HICKORY, N.C., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Searchers in North Carolina have discovered a bone that may belong to a 10-year-old girl missing for almost a month, police said.
Hickory police said Wednesday they forwarded the specimen to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported. Deputy Chief Clyde Deal said the bone was found in Caldwell County but he did not say specifically where.
The development came as teams drained a pond near a spot where they recently found a prosthetic leg investigators have determined belonged to Zahra Baker, whose father reported her missing Oct. 9.
Her lower left leg was amputated because of bone cancer.
Earlier Wednesday, the newspaper reported a man had claimed Zahra's stepmother has written that the child is dead. "Eric Gein," a false name for the owner of the Web site serialkillersink.net, said he is selling two letters he received from stepmother Elisa Baker, purporting to claim her husband, Adam, did something to the girl's body.
"We didn't really kill her but what he did after the fact is kinda horrifying," one of the letters says. "Makes me scared of him".
Hickory police could not confirm the letters' authenticity. Deal said late Tuesday much of the information they contain has been widely reported and is not new.
UPI
