Remains Confirmed to be Zahra Baker

Investigators said today that they have found the remains of Zahra Baker, a disabled North Carolina girl who was reported missing nearly a month ago.

“Today, our community mourns, our state mourns, our nation mourns, and the world mourns,” said police Chief Tom Adkins of Hickory, North Carolina.

From the Associated Press:

Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said investigators matched a bone found a couple of weeks ago with 10-year-old Zahra Baker’s DNA.

“I’ve been dreading this moment from early on in the investigation,” Adkins said. “We have recovered enough physical evidence to think we have found Zahra.”

Police also found a child’s remains earlier this week in western North Carolina in an area near where Zahra’s stepmother once lived. The remains will need to be tested to make sure they also belong to Zahra, Adkins said.

The freckle-faced Zahra, who had bone cancer that forced her to use a prosthetic leg and hearing aids, was reported missing by her parents Oct. 9. They said she was last seen in her bed at their home in Hickory, about 50 miles northwest of Charlotte.

A couple of weeks later, her prosthetic leg and the bone were discovered in some brush, about five miles away from where the other remains were found buried.

From CNN:

Adkins said that DNA from a bone dug up off Christie Road in Caldwell County — the same place Zahra Baker’s prosthetic leg was recovered late last month — was consistent with that taken from the girl’s personal items.

Using DNA swabs taken from Zahra’s biological father and mother, investigators are trying to confirm that more human remains found at a site five miles away also belonged to her, according to Adkins. But he said the medical examiner’s staff at the site said those bones appeared to have belonged to a girl of Zahra’s age.

“Investigators, agents, officers and staff who have worked on this case are devastated that they were not able to bring Zahra home alive,” Adkins said.

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Tags: Adam Troy Baker, Body Found, Caldwell County, Casey Anthony, Caylee Anthony, Christie Road, Disabled North Carolina Girl, Elisa Baker, Hickory, Missing Child, Missing Girl, North Carolina, Prosthetic, Prosthetic Leg, Remains Found, Zahra, Zahra Baker

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