Zahra Baker -- Found Deceased 11/10/10 -- Elisa Baker Pleads Guilty To Second-Degree Murder

Amber Alert

Missing From:	Hickory, NC
Missing Date:	10/09/2010 2:30 AM Eastern
Issued for:	North Carolina: Statewide
Contact:	If you have information, please contact Hickory Police Department, 828-328-5551, 911
Circumstances:	The Hickory Police Department is searching for a missing child: Zahra Claire Baker is a 10-year-old White female, approximately 5 feet tall, weighing 55 pounds. She has brown hair, and blue eyes. Camouflage Army T-shirt, black knee-length tights and left prosthetic leg.

Missing Child Name: Zahra Claire Baker Alias: Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue eyes Skin Color: White Age: 10 Height: 5FT Weight: 85LBS Gender: Female Description: Camouflage Army T-shirt, black knee-length tights and left prosthetic leg.

http://www.ncmec.org/missingkids/servlet/AmberExternalFCServlet?act=retAmberCase&amberId=7608

Amber alert for missing Hickory girl

By Hickory Record Staff
Published: October 10, 2010



Hickory --

An Amber Alert has been issued for 10-year-old Zahra Claire Baker. She was discovered missing Saturday afternoon.

The girl's parents told police she was last seen sleeping in her bed around 2:30 a.m. They reported her missing around 2 p.m., said police.

Her parents said they searched for the girl for an hour before reporting her missing.

Read more: http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/news/2010/oct/10/amber-alert-missing-hickory-girl-ar-447658/

Stepmother of missing Hickory girl arrested

October 10, 2010

Hickory, N.C. — The stepmother of a missing Hickory girl was arrested Sunday morning on outstanding charges unrelated to the 10-year-old's disappearance.

Police said details that have emerged in the past 12 hours make it seem less likely that a stranger abducted Zahra Clare Baker, who was reported missing a day earlier by her father, Adam, and stepmother, Elisa.

Elisa Baker was arrested on unrelated, outstanding charges around 10:45 a.m., police said. Details of those charges weren't released.

Police said Elisa Baker has not been eliminated as a person of interest in Zahra's disappearance.

They didn't release details of the ongoing investigation, but said it has revealed "inconsistencies."

Read more: http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/8429135/

This is incredible and unbelievably outrageous if true. Parents claim they last saw Zahra asleep in her bed at 2:30am. They reported her missing at 2pm. They claim that they searched for an hour before reporting her missing. At 1pm in the afternoon they finally noticed that they hadn't noticed Zahra up and about? Sounds fishy. Why was an Amber Alert issued when there are no witnesses to an abduction, no car to look for, no description of a possible abductor. I thought that some of these conditions had to be met before an Amber Alert could be issued. I don't believe that there will be a happy ending to this story. I wish there could/would be. Poor Zahra doesn't seem to be a likely candidate for a runaway.

Cali, this is my hometown. Having read the article in the Hickory Daily Record, and the comments at the bottom, it seems several ppl went to offer their help in the search, but it didn't seem there was even a search going on. I don't know if the Hickory police even know how to organize a search party. I remember many years ago, there was a little 3 y/o reported missing. My son went to help with the search, but there were no LE involved in the search, just hundreds of neighbors out looking for this little fellow.

He was reported missing on a Friday afternoon. My son helped search on Saturday and Sunday, but never any LE leading these searches. This little boy was found the following Friday, in a tool box, in a bedroom of the home. This was in mid summer, and I have never been able to understand how the family could have stayed in that house for a week. He was found when neighbors complained of a horrible odor coming from that apt, and you could actually see thousands of flies in the front window of that bedroom.

Nothing was ever done to the parents, as LE believed their story that the little boy must have gotten in that tool box by himself, and when the lid closed, it locked by itself. The family was allowed to move back to KY to bury their baby, and they never came back.

Mama, that's a horrible story. That poor child.

What a pretty girl, she doesn't have her hearing aids with her.

Dad: Missing Disabled Girl's Stepmom Possibly Involved
Zahra Baker, 10, Last Seen Alive by Stepmother; Stepmother in Custody on Unrelated Charges

By YUNJI DE NIES and LEE FERRAN
Oct. 11, 2010

~Snipped~
Baker said that because of his work schedule he hadn't since his daughter since Thursday night. He told "GMA" that his wife was the last person to see Zahra alive when she claimed the girl was in bed early Saturday morning. Zahra was not reported missing until Saturday afternoon when Elisa Baker came to Adam in a panic. Zahra was gone with her prosthetic leg, but her hearing aid remained.

"She didn't know very much. She came out crying and panicking. She told me Zahra was gone," Baker told "GMA." Baker said he searched the house and then the block before calling the police.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-hickory-girl-zahra-bakers-mom-involved-dad/story?id=11848643

Eliza Baker mug shot - Zahra's step-mother

Elisa Baker was arrested Sunday on charges including communicating threats, writing worthless checks, larceny and driving with a revoked license.

It was unclear whether she has an attorney.


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h4rxdEVLLWNY3lLWF2wqDQ34pAEwD9IPG7HG0?docId=D9IPG7HG0

Police look for missing NC girl, question parents

updated 42 minutes ago, Oct 11

~Snipped~
Adam Baker said his wife told him that she last saw Zahra sleeping in her bed about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. A fire was reported in the backyard of the Bakers' home about 5 a.m. He said he was in a big panic after the fire, but didn't check on his daughter.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39605995/ns/us_news

Has anyone heard any detail about this early morning fire??

Hickory girl still missing, stepmom arrested

Updated: Oct 11, 2010 9:32 AM EDT

Link to video:
http://www.wect.com/global/Category.asp?C=195960&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5186306&flvUri=&partnerclipid=

~Snipped~
Zahra Clare Baker was last seen sleeping around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday at her home on 21st Avenue Northwest. She was not reported missing until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Police also said the likelihood that Zahra Baker was abducted by a stranger is low although that possibility has not been ruled out.

On Sunday, investigators with the Hickory Police Department gathered surveillance video from businesses near the girl's home to establish a better timeline of events leading up to her disappearance. They also spent the day canvassing the area around her home looking for clues.

Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said investigators made a follow-up call to the home after firefighters were called there for a possible brush fire.

Adkins would not say whether the incident had anything to do with the case.

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

Cali wrote:This is incredible and unbelievably outrageous if true. Parents claim they last saw Zahra asleep in her bed at 2:30am. They reported her missing at 2pm. They claim that they searched for an hour before reporting her missing. At 1pm in the afternoon they finally noticed that they hadn't noticed Zahra up and about? Sounds fishy. Why was an Amber Alert issued when there are no witnesses to an abduction, no car to look for, no description of a possible abductor. I thought that some of these conditions had to be met before an Amber Alert could be issued. I don't believe that there will be a happy ending to this story. I wish there could/would be. Poor Zahra doesn't seem to be a likely candidate for a runaway.

Cali, I agree with you. None of this makes any sense. Even the AMBER Alert, which many times I can't figure out why AMBER Alerts aren't issued.

Police dogs smell remains at missing girl's house
By MITCH WEISS Associated Press Writer The Associated Press
Monday, October 11, 2010 7:07 PM

HICKORY, N.C. (AP) — Police dogs detected the smell of human remains on two cars at the home of a missing 10-year-old girl who has bone cancer and a prosthetic leg, a search warrant said Monday.

The document filed in a Hickory court didn't indicate that police found any remains in their Sunday search. The warrant said the dogs detected the smell on a sedan and SUV belonging to the father and stepmother of Zahra Clare Baker.

Earlier Monday, the police chief cast doubt on the couple's accounts. They told police they discovered she was missing on Saturday and that one of them had seen her sleeping in her room hours earlier.

http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9IPOQ900%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1011

It's definitely not looking good mama. Why do parents harm their own children?

According to JVM, police said the ransom note could be a phony and they say Baker's story is inconsistent.