The Misery Machine - The Case of Zahra Baker

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

This week, Drewby and Yergy head to North Carolina to discuss the case of Zahra Baker, a 10-year-old girl from rural Australia who came to the US after her father married a woman by the name of Elisa Fairchild... a woman he'd met on the social networking platform, IMVU. Although Zahra had beaten the cancer that caused her to lose her leg, shortly after moving across the world, she would lose her life at the hands of her evil stepmother.  Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Join Our Facebook Group: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/its-been-decade-since-hickory-10-year-old-zahra-bakers-death/LJS55LGGNRACPLBL5MOWGECGI4/ https://www.hickorync.gov/kiwanis-park#:~:text=The%20Zahra%20Baker%20All%20Children%27s%20Playground%20and%20Treehouse%20at%20Kiwanis,of%20all%20ages%20and%20abilities. https://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/baker-elisa.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Zahra_Baker https://www.crimelibrary.org/notorious_murders/classics/zahra-baker/backyard-fire.html https://abcnews.go.com/US/zahra-baker-case-warrants-grim-details-body-disposal/story?id=12284049 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wzZLUgGUOk&ab_channel=Dr.ToddGrande https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WlRKxvORJI&ab_channel=SuffertheLittleChildrenPodcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VPEjnJQpBs&ab_channel=SuffertheLittleChildrenPodcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzupn757djU&ab_channel=KimberlyFlower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryWBZF9nkTk&ab_channel=ABCNews%28Australia%29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeiJ_nYk7Pk&ab_channel=DanielleKirsty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LVmsFNMaY&ab_channel=60MinutesAustralia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-hBmOyVMXo&ab_channel=60MinutesAustralia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wARASdGLjI&t=192s&ab_channel=driftm8s

Zara Claire Baker was born on November 16, 1999, in New South Wales, Australia, about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. Zara's parents, Adam Baker, and Emily Dietrich, were fairly young. Emily was only 19 at the time of Zara's birth, and she struggled with postpartum depression for the first eight months of Zara's life, and ultimately relinquished custody to Adam and seemingly disappeared. Zara grew to become a happy, bubbly little girl with brown hair, blue eyes and a radiant smile. Adam lived with his parents after gaining custody of Zara, and Adam's mother, Karen Baker, helped care for her granddaughter while Adam was working.

They all moved to Giro Queensland in 2004 for a job that Adam got at a sugar mill. Giro Queensland is a fairly small town with around 400 residents in the northeast part of the country on the Coral Sea coast. At five years old, Zara was diagnosed with bone cancer. She began treatments, but ultimately most of her left leg had to be amputated. You would think this would be pretty devastating to a five-year-old girl, but not for Zara. The ever-positive child said, it's okay because I'm going to be getting a Barbie leg, so I don't want you to be upset. Hospital staff, friends, and family remarked that even after the amputation, she was always happy.

They remember her flying around the cancer ward on her crutches to greet other children and cheer them up. She also hop from room to room on one leg with a big smile on her face to make everyone laugh. Unfortunately, two years later at the age of seven, it was found that the cancer had spread and it was in her lungs. She began aggressive chemotherapy treatments and had surgery to remove part of her lung. The chemo treatments resulted in Zara losing most of her hearing and she was left needing hearing aids. She continued to receive treatments and checkups for several years after that. Zara loved spending time with her grandparents and friends and continued to be the brave, outgoing little girl that she had always been. She did a lot of swimming as part of her recovery and also loved climbing rock walls.

Everyone was amazed with how agile and capable she was, despite the loss of her leg. Unfortunately, for Zara, things would not stay this way. In 2008, at the age of 33, Zara's father Adam met someone new online. Adam had a profile on IMVU, which stands for instant messaging virtual universe. This is a social entertainment platform where people can connect through 3D avatar-based experiences. On this site, Adam met Alisa Fairchild, who described herself as a 40-something Gothic fairy. Her avatar depicted her with red angel wings. They struck up an online romance, and not long after, Elisa left North Carolina and moved across the world to be.

be with him in Australia. Elisa, also known as Lisa, moved in with Adam, Zara, and Adam's parents. At this time, Elisa had three adult children that stayed behind in the U.S. Now, right from the start, Adam's parents did not like Elisa, but despite this, they were married just a few short months later. Then not long after, she began pressuring Adam to move back to North Carolina with her. Adam's parents were very much against this move. Zara was still receiving treatments and getting checkups with her oncology team in Australia. all of which were free. Karen Baker was worried that if they moved to the U.S., Zara's treatments would become too expensive.

Lisa claimed to be from a very wealthy family who would cover all of Zara's medical bills. This unfortunately turned out to be a complete lie. Adam's parents were unable to change his mind, and he continued making plans to move. Before leaving for America, the local community teamed up to buy Zara a wheelchair in a new laptop so that she could complete her school assignments from America. Zara, who loved the army, also had a memorable experience with the Australian military before she left for her new home. She got to sit in an armored vehicle with a helmet on and pose for photos with soldiers.

Her grandmother said her eyes couldn't have been any bigger. Zara had previously attended a camp for children with cancer, where she completed obstacle courses and had to climb ropes. The other campers had been very impressed with her enthusiasm and determination to complete every obstacle with only one leg. getting this final experience with the soldiers in Australia was a dream come true for Zara. Zara, Adam, and Elisa moved to Hickory, North Carolina to live with Elisa's father. Initially, Zara was very happy and made friends quickly.

Unfortunately, her cancer treatment stopped due to a lack of money. Adam, who had come to the U.S. on a temporary visa, was unable to get a job due to his immigration status. After six months, Elisa's dad kicked them out. So in mid-2009, they moved into a new apartment in Granite Falls, North Carolina. Now, neighbors at this apartment later said they could hear Adam and Elisa arguing all of the time. They could also hear noises coming from the attic. They did not realize until later that the noises they were hearing came from Zara, who had been locked in the attic with nothing but a sheet to sleep on.

Unfortunately, they didn't make that connection until a few months later when Adam and Elisa were kicked out due to unpaid rent in the noise. is stopped. Next, they moved into a trailer in nearby Hudson. Some time before the move to Hudson, several reports were made to the Department of Social Services on Zara's behalf. Zara's school teachers were very concerned about her. She constantly came to school with bruises. On one occasion, after having a bathroom accident at school, Zara broke down crime because she didn't want a Lisa to find out. Her teachers were so concerned that they visited Zara's home on two separate occasions, and one teacher even gave Zara her personal phone number to use in case of an emergency.

The teachers in her school were diligently logging the abuse. Unfortunately, it was not taken seriously by DSS. On four separate occasions, neighbors also made reports to DSS. Unfortunately, Elisa and Adam pulled Zara from school and moved around a lot. As we have heard in previous cases, when families cross county lines, it often means that children fall through the cracks. When the family moved to Hudson, Zara was enrolled in school, but she never attended. Elisa claimed to have been homeschooling her, but there was no evidence of this actually happening. Meanwhile, it seemed that Elisa was getting jealous of Zara's medical condition.

She claimed that she had beaten brain cancer and had surgery to remove several tumors. She also downplayed the seriousness of Zara's condition and deliberately punished her in ways that exploited her disabilities. Elisa made Zara run up and down a hill behind their trailer for extended periods of time. On one occasion, two teenage girls that lived in the same trailer park witnessed this punishment. They saw Zara crying while she attempted to continue running while Elisa was screaming at her. When they tried to intervene, Elisa turned her verbal abuse towards them and threatened to whip their butts. When the mother of one of the girls came out to see what was going on, Elisa retreated into her trailer. Now, this was not the only form of abuse or neglect that was directed at Zara.

A family member claimed that when they visited the baker, residence, Zara was constantly locked in her room. They said that she was only allowed out for five minutes a day to eat. In addition, if Zara did not finish her meal, Alisa would beat her, which again was witnessed by family members. When asked of Adam took part, the family member noted that Adam never laid a finger on Zara, but he also did not stop Elisa. One time in an attempt to hit Zara, Elisa missed and hit her prosthetic leg, breaking her own hand instead. This shows the level of strength she was using when hitting this little girl. Elisa's own daughters witnessed the beatings that Zara was enduring, and they reported

Elisa to Child Protective Services. In the first half of 2010, CPS came to their home on four separate occasions. Unfortunately, they seemed to believe Elisa's lies that Zara was just clumsy due to her prosthetic leg. All the injuries were explained away, and the case was closed in August of 2010. Before we continue with Zara's story, let's back up and talk a little about Elisa's history. This was not the first time she was reported to CPS. In fact, reports involving her own children dated back as far as 1999.

In addition, Elisa had a bizarre marriage history. We don't want to go into all of the details here as they're long and pretty convoluted, but here's the summary. Elisa had been married six times by the time she met Adam Baker, making Adam her seventh husband. She did not always divorce one husband before marrying the next. So at one point, she was married to three different men. This later led to a bigamy charge against Elisa. She undoubtedly had a type when she was on the hunt for a new man.

Every man that Elisa married was either physically or emotionally disadvantaged. She had a habit of marrying men very quickly after meeting them. She would then take advantage of them financially and often became physically and emotionally abusive before jumping ship and leaving them financially ruined. At least one husband came forward to explain why they remained married so long after she left. He said he was afraid to seek her out after the abuse he endured at her hands. It was easier to just stay married than risk another abusive encounter with her. It is also important to note that with all the changing names from marriage

and the fact that Elisa sometimes used an alias, she was very hard to track down. One known alias that she used was Don Michelle Church. Elisa was abusive and manipulative to more than just her string of husbands, her own children, and her stepdaughter. Long before Adam and Zara came into the picture, she pretended that her own daughter had cancer. She would push her around in a wheelchair, apparently looking for sympathy or another way to exploit the kindness of her community. In seven years' time, Elisa had lived at 47 different addresses. By 2008, she had accrued a long history of unpaid rent and utilities from these various rental homes.

At the time that Elisa met Adam, she was still married to her most recent husband named Aaron Young. However, Adam was not aware of any previous marriages. Both Elisa and Aaron were still active IMVU members and interacted through that platform and in person. In fact, Adam even met Aaron, but Aaron was introduced as Elisa's brother. In early September of 2010, the family settled back in Hickory, North Carolina. Adam got a job working for a tree maintenance company, and his boss, Mark, Coffee, provided him with a home to live in, as well as a company vehicle. This property was also used as a staging site for the tree company because there were large piles

of wood chips in the backyard. Adam's new job consisted of very long hours. He often left before Zara was awake and returned after she was in bed. This left Elisa as her primary caregiver. In the six to eight weeks that they lived there, the neighbors never saw. saw Zara. In fact, they didn't even know that a child lived in the house. On October 9th, 2010, a 911 call was made by Elisa Baker reporting a fire in their yard. Elisa claimed to wake up to see flames out the windows. Emergency services responded to what was supposed to be a grass fire,

and turned out to be a fire burning in the piles of wood chips. While the fire was being dealt with, someone noted that the door to Adams' work truck was open and a strong smell of gasoline was coming from inside. There was also an envelope tucked under the windshield wiper. Upon further inspection, this turned out to be a ransom note. The note said, quote, Mr. Coffee, you like being in control. Now who is in control? We have your daughter, and your pot smoking redhead sun is next unless you do it is asked. One million dollars unmarked. We'll be in touch soon, end quote. Written multiple times on the paper were the words, no cops. Police officers contacted Mark Coffey and confirmed that both of his children were home and well.

This baffled police and nothing further was done about this information. About nine hours later, a second 911 call was made from the Baker residence. This time it was Adam, calling to report that Zara was missing. During the phone call, Adam sounded very calm and even made a joke about Zara nearing puberty. He also divulged that there had been a ransom note at their house that morning, in that the kidnappers must have taken the wrong child by accidents. The police issued an amber alert for Zara, describing her as 10 years old,

five feet, one inches tall, 85 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. In the initial police interview, both Adam and Elisa claimed to have seen Zara the night before. They said they checked on her after returning from an October Fest celebration at around 2.30 a.m. and claimed to have seen her in bed. Adam later said that he actually hadn't seen Zara for three days by the time he reported her missing. Due to inconsistencies in Elisa's story, a polygraph test was performed.

When asked questions about when she had last seen Zara about the ransom note, and if she knew where Zara was, she failed all of these questions. So the police were clearly suspicious of her, but they did not have enough evidence to arrest her for Zara's disappearance. However, she did have a number of other outstanding charges that they could hold her on. Elisa was arrested on charges of writing bad checks, larceny, making threats, and driving without a license. We should note that this was not the first time that Elisa had been arrested that year. She was arrested in March of 2010 for failure to return rental items. The value of these

items totaled over $2,400. Both Elisa and Adam had also been arrested in May on charges of threatening Elisa's nephew. This followed an incident of road rage where Adam tried to run Elisa's nephew and his fiancé off the road, then threatened to kill their daughter. Adam was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Following Zara's disappearance, both Elisa and Adam were initially arrested. However, Adam was released the next morning. Adam then went on Good Morning America, a morning news show, and made a plea for anyone to come forward who might have information about Zara. Meanwhile, police were thoroughly combing the Baker's neighborhood. The initial search through their home showed no traces of blood or a struggle. However,

there were some rooms that were freshly painted. In fact, remains of a paintbrush were found in the accidental fire. During the suite, police alerted. learned that neighbors had no idea a child had lived in the home. They looked through every shed and outbuilding in the area, but found no trace of Zara. Eventually, the police came back to the Baker's home with dogs and black lights. This time, their search turned up very different results. The black lights revealed blood spatter everywhere. The cadaver dogs also gave a positive alert to the presence of human remains in both Adam's Chevy Tahoe and Elisa's Toyota Camry. On Tuesday, October 12th, the Amber Alert for Zara Baker was abruptly canceled.

With the amount of blood spatter seen in the home, the investigation changed from a missing person's case to a homicide. At this point, the police chief also announced that Elisa Baker had admitted to writing the ransom note. Investigators assumed this was an effort to mislead the police in search for Zara. As things got more serious and interrogations increased, Elisa was informed that she could face the death penalty if found to be guilty. At this point, Elisa started to call her. cooperate, as did Adam. He admitted that he hadn't actually seen Zara for 15 days. He claimed that she was always asleep when he returned home, and when he looked for her in her room, she appeared to be sleeping in the bed. 25 days after the initial missing person's report was made,

Elisa led police to some of Zara's remains. What police found was shocking, mostly due to the fact that very little of Zara was actually found. With the help of dogs, they were able to locate small pieces of human remains spread across several acres in three different counties. Zara had been brutally dismembered, and her remains were scattered. These remains were confirmed to be Zara's through DNA testing. Investigators used DNA samples from both Zara's toothbrush and by building a profile based on her parents' DNA. They used Adam's DNA as well as the DNA of Zara's birth mother, Emily, who came forward

when Zara's story made international news. Elisa also led investigators to dumpsters at the Foxxia. Ridge Apartments in Hickory where she claimed to have disposed of Zara's prosthetic leg. She also led them to other dumpsters where she had disposed of Zara's mattress, as well as the trash bags, comforter, and car cover that had been used to wrap and transport Zara's remains. Police also uncovered evidence from the IMVU website. They were able to determine that Elisa and two men were engaged in chainsaw massacre roleplay. This happened just two days before Zara was killed.

Finally, Elisa settled on a story of what really happened to Zara. She told investigators that Zara had actually died on September 24th, two weeks before the missing persons report. Elisa claimed to have gone shopping that day and returned home around 3 p.m. She claimed to find Zara laying face down on her bed unresponsive. She tried calling for Zara several times, but the girl did not respond. She reached out and tried to wake her, but claimed that as soon as she touched Zara's body,

she knew that she wasn't breathing. Supposedly, she attempted CPR for 30 minutes with no success. Finally, she knew she needed help, but instead of calling 911, she called Adam. According to Elisa, Adam returned home and it was the one to dismember Zara, hacking her into little pieces to make it easier to dispose of. Then, they wrapped her remains in trash bags, a comforter, and a car cover,

and drove to various locations to dump her body parts. Despite Elisa's story, Adam was not charged in Zara's death. The big piece of evidence that seemed to get him off the hook were phone records. Now, based on the dates provided by Elisa, investigators were able to see that Adam's phone was at his job site for the entire day, and witnesses also backed this up. In addition, Elisa called him nine times that day, something she wouldn't have done if they had been working together. To make matters even more clear, Elisa was a little bit more clear.

His phone was at the disposal sites on that day, and Adam's phone was not. On October 27, 2010, Zara's prosthetic leg was found off of Dudley Shoals Road in Granite Falls. Investigators were able to confirm that it was indeed hers based on serial numbers. Police decided to further search this area, and along the banks of a nearby creek, they found a bone. A week later, on November 10th, less than a week before Zara's 11th birthday, more remains were found in close proximity to where they found this first bone. An autopsy report was released based on the pieces of Zara that were found, which listed her cause of death as undetermined homicidal violence.

It also confirmed that she had been dismembered with a saw in at least one other tool. Her remains were categorized as decomposed and skeletonized. The autopsy was also able to determine that she had been dismembered post-mortem. It also confirmed the suspected date of death is September 24th. Initially, much of her body was still missing. Her head, lower left arm in hand, full right arm in hand, lower right leg and foot, sternum, and first to fourth cervical vertebrae were not found. The coroner not only found cut marks from two different instruments on her skeleton,

but several unsuccessful attempts to cut through the bones. For example, her femur had 11 different cut marks on it. Some bones had been partially cut, then broken the rest of the way through brute force. They also found cut marks on her fifth cervical vertebrae, her left clavicle, and bone spurs on her ribs where they had been broken. There were also old healed fractures on her ribs, but it's possible that these were from the surgery to remove part of her lung. With so much of her body missing, police were left guessing what had really happened to Zara. Based on the blood spatter, their best theory was that Elisa snuck into Zara's bedroom where she was sleeping and beat her to death. They think Zara was then dragged to the bathroom and dismembered in the bathtub. as blood was found in the bathtub drain.

Though Elisa was initially arrested on unrelated charges, it wasn't long before she was indicted by a grand jury. On February 22, 2011, she was indicted for second-degree homicide with aggravating circumstances. Five aggravating circumstances were listed as. Elisa Baker had a history of physical, verbal, and psychological abuse of Zara.

She hid Zara from her family, before and after the crime. She desecrated Zara's body to hinder the homicide investigation and prosecution. Zara was young and physically disabled. Elisa Baker took advantage of a position of trust. As part of her plea deal, Elisa could not be charged with first-degree homicide, and therefore she was not eligible for the death penalty.

She pled guilty to second-degree homicide and was sentenced to just 18 years in prison, for brutally killing and chopping up her stepdaughter. But fortunately, the judicial system was not done with Elisa. She had also been selling prescription drugs from her home for many years. In May of 2011, she was charged with seven counts of possessing, distributing, and conspiring to distribute prescription drugs from May 2006 through October of 2010. The list of drugs she was selling included oxycodone, hydrocodone, and Alprasalam.

On June 2nd, 2011, she pled not guilty on all. seven charges. However, she was found guilty, and district court judge Richard Vorhees sentenced Elisa to an additional 10 years in prison to be served after completing her sentence for Zara's death. Elisa is being held in the North Carolina prison for women, a maximum security prison. She has spent much of her sentence in isolation for her own protection. In April of 2011, Adam was also arrested in charge with identity theft for using the name and social security number of Elisa's son-in-law to get power connected to his apartment. Due to this, Adam was ordered to not leave North Carolina.

He was also made to wear an electronic device on his ankle. He had been hoping to return to Australia immediately with Zara's remains in order to bury her, but unfortunately that had to wait, though he did eventually return to Australia. Two years later, in April of 2012, a skull was found by police. The Hickory Police Department were able to confirm on February 21, 2013, that it was indeed Zaras. after Zara was first reported missing, her biological mother, Emily Dietrich, came forward. She claimed that she was trying to reconnect with Zara and Adam on several occasions,

but was unable to do so due to Adam moving and changing his number frequently while living in Australia. Though many sources have repeated Emily's statement, there doesn't appear to be any evidence to back up this claim. Emily did travel to the makeshift memorial that sprung up outside of Zara's home in Hickory and was seen sobbing in front of the hundreds of notes and toys left for Zara, which were later donated to a charity. Many people spoke with her, offering hugs and support. Initially, 125 toys were donated to the Hickory Police Department Cops for Tots program.

However, Mark Coffey, the owner of the rental property they were staying in at the time of Zara's death, requested that the memorial be cleaned up or moved. In all, thousands more stuffed animals and toys were donated to the charity in Zara's memory. On what should have been, Zara's 11th birthday, multiple memorials were held in her honor. The memorial that took place in the U.S. had over 2,000 people in attendance, and many first responders spoke in honor of the little girl. A similar memorial was also held in Australia. At that service, her best friend spoke.

A playground was built in Zara's honor in Kiwanis Park in Hickory, North Carolina. It was designed to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities. There are wheelchair accessible ramps and rides, many activities on ground level, inclusive play products, and sensory elements as well. As of the date of this recording, a permanent memorial still stands in the place where the first of Zara's remains were found. Landowner Jake Eisenhower was still maintaining the memorial daily when interviewed for the 10-year anniversary of Zara's death. This memorial consists of a covered concrete pad with photos of Zara, as well as dozens of stuffed animals and mementos left

by residents. Jake said he maintained the memorial because the community needed to remember what happened there. Everyone needs to remember.