US police may have found Zahra Baker's skull

US police may have found Zahra Baker's skull





Zahra Baker was 10 years old when she was murdered in 2010. The Daily Telegraph

US authorities are reportedly investigating the discovery of skeletal remains in woods once searched for slain Australian girl Zahra Baker.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
Recommended Coverage
Tragedy of Zahra Baker

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
Sign up for your free 2 month trial

It is believed a skull was with the remains found by a hunter in North Carolina on Tuesday.

While authorities discovered some of Zahra's body parts, including her prosthetic leg, during the 2010-11 investigation that led to the guilty plea of her American stepmother Elisa Baker last year, the 10-year-old's head was never found.

That distressed her father, Adam Baker, and biological mother Emily Dietrich, but also robbed investigators of a vital clue in determining how Zahra was killed.

US authorities remained tight-lipped about the remains and refused to confirm if they fit the physical attributes of little Zahra.

"We don't know who we have," Sgt BJ Fore, of the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office, told the Hickory Daily Record newspaper.

"We don't know if it's connected to Zahra or not.

"It's crossed everybody's minds, but we're working this case just like any other.

"We can't rule anything out."

Mr Baker was never charged in connection with his daughter's death and returned to Australia with her ashes in January.

The recovery of Zahra's head was considered vital in determining how Elisa Baker committed the murder, with authorities speculating Zahra may have initially suffered a severe blow to the head.

The autopsy on the other remains only concluded Zahra died from "undetermined homicidal violence".

Investigators from North Carolina's Medical Examiner's Office, along with the FBI and local law enforcement, were examining the area and it could take weeks to determine if the remains are Zahra's.

Mr Baker, while living in Queensland with Zahra, met US-based Elisa on the internet and they married in 2008.

Mr Baker and Zahra then moved to Elisa's home state of North Carolina.

Zahra, who had her lower left leg amputated in 2005 after it was stricken by bone cancer, was reported missing from the family's rented Hickory, North Carolina, home on October 9, 2010.

Elisa Baker admitted to murdering and dismembering Zahra and in September last year was sentenced to 15 to 18 years in prison.



rip little girl xxxx

Very sad RIP little Zahra

Sleep tight Zahra xx