Authorities in N.C. said they will spend Wednesday combing a landfill in search of a ‘piece of evidence’ in the case of missing 10 year old Zahra Baker.
The Hickory Police, agents form the N.C. Bureau of Investigations and the FBI will join together Wednesday to search the Foothills Environmental Landfill in Lenior, NC. They have scheduled a press conference for later in the day Wednesday.
Zahra was reported missing on October 9 by her father but no one outside of her family has seen the little girl since September 25. Her disappearance is being investigated as a homicide.
Stemother, Elisa Baker, was arrested on unrelated charges. While in jail she admitted to writing a fake ransom note and was charged with obstruction of justice. Her total bond was set at $70,000, an amount her lawyer argued as unfair. A hearing was held Wednesday morning in regards to a motion by attorney Scott Reilly to reduce the bond on the obstruction of justice charge. Instead of a reduction, District Court Judge Robert Mullinax chose to increase the bond from $40,000 to $65,000 due to the “disturbing and unsettling allegations around the charge”.
Police say Zahra wears a prosthetic leg due to a battle with bone cancer and hearing aids. The hearing aids have been recovered but the prosthesis is also missing.
Hickory deputy police chief Clyde Deal says that the authorities have been in contact with Zahra’s biological mother in Australia and have requested medical records. According to Deal they are most interested in records regarding the prosthetic leg. When question regarding potential dental records he commented that they would rather have too much than too little given the time it takes to receive records between two countries.
Father, Adam Baker, is also wanted on unrelated charges but has not been arrested due to his continued cooperation with authorities. At this time Elisa Baker is declining to interview with the police.
