Newly released search warrants in the Zahra Baker homicide case reveal an ongoing relationship between Elisa Baker and her former husband Aaron Young.
In a Nov. 29 search warrant seeking information from Verizon Wireless about a phone used by Young, it states that Baker and Young “have maintained contact and communication via telephone and in person with one another on a frequent basis.”
According to court documents released in November, Young was granted a divorce from Baker on Aug, 21, 2009, 13 months after her Australian wedding to Adam Baker. Young and Elisa were married Aug. 8, 1999 in Cherokee, S.C. The warrant also revealed that Elisa told Adam that Young was her brother.
Using the GPS location in her cell phone, investigators determined that on Sept. 25 Elisa was in the areas where parts of Zahra’s body were recovered. Those areas include where a bone and her prosthesis were found on Christie Road and where part of her remains were found on Dudley Shoals Road, both in Caldwell County. According to his GPS location, Adam was not in those areas where Zahra’s remains were found.
NO, IT MEANS HIS PHONE WASN'T IN THE AREA!
Police said because Elisa had lied about her relationship with Young and because of the GPS and cell tower locations of their cell phones on Sept. 25, they think it is important to obtain Young’s phone records as it “will likely provide information substantially related to this homicide investigation.”
Young is mentioned again in a Nov. 8 warrant seeking documents from IMVU.com. Police sought account information for Elisa, Adam, Aaron and Kava Fullman, and IMVU user sweetlilspitfire69. IMVU.com is an online community where people use avatars to meet people, talk and create games.
The warrant says the Bakers and Young had been involved in "chainsaw massacre role-playing” on Sept. 22, and that sweetlilspitfire69 needed to be watched as possibly being connected to the case. Aaron Young was contacted to comment for this story, but did not return phone calls.
aaron the ex she told adam was her brother: (with Zahra)
The theory and rumor these days is that Gaither, the DA cannot make a case for murder (mainly because he sucks) and that they want everything to die down and at that time, all charges except the bad checks will be dropped, Elisa will get probation, she will be released silently and Adam will be allowed to go back to, or deported to Australia.
the DA cannot make a case for murder to take to trial unless he has a cause of death, manner of death, some evidence that will hold up. unless any of that can be proven, the most they can be charged with is improper disposal of a human body. i've been saying that for quite a while. people may be sure she was murdered, but a court requires proof. it's frustrating for those who want justice NOW, but i'd rather see the DA go to trial with something concrete so he can win at trial. some defense lawyer would have a field day with the lack of evidence. there is no statute of limitations on murder. what the DA needs to do is keep those two locked up on the bad check & obstruction charges until a strong case is made for murder. adam baker needs to be in jail because he is probably a flight risk.
plenty of misdeeds and potential for charges. but not for murder one. i think the best that can be hoped for is that they press every possible lesser charge to the nth degree and sentence accordingly.
unless of course there are forensics coming that we are unaware of to date.
CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — The Catawba County Grand Jury meets Tuesday, but there is no indication the panel will discuss the Zahra Baker case.
Zahra Baker, 10, disappeared last September. Dismembered remains were found in multiple locations two months later. Investigators turned their case summary over to District Attorney Jay Gaither in December.
Gaither indicated to News 14 Carolina he will wait for the full case before taking it to the Grand Jury.
translation: his forensics aren't all back yet. OR he doesn't have enough to go forward.
January 18, 2011
CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. -- Loggers working along Christie Road in Caldwell County found a briefcase with a blanket inside of it on Tuesday afternoon. one report said bloodied clothing and a blanket. across the road from where prosthetic leg was found. more forensics to wait for.
oh well, bitch indicted for bigamy today.
The prosthetic leg of 10-year-old Zahra Baker was discovered in the same area in late October. The prosthesis was found directly across the street from the area where the briefcase was found.
The loggers’ work came to an abrupt halt after a cutter spotted the briefcase deep in the woods, about a quarter of a mile from the roadway.
“I think it's still tragic and if we can find something that helps, I hope we did it,” logger Tim Bristol said.
It’s unclear whether the briefcase and blanket are related to the investigation into Zahra’s disappearance and death. Police said only that the blanket was covered in mold and mildew and that they plan to test it at the state lab.
Meanwhile, a grand jury met in Catawba County on Tuesday and indicted Zahra’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, for bigamy. She is accused of marrying Zahra's father, Adam Baker, while she was still legally married to another man.
Renee Bobbitt, who was a neighbor of the Bakers, said Elisa Baker’s other husband lived across the street.
“Everybody around here thought that was her brother,” Bobbitt said. “We didn't know it was one of her husbands.”
No one has been charged in Zahra’s death, and many community members said Tuesday that they are waiting to hear of more serious charges in the case. It’s been more than three months since the girl was reported missing.
another yahoo with a criminal record. who went along with telling adam baker he was the stepwitch 'brother'.
HICKORY, N.C. – Aaron Young, who was married to Elisa Baker for a decade, and is considered a key figure in the Zahra Baker disappearance and murder investigation told News 14 Carolina on Wednesday that he felt like a father to the young girl.
“I loved Zahra just as much as anybody. I got close to her and she was close to me and we always had fun together. (There) ain't no way I could do that to any kid, especially Zahra, because Zahra, like I said, was basically the perfect child,” he said.
Elisa Baker was charged with bigamy earlier this week because authorities say she was still married to Young when she married Adam Baker and became Zahra's stepmother. Young said Zahra called him “Uncle Aaron,” and that relationship, he said, involved him in Zahra's death investigation.
“I know I didn't have anything to do with it whatsoever. I hadn't been around Elisa since February. I'd run into them a couple times and that'd be it. I hadn't even, I'd never been to the house in Hickory. I don't even know what the inside of it looks like,” he said.
Young had spent a lot of time with Elisa, Adam and Zahra Baker and said Elisa was jealous of the attention Zahra recieved.
“I didn't see physical abuse firsthand. I seen some bruises on her and she would basically say the same thing Elisa said. She'd fall, she tripped and fell into the sink one time. I guess people just believed it because Zahra was telling the same thing that Elisa was and Zahra loved Elisa like her own mother and she called her 'mum,' said Young.
Young said he reported abuse to Social Services in February, around the time he lost contact with the Bakers. He found out Zahra was missing when everyone else did
“I thought she ran away because of all the emotional abuse and stuff, that was my hopes anyway. I hoped she ran away,” he said.
Then he heard more details and that Elisa was a suspect.
“I don't know anybody that would be involved. but I know Elisa is capable of doing this herself. She's not this weak woman, you know, that people want to think she is. She's strong enough to handle her own. She could do all this herself.
Young said Adam Baker is a good man with a big heart and he has a hard time believing he had something to do with Zarha's death.
HICKORY, NC (WBTV) - A death certificate for Zahra Baker has been filed with the Catawba County Register of Deeds office.
The certificate sets the date of death on October 26, the date remains were found in Caldwell County. The remains of the 10-year-old girl have been found in at least two different places and her stepmother has said that the girl was dismembered after she died, according to search warrants.
The cause of death on the certificate is listed as "Pending." There is a notation that an autopsy was conducted at the state medical examiner's office and that the remains are still there.
It is not unusual, say authorities, for cause of death to be listed as "Pending" if the medical examiner is still awaiting more test results or information from investigators. Authorities would not comment whether that was the case.
The date of death can also be changed depending on test results and information obtained through an investigation.
In search warrants released earlier this month, Elisa Baker was quoted as telling police Zahra died on September 24. In other search warrants, Elisa Baker also said that Zahra's bones, blood and bodily fluids could be found in pipes at the family's home.
Elisa Baker, 42, is in the Catawba County Jail on several worthless check charges and on a charge for obstruction of justice, for allegedly writing a fake ransom note when Zahra went missing in early October, police have said.
Elisa and Adam Baker were due in court Thursday for 27 different charges or citations between the two of them.
The couple was scheduled to appear on several charges of worthless checks and communicating threats, among others.
Neither Elisa nor Adam appeared in court Thursday, with Elisa's attorney, Scott Reilly, appearing on her behalf. Elisa, 42, remains jailed in Catawba County on one count of obstruction of justice in for writing a false ransom note and one count of bigamy.
Adam, 33, was spotted by himself at the Lenoir law office of Shel Pearce, was court-appointed to represent Adam on Nov. 18. Pearce represents Adam on five counts of worthless checks, assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of communicating threats and failure to return rental property.
Elisa and Adam were both given new court dates of April 11.
NEWTON,NC (WBTV) – The District Attorney's Office in Catawba County has begun the process of sifting through the investigative file in the Zahra Baker case, a process that could take weeks.
The file is "probably the largest I can remember," said Hickory Police Major Clyde Deal. The file details everything that local investigators found, tested, and sent off. There are 117 DVD's with recorded interviews, some involving stepmother Elisa baker and Zahra's father Adam.
There are also 65 cd's with maps, photographs and other documents. In addition to all that is a cd with 11 thousand pages of information. The District Attorney's Office says it is still waiting for the file from the State Bureau of Investigations.
Many of the interviews will have to be transcribed, and everything else will have to be printed. Officials say it could bring the total page count to 30,000. The state is being asked to help in the matter and the files may be taken to Raleigh to be uploaded into a state server and printed.
Hickory Mayor Rudy Wright said Monday that many people have come up to him and asked why it is taking so long for someone to be charged in the case.
As for the case file, Eric Farr, spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said "now we begin the process of evaluating this case to determine what evidence we have and what applicable charges can be filed."
Major Deal said there is no timetable for a decision. "There is absolutely no reason to rush this thing because there's not any second chances and we have to get it right the first time."
hahahahaha she found 7 blind and drunk backwoods imbecile possum-fuckers to marry her?
GAFFNEY, S.C. -- The stepmother of the North Carolina girl whose dismembered remains were found in the western part of the state was married seven times, and she was wed to more than one man on several occasions, according to an Associated Press investigation.
Elisa Baker was indicted last month on a bigamy charge involving her marriage to Zahra Baker's father, Adam, and another man, but AP found documents at half a dozen county courthouses that showed at one point she was married to three men at the same time, calling into question the single charge.
The question of bigamy is unrelated to Zahra's case. No one has been charged in her death, although Elisa Baker is jailed on charges of obstructing the investigation into her stepdaughter's disappearance. Zahra's parents reported her missing Oct. 9, and her remains were found several miles apart a few weeks later.
A glimpse into Elisa Baker's personal life and her ability to stay ahead of a porous marriage-licensing system help explain how a woman burning through relationships in the Appalachian foothills eventually came to meet Adam Baker, who lived halfway around the world in Australia.
Elisa Baker's marriage trail starts in Gaffney, the seat of Cherokee County, about 60 miles south of where she sits in jail. In Gaffney, she married four .
60 Minutes TV program airing in Australia on 2/20:
The body of a little Australian girl is found dumped in the backroads of America. Her dad has some suspicious holes in his memory.
Her stepmother has been locked up, but so far hasn't been charged with murder. So what happened to ten-year-old Zahra Baker?
It's a crime that's horrified and fascinated people on both sides of the Pacific. On Sunday night, for the first time, Zahra's dad tells his version of events.
It's no wonder police are having so much trouble solving the mystery.
There will be no video or transcript available due to ongoing legal proceedings in the US.
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.
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.
Glad to help. I wish you could have seen the expression on his face during some of the interview and how his eyes were looking away. The reporter seemed to be onto him. But hey, who knows what the truth is.
There's no way that big whale of a bitch trampled through the woods burying Zahra all by herself. Someone helped her. Just not sure if if was Aussie britches or the husband that lived across the street.
It's the hint of arsenic that gives it that extra kick.
![[Image: elisa-and-adam-baker-wedding]](http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/mgmedia/image/294/0/98801/elisa-and-adam-baker-wedding/)
