Anyone following the missing girl in Hickory case?

[Mayor Qumiby]

Sounds like dexter needs to pay someone a visit...

[Liminy]

Sounds terrible, fug those people.

[sunbunny]

Just read that DSS had been called several times.

[charlotte49er]

Just read that DSS had been called several times.

If it was Hickory DSS, I'm not too sure about those people. I dated a young lady-woman who called the Hickory DSS on her own Daughter. Her 16yo Daughter was "hanging out with the wrong crowd", doing drugs, having unprotected sex, not going to school and when she did, skipped classes. She said Hickory DSS told her that it was up to her to straighten out her children, not them. And being 16, they didn't have the authority to take her away. Eventually, the Daughter got tired of the her Mom's B****ing and moved in with her 25 yo boyfriend! (My Date's side of the story.)

After a few dates, my Weird Meter was on Full Tilt and I decided the trip to Hickory to see her, wasn't worth it. ( She was only about 5'-0" maybe 5"-2" and a Bottle Blonde. However, she had one HECK of a set of........, she was VERY well endowed!) Sometimes you have to think with your BIG head and walk away!

[sunbunny]

What gets me is reading how happy this little girl was in Australia. She had family, friends. And then her dad meets some woman on the internet and moves her half way across the world where she doesn't have anyone.

I think the stepmom killed her, and then the dad put her in the wood chipper.

[Guest]

What gets me is reading how happy this little girl was in Australia. She had family, friends. And then her dad meets some woman on the internet and moves her half way across the world where she doesn't have anyone.

I think the stepmom killed her, and then the dad put her in the wood chipper.

I agree...I was about to give you some pie, but, not really appropriate I guess. This case bums me out. My daughter is 12. I want to beat the crap out of that woman.

[charlotte49er]

I agree...I was about to give you some pie, but, not really appropriate I guess. This case bums me out. My daughter is 12. I want to beat the crap out of that woman.

It makes me want to beat the crap our of both of them until I get a confession! (Ah, the old days of Law Enforcement!) Where's that Rubber Hose!

I don't care how much medical attention the little needed, if you don't want her, I'm sure there would be a long line of people who would!

Cases like this make me sick and mad at the same time!

[sunbunny]

Who knows at this point how long she's been dead. I wonder what made them call it in the first place? Something had to happen for them to say she'd been abducted instead of keeping quiet for longer. Hopefully guilt will make the father crack soon and tell what happened. I don't think that lying excuse for woman will ever tell the truth.

[CosmoGirl]

What about her real mom in Australia?

I think dad and stepmonster need to be put through the wood chipper totally alive.

[sunbunny]

Her real mom took off after she was born. But, she had family and friends and a woman who helped raise her.

[ladypanther]

http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/8444100/

Bentley, who is married to Elisa Baker’s nephew, said she would have Zahra over for weekends and the girl would get angry when it was time to return home. The girl was being home-schooled, but had attended public schools in the past, police said.

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.”

The family knew the girl was being beaten and abused and so did neighbors and no one did anything.

The family has moved around. Caldwell County DSS was out there 3 times. I bet they feel like poo now.

I don't understand that at all. Why couldn't the family and/or neighbors step in? Hell an anonymous phone call to DSS would help if they were too much of pussies to do anything.

People tried....see above.

They are still searching for her remains in Burke County, where I live. After the dogs indicated blood on the chipper, they went through the pile. Yesterday they drained a pond. They are back there tonight....doing a major grid search. They must have some info that she is there.

I don't think police know that anyone has seen her in a month (outside of family who are likely lying). She was home schooled.

This young lady has had cancer, had a leg amputated, and the treatment left her hearing impaired. There are not words to describe anyone who would hurt her. There is not a punishment that is fit for those who have.

And....the system that did not protect her....we should be able to do better than that.

I feel so sad for Zahra.

[CosmoGirl]

All I can say is that she's better off than the hell she was living in and stuck in. May those who tortured her rot in hell.

[Jackofalltrades]

They checked the wood chipper and mulch piles and never got anything significant.

[charlotte49er]

Zahra's stepmother, 42-year-old Elisa Baker, is jailed, accused of trying to throw off investigators with a fake ransom note. Her court-appointed attorney, Scott Reilly, says she is "scared to death" and very emotional about everything.

Zahra's father, Adam Baker, 33, hasn't been charged, but investigators haven't ruled him out as a suspect. Several telephone messages left for Adam Baker were not returned Thursday.

Wright said friends and family in Australia still hope Zahra is alive. She became friends with the little girl four years ago at a cancer fundraising event. She was sitting in a chair waiting for her head to be shaved to raise money when Zahra approached, took her hand and told her not to be scared.

Wright became something of a surrogate mother to the girl, whose biological mother left when she was a baby. Adam Baker raised her after that with help from his parents, Wright said, taking time off from the sugar mill where he worked so he could be with Zahra when she was diagnosed with bone cancer about five years ago.

Wright described a phone call from Zahra when she was in a children's hospital waiting to have her leg amputated.

"She told me they were having trouble with her leg because she was really sick. But then she said: 'It's OK because I'm going to be getting a Barbie leg so I don't want you to get upset,'" Wright said. "That little kid was more concerned about what I was feeling than what she was going through."

A few months later, doctors discovered tumors in her lungs. She had chemotherapy, but the treatment led to a partial hearing loss. Still, she remained upbeat, attending a camp for children with cancer and inspiring her fellow campers by taking part in all of the physical activities.

"She was missing a limb but she could still do anything that the other kids could do," said camp manager Mark McGregor. "She was an unbelievable kid and we're hoping like hell that you find her alive and we can get her back here."

Police say that's not likely. Documents and interviews with friends and neighbors in North Carolina paint a starkly different picture of Zahra's life there.

They say Elisa Baker had a short temper and would hit Zahra, that Social Services was called to investigate, but nothing was ever done.

"I watched her beat her and tried to stop her," said former neighbor Karen Yount, who filed a complaint against Elisa Baker for threatening to harm her daughter and her friends.

Former neighbor Kayla Rotenberry said she saw Elisa Baker hit Zahra and noticed bruises on the girl's face and body. She also said that Elisa Baker told her that Social Services was investigating.

"She was angry that people were getting into her business," she said. "We all tried to stop her. That little girl was so sweet. Always smiling through it all. She just wanted to be loved."

Wright says friends in Australia were suspicious of Elisa Baker when Adam Baker met her online in early 2008 and invited her to visit.

Elisa Baker told them she was she was a police officer who was shot in the line of duty. She also said she was a bounty hunter and had met celebritites.

"She told a lot of stories that never quite rang true," Wright said.

They were married that July in a small ceremony in Adam Baker's parents' backyard. In November, they moved to North Carolina. The family was less than thrilled, especially since Zahra's medical treatments were free in Australia.

"Adam was on his own for eight years with Zahra before he met (her) and I think he was lonely and I think that was his biggest downfall, really," Wright said.

The last time Wright saw Zahra, the little girl said she didn't want to leave her grandparents and friends. Wright hugged her and told her she would get to go to Disneyland.

"But she was nervous," Wright said. "She said she wanted to go for a day, but wasn't sure she wanted to live there. But when you're a 7-year-old kid, you don't get a choice. Your parents tell you what to do and that's the end of that discussion."