Custodial dad of missing girl arrested for bad checks (Hickory, North Carolina)

From the beginning, the step has been blamed for the disappearance (and assumed murder) of this 10-year-old girl, while custodial dad ADAM BAKER has played the bewildered innocent. We still have yet to see how this father obtained full custody back in Australia, why the mother has had no contact with this child since her infancy, or why he was allowed to leave the country to meet some American chick he met on the Internet. (Australia is presumably into "shared parenting"--so long it means MOTHERS are restricted from relocation elsewhere.) Now we find out that his carefully crafted image as the doting if slightly dotty daddy is starting to crumble. Now Daddy is facing "unrelated" charges of assault with a deadly weapon and communicating threats. Maybe not the nice guy if henpecked guy we've been told he is?

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/10/25/1341616/dad-of-missing-nc-girl-arrested.html

posted: 8:31 am Monday, Oct. 25, 2010
Dad of missing NC girl arrested for bad checks

By The Associated Press

The father of a missing 10-year-old disabled girl was arrested Monday on several charges unrelated to the girl's disappearance, joining his wife who has been in custody for two weeks as investigators unsuccessfully searched wooded areas and a landfill.

Police believe Zahra Baker, who was reported missing Oct. 9, is dead. She uses hearing aids and has a prosthetic leg because of bone cancer.

A judge deemed the stepmother of a missing 10-year-old girl a flight risk and raised her bond Wednesday after the woman's grown daughter testfied that she's carrying on an online relationship with a man in England who was sending her thousands of dollars.

While the bond hearing unfolded, dozens of investigators searched a nearby North Carolina landfill for key evidence in the disappearance of Zahra Clare Baker, but police said they don't expect to find the girl's body there.

Catawba County District Judge Robert Mullinax Jr. said there were "disturbing and unsettling allegations" in the case as he increased Elisa Baker's bond from $40,000 to $65,000. Defense attorneys had asked him to lower bond to $10,000, which they said fits legal guidelines for her charge of obstructing justice.

A missing 10-year-old North Carolina girl was seen in public as recently as two weeks before she was reported missing, police said Saturday, narrowing an uncertain timeline that has hindered their investigation.

Investigators said previously they couldn't find anyone outside Zahra Clare Baker's household who had seen her alive in more than a month. That uncertainty has made it difficult for police to narrow places to search for the girl whose bone cancer left her with hearing aids and a prosthetic leg.

Zahra was reported missing Oct. 9, but investigators have said they don't believe the story given by her father and stepmother. Police believe the girl is dead.

Investigators used a police dog to search among tree-trimming equipment and piles of mulch for a missing 10-year-old North Carolina girl on Wednesday, a day after authorities said they believed the girl had been killed.

Hours earlier, Zahra Clare Baker's stepmother showed no emotion in court as a judge explained she could be sentenced to up to 30 months in prison if convicted of obstruction of justice. Elisa Baker is accused of trying to throw off investigators with a fake ransom note.

The girl, who used hearing aids and a prosthetic leg because of bone cancer, was reported missing over the weekend, but police have indicated they don't believe her father and stepmother's story.

Investigators indicated Tuesday they believe someone killed a 10-year-old girl with disabilities who was reported missing over the weekend, and accused her stepmother of trying to throw off investigators with a fake ransom note.

Police said the search for Zahra Clare Baker has shifted to a homicide investigation, canceling a missing child alert for the shy but upbeat girl who used hearing aids and a prosthetic leg because of bone cancer.

The girl's stepmother, Elisa Baker, is the only person accused in the case so far. Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said she was charged with felony obstruction of justice after admitting she wrote the note, which asked for $1 million.

Dozens of investigators searched a North Carolina landfill Wednesday for evidence in the disappearance of a disabled 10-year-old girl, but said they didn't expect to find the girl's body there.

As Hickory police and FBI agents checked mounds of trash in Caldwell County, a judge at a nearby courthouse increased bond for the girl's stepmother, Elisa Baker, from $45,000 to $65,000 after prosecutors convinced him she was a flight risk.

Catawba County District Judge Robert Mullinax Jr. said there were "disturbing and unsettling allegations" in the case as he dismissed a request by Baker's lawyers to reduce her bond on a charge of obstructing justice to $10,000.

Her father, Adam Baker, 33, is facing one count each of assault with a deadly weapon and failure to return rental property; two counts of communicating threats and five counts of writing worthless checks.

The timing of his arrest raises questions because the charges against him were filed over the last few months. Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins had said authorities delayed taking action because he was cooperating with police.

It was unclear if he was still cooperating. A telephone message left for Adkins was not immediately returned.

Baker, who is from Australia, was being held in a western North Carolina jail on $7,000 bond, Hickory police spokeswoman Libby Grigg said. It was not clear if he had an attorney.

The girl's stepmother, Elisa Baker, is at the same jail, facing charges including obstruction of justice. Police said she admitted writing a bogus ransom note found at the scene of a fire in the family's back yard on the day Zahra was reported missing.

Police have said they think someone killed the girl, but have not found her body and haven't charged anyone with killing her. A three-day search of a nearby landfill last week failed to turn up any evidence.

Police had been looking for a mattress that belonged to Zahra that may have been disposed of in the days before her disappearance was reported.

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