Case 347: Zahra Baker
When 10-year-old Zahra Baker was reported missing by her father and stepmum in Hickory, North Carolina, one Saturday afternoon in 2010, it sparked the largest missing persons investigation in the city's history. Police worked around the clock, hoping for a miracle, but people close to the family said they'd been expecting something like this to happen for a long time.
Team:
Anonymous Host - narration
Emily Shirley - research, writing
Mike Migas - production, music
Anthony Telfer - audio editing
Comments (31)
How can THIS MANY people be witness to this kind of abuse and so easily brush it off? Absolutely f*cking tragic.
Makes me question God. This child endured unimaginably pain throughout her short life, the cancer and then horrific abuse.
This case moved me so much. Does anyone know where you post questions for the Q&A podcast that they do?
They usually put up a post asking for questions before they record the Q&A. This was a tough one.
This is horrific. I feel EVERY SINGLE PERSON failed Zahra. Why???? If I knew a child was being abused, I would stop at NOTHING to ensure the child was removed from the abuser. This one made me sad, sick to my stomach & very angry. We as a society must do better to protect those that can’t protect themselves. 🥹
I am 15 minutes in. I know this case, but never knew about the cancer. I have a little girl myself. I know I’m about to f*cking hate Lisa even more.
As a Queenslander it wasn’t until I looked up a photo of Zahra that the memories came flooding back. I remember her case being documented extensively on TV during this time. So tragic, what a beautiful young soul.
I loudly gasped exactly at 55:25 😨 oh no
Adam should have been charged with neglect. While I understand he may have been impacted by domestic violence, he wilfully ignored signs his daughter was being abused. I imagine that even in Australia his parents did much of the caregiving of Zahra, due to his general passivity.
Thank you for covering these cases with such care and respect.
I am very sympathetic to male victims of DV but Adam is a loser. Failing to protect your child is the lowest thing imaginable. I wish him nothing but suffering.
I can't believe I'm only 47 minutes in. My goodness.
Call me heartless but I don’t usually feel more moved by child-related cases than adult cases. To me, people are people and they are equally awful cases to listen to. (IMO animal abuse is top tier evil). However, this case brought out a maternal instinct in me I didn’t know I had. I don’t know if it was the writing that really brought Zahra to life, but this one felt particularly heartbreaking. Lisa can fucking rot.
I think seeing somebody who can't fend for themselves and has faith in their caregivers, like an animal or child, especially if that animal or child is as sweet as Zahra was, there's nothing more terrible to imagine. Kids and animals don't really understand evil so when you're faced with an evil party harming someone who needs protection it's just particularly horrible. (There are horrible kids who hurt other kids as well, and enjoy having the power to do so, so I'm not idealizing children by any means, and those kids often harden into adults who abuse others. At least that's a theory of mine when I look back at my childhood). But Zahra sounds exceptionally sweet and good natured. And just lovable all around. You don't have to be be maternal to be a good person who sees vulnerability and respects it.
I don't think we have enough information to form an opinion about how much Adam cared about Zahra. I do wonder how much he actually loved his daughter but I don't feel as though we have enough information to answer that question. And we don't know what his mental state and capacity to understand what's going on around him is. I wonder if there was an influence of drugs or if he was impaired in some way cognitively.
So tragic, Zahra sounds amazing.
“Hey Adam?! What DO you know?”
This little girl survived cancer twice only and was constantly abused only to be killed. What a strong girl to show such courageous and light in her short life. I hate how much child services failed her, all the signs were there. I hope they are ashamed and feel guilt on how they handled their investigations.
Failings all throughout this story. It broke my heart to hear that Brittany was ready to put it all on the line and save Zahra from her circumstances but the legal threats from Lisa were actually legitimate - the court system would not have granted Brit any custody over that poor child. They were all victims of Lisa’s abuse.
All of these young girls were failed time and time and time again by every adult they came in contact with. Incredibly sad.
As a twin mum, it disgusts me how often these manipulative, awful women lie about not only being pregnant, but fake a twin pregnancy. The second Casey read that line, I just knew we were in for it with this story. Fake pregnancies, fake cancer diagnoses - these liars just can’t help themselves. So much pain inflicted on all of her daughters, Zahra the most. Sending love to her grandparents and remaining family 💜
They are the worst of the worst. :(
Oh man. That story was so unbelievable and even more tragic. So sad. That hit deep
This one made me cry. 14 years is not enough - that woman in on the Rose West continuum
This was really well done, one of your best. Whoever wrote this one did it masterfully. It's extremely heavy. You did the story justice.
really? i found this story underwhelming, though as usual it was very well written, it just wasn’t very interesting. any idea why this resonated with you so much?
Almost as much time for drug charges as murdering her daughter. What a sick and sad state of affairs
I was initially unsure about Adam, but leaning towards believing he had issues. Learning that he made no attempt to inform Zahra's birth mother about her death sealed the deal.
Also Lisa was clearly abusing his daughter. Neighbours, extended family, and teachers all did their best to intervene in the ways they could but only he could have protected her. Based on Lisa’s history, she was very likely emotionally and physically abusive to him as well, as well as being older and manipulative, but it was up to him and he failed.
Hey Casey, just an FYI. The pronunciation for Giru is different. It' like "G-roo". G like goat then roo.
As a North QLDer who grew up near Giru, took my a moment to realise where he was talking about