HICKORY, N.C. – The owner of a website that sells crime memorabilia shared copies of shocking letters with NewsChannel 36 Tuesday afternoon that he says were written by Elisa Baker, jailed stepmother of missing 10-year-old Zahra Baker.
Hickory Police Major Clyde Deal says the handwriting in the letters is similar to that of Elisa Baker. Police will have an expert compare the letters to others written by Elisa Baker at the jail on Wednesday.
According to the letters written to Eric Gein of Serialkillersink.net, Zahra isn’t missing.
"So many missing kids, but Zahra isn't missing, the cops know where she is and what he has done. That's right what he has done. If I hadn't admitted to that stupid note I’d be out in 3 weeks but no they kept pushing and he did that too," says the third page of a letter, which then abruptly switches gears.
"Anyway, how are you spending Halloween? Have fun for me please," read the next two lines.
In the letters, Elisa Baker mentions the fact that her husband, Adam Baker was arrested and released.
"I have never been so angry over stuff as I am right now," the letter says. "He knows what happened to Zahra and yet I’m the one in here, at least for now."
The letters point more blame towards Adam.
"We didn't really kill her but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying. Makes me scared of him."
The letters also contain a variety of doodles and random phrases like "be part of the freak show" and "Some girls, wanna be princess's when they grow up. I want to be a vampire!"
On Monday, police confirmed that an artificial leg found off of Christie Road in Caldwell County last Wednesday belonged to Zahra. Police matched the serial number on the prosthetic leg to the number on medical records that detectives collected from the girl's native Australia.
Zahra Baker was reported missing by Adam and Elisa Baker on Oct. 9.
As police moved further into their investigation they discovered that no one, except for Adam and Elisa, could confirm seeing Zahra after Sept. 25.
Elisa Baker was arrested on Oct. 10, the day after reporting Zahra missing, on charged unrelated to the child’s disappearance. She was charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the case on Oct. 11. Police say Elisa Baker wrote a bogus ransom note and refused to cooperate with investigators.
Adam Baker was arrested on Oct. 25 on five counts of writing worthless checks, two counts of communicating threats, assault with a deadly weapon and failure to return rental property.
Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said at the beginning of the investigation that Adam Baker had outstanding warrants for worthless checks and that officers would execute those warrants at the appropriate time.
