Zahra Clare Baker's Dad Adam Baker Taunted by Angry Crowd as He's Evicted
(Nov. 3) -- Onlookers standing outside the North Carolina home of Zahra Clare Baker taunted the missing disabled girl's father as his landlord announced he is evicting the Australian native.
"I'm putting him out on the street," Adam Baker's landlord told the crowd Tuesday. "I have no need to have any of his effects in the house and I'm not cleaning it out."
Meanwhile, this afternoon, the Hickory, N.C., police department announced that search teams discovered a bone that may be related to the case. Authorities said in a press release that the bone will be sent to the Medical Examiner's office in Chapel Hill for further examination. No other information was available.
Tuesday's eviction came shortly after an exclusive AOL News report that letters believed to be written by Zahra's stepmother claimed that her husband did something "kinda horrifying" with the young girl's remains.
"We really didn't kill her, but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying," Elisa Baker wrote in letters to a crime memorabilia dealer who shared them with AOL News. A Hickory, N.C., law enforcement official confirmed that the letters likely were written by the girl's stepmother.
Baker's landlord, who is not identified in local media reports, gave no reason for the sudden eviction. However, he did say that recent searches of the home -- during which police removed flooring, plumbing and sections of the ceiling -- left the home uninhabitable, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
More than a dozen onlookers watched as Baker gathered some of his belongings inside his Hickory, N.C., home Tuesday afternoon. According to the Hickory Daily Record, some of the crowd stood silent but others reportedly yelled taunts at him, calling him a "murderer."
Adam Baker's attorney, Mark Killian, had accompanied his client to the house. He declined to discuss the case with reporters but did say Baker was having a difficult time, the Herald reported.
"It's just real tough for him, obviously," Killian said.
Adam Baker told police he last saw his daughter sleeping in her bed about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 9. He said that he and his wife slept in that Saturday morning and did not notice Zahra was missing until about 2 p.m.
Adam Baker places his belongings in his truck after being evicted
Robert C. Reed, Hickory Daily Record
Adam Baker, father of the missing 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker, was evicted from his Hickory, N.C., home on Tuesday.
During the investigation, specially trained dogs detected the scent of human remains on property belonging to the Adam and Elisa Baker. Dogs also detected similar scents during a recent search of property that reportedly belongs to a tree services company that recently employed Zahra's father for about six months.
On Monday, police confirmed that a prosthetic leg found last week belongs to the hearing-impaired girl, who lost her leg to bone cancer.
Tuesday, AOL News published excerpts from letters that were sent to Eric Gein, owner of Serial Killers Ink, one of the top-selling murderabilia websites. Gein told AOL News that he wrote to Baker in the Hickory, N.C., jail shortly after her arrest. He said he received two very telling letters from her. He shared copies of both with AOL News. On Tuesday night, the letters were highlighted on HLN's Nancy Grace.
"What she says about Zahra is that she blames the child," Grace said on her show Tuesday night. "All this -- in other words, the attention focused on Zahra's disappearance -- wouldn't have happened if Zahra had not been a cancer survivor from Australia. She actually blames Zahra for beating cancer. She goes on to whine about having to cover up her tattoos and body piercings, and how much she loves them, how she misses her warm waterbed. It goes on and on."
Hickory Deputy Chief of Police Clyde Deal acknowledged that the letters likely were written by Elisa Baker. "I think probably these letters were down at the jail," he said after AOL News showed them to him. "I am not a handwriting analyst, but I mean I wouldn't suspect that it didn't [come from her].
Deal told AOL News today that he has been busy with daily briefings and has not yet had time to meet with jail supervisors to get copies of Baker's latest jailhouse letters.
No one has been charged in connection with Zahra's disappearance; both Adam and Elisa Baker have denied any involvement. Killian said he had "no comment" about the letters. Jared Amos, Elisa Baker's attorney, also had no comment.
On Monday, a Catawaba County grand jury indicted Elisa Baker on a felony charge of obstruction of justice. She was charged last month after authorities say she admitted writing a fake ransom note to confuse authorities.
Elisa Baker was arrested previously on charges unrelated to the child's disappearance, including writing fraudulent checks, larceny and failure to appear. She is being held on $65,000 bond.
On Oct. 25, authorities arrested Adam Baker on charges unrelated to his daughter's disappearance. He faces one count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of failure to return rental property, two counts of communicating threats and five counts of writing worthless checks.
Adam Baker posted $7,000 bond last week and was released from the Catawba County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 18.
Authorities are finished with their search of the Baker family home, according to local newspaper, and are busy today draining a pond near Christie Road. The location is not far from where police discovered Zahra's prosthetic leg last week.
"We're still hard at work on this investigation," Hickory Police Capt. Thurman Whisnant told the Herald. "We're checking every lead, and we've got a lot of evidence to be processed."