Zahra Clare Baker #2 10/13/10 - 10/16/10

[Brandi]

10 year old feared murdered
5:30 AM Thursday Oct 14, 2010
NEW YORK - The worst fears for Australian 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker appear to have come true with United States authorities announcing they believe the shy, hearing-impaired amputee was murdered.

Chief Tom Adkins, head of North Carolina's Hickory Police Department, choked back tears when he announced that an Amber Alert issued at the weekend to find Zahra was cancelled and the missing person case had switched to a murder investigation.

Zahra's American stepmother, Elisa Baker, remains a suspect and has been charged with obstruction of justice for writing a fake ransom note demanding US$1 million ($1.33 million).

The note was discovered on a car parked outside the family's Hickory home.

"Elisa Baker admitted to writing the ransom note left on the vehicle," Adkinssaid.

Zahra's father, Adam, who has also not been ruled out as a suspect, was reportedly helping police and cadaver dogs search a wooded area at the end of a dirt road several kilometres from the family home.

Adding to police fears for Zahra, police dogs detected the smell of human remains on cars belonging to the father and stepmother.

Many questions remain unanswered about how Zahra, who moved to the US with her father two years ago after he reportedly met Elisa Baker on the internet, disappeared.

Adkins said that apart from Zahra's father and stepmother, no one can confirm seeing the girl in the past month.

He said "information" police had received pointed to an "inspector" visiting the home, but that had not been verified.

"We need the public to come forward if they think they have seen Zahra within the [one-month] timeframe," he said.

Zahra, who had her lower left leg amputated five years ago after a battle with bone cancer and used a prosthetic leg to walk, was born in the New South Wales country town of Wagga Wagga and spent time in Newcastle before moving north to Townsville and eventually North Carolina.

Her mother still lives in Australia.

Relatives have come forward with harrowing stories about how Zahra was allegedly treated at home. Brittany Bentley, married to Elisa Baker's nephew, told CBS TV Zahra was regularly beaten by Baker and locked in her bedroom for most of the day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10680381

[melisb]

Even if DSS has an eye on Z's family and wanted to talk to and investigate them it's a common thing for a family under suspicion to keep moving and not contact family so they won't be found to be investigated.  I'm sure that is why she wasn't in school.  I don't understand why this would happen to Zarha because she did kinda seem to be their meal ticket.  I guess an evil person doesn't need a reason if they are just mean and or tired of dealing with a child.  Jealousy could be involved too.  Looking at before and after pics of this evil woman it just looks as if drugs were more important to here.  She was very pale and sallow like she never saw the light of day.  Maybe shut up in a room all day doing drugs?  All MOO!

Morning all...Lazydog1 you are right.  I just thought that was an inventory from the vehicles.  LE should have a more descript log.  That could be a problem if someone wanted to point out it doesn't specify where items were from.  All other search warrants we have seen do specify the info.

[melisb]

Is anyone having trouble logging on to BOC?  Still working on that one too?  Shoot I gotta go to work!  Ya'll try to have a wonderful day in spite of all the bad news.  Beautiful day here starting out.  Finally a cool breeze in the air!  Can't wait for fall!


                                                         

[Claycat]

Apart from the 2 toothbrushes, the thing that struck me was that they had their passports in the car.  I wonder why that was, I keep all our passports in a safe place in my house unless I am traveling overseas or need my passport for identification. It just seems a bit odd. 

If these items were in the car, I imagine they were there in case the family had to make a quick getaway.  According to recent reports, the stepmother was selling drugs.  They might have been ready in case they knew the police were on the way.  I'm surprised they didn't leave Saturday after the fire.

If the comforter and toothbrushes were Zahra's, it would be for the DNA.  Taking the passports would also deter a getaway, now, by the father. 

[Monkey King]

They also stated they had taken BURN SAMPLES from the TAHOE AND the BRUSH PILE.

So, Apparently they tried to start a fire in the vehicle as well.

[Monkey King]

[Tolerance]

Family, friends in Australia love 'Bubbly Zahra'

HICKORY --
The disappearance of Zahra Clare Baker has devastated her family and friends in Australia.

The Townsville Bulletin, a newspaper published near Zahra’s former home in Giru, Queensland, reports Zahra’s grandmother, Karen Baker, and close family friend, Kim Wright, “spent many an hour with the bubbly Wagga-born girl in the four years she was growing up in Giru,” the Bulletin reported.

Queesnland is a large state in the northeastern part of Australia.

“She was the most determined little girl I have ever met,” Wright said.

“She was going to still do everything she could, despite not having her leg or her hearing. People say she has had a rough trot, but she never believed that for a second.”

“We are just stunned and shocked and so upset about what has happened,” Karen Baker, who lives in Newcastle,  said.

“There is nothing we can do from here. We feel so helpless. We have friends who live over there who work in the trucking industry, and they have got all their mates to put out the alert that Zahra is missing through their CB systems, so hopefully there will be someone who has seen something. We want our darling girl back safe and sound,” Baker said.

The Bulletin and other news sources reveal a child who was shy, but always smiling in spite of her serious health problems.

Zahra was unable to attend school for a year because of the cancer.

Her friends in the community and the Giru State School raised enough money to buy her a laptop computer and educational software so she could keep up with her studies.

Wright met Zahra during a fundraising drive. Wright also worked with Zahra’s father, Adam, and her grandfather, Tony, at Invicta Sugar Mill.

Wright described Zahra as “determined and positive.”

Giru is near Townsville and has a population of 375.

She and her father lived with her grandparents. Family members say Zahra’s mother had little contact with her since she was eight months old.

Zahra also won the hearts of soldiers at Camp Quality in September of 2008 when she and 30 other North Queensland children and their companions were guests at the camp of Lavarack Barracks, Townsville.

Not long after that, news sources report, “She was uprooted from Australia ... and moved to North Carolina.”

Every report coming out of Australia refers to Zahra’s seemingly permanent smile.

A friend who lives in Brisbane posted this on the Townville Bulletin’s Web site:

“Zahra you are in my prayers. I heard this news ...  and it has left me sick with worry. May you be returned safe and well to your family, you are such a beautiful girl, you taught me so much during our many different Camp trips. The world through you a lot of lemons but you always caught them with a smile, keep on smiling Princess!”

A snapshot of Zahra

• Born 2000 in Wagga, Queensland, Australia
• 2001, father and mother divorce.
• In 2004, moved with her father to the North Queesnland township of Giru.
• 2005, diagnosed with a form of bone cancer that led to hearing loss and amputation of lower left leg.
• 2007, diagnosed with secondary lung cancer.
• 2008, cancer was declared in remission.
• 2008, moved to North Carolina with her father and new stepmother.
• 2010, approximately early September, moved with father and stepmother from Granite Falls area to Hickory.
• 2010, Oct. 9, reported missing from Hickory home.


http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2010/oct/14/family-friends-australia-love-bubbly-zahra-ar-455651/

How the heck did they go from having to have fundraisers to get a laptop and educational supplies for Zahra to being able to afford to move across the globe?

[Monkey King]

How did Elisa get to Australia?

[klaasend]

I just heard on a local television station, on a brief news report, that the father of the missing Newcastle girl in the United States, is no longer co-operating with the police.  It was just a brief report in between shows.

I expected this

[pfaubush]

I just heard on a local television station, on a brief news report, that the father of the missing Newcastle girl in the United States, is no longer co-operating with the police.  It was just a brief report in between shows.

I expected this

I was surprised he was still co-opererating when he can pick up a paper and read that they don't feel he's being truthful and isn't sincere. He thought he was fooling everyone by doing what he thought looked like full co-operation. When le no longer believes you, there is no need in putting up that front anymore. What really surprised me is le saying that they weren't buying into it, publicly. I would think they would be worried that this might make him flee.

[klaasend]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/14/1758012/missing-girl-now-believed-to-be.html

Search continues for Zahra Baker; drained pond turns up nothing
Candlelight vigil draws hundreds for missing girl
By Ely Portillo and Franco Ordoñez
Staff Writers
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 ******* 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.

[klaasend]

http://charlotte.news14.com/content/top_stories/631463/search-continues-for-zahra-baker--now-presumed-dead

Updated 6:49 AM
Search continues for Zahra Baker, now presumed dead

By: Adrianne Flores & Brad Broders

MORGANTON, N.C. – For the fifth straight day, investigators continued their search Wednesday for Zahra Baker in a wooded area off of Hartland Road north of Morganton.

Authorities are hoping to uncover new clues in the whereabouts of the missing 10-year-old, which police now call a homicide investigation. She is now presumed dead. Burke County Sheriff’s detectives combed the area about 5 p.m. Wednesday but were unsuccessful in their search.

The search came after Hickory Police, the FBI and three search dogs reportedly searched several acres of land nearby earlier in the day.

By 5:30 p.m., a truck from the Chesterfield Fire Department arrived ready to drain a three-foot deep pond once the homeowner gave approval. The pond is next to wood cutting equipment which investigators also inspected Tuesday night in Zahra’s case.

The draining began about 6 p.m. and continued after the sun went down, but did not discover any clues.

Neighbors say there’s another pond off Hartland Road but it’s unclear if inspectors have checked it out.

Meanwhile, Elisa Baker posted to her MySpace account just days before her stepdaughter Zahra was reported missing.

On Oct. 5, Baker self describes her mood as crazy. She states, "Funny how people in this world are quick to talk about people yet they forget they have skeletons that are just begging to get out!!!"

Baker's MySpace page also shows that she referred to Zahra Baker as the "dark child." Her page also has the statement, "We are all going to hell and I'm driving the bus."

Stay with News 14 and news14.com for the latest on the Zahra Baker investigation.

[Monkey King]

They ought to check the dump as well.  They probably dumped a bunch of stuff when they moved.  Actually, I don't believe it.  They seem too scummy to clean up after themselves, they probably left the trailer a $hit-hole. 

[luvmyboys]

So I take it that nothing was found n the pond. I haven't seen anything. Have any of you guys heard anything?

[klaasend]

http://www.whky.com/news.asp?mode=detail&articleID=13862

Search Continues for Zahra Baker
10/14/2010 6:15:15 AM

Investigators in Catawba, Caldwell and Burke counties continue to search for 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker.

Authorities once again checked a brush pile at Real Tree Services in Morganton, where Zahra’s father was employed.  A pond next to that property was also searched.

A K-9 unit again went over the property around Zahra’s home at 21 21st Avenue N.E. in Hickory.  Investigators also took a dumpster from a nearby restaurant in order to search its contents.

Anyone with information should call the Hickory Police Department at 828-328-5551.

[4 Donks]

http://charlotte.news14.com/content/top_stories/631463/search-continues-for-zahra-baker--now-presumed-dead

Updated 6:49 AM
Search continues for Zahra Baker, now presumed dead

By: Adrianne Flores & Brad Broders

MORGANTON, N.C. – For the fifth straight day, investigators continued their search Wednesday for Zahra Baker in a wooded area off of Hartland Road north of Morganton.

Authorities are hoping to uncover new clues in the whereabouts of the missing 10-year-old, which police now call a homicide investigation. She is now presumed dead. Burke County Sheriff’s detectives combed the area about 5 p.m. Wednesday but were unsuccessful in their search.

The search came after Hickory Police, the FBI and three search dogs reportedly searched several acres of land nearby earlier in the day.

By 5:30 p.m., a truck from the Chesterfield Fire Department arrived ready to drain a three-foot deep pond once the homeowner gave approval. The pond is next to wood cutting equipment which investigators also inspected Tuesday night in Zahra’s case.

The draining began about 6 p.m. and continued after the sun went down, but did not discover any clues.

Neighbors say there’s another pond off Hartland Road but it’s unclear if inspectors have checked it out.

Meanwhile, Elisa Baker posted to her MySpace account just days before her stepdaughter Zahra was reported missing.

On Oct. 5, Baker self describes her mood as crazy. She states, "Funny how people in this world are quick to talk about people yet they forget they have skeletons that are just begging to get out!!!"

Baker's MySpace page also shows that she referred to Zahra Baker as the "dark child." Her page also has the statement, "We are all going to hell and I'm driving the bus."

Stay with News 14 and news14.com for the latest on the Zahra Baker investigation.

This woman is truly scary. Now her atty is trying to portray her as  frightened in jail and missing her family...give me a break !

[cookie]

So I take it that nothing was found n the pond. I haven't seen anything. Have any of you guys heard anything?

#390...a couple of posts above yours...Klaas supplied an article about it..

[4myjoey]

Who keeps passports and toothbrushes in the car?  Isn't that odd?

Could it be that in the process of packing up Zahra's stuff for the move from the old house, that some things were left behind in the car and the parents not realizing it?

[klaasend]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/zahra-baker-case-frustration-alleged-abuse-boils/story?id=11877535


Zahra Baker Case: Frustration at Alleged Abuse Boils Over
Cops Say Husband Now Uncooperative, Friend Claims Extended Family Called Social Services About Abuse

3 comments
By YUNJI DE NIES and LEE FERRAN
HICKORY, N.C., Oct. 14, 2010

Vigils for missing children are generally sources of collective strength and hope, but in the case of missing disabled 10-year-old Zahra Baker, countless allegations of repeated domestic abuse spawned another feeling entirely Wednesday night: anger.

"I hope this will be the beginning of no one not speaking out when they see a child being hurt," one woman said in a passionate plea as onlookers held back tears around her during a candlelit vigil for Zahra in Hickory, N.C.

Zahra, who lost her left leg and hearing in a childhood battle with cancer, was reported missing Saturday but police have been unable to find anyone other than her parents who have seen the girl in weeks.

Police searching for any sign of the girl have focused on a woodchipper and mulch piles a few miles from the Baker home and have drained a nearby pond; all to no avail.

Several former neighbors, along with one relative, have come forward to claim the girl was repeatedly abused by her stepmother, Elisa Baker.

Baker, who was already in custody on unrelated charges, admitted Tuesday to writing a ransom note demanding $1 million in connection with the case, police said. But she has since denied any involvement in the girl's disappearance.

Earlier that day, police chief Tom Adkins made an emotional announcement shifting the investigation from a missing persons case to a homicide.

Zahra's father, Adam Baker, told "Good Morning America" Monday that he believed his wife could be involved in his daughter's disappearance. But now police have turned their attention to him, claiming he has not been cooperating with the investigation.

"He seems concerned. I don't know how sincere his concern is," Burke County Sheriff John McDevitt said Wednesday as investigators continued to search for any sign of Zahra's remains. When asked if he believed Adam Baker, McDevitt said, "I don't."

Much of last night's anger was focused on Zahra's extended family, who some people implied did nothing to protect the little girl. But one family friend stood up to defend them and said the family called social services on Zahra's behalf.

"They tried, they really tried," Baker family friend Lindsey Parker said at the vigil. "And I just want everybody here to know that the family honestly tried."

Elisa Baker's son, who also attended the vigil, did not comment on the allegations of abuse.

"Right now's not the appropriate time for that, you know," Douglas Baker told "GMA." "We need to let all the facts come out and go from there."

Another family friend, Brandy Stapleton, said she took a picture of Zahra more than two months ago in which the child clearly has a bruise under her eye.

 

[cookie]

DAD!!! where were ya when all of this abuse was going on???? You failed your own helpless daughter!! and now you are still failing her if you are not cooperating! what do u have to hide???