CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Searchers in North Carolina expanded their search for a missing 10-year-old girl and drained a pond but found nothing, authorities said.
Zahra Baker, who is hearing impaired and has a prosthetic leg, was reported missing by her father and stepmother Saturday but police say they're unable to confirm that anyone outside the household had seen her in the last month, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Searchers used hoses to drain the 4-foot-deep pond in Burke Country Wednesday night but nothing was uncovered.
The pond is near property owned by Real Tree Services where Adam Baker, Zahra's father, works.
"It's very disappointing," Burke County Sheriff's Office Lt. Becky Weatherman said. "If she's deceased, we would like to provide closure for the family."
Earlier Wednesday Zahra's stepmother Elisa Baker made her first appearance in court on obstruction of justice charges.
Police said she admitted to writing a phony ransom note found at the family's Hickory, N.C., home Saturday.
Police say the note was meant to obstruct investigators in the hunt for the missing girl, a case they're now calling a homicide, the Observer reported.
Zahra Baker was born in southeast Australia. She lost her left leg below the knee to bone cancer when she was 5, and the disease also left her hearing impaired.
She moved to the United States last year with her father after he struck up an online romance with Elisa Baker.
Several former neighbors and a relative have accused Baker of repeatedly abusing the girl, ABC reported.
