HICKORY, N.C. — The stepmother of a 10-year-old disabled girl was indicted Monday on charges she killed the child and then desecrated her remains to cover up the slaying, and authorities said they did not have evidence to charge anyone else in her death.
Prosecutor James Gaither Jr. said Monday at a news conference that there was no credible evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in Zahra Baker’s slaying. The stepmother, Elisa Baker, was charged earlier Monday with second-degree murder.
Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins, speaking at the news conference, called the murder charge “a milestone of holding someone accountable that members of team Zahra have been working toward since the first words spoken on that 911 call.”
Investigators would continue to pursue leads until the trial begins, Adkins said.
Zahra, who used a prosthetic leg and hearing aids after being stricken with cancer, disappeared four months ago. Police eventually found the girl’s remains in different locations around western North Carolina, and Elisa Baker told authorities that she had been dismembered, according to warrants.
But until Monday, nobody had been charged in Zahra’s death. Elisa Baker has been jailed for months, charged with obstructing justice in the investigation by writing a fake ransom note that was found when the girl was reporting missing in October.
Authorities still have not said how the girl died.
The indictment cites aggravating factors, saying Elisa Baker had a history of physically, verbally and psychologically abusing Zahra. And it says she desecrated Zahra’s body to hinder detection and prosecution of the killing.
A search warrant unsealed last month said Elisa Baker led police to the places where they found Zahra’s remains. She claimed her husband, Adam Baker, dismembered the body. Adam Baker has denied that.
The warrant also said that cell phone records indicate Adam Baker was not in the locations where Zahra’s remains were found on the day Elisa Baker indicated, but that cell phone records showed she was present in those locations.
Attorneys for Elisa Baker did not return calls seeking comment Monday.
Records show the 42-year-old led a somewhat nomadic life, with dozens of different addresses over a seven-year period. She was also married seven times and was wed to more than one man on several occasions. She met Adam Baker, seven years her junior, on a website where users create three-dimensional characters to represent themselves.
Adam Baker is free on bond, facing numerous charges not related to his daughter, who needed a prosthetic leg and two hearing aids because of a battle with cancer. He moved to North Carolina with Zahra from Australia after meeting Elisa online.
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