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

Friend: "I knew this was going to happen someday"



~Snipped~

Brittany Bentley, who was married to Elisa's nephew, said her heart dropped when she heard Zahra was missing. "I knew this day was going to come. Everybody that knew Zahra knew how she was being treated. This was going to happen," she said.

Bentley is no friend of the family. She says she filed the charges for "communicating threats" that Elisa Baker is now in jail for. Bentley says those charges stemmed from an argument during which she says Baker threatened to kill her, her husband, and their child.

"I knew this was going to happen someday," she said.

Read more: http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Friend-I-knew-this-was-going-to-happen-someday-104747464.html

Amber Alert cancelled and now its a homocide case

Source

From the source I linked to in my last comment:

Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said at a news conference that the girl's stepmother confessed to writing a ransom note found at the house where the girl lived, and she has been charged with felony obstruction of justice in the case.

Terrible news, just terrible. What has been done to this child?

Evidently the stepmother was abusive to little Zahra and the relatives knew it. I wonder why they didn't report it? Maybe they did but it went on deaf ears.

Police treating missing NC girl case as homicide

National / World News 12:55 p.m. Tuesday, October 12, 2010



In this May 2010 photo shows Zahra Claire Baker, 10, waiting to get a hearing aid at an event Charlotte Motor Speedway.


In this May 2010 photo shows Zahra Claire Baker, 10, getting a hearing aid at an event Charlotte Motor Speedway

~Snipped~

Zahra Clare Baker was reported missing Saturday, but police said they can't find anyone outside the household who has seen the girl alive in a month. Relatives described the child's life as miserable, saying she was locked in her room for most of the day and punished over little things.

Zahra "was locked in her room, allowed five minutes out a day to eat, that was it," Bentley said. "She was beat almost every time I was over there for just the smallest things. Elisa would get mad, she would take it out on Zahra, things the kid didn't deserve. She just had a horrible home life."

~Snipped~

The girl was being home-schooled, but had attended public schools in the past. Zahra used two hearing aids, which were left at the house, and a prosthetic left leg from the knee down, police said.

Adam Baker was from Australia, and met his current wife over the Internet, a family friend said. Zahra's mother lives outside the U.S.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/police-treating-missing-nc-678398.html

Zahra Baker Update: Missing Case Turns into Homicide Investigation

Posted by Carlin DeGuerin Miller
October 12, 2010 1:01 PM

HICKORY, N.C. (CBS/AP) The investigation into Zahra Baker, the hearing-impaired10-year-old North Carolina girl who was reported missing Saturday, is now a homicide investigation, Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins announced Tuesday.

PICTURES: Zahra Baker Missing

Adkins said that Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, confessed to investigators that she wrote the ransom note found at the scene that asked for $1 million and then asked for an attorney.

Read more:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8300-504083_162-504083.html#ixzz12Ak5SmV6

What a sad and abusive existence for Zahra. I agree with Sherry, I'd like to know if CPS was informed of the witnessed abuse on this child.

I assume her mother must be in Australia, did she not have any contact with her young daughter? Did every single adult in Zahra's life fail her?

Piper wrote: Did every single adult in Zahra's life fail her?

It sure seems that way, sad!

I understand that Bentley (the wife of Elisa's nephew) did contact the Childrens' Services about the abuse but did not know what follow up was done. The CPS said that they cannot comment on the case from her report. I'm sorry for no news link to what I said but I've been reading them all!

Jesus Wept! I just heard the developments of this heinous case. kh

Police: No one has seen missing N.C. girl in a month

By the CNN Wire Staff
October 12, 2010 7:58 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- The stepmother of a missing 10-year-old North Carolina girl has admitted writing a ransom note found at the family's home, authorities said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Hickory, North Carolina, Police Chief Tom Adkins said investigators have been unable to find anyone outside Zahra Clare Baker's immediate family who has seen her in the last month.

"We cannot confirm with any confidence how long Zahra has been missing," he said.

The investigation has shifted from a possible abduction into a homicide probe, he said, and an Amber Alert issued for the girl on Saturday will be canceled.

Elisa Baker, Zahra's stepmother, made the admission in an interview Monday night at the detention center where she is held on charges unrelated to Zahra's disappearance, Adkins told reporters. She then requested an attorney, he said.

Read more:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/12/north.carolina.missing.girl/index.html?section=cnn_latest

The ransom note mentioned above was actually written to Adam Baker's boss, Mr. Coffey, and the police found it on one of the family's cars at the time of the fire, before Zahra was even reported missing. LE went to the boss's home and he and his daughter were safe.

The search dogs have hit on human odors on 2 wood chippers that the dad uses in his business, one at his house, and the other is about 15 miles from Hickory, in Morganton NC. The SBI and their search teams and dogs are at that work site now doing a search, and expect to be there most of the night. They have brought in heavy equipment with the big claws to lift the trees and brush so the dogs can search better.

If this little girl has not been seen in the past month, except by the dad & stepmom, just how long has she been missing? She did attend Hudson Elementary school her first 2 years. This school is about 5 miles south of where I live. But, once she started her chemo, her hearing was affected, and she was not able to attend school, and was supposedly home schooled. However, she received her aids in May, and she could have started school this year. Wonder why they didn't let her go to school. The school she would have attended was about 3 miles from her home, and is a very high accredited school. Chris and Nicole attended that school till they were in the 6th grade.

This is being reported as Elisa's myspace page, which is very upsettig: (WARNING: Turn volume DOWN on your compute)

http://www.myspace.com/gothicfairy6668?actp=n%2b0prKAebczfG13CmB%2fL170xxzjSK8k%2f19igSi%2f1c3t5e%2bwC3DLkvcizZMARvDL7ka5RABqWbiQD68Wy3fJLnhcZjqzxkRKw99GpHyHFaIm5OrsQFGScSBOfvv0r4Q2jvN%2fovS3tzMQEzr1XI4r3xFrzB9UpH1HySlotraGa9WwK3u8ePP0z9Fjh8aufH6M563uFQhsrCsGU%2bwVZ%2bBaoPQOEhRdTs%2f4SVu20%2fxHTqXXoV%2bmhw1VFabfb0aX5NVWr

And dads-'s myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/adam1802000

His has just been set to private. His mood is "annoyed."

kh

sitemama wrote:The ransom note mentioned above was actually written to Adam Baker's boss, Mr. Coffey, and the police found it on one of the family's cars at the time of the fire, before Zahra was even reported missing. LE went to the boss's home and he and his daughter were safe.

The search dogs have hit on human odors on 2 wood chippers that the dad uses in his business, one at his house, and the other is about 15 miles from Hickory, in Morganton NC. The SBI and their search teams and dogs are at that work site now doing a search, and expect to be there most of the night. They have brought in heavy equipment with the big claws to lift the trees and brush so the dogs can search better.

If this little girl has not been seen in the past month, except by the dad & stepmom, just how long has she been missing? She did attend Hudson Elementary school her first 2 years. This school is about 5 miles south of where I live. But, once she started her chemo, her hearing was affected, and she was not able to attend school, and was supposedly home schooled. However, she received her aids in May, and she could have started school this year. Wonder why they didn't let her go to school. The school she would have attended was about 3 miles from her home, and is a very high accredited school. Chris and Nicole attended that school till they were in the 6th grade.

Thanks for the information, Mama. Oh good lord, not wood chippers.....

Geeze louise! Elisa sure is a dark person! And she had the audacity to call Zahra a "dark child"? Very disturbing individual...

Wow, kh......her myspace is freaky. It reminds me of a teenager in a gothic state of mind. Not a grown woman with grandchildren. Her mood is "crazy" and she's quite proud of it. Poor Zahra...where are you?

And Dad is annoyed........

Friends say missing NC girl's stepmother was angry

By MITCH WEISS, Associated Press Writer Mitch Weiss, Associated Press Writer – 25 mins ago 10/13/10

HICKORY, N.C. – To relatives and former neighbors, Elisa Baker had a short fuse. In interviews and court documents, they portrayed her as nasty-tempered and willing to use a gun or her fists to settle an argument and say her disabled stepdaughter usually bore the brunt of her rage.

Investigators said Tuesday they believe someone killed 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker, who was reported missing over the weekend. Baker was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, accused of trying to throw off investigators with a fake ransom note.

"She was always beating her," former neighbor Karen Yount said Tuesday. "I told her to stop but she wouldn't listen to anyone. That poor girl."

Other neighbors say they also feared for the girl's safety.

"There were warning signs along the way, but you never want to think the worst," said former neighbor Kayla Rotenberry.

Her fiance, Bobby Green, said an investigator from the Department of Social Services visited the Bakers' house a few months ago: "I saw him when he knocked on their door. He said they were looking into whether the girl was being beaten."

The agency didn't return a phone message Tuesday.


Read more here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101013/ap_on_re_us/us_missing_girl_north_carolina

Zahra's father was obviously aware of how his own flesh and blood was being treated by her step-mother. If neighbors and friends saw it, he sure as hell did too. And he did nothing to protect this child. Whatever has happened to Zahra, her father is just as guilty as the crazy step-mom. I've already made up my mind on that. No loving parent would stand by and watch a child, a disabled child at that, be beaten and locked in a room. They are both lying as to the last time they saw her.