Zahra Baker

On the 35th day of the search for Zahra Baker, Hickory police Chief Tom Adkins stood before television cameras on Friday and made a tearful announcement.

"I've been dreading this moment," Adkins said. Authorities have found enough evidence, he said, to prove the child is dead.

"Investigators, agents, and officers who worked on this case are devastated that they could not find Zahra alive and bring her home safely," he said.

Adkins, who has overseen the investigation since the freckled 10-year-old with the wide smile was reported missing last month, said DNA taken from a child's bone discovered last week on Christy Road in Caldwell County matched a DNA sample taken from Zahra's belongings at her house.

Additional human remains found along a creek five miles away are consistent with those of a child, he said. Those remains will be sent to the State Bureau of Investigation lab for positive identification.

The possibility that Zahra's remains have been discovered in at least two places sent shudders through the community.

"We can't believe this happened to a child," said Charles Estes, 68, who was among a group of Hickory residents awaiting news about Zahra outside the police department. "We're sad it was way too late for Zahra. We continue to pray for her and hope justice is done."

No charges were filed on Friday. District Attorney James Gaither Jr. said investigators are continuing to piece together findings in the grisly case.

"We're continuing to put a case together," he said. "The DA's office is working with law enforcement and hope to see some resolution in this case that will result in charges being filed in the near future."

The search for Zahra, who had lost part of her leg to bone cancer, began on Oct. 9 when she was reported missing by her father, Adam Baker, 33, and her stepmother, Elisa Baker, 42. Police said she has not been seen by anyone outside of her family since Sept. 25.

The case, one of the more notorious in the state, has drawn worldwide attention. Television crews from Australia, where Zahra was born, traveled to Hickory, nestled at the foot of the N.C. mountains, to cover the story.

Zahra moved to North Carolina about two years ago with her father from Australia after he met his soon-to-be wife online. Zahra's friends and relatives in Australia described her as an outgoing, happy girl despite the cancer, and said she didn't want to come to the U.S.

The SBI will build a DNA profile for Zahra from cheek swabs collected from her biological father, Adam Baker, and her biological mother, Emily Dietrich, who arrived on Thursday from Australia.

Elisa Baker has been provisionally assigned a public defender specializing in capital cases, in anticipation of possible murder charges. She is currently in jail on felony obstruction of justice charges after police said she tried to throw off their investigation.

Search began in October

The case came to light in October with a backyard fire and a phony ransom note.

Based on emergency calls, the Bakers appeared to suggest that Zahra might have been kidnapped while her father and stepmother were dealing with an early-morning fire. Firefighters discovered a ransom note appearing to come from someone who claimed to have abducted the daughter of Baker's boss and landlord, Mark Coffey. But the Coffey family was fine.

In a second call later that day to report Zahra missing, Adam Baker told an emergency operator that the alleged kidnappers might have taken his daughter by mistake.

Days later, Elisa Baker was arrested after police say she admitted writing the phony ransom note intended to thwart their investigation.

People who knew the family since they arrived in North Carolina last year said Zahra was frequently locked in her room for hours at a time, sometimes all day. Family friends and neighbors said they saw her with bruises and black eyes.

Elisa Baker described herself on her MySpace page as "Gothic." One posting on the page, that has since been taken down, reads: "your kids rip your heart out." The page, titled "MissGothicfairy," also contained violent music and graphics on a skull-and-crossbones background.

One posted photo showed Zahra dressed in black and smiling. The caption read: "the dark child!!!lol."

The owner of a crime memorabilia website is selling two letters he claims he received from Elisa Baker saying that her husband did something "horrifying" to the girl after her death.

"We didn't really kill her but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying," says one of the letters Eric Gein claims he got from Elisa Baker. "Makes me scared of him."

Staff writers Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Ely Portillo and the Associated Press contributed.