Zahra Baker Case: Stepmom Elisa Baker Investigated for Bigamy
Nov. 19, 2010— -- Police are investigating possible bigamy charges against the stepmother of Zahra Baker, the disabled North Carolina girl whose body was found dismembered earlier this month.
"It's something that we found out during the course of this [Zahra's] investigation," a police official told ABC News of the investigation into Elisa Baker's alleged second husband. The investigation is not connected to Zahra's death, the official said.
The bizarre twist in the case comes as investigators wait for a "couple hundred" pieces of evidence related to Zahra Baker's death to return from lab analysis, the official said.
Elisa Baker is currently in jail, held on charges including felony obstruction of justice for allegedly admitting to penning a $1 million ransom note that was discovered Oct. 9, the same day Zahra was first reported missing from her Hickory, N.C., home. Zahra lost her left leg and hearing in a childhood battle with cancer. The girl's prosthetic leg, a bone fragment and remains were found in separate locations.
The man who was reportedly married to Elisa Baker before she married Adam Baker in Australia in 2008 lived across the street from the Baker family's Sawmills, N.C., home, according to divorce papers cited in a report by ABC News' Charlotte affiliate WSOC.
"She always told us it was her brother and then, after they moved out, I found out it was her old man," neighbor Bobby Green told WSOC.
Last month, it was revealed in court that Elisa Baker had received $10,000 over the past year from a man in England, but he is not involved in the bigamy investigation, police said.
An attorney for Elisa Baker, Scott Reilly, was unavailable for comment on the bigamy allegations.
Her current husband, Adam Baker, was also held in prison on unrelated charges, but has been released on bond.
