The Missing Girl Nobody Tried to Save | Forensic Files

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Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners.
Before sunrise on Saturday, October 9, [music] 2010, 42-year-old Alisa Baker called 911
to report a fire outside her home in the [music] small city of Hickory, North Carolina.
The dispatcher asked her for the address, but Lisa didn't [music] seem to hear the question. Sounding flustered
and out of breath, she replied, "My husband works for a tree maintenance company, [music] and our backyard's on
fire. Lisa explained that because of her husband's job, the yard was full of ignitable debris, such [music] as piles
of firewood, dead branches, logs, and mulch. Within minutes, firefighters arrived, anticipating a large and
dangerous blaze. [music] They were therefore surprised to find the fire was actually quite small. It
was confined to a mound of chipped wood and grass about one square meter in size.
There were a few [music] branches and some household items that had also burned, but the fire was quickly and
easily extinguished. Since the cause of the fire was unknown, the city fire inspector was [music]
summoned to investigate. Suspecting arson, the inspector phoned the Hickory Police Department, [music]
who sent an officer named Rob Rollins to the scene. Officer Rollins arrived at around 5:30 [music] a.m.
One of the firefighters immediately handed him a small [music] piece of paper, which Lisa's husband, 33-year-old
Adam Baker, had discovered on the dashboard of a silver 1996 [music] Chevy Tahoe SUV parked at the end of the
driveway near the side of the fire. The paper was a special custom printed envelope provided by the local power
company for customers to mail in their monthly bill payments. Scrolled across it was a handwritten
note which read, "No cops. Mr. Coffee, [music] you like being in control. Now, who is in control? We have your daughter
and your pot smoking red-head son is next. [music] Unless you do what is asked."
1 million unmarked [music] will be in touch soon. No cops. Adam Baker explained to officer Rollins
that Mr. Coffee probably referred to his boss, Mark Coffee, who owned the tree company where Adam worked. Mark also
owned the Chevy Tahoe SUV, which he was letting Adam borrow, as well as the property which Adam and Lisa had been
renting from him for the past 3 months. [music] Moments later, Mark Coffee arrived at
the baker's home, accompanied by his 19-year-old daughter, Lauren. When Officer Rollins showed them the
threatening letter and ransom demand, both Mark and Lauren were baffled. They didn't know of anyone who was angry with
Mark or might want to harm their family. Lauren obviously hadn't been [music] abducted, and Mark's son was safe at
home. The note was apparently just a hoax or perhaps together with the fire a bizarre
and elaborate prank. The fire was definitely the result of arson. Someone had poured gasoline in
the grass as well as inside the Chevy Tahoe, [music] but fortunately nothing was seriously damaged and no one had
been hurt. The firefighters moved on. Mark and Lauren Coffee returned home and Officer
Rollins went off duty. By the time [music] the sun rose just after 7:00, everything at the baker's
house was back to normal. But 7 hours later at 2:00 p.m. a second emergency call was placed from their
home. This time the caller was Adam who [music] said, "Uh, yeah, my daughter is missing."
He gave his address, [music] then continued, "The police were out here last night
over a fire and a [music] ransom note for my boss's daughter, and it appears they took my daughter instead.
[music] Adam Baker explained that he thought his daughter might have been kidnapped
[music] by someone who mistook her for Lauren coffee. He didn't know who was after the coffees or why. But because
the ransom note was addressed to Mark Coffee and he [music] owned the house as well as the vehicle parked there, it was
clear to Adam that his daughter's [music] disappearance was linked to Mark, too. Adam Baker described his
daughter as a disabled 10-year-old with a prosthetic [music] leg. But when the emergency dispatcher asked how long she
had been missing, Adam didn't seem to know. "We checked in there last night about 2:30, and she was there," he said.
And all this happened about 5:00. So I don't know if they set a fire in the yard to distract [music] us to go out
and then they go in the door or I don't know. The dispatcher tried to clarify this
asking, "Okay, so no one has seen your daughter since [music] 2:30 this morning." Adam replied, "No, like I
said, we had all this drama last night. Me and my wife went back to [music] bed and my daughter's, I think, coming into
puberty. She's hitting that brooding stage. So, we only ever see her when she comes out, [music] when she wants
something, and that's about it. For the second time that day, officers from the Hickory Police Department made
their way to the small brick house on 21st Avenue Northwest. They climbed a couple of steps onto a
low cement porch decorated for Halloween with cotton spiderw webs and [music] plastic skulls.
Upon entering the home, officers found it cluttered and dark. There were fish tanks without fish, and
some of the walls, floors, and bathroom tiles had been painted black. Officers learned the missing girl's name
was Zara Clare Baker. [music] Zara and Adam had moved to North Carolina 2 years earlier from
Queensland, Australia, [music] after Adam met and married his American wife, Alisa, who most people just called
Lisa. It was Lisa, not Adam, who had looked in on Zara sleeping [music] at 2:30 a.m.,
at which time nothing was a miss. No one [music] thought to check on her during or after the fire. In addition to
using a prosthetic leg, Zara was hearing impaired. [music] So, Adam and Lisa just
assumed she hadn't heard the commotion or the emergency vehicle sirens rushing down the quiet street [music] before
dawn. Nor had they checked on Zara after discovering the ransom note. In fact, they hadn't even thought to tell Officer
Rollins that they had a daughter. But after they realized [music] Zara was missing, it seemed impossible to them
that the events weren't connected. The fire was probably a ruse to draw them out of the house, they thought,
leaving Zara alone inside. The lights, sirens, and firefighters created a distraction, allowing the
kidnapper to steal away with Zara unnoticed. Whoever wrote the ransom note had seemingly mistaken 10-year-old Azara
Baker for 19-year-old Lauren Coffee [music] and was now holding the wrong man's daughter for ransom.
Adam was working in the yard when Lisa ran outside shouting, "Zara's [music] gone." He drove around the neighborhood
looking for her, but when he found nothing, he went to see Mark Coffee. Because of the ransom note, the Bakers
were convinced Zara's disappearance had something to do with him. Mark told Adam
to call the police, which was when Adam returned home and called 911. Lisa suggested that Mark should go on
television and offer [music] to pay the milliondoll ransom to get Zara back. Police launched a search of the area,
checking nearby properties, businesses, and outuildings for any trace of Zara. They also issued an Amber Alert. Amber
alerts are emergency notifications sent by law enforcement to media outlets, cell phone messaging systems, [music]
and digital highway display boards, akin to a public communitywide be on the lookout notice when a child abduction
has [music] occurred. Zara was described as a 10-year-old girl standing just over 5t tall and weighing
around 85 lb. [music] She used a prosthetic left leg and was partially deaf in both ears.
Photos distributed to the media showed a pale girl with straight honeyccoled hair, blue eyes, a wide smile, and a
spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks. It was noted that Zara's prosthetic leg
had been taken, but her hearing aids were left behind. Before moving to North Carolina, Zara
and Adam Baker were living in Guiru, a small town in North Queensland, where Adam worked at a sugar mill. They shared
a house with Adam's parents, Karen and Tony Baker. As the only grandchild, Zara was adored
and doted on, a happy and busy toddler who attended preschool [music] and enjoyed the attention of her extended
family. Then when she was just 5 years old, the vibrant little girl was diagnosed with
osteocaroma, a form of bone cancer, in one of her legs. Zara spent 8 months in a children's
hospital where doctors took extreme measures in a desperate effort to stop her disease.
It was a frightening and painful time with Zara undergoing frequent surgeries, skin grafts, and chemotherapy
treatments. The 5-year-old endured it all heroically, but the cancer continued to
grow. Eventually, there was no choice but to amputate her left leg above the knee in
order to save her life. Learning how to walk again after her amputation was another slow and painful
process, but Zara persevered. According to her grandmother, Karen, Adam never left Zara's side.
He described his daughter as someone who always smiled and considered everyone her friend.
Cheerful, funny, and uninhibited with hospital staff, neighbors, and even complete strangers. Zara was known as
the small girl with the huge smile who was always on the go. After she healed from the amputation
surgery, she zoomed around on her crutches and dreamed of learning to water ski and attending the Parolympics.
She soon figured out how to swim with one leg, spinning in circles, until she learned how to balance her body in the
water. Zara's determination and fearlessness seemed to blossom in the face of adversity.
Once, when a family friend expressed concern for Zara because of her amputation, the 5-year-old calmly
reassured her, saying it was nothing to worry about. "I'm getting a Barbie leg,"
Zara told her brightly. So, I don't want you to be upset. After she was fitted for a leg
prosthesis, Zara once again had to relearn how to walk, run, and play with a new and a different body.
She tackled the challenge with poise, confidence, and good humor. When she was running in a race for disabled children
and her prosthetic leg came off, onlookers gasped. But Zara found it funny. She was invited to attend Camp Quality,
an adventure and recreation camp for children with cancer, where she scaled the climbing wall and mastered the ropes
course. When another child asked her how she did all that with just one leg, Zara
replied simply, "Because I want to." Unfortunately, Zara's battle with cancer wasn't over.
2 years after the osteocaroma was first diagnosed in her leg, the cancer metastasized into her chest.
At just 7 years old, Zara was suddenly fighting for her life for a second time. In 2007, doctors performed a labctomy,
removing the cancerous portion of her right lung. Afterwards came a grueling chemotherapy
regimen that caused permanent [music] damage to her hearing and left the bouncy athletic youngster weak,
exhausted, and increasingly vulnerable to sickness. She was unable to attend school for
almost a year. And more than once, fearing the worst, her family sent word to relatives to come to the [music]
hospital and say goodbye. But Zara wasn't going anywhere. After months of fragile health and
countless close calls, her doctors announced that her cancer was in remission. [music]
Zara had beaten it twice. The Baker family was relieved and grateful, but knew a long road to
recovery lay ahead. Zara had already been through so much, and now her resilience would be tested
again. To encourage her through the slow process of rebuilding her health, Karen
and Tony helped their granddaughter [music] set goals and focus on her future. One of her goals was to learn to water
ski once she turned 12. Another was to earn a fancy red fairy dress she'd had her eye on by bringing
her post chemotherapy weight up to 23 kilos. Zara made the effort and was optimistic
that she would succeed. But when the day came to check her weight, the 8-year-old
was crestfallen to see the scale showed she was still 1 kilo short of her goal. Standing to the side, her grandmother
discreetly pressed the corner [music] of the scale with her own toe until it read
23, and a joyful Zara got the red dress after all. [music] When she was well enough, Zara
even made a return visit to Camp Quality, where she joined in every activity [music] with such tenacity and
high spirits that she immediately caught the eye of a visiting reporter who [music] featured her story in the local
paper, writing, "They don't make them much [music] tougher than little Zara Baker."
Yet just 2 years later, investigators looking into Zara's disappearance in the United States were encountering the
opposite situation. The remarkable little girl who attracted so much attention in Guiru seemed to
have gone completely unnoticed in Hickory during the 3 months since her family had moved there.
Zara didn't attend school or play with other children in the neighborhood. She hadn't been to a doctor or a dentist.
When police officers went door todo along the street of single family homes, the troubling pattern continued.
No one had seen Zara. Incredibly, the news that she was missing was the first time her neighbors
learned she'd been there at all. Several said they'd never seen Zara or had any knowledge of her existence.
A British man who lived across the street from the Bakers said he'd unsuccessfully tried to befriend Adam,
[music] explaining, "I tried to talk to him two or three times, but every time I
did, he put his head down. Totally ignored me. I didn't even know he was Australian. I didn't even know a little
girl lived there." Zara's total absence from her new community [music] further raised the suspicion of
investigators who'd been dubious of the kidnapping story from the beginning. For starters, the ransom note was found
in a vehicle someone had poured gasoline on. Why would a kidnapper leave a note they wanted read inside a [music] gas
soaked car near a fire? Investigators were also skeptical about how long it had taken Adam and Lisa to
notice that Zara was missing. Their house was small with two bedrooms [music] and a single bath. Both of them
had been home all day. Yet, it was 2:00 p.m. before they realized their 10-year-old daughter wasn't there.
While conducting their initial search for Zara in the baker's house, officers found custom envelopes from the power
company identical to the one the ransom note was written on. They also recovered several papers with
handwriting that looked extremely similar to that on the note. Therefore, even as police issued an
Amber Alert and searched the area, detectives knew they needed to take a hard look at Adam and Lisa Baker.
In order to narrow down the time frame of Zara's disappearance, they needed to verify when she had last been seen.
The Bakers said that the previous evening of Friday, October 8, the three of them had attended an Oktoberfest
event downtown at around 700 p.m. They'd returned home around 9:00 p.m., at which
point Zara went to bed. Adam said [music] this was the last time he saw his daughter, but Lisa said she'd
last seen Zara sleeping in her bedroom at 2:30 a.m. Detectives hoping to corroborate this
were eager to find out whether anyone else had seen the family on Friday. As luck would have it, [music] someone
had. Adam's boss, Mark Coffee, told police that he had dropped by the house on Friday evening and found Adam and Lisa
in their [music] car backing down the driveway. They told him they were going out to
have dinner at October 1st. But according to Mark Coffee, Zara wasn't in the car.
With that, detectives asked Adam and Lisa to come to the police station for more formal questioning.
The couple agreed and were heading outside just as evidence technicians [music] began to cordon off their yard
with yellow crime scene tape. "Why are they doing that?" Lisa asked. "Do they think Zara was murdered in there."
At the Hickory Police Station, Adam and Lisa Baker were met by both local investigators and state level SBI agents
who had been called in to help the smaller department with the case. Although the Bakers weren't formally
named as suspects and had come to the police station voluntarily, they both endured a long night of intense
interrogation. Lisa Baker told investigators that she was a two-time cancer survivor who also
suffered from [music] chronic pain and fatigue due to the autoimmune disease fibromyalgia.
[music] Her experience with cancer had helped her form a tight bond with Zara from the moment they met in Australia 2
years prior. Lisa [music] described Aara as a great kid who was her angel because she helped
Lisa on days when symptoms from her chronic health conditions [music] were especially bad.
Given that Adam worked full-time, Lisa took charge of Zara's schooling, meals, and daily routine and said that the
10-year-old was never out of her sight. Zara's 11th birthday was over a month away, but Lisa had already started
buying her gifts. She'd sent text [music] messages to Adam the day before Zara went missing,
letting him know that she had spent $200 on dolls. [music] So excited. She's going to be so happy.
Lisa texted. She told the detectives that she was pregnant and expecting twins, so Zara
was going to be a big sister. Investigators asked if Lisa was willing to take a polygraph [music] test and
provide a handwriting sample. Although she readily agreed, [music] Lisa failed the polygraph, and even to a
casual observer, her handwriting looked exactly like the writing on the ransom note.
In another interview room, Adam Baker appeared emotional and upset as he detailed Zara's history of cancer, how
he'd almost lost her so many times, and how bravely she'd faced it all. He kept repeating his earlier claim that he and
Lisa took Zara to Oktoberfest the previous [music] night. Officers didn't tell him that Mark Coffee had
contradicted this, but they did say they planned to check the festival's surveillance cameras to see if he was
telling the truth. Adam insisted that he was. By this point, [music] investigators had
run background checks on Adam and Lisa and discovered both had outstanding warrants for their arrest.
These were issued after they'd failed to appear at scheduled court hearings earlier that year to face a variety of
misdemeanor charges such as writing worthless checks. Lisa had also been charged with failure
to return some rented furniture and computer equipment and with communicating threats.
Adam faced a charge of assault with a deadly weapon after an incident where he'd been accused of running Lisa's
nephew and his wife off the road with his car while trying to collect money they owed him.
This contradicted Adam's assertion that the couple had no financial problems or personal enemies.
Detectives asked him to take a polygraph test and like Lisa, he agreed without hesitation.
Also, like Lisa, he didn't pass. After he failed the polygraph, detectives [music]
pressed Adam on his story, and he admitted that part of it wasn't true. He hadn't taken Zara to October 1st. He
explained that he and Lisa had left Zara home alone while they went to the festival because she hadn't been feeling
well. Lisa had warned him not to tell the police because they might get in trouble
for leaving Zara alone. Adam admitted that he hadn't actually seen his daughter since Wednesday,
October [music] 6, a full 3 days before he'd reported her missing. He worked long hours leaving and
returning home when Zara was asleep. She had also been sick with a virus, so he was especially careful not to disturb
her when she was resting. Given their failed polygraphs, Adam's shifting story, and Lisa's incriminating
handwriting sample, investigators speculated the Bakers were lying to protect one another.
If so, they needed to find a way to break their alliance. In the course of looking into Lisa's
background, they discovered a bombshell. While Adam thought he and Lisa had been
legally married in Australia in July 2008, local records showed Lisa had actually been married to someone else at
the time of their wedding. This meant that her marriage to Adam was legally void.
When detectives asked Lisa about this, she acknowledged it was true. She'd been married to a man named Aaron
Young since 1998. And although they'd split up years before she met Adam, they hadn't filed for divorce until August
2009. The two remained friends, and she'd even introduced Aaron [music] to Adam and
Desara as her brother, telling Zara to call him Uncle Aaron. When the police informed Adam Baker that
his marriage to Lisa wasn't legal, [music] he looked completely shocked. As the night at the station dragged on,
Lisa sent Adam a text message asking him to tell the police she wasn't involved in Zara's [music] disappearance.
When he didn't reply, she texted, "I guess you're not talking to me, and I guess they've got you convinced I've did
something." when he still didn't respond, she wrote, "I guess me and the babies mean
nothing." As the sun rose on Sunday, October 10, still with no reply from Adam, Lisa's
text messages to him grew increasingly distraught. "I should never agree to that test. I
need you, honey. I'm getting a lawyer. Are you just leaving me to go through this by myself?"
I guess they have you convinced I'm a monster. [music] Why are you letting them do this, Adam?
We got married. Better or worse. I can't live without you and Desara. I'm being set up. You're my life.
Without you, I won't be here anymore. If I don't hear from you by this evening, I won't be alive to bother
anyone. I am no monster. Adam ignored all of these. The next day, he appeared alongside
police chief Tom Atkins on the television program Good Morning America. Asked whether his wife was involved in
Zara's disappearance, [music] Adam sounded tired as he answered in a quiet voice,
"I wouldn't like to think so. On what I've heard so far, it could be possible. Adam Baker had been just 22 [music] when
he'd met Zara's mother, 19-year-old Emily. The couple hadn't known each other very long when Zara was born in
Wagawaga, New South Wales. And within weeks of her arrival, their relationship began to fray.
When Zara was just 2 months old, Adam and Emily decided to separate, agreeing that Adam was better equipped to care
for the baby. Although Emily visited occasionally, by the time Zara was 18 months old, an
Australian court officially granted Adam full custody. Adam and Zara eventually moved to
Newcastle and later Giru, where Adam's family could help look after Zara while he worked.
In 2005, Adam was living quietly in Guiru with Zara and his parents. Then came Zara's cancer diagnosis, and
for the next 3 years, he lived a parents' nightmare. As his young daughter spent months in
and out of the hospital, fighting for her life, he took leave from work and faced the real possibility of losing his
only child. At some point during this period, Adam began visiting a website called Instant
Messaging Virtual Universe or IMVU. On IMVU, he could [music] create a customized avatar character and chat in
a cozy virtual room with people around the world. Online, instead of a stout, single
father who spent sleepless nights in a hospital corridor, Adam was a suave, tall figure in an elegant black suit
sporting an enormous pair of black wings. It was in this fantasy universe that Adam crossed [music] virtual paths with
Lisa. Although they lived on different continents, they had a lot in common. Lisa was a single parent, too, having
raised two daughters on her own. She understood what Zara was going through because she'd also survived cancer
twice. Her IMVU avatar was graceful and mysterious, dressed in [music] a black gown with dark red hair falling over her
eyes like a veil. Like Adam's, her avatar sported large wings. The two bonded through frequent online
chats, and when Zara's health improved, they decided it was time to meet in the real world. In 2008, Adam bought Lisa a
plane ticket to visit him in Australia. Adam's parents, Karen and Tony, weren't sure what to make of their son's new
relationship. Lisa was 9 years older than Adam. Her children were grown, and according to
her, she'd been married and divorced twice already. Some of what she shared about herself
struck the bakers as exaggerated or even untrue. She claimed to be a police officer and a
[music] bounty hunter and said she'd been shot in the line of duty. But it was hard for the Bakers to object when
Adam [music] seemed entirely smitten. He hadn't dated anyone since splitting up with Zara's mother 8 years earlier.
It was nice to see him happy in a new relationship. Lisa was also attentive, caring, and
kind towards Zara, who was excited about having a stepmother. [music] Any doubts the Bakers had about Lisa's
past were gradually set aside, and they welcomed her into their family. On Sunday, July 6th, 2008, Adam and Lisa
were married at the Baker family home. Photos captured Adam wearing a black shirt with a red tie, while Lisa wore a
white and red gown with long white gloves and a tiara in her dark hair. Zara stood between them in the special
red fairy dress her grandparents bought her, grinning under a crown of red and white flowers.
The idilic [music] image was a far cry from the situation police in Hickory would find themselves facing a little
over 2 years later. [music] While Adam and Lisa were being interrogated at the Hickory Police
Station, one of Lisa's daughters, 21-year-old Britney, called investigators to say she hoped her
mother hadn't done something to Zara. This ominous statement immediately piqued the detective's interest, and an
officer arranged to meet with Britney right away, despite the late hour. As they talked, Britney explained that
earlier in the year, she'd lived with Adam, Lisa, and Zara in a trailer they'd been renting. The experience had been
disturbing. Lisa had a bad temper, and Britney had seen her take her anger out on Zara
often, yelling at her and hitting her. Lisa had also punished Zara by forcing her to walk up the steep road that led
to their trailer, causing the child pain from her prosthetic leg. Britney loved Zara, but hated her mother
and ultimately moved out of the trailer because they couldn't get along. The last time she'd seen Zara was 5 months
earlier, at which point Zara had a black eye. When Britney asked what happened, Zara wouldn't say. Britney felt certain
Lisa was responsible and reported her suspicions to the County Child Welfare Agency at the Department of Social
Services or DSS. What happened after that? Britney didn't know. This information added to suspicions
that were already growing. Adam and Alisa stayed at the police station all night being interviewed and polygraphed,
but the detectives decided not to arrest them on their outstanding warrants. Yet
they thought the investigation would benefit more from observing them in the community rather than locking them up.
Given that the baker's house was being processed for evidence, Adam and Lisa couldn't go home. Lisa's 25-year-old
daughter, Amber, agreed to pick her mother up and let her stay at her apartment.
But almost as soon as they got back there, Lisa started talking about wanting to leave town, saying she'd like
to flee the state and possibly the country. She said she had the means to leave as
she was in an online relationship with a man in the UK who had sent her $10,000 through Western Union.
Alarmed, Amber called the police. Within hours of her initial release, Hickory police promptly arrested Lisa on
her misdemeanor charges to prevent her from running. They tracked down Lisa's online boyfriend in the UK, who
explained that the two had met on IMVU, the same website where Lisa had met Adam. He'd sent her money because she
told him she had cancer and couldn't afford the necessary medicine. Lisa's daughters refuted this, telling
police that Lisa had never had cancer, nor was she pregnant with twins. In fact, it would be impossible for her to
conceive a child with Adam, as she'd had a hyerectomy before the two had met. With Lisa back in custody, investigators
questioned her about Zara again. On the night of Monday, October 11, an FBI agent told Alisa that specialists
from the FBI had examined her handwriting sample and matched it conclusively to the ransom note.
Totally bluffing, the agent said casually, "We already know you wrote the note. We
just want to know why." Catching him off guard, Lisa promptly explained that she'd written the note on
a whim in a moment of anger and it wasn't related to Zara's disappearance at all. She explained,
"I guess the reason I wrote the note is because Mark Coffee dictates everything Adam does, and he thinks he's a god, and
I'm tired of it." Lisa reiterated that she didn't know what happened to her stepdaughter before
asking for an attorney and refusing to speak further. So far, the police had made several
troubling discoveries. Lisa Baker had confessed to writing a fake ransom note. Adam Baker hadn't seen
his daughter in 3 days and had lied about it. Lisa habitually lied to Adam throughout their 2 years of marriage,
which wasn't even legal. Adam had never applied for residency in the US either, which meant he'd been living and working
in the country illegally since 2008. But worst of all, on Sunday, October 10, less than 24 hours after Adam had
reported Zara missing, a Kadaava dog had given a positive alert to the scent of human remains inside both the Chevy
Tahoe Adam borrowed from Mark Coffee and the Baker's second car, a 1990 Toyota Camry sedan.
Despite this, law enforcement teams hadn't found anything to indicate where Zara might be. Only one credible
sighting of Zara had emerged from an employee at a furniture store who thought she saw Lisa and Desara browsing
in her shop on September 25, nearly 3 weeks earlier. Police couldn't find anyone besides Adam
and Lisa who'd seen Zara since then. This combined with the other discoveries resulted in a grim shift in the case
moving forward. At a press conference held on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 12th,
police chief Tom Atkins announced that Lisa Baker admitted to writing the fake ransom note and had been arrested for
obstructing the investigation. The Amber Alert for Zara was being cancelled. Struggling to maintain his composure,
the chief informed the public that the search for the 10-year-old had officially become a homicide
investigation. More people started to come forward with disturbing allegations about Lisa
Baker's treatment of her stepdaughter. The wife of Alisa's nephew publicly accused Lisa of abusing Zara, [music]
beating her for just the smallest things, locking her in her room, and only allowing her 5 minutes a day to
eat. A friend of Lisa's named Angie told police that in early September she'd gone to visit Lisa. And while waiting to
be let in, she'd heard Lisa yelling at Zara for urinating on herself. When Lisa eventually opened the door,
her face was red and she looked [music] angry. Angie was disturbed enough to consider
calling child welfare authorities, but ultimately decided not to. She didn't see Zara during her visit
that day or on any subsequent visits to the home. And a strange conversation she'd
recently had with Lisa had now taken on a disturbing [music] significance. Lisa had told Angie she had to throw out
Zara's mattress because it was stained with blood. Lisa said it was menstrual blood from
one of her adult daughters, but when police followed up with Lisa's daughters, they both said that was a
lie. Search teams spent days digging for the mattress in a nearby landfill to no
avail. [music] Search teams had also been dispatched to a 3acre property in nearby Burke County,
which was owned by one of Adam's co-workers. Adam had mentioned this property during
his police interview, saying he frequently went there to dump debris from job sites.
When he mentioned there was a large brush pile there that he was supposed to burn soon, police moved quickly to
secure a search warrant. Investigators descended on the property, pulling apart brush piles, combing
through woods, and even draining a pond. But there was no trace of Zara. On Thursday, October 14, 5 days after
Zara was reported missing, police received a disturbing tip off. The tipster alleged that Lisa had recently
taken Zara to a house owned by two men related to her ex-husband, Aaron Young. Afterwards, Zara apparently had blood on
her lower body and may have been struck on the head. One of the men later told a friend he
had done something very bad and needed to leave town, leading to speculation that Zara may have been killed to cover
up a sexual assault. Investigators obtained a search warrant for the property and located both
[music] men. They said they knew Lisa Baker, but denied that Zara had ever been inside
their home or that they'd assaulted her in any way. Officers seized a soiled mattress from
the house for DNA testing and subpoenaed the cell phone records for both men, but
never found any evidence to support the rumor. Neither man was ever charged with
any crime in connection to Zara. However, while investigating, police [music] did uncover an illicit
connection between one of them and Lisa Baker. According to a probable cause affidavit,
Lisa and the man were engaged in an ongoing sexual relationship and were also using drugs together regularly.
Before moving to their rental house in Hickory in July 2010, the Bakers had lived in nearby Cordwell County, which
borders Kataba County to the north. there. Zara had bounced between two public elementary schools [music]
between January 2009 and June 2010 when she was in the third and fourth grades. Records indicated that teachers reported
concerns about Zara several times. They had documented her frequent absences from school and unusual
bruises, including one incident when she arrived at school [music] with two black
eyes. Another time, Zara had an accident at school and urinated on her clothes. She became so distraught about her
parents finding out that a staff member washed and dried her outfit using the school's facilities, allowing Zara to
change back into her clean clothes before she went home so her parents wouldn't know.
School officials had reported their concerns to child welfare authorities and also made their own visits to the
baker's home. One teacher was so concerned about Zara that she wrote down her personal phone
number and gave it to the fourth grader, instructing her to call if she ever needed help.
When Lisa found out about this, she and Adam went to the school principal and reported the teacher for inappropriate
behavior. After the Bakers moved to Hickory, [music] they didn't enroll Zara in the public
school system again. When asked why Zara wasn't in school, they claimed they were homeschooling
her, though they never registered as a homeschool with state authorities. In North Carolina, public schools
monitor the attendance of enrolled students, but have no authority to monitor children in a home school.
So even though the Bakers weren't complying with their requirements for operating a home school once they
informed officials of their decision, no one from the public school district had
the authority to question them or Zara anymore. The last place the Bakers lived before
moving to Hickory was a trailer home in the town of Hudson. It was located in a mobile home park along a quiet culde-sac
on a road called Filler Plane. The neighborhood was exceptionally friendly and close-knit.
Many residents there were intrigued by their new somewhat exotic Australian neighbors, recalling that Adam
introduced them to tropical fruits like papaya and mango. Just like back in Giru, people on Philip
Lane were drawn to Zara's affectionate, outgoing personality. She would join in rowdy games with the
other children and eagerly hopped onto a neighbor's bicycle for her first ride. despite having only one leg.
But it didn't take long for the friendly residents of Philip Lane to notice some
disturbing things about their new neighbors. Lisa didn't try to hide her violent
temper, and when she was angry, it was usually Zara who suffered the consequences.
One neighbor recalled, "You could hear [music] Zara screaming and Alisa yelling at her, so we would call the police."
Another neighbor said Lisa was always beating Zara and ignored people who told her to stop.
Sometimes Zara was left at home alone, hungry and without food. She snuck over to a neighbor's house to eat, then had
to sneak back home again so her parents wouldn't catch her. Lisa's daughter, Britney, said that
during this time she'd once gone so far as to put Zara in her car and to drive away, only to bring her back after Lisa
threatened to report her for kidnapping. The month of May 2010 seemed to be an especially volatile period for Lisa.
[music] This was when Britney had last seen Zara and reported to Caldwell County DSS that
she believed Lisa had given the girl a black eye. Another relative also filed a complaint against Lisa in Caldwell
County Court, alleging that Lisa had threatened to kill her, her husband, and their infant daughter during a dispute
over money. Just 10 days after that, a neighbor on Philip Lane filed a complaint against
Lisa after she verbally abused and threatened the neighbor's [music] teenage daughter for talking to Zara.
Multiple people corroborated Britney's assertion that Lisa punished Aara by making her walk up and down the steep
road that led to their home, knowing it was painful because of her prosthetic leg.
Sometimes Lisa followed alongside her, berating and even striking her if she didn't move fast enough.
One woman told the Sydney Morning Herald that Lisa would taunt Zara, saying, "Oh,
you think you're so good? I think you should get that limp out of your leg. You need to get up that hill. Walk
faster. Lisa punctuated her words with slaps to Zara's head and face. North Carolina's state law makes any
adult who suspects the abuse or neglect of any child legally obliged to report the information to DSS, the primary
agency responsible for receiving and investigating allegations of child abuse. Hickory police checked with DSS and
discovered that DSS officers in both Cordwell and Kataba counties had investigated four separate reports
concerning Zara Baker in the months before she went missing. The first report was made to Cordwell
County DSS on Friday, January 29, 2010, alleging Zara was subjected to improper discipline, improper care, and an
injurious environment by her parents. A second report with similar allegations soon followed.
DSS investigators spoke with Adam, Lisa, and Aara twice and also interviewed a neighbor and another family member.
Whatever was said seemed to satisfy the DSS investigators as both reports were officially closed a few weeks later with
quote no evidence of maltreatment or child safety issues found. 3 months later on Friday, May 28th,
Cordwell County DSS received a third report about Zara. This was around the same time that
Lisa's daughter Britney claimed to have called DSS about Zara's black eye. However, reports to DSS are
confidential, so the specifics were never made public. DSS confirmed that social workers
returned to the Baker's home immediately upon receiving this new report and interviewed Lisa and Aara.
For some reason, Adam was not interviewed until almost a month later. After speaking with Adam, the new
investigation, like those before, was closed with no findings of concern for Zara's [music] safety.
Around 3 weeks later, on Monday, July 12, Coldwell DSS received a fourth report alleging that Zara was
experiencing improper discipline and an injurious environment. This time, social workers responding to
the report could not find the bakers as they had relocated to Hickory, which put
them under the jurisdiction of Kataba County. On July 13, Caldwell DSS transferred the
latest report to Kataba County DSS. [music] Investigators from Kataba DSS immediately went to the Baker's new home
on 21st Avenue Northwest. They arrived unannounced a little after 6:00 p.m. finding the family still
unpacking belongings from their recent move. Social workers interviewed Adam, Lisa,
and Aara individually about the allegations, and returned to the home for follow-up visits on July 22 and
again on August 5, [music] about 8 weeks before Zara went missing. At that time they concluded there was no
evidence of maltreatment or child safety issues found and the Baker family's fourth DSS case [music] in 8 months was
officially closed the next day. 4 days after this final visit from DSS social workers in Hickory. A friend of
Lisa's named Brandy noticed Zara had a black eye, which Lisa said was from Zara falling down.
[music] In Australia, Zara had been agile and athletic, winning swimming races and navigating ropes courses with
her prosthetic leg. But in North Carolina, Lisa often explained bruises on Zara by telling people that having
one leg made Zara clumsy and prone to falls. Brandy believed Lisa's excuse, but she
still thought Zara seemed sad. Wanting to cheer her up, Brandy offered to take Zara's picture as a way of
coaxing her into a smile. Lisa told her not to because of Zara's black eye, but Brandy did so anyway.
This photo was widely shared in the days after Zara went missing. In it, [music] Zara wears a pink bandana
with peace signs on it and is looking up at the camera, [music] her eyes crinkled
in a smile. The picture is dark and grainy, and the [music] bruise Brandy described under
Zara's eye can't be clearly seen. That was the last time Brandy ever saw Zara, and there were no further reports
made to DSS. [music] Lisa would have been familiar with the DSS investigative process because she
had a long history with North Carolina child welfare authorities spanning several counties and going back to 1999
[music] around the time her own daughters was Zara's age. When Lisa met Adam, she told him she'd
been married twice before. In actuality, she had been married six times. In 1989, while married to her second
husband, Lisa's then mother-in-law took out a restraining order after she said Lisa got angry, damaged her property,
[music] and threatened, "I'll burn the house down. I'm going to kill this baby. I'm going to wreck this car. I'll kill
those kids." Lisa's third husband, a man named Andrew Harris, recalled that Lisa was easygoing
and pleasant when they were dating. But soon after they married in 1992, she changed, becoming angry and violent.
He said Lisa would take her anger out on her daughters, Amber and Britney, who were then aged seven and three.
Lisa yelled at the girls and hit them for no reason. and if she didn't feel like dealing with their needs, [music]
she would just lock them in their room. In 1994, Lisa met her fourth husband, Daryl Patnham.
Lisa's mother had recently died of cancer, and she told Daryl that 9-year-old Amber had cancer, too.
This didn't stop her from hitting Amber in front of Daryl, who said Lisa liked to smack around both of her children.
Her fifth husband, Jeffrey Orred, said her temper wasn't only directed at the children, but at him, too.
Jeffree said that while they were dating, he and Lisa were happy and enjoyed dreaming about their future.
[music] But as soon as they were married in 1997, it was like a light switch went off and
she said, "I got him now." Jeffree said Lisa was abusive and violent, attacking him with rocks and
beating him with a baseball bat. He became so fearful that when he made up his mind to leave her, he waited
until she went out to the store, then fled without a word, taking nothing but a single [music] suitcase.
While investigators were learning a lot of troubling information about Lisa Baker, they still hadn't found anything
to lead them to Zara. Adam continued to nominally cooperate by talking with them whenever asked, but he
wasn't helpful at all. His answer to nearly every question was that he didn't know.
Police believed Lisa was the key to finding Zara, but she hadn't spoken to them since the night she admitted to
writing the ransom note. The fact that she was now being represented by two attorneys, one of whom was appointed by
the state and specialized exclusively in defending death [music] penalty cases led police to assume that Lisa was
worried she'd eventually be charged with murder. With the frustrating lack of evidence,
all they could do was continue chasing leads and hope they'd get a break. But when that break finally came, it
wasn't what anyone expected. [music] At 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 24, 15 days after Zara was reported missing, a
local prosecutor entered the Hickory Police Department accompanied by Lisa Baker's defense team as well as a
private investigator named Steve Aers. The group had just come from a meeting and they had two major developments to
share. [music] Lisa was ready to talk about what really happened on the day Zara went missing
and she knew where Zara was. Her attorneys would negotiate the terms of her cooperation with the prosecutor,
but first they wanted to give the police something to prove that this time Lisa was telling the truth.
Steve Aers then handed over a plastic bag with the promise that it contained a key piece of evidence which had come
into his possession. Inside the bag, police found a small Stanley Brand hands saw.
3 days earlier, Lisa Baker's legal team had sent private investigator Steve Aers
on an unusual errand. Lisa had given her attorneys a full account of what happened to Zara and
said she could even tell them where to find the missing 10-year-old. But Lisa's lawyers weren't willing to
approach the district attorney or the police with any of this new information until they had some proof that their
client was telling the truth. So on Thursday, October 21, as the massive police search for Zara was
entering its 12th day, Steve Aes had driven northwest towards the town of Hudson, stopping when he reached a
circular storm drain on a narrow, cracked road near a manufacturing plant. In the [music] dark, damp recess of the
drain, he found a common, inexpensive hand [music] saw right where Lisa had said it would be.
Aers carefully retrieved the saw and placed it in a plastic bag which he taped shut and labeled with the date and
his initials. When he turned the bag over to the Hickory police 3 days later, they were
shocked and angry that [music] the defense team had secretly collected a piece of evidence rather than alerting
law enforcement officials right away. But Lisa's attorneys didn't apologize, explaining that they had wanted to
verify Lisa's story before negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors. [music] North Carolina is a capital punishment
state, and as they [music] saw it, their client's life was literally on the line.
Besides, the police hadn't heard of Lisa's story [music] yet. When they did, they would have to agree. It was so
terrible and bizarre, no one in their right mind would want to believe it. Lisa's story began 4 weeks earlier on
the morning of Friday, September 24. She said Zara had woken up around 9:00 a.m.
and hadn't felt well. Adam was away at work, so Lisa boiled four eggs for Zara's breakfast, then
left her at home alone while she went shopping at Walmart. Around 3:00 that afternoon, Lisa
returned from the store. She gave Zara some ravioli and sent her [music] into her bedroom to eat it alone.
An hour later, Lisa said that she walked into Zara's room to discover the 10-year-old lying on her bed,
unresponsive. Lisa claimed she tried to perform CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for 20
or 30 minutes, but couldn't revive her. Finally, she called Adam, who arrived home between 5 and 5:30.
When he realized Aara was dead, he told Alisa to sit [music] down, saying that he would take care of it. He suggested
she take some Xanax to calm herself. [music] Later that evening, he wanted to go to
Walmart. So, the two of them went together, leaving Zara's body lying in the bedroom.
According to Lisa, [music] the next morning, Adam carried Zara's body to the bathroom and laid it in the tub. He took
some trash bags from [music] the kitchen along with a handsaw and shut the bathroom door behind him. From the
living room, Lisa listened to the sound of running water coming from the bathroom for a long time.
When Adam finally emerged, he had filled several plastic trash bags with the remains of his daughter.
Adam wrapped the bags inside a blanket and an old car cover and loaded all of it into the back of Mark Coffey's Chevy
Tahoe. Lisa rode along in the passenger seat while Adam drove out of the city and
along the rural back roads, pulling over from time to time to dump one of the bags out in a patch of brush or
woodland. Later, when speaking to the Charlotte Observer newspaper, [music] Lisa changed
some details of this story. She claimed Zara hadn't been sick on the day she died and that she'd actually discovered
her dead as soon as she returned from Walmart. Lisa said, "I walked over to the bed and
shook her a little bit. She hadn't been gone long. She wasn't cold." In this version, Lisa also claimed that
when Adam came home, she [music] insisted they call 911, but he said no. He didn't want to alert authorities to
his illegal immigration status. Instead, he warned Lisa not to follow him as he headed for Zara's bedroom carrying the
saw, some gloves, and the trash bags. When he [music] returned, Lisa said she confronted him, demanding, "You need to
tell me what you've done with her." Adam replied cryptically, "I had to do what is going to save us both."
Lisa said she knew that whatever he had done was wrong, but she [music] didn't tell anyone or go to the police because
she was raised to believe that the man makes the decisions and you don't argue. Investigators listened to Lisa, sickened
and appalled, yet also disbelieving. [music] There was plenty about her assertions
that didn't make sense. Why wouldn't she just call 911 as soon as she found Aara unresponsive?
Why would Adam be so desperate to conceal his daughter's death if she'd really died from an illness or natural
cause? And why would they decide 2 weeks later to stage the fire ransom note and
kidnapping [music] story when it didn't appear that anyone had even noticed disappearance?
As hard as it was to believe Lisa's story, the reality was that investigators from multiple agencies had
been searching for Zara for weeks [music] and hadn't found one clue as to her whereabouts.
Therefore, when Lisa said she could lead police to where she and Adam had left Zara's remains, they had no choice but
[music] to follow her. The next morning, officers from Hickory Police and the North Carolina SBI set
out to recreate the route Lisa said Adam had driven a month earlier while disposing of his daughter's body. From
the backseat of a police vehicle, Lisa directed the investigators northwest out of town towards the mountains.
She told them to follow a winding two-lane road, climbing in elevation as the pavement ended and the road became
packed gravel and dirt. It was raining as they drove up and down the road, waiting for Lisa to spot
something familiar. She then changed her mind, saying she couldn't recognize anything after all.
Eventually, the increasingly frustrated and cars investigators decided to turn around and head south.
Halfway between the towns of Granite Falls and Hudson, Lisa told them to turn off Highway 321.
Following her directions, they merged onto Christy Road, [music] which consisted mostly of fellow fields,
forests, and brushland. Lisa finally called for them to pull over and stop at a metal gate that
blocked a footpath leading down to a stream known [music] as Gunpowder Creek. She gestured into the brushy woods
beyond the metal gate [music] and said Adam had thrown Zara's arm there. Search teams were dispatched [music] to
Christy Road while the officers escorting Lisa continued their somber drive. The next place she took them was 4 miles
further east to a parking strip in the grass beside Dudley Schaws Road near an overpass spanning a small river
crossing. Lisa said Adam had pulled over and she'd watched from the car as he walked into
the woods [music] carrying a bag that contained Zara's torso. He returned to the vehicle moments later
empty-handed and drove away. While Lisa was showing a sergeant this area, he received a phone call from the
search team that had just started looking at the previous location. They had already found something.
It was a silicon cup that looked like the upper end of a prosthetic leg. The sergeant immediately took Lisa back
to Christy Road where she was shown the piece of silicon. [music] When she saw it, Lisa began to cry and
said, "Oh my god, that's Zara's." The search team [music] kept combing through the tangled brush and woods
along the roadside, working intently throughout the dreary, rainy afternoon. Their effort was rewarded when someone
pulled a small prosthetic leg from the undergrowth. Comparing the serial number printed on
it to the number recorded in Zara's Australian medical records, they had a match.
The discovery of Zara Baker's prosthetic leg encouraged investigators as it indicated that Lisa Baker was finally
being cooperative. The following day, she promised to show them additional sites where Adam had
thrown away important evidence. She led them to a dumpster behind an apartment complex in Hickory, where she
said Adam had thrown Zara's prosthetic leg. The police hadn't yet told Lisa or her
attorneys that [music] they'd already found Tesara's prosthetic leg on Christy Road, so she was either lying or
confused. Either way, it wasn't a good sign for the investigators, and nothing new was
recovered. The following day of Wednesday, October 27, forensic investigators descended on
the baker's home to conduct a thorough examination of the bathroom and Zara's bedroom.
They took apart the bathtub and sink [music] drains and removed piping, looking for traces of blood, bone, and
human tissue. They also took a number of items from the home, including prescription pills,
empty pill bottles, multiple cell phones, and a stung gun. In Zara's [music] bedroom, investigators
found what looked like blood on the floor and ceiling, as well as a spray pattern of tiny drops of blood on the
wall beside her bed. Someone had sponge painted the walls with pink [music] paint covering up the
blood. In total, investigators collected 33 samples of possible blood evidence from
the baker's house, all of which was determined to have come from Zara. Experts analyzed the blood spatter on
the wall and determined [music] that it had likely resulted from someone lying in the bed being inflicted with repeated
blows. Police already thought that Lisa's story about Zara dying naturally was ridiculous, and now they had evidence
pointing to a homicide. But they desperately needed to find Aara's body if they were to have any
hope of proving exactly how she died beyond a reasonable doubt. While one team scoured the baker's home,
others continued searching the wooded areas Lisa had taken them to. It was rough terrain. There were dry creek beds
that flooded when it rained, steep ravines, boulders, and lots of litter and household trash.
Making their job even harder was the fact that these two areas were known to local residents as boneyards, meaning
they were used as dumping grounds for unwanted animal carcasses. Everything from deer hides and awful from hunting
trips to roadkill [music] deceased livestock, rats, snakes, and even family pets.
Bits and pieces [music] of bones were scattered everywhere, making it difficult for the search teams to
identify which might be human. For an entire [music] week, searchers snapped photos of everything they
thought could possibly be a child's bone and sent the images to the state medical
examiner's office for guidance. Finally, on Wednesday, November 3, [music] just 10 m into the woods off
Christy Road, a police officer spotted a small but distinctly human bone. It was the same area where Zara's
prosthetic leg had been found and where Lisa said Adam threw Zara's arm. Comparing DNA from [music] the bone to a
profile they'd extracted from DNA on Zara's toothbrush, authorities were finally able to confirm they had found a
trace of Zara Baker. Hickory Police [music] Chief Tom Atkins appeared on the verge of tears as he
confirmed in a press conference [music] that the bone found on Christy Road had been identified as Zara's left humorous,
the bone from the upper arm. Searchers had also found pieces of a child's pelvis, rib cage, [music] right
clavicle, right feur, and vertebrae. Investigators had been holding out hope of finding Zara alive, but now had to
accept that she was dead and had been the victim of depraved [music] cruelty. By this point, [music] there was an
abundance of evidence pointing to Lisa Baker as the prime suspect in Zara's death. But it was hard to see how Adam
Baker could be innocent. His constant refrain that he didn't know anything provoked skepticism from the start.
Public suspicion escalated even more when the recording of his 911 call was released to the media.
On the call, Adam greeted the dispatcher as though he was phoning a friend, saying, "Hey, how you [music] doing?" He
waited for them to respond before requesting police assistance. Later on, while speaking to the police
dispatcher, [music] Adam laughed while describing how his missing daughter liked to stay in her room due to
puberty, adding, "She's hitting that brooding stage." Given that Adam was reporting the
possible abduction of his disabled [music] 10-year-old daughter, his casual and friendly demeanor was jarring.
People couldn't reconcile how a father in such a frightening situation could sound so calm with no sense of urgency.
Then there was the fact that he'd driven to see Mark Coffee and then home again [music] instead of immediately dialing
911. Adam had confessed that he'd initially lied to police by saying he'd taken Zara
to Oktoberfest on the night of Friday, October 8, but he took no responsibility for this, claiming he was just following
Lisa's instructions. Possibly the largest factor undermining Adam's credibility was the fact that
he'd never given a clear, consistent answer to something most parents of young children wouldn't have to [music]
think twice about. The last time he'd seen his daughter. After admitting to the October Fest lie,
Adam had told police the last time he'd seen Zara was on Wednesday, October 6. Days later in a TV interview, he gave an
entirely different response, stuttering as he said the last time he saw Zara out
of bed would have been on the Tuesday. Taken aback, the interviewer asked if he meant to say Thursday.
Adam immediately agreed, shaking his head sheepishly and stating, [music] "Thursday? I'm sorry. I've had very
little sleep." In another interview with Australia's 60 Minutes program, Adam was asked to clear
up the confusion about when he'd last seen Zara, he appeared to think for a while before
finally saying it's very hard to talk about stuff with the [music] case at the moment, adding that he didn't want to do
anything that may impede justice for Zara. The host asked whether he understood that by not answering the question
clearly, he was making people suspicious. Adam simply answered, "Oh, yeah, I understand [music] that."
Even after police concluded that Zara had most likely died on September 24, like Lisa Cleaned, [music]
Adam continued to say he'd seen his daughter not long before reporting her missing on October 9.
Whenever questioned about the case publicly, Adam's standard answer was a shrug or a headshake [music] with a
softspoken, "I don't know. If he was pressed as to how he could not know something as basic as when he last
saw his only child, he usually said he worked long hours and wasn't home much. When he returned home, Lisa told him
that Zara had gone to bed early and he would then look in on her. "I checked every night," Adam said. From
what I could tell, she was in bed. It looked like she was in bed. There was something in the bed.
Even if Lisa had arranged Zara's bedclo to make it seem as though Zara was there
when she wasn't, for this trick to work, it meant that Adam hadn't tried to touch
or speak to his daughter once, not even over the phone, for weeks. It would also [music] mean he hadn't had
a single day off from his tree trimming job, even when it was raining. Adam's foreman disputed his claim of
extremely long work hours, telling the Hickory Daily Record that Adam worked a standard 35 to 40hour week and went home
around 4:30 or 5:30 each day. During September and October in western North Carolina, it wouldn't have been
dark outside at that hour. While investigators didn't think very highly of Adam as a parent, [music] most
were eventually satisfied that he wasn't involved in his daughter's death, they came to the conclusion that Adam had an
extremely passive and subdued personality, plus a habit of nervous laughter, as demonstrated in the 911
call. These traits were off-putting, but they didn't mean he was being deceptive
or uncooperative. He was always willing to talk and visited the station anytime they called.
The longer officers talked to Adam, the less they suspected him, instead concluding that he was perhaps willfully
blind to what was going on in his family. Other factors such as heavy cannabis use might have impeded his
competence as a parent as well. However, at least one law enforcement officer disagreed [music] with this
assessment of Adam as an innocent and hless man. Burke County Sheriff John McDev, whose department assisted with
the search for Zara, told reporters, "He seems concerned. I don't know how sincere his concern is."
When one journalist asked if he believed Adam, McDevitt said flatly, "I don't." Then there was the question of how it
was possible that Adam hadn't recognized his wife's handwriting on the fake ransom note. Police officers with no
expertise in handwriting analysis, who'd casually compared the note to handwriting found in the baker's house,
immediately saw the resemblance. Yet, Adam, the first person to find the ransom note and examine it, didn't find
it familiar. It was also unclear how Adam could have been oblivious to Lisa's abuse of Zara,
given the four DSS investigations, which he was interviewed for. In his interview with 60 Minutes, Adam
said he'd noticed the Zara having a black eye only once. She apparently told him she'd fallen in
the bathroom and hid her face on a cabinet and he'd believed her. [music] Yet, Adam appeared to know that Lisa had
a violent temper and could be abusive. In a 2011 interview with the WBTV News, Adam said, "Lisa is very manipulative,
very controlling, [music] and abusive." When the interviewer clarified, "To you," he laughed nervously and said,
"Yeah, to me." At least one of Alisa's ex-husbands accused her of being physically abusive,
and more than one former spouse accused her of psychological and emotional abuse.
Some red flags for intimate partner violence emerged during the police investigation into the bakers, such as
Lisa attempting to control Adam by threatening to harm herself, her figning pregnancy and illness, and seeking to
scare Adam into doing what she said by telling him he would be in trouble with police for being in the country
illegally. Isolating one partner from their friends and family is another tactic of domestic
abusers. It appears that after Adam and Lisa moved to the US, they moved frequently
and didn't keep in touch with Adam's parents, family, or friends back in Australia.
Studies show that intimate partner violence is often overlooked, downplayed, or outright denied when the
victim is male and the perpetrator female. Lisa Baker did admit in court proceedings to verbally, physically, and
psychologically abusing Zara before her death. It is possible Adam experienced some
form of domestic abuse as well. Few people were inclined to see Adam Baker as a victim. However,
the predominant feeling towards him was outrage. Although he was never charged with
anything related to Zara's murder, he couldn't go anywhere in Hickory without being recognized.
Everywhere Adam went, he was called murderer and told he was destined for hell. When he returned to his former home to
retrieve some belongings, a crowd visiting a memorial to Zara that had sprung up around the oak tree in the
front yard [music] quickly grew hostile with people shouting that he should be locked up.
Lisa Baker thought so, too. Speaking to a journalist from prison, she later said, "I took the blame for
everything and I shouldn't have. I'm very angry he's not here." But it was Lisa's own story about what
happened to Zara that permanently turned the investigator's focus away from Adam
and settled it on her alone. From the outset, the details of Lisa's story were inconsistent.
Detectives therefore found it significant when there were two specific parts of her story that didn't change.
The first was the date of Zara's death, Friday, September 24. When police examined the data from the
baker's cell phones from midepptember to mid-occtober, they found that only one of them had been in the areas where
Zara's remains were found, Lisa Baker. Furthermore, all of her cell phone activity in those areas was on September
24. Data from cell towers on that date tracked Lisa's phone leaving home a little after 2:30 p.m. traveling north
on Highway 321 and spending time in the Christy Road and Dudley Schaws areas. Both sites, where some of Zara's bones
and her prosthetic leg were later recovered. Between 3:30 and 400 p.m., Lisa's phone
pinged a cell tower near the storm drain where the private investigator later retrieved the hand saw. By 4:45 p.m.,
she was back at home in Hickory, having taken a 2-hour drive through all the locations she later told investigators
Adam had driven her to. They knew Adam hadn't been in the car with her because she had used her phone
to call him nine times along the way. Each time he answered, his phone connected to a tower in Burke County,
more than 10 miles to the [music] west. Adam said he was working at a job site in Burke County on September 24, and
both his cell data and his co-workers confirmed it. Therefore, only Lisa could be placed in the areas where Zara's
remains were left and on the afternoon of the same day that she said Zara had died.
The other consistent detail in Lisa's story was that Adam hadn't been present when Zara died.
Although she wavered on her own whereabouts at the time, at no point did Lisa say that Adam had been there. For
investigators who did not believe that Zara died naturally, this was significant.
If Zara was murdered, it meant that only Lisa could have killed her. Proving this would still be difficult.
An autopsy of Zara's partial skeleton found the cause of her death to be undetermined homicidal violence.
The medical examiner found blade marks on some of the bones that indicated someone had used at least two different
cutting tools to dismember her body postmortem. At least one bone was partially sorn
through before being snapped. But there wasn't any specific evidence of injury before her death.
Consequently, the prosecutor had limited forensic evidence to take to a jury. There was the blood from Zara's bedroom
wall and the cell phone records, but everything else was circumstantial or based on Lisa's unreliable accounts.
Not confident that the state had enough to win a conviction [music] for first-degree murder, which carried a
possible death sentence, the prosecutor was willing to cut a deal with Lisa's defense team.
He agreed to charge Lisa with secondderee murder instead. This was not a popular decision.
At the memorial for Zara at her former home on 21st Avenue Northwest, signs appeared that read, "Justice for Zara
Baker, protect your children. DSS and school system failed Zara and God, please let someone pay for this."
Almost a year after Zara's death on Thursday, September 15, 2011, Lisa Baker pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder,
as well as nine other felony counts ranging from bigamy for her overlapping marriages to obstruction of justice for
writing the fake ransom note. In exchange for leading the police to some of Zara's remains and agreeing to
plead guilty, Lisa hoped for a lighter sentence. However, the charge of seconddegree
murder was enhanced with so-called aggravating factors, allowing the judge to impose more prison time under the
sentencing guidelines. The aggravating factors included taking advantage of a position of trust, hiding
and desecrating a body, and killing someone very young and infirm. The plea also stipulated that Lisa had
secreted Zara from other members of her family before and after her death. Likely a reference to the way she'd
pretended Zara was alive by texting Adam about her upcoming birthday or telling him she was asleep in her bedroom or
that she wasn't feeling well and needed to be left alone. Given the opportunity to address his
ex-wife before she was sentenced, Adam Baker read a statement in the courtroom. I trusted you with the most precious
person in my life. He said, "Zara loved you more than anything in the world. She
looked up to you, wanted to be like you, yet you filled her life with lies. You have destroyed my life. You have also
made my life hell with false accusations that I was involved in hurting Zara. You
have destroyed my family's life and you have devastated a community. There are no words to explain the hate I
have for you or the hurt and pain I feel every day for the loss of Zara. He concluded by asking,
"If at any time you actually cared for Zara, please [music] tell us where we can find any more of Zara's remains so
she can be laid to rest complete." Zara's birthother was also in the courtroom that day, having traveled from
Australia to attend the proceedings. Now 31 years old, Emily hadn't seen her firstborn child in more than 8 years.
She hadn't even known Zara had been living in the US until she typed her name into Google one day and was flooded
with news sites reporting on the search for the missing girl. When it was Emily's turn to address the
courtroom, she also spoke of feeling that Zara hadn't properly been put to rest, saying, "My only hope now is that
she is in a place where she will no longer feel the pain of mortality, where she can rest and no longer have
the need to be so courageous. I hope she is in a place where she can feel my love and the immense love she
has drawn out from people all across our planet." While today we sit here in this
courtroom to see justice be carried out, I feel there will be no real justice for
Zara. Her life was taken by an evil selfishness that none of us will ever understand or comprehend.
While part of Zara is still out there, this will never be over. In direct contrast to the story she'd
told her lawyers and the police when Lisa pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder, she explicitly admitted to
killing Zara and dismembering her body. She also admitted that she had physically, verbally, and
psychologically abused Zara before her death. Lisa chose not to make any statement of
apology or remorse herself, but her attorney said on her behalf that she was devastated and very sorry.
He asked the judge for leniency, reminding him that if not for Lisa's cooperation, Zara might not have been
found. [music] He said Alisa had a choice. She could have kept her mouth shut and this case never would
have been solved. For once, she did the right thing. For the murder of her stepdaughter, Lisa
Baker was sentenced to serve [music] between 14 and 18 years in state prison, with credit given for the 341 days she
had already spent in jail. After the hearing, Emily told reporters that while Lisa may have killed Zara, in
her eyes, Adam ultimately shared the blame as well. There's a big difference between being
not guilty and being innocent, and I don't think he is innocent of what happened. Emily said he played all his
own part. Just one month after pleading guilty, Lisa began giving interviews from prison
in which she insisted that she was actually innocent and had been pressured into the plea deal by her attorneys.
In a 2013 interview with North Carolina's Channel 9 News, Lisa said Zara had been a blessing, calling her
the light of my eyes. I plead guilty to something I did not even do, and it wasn't even a murder,
she said. Incredibly, she also told the interviewer that she didn't turn Adam into the police after he dismembered his
child because she thought it could have something to do with his Australian culture. Lisa said, "I thought it was
maybe a strange ritual that he'd done. For all I know, the aboriges. I don't know. I regret [music] not
telling sooner." [music] In a letter Lisa sent from jail to a collector of crime memorabilia, she
sounded resentful that Zara's history of cancer had amplified public interest in
the case. writing. I just wonder if Zara hadn't survived cancer and been from Australia [music]
if it would truly be like this. There are so many missing kids. But Zara isn't missing.
Lisa's ex-husband, Aaron Young, whom she'd introduced to Adam and Zara as her brother, told a reporter that he
believed Lisa had always been jealous of the attention Zara attracted everywhere
she went. While Zara's medical history was remarkable and made an impression on people, it was her naturally
high-spirited and friendly [music] personality that primarily drew others to her.
Those in North Carolina who met her recalled her as well-mannered, well behaved, and full of fun. She was a joy
to be around. Lisa, on the other hand, had a history of trying to solicit sympathy for
personal gain, usually by pretending to be chronically ill. She'd received [music] $10,000 from the
UK man she met online after convincing him she couldn't afford medicine needed for cancer [music] treatment
in 2007. She also deceived a friend into hosting a final birthday party for her by pretending she was dying.
She told Adam that she was a double cancer survivor just like Zara. She told other people she had a brain
tumor and suffered from seizures. She once told some [music] neighbors she needed a kidney transplant but couldn't
find a donor. Some of them were willing to be tested for suitability but gradually realized
that Lisa's health never deteriorated and she wasn't really sick. Lisa also had a history of using her own
children's health [music] in a bid for attention. When her daughters were younger, Lisa
would tell people they were terminally ill, claiming that Britney had a fatal disease and [music] Amber had cancer.
There was even a time when she pushed Amber around in a wheelchair, even though Amber's health and mobility were
totally fine. One of Lisa's sisters said this was a particular obsession for Lisa and a
pattern the family witnessed for years, adding that Lisa always made out like her children were
sick and possibly dying. Same with herself. She always had 10 to 20 illnesses. It's also possible that Lisa was
exaggerating or faking chronic illnesses to accumulate prescription medications.
During the search for Zara, investigators uncovered enough compelling [music] evidence that Lisa
was involved in selling drugs to call in the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Federal agents found that Lisa
accumulated the pills by going from one doctor to another collecting prescriptions.
After she was charged with Zara's murder, Lisa was also indicted on seven counts [music] of federal drug
violations. She pleaded guilty to possessing tens of thousands of pills and admitted that she
sold them to her 16-year-old nephew and other high school students. For this crime, she was sentenced to 10
years in prison. Adam told investigators that he knew his wife took prescription medications, but
when it came to the drugrelated allegations against [music] her, his response was familiar. He didn't know.
When a reporter asked him about all the accusations that had [music] emerged against Lisa, Adam simply said, "I'm
surprised all the time." On Tuesday, April 17, 2012, just over a year and a half after Zara was believed
to be killed, two men were hunting wild turkeys in a forested area off a Cwell County Road called Winkle Away, when
they made a shocking discovery. One of the men immediately called the sheriff's department. "I found a human
skull, small in size," he reported. When asked if he was sure it was human, he replied confidently, "Yes, it is."
Winkler Way is a gravel road that runs parallel to North Carolina's State Highway 268, about 30 mi north of
Hickory. 4 weeks into her prison sentence, Lisa had told a reporter for the Charlotte
Observer that she anticipated Zara's head would be found up Highway 268. She said she hoped police would find the
skull because if they did, it would prove she wasn't lying about how Zara died. It took almost a year to complete DNA
testing, [music] but in February 2013, it was confirmed that the skull belonged to Zara Baker.
Investigators had long believed that finding Zara's skull would reveal crucial information about how she had
died. However, the skull didn't show any evidence of trauma or injury. The forest off Winkle Away was searched
extensively, but nothing else of Zara was ever found. Lisa Baker served 14 years for the
murder of her stepdaughter and was released from state prison on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.
She was then immediately taken into federal custody to begin serving her 10-year sentence for selling
prescription drugs to high schoolers. She is scheduled to be released from federal prison in March of 2032 [music]
when she will be 63 years old. The lenient prison sentence that Lisa Baker was given for her crimes against
Azara prompted North Carolina's state legislators to introduce a new bill known as Zara's Law. Introduced in
December 2011, the law increased the penalty for certain crimes, including concealing a death, dismembering a
corpse, and failing to report a person's death to authorities. If these increased penalties had existed
at the time of Zara's death, a judge could have added up to seven years to Lisa's sentence.
In 2013, North Carolina passed an additional law increasing the penalties for parents who failed to report a
missing child within 24 hours for concealing the death of a child and for making a false report of a missing
child. As difficult as it was for the public and Aara's loved ones to accept the
unknowable circumstances of her death, it was also hard to accept those of her life.
She had survived cancer and chemotherapy only to have her life taken in a senseless act of human cruelty.
Her father had nurtured her through years of illness, but turned away while she was abused by his [music] wife.
Everyone who met Zara loved her, but no one had protected her. Her sunny spirit had always drawn people to her. Yet, in
the end, she was all alone. Zara's birthother, Emily, relinquished custody of her daughter during Zara's
infancy because she was suffering from such severe post-natal depression that she was afraid she might hurt her baby.
It's hard to explain it to people who haven't been parents, Emily told North Carolina news outlet WCNC.
I suffered from post-natal depression with all three of my children, but sadly with Zara, I didn't know I had it. You
don't realize you have it. You just think you're inadequate. I didn't want to hate my child. I didn't
want to be that news story where you hear a mother has drowned her child or couldn't stop them crying so they
smothered them. I didn't want to be that mother. Emily withdrew from Zara's life so she
wouldn't cause her harm. For Zara's life to then be taken away by another woman she came to call mom instead was
devastating. In September 2011, after Lisa Baker was sentenced, Emily traveled to North
Carolina alongside 7 News Australia journalist Robert Avadia. She visited the sprawling memorial for
Zara at the oak tree in front of the house on 21st Avenue Northwest. Looking at the house itself made her
feel angry and sick. But she was blown away by the outpouring of love for Zara, evidenced [music] by the hundreds of
stuffed animals, balloons, flower arrangements, candles, pictures, and cards that covered the ground.
Emily chose a sheet of paper from the pile and began to read aloud. "Zara, I'm so sorry that your
stepmother." clamping her hand over her mouth. She broke down in tears. Eventually, [music] she managed to
continue reading and discovered the letter was from another child. It said, "I'm so sorry that your stepmother hit
you whenever she made you walk up that hill. And now I wish I could be friends with you, but my mother told me you're
probably in heaven with the angels and God. Surely God is taking great care of you. I am 10 years old, too. And just to
let you know, your stepmother will be in jail for a long, long time. P.S. bless you, Zara, and I will pray
for you. Emily was approached by some of the neighbors who wanted to apologize for
not knowing that Zara had been living there. Contemplating the memorial and these
conversations, Emily told Robert of, "I do feel a certain amount of happiness that I got to come over here and see how
loving everybody is, but it upsets me that there are so many loving people around here. Yet, it can still happen."
The elderly couple who owned the land where Zara's prosthetic leg and some of her bones were found constructed a
permanent monument as a reminder of what can be lost when a community fails to protect its most vulnerable.
They built a covered shelter with a bench where visitors can [music] rest, read about Zara's life, look at
pictures, and leave their own tokens of support or remembrance. An Australian flag flutters from the
roof and bright pin wheels in the grass spin in the breeze as cars pass by. The couple even installed lights to
illuminate the memorial at nighttime as well as a statue of an angel and a headstone.
A large wooden sign reads, "If you suspect a child is being abused, [music] remember Zara. Do something.
Don't stop [music] until you know the child is safe. While the memorial for Zara on 21st
Avenue Northwest had initially provided a place for people to pay their respects, the house itself was subject
to frequent vandalism. Deciding he'd had enough, the owner, Mark Coffee, gathered
up over 2,000 [music] toys and stuffed animals from around the oak tree and donated them to a local children's
charity. He then had the tree cut down completely [music] and said he was considering
having the entire house bulldozed to the ground. A heart-shaped cardboard sign immediately appeared [music] where the
tree had been. It read, "To the homeowner, Zara's dad and stepmom took away her hopes and
dreams, and now you take away her memorial from her. Shame on you." In the spring of 2012, the city of
Hickory constructed a more permanent memorial to honor how Zara lived. The Zara Baker All Children's Playground
located on 6th Street Southeast [music] was designed and equipped to be accessible for children with
disabilities. It has fully accessible swings, a special slide, [music] and even a wheelchair accessible
treehouse. Zara's name is everywhere, from a stone block with her picture to a bright metal
sculpture that twirls in the wind. On any given day, children of all ages and abilities [music]
filled the playground with games and laughter. Perhaps the best tribute for a girl whose obituary [music] described
her as a strong, courageous, and fun person who was everyone's friend. Zara never met a stranger. She had a
beautiful smile, an energetic personality, and a wonderful sense of humor that gave her the ability to turn
the worst possible situation [music] into a fun situation. Adam Baker returned to Australia
about a year after the opening of the Zara Baker All Children's Playground. Zara's ashes were sent to the police
station in Port Stevens, New South Wales, where Adam was living. For Zara's final resting place, Adam and
his mother, Karen, chose a spot on the Tasmin Sea [music] coast at Knobby's Beach, where she had spent plenty of
happy days playing, swimming, and watching whales from the shore. A police officer walked into the water
carrying a small wooden box. [music] Then he opened it over the waves and let the ashes of the little girl drift away.

Case 347: Zahra Baker

When 10-year-old Zahra Baker was reported missing by her father and stepmum in Hickory, North Carolina, one Saturday afternoon in 2010, it sparked the largest missing persons investigation in the city’s history.

Police worked around the clock, hoping for a miracle, but people close to the family said they’d been expecting something like this to happen for a long time.

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Emily Shirley Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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RESOURCES

Brief Summary

Zara Baker, a disabled girl, was murdered by her stepmother, Lisa Baker, who later confessed and was sentenced to prison.

Key points

The Ransom Note. A threatening letter reveals a sinister plot involving the Baker family.
Zara's Brave Fight. Zara Baker battles cancer with resilience and determination, inspiring those around her.
Adam's Shifting Story. After failing a polygraph, Adam admits to lying about his daughter’s whereabouts.
Alarming Allegations. Witnesses come forward with disturbing claims about Lisa's treatment of Zara.
Homicide Investigation. The search for Zara turns into a homicide investigation after troubling discoveries.
Lisa's Disturbing Confession. Lisa claims she knows what happened to Zara and where to find her remains.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I'm getting a Barbie leg.

Zara reassures a family friend about her amputation.

12:34WatchJul 18, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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