Adam Baker Deported with Daughter Zahra’s Remains
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iStockphoto/THinkstock(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Adam Baker, the father of slain North Carolina 10-year-old Zahra Baker, has been deported to Australia, and has taken the girl’s remains with him, Baker’s attorneys said Monday.
Zahra Baker was killed in October 2010 by Adam’s wife — and the girl’s stepmother — Elisa Baker. Adam Baker, 33, had met the woman online and moved from Australia to be with her, taking Zahra with him. Zahra’s mother, Emily Deitrich, had given Adam custody because of postpartum depression.
Zahra Baker had lost a leg and part of her hearing during two bouts with bone cancer. Her life with her stepmother was marked by abuse, frequent bruises, and being locked for hours each day in a room, witnesses told police and ABC News.
When she was killed, her disappearance wasn’t reported for weeks and police eventually determined that she had been murdered and her body dismembered. Police found her prosthetic leg and parts of her body, but her head was never located.
Adam Baker was never arrested or named a person of interest in the murder of his daughter.
According to Adam Baker’s attorneys, Zahra’s remains will be buried in a family plot in Australia, ABC affiliate WSOC reported.
Baker’s attorney, Shell Pearce, told the Charlotte Observer that his client left the country quietly about two weeks ago, after receiving a suspended sentence for misdemeanor crimes in Cawtawba County. Charges against Baker in Caldwell County remain pending, though Pearce said Monday he did not believe Baker would be brought back to the U.S. for those hearings, according to WSOC.
In 2011, authorities revealed that Baker was in the country illegally and U.S. officials were arranging for his deportation.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio