Zahra Clare Baker #4 10/22/10 - 10/28/10

[klaasend]

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

Zahra Baker's dad charged as search moves to new location
Posted: Oct 09, 2010 7:05 PM PDT Updated: Oct 25, 2010 9:35 AM PDT


Adam Baker, who first reported his daughter missing in a 911 call Oct. 9, was charged Monday with five counts of worthless checks and five counts of failing to appear in court -- one of those cases being assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested at Charlotte Douglas Airport and s being held in the Catawba County Jail on a $7,000 bond.

Other charges that Baker allegedly did not appear in court for are communicating threats. His next court date is set for November 18. Authorities said that although Adam Baker was arrested at the aiport Monday, he was not there to take a flight, but was instead picking up someone from the airport.

The charges against Baker came after authorties said Friday that they had completed their search of a Caldwell County landfill and that they had been looking for a specific mattress associated with the missing 10-year-old girl, Zahra Baker.

Dozens of law enforcement officers from various agencies descended on the landfill earlier this week and were seen pulling mattresses out it on Thursday. On Wednesday, police said that they were combing the landfill for a "key piece of evidence."

Friday, they confirmed the mattress was the focus of the search -- but also said their search was not successful.

"The search focused on a mattress belonging to Zahra that had been disposed of by Zahra's parents sometime during early October, days before Zahra was reported missing," a press release from Hickory Police said.

 Police said that they hoped to "use the mattress to confirm interviews with persons associated with this investigation."  They also said that the mattress would be used to reinforce the timeline of Zahra's disappearance.

Several mattresses were found in the landfill and police took samples of those mattresses with them. However, it is not believed that investigators found the "key piece of evidence" they were looking for.

Lastly, police said they hoped the mattress -- in the landfill for at least 2 weeks now -- could provide some DNA evidence.

Last week, Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, appeared in court for a bond hearing on Wednesday and the judge increased her bond amount.

Officials kept urging the public to come forward if they have seen Zahra since Sept. 25 or within the last month.

Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said different family members have told police various timelines as to when they last saw Zahra.

"We are just looking for someone outside the family to tell us when they have seen her," Adkins said. 

Adkins said officers were working in two teams: one team is following up on leads and the other team is actively working at the landfill.

"We hope if we find this evidence, it will provide a good, solid timeline in this case," Adkins said.

 


I don't see that they say where this new area is

[klaasend]

News update....search going on on Dudly Shoals Rd. in Caldwell County. less than a mile from where Elisa Baker lived 3 yrs ago. News will break in if anything develops over the afternoon

Thanks!

[bananas]

Nothing arrived at the airport till 6:00am. 

SAN San Diego US 199  US Airways 5:58 AM  6:09 AM  B4  Landed
  On-time  321   
SAN San Diego UA 1182^  United Airlines 5:58 AM  6:09 AM  B4  Landed
  On-time  321   
PHX Phoenix US 1558  US Airways 6:00 AM  5:54 AM  B10  Landed
  On-time  321   
PHX Phoenix UA 1844^  United Airlines 6:00 AM  5:54 AM  B10  Landed
  On-time  321   
GIG Rio De Janeiro US 801  US Airways 6:00 AM  6:49 AM  D13  Landed
  49 min  767   
DEN Denver US 498  US Airways 6:02 AM  7:20 AM  B1  Landed
  78 min  320   
DEN Denver UA 1277^  United Airlines 6:02 AM  7:20 AM  B1  Landed
  78 min  320   
LAS Las Vegas US 1794  US Airways 6:03 AM  6:07 AM  B12  Landed
  On-time  321   
LAS Las Vegas UA 2364^  United Airlines 6:03 AM  6:07 AM  B12  Landed
  On-time  321   
LAX Los Angeles US 1498  US Airways 6:05 AM  6:03 AM  B15  Landed
  On-time  321   
LAX Los Angeles NZ 3760^  Air New Zealand 6:05 AM  6:03 AM  B15  Landed
  On-time  321   
LAX Los Angeles UA 1817^  United Airlines 6:05 AM  6:03 AM  B15  Landed
  On-time  321   
LAX Los Angeles OZ 9313^  Asiana Airlines 6:05 AM  6:03 AM  B15  Landed
  On-time  321   
LAX Los Angeles BR 3503^  EVA Air 6:05 AM 

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/flightStatusByAirport.do

When I search Expedia.com for flights from Townsville, Australia, to Charlotte, NC, I get this:
Connect in Brisbane (BNE), Los Angeles (LAX)

or this
Connect in Brisbane (BNE), Los Angeles (LAX), Dallas (Dallas-Fort Worth Intl.)

So someone coming from the area of Australia where they are from, would be arriving at Charlotte from most likely LAX or DFW.
 
 
 
 

[Northern Rose]

Police said Monday that they are following a "promising lead" in the search for Zahra Baker. (video)

http://www.wsoctv.com/video/25502773/index.html

[can]

News update....search going on on Dudly Shoals Rd. in Caldwell County. less than a mile from where Elisa Baker lived 3 yrs ago. News will break in if anything develops over the afternoon

Thanks!

ditto.

[can]

Police said Monday that they are following a "promising lead" in the search for Zahra Baker. (video)

http://www.wsoctv.com/video/25502773/index.html

Maybe a witness saw Baker/s dump the mattress. 

[darla]

Thanks Northern Rose for bringing the video over. I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I sure hope and pray they can find that sweet angel today.

[no rose colored glasses]

News update....search going on on Dudly Shoals Rd. in Caldwell County. less than a mile from where Elisa Baker lived 3 yrs ago. News will break in if anything develops over the afternoon

Wow, thank-you.

[darla]

You are all welcome.

[crazybabyborg]

Police said Monday that they are following a "promising lead" in the search for Zahra Baker. (video)

http://www.wsoctv.com/video/25502773/index.html

Thanks, NR!

Charlotte airport is an hour's drive from Hickory. I suppose they figured out he wasn't flying anywhere because he didn't bring anything with him and didn't have any money maybe? It's easy enough to check incoming flights for names of relatives. With his history of writing bad checks, surely they didn't just take his word for it. Writing another one could have been his flight plan. 

[no rose colored glasses]

You are all welcome.

Let's hope this tip is a reliable one, interesting it is around the area Elisa lived 3 years ago.

[crazybabyborg]

Hickory, NC -- Police in North Carolina say the father of a missing 10-year-old disabled girl has been charged with writing bad checks.

Hickory police spokeswoman Libby Grigg says Adam Baker was being held Monday in the Catawba County jail on $7,000 bond. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

Grigg says the charges not related to the disappearance of his daughter, Zahra Baker, who was reported missing Oct. 9.

The girl's stepmother, Elisa Baker, has been charged with obstruction of justice. Police say she admitted writing a bogus ransom note found at the scene of a fire in the family's back yard on the day Zahra was reported missing.

Authorities think the girl is dead.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/local_state/article.aspx?storyid=149671

[Monkey King]

They want to limit his support group- who knows what kind of plan there was. 

Someone could have showed up at the airport with a ticket/passport for him for all LE knows.

Apparently, they've gotten everything out of him that he was going to admitt to- or not.  They said as long as he was working with LE he wouldn't be arrested.

Also, the police aren't obligated to share any info with his family, they were dealing with AB as he is the parent of the missing child. 

Now, AB has the opportunity to lawyer up which the police were trying to avoid.  Curious to see what his financial statement will be for an attorney.

[Northern Rose]

Missing girl case delays court hearing in Gaston murder case
October 25, 2010 12:52 PM

The attorney representing Michael Mead on a murder charge in Gaston County is now involved with the ongoing case of Zahra Baker, a missing Hickory girl.

Mead and his lawyer, Lisa Dubs, were scheduled to appear in court Monday to argue for a change of venue in his murder trial. An early-morning call changed that plan, according to Gaston County Assistant District Attorney Robert Forbes.

Forbes told Judge Robert Bell that Dubs called to say she and Mead couldn’t be in court because she’s now been assigned to Elisa Baker, the 10-year-old girl’s stepmother who has been in jail since Oct. 10 for obstruction of justice.

Forbes told Bell that he didn’t think another case elsewhere should affect court proceedings in Gaston County.

Bell asked Forbes to approach the bench. There was no further discussion in open court, but Forbes said the matter will come before the judge 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Mead, of York County, S.C., faces a death penalty trial for the July 2008 killing of Lucy Johnson, a 31-year-old single mother of two found in her burning house in a subdivision off Lowell-Bethesda Road. An autopsy indicates Johnson, a nurse at Kings Mountain Hospital, was fatally shot in the head before the fire.

Both the 2008 killing and the recent disappearance have made headlines locally and nationally.

During a recent bond hearing for Elisa Baker, Catawba County District Judge Robert Mullinax Jr. said there were “disturbing and unsettling allegations” in the case.

Investigators said Baker wrote a bogus ransom note found Oct. 9, the day she and her husband reported Zahra missing. Police have said they think someone killed the girl who used hearing aids and a prosthetic leg because of bone cancer, but have not found her body and haven’t charged anyone with killing her.

The girl was last seen in public Sept. 25, but investigators want to know if anyone else outside the family had seen her more recently to fill in gaps in the case’s timeline, Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said. While investigators believe Zahra is dead, they haven’t ruled out the possibility she’ll be found alive.

“We’re continuing to have hope, but we’re still calling it a homicide investigation,’ Adkins said.

http://www.gastongazette.com/news/mead-51934-case-gaston.html

[Northern Rose]

Not sure why Dubs would cancel a court appearance because of this case.  She knew before this morning she was assigned to Gothmom.  The early morning call makes me wonder if she is also Adam's lawyer now. 

[darla]

Not sure why Dubs would cancel a court appearance because of this case.  She knew before this morning she was assigned to Gothmom.  The early morning call makes me wonder if she is also Adam's lawyer now. 

This doesn't make sense to me either Northern....Elisa and Adam haven't been charged with murder yet, that we know of...What  would be so important that she had to cancel court this am?   

[Northern Rose]

Crews searching Caldwell County in Zahra Baker case


CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. – Crews have resumed their search into the disappearance of 10-year-old Zahra Baker.

Right now police have closed off roads near Dudley Shoals Road in Granite Falls to search the area.

Zahra Baker’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, used to live near that area.

Elisa Baker was arrested on Oct. 10; the day after Zahra was reported missing, on charges unrelated to the 10-year-old’s disappearance. However, Elisa was later charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the case. Police say she wrote a fake ransom note and has not cooperated with the investigation.

Police haven’t identified exactly what they’re searching for in Granite Falls. Last week crews searched a Caldwell County landfill, looking for mattress that Zahra’s father and stepmother had disposed of in early October. Their search came up empty.

Zahra’s father, Adam Baker, was arrested Monday morning on five counts of writing worthless checks, two counts of communicating threats, assault with a deadly weapon and failure to return rental property.

Police acknowledged that Adam Baker had outstanding warrants for worthless checks when the investigation began, but said that they would execute those warrants when the time was appropriate.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Crews-searching-Caldwell-County-in-Zahra-Baker-case-105693703.html

[Northern Rose]

Not sure why Dubs would cancel a court appearance because of this case.  She knew before this morning she was assigned to Gothmom.  The early morning call makes me wonder if she is also Adam's lawyer now. 

This doesn't make sense to me either Northern....Elisa and Adam haven't been charged with murder yet, that we know of...What  would be so important that she had to cancel court this am?   

Whatever it was it had to be big as she was the one who asked for the court's time this morning to ask for a change of venue for her other client.   

[no rose colored glasses]

Not sure why Dubs would cancel a court appearance because of this case.  She knew before this morning she was assigned to Gothmom.  The early morning call makes me wonder if she is also Adam's lawyer now. 

This doesn't make sense to me either Northern....Elisa and Adam haven't been charged with murder yet, that we know of...What  would be so important that she had to cancel court this am?   

Whatever it was it had to be big as she was the one who asked for the court's time this morning to ask for a change of venue for her other client.   

It sure has to be very important.

[darla]

Crews searching Caldwell County in Zahra Baker case


CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. – Crews have resumed their search into the disappearance of 10-year-old Zahra Baker.

Right now police have closed off roads near Dudley Shoals Road in Granite Falls to search the area.

Zahra Baker’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, used to live near that area.

Elisa Baker was arrested on Oct. 10; the day after Zahra was reported missing, on charges unrelated to the 10-year-old’s disappearance. However, Elisa was later charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the case. Police say she wrote a fake ransom note and has not cooperated with the investigation.

Police haven’t identified exactly what they’re searching for in Granite Falls. Last week crews searched a Caldwell County landfill, looking for mattress that Zahra’s father and stepmother had disposed of in early October. Their search came up empty.

Zahra’s father, Adam Baker, was arrested Monday morning on five counts of writing worthless checks, two counts of communicating threats, assault with a deadly weapon and failure to return rental property.

Police acknowledged that Adam Baker had outstanding warrants for worthless checks when the investigation began, but said that they would execute those warrants when the time was appropriate.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Crews-searching-Caldwell-County-in-Zahra-Baker-case-105693703.html

The roads were not closed off as of noon, because Dave Faherty was right near where the search was going on, and said that he had spoke with LE. Praying that they have found something at this location. I have WSOC tv on, waiting for any updates.
Havi