Evil child-killer leaves veteran journalist Liz Hayes stunned

News.com.au

a day ago

She has a face that for most Aussies is synonymous with prime time television, and a career in investigative journalism that stretches back 40 years.
Liz Hayes has sat across from some of the world's biggest superstars in her role on 60 Minutes.
She's also sat down with some of Australia's worst criminals – murderers, rapists and con-artists – and for the most part, nothing much ruffles the feathers of the down-to-earth girl from Taree.
Yet in the latest episode of Gary Jubelin's I Catch Killers podcast, Hayes admits there was one interview that left her virtually speechless, so depraved was the person she was speaking with.
'Elisa Baker was the stepmother of Zahra Baker,' she begins.
Zahra Baker was a 10-year-old Australian girl who made headlines around the world back in 2010 when her father's new wife – with whom she and her dad lived in North Carolina, USA – reported her missing.
Watch the video in the player above
Zahra's life had been a challenging one. Born in Wagga Wagga in 1999, Zahra's mum Emily gave up full custody to her father Adam when she was just eight months old, after a battle with post-partum depression.
Five years later, Zahra was diagnosed with cancer, and as a result of treatment had a leg amputated and required hearing aids. Shortly after her cancer went into remission in 2008, her father Adam moved Zahra to the US, to live with his new partner Elisa – whom he'd met online.
Just two years later, little Zahra would be dead – murdered by her stepmother who pleaded guilty in 2011 to second-degree murder and dismemberment, having discarded parts of the disabled schoolgirl's body in surrounding bushland.
'I interviewed her and I swear to God, that woman … wow,' Hayes exclaims.
'I did come away going, wow, there's no part of her that's taking responsibility for this, even though she pleaded guilty. She's not taking responsibility for this at all. She kept going on about how she didn't do it, and she's so sad, and she misses Zahra. Ugh.'
Baker, who has claimed since pleading guilty that she only did so to avoid the death penalty and in fact is innocent of Zahra's murder, is currently serving a 28-year sentence and may walk free before her 70th birthday.
'Her own lawyer told her: 'the evidence is so overwhelming that there's not a chance for you here,'' says Hayes.
'But I was shocked at how hard she was going to go, claiming 'I didn't do this' … well then who did?' Hayes continues.
'I just thought at the time – my God, I just don't know if I can listen to this. I came away at the time just going … ugh. I just don't understand how anyone could do that to a little girl. Killing is one thing but mutilating them, cutting them up, hiding the pieces in the bush … I just can't get my head around that stuff.'
Hayes admits that she was also shocked that a woman had been able to commit such a grisly crime, in spite of understanding that she shouldn't be.
'It's a big step for a woman,' she says, while Jubelin responds 'it's a big step for anyone I think, cutting a body up like that.'
'I think there's a misconception that women can't commit those kinds of violent crimes,' he continues, 'but they can't because I've seen enough of it myself. But even a jury finds it difficult to convict a person who's sitting there looking like their mum.'