Emily Dietrich flew to the US in time to appear in court when Elisa Baker was sentenced after pleading guilty to the charges of second degree murder of her stepdaughter, 10 year old Zahra Baker. Elisa Baker made a plea deal and was sentenced to only 15 to 18 years behind bars.

Zahra Baker was an Australian girl who along with her father, came to the states to live with Elisa Baker after Zahra’s father, Adam Baker married Elisa. Zahra was not your typical 10 year old little girl though. She had had experienced things in her short life that most adults would never be able to handle.

She had fought with bone cancer and ended up losing a leg from it but she never let that stop her. She learned out to walk using a prosthetic leg. She lost her hearing and had to wear a hearing aid as well but none of this wiped that gorgeous smile from her little face.

According to Elisa Baker, Zahra had died two weeks prior to when she was reported missing in October 2010. She claims that her husband, Adam Baker was involved and that he helped her dispose of the body but Adam Baker denies having any part in it. Police claim they have no evidence against Adam saying that his cell phone records show he was no where in the area where his daughter’s remains were found.

Dietrich spoke out finally about her feelings towards her daughter’s father’s involvement saying, “I still hold a lot of resentment towards him. There is a big difference being not guilty and being innocent and I don’t think he is innocent of what happened. He had played all his own part.”

Adam told the police that he had not seen his daughter for weeks before she was reported missing. According to the police, Baker admitted to them that he spent more time smoking marijuana than with his daughter. Adam Baker is telling the world that he went to work everyday and came home everyday, yet for two weeks he never questioned how come he had not seen his daughter. Most of the people in the world following this case find that really hard to believe, but the police say that Adam was not a part of it.

Dietrich realizes that people look down on her since she had given up custody of Zahra when she was just a baby mostly because she was suffering from postpartum depression. “I didn’t want to hate my child. I didn’t want to be that news story that you hear where a mother’s drowned her child or that couldn’t stop them from crying so they smothered them. I didn’t want to be that mother.”

Emily Dietrich said, “I didn’t do it because I didn’t love her. I did it because I lover her.”

In all fairness, should she really be blamed? We hear all about mothers that murder their kids or how some allow others to abuse them. We always say, if the mother didn’t want to child she should have given them to someone who would have taken care of them. This is what this young mother did. She thought Zahra would have been better off with her father since she was suffering from the postpartum depression.

She claims she spent years looking for her daughter when she was well but didn’t locate her until it was too late. “She was already gone. The day we found her she was already gone. She was gone for two weeks beforehand,” she stated.

My heart goes out to Emily. My prayers will be with her as well. I know now though that Zahra knows her mother had been looking for her.

Jan Barrett