CALDWELL COUNTY, NC (WBTV) – Search teams combed hillsides, wooded areas, and creek banks in the Yadkin Valley area of Caldwell County Thursday looking for more bone fragments after a skull was found in the area Tuesday morning.
A turkey hunter came across the skull about 30 yards off of Winkler Way, a gravel road that connects with Highway 268. In a sheriff's department recording the hunter is clear about what he saw.
"I found a human skull, small in size," he said. When asked by the sheriff's office if he was sure it was a human skull he answered "yes, it is."
The discovery has many people speculating that it could be more remains of Zahra Baker, the ten year old Australian girl who was murdered by her stepmother in Hickory then dismembered with her remains scattered in several locations in Caldwell County.
That stepmother, Elisa Baker, led authorities to three areas where she said remains were disposed of. Skeletal remains were found in two of the places but officials said the girl's skull was never found.
Baker pled guilty to second degree murder and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison. She pled guilty to federal drug charges in January and is still awaiting sentencing.
Winkler Way, where the skull was found, is about four miles from one place where Baker said remains of Zahra were dumped in September, 2010.
Investigators said the skull has been sent to the State Bureau of Investigations lab in Raleigh where DNA tests will be used in hopes of establishing an I-D. "Nothing has been ruled out, "said Sheriff Alan Jones.
While he said it would be good to have closure in the Zahra Baker case is not discounting the possibility that the remains belong to someone else. "We have to be sure," he said.
Many of the searchers in Thursday's operation were involved in search efforts for Zahra's remains in the fall of 2010.
Jones said he didn't have to ask people to come "Many wanted to come in on their own." The case has touched the hearts of everyone involved he said and they hope they can find closure with the latest discovery.
No word yet on when test results will be back but officials think it will be a few weeks.
