Zahra Clare Baker #3 10/16/10 - 10/22/10

[MuffyBee]

[klaasend]

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13297637

Non-profit organization sets up Zahra Baker Fund
Posted: Oct 09, 2010 7:05 PM PDT Updated: Oct 16, 2010 7:47 PM PDT


HICKORY, NC (WBTV) - A non-profit organization sets up a fund for missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker.

Spiritual Counseling Network of Hickory has several purposes in mind for the fund. One, to assist law enforcement and provide money for a possible reward. Two, to provide resources to the community. Third, to take care of funeral expenses in the event of Zahra's death and lastly to assist agencies involved in the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Click here to donate online or learn more.  http://www.zahrabaker.com/

The group will be at the Granite Falls Wal-Mart taking donations Sunday, October 17 from 2pm to 8pm.

The Fund is also working to make October 24 Zahra Sunday - connecting those in the faith community to pray for Zahra and those involved in the case.

It's been a week since the 10-year-old was reported missing.

On Friday, employees at a Hickory furniture store told WBTV they remember seeing Zahra Baker and her stepmother in the store 14 days before she was reported missing.

Linda Austin says she noticed the little girl had a prosthetic leg and heard her stepmother call her by her name. "And I thought that was a strange name, which it is it's different, pretty but different," Austin said.

"She was standing in the aisle way and as I walked past, I put my hand on her shoulder and said excuse me sweetheart and she looked at me and smiled," Pat Adams added.

That smile, Adams says was the same one she found staring back at her from photos she found online.

Employees called police and a statement was taken. The store has surveillance video but it was not turned on at the time.

Before this information, police had not found anyone who'd seen Zahra in the last month.

Investigators looking into the case of a missing Hickory girl who is presumed to be dead returned to the 10-year-old's home Friday morning and removed some items from the house.

Police were at the Hickory home for about two hours Friday morning and they brought a cadaver dog to the house.

The dog was led into the house, but officials have not said if the dog detected anything unusual inside the home.

Police also brought Zahra Claire Baker's father, Adam, to the home.

Officers removed mattresses, box springs and bed rails from the house.  Those items will be taken to the state lab in Raleigh to be analyzed for blood or any other forms of DNA.  Baker left the house around 12:30 p.m.

Police also searched another home Friday afternoon in which the Bakers previously lived in near Hudson, NC.

Managers of the Congress Street apartment complex believe Zahra was kept in the attic.

They say the Bakers lived there between July and November of last year.

Shirley and Darrell Mims said they went to investigate a smell in the home and when they went upstairs they found the closet door missing and footprints on the closet walls.

On closer inspection, Darrell Mims found sheet rock in the attic torn door, "like someone was laying on it," he said. The Mims also say they never saw Zahra except once when the family was moving in.

"We use to hear noise in the middle of the night. I don't know if it was the little girl staying up here or what but we've heard no more noises since they've been gone," Darrell Mims said.

A K-9 searched the area around the home but it's unclear if anything was found here.

Thursday evening, the search of 60 acres of land in the Hartland Road Community of Burke County ended with no trace of the girl who was reported missing last Saturday.

The girl's father works for a landscaping company that uses a portion of the land to store equipment and dispose of brush.

 

[klaasend]

http://www.zahrabaker.com/

[klaasend]

Who are these people setting up this fund and how do we know the money is going to anything pertaining to Zahra? 

[klaasend]

From the previous thread:

Money and legal trouble follow Zahra's parents

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.

 http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2010/oct/16/money-and-legal-trouble-follow-zahras-parents-ar-462500/

[MuffyBee]

Who are these people setting up this fund and how do we know the money is going to anything pertaining to Zahra? 

These are good questions that need immediate answers. 

[Northern Rose]

Thank you for bring that over Klaas.  So all but one bad cheque is for groceries.  What were they doing shopping for furniture if they can not put food on the table without bouncing cheques? Someone said those shirts with the skulls are expensive.  I do not understand how they can afford those shirts,  the tattoo's, etc.  What am I missing?

[klaasend]

Who are these people setting up this fund and how do we know the money is going to anything pertaining to Zahra? 

These are good questions that need immediate answers. 

Domain Name: ZAHRABAKER.COM
   Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
   Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
   Name Server: NS.CHRISTIANWEBHOST.COM
   Name Server: NS2.CHRISTIANWEBHOST.COM
   Status: clientDeleteProhibited
   Status: clientRenewProhibited
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Status: clientUpdateProhibited
   Updated Date: 15-oct-2010
   Creation Date: 15-oct-2010
   Expiration Date: 15-oct-2011


Spiritual Counseling Network:

http://www.ncchristiancounselors.com/

[Northern Rose]

Who are these people setting up this fund and how do we know the money is going to anything pertaining to Zahra? 

The fund is administered by Spiritual Counseling Network, a non-profit Christian ministry that provides Christian counseling and pastoral care services to Catawba, Burke, Caldwell and surrounding counties.
http://www.zahrabaker.com/fund.htm

Spiritual Counseling Network to Open Counseling Agency in Hickory Today
9/14/2010 6:13:31 AM


The Spiritual Counseling Network will hold a grand opening for a new Christian counseling agency in Hickory today (Tuesday, September 14) at 11 a.m.  The event will take place at 825 3rd Avenue N.W. in the Pitts & Cooke Realty Building.

A local minister will officiate the blessing and dedication.  Local and community leaders will participate in the ribbon cutting ceremony.  Light refreshments and a tour of the facility will be available.  The public is welcome.

The Spiritual Counseling Network is a non-profit organization that provides Christian counseling and pastoral care services to residents in the Catawba Valley.  The organization is based in Hickory.

For more information, contact Brandon Greeson at
http://www.whky.com/news.asp?mode=detail&articleID=13375

Brandon Greeson. Brandon. 27 / male. Hickory, North Carolina...
http://www.myspace.com/539825041

[Northern Rose]

Who are these people setting up this fund and how do we know the money is going to anything pertaining to Zahra? 

These are good questions that need immediate answers. 

Domain Name: ZAHRABAKER.COM
   Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
   Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
   Name Server: NS.CHRISTIANWEBHOST.COM
   Name Server: NS2.CHRISTIANWEBHOST.COM
   Status: clientDeleteProhibited
   Status: clientRenewProhibited
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Status: clientUpdateProhibited
   Updated Date: 15-oct-2010
   Creation Date: 15-oct-2010
   Expiration Date: 15-oct-2011


Spiritual Counseling Network:

http://www.ncchristiancounselors.com/

I was just about to pull this as well 

[Northern Rose]

Brandon Greeson FB

http://www.facebook.com/brgreeson

[BabsKats]

Aaron Youngs facebook pic with Z at Birthday Party, looks to be fairly recent!

[pink angel]

Thank you for bring that over Klaas.  So all but one bad cheque is for groceries.  What were they doing shopping for furniture if they can not put food on the table without bouncing cheques? Someone said those shirts with the skulls are expensive.  I do not understand how they can afford those shirts,  the tattoo's, etc.  What am I missing?

Walmart/Target all have shirts with skulls that are just like or similar. They are not expensive.


It sounds like they lived beyond their means and that she was using her dealing profits to feed her addiction and not the family.

[pink angel]

Thank you for bring that over Klaas.  So all but one bad cheque is for groceries.  What were they doing shopping for furniture if they can not put food on the table without bouncing cheques? Someone said those shirts with the skulls are expensive.  I do not understand how they can afford those shirts,  the tattoo's, etc.  What am I missing?

Walmart/Target all have shirts with skulls that are just like or similar. They are not expensive.


It sounds like they lived beyond their means and that she was using her dealing profits to feed her addiction and not the family.

Unless it's something like an Ed Hardy shirt which can run about 90 bucks a pop.

They were not Ed Hardy or designer shirts though.

[Northern Rose]

This is odd.  He had a Facebook as Rev. Brandon Greeson which is no longer there.  here is the link to the cached version.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:968Dx5jekiYJ:www.facebook.com/pages/Rev-Brandon-Greeson/156994187647747%3Fv%3Dinfo+bgreeson%40ncchristiancounselors.com&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

[pink angel]

Thank you for bring that over Klaas.  So all but one bad cheque is for groceries.  What were they doing shopping for furniture if they can not put food on the table without bouncing cheques? Someone said those shirts with the skulls are expensive.  I do not understand how they can afford those shirts,  the tattoo's, etc.  What am I missing?

Walmart/Target all have shirts with skulls that are just like or similar. They are not expensive.


It sounds like they lived beyond their means and that she was using her dealing profits to feed her addiction and not the family.

Unless it's something like an Ed Hardy shirt which can run about 90 bucks a pop.

They were not Ed Hardy or designer shirts though.

Even on line similar shirts run 15 bucks and up:
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&expIds=17259,17287,17310,22713,23754,24469,25333,25462,25907,26637,27021,27157,109137,112451,113887,114136,114252,114837,114852,115255,115327,115332,115369,115402,115539&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=skull+shirts&cp=8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

[klaasend]

This is odd.  He had a Facebook as Rev. Brandon Greeson which is no longer there.  here is the link to the cached version.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:968Dx5jekiYJ:www.facebook.com/pages/Rev-Brandon-Greeson/156994187647747%3Fv%3Dinfo+bgreeson%40ncchristiancounselors.com&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

Looks like it's still there to me:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rev-Brandon-Greeson/156994187647747

And his personal one:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/brgreeson

[klaasend]

This is odd.  He had a Facebook as Rev. Brandon Greeson which is no longer there.  here is the link to the cached version.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:968Dx5jekiYJ:www.facebook.com/pages/Rev-Brandon-Greeson/156994187647747%3Fv%3Dinfo+bgreeson%40ncchristiancounselors.com&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

Looks like it's still there to me:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rev-Brandon-Greeson/156994187647747

And his personal one:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/brgreeson

And his Myspace (shaved head and all) which I think you posted already:

http://www.myspace.com/539825041

[Brandi]

From the previous thread:

Money and legal trouble follow Zahra's parents

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.

 http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2010/oct/16/money-and-legal-trouble-follow-zahras-parents-ar-462500/

I made blue just a few of the charges against Adam.

I have wondered all along what his legal status is as an alien here.

Just being married to a citizen does not give him the right to work here legally. I wonder if he was working under the table. Getting permission to work here legally involves a process that is not inexpensive or quick. (Yes, even if he is married to a US citizen.)

Also, from all the charges against him, I am pretty certain that is he had been found guilty, he would have lost any petition as a legal resident alien (which allows you to work here.)

I also wonder who sponsored him to come here to the US. The immigration process requires the person coming into the US to either have money to support himself for a particular period of time, or have someone "sponsor" him, saying they would be responsible for the person's financial welfare while here.

So, their not showing up in court makes sense, because if he were found guilty, most of the crimes would be grounds for judicial deportation.

I am willing to bet he will be deported sometime in the future.

[Northern Rose]

Affordable Christian Counseling
Hickory, NC
Price $40 - $30 per hour Payment Cash, Checks, Credit Cards Hours Mon-Fri: 11:00am-8:00pm Travel Customer travelsOver phone or internetLocation 825 3rd Ave NW

http://www.thumbtack.com/nc/hickory/counseling/affordable-christian-counseling