02-20-2011, 07:50 AM
THIS IS TRANSCRIPT OF "60 MINUTES" THAT RAN IN AUSTRALIA LAST NIGHT WITH ADAM BAKER INTERVIEW. I OWE BIG THANKS TO AUSSIE FRIEND FOR TRANSCRIBING IT, SINCE IT WILL NOT BE RELEASED IN U.S.
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stori...er-mystery
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-nat...1b0yc.html
AND I AM PUTTING ANYONE READING HERE ON NOTICE, I BETTER NOT SEE THIS REPRODUCED ANYWHERE W/O ATTRIBUTION TO MOCK. ESPECIALLY SINCE I WILL PROBABLY GO TO THE PEN FOR POSTING IT.
THANKYOU AUSSSIE FRIEND!!
The Zahra Baker Mystery
Introduction – Reporter Liz Hayes(LH)
The body of a little Australian girl is found dumped in the back blocks of America. Her dad has some suspicious holes in his memory. Her stepmother has been locked up but so far hasn’t been charged murder. So what happened to 10 year old Zahra Baker? It’s a crime that’s horrified and fascinated people on both sides of the Pacific. Tonight for the first time, Zahra’s dad tells his version of events. Its no wonder police are having so much trouble solving the mystery.
(pictures of Zahra smiling)
(LH) The innocent smile of Zahra Baker. Doing the things most girls love to do. Although Zahra was not your average little girl, because in her short 10 years she had endured 2 bouts of cancer – battles that had left her with a hearing impairment and a prosthetic leg. But this gutsy little Australian girl survived it all until this:
Operator: 911 what is your emergency?
Adam Baker(AB): ah yeh my daughter is missing.
Operator: I’m sorry?
AB: My daughter is
Operator: missing?
AB: yes.
(LH) Zahra Baker is now at the centre of one of America’s biggest murder mysteries.
AB: Zahra had been my life, you know. Now she’s gone. I don’t know what to do. I feel very very empty.
(LH) Adam Baker is a lonely man. He raised Zahra on his own nearly all her life. Two years ago he brought Zahra here to Hickory in America’s south after meeting his new wife Lisa on the internet. He now realizes it was a relationship doomed from the start.
LH: What was it about Lisa do you think?
AB: She was very caring….then.
LH: What were you hoping for? What did you think your life was going to be like?
AB: Happy family, um, a lot of love, more children, brothers and sisters for Zahra. But it didn’t turn out that way.
(LH) For Adam Baker not only is Zahra gone but nearly everyone here treats him with deep suspicion.
AB: Its very hard to see people in the street, even people in their cars driving, staring, yelling.
LH: What do they yell?
AB: I need to be locked up. I am going to go to hell. That I am a murderer.
LH: Are you guilty of anything?
AB: No, um.
(LH) Adam Baker and his wife Lisa became suspects when Zahra disappeared late last year. It’s a case that would take a gruesome turn when her tiny body was found dismembered. This horrific story began last October here at Zahra Baker’s family home. In the early hours of one Saturday morning the authorities were called to a small grass fire at the back of the house. But then, a ransom note was found in one of the families cars. This would be the first in many bizarre twists in a case that would see lives unraveled, husband pitted against wife, and a father losing his only child.
(LH) 9 hours after finding the ransom note Adam Baker reports his daughter missing.
Operator: So no one has seen your daughter since 2.30 this morning?
AB: No.
(LH) 4 days into the search for Zahra, Lisa Baker made an extraordinary admission. She had written the ransom note. And after 2 weeks in custody came another major development. Lisa led police to Zahra’s remains.
At the site
(LH) Coming here was a gut wrenching moment for everyone. Because the little girl that investigators had hoped to find alive was now obviously not. Knowing she was dead was distressing enough but what was truly shocking was that little Zahra’s body had been cut into pieces. Her remains in plastic bags, some buried some strewn for acres across this bushland. Some of her body parts still haven’t been found.
LH: When you had heard that Zahra had disappeared can you recall your reaction?
Karen Baker, grandmother (KB): I honestly believed I would never see her again.
LH: Really?
KB: I just had this feeling. People might think its silly but this little voice said to me ‘don’t worry nan, I’m alright’. I didn’t want to believe it but I think deep down I knew.
(LH) Karen Baker is Zahra’s grandmother. And her memories of her granddaughter are of a courageous little girl. (showing pictures to reporter of Zahra)
KB: That was after her second lot of cancer, she’d also had part of her lung removed. But it didn’t stop her. This one, she was so proud this was the day that Adam was getting married and she was just so proud.
(LH) Karen Baker has come to Hickory not just to support her son. She’s here’s searching for answers.
KB: I don’t know if I want to know all the in’s and outs, but I still want to know what happened.
LH: You need to know?
KB: I need to know what happened.
(LH) Lisa Baker reportedly told relatives that Zahra died of an illness. In these search warrants police allege she says that happened 2 weeks before Zahra was reported missing. Lisa Baker also alleges Zahra’s body was dismembered at the family home. And that she and Adam had disposed of the remains.
LH: It is a fact that Zahra was dismembered, and that is horrifying, do you have any words for that?
AB: It’s a, not something I like to think about. It makes me sick how somebody could do that.
LH: Lisa alleges you were involved in it?
AB: Yeh that’s what she says.
LH: Lisa alleges that you and she disposed of Zahra’s body. Is that untrue?
AB: (shaking head) that’s the biggest lie she’s ever told, um, for starters there’s no way I could do that to my child. For her to sit there and say that I dismembered my child, there’s no way on Earth that I could do that.
LH: Do you believe that Lisa had anything to do with the disappearance of Zahra?
AB: I feel that she um, had something to do with this.
LH: And what do you think that is?
AB: I am not sure, um, there’s so many things that try to pop into my head that may have happened, um, that I don’t want to think about. Thinking about it is just too hard and heartbreaking.
LH: Is it not possible that Zahra died of an illness?
AB: (shaking head) No.
LH: You don’t believe that.
AB: No I don’t believe that for a second.
LH: Is it not possible that Zahra died 2 weeks before she was reported missing?
AB: No.
LH: You saw her not long before she disappeared?
AB: Yeh.
(LH) But it’s this question when did he last see his daughter that raises more questions. At the time of Zahra’s disappearance Adam claims he was working long hours and though he hadn’t seen his daughter his wife Lisa says she was in her room.
LH: At the time of Zahra’s disappearance you seemed uncertain about when you last saw her?
AB: Yep.
LH: Are you able to clear that up?
AB: um, (pause) it’s very hard to talk about stuff with the case at the moment, because it still is an ongoing investigation, um and I really don’t wanna do anything that may impede any justice for Zahra.
LH: I guess it’s the one thing that people have trouble with.
AB: yeh
LH: And you understand that?
AB: I understand that.
(LH) Adam Baker now knows Lisa is not the woman he thought he had married. Since being arrested she’s been charged with bigamy. In fact, she has had 7 marriages. At one stage she had 3 husbands at the same time and was already married when she wed Adam Baker. Their marriage was never legal.
LH: I suppose you are starting to wonder who this person is?
AB: oh yeh. I don’t even know this person.
LH: Did you ever see Lisa mistreating Zahra?
AB: No.
LH: Neighbors and relatives claim they saw abuse and that Zahra had a black eye, did you ever see that?
AB: Yes I saw the black eye.
LH: And what did you ask about that?
AB: I asked both Lisa and Zahra how that happened. Lisa started out saying Zahra slipped in the bathroom and hit her head on the cabinet, Zahra backed that up.
LH: Why do you think she said that?
AB: Right now, what I think she was told to. She was scared.
(LH) Hickory had been Zahra’s home for only a short time. But her death shattered the community. They gathered to mourn her death and to celebrate what would have been her 11th birthday.
Hickory Mayor Rudy Wright (M.RW) Zahra touched us, her story, her resilience. Her I will not quit attitude that we could see. The wistful look on her face, it touched us.
(LH) Mayor Rudy Wright says the community of Hickory feared that it had failed Zahra.
(M.RW) People came to me with tears in their eyes at times, including people from all walks of life from all socioeconomic stations in life with tears crying saying “how did this happen to that little girl?”
(LH) It’s been 4 long months since police began their investigations into this crime. And it now appears much of the focus has been on Lisa Baker, Zahra’s stepmother. She admitted to writing the ransom note, she led police to where some of Zahra’s dismembered remains where dumped. And according to police documents she failed a polygraph test on crucial questions related to Zahra’s death. But Adam Baker is far from exonerated. We are still to see whether the District Attorney believes he has a case to answer.
LH: Is there anything that you haven’t said that you are frightened to say?
AB: Oh no.
LH: You have no doubts that you will have no case to answer?
AB: I, I have done nothing. You know, I had no part in my daughters death or dismemberment.
KB: You can’t watch any child go through all that Zahra did and think that he could do that. You just can’t. He wouldn’t do it. He just wants to know the same as we want to know. What happened? Who did it?
LH: Do you think you know?
KB: Oh yeh, she is sitting in jail, oh yeh. That’s my feeling, that’s my opinion.
LH: What has been the worst decision, you made?
AB: (sigh) now, looking back bringing Lisa into our lives.
LH: You believe that was the downfall?
AB: yep.
LH: You believe Zahra would be alive today?
AB: Oh yeh, definitely.
(LH) There will be no peace in this close knit town until someone is held accountable for Zahra’s death. The District Attorney is now examining the evidence collected so far deciding if charges can be laid. And when that happens, Adam Baker seems confident about how he will be spending his time.
LH: When this is all over what are your plans?
AB: My plans are to take Zahra back to Australia, back home. Move back there. Try to put some pieces of my life back together.
http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stori...er-mystery
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-nat...1b0yc.html
AND I AM PUTTING ANYONE READING HERE ON NOTICE, I BETTER NOT SEE THIS REPRODUCED ANYWHERE W/O ATTRIBUTION TO MOCK. ESPECIALLY SINCE I WILL PROBABLY GO TO THE PEN FOR POSTING IT.
THANKYOU AUSSSIE FRIEND!!
The Zahra Baker Mystery
Introduction – Reporter Liz Hayes(LH)
The body of a little Australian girl is found dumped in the back blocks of America. Her dad has some suspicious holes in his memory. Her stepmother has been locked up but so far hasn’t been charged murder. So what happened to 10 year old Zahra Baker? It’s a crime that’s horrified and fascinated people on both sides of the Pacific. Tonight for the first time, Zahra’s dad tells his version of events. Its no wonder police are having so much trouble solving the mystery.
(pictures of Zahra smiling)
(LH) The innocent smile of Zahra Baker. Doing the things most girls love to do. Although Zahra was not your average little girl, because in her short 10 years she had endured 2 bouts of cancer – battles that had left her with a hearing impairment and a prosthetic leg. But this gutsy little Australian girl survived it all until this:
Operator: 911 what is your emergency?
Adam Baker(AB): ah yeh my daughter is missing.
Operator: I’m sorry?
AB: My daughter is
Operator: missing?
AB: yes.
(LH) Zahra Baker is now at the centre of one of America’s biggest murder mysteries.
AB: Zahra had been my life, you know. Now she’s gone. I don’t know what to do. I feel very very empty.
(LH) Adam Baker is a lonely man. He raised Zahra on his own nearly all her life. Two years ago he brought Zahra here to Hickory in America’s south after meeting his new wife Lisa on the internet. He now realizes it was a relationship doomed from the start.
LH: What was it about Lisa do you think?
AB: She was very caring….then.
LH: What were you hoping for? What did you think your life was going to be like?
AB: Happy family, um, a lot of love, more children, brothers and sisters for Zahra. But it didn’t turn out that way.
(LH) For Adam Baker not only is Zahra gone but nearly everyone here treats him with deep suspicion.
AB: Its very hard to see people in the street, even people in their cars driving, staring, yelling.
LH: What do they yell?
AB: I need to be locked up. I am going to go to hell. That I am a murderer.
LH: Are you guilty of anything?
AB: No, um.
(LH) Adam Baker and his wife Lisa became suspects when Zahra disappeared late last year. It’s a case that would take a gruesome turn when her tiny body was found dismembered. This horrific story began last October here at Zahra Baker’s family home. In the early hours of one Saturday morning the authorities were called to a small grass fire at the back of the house. But then, a ransom note was found in one of the families cars. This would be the first in many bizarre twists in a case that would see lives unraveled, husband pitted against wife, and a father losing his only child.
(LH) 9 hours after finding the ransom note Adam Baker reports his daughter missing.
Operator: So no one has seen your daughter since 2.30 this morning?
AB: No.
(LH) 4 days into the search for Zahra, Lisa Baker made an extraordinary admission. She had written the ransom note. And after 2 weeks in custody came another major development. Lisa led police to Zahra’s remains.
At the site
(LH) Coming here was a gut wrenching moment for everyone. Because the little girl that investigators had hoped to find alive was now obviously not. Knowing she was dead was distressing enough but what was truly shocking was that little Zahra’s body had been cut into pieces. Her remains in plastic bags, some buried some strewn for acres across this bushland. Some of her body parts still haven’t been found.
LH: When you had heard that Zahra had disappeared can you recall your reaction?
Karen Baker, grandmother (KB): I honestly believed I would never see her again.
LH: Really?
KB: I just had this feeling. People might think its silly but this little voice said to me ‘don’t worry nan, I’m alright’. I didn’t want to believe it but I think deep down I knew.
(LH) Karen Baker is Zahra’s grandmother. And her memories of her granddaughter are of a courageous little girl. (showing pictures to reporter of Zahra)
KB: That was after her second lot of cancer, she’d also had part of her lung removed. But it didn’t stop her. This one, she was so proud this was the day that Adam was getting married and she was just so proud.
(LH) Karen Baker has come to Hickory not just to support her son. She’s here’s searching for answers.
KB: I don’t know if I want to know all the in’s and outs, but I still want to know what happened.
LH: You need to know?
KB: I need to know what happened.
(LH) Lisa Baker reportedly told relatives that Zahra died of an illness. In these search warrants police allege she says that happened 2 weeks before Zahra was reported missing. Lisa Baker also alleges Zahra’s body was dismembered at the family home. And that she and Adam had disposed of the remains.
LH: It is a fact that Zahra was dismembered, and that is horrifying, do you have any words for that?
AB: It’s a, not something I like to think about. It makes me sick how somebody could do that.
LH: Lisa alleges you were involved in it?
AB: Yeh that’s what she says.
LH: Lisa alleges that you and she disposed of Zahra’s body. Is that untrue?
AB: (shaking head) that’s the biggest lie she’s ever told, um, for starters there’s no way I could do that to my child. For her to sit there and say that I dismembered my child, there’s no way on Earth that I could do that.
LH: Do you believe that Lisa had anything to do with the disappearance of Zahra?
AB: I feel that she um, had something to do with this.
LH: And what do you think that is?
AB: I am not sure, um, there’s so many things that try to pop into my head that may have happened, um, that I don’t want to think about. Thinking about it is just too hard and heartbreaking.
LH: Is it not possible that Zahra died of an illness?
AB: (shaking head) No.
LH: You don’t believe that.
AB: No I don’t believe that for a second.
LH: Is it not possible that Zahra died 2 weeks before she was reported missing?
AB: No.
LH: You saw her not long before she disappeared?
AB: Yeh.
(LH) But it’s this question when did he last see his daughter that raises more questions. At the time of Zahra’s disappearance Adam claims he was working long hours and though he hadn’t seen his daughter his wife Lisa says she was in her room.
LH: At the time of Zahra’s disappearance you seemed uncertain about when you last saw her?
AB: Yep.
LH: Are you able to clear that up?
AB: um, (pause) it’s very hard to talk about stuff with the case at the moment, because it still is an ongoing investigation, um and I really don’t wanna do anything that may impede any justice for Zahra.
LH: I guess it’s the one thing that people have trouble with.
AB: yeh
LH: And you understand that?
AB: I understand that.
(LH) Adam Baker now knows Lisa is not the woman he thought he had married. Since being arrested she’s been charged with bigamy. In fact, she has had 7 marriages. At one stage she had 3 husbands at the same time and was already married when she wed Adam Baker. Their marriage was never legal.
LH: I suppose you are starting to wonder who this person is?
AB: oh yeh. I don’t even know this person.
LH: Did you ever see Lisa mistreating Zahra?
AB: No.
LH: Neighbors and relatives claim they saw abuse and that Zahra had a black eye, did you ever see that?
AB: Yes I saw the black eye.
LH: And what did you ask about that?
AB: I asked both Lisa and Zahra how that happened. Lisa started out saying Zahra slipped in the bathroom and hit her head on the cabinet, Zahra backed that up.
LH: Why do you think she said that?
AB: Right now, what I think she was told to. She was scared.
(LH) Hickory had been Zahra’s home for only a short time. But her death shattered the community. They gathered to mourn her death and to celebrate what would have been her 11th birthday.
Hickory Mayor Rudy Wright (M.RW) Zahra touched us, her story, her resilience. Her I will not quit attitude that we could see. The wistful look on her face, it touched us.
(LH) Mayor Rudy Wright says the community of Hickory feared that it had failed Zahra.
(M.RW) People came to me with tears in their eyes at times, including people from all walks of life from all socioeconomic stations in life with tears crying saying “how did this happen to that little girl?”
(LH) It’s been 4 long months since police began their investigations into this crime. And it now appears much of the focus has been on Lisa Baker, Zahra’s stepmother. She admitted to writing the ransom note, she led police to where some of Zahra’s dismembered remains where dumped. And according to police documents she failed a polygraph test on crucial questions related to Zahra’s death. But Adam Baker is far from exonerated. We are still to see whether the District Attorney believes he has a case to answer.
LH: Is there anything that you haven’t said that you are frightened to say?
AB: Oh no.
LH: You have no doubts that you will have no case to answer?
AB: I, I have done nothing. You know, I had no part in my daughters death or dismemberment.
KB: You can’t watch any child go through all that Zahra did and think that he could do that. You just can’t. He wouldn’t do it. He just wants to know the same as we want to know. What happened? Who did it?
LH: Do you think you know?
KB: Oh yeh, she is sitting in jail, oh yeh. That’s my feeling, that’s my opinion.
LH: What has been the worst decision, you made?
AB: (sigh) now, looking back bringing Lisa into our lives.
LH: You believe that was the downfall?
AB: yep.
LH: You believe Zahra would be alive today?
AB: Oh yeh, definitely.
(LH) There will be no peace in this close knit town until someone is held accountable for Zahra’s death. The District Attorney is now examining the evidence collected so far deciding if charges can be laid. And when that happens, Adam Baker seems confident about how he will be spending his time.
LH: When this is all over what are your plans?
AB: My plans are to take Zahra back to Australia, back home. Move back there. Try to put some pieces of my life back together.