HICKORY, N.C. — Searchers looking for the remains of a missing North Carolina girl with disabilities found a prosthetic leg, and authorities were trying to determine whether it was that of the 10-year-old, police said Wednesday.
Hickory Police Maj. Clyde Deal said searchers found the leg at a home where the stepmother of Zahra Clare Baker once lived. The girl had an artificial leg because she lost hers to bone cancer.
Zahra, who also uses hearing aids, was reported missing Oct. 9, and authorities believe she is dead.
Deal also said a mattress found by workers at a Caldwell County landfill will be tested for DNA evidence.
The prosthetic leg was discovered Tuesday afternoon near some brush in Caldwell County near the home.
Deal said he wasn’t sure how long ago the family had occupied the house.
Authorities on Tuesday took Elisa Baker to a home where she once lived, and Deal said she was cooperating after being jailed since the weekend her stepdaughter was reported missing.
Adam and Elisa Baker told police they had last seen Zahra in her bed at their home in Hickory. Police don’t believe them. Investigators said Zahra may have been alive when the family moved to a new home in North Carolina in mid-September, but they’ve had trouble finding anyone else who has seen her in recent months.
Elisa Baker, 42, has been charged with obstruction of justice. Adam Baker, Zahra’s father, was arrested Monday on unrelated charges.
