......... Police believe remains to be those of missing N.C. girl Now testing bones to verify it's Zarah Baker, 10 yrs old ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zahra Clare Baker waits to get a hearing aid last May
Police believe remains to be those of missing N.C. girl
Now testing bones to verify it's Zarah Baker, 10 yrs old
from MSNBC
November 12, 2010
HICKORY, N.C. — Hickory police plan to hold a news briefing in which investigators will announce that remains found the day before are in fact that of a missing 10-year-old North Carolina girl, a source told a TV station Friday.
Hickory police scheduled a press conference for 4 p.m. PT, but did not release further details, according to NBC affiliate WCNC TV.
Zahra Baker has been missing since Oct. 9. Authorities think she is dead.
A source close to the investigation told the NBC News affiliate that human remains were found by search teams on Wednesday. Earlier on, officers recovered her artificial left leg and were also testing a bone to see if it belonged to her.
Zahra lost her leg to bone cancer. She also used hearing aids.
Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, has been charged with obstruction of justice. Police say she admitted writing a bogus ransom note found after a fire was reported in the family's backyard the day Zahra was reported missing.
Zahra's biological mother said through tears last Friday that she believes her daughter is dead.
Emily Dietrich said she has little hope of seeing Zahra alive again.
"I don't feel it," she told Australia's Seven Network in her first interview since the girl's disappearance. "I reckon that mothers just have this bond with their children."
Zahra's father, Adam Baker, reported her missing Oct. 9.
"I never got to say goodbye," Dietrich said of her daughter, who relies on hearing aids and a prosthetic leg because of bone cancer.
Dietrich said she suffered postnatal depression after Zahra's birth and handed over custody to Baker. Later, though, she decided she wanted to be in the girl's life and spent years trying to track the pair. But every time she found Baker, she said, he would disappear.
Using the Internet, she discovered he was living in the U.S. Just three days later, she said, Zahra was reported missing.
"Why would it happen that I would find her and three days later this would happen?" she said, sobbing.
