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Missing Australian Girl
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Police are searching for remains of missing Australian girl Zahra Baker.
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Oct 14, 2010Missing girl's stepmum in court
Oct 14, 2010
The MySpace profile page of the US stepmother of missing Australian girl Zahra Baker is covered in skulls and other gothic images and refers to the 10-year-old as "the dark child".
Adopting the alias gothicfairy6668, the most recent update on the page lists her mood as "crazy", the day before the disabled girl went missing from her North Carolina home.
Police are now searching through a wood chipper and mulch piles at her father's workplace for signs of her remains after she was reported missing on Saturday afternoon, the Charlotte Observer reported.
The search was prompted by sniffer dogs detecting traces of blood on the property.
Police declared a homicide investigation after stepmother Elisa Baker admitted to writing a fake ransom note after the disappearance of Zahra, who is deaf and lost her left leg to bone cancer five years ago.
Mrs Baker was emotionless as she faced court yesterday charged with obstruction of justice over the fake ransom note, giving yes or no answers to the judge's questions.
But neighbours of the family say Mrs Baker had a nasty temper and was frequently hitting Zahra.
"She was always beating her," neighbour Karen Yount said.
"I told her to stop but she wouldn't listen to anyone — that poor girl."
Mrs Baker is considered a suspect in Zahra's disappearance and possible murder, though the investigation has been hampered since no-one outside the family has seen the girl in more than a month.
Zahra was born in the NSW city of Wagga Wagga before moving to Newcastle, then Townsville.
She moved to North Carolina with her father Adam after he met his future wife over the internet.
Mr Baker has not been ruled out as a suspect, though he was reportedly helping police with their search.
Police are searching for remains of missing Australian girl Zahra Baker.
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Oct 14, 2010Missing girl's stepmum in court
Oct 14, 2010
The MySpace profile page of the US stepmother of missing Australian girl Zahra Baker is covered in skulls and other gothic images and refers to the 10-year-old as "the dark child".
Adopting the alias gothicfairy6668, the most recent update on the page lists her mood as "crazy", the day before the disabled girl went missing from her North Carolina home.
Police are now searching through a wood chipper and mulch piles at her father's workplace for signs of her remains after she was reported missing on Saturday afternoon, the Charlotte Observer reported.
The search was prompted by sniffer dogs detecting traces of blood on the property.
Police declared a homicide investigation after stepmother Elisa Baker admitted to writing a fake ransom note after the disappearance of Zahra, who is deaf and lost her left leg to bone cancer five years ago.
Mrs Baker was emotionless as she faced court yesterday charged with obstruction of justice over the fake ransom note, giving yes or no answers to the judge's questions.
But neighbours of the family say Mrs Baker had a nasty temper and was frequently hitting Zahra.
"She was always beating her," neighbour Karen Yount said.
"I told her to stop but she wouldn't listen to anyone — that poor girl."
Mrs Baker is considered a suspect in Zahra's disappearance and possible murder, though the investigation has been hampered since no-one outside the family has seen the girl in more than a month.
Zahra was born in the NSW city of Wagga Wagga before moving to Newcastle, then Townsville.
She moved to North Carolina with her father Adam after he met his future wife over the internet.
Mr Baker has not been ruled out as a suspect, though he was reportedly helping police with their search.
Brice: I'm sorry about what happened to you and your wife. I had a similar experience with my middle child. He'd gotten burned at a relative's house. They called my pastor, the preschool and neighbors before we were allowed to leave. Thankfully, I still had a boarding pass in my purse to show that I'd been out of town.
Narla: You're right. If only ONE person had listened. She would occasionally stay the weekend with a relative. When it came time to go home, she'd scream and hide, not wanting to go back. And apparently she had a wonderful life with her grandmother in Australia. I hope the grandmother files suit against the authorities in this town. Maybe next time they wouldn't ignore the reports. I'm sure the angels have a special place for her in heaven.
Narla: You're right. If only ONE person had listened. She would occasionally stay the weekend with a relative. When it came time to go home, she'd scream and hide, not wanting to go back. And apparently she had a wonderful life with her grandmother in Australia. I hope the grandmother files suit against the authorities in this town. Maybe next time they wouldn't ignore the reports. I'm sure the angels have a special place for her in heaven.
That makes it even worse that the authorities were warned and nothing was done.
This story is truly sad. It breaks my heart, really. But I'd like to add this about reporting child abuse. My wife and I were falsely accused of child abouse of our oldest child. He suffered a broken arm from any one of numerous falls while learning to walk. He either jammed it on the floor where the crawl space was, or when he tried crawling up 3 stairs and had a tumble.
When we got him into the emergency room, the interrogation started by the medical staff immediately. (We went through a ton of fertility treatment in order to have this angel and never would have done or will do anything to hurt either of our children) The medical staff questioned my wife and I seperately, and the only saving grace was our family practioner who had been our doctor for a few years. Without him, we would have been hung....plain and simple.
With that being said, I am glad that the staff at our hospital is on the ball looking out for abuse. They did a horrible job investigating this one, and probably should have turned the investigation over to police. And really, when I say investigation....we were accused and basically judged guilty. It was a horrible, horrible experience.
When we got him into the emergency room, the interrogation started by the medical staff immediately. (We went through a ton of fertility treatment in order to have this angel and never would have done or will do anything to hurt either of our children) The medical staff questioned my wife and I seperately, and the only saving grace was our family practioner who had been our doctor for a few years. Without him, we would have been hung....plain and simple.
With that being said, I am glad that the staff at our hospital is on the ball looking out for abuse. They did a horrible job investigating this one, and probably should have turned the investigation over to police. And really, when I say investigation....we were accused and basically judged guilty. It was a horrible, horrible experience.
It was reported. The authorities didn't act. I think they have some questions to answer. She was recently pulled out of school to be home schooled. She would show up at school bruised. Nothing was done despite relatives, neighbors and school officials contacting the authorities.
I hope this woman knows there is a special place in Hel* for her.
I hope this woman knows there is a special place in Hel* for her.
I'd rather report someone and be wrong than say nothing.And if I was wrong I'd be big enough to apologise.
Exactly, if the neighbor knew the child was being beaten and the stepmother had a bad bad temper, how could they not report this to the authorities! With a little intervention, this situation could have been averted. This stepmother is pure evil! And it sounds like it is not a surprise to anyone who met her. What a tragic and senseless thing this is! Stories like this make me so sick!
Why was the child abuse not reported to authorities?We let this happen too often and do nothing about it,I hope they can prove what happened to this child.
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