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Nancy Grace

Zahra`s Biological Mother Speaks From Australia

Aired November 05, 2010 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JEAN CASAREZ, GUEST HOST: We begin tonight with breaking news. Zahra Baker, a 10-year-old little girl -- battling bone cancer, she`s losing (ph) part of her left leg and her hearing. Things only get worse. The little girl ends up missing, reportedly kidnapped from her own bedroom. Her prosthetic leg is gone. Her hearing aids -- they`re left behind. The last person to see her alive, her stepmother.

Major developments tonight. Reports are that stepmother is now claiming that she was the one that suffered abuse and bruising, not Zahra. After investigators find a bone believed to be Zahra`s, her biological mother is breaking her silence -- that`s right, biological mother is breaking her silence in an emotional television interview from Australia. We will hear from Zahra`s biological mother tonight. Searching for her little girl for years, Zahra`s mother insists she has been kept away from Zahra by the father, Adam Baker, finally tracking down her little girl on the Internet. But it was too late. Zahra was gone.

This as we obtain more and more exclusive interviews about what Elisa Baker says happened to her. Stepmother`s cousin steps forward for the very first time, defending her. We have the exclusive interview. Stepmother says she found Zahra dead, claiming the 10-year-old had been sick again. Stepmother also claims she has taken a polygraph. And tonight, for the very first time, we go inside the Baker home. What happened to 10-year-old Zahra?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY DIETRICH, ZAHRA`S MOTHER: You have no idea how it feels. It`s enough that it`s numb. I always had the hope one day that she`d come to find me, and it`s gone. I never got to tell her I was proud of her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you did find her three days before she was reported missing.

DIETRICH: (INAUDIBLE) It`s just mean! It felt like somebody was playing a mean game on me. He had no right to do any of it, to keep her from me and take her from me!

I have no words for that woman. I have to do this for her. And I have to find justice for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Good evening. I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session" on the truTV network, in for Nancy Grace tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. More exclusive letters from Elisa Baker, this time written from her family (SIC) to her family at home. Plus, also, stepmother is now claiming that she was the one abused, the one that had all of the bruises, not Zahra Baker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIETRICH: Unless you understand the story, you don`t understand the pain. I never gave my baby up. And I`m so angry she was taken away from me like this!

The prosthesis was the hardest. I want them to find more so we can put her (INAUDIBLE) we can later rest with dignity that she deserves. Finally (INAUDIBLE) her love and respect!

She was already gone when I found her. She found (ph) me to tell her story and to find her and put her to rest! She fought hard for life. It was his responsibility to take care of her. I gave birth to her. I will always love her, always in my heart!

I do pray to God that she had enough of me in her to never do that, to call that woman her mother.

I never got to say good-bye! I barely got to say hello!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: That is Zahra Baker`s biological mother speaking out for the very first time. Let us go straight out to NANCY GRACE producer Natisha Lance, standing by live in North Carolina at the Baker home. Natisha, you were able to exclusively read letters that Elisa Baker has written to her family from inside jail. What did she say?

NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Jean, there`s three letters. One of the letters was received a few weeks ago and the other letter was received earlier this week. And in these letters, Elisa Baker writes that she is the one who had the black eye and the bruises, not Zahra. She also goes on to say that Zahra was a blessing to her, that she had prepared for Zahra`s birthday that was coming up soon.

She also says, Jean, that she has taken a polygraph to prove her innocence and to prove that she is telling the truth, and she`s prepared to another take one. She continues to say, as in the other letters that we have seen thus far, that Adam Baker is the one responsible. And she also says that they did not kill Zahra Baker.

CASAREZ: What is this about the abuse? She is saying that she is the victim that had bruises?

LANCE: That is what she said. She said, I was the one who had the black eyes and the bruises. Her children knew about it, too, but nobody did anything about it. Now, she does not outright say that Adam Baker is the person who is responsible for the bruises or the black eyes, but she does make a point to say that it was her and not Zahra.

CASAREZ: All right, let`s go straight out to the attorneys, Richard Herman, defense attorney coming from Las Vegas tonight, and Joey Jackson, defense attorney out of New York. To Richard Herman. First of all, if this is where the defense is going because Elisa Baker is saying now that she was the victim -- there`s one challenge in all of this. Zahra Baker is dead. Elisa Baker is very much alive.

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hey, Jean, what defense? There`s no case against the stepmother or the father. There is just no case at this point in time. We don`t know if that bone that they found is the child`s bone. There`s so much work that has to get done here before any charges can be brought for the death of this poor child. This is a tragic case, but there`s a lot more police work that has to get done here, Jean.

CASAREZ: Well, Joey Jackson, I beg to differ with that because...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought you would.

CASAREZ: ... in her own handwriting, she said, We didn`t really kill her. She places herself at the scene. So she`s got criminal defense attorneys right now. They`re developing a defense.

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, that`s true. But you know, to Richard`s point, the fact of the matter, Jean, is that these cases are built upon evidence. And what we need to look for here are any physical evidence relating to the disappearance. We need to look for any eyewitnesses or anything else that could corroborate the fact that she was involved or the husband was involved in the disappearance, and sadly, perhaps the murder of this child. We just don`t know enough.

Now, in examining these letters, Jean, clearly now, she is taking on the position that she suffered some trauma, she loved the child dearly, and that she had no culpability, in the event these letters are ultimately admitted in court in the disappearance or the death of the child to begin with.

HERMAN: But she`s the same woman that wrote the ransom...

CASAREZ: No question.

HERMAN: ... note. Jean, she`s the same woman...

(CROSSTALK)

CASAREZ: ... Natisha Lance -- that wrote?

HERMAN: Yes, she wrote the ransom note. She has no credibility. I think she`s nuts! There`s no credibility in these notes. This is just craziness.

CASAREZ: Insanity, didn`t know right from wrong. OK, Natisha Lance, you got an exclusive interview with a cousin of Elisa Baker, for the first time stepping out. Why did the family want to come forward at this point of time to support Elisa Baker?

LANCE: Well, Jean, what they are saying is that they feel as if Elisa Baker`s side of the story has not been told. The family met earlier this week. They -- many members of the family got together and talked about what they should do, and it was decided that someone needed to speak up for Elisa Baker. Now, this particular cousin that I spoke to was able to visit Elisa Baker behind bars on Monday. She says she met Elisa, who was very emotional, that she cried, she felt that she was concerned about Zahra, that she missed Zahra. She also said...

CASAREZ: OK...

LANCE: ... in that -- during that time again that it was Adam Baker who is responsible for her being behind bars.

CASAREZ: Now, Natisha, we want everybody to hear this. We`re going to let everybody hear this in just a second. But I want to know, why did she make us shoot it in the shadows, instead of seeing her face?

LANCE: There have been death threats against this family. There have been people who have said many negative things about this family. So they are doing it to try to protect themselves at the point, Jean. As we have seen in many of the hearings thus far for Elisa Baker, there have not been family members who have been out there for her.

But this is a cousin who is trying to figure out what the truth is, and that is what they ultimately want. They want to know what the truth the truth is, whatever happened to Zahra, regardless of how negative it could possibly be.

CASAREZ: All right, Natisha, we are going to let everybody listen to your exclusive interview. This is producer for NANCY GRACE Natisha Lance, exclusive interview with the cousin of Elisa Baker, appealing to the public. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our first concern is that Zahra`s body will be found soon since she is believed to be deceased and that all of the truth will come out. My sister and I felt the need to see Elisa and visited her this past Monday. A lot has been said about Elisa, some true, some untrue. We didn`t find the uncaring person that she has totally been portrayed to be. As we talked with her, she cried over missing Zahra and how her husband has left her to take all the blame for what has happened, when he played big part in this terrible situation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: We are taking your calls live tonight. To Sheeba in Illinois. Good evening, Sheeba.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Jean. My question is, where in the heck has the real mom been during all of this? And another question I`ve got for the psychologist on there is, why isn`t the mother seeking psychological help for herself?

CASAREZ: Sheeba, I`m going to go to your first question first because we have got with us tonight exclusively from Australia the gentleman that got the interview with Zahra Baker`s biological mother. His name is Robert Ovadia. He is the senior reporter from 7 Network Australia.

You interviewed Zahra Baker`s biological mother. Thank you so much for joining us tonight from Australia.

ROBERT OVADIA, 7 NETWORK AUSTRALIA (via telephone): My pleasure, Jean.

CASAREZ: First of all...

OVADIA: Are you there?

CASAREZ: ... tell us, when you met her -- when you first met Zahra Baker`s biological mother, what were you thoughts about her as a person?

OVADIA: She`s lovely. She`s absolutely lovely. And I had had the privilege of speaking to her for four or five days before we actually met. I know there`s been a lot of criticism, people -- millions of Americans asking why she hasn`t come forward, why she doesn`t want to speak. It`s a very intimidating process here. She`s dealing with the likely loss of her daughter, a daughter that she`s chased through the years, chasing Adam Baker around Australia and then to America.

But beyond that, she`s got her own two kids she has to deal with, and she`s very aware that she would be stepping in the public spotlight. This is not a decision that she took lightly, and it took me four or five days to convince me to even speak with us. When I did speak with her, she came across as very warm, very sincere, and there`s not a syllable of her story that I doubt, Jean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A shocking discovery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They`re getting closer and closer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bone that could be related to the Zahra Baker case.

CASAREZ: K9s, police, backhoes, search teams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police believe it`s human.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All fingers have been pointed at her. She wants to tell her story, she said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIETRICH: It makes me angry, frustrated that the way that I did find her meant that -- I don`t -- I don`t know why I found her that day. Some people have said it was she found me, I didn`t find her, that that happened because when she passed, she found me to find her. And I like to believe that, that she was already gone when I found her and she found me to tell her story, and to find her and put her to rest.

And that`s how I`m trying to push my way through it, that I have to do this for her and I have to find justice for her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: That is Zahra Baker`s biological mother, for the first time stepping forward and talking. I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session," in for Nancy Grace tonight. We have got with us tonight live from Sydney, Australia, the reporter that interviewed Zahra Baker`s biological mother, Robert Ovadia. He is the senior report of 7 Network Australia.

Thank you again for joining us. You know, what everybody wants to know is why didn`t this lady -- we see her grief. Why didn`t she, number one, have custody of Zahra, and number two, visit her?

OVADIA: Well, Jean, Emily Dietrich had post-natal depression, she told me. It was severe enough that she felt that she couldn`t be a good enough mother for Zahra at the time, so she gave custody to Adam Baker. And for a few months, that was fine. He had custody of Zahra. She was able to visit. But then one day, she turned up to visit and there was nothing left in the house. Adam Baker had just taken off. She could only use the courts as a recourse to try to find him. She`s looked around Australia. She eventually found them. She had a few months together with Zahra again. And then, she says, Adam Baker took off once more.

She has done her own investigative work over the Internet every few days, trying to find her. She eventually tracked him down to northern Australia, right at the top of Australia in Townsville (ph). Then he took off for America. And heart-breakingly, Jean, it was only three days before Zahra was reported missing that Emily says she managed to track her down to the United States. Didn`t even know if it was at Hickory, North Carolina, as well.

So in her view, in some spiritual way, she suggests that perhaps Zahra had already gone by that stage, and perhaps it was Zahra`s way of reaching out in some spiritual way to her to let her know.

CASAREZ: To Brian Russell, forensic psychologist, coming to us from Kansas City, Missouri, tonight. Your thoughts as you watch Zahra Baker`s biological mother speak out for the first time tonight.

BRIAN RUSSELL, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: You know, Jean, the woman is obviously suffering. I guess the only thing that`s clear to me in all of this is that all of the adults around this girl, or most all of the adults, from day one have been troubled people.

And we`ve got millions of kids growing up in this country, unfortunately, in that situation. We don`t get the opportunity as a society to intervene in many of them. But I think this case illustrates that when we do get an opportunity to and we blow it, the price paid by children is very, very high.

I don`t know if the authorities in Australia and here did everything they could to identify the troubles this girl was having and get her out of that household. I hope so. But we need to get to the bottom of that. We need to get to the bottom of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any hope there that she`s alive?

DIETRICH: I don`t feel it. I reckon that mothers just have these bonds with their children and -- I think having any hope in me makes it hurt more, with what they`re finding and the way that they were saying she was treated. The only hope I have in me now is that she is gone so she`s not being hurt anymore!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session," in for Nancy Grace tonight. Elisa Baker is writing letters from jail to her family, saying that she was the one that was actually abused, the one that had bruises on her, not Zahra Baker.

We`re taking your calls live tonight. Out to Christine in North Carolina. Hi, Christine. You are right there in the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, hi. How are you? I just wanted to say Nancy`s a true angel on earth. I don`t get to talk to her tonight. But my question is, was the real mother around when Zahra had cancer? And why would she give her up then? I mean...

CASAREZ: Christine, good question. Good question. You know, I was going to ask Robert Ovadia the same question, senior reporter coming to us from Sydney, Australia. Robert, what did Zahra Baker`s biological mother tell you about Zahra`s health?

OVADIA: Well, it wasn`t about giving Zahra up. It was about giving custody to Zahra`s father, Adam Baker, at the time. Zahra`s mother, Emily Dietrich, didn`t expect for a second that Adam Baker was going to take off across the other side of the country without telling her. So this isn`t about giving her baby, this is about understanding that because of her post-natal depression at the time, she just wasn`t in a position to be a good enough mother. And one could argue that she did so out of love.

She said to me a couple of days ago, when we did this interview, that unless you understand the story, you cannot understand the pain. And that is what she was talking about. It was a difficult decision at the time, but then she had no idea that she would have to chase her daughter and her former partner across the country, and then eventually to America.

CASAREZ: And isn`t it true that she never dreamed her daughter was in the United States? She wasn`t told of that. So she kept searching Australia to no avail?

OVADIA: Yes, she was searching. And I think -- I think she probably -- she`s not a woman with means. She hasn`t got a lot of finances. She can`t be hiring private investigators. When Adam Baker took off the first time, she says, she went through the courts to be able find him and did. But then it became harder and harder when she kept on taking off. So she could only use the means that she had at her disposal. And for her, mostly that was just the Internet. Every few days, she would be going on the Internet, looking at -- typing in Zahra`s name, looking for other people that she knew were related to Zahra who might be in her life. As we`ve seen in the past couple of days, it`s only been three days before Zahra was reported missing that she finally tracked her down in the United States and had no idea she was there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thank him and his mother for being there when she was sick. I wish I had known so I could have been.

But I can`t explain the anger, the hurt. I don`t -- he had no right to do any of it, to keep her from me, and take her from me. That`s not his choice. She fought for life. She fought hard for life. And somewhere along the way, due to his decisions, that was taken from her. It was his responsibility to take care of her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNNHN HOST: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session" on the tru-TV network for Nancy Grace tonight.

Zahra Baker`s biological mother is stepping forward for the first time talking about Zahra and her emotions. Elisa Baker is writing letters from jail to her family saying she`s the victim in all this, she`s the one with all the bruises. It`s not Zahra Baker.

Natisha Lance, producer, is standing by at the Baker home. You have read brand new letters that Lisa Baker has written to her family. Sum it all up for us.

NATISHA LANCE, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Well, Jean, there`s three letters. They were written to a cousin of Elisa Baker. In the letters she says she is the one who had the black eyes and bruises. He says she loved Zahra, that Zahra was a gift from god. And if she was preparing for her birthday, that shows she did not hate her.

She also says she took a polygraph to prove she`s telling the truth. I did speak to police today. They will not deny it, however they will not go into any detail.

CASAREZ: Now, Natisha, you also got an exclusive interview with a cousin of Elisa Baker, wanting to give a statement to this country who is so fixated on this case. She`s in the shadows. She did not want to show her face, but listen what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have received letters from Elisa. In each one of them she made it clear how much she cared about Zahra and she don`t understand the man that she loves can do her this way.

She repeatedly has said they didn`t kill Zahra. Maybe it`s not impossible that she found Zahra deceased for about two weeks. This was also acknowledged by her eldest daughter. Why she wasn`t taken to a doctor, we don`t know.

Elisa does suffer from bipolar and depression. Three family members and a longtime friend of the family said they had never seen Elisa physically abuse Zahra.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: That is the cousin of Elisa Baker defending her tonight. We`re taking you calls to Kathy in Wisconsin.

KATHY FROM WISCONSIN: Hi, Jean. Thanks for taking my call. My question is, do you think this thing started with the father and the stepmother taking her to America in hopes of -- and treating the girl like a cash cow, and then maybe when the money started to dry up she became a liability?

I`ve seen a lot of pictures of benefits like t-shirts for sale and things like that.

CASAREZ: To Pat Brown, criminal profiler, what are your thoughts on that? Through these jailhouse letters we see that Elisa Baker is definitely into herself. And the couple has numerous charges about fraudulent checks.

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: I feel really annoyed with the cousin. Certainly Elisa has been all over the map with her extreme narcissism and lying and her lack of empathy. She`s a victim of everything now. Everybody has done her wrong. This is psychopathic behavior. I wish the cousin would pay more attention to poor Zahra and her poor mother.

Elisa is trying to get sympathy by playing the victim. And she wants the attention. And she`s also coming up with a great defense by saying Adam Baker is the one who is completely responsible. She had a Stockholm syndrome. He killed her and told her to shut up and write the note. Can`t you see all this going down? I mean, this is a path of lies. Put our hearts with Zahra and not this one.

CASAREZ: Put our hearts to Zahra. To Diana in Washington. Hi, Diana.

DIANA FROM WASHINGTON: Hi, Jean. First I want to say my heart goes out to mother and Zahra.

And the step monster, she is a monster. I mean, the things she said. My question is a couple nights ago or last night she said she wanted to be a vampire. Now there was a lot of blood found in the car, but there was no body found except for maybe a bone along far away.

Do you think she may have just looked down and acted that upon being a vampire? You know?

CASAREZ: You know, Diana -- Diana, you are so right. I read myself the return from the search warrant affidavit and it talks about samples from the interior car and it says "possible blood." That tells me they did testing at the scene.

We have got video from inside the Baker home. You`ve never seen this before. But it`s inside the Baker home since law enforcement has done searches in the home. Ellie Josted, tell us what we`re seeing.

ELLIE JOSTED, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: Jean, one of our affiliates got a look inside the house after the search was done. They`ve been there for days on end tearing the house apart.

In Zahra`s bedroom you can actually see they`ve torn out the sink. They`ve torn out the cabinets. They also have taken the kitchen sink out. They also took out flooring. In fact, you can see the bare ground in Zahra`s bedroom. Other parts of the house have holes punched in the wall and flooring ripped out. This place is no longer habitable according to the landlord.

CASAREZ: And those are the clothes. You`re looking at some of the clothes of Zahra Baker left in that home. But as you can see, they are looking in the drains and the pipes and even under the floor.

To Dr. Joshua Perper, chief medical examiner, as a medical examiner, once you do your forensic pathology work and looking at all aspects of this case, this was a violent, violent death, wasn`t it?

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER, BROWARD COUNTY: Well, most likely it was. But there`s no yet sufficient evidence except for the blood in the car, or what appears to be the blood.

Certainly the child is missing and there`s a high probability that probably is not alive anymore. But they don`t have a body. They have a bone which we don`t know even if it`s human. But if it`s human it depends what kind of bones it is because bones can give a lot of information, how long the bone was outside, whether there are marks of animals or marks of tool, in somebody trying to dismember the body.

And it is enough DNA from bone marrow to be compared with the DNA of the parents. So we are just at the beginning of the investigation.

CASAREZ: And we want to tell everybody if state bureau of investigation in North Carolina is testing that bone. They say the results will be available next week.

To Richard Herman. I want to take exception to something of this. You know, the body hasn`t been found. I say the body has been found, Richard Herman. That leg was what she used every day to walk. That was her leg. That body has been found.

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: We don`t know if it`s her leg. We don`t know if it`s a human leg. You made a statement that it was a violent death. We don`t know if it was a violent death.

CASAREZ: But they`re looking in drains. Richard Herman, they`re looking in drains. They`re looking for blood. They have to have probable cause to go in there and do that. They know what happened. They`re just trying to find the evidence.

HERMAN: Yes, they`re claiming it`s a crime scene. But so far they`re not finding anything, Jean. They have nothing. The doctor is right. This is the very beginning. They have so much police work to do here. And I`m surprised the person -- Elisa in jail or the father, no one has flipped. They probably don`t have a story to tell. That`s why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stories have been going around. Sickening what could have happened to her. And if we can just get part of her back together, something that we can lay to rest with dignity that she deserves finally for somebody to show her love and respect.

I don`t want them to find mommy because it will tell the story that I don`t want to hear. But I want them to find her so we can put her together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: I`m Jean Casarez of "In Session" in for Nancy Grace tonight. Natisha Lance live at the Baker home in North Carolina. Where are all these exclusive letters that Elisa Baker wrote to the family, saying she`s the one that`s the victim of the abuse with the bruises? Has anyone given these letters to police?

LANCE: This cousin has not turned the letters over to police. We did find out the jail is that the jail is now making copies of all the letters from Elisa Baker coming in as well as going out so they have them on file since the letters have began to surface in the public.

CASAREZ: Let`s go straight out to a caller. Natalie in California. Hi, Natalie.

NATALIE FROM CALIFORNIA: Hi, Jean. I had two questions. First, I don`t want to believe any of the stepmom`s story. But what if those monsters locked little Zahra and left her there?

(Inaudible)

CASAREZ: To Pat Brown, criminal profiler. Your thoughts on the question?

BROWN: What was the question?

CASAREZ: I thought it was me. I thought I couldn`t hear it clearly.

Natalie, are you still with us? You know, I think we`ve lost Natalie.

But Pat Brown, I want to ask you, we see the couple going like this. All right, she`s incriminating him. He has said that he doesn`t know if she`s involved. What do you think is the truth there? What if we`re wrong? What if it`s actually Adam Baker? It`s not Elisa Baker?

BROWN: Well, I don`t buy it for one minute. Elisa Baker has shown too much hatred towards the child, too many lies in the past. And when she said we really didn`t kill the child, that showed me that she put herself in that picture.

And she was busy blaming Adam for everything. But originally she said "we really didn`t kill her." She could have said we didn`t kill her. That`s why I believe she`s really responsible.

Both of them have the psychopathic trait of oh, gee, now you`re in my way. They`re going to turn on each other, blame each other and try to get out with the best deal they can get.

CASAREZ: All right, Sandra in Canada.

SANDRA FROM CANADA: Hi. I`m so happy, finally. I was wondering, we`re talking about the mother. Well, I`m not going to call her a monster, but I feel it, and the father, too. Not the mother, the stepmother and the father.

And I was wondering, we`re talking about them, but what about CPS, child protective services? We`re not talking about them at all, but they have a lot to do with this case. We`re hearing about the neighbors making complaints about what was going on in that house. And nobody is talking about them. There`s something wrong with this picture.

CASAREZ: You`re right. We will talk about it now. Ellie Josted, Child Protective Services, they were called. What do we know?

JOSTED: Well, numerous friends and family have come forward and said that they called DSS. They`ve also said that Elisa Baker told them DSS was at the house. There`s a neighbor who claims he saw a social worker at the house.

Unfortunately the Department of Social Services, they say they`re bound by law. They can`t discuss any contact they`ve had with this family. So bottom line, we don`t know exactly what was ever done.

CASAREZ: But the fact is, Brian Russell, forensic psychologist, they had the custody of Zahra Baker. That custody was not taken from Adam Baker and his wife. That`s the reality.

BRIAN RUSSELL, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: Most DSS, Department of Family Services, whatever you call it around the country, the workers are good people. They care about kids. They try to do a good job. But they`re incredibly understaffed and underfunded.

When we talk about the priorities of funding from the government, this has to be part of the discussion because if we have money to buy people`s clunker cars, then we ought to have money to protect kids the way we should.

CASAREZ: You are so right. Every story on the air, we go back to Child Protective Services. They do good things, they try, but there are too many issues involved with cases just like Zahra backer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CASAREZ: And now a look back at the stories making headlines this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NANCY GRACE, CNNHN HOST: And 25-year-old Madison McKlesser. She had her dream wedding, and three weeks later, she`s dead. A bride found murdered. Shot several times.

Hours later, a suspect emerges located at a public park, completely naked. Apparently the honeymoon is over quickly. He`s setting up insanity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A naked romp in the park is not an insanity defense by itself.

GRACE: A missing 16-year-old sophomore. What has happened to Shelby Ellis? Her parents firmly believe she`s been kidnapped by a vampire cult.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her last activity on the internet was logging on to this side, vampirefreaks.com.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nude photos, pictures of people claiming to be vampires, drinking blood.

GRACE: Police have arrested a 16-year-old girl for murder after they found the body of her father outside the home. His daughter and her alleged boyfriend, 19-year-old Larry Coronado may be responsible for the disappearance.

Letters by Elizabeth Baker written behind jailhouse walls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s more concerned about herself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really didn`t kill her, but what he did after the fact is kind of horrifying.

GRACE: Another jailhouse letter where step mommy claims she, quote, "found Zahra dead." Poor Zahra just to live in that house of horrors must have been terrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Tonight, let us stop to remember army specialist Anthony Cometa (ph). He`s 21 years old from Las Vegas, Nevada. He enlisted with his two best friends and also he served Kuwait. He was awarded the bronze star. He lost his life just one day after his birthday.

He`s remembered for always wearing a smile and lifting up people`s spirits. He loved music. He loves the bass guitar and playing for his fellow soldier with his army garage band.

He leaves behind his parents, his brothers Joe and Matthew. Anthony Cometa (ph), he is an American hero.

Thank you so much to all of our guests, and for you joining us tonight. We have got a birthday celebration tonight. You`re not going to believe it. We want to say happy, happy birthday to 100-year-old Oklahoma friend Ruby. Ruby, thank you so much. Have a wonderful birthday. Enjoy your birthday cake.

We`ll see everybody tomorrow night, 8:00 eastern time. Goodnight, everybody.

END