Anyone following the missing girl in Hickory case?

[charlotte49er]

Parents are a real piece of..........

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A missing 10-year-old may have been alive when her family moved to a new home in North Carolina in mid-September, police said Thursday.

Investigators are having trouble finding anyone outside Zahra Clare Baker's household in Hickory who has seen the girl alive in recent months, making it difficult to narrow down places to search.

Police say the girl, who used hearing aids and a prosthetic leg because of bone cancer, has been killed. She was reported missing over the weekend by her father and stepmother, but police do not believe their story about the last time they saw her in her bed.

Deputy Chief Clyde Deal would not elaborate about why authorities think the girl was alive when the family moved from the nearby town of Sawmills.

Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, is jailed, accused of trying to throw off investigators with a fake ransom note. She also faces charged unrelated to the case.

Investigators drained a pond and used a dog to sniff through piles of mulch and tree-trimming equipment, but they have not yet found her body.

Elisa Baker showed little emotion Wednesday as she faced a judge over an obstruction charge that could bring her up to 30 months in prison if convicted. Her court-appointed attorney, Scott Reilly, said she was "scared to death" and very emotional about everything.

"She's upset about being held in jail. She's upset about being away from her family," he said.

That portrait of the concerned stepmother contradicts how relatives and former neighbors described Baker. They said in interviews and court documents that she was nasty-tempered and violent and often took her rage out on Zahra.

At a vigil Wednesday night, about 150 people sang religious songs, held hands and implored each other to love their children and report signs of child abuse to authorities. The case has disturbed Hickory, a city of about 40,000, some 50 miles northwest of Charlotte.

If it's proven, one of both of them killer her, I wish the state still hung people like them! I'd turn out to watch it!

If you don't want your child, there are people who do!

[boo7382]

yeah i have been seeing it on the news. looking like the step mom is going to be guilty in some way. shes apparently been missing for a while and there was a fire in their backyard and the stepmom isnt coming forward with all the details.

sad really.

also heard that the little girl would freak out on people when she was at friend's houses and it was time for her to go home.

[Happy Panther]

kill the parents

[TarPanther9180]

You almost don't wish the death penalty on people like this. That would be the easy way out. Even though prison is made up of terrible people and misfits....they do honor a code of don't fug with children. She will get what's coming to her.

[charlotte49er]

I know, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Yada, Yada, Yada...

But if it look like a duck, and walk like a duck and quacks like a duck, guess what. It's a M.... F...ing Duck!

Her Stepmom wasn't exactly flattering about some of the comments she made about the little girl on her My Space page!

I thinks Saltman's image a week ago of the Muslim, has put me in a weird place. Brought up some long repressed memories/feelings!

[boo7382]

I hope this doesn't end up like the Casey Anthony case where things are still up in the air...

Casey is definitely guilty.

[Goosfraba21]

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.

[TarPanther9180]

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.

[charlotte49er]

Artist: 10000 Maniacs

Album: In My Tribe

Title: What's The Matter Here

That young boy without a name I'd know his face. In

this city the kid's my favorite. I've seen him. I see him every

day. Seen him run outside looking for a place to hide from his

father, the kid half naked and said to myself

"O, what's the

matter here?" I'm tired of the excuses everbody uses, he's their

kid I stay out of it, but who gave you the right to do this?

We live on Morgan Street; just ten feet between and his

mother, I never see her, but her screams and cussing, I hear them

every day. Threats like: "If you don't mind I will beat on your

behind,""Slap you, slap you silly." made me say, "O, what's the

matter here?" I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses, he's your

kid, do as you see fit, but get this through that I don't approve

of what you did to you own flesh and blood.

"If you don't sit on this chair straight I'll take this

belt from around my waist and don't think that I won't use it!"

Answer me and take your time, what could be the awful

crime he could do at such young an age? If I'm the only witness

to your madness offer me some words to balance out what I see and

what I hear. All these cold and rude things that you do I suppose

you do because he belongs to you and instead of love, the feel of

warmth you've given him these cuts and sores won't heal with time or

age.

I want to say "What's the Matter here?" But I don't dare say.

[sunbunny]

I read that they think someone put her through the wood chipper. The sniffer dog alerted to both the wood chipper and a pile of mulch.

[Guest]

Boil the dad and step mom in oil. Not too hot, so it takes a long time for them to die.

Yeah, been following this story. Makes me sick. She looked like a sweet little girl.

[Happy Panther]

I read that they think someone put her through the wood chipper. The sniffer dog alerted to both the wood chipper and a pile of mulch.

goodness

[Jackofalltrades]

Sometimes I don't have a problem with torture, this would be one of those times.

Terrible story, hope they find something definitive soon.

[Ja Rhule]

I read that they think someone put her through the wood chipper. The sniffer dog alerted to both the wood chipper and a pile of mulch.

Heard that as well... just insane... Without the body it will be hard to convict either parents.