Zahra Baker's killer stepmum proclaims innocence

In one of the most chilling interviews in Australian television history, 60 Minutes reporter Liz Hayes has interviewed the killer of Australian girl Zahra Baker.

Zahra’s American stepmother Elisa Baker pleaded guilty to the murder and dismemberment of the 10-year-old disabled girl and is currently serving a 15-18 year jail sentence. The only reason she wasn’t given the death penalty was because of a plea bargain in which she confessed to the abuse of Zahra and subsequent murder and took police to the little girl’s remains.

What was most disturbing about the interview was Elisa’s repeated protestations of innocence and denial of any abuse of Zahra, despite overwhelming evidence. Zahra was the subject of numerous community services reports and one teacher became so concerned for her physical safety that she gave the girl her mobile number with a note saying, “Call me if you need me”.

You have to admire the poise of Liz Hayes who, at some points in the interview, gazed at Elisa with such disbelief and disdain that it’s hard to understand how she could sit across from her.

As Hayes interviewed the killer she reminded us in voiceover that Elisa was considered manipulative and a habitual liar, and that’s from members of her own family. She is also a bigamist, marrying Zahra’s father Adam while already married to someone else.

Elisa claimed she left Zahra at home to go shopping, returning home at around 3 in the afternoon to find her missing. She says she found Zahra laying on her bed and asked her if she was okay. She claims the girl didn’t move and she could see she wasn’t breathing.

“My first thought was CPR and, so I immediately started CPR. I worked on her for probably about 30 minutes and couldn’t get her back begging the whole time for God not to take her. Right then I should have called 911 but I got scared.”

“Of what?"

“I didn’t know what to do. I’ve never been faced with anything like that. I’ve never...”

Elisa alleges she called Zahra’s father Adam and he is the one who dismembered his daughter and scattered her body parts in bushland. Both police and Adam Baker totally reject this accusation.

Adam says, “For her to sit there and say I dismembered my child, there’s no way on earth I could do that.”

Phone records confirm Adam was at work and nowhere near his dead child.

In fact it was Elisa who dismembered Zahra and disposed of her body. She then claimed Zahra was missing and wrote a fake ransom note.

To this day Elisa completely denies that she killed Zahra. “I’ll stand by my story,” she said repeatedly.

The coroner found that Zahra had been killed by “undetermined homicidal violence”.

“You are a guilty woman and you will not take responsibility for your actions,” Hayes put to her.

“There again that’s your opinion,” Elisa shoots back.

Zahra had overcome so much in her 10 short years. She lost her leg after battling bone cancer at the age of five. The cancer then reoccurred years later. She wore two hearing aids but despite her disabilities was always quick to smile and enjoy life.

Adam met Elisa online and moved to Hickory in North Carolina in the US. He addressed Elisa in a victim’s impact statement at her sentencing, saying, “Elisa, I trusted you with the most precious thing in my life. You not only lied to me, you lied to Zahra.

Emily Dietrich, Zahra’s birth mother, gave the girl to her father after suffering severe post natal depression and didn’t even know her daughter had been moved to America until she was reported missing. She’s spent years trying to track her down.

“I can’t explain the anger, the hurt. He had no right to do any of it, to keep her from me.”

“I never got to say goodbye. I never even got to say hello.”

The local community in Hickory was horrified by Zahra’s death and named a park in her honour. Adam has since returned home to Australia with Zahra’s remains.