ZAHRA CLARE BAKER - 10 yo (2010) - Hickory NC

Recess until 2:00 PM. (ET)

thank you so much for updating this thread! i had no idea a trial was underway. poor zahra. i think she should have received life.

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
#zahrabaker Mother reading emotional statement
8 hours ago

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
Mother says #zahrabaker was broken apart like a human puzzle and left for wildlife
8 hours ago

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
Elisa bakers atty speaking for her, says she's sorry for what she's done to community #zahrabaker
8 hours ago

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
Birth mom says "no real justice" for #zahrabaker. Adam Baker tells elisa, "zahra looked up to you, wanted to be like you."
7 hours ago

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
Judge:1) what prompts someone to take life of a helpless child? 2) well never know what happened #zahrabaker
7 hours ago

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
Judge in #zahrabaker case: "This case will haunt the community til im in a rocking chair"
7 hours ago

MichelleBoudin MichelleBoudin
Elisa Baker gets 15 to 18 yrs for murder of #zahrabaker
7 hours ago

Statement from Adam Baker during Elisa Baker hearing

Posted on September 15, 2011 at 2:55 PM

“I trusted you with the most precious person on my life. You not only lied to me, but you also lied to Zahra .”

“Zahra loved you more than anything in the world. She looked up to you, wanted to be like you, yet you filled her life with lies.”

“You took the life of the most wonderful and loving little girl. You robbed her of her future, you robbed the world of an amazing girl, who I have no doubt would have changed the world.”

“Zahra will never get to go to high school, never have a real boyfriend, never get married and never have children.”

“You have destroyed my life. You have also made my life hell with false accusations that I was involved in hurting Zahra.”

“You have destroyed my family’s life and you have devastated a community.”

“There are no words to explain the hate I have for you or the hurt and pain I feel every day for the loss of Zahra.”

“You may not get everything you deserve for taking Zahra’s life, but you will have to face your judgment in the afterlife, and I know his judgment for you will be worse than any man can give you.”

“If at any time you actually cared for Zahra, please tell us where we can find any more of Zahra’s remains so she can be laid to rest complete.”

http://www.wcnc.com/news/zahra-baker/Statement-from-Adam-Baker-during-Elisa-Baker-hearing-129900423.html

Statement from Emily Dietrich during Elisa Baker hearing

Posted on September 15, 2011 at 3:40 PM

"What exactly am I meant to speak about? The constant pain guilt and regret I have lived with for letting depression take me over to the point of feeling it best for Zahra to live with her father as I was in no fit state to keep her safe?"

"Maybe I should discuss the way the heinous act has stolen away the opportunity for Zahra to ever meet her two other siblings, finish college, fall in love and maybe the innocence that's stolen from my other children."

"Possibly it needs to be about how the event has traumatized my family to the point of ripping it apart because none of us know how we are meant to deal with such unimaginable things happening to such a beautiful young lady."

"Maybe to drill home the pure evil that Elisa has committed I should reach down and find the strength to discuss how Zahra was pulled apart like some human puzzle and discarded like rubbish for wildlife to graze on."

"I choose to read something I wrote on October 30, 2010: I still wonder if Zahra is finally at peace and if she knows that she was is and will always be loved by those of us who were for many reasons not in her immediate life."

"Looking out at the pouring rain over the hills, feeling and hearing the rumble of thunder I wonder is she cold or is she wet or is she somewhere that she will only feel the warmth of the sun? Is she damp or is she never (pause). Is she damp or will she only feel the wet as she swims through the warm waters of her dreams? Is she tired or will she never feel the need to rest after a long day? Is she feeling hunger pain or will she forever feel satisfied? Is she scared and alone or will she never feel for security comfort and companionship? All these things I have only ever wanted to protect her from, but was not able. My only hope now is that she is in a place where she will no longer feel the pain for mortality. When she can rest and no longer have the need to be so courageous. I hope she is in a place where she can feel my love and the immense love she has drawn out from people all across our planet."

While today we sit here in this courtroom to see justice be carried out, I feel there will be no real justice for Zahra. Her life was taken by an evil selfishness that none of us will ever understand or comprehend."

"While part of Zahra is still out there, this will never be over for us. What I truly want to see is for Zahra to be given the dignity and respect she deserves by finally being able to lay her to rest, let her be in peace in a manner that she truly does deserve."

http://www.wcnc.com/news/zahra-baker/Statement-from-Emily-during-Elisa-Baker-hearing-129903558.html

Emotions were palpable in court Thursday as Elisa Baker pleaded guilty to killing her stepdaughter, Zahra. Baker’s husband, Adam, said he would never forgive Elisa for taking away his daughter.

“Elisa, I trusted you with the most precious person in my life,” Adam said in the courtroom. “Zahra looked up to you. You not only lied to me but to Zahra. You filled her life with lies.”

Elisa, 43, would not look at Adam while he spoke to her, looking straight ahead in the courtroom instead. Her eyes did tear up.

“You robbed her of a future. Zahra will never get to go to high school. You robbed us of an amazing girl who I have no doubt would have changed the world,” Adam said.

He said Elisa ruined his life.

“You made my life hell with false accusations that I was involved in her death,” Adam said. “There are no words to explain the hate I have for you. You will have to face your judgment in the afterlife. But please, tell us where we can find any more of Zahra's remains so she can be laid to rest complete.”


Elisa’s plea agreement came almost a year after 10-year-old Zahra was reported missing on Oct. 9. The plea deal included pleading guilty to second-degree murder with aggravating factors, bigamy, obstruction of justice and six other felonies. She was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years and 9 months and a maximum of 18 years and 6 months in prison.

Although Elisa told authorities Zahra’s death was an accident, Hickory police quickly zeroed in on inconsistencies. When they arrived at the Baker residence on Oct. 9, the ransom note found on a car was written on Duke Power envelope, said Hickory Investigator David Rockett. They found a power bill in the Bakers’ bedroom with no envelope.

“Once we secured the scene, Elisa was standing with the victim coordinator. She said, ‘Are they putting the tape up because they think she (Zahra) was murdered in there?’” Rockett said.

Baker was arrested that day for obstruction of justice, and admitted to writing the ransom note.

The search for Zahra’s body has been a difficult one. Lt. Bobby Grace, with Hickory Police Department, supervised and coordinated the searches on Christie Road, Dudley Shoals and Indian Grave Road in Caldwell County where Elisa said Zahra’s body may be found.

Zahra’s prosthetic leg and left upper arm bone were found on Christie Road. Her torso and pelvic area were found on Dudley Shoals Road about a mile away. Nothing was found on a two-mile stretch of Indian Grave Road, Grace said.


“No other remains were found,” he said. “We did not find her head, right arm, hands, right leg or upper left leg.” International Drive was also searched. That was where Elisa’s legal team found a handsaw they believe was involved in the case.

State Bureau of Investigation Agent Heath McBride said the SBI searched the Bakers’ Hickory home and found a pair of child’s pants that tested positive for blood. He went into Zahra’s bedroom and found 18 faint drops of blood, the size of a pin, on the wall near the lower half of the wall where a headboard would go. There were more drops of blood on a floor that was painted black. The bedroom walls were painted pink. A burned paintbrush with pink paint was found outside in an area that Hickory firefighters responded to Oct. 9, the day Zahra was reported missing, McBride said.

He also discussed the bones recovered on Dudley Shoals, and said a cutting implement had been used.


“The Stanley handsaw collected (on Industrial Drive) had no DNA,” McBride said. “There were chemical indications for blood, but not enough for DNA.”

He admitted a saw left out in the weather could eliminate DNA.

Elisa admitted to Superior Court Judge Timothy Kincaid she was guilty as part of her plea agreement. However, in interviews with Hickory Police investigators, she said Zahra died of natural causes and Adam helped dispose of the body.

Capt. Thurman Whisnant, head of the criminal investigation division for the Hickory Police Department, said when he spoke with Baker on Nov. 19, she told him Zahra died on Sept. 24 at about 4 p.m.

“She found her not breathing, unresponsive,” Whisnant said of what Baker told him of the day. “She attempted CPR for 20 to 25 minutes. She said Adam was at work.”

Elisa told Whisnant that Zahra got up at about 9 a.m. that day and wasn’t feeling well. She had eggs for breakfast, and Baker went to Walmart to meet her eldest daughter. After coming home and feeding Zahra, she found her unresponsive and did CPR.

“She called Adam around 5 or 5:30 p.m. and they collectively decided they could not call 911,” Whisnant recounted.

When Adam heard this testimony, he shook his head and swore to the woman sitting next to him in court.


Whisnant testified police looked at Adam and Elisa’s phone records, used the electronic identifier numbers for their phones and cell towers to determine the locations of calls made to and from their phones to determine where both were on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25. Although Elisa was in the area of Christie Road, Dudley Shoals Road and Industrial Drive on Sept. 24, Adam was not. Investigators confirmed both had their phones with them on those days.

On Sept. 24, Adam was in Burke County, north of Valdese, Whisnant said. After work, he tried to get a ride home with Elisa but she told him she couldn’t get a ride because she had been stopped by a trooper and her eldest daughter would have to give him a ride. Whisnant said police found no evidence a trooper stopped Elisa that day.

On Sept. 25, Elisa received phone calls from 7:20 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., with his phone connecting to cell towers in Conover, Whisnant said.

“He had a side landscaping job for a private citizen,” Whisnant said. “From early morning to 3 or 4 p.m., he was doing landscaping and tree trimming. This is significant because on the morning of Sept. 25, she said Adam went into the bathroom and conducted the dismemberment of Zahra, but phone records indicate he would be on the tree-trimming job.”

He said he did talk to the homeowner to confirm Adam was there.

Prosecutor Michael Van Buren said some may wonder how a father could go two weeks without seeing his daughter and knowing she was not in the house. Whisnant said that was something the police department struggled with.

“We did have a difficult time with the length, from Sept. 24 to Oct. 10 and Adam not knowing,” Whisnant said. “But the recurring theme was Adam worked a lot and was gone in the mornings. He was told by the doctors in Australia if she’s sleeping, don’t bother her. He himself made a comment, ‘I smoked marijuana more than I spent quality time with my daughter.’”

When Zahra’s biological mother, Emily Dietrich, heard this, she clutched her hand over her mouth.

However, they received the text messages between Elisa and Adam, and it showed deception on Elisa’s part.


In early October, Elisa sent texts to Adam telling him she fed Zahra and other similar messages saying she was still alive.

“She told him she bought birthday presents for Zahra, making up for not going to Disney World,” Whisnant said. “The texts were mainly from Elisa to Adam.”

On Oct. 10, after Zahra had been reported missing, Elisa and Adam were interviewed separately. Afterward, Adam received additional texts from Elisa.

“Hello, I guess you’re not talking to me, I guess they’ve got you convinced I’ve done something. Please talk to me.” Whisnant said that indicated guilt on Elisa’s part, and Adam not knowing.


When Reilly questioned the witnesses, he said investigators would not have known where to search without Elisa’s help.

“We would not have been at those locations if she had not shared her information,” Grace said of Elisa. “After Oct. 25 was when Ms. Baker located these sites.”

He admitted that due to the rural nature of the area, animals could have carried off some of the skeletal remains of Zahra that have not yet been found.

He also questioned Whisnant on Adam taking a lie detector test. Whisnant said Adam showed deception on his test, as well.

Reilly told Zahra’s family he was truly sorry for their loss, however, and Elisa’s family is devastated, as well.

“She is so sorry for the hurt she has caused,” Reilly said.

Reilly said Elisa could have not talked to investigators.

“I’d like to point out, when she was in custody on only the obstruction charge, Elisa could have kept her mouth shut,” he said. “She had a choice, she could have kept quiet and never said a word. She took Hickory ppolice to the spot where Zahra was buried. I think she did the right thing.”

Elisa did not talk during Thursday’s hearing. However, her family had a letter they asked Reilly to read to the court.

“Don’t think a tragedy like this can’t happen to you, because it can,” the letter read. “Zahra is now a shining star across the world for all handicapped and neglected children.”


- second-degree murder with aggravating factors: death of Zahra, who was very young and infirm, she desecrated the body and had a history of physical and verbal abuse

-obstruction of justice: writing a ransom note in Zahra’s disappearance

-bigamy: because when Baker married Adam, previous marriage was not annulled

-identity theft and obtaining property by false pretense: trying to get phone service in her daughter’s name

-identity theft and obtaining property by false pretense: trying to get power in her daughter’s name

-obtaining property by false pretense: selling a TV to a pawn shop that belonged to Rent-A-Center

-obtaining property by false pretense: selling a pressure washer to a pawn shop that belonged to Adam’s boss

http://www2.mooresvilletribune.com/news/2011/sep/15/34/elisa-baker-pleads-guilty-serve-14-18-years-ar-1394327/

The biological mother of a disabled 10-year-old girl who was murdered and dismembered by her stepmother says her daughter was treated like a piece of meat and 'fed to the wildlife'.



Zahra Baker's remains were found scattered across her home state, and her stepmother Elisa Baker, 42, has pleaded guilty to the horrific murder and dismemberment of the child.
Baker was sentenced to 15 to 18 years in jail after admitting second-degree murder in the death of Zahra as part of a plea deal.

Emily Dietrich, her biological mother, said her daughter's death 'traumatised my family to the point of ripping it apart' and the girl was treated like a piece of meat and 'fed to the wildlife'.

Baker also pleaded guilty to attempting to thwart investigators by planting a fake ransom note at the family home.

Baker’s plea has angered many in North Carolina who believed she should have faced death penalty charges.

In striking her bargain, she has avoided a first degree murder conviction. She has not told authorities how Zahra died, or why.

What is known is that Elisa Baker sawed up the child's body and dispersed the parts across rugged terrain and in the woods, among the carcasses of dead animals.

The deal comes nearly a year after the Australian girl was reported missing from her home in the western North Carolina town of Hickory.



The disappearance of the freckle-faced girl captivated communities both in the U.S. and in Australia. Zahra's father had moved from Australia to the United States to marry Elisa after the two met online.

The little girl's murder remains a source of anger in North Carolina, especially because the child was so vulnerable.

Zahra had a prosthetic leg after losing her limb aged five, and wore two hearing aids after an early battle with bone cancer.

The child's head, hands and parts of her arms and legs have never been found, the court heard on Thursday.

Her prosthetic leg was discovered during a mammoth search for her remains that spanned three counties. Officers described finding other parts of Zahra's body, including a vertebrae section which showed her spine had been sawed off just below the head.

Police said they think Zahra died on Sept. 24, 2010, weeks before Elisa and Adam Baker originally reported her missing.

Elisa Baker's story was that she had found the child dead in her bed. She and Adam concluded they couldn't report it to authorities because Adam Baker is undocumented.

Adam Baker told his wife he 'would take care of it' and cut up the girl's body in a bathroom, his wife told police. He told his wife he needed her help in finding places to dispose of the body,
she said.

Emily Dietrich, Zahra Baker's biological mother, and Adam Baker, the girl's father, made statements to Catawba County Superior Court on Thursday afternoon before the sentencing.

Dietrich said her daughter's death 'traumatised my family to the point of ripping it apart.'

She said Zahra, whom she never knew well, was treated like a piece of meat and 'fed to the wildlife'.\

'We are trying to understand how such horrible things can happen to beautiful people,' she added.

Then Dietrich added, 'I wonder if Zahra is at peace. Is she cold, or is she somewhere the sun always shines? Is she wet, or does she feel the warmth of swimming through a wonderful dream?'

Dietrich said she was sorry that her depression, which she suffered after the child was born, caused her to abandon Zahra.

Adam Baker aimed his comments at his wife, saying, 'Elisa, I trusted you with the most precious thing in my life. You not only lied to me, you lied to Zahra.

'There are no words to explain the hate I have for you, and the pain and loss I suffer every day.'

Elisa Baker, looked straight ahead and avoided glancing at her husband as he spoke, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Reilly, Elisa Baker's attorney, asked Judge Timothy Kincaid for mercy and apologised to Adam Baker in his remarks.

'Elisa is emotionally devastated and wrecked,' he said. 'The only thing she wishes me to convey is that she is deeply sorry for the hurt she has caused.'

Reilly then said to the judge, 'Elisa had a choice. She could have kept her mouth shut, and this case never would have been solved. For once, she did the right thing.'

Kincaid, became emotional upon sentencing, the Daily Telegraph (Australia) reported. 'The question the court has is twofold,' he said. 'What prompts a person to take the life of a helpless defenceless child?

'The second question is, other than a violent homicide, we don’t really know how this child died and we may never know.'

Elisa Baker originally told police she found Zahra around 4 p.m. on Sept. 24, unresponsive in her room, Hickory police captain Cpt. Thurmond Whisnant told a court on Thursday.

Baker told police she tried CPR for 20 minutes, but was unsuccessful, the Charlotte Observer reported. She claimed that Zahra wasn't feeling well that day, the court heard.

Whisnant said Baker told police she tried to revive Zahra by using CPR but failed.

Then, Whisnant said, Elisa Baker said she called Adam Baker and told him what happened. Whisnant said Elisa Baker told police that her husband asked her the next morning to help him dispose of the remains.

Whisnant said police 'found several inconsistencies' in Elisa Baker's story.

He said cell phone records showed that between 2 and 4 p.m. Sept. 24, Elisa Baker placed a number of phone calls while in Caldwell County, near where Zahra's remains were found about six weeks later.

At that time, Whisnant said, cell phone records showed Adam Baker was nowhere near his wife.

Despite numerous signs that al was far from well, Zahra was failed by her parents, school and social services.

Witnesses told police of three instances in which Elisa Baker apparently abused Zahra, sometimes after the disabled girl accidentally urinated on herself, Whisnant said.

Teachers at Hudson Elementary, the Caldwell County school that the girl briefly attended, were so concerned that they kept a box of records documenting apparent abuse, he said.

The school were told that she would not be returning for the fifth grade but would be home schooled instead.

Social services visited the family four times in 2010 but their involvement ended August 6.

SBI special agent Heath McBride said a special high-intensity light uncovered 18 pinhole-size specks of blood on the wall beside Zahra's bed, uncovered after blood was found on a pair of child's pants in a hall closet.

The evidence showed Zahra's death was 'inconsistent with a death by natural causes,' McBride testified.

Baker also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice,

In an unrelated charge Baker also pleaded guilty to bigamy, having married Zahra's father before divorcing her previous husband. Baker has been married seven times, to up to three different men at the same time.

According to her estranged daughter Amber Fairchild, at the time of her arrest in 2010 Baker had also begun an online relationship with a man in London, who had sent her £1,000 cash over a 12 month period,

Fairchild said her mother was 'a potentially violent and unstable woman'. the Charlotte Observer reported.

The original indictment in Catawba County, Charlotte, said Baker had a history of physical, verbal and psychological abuse of the freckle-faced child.

They said Zahra often had bruises on her body, but her stepmother explained them away as her falling over because of her prosthetic leg.

Investigations have no 'credible evidence' to suggest that anyone other than Elisa Baker was involved in Zahra's death, District Attorney Jay Gaither said in February.

Incredibly, Adam Baker did not seem to know that his daughter had been missing from the family’s tiny home for 15 days.

Police said that, at first, they found it hard to believe that Adam didn't realise his daughter was missing. But after 80 hours of interviews with Adam, combined with the absence of physical evidence, they determined he had no involvement.

Emily Dietrich, Zahra's birth mother, who is from Australia had not seen her daughter since she was 8 months old. She had given Zahra to her father after suffering from post-natal depression.

Ms Deitrich said she tried to track down her daughter and Adam over the years to no avail and only knew they were living in America a few days before her child was reported missing.

She handed over custody to her daughter but later decided she wanted to be in the girl's life and spent years trying to track the pair.

'I can't explain the anger, the hurt,' she said. 'He had no right to do any of it, to keep her from me.' She said she discovered Zahra was living in the U.S. just three days before she was reported missing on October 9.

'I never got to say goodbye,' she said. 'I never even got to say hello.'

Ms. Deitrich who lives in Wagga Wagga in New South Wales said she didn't know Baker had taken her daughter to the U.S. until days before she was reported missing on October 9.

She said she was 'still hurt, still crushed' after learning of her daughter's death.

Ms Dietrich said earlier this year: 'It didn't make a difference trying to prepare myself. It didn't make a difference to anybody. 'As hard as it was to hear the news they were telling me, it was just as hard to watch them cry while they told me and apologised to me. 'All they wanted was to find her and bring her back alive.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359272/Zahra-Baker-Stepmother-10-year-old-disabled-girl-Zahra-pleads-guilty-murdering-child-dismembering-body.html#ixzz1Y5PNy0tF

HICKORY, N.C. -- It’s been a year since all of North Carolina first got
the Amber Alert that a freckle-faced, ten-year-old girl had disappeared
from her northwest Hickory home.

Even as the Hickory Police Department sent out the alerts for Zahra
Baker late Saturday night, October 9th, 2010, they suspected the little
girl’s father and step-mother weren’t quite telling the truth about her
supposed abduction.

Major Clyde Deal spoke to NewsChannel 36 shortly before the 11 p.m. news
that night, saying investigators were getting conflicting statements
from Adam and Elisa Baker.

Police also thought it was suspicious that the young cancer survivor
with a prosthetic leg and a hearing loss in both ears would leave
without something she really needed.

"The child is hearing impaired in both ears and her hearing aids were left in the house," he said that night.

By the next morning, the Piedmont was learning Zahra’s story about her
battle with cancer and her unshakable smile, as video from a Speedway
Children’s Charities event flashed across their TV screens. In it,
young Zahra was being fitted for the hearing aids Deal said she left
behind.

That morning, police led Elisa Baker away in handcuffs for outstanding
warrants on unrelated charges, and she would later admit writing a fake
ransom note about Zahra’s supposed abduction.

Hickory Mayor Rudy Wright remembers watching the story unfold and thinking that cases like these rarely end well.

"It became more heartbreaking that she had overcome more in her short
life than most of us will have to endure if we live to be 100," he
recalled.

But the little girl’s story touched a lot of hearts in Hickory. Over the next few weeks, Wright saw the town pull together.

“I learned a lot about people -- about how giving and caring they are,” he said.

People called in tips about where they’d last seen Zahra, and dozens
left flowers and stuffed animals next to a tree in her front hard along
21st Avenue NW.

A little more than a month later, police chief Tom Adkins addressed the
media again -- but this time his voice cracked as he announced the Amber
Alert was cancelled.

“This has turned from a missing person's case to a homicide,” he said.
Part of Zahra’s prosthetic leg, found in the woods, had been positively
identified.

Zahra Baker’s biological mother, Emily Dietrich, had traveled from her
native Australia to Hickory for the announcement. She had given custody
of Zahra to Zahra’s father at birth because of post-partum depression,
and had been trying to find her for years. She found out where Zahra
lived just a few days before she disappeared.

She visited the memorial tree, grief-stricken, but comforted by the outpouring of support for her daughter.

The house is now boarded up, and the tree has been cut down. Elisa
Baker has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other charges, and
is headed to prison.

Police said they can’t find evidence that Adam Baker was involved in
Zahra’s death. He still faces charges for identity theft and obtaining
property under false pretenses.

Mayor Wright said he’s proud of the people of Hickory for their support,
and for wanting to remember Zahra Baker in a positive way. A
playground for children of all abilities is in the works at Kiwanis
Park.

Organizers have received nearly double the amount of money they expected
in donations – more than $170,000. The park should be open by spring.

Wright said he expected nothing less of the people of Hickory.

“People said, ‘that little girl deserved better, and who's going do it but us?’”
http://www.wcnc.com/news/Sunday-marks-one-year-since-amber-alert-issued-for-Zahra-Baker-131435008.html

Elisa Baker's drug trial postponed

Jailed in Zahra Baker's death, her drug trafficking case set for 2012.

Posted: Monday, Oct. 17, 2011

Elisa Baker, who pleaded guilty last month to murdering her 10-year-old stepdaughter Zahra, won't be tried next month on federal drug charges.

Baker's attorneys asked that her trial be postponed. They say they need more time to prepare her defense, and said that prosecutors don't object to the delay.

U.S. District Judge Richard Voorhees has agreed to postpone the case until the January criminal term.

Baker was indicted in May and charged with drug trafficking. She's accused of distributing a mixture that contained painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam.

It's the third time Baker's attorneys have sought to delay the trial. Each time, they've said they need more time to review the evidence. Voorhees had also granted the two previous requests to postpone the trial.

In their latest motion to delay the trial, Baker's attorneys say reviewing the evidence, including numerous videos and recordings, is "taking more time than expected."

"Most of the witnesses live in Catawba and Caldwell counties, and counsel require additional time to fully investigate the allegations and witnesses," the defense attorneys wrote. "The ends of justice served by a continuance of the trial date would outweigh the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial."

Baker, 43, is now being held in the Mecklenburg County jail while she awaits trial on the federal drug charges. She's charged with seven drug offenses, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Baker was sentenced to 15 to 18 years in prison in September after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, obstruction of justice, bigamy, four counts of obtaining property through false pretenses and two counts of identity theft.

Zahra's freckled face and winning smile captured hearts from North Carolina to Australia, where she was born. She had survived two bouts with cancer that left her without one leg and with a hearing impairment.

Zahra was reported missing last October, triggering a massive search. But she was dead. Her body had been dismembered, and the body parts were found scattered across rural Caldwell County.

How Zahra died remains a mystery. "Only one person knows," Catawba County District Attorney Jay Gaither told reporters after Baker was sentenced for murdering Zahra. "And she's not talking."



Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/17/2698850/elisa-bakers-drug-trial-postponed.html#ixzz1b3GFH0Zd

Elisa Baker, in her first public interview, insisted from jail
Friday that she was innocent despite pleading guilty last month to
murdering her stepdaughter Zahra.


Baker portrayed herself as a loving stepmother and an unwilling participant in covering up the 10-year-old's mysterious death.

But her sympathetic depiction is at odds with the one painted by
police of a manipulative woman who faked a kidnapping in an attempt to
thwart their investigation into Zahra's death. Family and friends
accused Baker of controlling her husband and abusing her children,
including Zahra.

Sitting behind a window at the Mecklenburg County Jail, Baker
looked like a different person than the Elisa Baker who appeared in
court pale and with a blank stare. The color had returned to her cheeks,
and her long hair was neatly brushed.

At times, during a 30-minute interview, she cried and rubbed her
eyes; other times she poked fun at investigators and berated her
husband, Adam, again accusing him of the worst offenses - including
dismembering and hiding Zahra's body.

"I pled guilty, but I'm not guilty," she said.

She told the Observer that Zahra was "the light of my eyes."

The investigation into Zahra's disappearance and death drew an
outpouring of sympathy from around the world. Photos of the young
Australian girl, who lost a leg and much of her hearing to cancer,
fueled anger at her stepmother.

Pieces of Zahra's body were found scattered across Caldwell County, and authorities still don't know how she died.

Baker, who is 43, was sentenced Sept. 15 to 15 to 18 years in
prison on second-degree murder charges in Zahra's death. Baker said her
lawyer, Scott Reilly, told her accepting a plea deal was in her best
interest.

"I wouldn't get a fair trial here, or anywhere," she said. "I'm
going to be an old woman when I get out." Reilly said Saturday that he
advised Baker to take the plea deal because the evidence against her was
strong. He cited Baker's inconsistent statements, her acknowledgment
that Adam wasn't around when Zahra died, blood splatter on Zahra's
bedroom ceiling, and cellphone records that placed her where the remains
were discarded.

"You take all that and put it together, and I think it's very
likely that a jury is going to return a verdict of guilty in five
minutes, and that is why I advised her to take the plea bargain," he
said. "The chances of her ever getting out of prison were unlikely."

Reilly said he was surprised that Baker talked to Observer
reporters, considering that she also faces federal charges of
distributing painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs. Because those charges
are pending, her new attorneys in the federal case objected to the
Observer publishing her comments.

Despite the plea deal, many questions still remain about what happened to Zahra - and only Elisa Baker knows the truth.

The Observer wrote Baker asking for an
interview. She wrote back requesting a face-to-face meeting. Baker
didn't say what she wanted to talk about, only that she wouldn't discuss
the drug-trafficking charges. She said she had received many requests
for interviews and some offers of money.

"I would like for you to come sit down with me and will take it from there," she wrote.

A deputy escorted her into a small interview room. Dressed in a
red jumpsuit, Baker hobbled in on crutches. She said she fell and broke
her foot during a seizure last week.

Then, she apologized for not telling her side of the story sooner.

'It wasn't real'

Baker described in a halting voice about finding Zahra, dead in
bed on Sept. 24, 2010. She said Zahra had been sick with a stomach virus
the week before, but seemed fine that morning.

When she left to run an errand, she said Zahra was playing and doing math homework. But when she got back, Zahra wasn't moving.

"I walked over to the bed and shook her a little bit," Baker said. "She wasn't responsive at all."

She said she tried CPR.

"I can't get her back," she said, reliving the moment.

"She hadn't been gone long. She wasn't cold."

Baker said she called Adam Baker, who is Zahra's father, and he rushed home.

"She's not breathing," Elisa Baker said she told him. "We need to call 911. He said, 'No, I'll take care of it.'"

She said Adam Baker was afraid to contact officials because he
and Zahra were living in the country illegally. Adam Baker moved here
from Australia after meeting Elisa Baker online.

Adam Baker has not been charged in his daughter's death, and
police say they have no credible evidence that he was involved in the
cover-up. Adam Baker faces several unrelated charges, including identity
theft and obtaining property by false pretenses and is scheduled to
appear in court next month.

'Don't pay attention...'

In the jail, Elisa Baker looked down and began to tear up as she recounted her version of events.

The morning after she found Zahra, Baker said Adam Baker took several white trash bags and a small saw from the kitchen.

"Don't come back here," she said he told her. "Stay in the kitchen. Don't pay attention to nothing."

He went into Zahra's bedroom and shut the door, she said. Later, she said, he put filled trash bags in the back of their SUV.

She said she confronted him:

"You need to tell me what you've done with her."

"I had to do what is going to save us both."

'I couldn't look'

Sitting in the SUV, Adam Baker told her
to take him to at least three locations where Zahra's remains couldn't
be found, Elisa Baker said. She said she grew up in nearby Granite Falls
and knew the area.

They stopped first, she said, on Burns Road in Caldwell County.

"He said not to turn around," she said. "He got something out of
the trash bags. I couldn't look. It would have killed me what he had
done."

Elisa Baker, speaking behind a jail window, then thrust her right arm out as if throwing something away.

At the next stop, off Christie Road, she said Adam raised the
hood and told her to act as if they were having car trouble. She said
she caught a glimpse of him carrying a heavier bag down toward a creek.

In court, Hickory police Capt. Thurman Whisnant testified that
there were several inconsistencies in Elisa Baker's story. Cellphone
records place her in the area where Zahra's remains were later found. He
said records showed Adam Baker's cellphone was not in that area.

"On the 24th, during the same period of time, his phone was in the Burke County area," Whisnant said.

His attorney, Mark Killian, said Friday that Elisa Baker is bringing up old allegations that already have been disproven.

"This is part of her effort," he said, "to evade ultimate
responsibility for what she has already admitted to doing in open court -
killing Zahra."

'You don't argue'

Growing up in Granite Falls, 65 miles west of Charlotte, Baker
said she learned the "man makes the decisions and you don't argue."

She said Zahra always called her Mom.

"She never called me stepmom," she said.

But family and investigators describe
Baker as far from a subservient, doting mother. They described Baker as a
compulsive liar who constantly manipulated and abused Adam and other
family members.

During her sentencing hearing, Adam Baker told her in court that she took advantage of Zahra's love.

"Zahra will never get to go to high school, never have a real boyfriend, never get married and never have children," he said.

Department of Social Services agencies
conducted numerous investigations into abuse allegations by Elisa Baker
going back as far as 1999, according to court records. Investigators
sought DSS records from eight counties around Hickory regarding Elisa
Baker and her three biological children.

A July 2010 DSS report included allegations that Elisa Baker had been physically abusing Zahra, who reportedly had a black eye.

In addition to the murder charge, Baker also pleaded guilty to
obstruction of justice, bigamy, identity fraud and obtaining property by
false pretenses.

Police said Elisa and Adam Baker had been married a year before Elisa Baker divorced her former husband of 10 years in 2009.

Court documents obtained by the Observer revealed that
investigators sought Elisa Baker's medical records from nine locations,
including Broughton Hospital, a state psychiatric center.

Unanswered questions

Elisa and Adam Baker reported their daughter missing on Oct. 9,
2010, saying that she had been kidnapped. Police searched for weeks
without finding any trace of Zahra. As part of a plea deal not to charge
her with first-degree murder, Elisa Baker eventually agreed to help
police find Zahra's remains.

Parts of her body - including her head, right arm, right leg and
upper left leg - were never recovered. Asked where those remains are,
Baker said Friday:

"I'm assuming the head is up (NC highway) 268 going toward Blowing Rock," she said.

Baker said she took Hickory police to that site. Police declined
to discuss the specifics of the case Friday because of the pending
federal charges.

Throughout the interview, Elisa Baker deflected blame for the
crime, saying she had no choice but to follow her husband's orders.

"I took blame for everything and I shouldn't have," she said. "I'm very angry he's not here."

In fact, Baker said, she helped investigators. Police stated in
court that they would not have found any of Zahra's body without Baker's
assistance.

"Quite honestly, I'm going to be blunt," she said. "If it hadn't
been for me, the Hickory police would still be going around chasing tail
and eating doughnuts."

"I wanted her found," Baker told the Observer. She talked for a
few more minutes about her case and revealed that her three biological
children have not visited her. She mentioned writing a book when a
sheriff's deputy opened the door and cut off the interview.

Leaving many questions unanswered, Elisa Baker grabbed her crutches and waved goodbye as she was escorted away.



Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/23/2715365/from-jail-elisa-baker-insists.html#ixzz1bbo94xu5

By: Sarah Newell williamson
Published: December 07, 2011 Updated: December 07, 2011 - 1:37 PM
» Comments | Post a Comment

HICKORY -- Zahra Baker’s remains were given to Adam Baker, in care of a funeral home, on Nov. 21, according to the NC Medical Examiner’s Office.

“If a family member claims them, it’s our protocol to release them,” said Sharon Artis, case management supervisor with the Medical Examiner’s Office in Chapel Hill.

Baker’s remains were given to Drum Funeral Home in November, Artis said. The date was set by the medical examiner’s office.

“The district attorney had up until then to get a court order to hold the remains, and did not,” Artis said.

Drum Funeral Home picked up the remains, and later cremated them.

The funeral home said there would be no service for Zahra.

Zahra was a 10-year-old Australian cancer survivor who was reported missing in October 2010. Her dismembered remains were found later that fall. Her stepmother and Baker’s wife, Elisa, pleaded guilty to Zahra’s murder in September, and was sentenced to 14 to 18 years in prison. Baker was not charged in Zahra’s death.

Baker has said he would like to take Zahra back home to bury her. Before he can do so, however, he has charges of his own he must face. He has four misdemeanor charges in Caldwell County, as well as two felony charges in Catawba County for identity theft and obtaining property by false pretenses.

Poster's note: Sorry, I couldn't post the link...I was so hoping her mother would finally get to bring her home

http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2011/dec/07/zahra-bakers-remains-went-her-father-ar-1688589/

Welcome to the forum Rainydaysend.Thank you for the update.I'll add the link.

Thanks Mermaid!! This is an amazing forum...just so sad that it needs to exist.

I still think Adam Baker is guilty,

So do I...I don't know exactly what part he played in this horrendous offense, but I'd award him at least half of the blame. Even if he were completely oblivious to the torture his daughter endured, he is at fault. I still do not believe that is the case...he knew what was happening, he allowed it to happen and quite possibly participated as well.

Rainydaysend wrote:So do I...I don't know exactly what part he played in this horrendous offense, but I'd award him at least half of the blame. Even if he were completely oblivious to the torture his daughter endured, he is at fault. I still do not believe that is the case...he knew what was happening, he allowed it to happen and quite possibly participated as well.

I think they were both beating her on a regular basis. I think that is why they took her out of school, to hide the abuse. I also think she was being sexually abused.

Her mother had finally found her and they were afraid Zahra would tell how she was being treated. I think he murdered her and dismembered her body. I think Elisa helped him strew the body parts. I think he burned down the building in the back yard to destroy evidence of his evil deed.

That's all my own opinion.

Baker accepts drug plea Already serving time in stepdaughter's death, she faces up to 20 more years.

Posted: Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 Modified: Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011

Elisa Baker, who pleaded guilty in September to murdering her 10-year-old stepdaughter, Zahra, has cut a deal with prosecutors on federal drug-trafficking charges. In a plea agreement filed earlier this week, Baker agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to distribute a mixture that contained painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone, and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam. The conspiracy charge is punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The plea agreement says Baker's crime involved about 12,000 doses of oxycodone, about 10,000 doses of hydrocodone and about 29,000 doses of alprazolam. Baker has agreed in the plea bargain to pay restitution to victims directly or indirectly harmed by her conduct. Baker was indicted in May and charged with seven federal drug offenses, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The plea agreement calls for prosecutors to dismiss the other six drug charges. Baker, 43, is in the Mecklenburg County jail while she awaits the disposition of her federal drug charges. Baker was sentenced to 15 to 18 years in prison in September after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with Zahra's death. She also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, bigamy, four counts of obtaining property through false pretenses and two counts of identity theft. Zahra's freckled face and smile captured hearts from North Carolina to Australia, where she was born. She had survived two bouts with cancer that left her without one leg and with a hearing impairment. Zahra was reported missing in October 2010, triggering a massive search. But she was dead. Her body had been dismembered, and the body parts were found scattered across rural Caldwell County. How Zahra died remains a mystery. In an interview at the jail with Observer reporters in October, Baker insisted that she is innocent of Zahra's murder. She portrayed herself as a loving stepmother and unwilling participant in covering up Zahra's death. She accused Adam Baker of dismembering his daughter and hiding her body parts. Adam Baker, 34, has not been charged in his daughter's death. District Attorney Jay Gaither told reporters that the state had no credible evidence to suggest that anyone other than Elisa Baker was involved in Zahra's murder. Police say they have no credible evidence that Adam Baker was involved in the cover-up. "I had nothing to do with hurting my daughter," Adam Baker told the Observer while responding to his wife's allegations.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/12/24/2873660/baker-accepts-drug-plea.html#storylink=cpy

ADAM Baker's plan to take his murdered disabled daughter Zahra's ashes back to Australia next week has
hit a road block after a North Carolina judge sentenced him to a month in jail.

Former Queensland sugar mill worker Baker, 34, spent Thursday in
courts in two North Carolina counties for a variety of charges that were
not expected to lead to jail time.
However, the Hickory Daily Record
newspaper reports District Court Judge BJ Mullinax sentenced Baker to
30 days in jail for an assault with a deadly weapon charge relating to
an incident where Baker tried to use a car to run a family member off the road.
Baker, who was cleared by North Carolina authorities of
playing any role in the 2010 murder and dismemberment of his 10-year-old
cancer survivor daughter Zahra, will appeal against the jail sentence.
The judge agreed not to send him to prison until a ruling was made on the appeal.

The dramatic turn has been one of many since Zahra was reported
missing from the Hickory, North Carolina, home where she lived with her
Australian father and American stepmother, Elisa Baker.
Elisa admitted murdering and dismembering Zahra and in September last year was sentenced to a 15- to 18-year prison term.
Elisa also appeared in a North Carolina court on Thursday facing seven drug
charges relating to the sale of more than 50,000 painkillers and
anti-anxiety pills between 2006 and 2010.
It was alleged she sold prescription drugs from three homes, including a trailer the family
lived in and the rented house where Zahra went missing last October.
Under the plea deal, seven drug charges carrying a maximum penalty of 140
years' jail were reduced to one count of conspiracy to distribute and
possess a controlled substance.
The 43-year-old self-described
gothic and pagan is expected to be sentenced to a 20-year jail term
served concurrently with the murder sentence.
"Yes," Elisa replied when asked by US Magistrate Judge David Keesler if she was guilty of the charge.
Her sentencing date has not been scheduled.
Baker, while living in Queensland with Zahra, met US-based Elisa on the
internet. They married in Queensland and in 2008 Baker and Zahra moved
to Elisa's home state of North Carolina.
Baker and Zahra, whose lower left leg had been amputated in 2005 after she was stricken with
bone cancer, were in the US illegally as their tourist visas had expired.
US immigration officials are expected to deport Baker when his court matters are completed.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/zahra-bakers-father-jailed-for-a-month/story-e6frf7lf-1226238155296

I will always believe he murdered Zahra and Elisa helped him dispose of her body parts. They were afraid she would tell her mother what they had been doing to her.

The father of Zahra Baker, who was
killed and dismembered by her stepmother, has been deported to Australia
with his daughter's remains.


Adam Baker, 33, had moved to Hickory, North Carolina to be with Elisa Baker, whom he had met online and went on to marry.
Ten-year-old Zahra travelled with Mr Baker, who had gained custody of the child when her mother suffered postpartum depression.
She was beaten, left bruised and locked in a room for hours, according to police and ABC News.


Murdered: The remains of Zahra Baker were scattered across two counties


When she was killed, her disappearance was not reported for weeks. Investigators eventually determined she had been killed.

They found her prosthetic leg and parts of her body scattered among animal remains across two counties.

Investigators also found parts of her
vertebrae which indicated her spine had been sawed at the neck. They
never found the girl's head.
Adam Baker was never arrested in connection with the murder of his daughter.

His attorneys told WSOC that Zahra's remains will be buried in a family plot in Australia.

Baker left the country two weeks ago,
after he received a suspended sentence for misdemeanor crimes, the
Charlotte Observer reported.

While charges remain against Baker in
other counties, his attorney Shell Pearce said he did not think he
would be made to return for hearings.
His departure comes after authorities
revealed last year that Baker was in the country illegally and officials
were organising his deportation.
Elisa Baker, 42, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in September last year and was sentenced to 15 to 18 years in jail.

She
claimed she had found the child dead in her bed and, together with
Baker, decided they couldn't report to police it as he was undocumented.
Adam
Baker told his wife he 'would take care of it' and cut up the girl's
body in a bathroom, his wife told police. He told his wife he needed her
help in finding places to dispose of the body, she said.
Following
Elisa Baker’s arrest, police found she had been married to someone else
while married to Baker. At the time of the trial, he found out he was
her seventh husband.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094015/Adam-Baker-deported-Australia-remains-murdered-daughter-Zahra.html#ixzz1l0dlw3nx

I can't believe they couldn't prosecute Zahra's father. It definately sounds like he had something to do with it. What father doesn't wonder where his daughter is over a few weeks. Too bad now he's been deported so they won't probably ever go after him. I hope his conscious kills him.

The Australian mother of a 10-year-old disabled girl who was murdered by her American stepmother in North Carolina said Tuesday she has no idea what became of her daughter’s ashes since the child’s father brought them to Australia.

Attorney Shell Pearce said Monday that his client, Adam Baker, left the United States roughly two weeks ago at the behest of U.S. federal immigration officials, bringing the remains of his daughter, Zahra, with him for burial in Australia.

However, Vincent Picard, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in an email Monday that Baker had “voluntarily departed’’ the U.S., which Pearce disputed.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-31/news/31009298_1_elisa-baker-zahra-australia

I can't believe Zahra's "dad" was never charged with anything and slithered out of the country.

HICKORY, N.C. -- Officials in Hickory are looking for volunteers to help build a playground to honor the disabled girl whose stepmother pleaded guilty to killing her.
The Hickory Daily Record reported volunteers will work with the Kiwanis Clubs of Catawba County and the city of Hickory on April 12-14 to build the Zahra Baker All Children's Playground.

The playground will include a 50-foot slide, a sand area, swings and more.

More than $200,000 has been raised for the project.

Zahra was reported missing in October 2010. Her body was found weeks later. Elisa Baker was sentenced to 15 to 18 years in prison in September after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.

Zahra wore a prosthetic leg, a result of her fight with two bouts of cancer.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=8553255

Remains found in area previously searched in Zahra Baker case
Posted: Apr 17, 2012 1:20 PM CDT
Updated: Apr 17, 2012 1:47 PM CDT

LENOIR, NC (WBTV) - WBTV has learned that investigators have found human remains at Winkler Way and Highway 268 in Caldwell County.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hickory Police Department and State Medical Examiner's Office are on scene.

Sources tell WBTV's Steve Ohnesorge that they believe a skull is among the remains.

When asked if the remains could be those of Zahra Baker, a source told WBTV it is "crossing their minds."

Officials have said in the past that Adam Baker, Zahra's father, would be the first person eligible to ask for Zahra's remains. Baker, in several interviews with WBTV News, has said he wants to "Give Zahra a proper burial back in Australia."

Baker's attorney, Mark Killian, said he would be looking into what needs to be done next to accommodate Adam in that request.

Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, pled guilty in September to second degree murder and was given an 18 year prison sentence.

Adam Baker was not charged in the Zahra case but does still face several unrelated misdemeanors and two felonies.

http://www.wbtv.com/story/17515491/remains-found-in-area-previously-searched-in-zahra-baker-case