People say that the hard rock under which the Chilean miners were trapped was the hardest on earth. Geologically, that may be true. But the hardest rock in America, I think, is that beneath which abused children are hidden. One of those is (or probably was) Zahra Clare Baker. She was 10.
She was ten years old and had a face full of freckles. Not just a sprinkling – but a whole bagful of them dropped across her nose and cheeks and forehead. My Mom always said that these were the visible marks of kisses from angels. If only.
There is a gallery of photos of her right here ~ in one, her short shiny brown hair is pulled back on each side with barrettes; in another, she is being fitted with hearing aids at an event in May.
She needed them for the hearing loss that her cancer has caused; the same cancer that had taken one of her legs.
People who know her family said her stepmother “cried” with relief when Zahra Clare Baker, 10, received those hearing aids.
Others who know the family have a much darker story to tell: a story about a little girl who stood just north of five feet tall, weighed about 100 pounds, and who had survived bone cancer only to be terribly abused by her stepmother and father . . . and, perhaps worse, was knowingly ignored by those who knew about it.
Tonight, in all likelihood, she is dead. This is for her, and for all the small voiceless children throughout America who so desperately need us to speak for them.
I was so cheered by the wonderful, amazing rescue of the Chilean miners. Thank goodness. But may we also remember the small, voiceless, media-less victims like Zahra Baker, who may be hidden under much harder rock than were those brave miners.
Some say it takes courage to speak up for a defenseless child. It does not. What it takes is a heart and a voice and a telephone. That’s not much. But in Zahra Clare Baker’s case, apparently it was too much.
Here is what we know:
About ten days ago, an Amber Alert was issued for Zahra Baker:
An Amber Alert was issued for Zahra Baker on October 10, 2010, she was last seen by her stepmother, Elisa Baker early Saturday morning, at approximately 2:30 a.m. Now, the Hickory Police Department in North Carolina have announced that the FBI and US Marshals have been brought into the case.
Source ~ Examiner
A fire had been set in the family’s backyard. There was a ransom note. All apparently a ruse:
(Police said that) Zahra's stepmother, Elisa Baker, confessed to investigators that she wrote the ransom note found at the scene that asked for $1 million and then asked for an attorney.
Elisa Baker originally told police that she last saw Zahra, who also suffered from bone cancer and had a prosthetic leg, sleeping in her bed around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, three hours before a brush fire in the backyard of the family home was reported. Hours after the fire Adam Baker called police to report Zahra missing.
Source ~ CBS News
Ten years old; a cancer survivor with a prosthetic leg, hearing loss and, in pictures, a determined smile.
And this:
(Last) Tuesday morning, relatives of (stepmother) Elisa Baker told CBS' The Early Show that Zahra's home life was "terrible" and that she was locked in her room for hours at a time and punished for minor things.
"[Zahra] was locked in her room, allowed five minutes out a day to eat, that was it," Brittany Bentley, who is married to Elisa Baker's nephew, told the morning show. "She was beat almost every time I was over there for just the smallest things. Elisa would get mad, she would take it out on Zahra, things the kid didn't deserve. She just had a horrible home life."
(snip)
"There were warning signs along the way, but you never want to think the worst," said former neighbor Kayla Rotenberry. She also said that about six months ago she noticed that Elisa Baker's hand was swollen.
"She told me that she was trying to spank Zahra, but hit her on her prosthetic leg," she said. "When Adam asked her about the injury, she said she fell and hurt her hand. She didn't want him to know. She knew he would be mad."
Source ~ CBS News
(Because failing to spank a cancer surviving 10-year-old sufficiently should be reason to make someone mad; no words.)
And, sadly, none of these “warning signs” were new:
Also (last) Tuesday, new details broadened the story of how a little girl who had survived cancer moved from Australia and wound up with a stepmother who has a petty criminal past and a MySpace page in her name that features violent imagery and music as well as photos of Zahra.
Trouble in the family had previously been reported to the Caldwell County Department of Social Services, according to a neighbor and relative of the Bakers, after witnesses saw Zahra with a black eye and other bruises. The family lived in Caldwell until roughly six weeks ago when the Bakers moved to neighboring Catawba County.
Source ~ Charlotte Observer
So, in short, small paragraphs, we have relatives willing to go on national television to report that a 10-year-old cancer survivor was “locked in her room” 23 hours a day and regularly beaten, neighbors who were willing to report to social services that a 10-year-old child was seen with “a black eye and other bruises” and yet NOBODY who was willing to HELP THIS CHILD.
"We don't know the last time anyone saw her," (Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins) said. "We're having a difficult time establishing a true timeline."
(snip)
Search dogs that were used on the property reportedly detected the smell of human remains on two cars at the Baker's house, but investigators did not say whether they found actual remains at the house, according to CBS affiliate.
Source ~ CBS News
October 13:
More than two dozen law enforcement officers spent hours searching a North Carolina property Tuesday night for evidence in the case of missing 10-year-old Zahra Clare Baker, and witnesses said a cadaver dog detected the scent of human remains on a wood chipper and in a mulch pile.
A retired policeman who lives next door to the property told AOL News today that he was asked by the local sheriff to observe the search. "I went up there and stayed till 12 o'clock [this morning]," said Alvin Webb, a 30-year veteran of the Morganton Police Department. "I just sat there and watched [and] ... the [cadaver] dog hit on a pile of mulch and the wood chipper."
Source ~ aolnews
October 15: (after the glorious rescue of the Chilean miners):
One lone kid, trapped beneath the surface of our good conscience, with no local, national or international supporters praying for her rescue, is suspected of having succumbed to the brutality of the non-caring.
Source ~ Pasadena Star News
October 20:
Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins said investigators are "hopeful" they might still find Zahra alive, but they continue to consider the case a homicide. The girl, who is hearing impaired and uses a prosthetic leg after suffering bone cancer, was last seen alive in public on Sept. 25, police said.
At the landfill, Adkins said: "We're not looking for her body."
Asked if investigators are searching for Zahra's prosthetic leg, he replied: "We're looking for a piece of evidence."
Source ~ The Herald
A missing child, a cancer survivor; and authorities are looking in a landfill for bits and pieces of her prosthetic leg.
I heard one news report last week that said no one had seen her for a month.
And yet, no one said anything.
Of course, no one ever had.
May we, as progressives, remember those hidden under the hard rock of neglect and abuse; we, as progressives, must be our brothers' and sisters' keepers.