Sword and Scale - Episode 127

Episode Date: November 25, 2018

In 2008, Adam Baker and his daughter, Zahra, moved to the United States from Queensland, Australia with the hopes of having the perfect new life. Adam had just married his new bride, Elisa, whom Zahra was quite fond of. What they soon began to learn was that the so-called “Evil Stepmother” was no fairytale, and what existed was a real life monster… See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I played you to a murder I didn't do and it wasn't even a murder. I got scared Started doing CPR. We need to go ahead and count on one one He said let's sit down, take you some medicine, come down. I'll take care of it. This is season five of sword and scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. While we're coming up on the holidays real quick and I wanted to make sure that I

wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully you spend a lovely day with your loving family, stuffing your face with Turkey. In this episode however, you'll find out that not all of us are that lucky, not all of us have that family support around us. So if you do, make sure that you do count your blessings, make sure that you are indeed thankful for what you have. Before we get to it though, I want to remind you that Sword and Scale Re1 is now on twice a week. So if you're running out of stuff to listen to, go check it out, give it a chance.

There's a lot of episodes and they're catching up to present day really quickly. It's not like Sword and Scale, but it's a fun companion if you're going back and listening to older episodes. It's almost like talking to your friends about a particular episode and hearing their take. Also, want to remind you that our last show will be just right around Christmas for the regular show. Now, plus is going to keep updating, but the regular show will be going on break after

Christmas for a little while so that we can recoup, spend a little quality time with the families of our own, and really just get a little bit of a creative breather so that we can come back fresh and new. Do not fret though, because remember we do have that secret project coming up in the very beginning of January, starring myself Jack Luna and Tyler Bell. Watch out for that in the first part of the year. But for now, it's rare not to take someone at their word.

We all put on a new face when we meet someone new. Like it or not, we all have multiple faces. Hopefully, they're not in your freezer. What I mean is, we all sort of put on a different face depending on the situation. We adjust our personalities to fit in, to be accepted, to be liked. Many times it's harmless, even helpful, when we go on a job interview, for example, or when we meet a potential mate. If you began dating someone, would you take a hard look into that person's background? Would you look for any information into who that person actually was?

What if you found out the person you were seeing had been married multiple times? Would you question if this individual was someone you'd want to spend time with knowing that things may not work out in the long run? What if a child was in the picture? What measures would you take to ensure your child's safety with this person? This is the story of a little girl, a little girl not unlike any other, full of hopes and dreams and the potential for a bright future ahead. You might know a little girl just like her, with a bright smile and big beautiful green eyes. The kind that look up at you, with childlike innocence, and melt your heart. This little girl though would be subjected to all the cruelty the world had to offer, through no fault of her own. She would be born into darkness. The universe's cruel lottery of chance.

Her luck would start off bad and get worse. Much worse. Impossibly worse. If you have young children and are sensitive, you may not want to hear this story. Because this little girl named Zara Baker is no longer with us. And in her short life, it's as though she never even had a chance. Today, we're not going to tease a suspense-filled mystery, or shock you with a gorg-filled serial cannibal tale. We're going to tell you the story of this little girl. It's not a who-done-it.

It's a sort of how the fuck did this happen, sort of story. How can the world be so impossibly cruel? Born on November 16, 1999, to Adam Baker and Emily Dietrich, Zara was a happy baby. She was born in Waga Waga, a major suburban city in New South Wales, Australia. Within Zara's first few weeks of life, Emily decided to give full custody to Adam, postpartum depression, they said. By the time Zara was just eight months old, her mother Emily was completely shut out of her daughter's life. Years later, Zara's mom would explain her decision to give up her daughter. It's hard to explain it to people who haven't been parents. I suffered from depression.

I suffered from postnatal depression with all three of my children. But sadly, with Zara, postnatal depression with all three of my children. But sadly, with Zara, I didn't know I had it. You don't realize you have it, and just think you're inadequate. You reach a point where you have a split second to make a decision on what is best for your child before the depression overtakes you, and then you have no choice. In my head, the best thing was, and the safest thing for her was to go with him. I didn't have the strength to keep going.

I didn't want to hate my child. I didn't want to be that new story where you hear the mother has drowned her child or couldn't stop them crying so they smothered them. I didn't want to be that mother. And I beg any mother out there who feels it to get help and do everything that they can, to get support and to keep support, and it doesn't make them a bad person. It gets treated by the two children I still suffered, but I had knowledge to get through it, and I knew to ask for help.

That's the main thing. I didn't do it because I didn't love her, I did it because I did love her." In 2004, Adam took a job at the Invictus Sugar Mill in Giroux, Queensland, a town known for processing the second largest amount of sugar cane in the southern hemisphere. Adam and five year-old Zara moved in with his parents. Giroux was nearly a 24-hour drive from Wagawaga and Emily, effectively cutting off all contact with the little girl's mother. Despite no longer having her father around or her mother for that matter, Zara still seemed to be a happy and healthy child, making the best out of a not ideal situation with the optimism and wonder of a toddler whose

whole life ahead was ripe with opportunities for happiness and joy. Her parental grandmother, Karen, watched Zara while Adam was at work and helped Razor. Zara enjoyed playing and being a normal little girl around the sugar mill town. But in 2005, life would hand Zara yet another bad hand. Not just a bad hand actually, but a crippling one. Zara would develop a rare form of bone cancer. Bone cancer is extremely rare to begin with. Less than 0.2% of all cancers are primary bone cancer, and in the US, which has a population of roughly 325 million people,

only about 3,500 of them will be diagnosed with bone cancer this year. that's 0.001% of the population. So when I say she got a bad hand, it's an understatement. Life fucked her big time. As if that's not enough, the cancer would later spread to her lungs. Eventually, thankfully, she would go into remission. But not before the disease would take part of her. As part of her treatment, her left leg above the knee was amputated. Most of us wanted us to feel sorry for her, but she did not want pity for many one as one family member told me she wanted to be like every other child.

As part of her therapy, Zara would do water exercises. As another family member told me eventually she started swimming and she became a very good swimmer. She could swim as fast as any others would just the top part of her left leg. Also, she would climb a rock wall as part of her recovery. Nothing would slow her down. She wanted no pity. She wanted to be like every other child.

Just two years later, the cancer returned and metastasized. Her cancer was spread to her lung and she would have surgery to remove part of it. She had a scar under her right arm in a shape of an X and she would tell her family X marks a spot to my heart. Zara fought tough against the tumors growing within her little body. The chemotherapy treatment damaged the sensory hairs in her inner ear, leaving her with permanent hearing loss and having to resort to wearing a hearing aid for the rest of her life. Even though she was in the midst of a battle with two aggressive forms of cancer, this sick little girl with a big heart was selfless in her support

of the other children around her entering treatment. Wow in the hospital. She would make her rounds to the other children hopping on just one leg. She would provide them with encouragement for their upcoming treatment. She would laugh and play games, taking their minds off what was to come Now look just because your first relationship was a disaster and now you have a little girl with cancer Doesn't mean you don't have needs, right? I get that you know You got to get your freak on sometimes. That's fine. That's perfectly understandable

It was in 2008 that Adam Baker created an account on IMVU, a website in which users can create a 3D avatar to play games or chat with a stranger halfway across the world. Some people use it to live out social experiences. Their tagline is where real life comes to play. Now the world's largest avatar-based social network, you design an avatar from the body type down to the facial features and hairstyle. You pick out clothes to dress them for virtual parties and go on virtual shopping sprees and hopefully you also make a few friends along the way.

It's kind of like the Sims or Second Life to be more accurate. Not very popular in the US, but extremely popular internationally. In this internet-based locale, which is apparently still operational, by the way, Adam ended up meeting a woman by the name of Alisa Fairchild, a divorced single mother of three who lived in North Carolina. Adam hadn't been in any type of relationship since he and Emily split up, and the more the two chatted online, the more they found they had in common.

So they connected on my space, and a long-distance relationship developed. But guys, we've talked about this before, haven't we? Meeting people on the internet can be, shall we say, perilous, filled with landmines, a clusterfuck, can I say clusterfuck? Especially if you're so lonely or oblivious that you ignore every single red flag. On my space, Alyssa described herself as a Gothic individual. Her screen name was Gothic Fairy 6668. And the general section of her social media page read, people often judge what they don't

understand. I myself prefer to be different. There is no one out there, I really envy. I strive to be different in my own way. So if people stop and stare, I think to myself, God, I feel sorry for them. They are so scared to step outside the norm that they live in a constant bubble, afraid to stand out and stand up for how they really feel. It wasn't long before Elisa planned on visiting Adam and Girro, but she went as far as to tell friends before departing that she was going to marry Adam on her trip.

I thought I had met Prince Charming. Prince Charming. Hardly. When asked about what drew Adam to her, she believed his honesty stood out most. But what was most important to her was that this single dad took such good care of his daughter. What I thought was his honesty about everything and the fact that everything and the fact that he was a single dad and that he loved his daughter enough to raise her herself and not let his family or her family raise Zara. According to Adam, Zara was thrilled at the thought of having a stepmother. Even Adam saw great plans for the future. What were you hoping for?

What did you think your life was going to be like? are great plans for the future. As predicted, Adam and Alyssa wed in Guiru in July of 2008. Shortly after they married, they prepared for a move to the United States where Adam and Zara would move in with Alissa, 10,000 miles away in a place called Hickory North Carolina about an hour north of Charlotte, a seemingly perfect place to raise a family, a mostly suburban town with beautiful weather, great schools, and plenty of family-oriented activities all year round. It seemed like things were looking up.

In fact, right before the move happened, Zara's cancer went into remission. It's almost as though fate had finally smiled on young Zara's life, but not everything is always as it appears. As the family settled into their new home in Hickory North Carolina, home in Hickory, North Carolina. Blog postings on Gothic Ferries My Space Page began appearing. Sunday, February 22nd, 2009. I am so sick of people judging me by how I look. I am Gothic and proud of it. Maybe if everyone would stop judging people, the world might be a better place. Then it's the doctors. Oh my God, if you look a little different, they think you're hooked on some sort of drugs.

When truth is, I have enough health problems without that shit. I hate it. I can't see how our world has come to this, and I don't understand why all the people from all other countries want to come here. I'm Alisa by God, and that's who I am to like die. Tuesday, June 16th, 2009. One thing I have learned this week is family doesn't mean anything.

And no matter the good you do, people only judge you for the bad. See, everyone makes mistakes in this life, and I have made my share. Yet some people think they are perfect, never lie or do anything wrong, and you kids rip your heart out. I'm a never-ending circle. Now I understand what my mom used to tell me about family and friends. I miss her so much. Wednesday, June 17, 2009. We have been together for two years, and will be married one in July. So much. he keeps me positive. Even when everyone else treats me like crap. There was one final blog post made

on Saturday, September 13th, 2009. Healthy people have no clue how lucky they are. I swear, I try not to complain too much, but I have this freaking disease. This rare disease I have has no cure, only medication to try and slow the progress. The sun causes flare-ups, which make things really worse. Those of us with this disease hope one day for a cure to be found, or at least a medication

that really works. I was diagnosed with brain cancer first time in 1990, then in 94, and again in 2006, which each time they gave me up for dead and prepared my family for the worst. And I am still here. But now I have something I can't even begin to control. How fair is that? There was never so much as even a mention of the struggles her stepdaughter had endured. You know, the one with cancer? It seemed Alyssa loved to talk more about herself and her problems, rather than those of the innocent

little girl under her care. The one photo on Alyssa's profile of Zara was captioned as the dark child. Many who knew and were close with Alyssa believed she wasn't very fond of the little girl, not that it isn't obvious and apparent from her social media profile. But if the family members were seeing any of this, then it was just a glimpse into the sudden hell that poor Luzara had suddenly been thrust into. In spite of losing her leg as a result of cancer and losing partial hearing due to the

treatment to fight the disease, Little Zara never lost her upbeat personality. After all, her potentially lethal cancer had gone into remission. On May 10th of 2010, a local charity pulled together enough funds to help the young girl receive hearing aids. about my eight. Yeah, to you like, to my friends. With her when she received her new hearing aids, was Alyssa. A lot of people don't understand that treatment does

tend to take other things away from her. She wants to get a college. She can hear now. The family dynamic within the Baker household was almost nonexistent. Adam worked the graveyard shift. When he would leave for work, he'd look in Zara's room to see her sleeping.

During the day, he would be sleeping. Thinking his daughter would be at school and doing the normal things that young preteen girls would be doing. But what was really taking place was abuse. Just from the time I went over there, the environments are lived in. She was locked in her room,

allowed five minutes out of date to eat. That was it. She was beat. Almost every time I was over there, for just the smallest things. At least if we get mad, you would take it out of her, Zara. Things the kid didn't deserve.

She just had a horrible homelife. One time I remember she had a black eye, and she said it was from the door, but we all knew it, we suspected it was from Melissa. While this was going on, Adam would be right there, but didn't stop it. I never saw Adam like spank her, punish her, or do anything, but he was at there

and watched Lisa do it to his child. He would just sit there and I'll say anything. And just as typically happens in cases like this, the Department of Social Services was contacted about the abuse. But the call was made by Alyssa's biological daughter. Her daughter actually reported to DSA, so they came. I don't know how much was done, but yes, it was reported.

Neighbors of the Bakers would often see Zara walking up and down a hill. Alyssa claimed it was supposed to be for strengthening her leg, which was amputated. But those same neighbors often saw this little girl crying, making it more likely it was a form of punishment. A woman at the top of the cul-de-sac talked about seeing Lisa Baker make Zara walk up and down that hill. The idea that I got is that sometimes it was as a kind of therapy, I suppose, she was trying to get her to learn to walk better on her leg, but other times it seemed to be more of a punishment. She mentioned in particular that Zara wanted a bicycle, and Lisa told her that she could not have a bicycle until she learned to run on the leg.

And so she needed to walk up and down that hill to strengthen her leg, but it hurt Zara. And I guess the prosthetic leg cut into her, or hurt her leg and she would often cry when she was doing that. Where there's smoke, there's often fire. These verbal attacks towards this sickly and handicapped little girl that many in the neighborhood often witnessed were just the tip of the abusive iceberg. I think there was more behind closed doors

than what anybody knew. Do you think she was being abused? Oh, yeah. In what way? There was one incident where Zara's stepmother was whooping Zara, and she broke her hand on her prosthetic leg. Imagine hitting a little girl so hard that you end up breaking your hand on her prosthetic

leg. Imagine the velocity and ferociousness in which you would have to be striking, and the carelessness of where you hit to actually fracture your own hand on this prosthesis made mostly of plastic. But to Alyssa, anything at all that happened was Zara's fault. It's always she fell down or she rolled out of bed or she didn't have her leg on right and couldn't walk right and fail or it's always Zara's fault. In 2010, Zara was enrolled at Hudson Elementary School in Hickory. She never attended a single class. Alyssa called and informed the school that Zara would not be attending and would be homeschooled instead. Home Schooled. Surprise. It was around this time that Emily Dietrich, Zara's biological mother, began looking for

her daughter. Years had passed. She had remarried and had other children. She now wanted to have Zara back in her life. The social media she was able to find Adam and see pictures of Zara and the award she'd won when she'd been attending school, but she had no idea where in the United States they were. But it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't make any difference. You see, it was already too late. It was already too late. Little Zara's short, misery-filled life had come to an abrupt and unnecessary end.

On October 9, 2010, a phone call to 911 was made from the Baker Residence at approximately 5.30 a.m. The caller was reporting what appeared to be a vegetation fire behind their home. No, one one wants to address of your emergency. My husband worked for a treatment company and I'm not yards on fire. You're what, so far? The backyard. We've got big moped piles and we've housed because we can't.

I would. I would. I would. I would. I would. I would. I would. I would. in Wip House because we told her what your address ma'am. It's 21, 21 Avenue, North Wales, heat 1, 21, 21st Avenue, North Wales. Yes. Okay, is it close to your house? No, it's kind of up. We're right behind. We're the new 137 V-stroke opened.

What's your phone number there, ma'am? 855. Uh-huh. Um, three. Let me give you my cell phone because I can't even remember my 855-3787. Okay, I will get them out there, ma'am. When emergency services responded to the residents, it appeared as if the fire had reached the rear of a vehicle on the property.

But after the fire was put out, investigators were able to tell the fire's point of origin came from the bed of Adam's work truck. On the windshield, they found a note. The note read, �Mr. Coffee, you like being in control. Now who is in control? We have your daughter and your son is next. One million unmarked.

We'll be in touch soon. Adam said he thought it was some sort of sick joke aimed towards his employer, Mr. Coffee. But it was no joke at all. Roughly nine hours after the 911 call came in for the fire, another call was made from the Baker Residence. This This time it was Adam calling. We checked in there last night about 2.30 and she was there My name is Adam And my daughter's I think coming into puberty since you've met Rudy's Zara was missing yet Adam laughed Chocking it up to the young girl running away because he thought she was coming into puberty

Are you a parent? girl running away because he thought she was coming into puberty. Are you a parent? Take a moment to ask yourself what you would do if you were in that position. Would you laugh it off thinking it was just hormones that would make your 10-year-old daughter leave the house? Could you stay as calm as Adam was in that call? What would be going through your mind? Adam then made a statement that would come back to haunt him.

Police began searching for the missing 10-year-old issuing an amber alert. Adam told investigators he believed the fire in the backyard was started in order to distract him and Alyssa while someone took Zara, possibly mistaking the home for that of his boss. But remember, that had been 9 hours earlier. The dad claimed to have last seen her the night before at 2.30 in the morning. That's 15 hours before this call was made. Can you imagine going 15 hours without noticing that your disabled daughter is missing? And that note from earlier that morning, the one found in the car near the fire. How do you get a note like that, saying, we have your daughter with the cops at your house, because your whole backyard

is on fire and not popping your daughter's room for a second to check in on her all day, even if it's addressed to the wrong person. How is that not a thing you do almost immediately? Clearly it doesn't take Colombo to know that something was off. But investigating officers also had a funny feeling about Adams' general demeanor, in a situation that would lead most parents to the point of near panic. Two days after Zara was reported missing, Hickory Police Chief Tom Atkins held a press conference. We are running out of time, folks.

The longer this thing goes, the likelihood this outcome will not be positive. The problem was, no one really knew how long Zara had truly been missing. What we're saying is we don't have a time frame to put this girl in that house. While the investigation began, Adam told police he had just seen his daughter at 2.30am on the night before the fire started and when the ransom note appeared. Quickly, that story began to unravel.

Remember Adam told the 911 operators, he only saw Zara when she came out of her room. He ended up telling investigators he couldn't remember when he last saw Zara in the two weeks prior to her going missing. Two weeks without seeing your daughter. Adam claimed he hardly ever saw her due to his complicated work schedule,

believing she was in good care with Alyssa. Police say time is running out in the search for 10-year-old Zara Baker. The little girl suffers from bone cancer and one thing that's making the search difficult is that officials aren't sure how long she's really been missing. Before we speak exclusively with two members of her family, CBS News Correspondent, Whit Johnson, has the latest on the story from Hickory, North Carolina.

Whit, good morning. Maggie, good morning to you. Zara Baker was actually home school this year. And please say they haven't found anyone outside her immediate family who has seen her in the past few weeks. It's now been three days since she's gone missing and we still know little about what may have happened to her. Family members on Alyssa's side came together to help search for the little girl.

I hope and I pray that we'll find her and she'll be okay because that young and was the best young and you can ever ask for. Young and don't you just love North Carolina? In any case, the search took investigators to an old residence of the bakers, a plot of land with rows of single-wide trailers surrounded by a heavily wooded area. They were just searching in the wood areas to the left, obviously, over here. Residents within the trailer park noticed something out of the norm one particular night right before Zara had gone missing.

It was very recently the parents of Zara were saw in the neighborhood. It was after dark. It was up in the night one here. Up in the night. Those neighbors began to detect something lofting from the woods where Adam and Alyssa had been. We got the awfully stutter. I mean, it was terrible.

I've never smelled nothing like it in my life. Suddenly, there was a major development. Alyssa Baker was arrested for obstruction of the investigation into Zara's disappearance. After arresting Alyssa and gathering search warrants, Canine units trained to detect for human remains were brought to the Baker's residence. Well, here is the latest on the search for Zara.

Police spent at least two hours at the Baker's home in Hickory with those cadaver dogs. Investigators have not said if those dogs found anything unusual inside. At first it appeared as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but the dogs were then alerted to the scent of remains within the household and in both Adam and Alyssa's vehicles. With Alyssa arrested, her family started talking

with the media. And as it turns out, she was considered the black sheep of the family. When Adam and Zara relocated to the United States, they lived briefly for a time with a list's father. Not long afterwards, the situation soured, not only with her dad, but with her very own siblings and extended family. Well, she just done her father real wrong. They come back from Australia and moved in with him and they just said they'd pay the bills and didn't and it just everything got cut off on him and everything and half of the family just had a fallen out with her over it.

This wasn't the only information Alyssa's sister passed along. Alyssa was busy posting on her MySpace blog in the year prior to her stepdaughter's disappearance. Her family saw right through the lies and narcissism. Yes, I'll grow up. She always made out like her children was sick and possibly dying and same with herself. She always had 10 to 20 illnesses that she always would say to this wrong with her and you can't believe anything she ever said.

Not long after this information came out, a random stranger named Pat Adams called in to say she had scenes or where the list of just two weeks before the little girl was reported missing. A recognized her picture on the

computer. They came in on that Saturday morning September the 25th. Alisa said she was just wanted to look around. So we let her look around. I was going down the aisle and I saw Zara standing in the middle of the aisle and as I walked past her, I laid my hand on her shoulder and said, excuse me, sweetheart, and she looked at me and smiled and I went on down the aisle. I went back to customer service and the ladies up there were talking about the little girl with the prosthetic leg.

And I remember thinking that how sad it was, a child that young, having to hear and aid in the prosthetic leg. Melissa's sister Kim and niece Brittany continued speaking out about what they thought might have happened to Zara. My honest opinion, I think, at least I have something to do with it. I just think this is something for a long time that we knew was going to happen and everybody that was close to the family. Investigators announced they had found Zara's hearing aids within the household, but not her prosthetic leg.

For Kim, that was out of character. When asked what Kim thought in regards to this being a possible kidnapping, she gave her thoughts on why she believed it wasn't. I knew it from the moment my father had come to me. This is Lisa. Zara, when she spent the night with us and she stayed with us a lot. And hour before she would go to bed, she would put a pajamas on, always take her leg off. It was just, it was a routine for her. She, she never,

ever went to bed with her leg on. Zara made it a habit to take off the uncomfortable prosthesis before going to bed. If Zara had been abducted in the middle of the night, clearly the leg would have been left behind. Chief Atkins called another press conference to update the community on their investigation. The amber alert on Zara Bayford would cancel today and the decision to focus is investigation from a missing child or a adopted child. We'll turn into a homicide investigation. During the search of the Baker Home, investigators found traces of blood in the bathroom

and while in custody on the obstruction charges, Alyssa decided it was time to provide investigators with information. Alyssa was the one who had written the ransom note, but it wasn't the only information she had. Alyssa told police she had come home from the grocery store to find Zara unresponsive in bed and that she had died in late September of that year. By this time it was like three, three some were running there.

She was laying on her bed and I said, Zara, are you okay? And I walked over to the bed and I said, Zara, she still didn't move. I put my hand on her and I could tell she wasn't breathing. My first thought was CPR. So I immediately started CPR. Alyssa took a polygraph test. When questioned if she hurt Zara, the results showed she was being deceptive. There was enough circumstantial evidence against Alissa, and she was ultimately indicted.

District Attorney Jay Gatherer spoke to the media about the charges Alissa was facing. My name is Jay Gatherer. I'm the District Attorney for the 25th district representing Bert Caldwell in the Tobacanis. Earlier today, the Tobacanis Grand Jury return a true bill of indictment, namely, Alisa and that Baker in the murder of Zara Claire Baker. The indictment reads as follows. The defendant named above, at least on that Baker, did unlawfully, willfully and fluently with malice and forethought, killed and murdered, Zera Claire Baker. Chief Adkins spoke after District Attorney Gather.

The indictment of a second-degree murder on Elisa Baker today is a milestone of holding someone accountable that members of teams are have been working towards since the first words spoken on that 9-1-1 call made October 9, 2010. We will continue our investigation and follow every lead until the first day of trial. Many different theories of how and who is responsible for the death of Zara have been made by anyone who has followed his case. Not every case is clear cut and only the facts and evidence of the case can dictate who is charged and for what offenses. We can occur with the decision made today by the Kataba County grand jury. We are thankful for the support of our team has received during this investigation,

and the outpouring of love shown to remember Zara from our community and the world. Now, a day goes by that members of this team and professionals have not thought of Zara for this case. You might be asking yourself, if Alyssa just found Zara dead on her bed, how and why was she charged with second degree murder? When telling the investigators about Zara's death, Alyssa went into graphic detail about

how the 10-year-old girl was disposed of. According to Alyssa, she had taken the little girl's body into the bathroom where she dismembered the corpse. She also claims that she wasn't alone. I got scared. I started doing CPR. We need to go ahead and count on one. He said, let's sit down. Take you to medicine. Come down.

I'll take care of it. He said you're going to take your medicine and everything's going to be fine. I've got to plan." Elissa told investigators that Adam was involved in the dismemberment of his own daughter. She also claimed the desecration of the young girl's body was his idea. Adam vehemently denied this allegation. That's the biggest loss you've ever told. And the first artist has no way I could do that to my child. If I had to sit there and say that I dismembered my child, there's no way I know that I could do that. Alyssa told investigators she disposed of the little girl's prosthetic leg in a dumpster within the town of Hickory.

She then agreed to take them to where she had placed each of Zara's remains. The locations were spread across the county, dumping sites where hunters cleaned their kill. Alyssa mixed Zara's bones with the carcasses of wild game. We have recovered enough physical evidence to believe we have found Zara. Please understand that I cannot get into many specifics about the investigation, but the DNA evidence from the bone and found Christie Road mass a sample, a DNA sample from the house on 21st Avenue Northwest.

The sample from the home was taken from personal lives believed to be Zara. The sample from the home was taken from personal lives believed to be Zora And only the DNA profile of Zora will be created from cheek swabs from her biological mother and father The swabs will be sent to North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Lab to create that profile remains found at Deadly Shoes Road in Cullwell County have been sent to North Carolina Medical Examiners Office and then to the State Bureau of Investigation Lab for a positive identification.

According to Metto Examiners staff on site, when the remains were recovered, they are consistent with a child. Investigators were able to recover all of her remains, except for Zara's head. The discovery of Zara's body was a crushing blow to not only the community, but for the investigating officers as well. Chief Atkins became quite emotional during the latter end of his press conference.

Investigators, agents and officers from staff are devastated that we're not able to find Zara alive latter end of his press conference. Our nation mourns, and the world mourns, as we go forward. Thank you. For Emily, who had long been searching for her daughter and finally located her far too late, the news was devastating. I never got to say goodbye. I never got to say goodbye. I have to say hello. On what would have been Zara's 11th birthday, the community of Hickory came together to remember her. Members of the community, family, and strangers alike all felt as if they had failed Zara.

Back in Girou, family and friends gathered together to remember the girl who never stopped fighting and never stopped smiling. So I was the best friend and I wish she was still here and I wish she was going to go to the place. We love her and we will never ever forget her smile. We love her and we will never ever forget her smart. And this is never the first time I've done. And we just want to say happy birthday. Many wondered why Adam was still walking around the town of Hickory, a free man. Investigators found nothing to substantiate Alyssa's claim of him helping to dismember Zara.

In fact, phone records showed that on the day Zara died, there were over nine calls placed from Alissa's phone to Adams. They also showed that he was over 20 miles away at work. credible evidence to suggest that anyone other than Lisa Baker was involved in the murder of Zara Claire Baker. Still, it begs the question as to how Adam was so unaware of his daughter being missing. He may have worked the graveyard shift, but he claimed he saw her in bed two weeks prior to her going missing. Any normal father or mother on that type of work schedule would likely want to go in and

check on their child before going to bed, maybe give them a good night hug and kiss, tuck them in, read them a few lines of Harry Potter. Unless, of course, you don't care. You're too wrapped up in your own life and your own problems, and you just don't give a shit. Even when his schedule at work changed to a more reasonable one, Adam claimed he would see Zara in bed at night, or he saw something there. Lisa's very manipulative, abusive to you, yeah, to me. Very controlling, plus with work, I was going first thing in the morning to get home

to light. It was tall at the czar, it was in bed, because czara only went to bed early. I checked every night from what I could tell she was in bed. It looked like she was in bed. There was something in bed. Because of the information police received from Alyssa's side of the family, they were able to get just a small glimpse into what torment Zara went through on a daily basis before her untimely death. District Attorney Jay Gather announced to the media

the aggravating factors that were going into her second degree murder charge. As to aggravating factors, the jurors for the state ponder over, presented it with respect to the offense the ledge and count one. The charge of murder in the second degree, that there were the following five aggravating factors related to sentencing pursuant to North Carolina General Statute, 15A-1340.

The defendant, Elisa Baker, had a history and pattern of physical, verbal, and psychological abuse of the victim, Zara Baker. That's the defendant, Elisa Baker, secreted the victim, Zara Baker. That the defendant, Elisa Baker, secreted the victim, Zara Baker, from family and others prior to, and after the defense, offense, deligned detection of the offense. That the defendant, number three,

Elisa Baker, just created the body of Zara Baker, the hinder detection, investigation, and prosecution of the offense. Number four, that the victims are a baker, was very young, physically inferred, or handicapped. Number five, that the defendant, Alisa Baker, took advantage of a position of trust or confidence, including a domestic relationship to commit the offense. On September 15, 2011, just 10 days short to one year of when police alleged Zara was murdered, Alyssa accepted a plea deal.

Alyssa was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the second degree murder of Zara Baker, both adamant Emily made statements in the courtroom. None of us know how we made today our research on imaginable things. Maybe to drill home the fewer evil that Alyssa has committed, I should reach down and find the strength to discuss how Zara was pulled apart like some human puzzle and discarded like rubbish for wildlife to crazy. There are no words to explain the hate I have for you or the hurt and the pain I feel every day for the loss of Zara.

While in jail, the owners of serialkiller's Inc. .net began corresponding with Alyssa using a pseudonym. In her letter, she stated, Zara isn't missing. The cops know where she is and what he has done. That's right, what he has done. We really didn't kill her, but what he did after the fact is kind of horrifying." She signed the letter, dark love always,

Alyssa got through, vamps rule. Now, if you thought this story was done, you'd be quite wrong. When Alyssa began talking with Adam, she told him that she was divorced. But when the two got married, she was already married to another man. A look into her past showed she had been married seven previous times. And in some of those marriages, she had been previously married to another man.

Alyssa claimed she believed her husband had filed for divorce. How do you get married seven times and not understand how divorce works? Me, my husband had went through several bad years, and it was my understanding when I went to Australia that he filed for divorce. So it was my belief that I was divorced. As if the situation couldn't get any more weird, she had actually introduced her husband to Adam as her brother. That's the way he left it, because he wanted to be in Zara's life and he knew that Adam wouldn't let him be in Zara's life

if he knew that he was my husband. There have been unsubstantiated rumors that Alyssa's husband or brother, as she called him, may have been sexually abusing Zara. It's something that makes you wonder since her husband inexplicably, so desperately wanted to be involved in this 10-year-old's life. Lisa Baker has lived the life of a predator for a long time. A controlling predator. She's been married seven times to give her take. And the people that she chooses to marry are often mentally disabled.

Maybe they're not as smart as quick as everyone else physically disabled. She chooses men who are easily controlled, and then she controls until she gets bored and then she finds a new. To make matters even worse, Alyssa had a history with the Department of Social Services prior to the issues she encountered with Zara. Zara Baker had two adult step sisters. A Lisa Baker had two grown children. And DSS was involved in Lisa Baker's household on numerous occasions on allegations of abuse on this tool.

After Alyssa had gone away to prison, Adam had his own string of legal problems. Surprise, surprise. He was arrested on bad check charges. His passport was revoked and he was to be deported. But prior to him leaving, investigators made a final, important discovery in Zara's murder. Posher in the Zara Baker murder case came in the last hour. SBI agents confirmed the skull that was found in Coldwell County last year is Zara's. Adam somehow was allowed to go back to Queensland with his daughter's cremains. In March of 2013, Alyssa Baker was back in court stemming from seven indictments made in early 2011 related to drug charges after she was arrested for Zara's murder.

Combined, the charges held the possibility of a $4.75 million fine, as well as 140 plus years in prison if she was convicted. She received just 10 years. Combined with her 18-year sentence for murder, Elissa Baker will be 70 years old when she is released from prison. The storybook trope of the evil stepmother is embedded in our modern culture.

We learned it early in life through Disney movies and tales from the brother's grim, Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel. The evil stepmother is often a symbol for wickedness, selfishness, and the need for power, which is so vicious and so self-serving that its actions go as far as to be directed towards a child, a small helpless innocent, who has little to no power of their own. This is a literary device, originating from Roman times, but like many others, it's rooted in factual origins. Ten-year-old Zara Baker would not grow up to be Cinderella.

This little girl would not grow up to be anything at all. Her young, misery-laden life would come to an end due to her father's uncaring neglect, her mother's abandonment, and her stepmother's narcissism and inhuman cruelty. you