Zahra Baker Case - Biological Mom Located Zahra Just Days Before She Went Missing

Update in the Zahra Baker Case. Zahra Baker's biological mom says she located Zahra and her father in the U.S. just 6 days before Zahra went missing. She has been trying to get custody of Zahra, but the father kept moving.

Zahra Baker is a 10 year old North Carolina girl that was reported missing on October 9, 2010. She was in the custody of her father and stepmother at the time of her disappearance. Now, her biological mother speaks with the media for the first time. She claims that she lost custody of Zahra due to post partum depression when the girl was a baby. She has since recovered and has tirelessly searched for Zahra and her father so that she would be able to fight for custody.

Over the years, Zahra's father stayed one step ahead of his ex wife by moving residences every time she located the pair. Emily Dietrich, Zahra's biological mother lives in Australia where Zahra and her father are from. She claims that she has never stopped fighting for custody of Zahra, but now she believes that Zahra is dead based on the information she has received from police.

Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker is currently in jail on obstruction of justice charges relating to Zahra's disappearance. Zahra's father, Adam Baker was arrested on unrelated charges and then released on bail.

No one other than her parents has seen the girl since September 25, 2010. Friends and family members claim that her stepmother was physically and verbally abusive towards the bone cancer survivor who wears a prosthetic leg and two hearing aids. Neighbors say that they turned in Elisa Baker to social services, but nothing was done prior to the girl going missing.

Zahra and her father moved from Australia more than a year ago after her father met Elisa online. In the short time that they have lived here in the U.S., they have moved several times.

Police have found many items of interest in the course of investigating the disappearance. The found a prosthetic leg that belonged to Zahra in the bushes near a former residence of the family. A human bone was also found in the same area. It is currently being analyzed by investigators. They are also testing two mattresses that were found in a landfill and are believed to be Zahra's.

Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, has written many letters since her incarceration stating that they "didn't really kill her," and that the police know where the body is. She is pointing the finger at her husband Adam, claiming that he did something "horrifying" after Zahra had died.

Source:

Charlotte Observer