elisa Baker a lot.

“They fought verbally and physically with each other. You could hear it through the walls,” Mims said. “They’d even take it out into the parking lot.”

The Bakers were fighting so much one time that it knocked the pictures off the wall the Mimses shared with the Bakers, Mims said.

The fighting got so bad that Mims said she asked them to move out in early November 2009. In a day and a half, they were gone.

When the Mimses inspected, they found that the closet that provides access to the attic was missing its door, and the door to the cubbyhole into the attic had been taken off. The couple remembers hearing noises in the attic when the Bakers lived there, something they thought at the time might be squirrels.

“We don’t know for sure, but we think they kept her in the attic,” Darrell Mims said. “There were black shoe-sole prints all around the inside (of the door frame).”

“All the noises I heard in the attic must have been her, but I never heard them again after they left,” Shirley Mims said. “I can’t prove that’s what it was, but in my heart, that’s what I believe.”

She said she would have called authorities if she’d known that a child was living there in such conditions.

Family moved to trailer park
The family moved into the trailer park, but it’s not clear when.

In December 2009, the Bakers’ landlord at the trailer park served Adam Baker with an eviction notice saying that he owed $1,114 in back rent. The trailer rented for $115 a week, seeming to indicate that they had been living there and not paying for about two months, a time that would overlap with the time they were living at the apartment in Granite Falls.

But whenever they started living in the trailer park, Zahra returned to Hudson Elementary School in March 2010 to finish the fourth grade.

In the trailer park, Bobbitt watched Zahra play with the other children, playing ball, playing in the dirt.

“She was the sweetest little thing you’d ever want to meet,” Bobbitt said. “She was full of life.”

Bobbitt’s husband would walk down the hill to give the children candy. Zahra would hug him.

Bobbitt wouldn’t associate with the woman she knew as Lisa Baker because she didn’t like the way she treated Zahra. She said she saw her smack Zahra a couple of times. She saw Baker getting angry and in Zahra’s face because Zahra wasn’t running up that hill.

She thought about calling the Caldwell County Department of Social Services, but said others beat her to it, including officials at Hudson Elementary School.

When Zahra went to school with a black eye, school officials called DSS, neighbor Bobby Green said. He said he saw DSS workers in the trailer.

He said a concerned teacher provided Zahra with her home phone number and told her to call.

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.”

Neighbors said that Baker injured her hand when she was beating Zahra and hit the prosthetic leg. Baker told her husband she’d fallen and broken the hand, Bobbitt said.

Bobbitt said she saw DSS workers visit. “Lisa tried to tell them the chemotherapy was giving (Zahra) the black eyes,” Bobbitt said.

It was May 10 when Zahra and Elisa Baker went to Charlotte Motor Speedway to receive the hearing aids.

Two weeks later, on May 23, teenage neighbors took out an arrest warrant on Elisa Baker in connection with an incident related to her making Zahra walk up that hill.

Corrine Yount, 15, lived in a trailer on another road at the base of the hill. Her trailer formed a T to the Bakers’ trailer: the road the Bakers lived on runs up the hill beside the trailer where Corrine lived and in front of the Bakers’ trailer.

Corrine and her friend Brandy Hefner, 16, noticed Zahra crying as she walked up the hill.

“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,” Corrine said.

When the teenagers intervened, Corrine 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,’” Corrine said.

She said that Baker continued shouting threats until Brandy’s mother came out and asked what was going on and Baker left, according to the arrest warrant.

Corrine said it wasn’t the first time she’d called authorities about how Zahra was treated.

“You could hear Zahra screaming and Elisa yelling at her, so we would call the police,” Corrine said. “We called DSS on her too, but they never did anything.”

The incident with the teenage girls came the day after Adam and Elisa Baker were arrested and charged with communicating threats against Elisa’s niece Brittany Bentley, her fiancee 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 fiancee. He literally tried to run us off the road twice,” Tyler wrote 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 Elisa Baker the money she was owed, but she demanded more, they said. She and Adam Baker 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 said the couple claimed to have a gun in the car and drove to her mother’s home, where Bentley’s daughter was staying. Bentley’s complaint said she feared

for her life and the life

of her daughter and fiancee.

The Bakers were charged with communicating threats in connection with the accusations. Adam Baker was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the incident on the road.

Out of the trailer park
The Bakers moved from the trailer some time over the summer, and in either late August or early September moved into a rented home on 21st Avenue NW, off N.C. 127 in Viewmont.

Neighbors there said they never saw Zahra.

At the trailer park, Bobbitt said she watched as the Bakers moved, but didn’t see the child.

Employees of a Hickory furniture store told police they saw Zahra and her stepmother on Sept. 25.

That’s the only report police have had from anyone who claims to have seen Zahra in Hickory since the family moved.

Adam Baker called police on Oct. 9 to report that his daughter was missing. Elisa Baker told her husband she last saw Zahra sleeping in her bed at 2:30 a.m. that day, about 2½ hours before the couple reported a fire outside their home. Adam Baker told authorities that he panicked after the fire and didn’t immediately check on his daughter.

Despite massive manhunts, Zahra has not been found. Both Adam and Elisa Baker have been arrested separately on unrelated charges. Elisa Baker is cooperating with Hickory police.

Authorities found a prosthetic leg late on Tuesday off Christie Road in Caldwell County, about 4.2 miles from the trailer. The area beside the road is strewn with trash, and a padlocked gate blocks access to a dirt lane that goes back into brush and woods.

They’re still looking for Zahra.

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2010/nov/01/stepmother-abused-her-neighbors-say-ar-499832/

[Northern Rose]

Investigators comb through Baker house

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/mgmedia/image/294/0/119068/zahra-case-2/
A Bible lies among stuffed toy animals at the shrine to Zahra Baker at her residence on 21st Avenue NW, Sunday afternoon.

HICKORY --
Hickory investigators returned to the Baker house Sunday afternoon. They spent hours alongside SBI agents combing through the modest brick home where Zahra Baker was reported missing on Oct. 9.

“Hickory’s lead investigators are going back in to look inside again,” said Chief Tom Adkins of the Hickory Police Department.

The home and yard have been searched multiple times during the 23-day search as officers have worked to find the 10-year-old girl.

Cars drove slowly down the residential street and people craned their necks to see what the investigators were doing and to look at the makeshift shrine in the front yard.

Two SBI agents holding garbage bags walked to the shrine at the base of the oak tree in front of the house. They reached in the bags, pulled out toy plush animals and notes that had been left for Zahra and arranged them in front of the tree.

A second shrine has appeared in recent days at the bottom of the family’s mailbox in front of the house because the crime scene tape ringing the property has limited access to the original memorial.

Zahra’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, remains in the Catawba County jail under a $97,200 secured bond. She was charged with obstruction of justice following her Oct. 12 confession to investigators that she’d written a fake ransom note demanding $1 million. She has also been charged with more than a dozen additional crimes unrelated to Zarha’s disappearance stemming from arrest warrants served on Oct. 10.

Attorney Scott Reilly is representing Baker on her current charges. Attorney Lisa Dubs has been provisionally assigned to the case in anticipation of possible murder charges against Baker.

Adam Baker turned himself in at the Hickory Police Department at 3:12 a.m. Monday. He was arrested on charges unrelated to the disappearance of his daughter and jailed under a $7,000 secured bond. The charges include five counts of worthless checks and failure to appear.

Baker bonded out of jail Wednesday.

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2010/nov/01/investigators-comb-through-baker-house-ar-499509/

[Monkey King]

OK, so I know we don't have the full story between biomom and AB, but a couple of things keep running through my mind. Why, if there was a joint custody agreement, and she was paying child support, could she not petition the court to get his location? If he had a bank account for deposit, there should have been an address and if he had moved, couldn't they have stopped the payments until he contacted them with an updated residence?? Maybe, I just don't understand how the system works over there, but I would guess that since there is a custody agreement in place that he should have to hold up his end of it and that if he didn't then there should have been a way to get him to comply, or at least get a location. I don't feel that we have the full story from either side.

Hello! 

From what I have been able to grasp, they are sticklers over there on their privacy laws.

The custody agreement went into effect in 2001.

The child support paid by biomum went directly to AB, I assume, by debit card.  she could not access his personal info, address, and he could not access biomums.

I read some things at thehinkymeter.com where biomum was posting.

[Nana29]

OK, so I know we don't have the full story between biomom and AB, but a couple of things keep running through my mind. Why, if there was a joint custody agreement, and she was paying child support, could she not petition the court to get his location? If he had a bank account for deposit, there should have been an address and if he had moved, couldn't they have stopped the payments until he contacted them with an updated residence?? Maybe, I just don't understand how the system works over there, but I would guess that since there is a custody agreement in place that he should have to hold up his end of it and that if he didn't then there should have been a way to get him to comply, or at least get a location. I don't feel that we have the full story from either side.

Hello! 

From what I have been able to grasp, they are sticklers over there on their privacy laws.

The custody agreement went into effect in 2001.

The child support paid by biomum went directly to AB, I assume, by debit card.  she could not access his personal info, address, and he could not access biomums.

I read some things at thehinkymeter.com where biomum was posting.

One of of very own, Tibrogargan, has a thread here that is very informative and will explain how strict AU privacy laws are...

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=722.920

[Monkey King]

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/10/28/zahra-baker-case-a-review-of-yesterdays-activities/

» biomum said: { Oct 28, 2010 - 06:10:04 }
it seems I have woken with no more news than when I went to sleep. With the time difference between Australia and the US I have had a lot of reading to do this morning. Since finding this blog site, and reading all your writings, I haven’t felt so alone or lost. Being so far away, hearing things from those of you that are local makes me feel that bit closer to everything.

I want to thank Valhall for her support through this. It is true that this is the only place I have been making posts, or any comments. I’m not sure why exactly, but after reading the educated discussion before making my first posting, I had this feeling of safety and compassion, but also honesty without being offensive. As she said, I am happy for you to ask me questions, and if I am up to it I will answer them best I can. I am finding helping you all to understand quite cathartic, and makes me want to do something other than cry and sleep.

*I noticed that a lot of you are curious about Child Support. There are a few ways you can pay your CS payments in Australia, in this case I make automatic payments to the Child Support Agency (CSA, which is federal) and they then electronically transfer it to his nominated account. Our federal Privacy Act prevents he or I from gaining each others details, but (for example) if DFAT (dept of foreign affairs & trading) were to need to find me to give authourity for Zahra’s passport, then as a Gov agency they could access it. (as far as I have been made aware).
I was in contact with CSA earlier this week, and he has not breached their guidelines by going to the US, as the US is an “affiliate country”, or something along those lines. And as I was finding this out, they also made me aware that when they were made aware of her “disappearance”, they automatically put a hold on my payments as of the date she was reported missing.

*As for Adam himself… I must admit that I have always been drawn to the “bad boy” facade, but note “facade”. I was 18 when I met him, and as far as I know he had no criminal record. I was fully aware of some “mischief” he had, and was, getting up to, but thats all it was, teenage trouble making. My mum and sister warned me of what they were seeing, but as they say “love is blind”. next thing I knew I had no contact with my mum and sister, and for some reason believed they were just trying to not let me be happy. I had lost contact with my friends, and was pregnant and living at his mothers house.
Looking back with older, more worldly eyes, it is easy for me to see the manipulation and all the signs, but we all know what they say about hindsight…. I still didn’t know the complete truth until the week Zahra went missing, this month. My mum and sister had not told me, all those years ago, that while I was in labour with Zahra, Adam and his mother wouldn’t even let them in to see me. Even after her birth it was him and his mother. My mother and sister have felt all these years that she was never going to be mine, she was always going to “belong” to the Bakers. That hurt to find out, and I feel so much pain for them. I understand why they would not tell me that, but it must have been so hard for them to keep that inside for so many years.
As for what happened in detail, I will leave that for another post. I am just spewing out information as it wants to come out, so sorry if I ramble. I have never really told this complete story to anyone, even my friends all have just a little piece each.

I think I need a break, and umpteen more cups of coffee. I will be making several posts today, simply because I am feeling more and more comfortable with you all, and the more I seem to release in this “anonomous” way, the less fear I have of the media when I do get to the US….

keep up the awesome investigative work, you are all wonderful for caring so very much
hugs to you all.

[Monkey King]

Biomum~ How she found Zahra

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/10/28/zahra-baker-case-a-review-of-yesterdays-activities/


» biomum said: { Oct 28, 2010 - 09:10:11 }
after several of those previously mentioned coffees, and watching some Ellen (who I love btw, she always makes me laugh regardless of what’s going on), I am back with some more rambling…
it had been pointed out that maybe I should explain how I found out Zahra was in the US the week before all this mess started. I will do this, but please understand, even I had trouble believing that I found her the way I did… It is a “6 degrees” situation which absolutely dumbfounded me…

before I do this I just wanna answer a couple of simpler questions that have been asked…
firstly someone asked about the brother who went to the US with AB’s mum… well he only has younger brothers so that answers that…
secondly, I did see someone ask about if AB is innocent why is he not filing for divorce.. not that I want to explain his unforgivable actions to anyone, but if hey were married in Australia (as has been said) they have to be legally seperated for 12mths before they can be divorced. I am not aware of any “loopholes” in that requirement, but it is a way of our government minimising our divorce rate, not that it necessarily works. Also i’m not sure how it would be initiated being that they are both residing in the US.

Now, to how I finally found my baby.
to get the most unbelievable part out of the way, I will just use the word FACEBOOK…
As I have said previously, my family and I were constantly searching the internet for Zahra and any of the Bakers. I had put their names into FB, MySpace and Bebo many times before and only come to dead ends. Now, I don’t know whether these people thought I had given up, or just plainly “slipped up”, but on October 5th I was doing my usual search and up came a Karen baker on FB that I had not seen before (no profile pic). I clicked on her name and she had a private profile, but I could see her friends list, I thought i would go through that to se if any of the family that I knew was on there… (over the years I have become somewhat of a PI, and found ways around things). next thing I’m not knowing what to do because I found her youngest sons name, Adam, and Karen’s sister (who he first ran to when h left Wagga with Zahra). I knew I had the right profile… I didn’t understand why I had searched for Adam on there before and never found him, but that was because I limited the search to Aust, which I would soon find out was not the best idea.
Next came the real shock, which threw be back about 20 paces. Also on Karens friends list I found the mother of one of my best friends (who had moved to adelaide, in another state). Of course my first reaction was to get paranaoid and think it was kept from me, but thinking again I realised my friend was not that hurtful, so I “inboxed” her with the situation, and I got response of shock, amazement, and excitement taht she had known the family all this time and just not put it all together over the years, because i never really mentioned Adam’s family, only Zahra. The connection started making sense, both my friends father and AB’s father had both been in the same military core and had been at the same base in Wagga just after Adam had run off with her.
This all happened mid morning, and by that night my friend had arranged with her mother to email me some updated pics she had of Zahra. I didn’t wanna believe any of it, but then I received the email I just looked and cried. I just could not stop crying. I was looking at my own childhood photos, and then as I kept looking I found ones that looked just like my other daughter who is with me… it was amazing… I’m bawling now remember those feelings…. here was this beaautiful young girl, smiling, looking so happy. I had absolutely no reason to think she was anything other than happy and well cared for.
Then came the news, that they had moved to the US 2 years ago. I couldn’t believe it. they didn’t know where. I was just staring at the pics wondering how the hell to find out where she was and how they did this when i noticed in one pic she was hold a certificate from school, so I zoomed in and it said “Granite Falls Elementary School”. I was straight onto google and then all of a sudden, by expanding my search there were pics of her from when she received her hearing aid, and again she looked so happy and content.
I asked a favour of my friend and her mother, to ask Karen if we could find a way to communicate, if even by email, to find out what was going on. The response to this was a flat out NO, which I guess didn’t really suprise me. I then sent the emails to my sister and mother (who are now 6hrs from me as I only recently moved), and Zahra’s godmaother. they were also understanbly exstatic… we had found her

That amazing high was extremely short lived. I was walking on clouds, everything looked more colourful, I couldn’t stop smiling and then I got a phonecall from the friend who got me the pics, I was assuming with more good news, I so very wrong….
all i remember was hearing “she’s missing”, and I didn’t understand. she wasn’t missing becuase we’d just found her, she wasn’t missing anymore. She told me to get online and I would understand, to type in her name like I usually would….. I still didn’t understand. had Adam somehow found out I knew where there were and concocted some elaborate prank to throw me off…. was it all mistaken identity… was it a different Zahra Baker from Australia….. I can’t explain what i was feeling, it think I just went numb, I can’t really rememebr to be honest. I had just found her, she COULD NOT be missing.
I rang my sister and told her to “google” zahra and she could barely understand me. Not thinking that she was at work I just kept telling her to search for her that she was missing and it was everywhere…. I don’t think I still really understood what it was all saying. She wen to shock immedately aswell and we were both making no sense…
Once I had finished that call I had to somehow tell my mother. This was gonna be a hard one as she was in hospital recovering from fluid on her lungs, turn out it was the best place for her, as they ended up “assisting” her to calm done. She broke my heart, she just kept saying, “but no, we just got her back, we just got her back. how can they take her away again..”" I t was so hard being away from them and having to break this horrible news…
as we all know things \have just gotten worse from there. Hearing them remove the amber alert and change it to a homocide…… how to handle that? ther eis no book to tell you what to do. there are no pamphlets telling you what to do next.. I just curled up in a ball and cried. I cried from the physical pain that I was feeling, from the anger that someone could do this to her, for my mother and sister who were so far away, and at that point, and of anger with myself, that I had somehow let this happen.

I’m sorry, excuse my rambling… I’m off to pull myself back together…..
again thank you

[Monkey King]

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/10/28/zahra-baker-case-a-review-of-yesterdays-activities/

 biomum said: { Oct 28, 2010 - 09:10:06 }
Val

it was this timing that had me in complete disbelief. Was it karma/Fate that brought me back to Zahra now, to help fight for her..? or was it my finding her that could have triggered these events? these are questions I have tried to stop asking myself because I was driving myself into a very dark and miserable place.
I understand that some hteories as to what happened are horrific, and noone wants to think of them as a reality, but it is these things I, and my family have to prepare ourselves for. In this circumstance, if we don’t accept the worst now we will never handle when whatever truth is revealed.

there is one point I do ant to put “on record”, that to me is very important. While I am far from a fan of the Bakers, I do have to give some appreciation and thanks to Karen, GM. From what I can understand of Zahra’s medical records, it was Karen who nursed her trhough her cancers, and was te one to take her to most of her Physio appointments etc. while I despise the fact she had part in keeping Zahra from me, I thank her for being there during some of Zahra’s worst times.

**HAT TIP TO VALHALL FOR PROVIDING A PLACE FOR BIOMUM TO POST! MK

[Monkey King]

I thought some of you fuyw were saying we didn't knnow anything about Zahra, what she liked, her favorite color or anything.  Lucky has met Zahra and shares her encounter~

» Lucky said: { Oct 28, 2010 - 07:10:05 }
I have followed these posts from the beginning, from the minute I saw little Zahra’s face pictured in an article, my heart dropped as I realised that I knew this precious little girl. As heartbreaking as it is to read the theories and stories being discussed on the forum boards, I feel compelled to read them and follow so closely, as like all of you I want closure for this darling little spirit.

I was fortunate enough to have spent a short time with Zahra while she was within the oncology ward, and have always treasured that time. It’s hard to explain as I was only lucky enough to have met her handful of times, and anyone who has spent time within a children’s hospital will understand, but you have ‘moments’ with these kids, and for me, she was always mine.

I wish I could go back to the moment sitting on her bed, her bright laughing face looking up at me, her pink flannelette pj’s hiding her leg amputation while she crazily went about making an imaginary cake, while watching Jamie Oliver and telling me in great detail all about how much she loved cooking. Her infectious laugh, and the twinkle in her eye was luminous while shattering against the stark hospital background. I remember looking at her then, trying to hide from my face the fact that my heart was breaking for her battling away in a hospital ward, and thinking that she was the most amazing child I had ever met. She continued on with her flurry of ‘baking’ but looked at me with the brightest smile, but the deepest eyes which said you don’t need to worry, I’ll be ok. Much more ‘baking’ ensued, followed by card making, and this funny little lady beetle puzzle which she always thought was utterly hilarious.

Her face and soul simply sparkled with magic, and it is not the tragic turn of events which has made me realise this. Her determination, compassion and sheer delight in life in what seemed like the biggest fight she would face was quite simply, awe inspiring.

I feel lucky to have met Zahra, but a great heaviness that I can not go back to that moment. So many people crossed her path and were touched by her most enchanting spirit, but had no idea what her future held, so sadly didn’t know to save her from it. She taught me that no matter what your fight is, fight it with dignity and strength, and I will keep that forever.

**AGAIN THANK YOU, VALHALL- MK

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/10/28/zahra-baker-case-a-review-of-yesterdays-activities/

[Tibrogargan]

Hello monkeys.  I have been reading here as a guest but not posting for several days, because this case has ripped my heart out.  Not since I followed the Natalie Holloway case have I felt so involved with a missing child case as I do with this one.  Possibly it is the Australian connection but I think mostly it is knowing that this dear little girl in her ten short years had faced and survived more than most of us have to contend with in an entire lifetime, only to be subject to the amount of abuse and neglect that horrifies all of us.

I have read the Bio-mothers postings and believe she is being honest and trying to convey things from her side.  Even if she displays the usual human trait of making things look a little better than they really were, her account of all those years is more than credible to me.

I may be able to shed some light on some subjects queried here.

One of my previous posts in this thread mentions the difficulty in getting a passport without both parents noted on the birth certificate signing their consent.  Unless there was a court order to remove the consent required from one or both parents, the only other way that I know of it could be achieved would be with forged signatures on the required application forms.  If both parents were removed from being guarantors then Zahra would have been declared a ward of the state and subject to the appropriate government authority.  We all  know Stepmom is handy at forgery from her court charges.

Now for the big question of how Zahra could just disappear and her mother be unable to trace her whereabouts.  I have posted extensively about how strict our privacy laws are and how difficult it is for us to sleuth anyone even through google.  Apart from facebook, myspace and similar links or being able to trace someone through our white pages (assuming they do not have a silent phone number and you know the area where they are living) the only way their name may appear in google searches is if they did something noteworthy, either good or bad.  Unsensational local news media items rarely get repeated outside their particular area so items about Zahra that appeared in the Townsville Bulletin in Queensland for her cancer would not even get to the adjoining state of New South Wales where her Bio-mother resided.  And if her Bio-mother had no idea they had moved interstate then she would not have investigated other media sources.

Now for the question of how the Bio-mother was paying child support and not able to use this avenue to trace Zahra.

During my accounting career, I spent many years specialising as a Paymaster for a very large company.  We were required to deduct money as garnishees from the wages of our employees either for debts, alimony or child support.  The way this happens is that the employer is presented with a court order naming the employee and specifying the amount required to be deducted from the employee's weekly wage before the remaining money is paid to the employee.  One copy of this order is given to the employee and the other copy retained by the employer.  The employer signs an acknowledgement that the said person is an employee and undertakes to deduct the specified amount.   

Once moneys have been deducted then at the end of each calendar month, either four or five weekly amounts depending on number of weekly pay days in the month, they are remitted to the relevant government department or court.  In Zahra's case this would have been Child Support Agency.  This agency would then remit to the father's bank account, either monthly or quarterly.  Zahra's father could also have kept his Australian bank account current and accessed the moneys from the US.  I do not know how that would be done.

I hope that this explains how persons paying and those receiving the money in this manner are kept totally separate and no communication can be established.

Adding that I wish we could find another more respectful term to use rather than Bio-mother.

[Nightowl]

Tibrogargan you have summed it up nicely, I think it is difficult for people to understand how strict our privacy laws have become here in Aus and how near impossible it is to find someone who doesn't want to be found.

And.....I also agree with you and wish there was a better name to use rather than Biomum.

[Tibrogargan]

G'day Nightowl.  It must be so mystifying for others to understand how we are regulated by our legislations when everyone and everything is so open and easiily accessible in the USA.  And no, we do not feel we are living in a restrictive society. We value our privacy.

I also wanted to welcome all the new monkeys from Australia.  After almost four years as a monkey it is very nice to have others join who also live here.  I hope you will begin posting and share your thoughts with us all.

[Leroy]

Hello monkeys.  I have been reading here as a guest but not posting for several days, because this case has ripped my heart out.  Not since I followed the Natalie Holloway case have I felt so involved with a missing child case as I do with this one.  Possibly it is the Australian connection but I think mostly it is knowing that this dear little girl in her ten short years had faced and survived more than most of us have to contend with in an entire lifetime, only to be subject to the amount of abuse and neglect that horrifies all of us.

I have read the Bio-mothers postings and believe she is being honest and trying to convey things from her side.  Even if she displays the usual human trait of making things look a little better than they really were, her account of all those years is more than credible to me.

I may be able to shed some light on some subjects queried here.

One of my previous posts in this thread mentions the difficulty in getting a passport without both parents noted on the birth certificate signing their consent.  Unless there was a court order to remove the consent required from one or both parents, the only other way that I know of it could be achieved would be with forged signatures on the required application forms.  If both parents were removed from being guarantors then Zahra would have been declared a ward of the state and subject to the appropriate government authority.  We all  know Stepmom is handy at forgery from her court charges.

Now for the big question of how Zahra could just disappear and her mother be unable to trace her whereabouts.  I have posted extensively about how strict our privacy laws are and how difficult it is for us to sleuth anyone even through google.  Apart from facebook, myspace and similar links or being able to trace someone through our white pages (assuming they do not have a silent phone number and you know the area where they are living) the only way their name may appear in google searches is if they did something noteworthy, either good or bad.  Unsensational local news media items rarely get repeated outside their particular area so items about Zahra that appeared in the Townsville Bulletin in Queensland for her cancer would not even get to the adjoining state of New South Wales where her Bio-mother resided.  And if her Bio-mother had no idea they had moved interstate then she would not have investigated other media sources.

Now for the question of how the Bio-mother was paying child support and not able to use this avenue to trace Zahra.

During my accounting career, I spent many years specialising as a Paymaster for a very large company.  We were required to deduct money as garnishees from the wages of our employees either for debts, alimony or child support.  The way this happens is that the employer is presented with a court order naming the employee and specifying the amount required to be deducted from the employee's weekly wage before the remaining money is paid to the employee.  One copy of this order is given to the employee and the other copy retained by the employer.  The employer signs an acknowledgement that the said person is an employee and undertakes to deduct the specified amount.   

Once moneys have been deducted then at the end of each calendar month, either four or five weekly amounts depending on number of weekly pay days in the month, they are remitted to the relevant government department or court.  In Zahra's case this would have been Child Support Agency.  This agency would then remit to the father's bank account, either monthly or quarterly.  Zahra's father could also have kept his Australian bank account current and accessed the moneys from the US.  I do not know how that would be done.

I hope that this explains how persons paying and those receiving the money in this manner are kept totally separate and no communication can be established.

Adding that I wish we could find another more respectful term to use rather than Bio-mother.

Tibro - thanks for all the info.  It does make it easier to understand and I wish, like the rest of you, that bioMom could have found and saved Zahra from her horrible life sooner.  I guess there really is no need for me to express my thoughts about bioMom since I'm sure she will have many sleepless nights for the rest of her life.  Even though I do feel she is in some way responsible, I also feel very sorry her.

[Monkey King]

In all fairness, it hasn't been revealed to us how AB was able to move and take Zahra with him.  We don't know what the situation was with him and Zahra's bio-mother.

Perhaps we shouldn't judge too harshly until the facts are known a little better.

We don't know how AB was able to the leave the country, AU, without parental consent of Zahra's mother.

What we do know is AB and EB were responsible for Zahra's well being and apparently, failed miserably.  If we are going to place blame, it needs to be on the guilty parties~MK

[Lenie]

G'day Nightowl.  It must be so mystifying for others to understand how we are regulated by our legislations when everyone and everything is so open and easiily accessible in the USA.  And no, we do not feel we are living in a restrictive society. We value our privacy.

I also wanted to welcome all the new monkeys from Australia.  After almost four years as a monkey it is very nice to have others join who also live here.  I hope you will begin posting and share your thoughts with us all.

Thank you for all of your helpful information Tibrogargan.  Could Zahra's mother have filed contempt charges on AB for breaking the custody agreement?

[bananas]

OK, so I know we don't have the full story between biomom and AB, but a couple of things keep running through my mind. Why, if there was a joint custody agreement, and she was paying child support, could she not petition the court to get his location? If he had a bank account for deposit, there should have been an address and if he had moved, couldn't they have stopped the payments until he contacted them with an updated residence?? Maybe, I just don't understand how the system works over there, but I would guess that since there is a custody agreement in place that he should have to hold up his end of it and that if he didn't then there should have been a way to get him to comply, or at least get a location. I don't feel that we have the full story from either side.

Hello! 

From what I have been able to grasp, they are sticklers over there on their privacy laws.

The custody agreement went into effect in 2001.

The child support paid by biomum went directly to AB, I assume, by debit card.  she could not access his personal info, address, and he could not access biomums.

I read some things at thehinkymeter.com where biomum was posting.

I am having trouble with the story as well.  Although, I do feel sorry for the biomum..... I also feel we don't have the entire story.  It seems to me, Zahra could have been found through the courts.

[Lazydog1]

Did I read early in this thread that today they will convene the Grand Jury in this case to start reviewing the evidence they have recovered so far?  I am anxious to see who that evidence leads to as far as charges. Whether it will be EB or AB or both or if someone else is also involved.   

 

[Monkey King]

Got it!!

Bio-mum custody agreement/how AB wound up with Zahra:

» biomum said: { Oct 28, 2010 - 12:10:58 }
to those who are understandably skepical of me, and/or my “story”, it is a long story, as you could imagine, and I do understand all your questions. you do need to bare with me though. While it is easy for you to all cast doubt on my situation, and make judgement on what you believe to know, it is not that easy for me to live through the pain of this whole situation, and also relive the emotions of when she was first taken from my life.
I’ll make things short and sweet as I can…

*the media has stated I have not Zahra since she was 8mths old – false (and I do have photo evidence to prove that, when I am more comfortable with the public knowing who I am)
*My relationship with Adam with full of manipulation and mental & emotion abuse which left me an empty shell of who I was. Once Zahra was born I suffered severe post natal depression, and that was worsened when I finally gained the strength to leave him and was left to try and raise Zahra on my own. I could barely look after myself, let alone a baby (as much as I wanted to), so Zahra began living with Adam (I assumed he would at least treat his daughter well). We had discussed it so that I could see her whenever I could while I got back on my feet, and then she would come back to live with me. This never happened…
One day I had gotten a lift from a friend to Adam’s to see Zahra, and when we arrived at his unit is was empty, no furniture, no nothing. He had up and left with her without notifying me. I went to the police, but because there were no custody orders in place at the time it was not regarded a crime, and they could not really help me, so it was up to me to try and find her.
*after a lot of searching, and legal advice, I managed to track down Adam and get custody papers drawn up and put through the courts, which were finalised 9th July 2001. These stated that Zahra was to reside with Adam in Newcastle (7hrs from me) but was basically “joint custody”. I was to have her school holidays, anytime throughout the year in 4 day blocks etc, and we were to (and I quote the custody papers) “have joint responsibility for the long term care, welfare and development of the child”. I got to see her once, and he disappeared again.
*It has been 8 years since I have seen her, and yes I now have 2 more children which are my everything. What I have never had is endless funds to keep paying solicitors to keep tracking him down. Here in Australia you can easily hide if you want to, our privacy laws are amazingly strict.
*I was not told she was sick until 2007, and then the person to notify me was told by Adam not to notify of their whereabouts, or her illness, but this person felt that was wrong and told me Zahra was in Queensland and very ill. As soon as I was made aware I applied for her medical records which I regularly updated, but once again privacy laws prevented me from knowing where she was, except for the state.
*In 2008 i finally hit on an article with a pic of her from a cancer camp, while it let me know she was doing ok, it was no help as to anymore detail.
*Assuming there was no way she was out of the country, I refined my searches to Australia, which is why I never found anything after that one article, it seems she had been taken to the US…..
*They are claiming they the bakers) and the authourities tried to contact me when leaving the country but failed, but this is also false. I have payed child support to her every single week since she left my custody, I recieve a family allowance for my other children, and zahra is also linked to my medicare card. All these things are provided by government agencies so I am easily found, unlike themselves….

I hope this is enough to keep you skeptics happy, because it has hurt me like hell bringing it all up. While I don’t feel I should have to explain myself to the world, I have had enough of people passing judgement (and harshly) on something they know absolutely nothing about, and at a time when my emotions are already running wild.
Now please just let me grieve for my daughter, and for all the lost chances I never had with her. I am more eager than anyone for this truth to come out, so lets finally shift our focus to that.

 http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/10/27/zahra-baker-case-why-is-the-mattress-important/#comments

**TY Valhall~ MK

[cw618]

And.....I also agree with you and wish there was a better name to use rather than Biomum.

Zahra's mother/Zahra's mum, both seem ok to me
i prefer Zahra's mum

[Monkey King]

Hey CW!

This went with that last post from Bio-mum, Zahra's mother:

» biomum said: { Oct 28, 2010 - 12:10:51 }
rereading my last post, I do apologise for the tone I took by the end. I don’t want to attack anybody, nor do I want to come across as someone I’m not. This whole thing has my head in all sorts of places. one minute I’m crying and the next I just want to break something. I guess the subject of Adam makes me feel more of the latter.
I do understand all of your confusion, th media confuse matters and Adam has never done anything but lie.
Please accept my apology, and I hope the info I have given you has made things a little clearer. I also hope that none of you mind the occassional rant from me on here…

http://www.thehinkymeter.com/2010/10/27/zahra-baker-case-why-is-the-mattress-important/#comments