Zahra Baker Case: Stepmother Elisa Baker Reportedly Cuts a Deal

Dec. 5, 2010— -- Zahra Baker's stepmother has reportedly made a deal with prosecutors that would allow her to avoid a first degree murder charge -- and a potential sentence of death or life in prison -- to help with the investigation of the girl's death.

Sources told ABC affiliate WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C., that Elisa Baker signed an agreement with prosecutors that would take first degree murder charges off the table in the death of the 10-year-old disabled girl whose dismembered body was found in November after a month-long search.

Neither Elisa Baker's attorneys nor prosecutors would confirm the deal, but warrants in the case released Tuesday detail the cooperation she has provided police in the case.

According to the documents released Tuesday night, Zahra's stepmother Elisa Baker told North Carolina police through her lawyer that after the girl's death, Zahra was dismembered, her body parts placed in trash bags and then rolled into a comforter and car cover. Baker also directed police where to look for the body parts.

In the warrant, an investigator said that "persons involved in homicides may conceal the body and /or body parts and those parts of Zahra Baker may be located" near a residence in Hickory, N.C.

Blood, bodily fluids and pieces of bone could be found in the drain of a bathtub, Elisa Baker said, the document stated.

The stepmother directed police to a dumpster where she and husband Adam Baker, the little girl's father, dumped Zahra's mattress, the warrant said. A car cover and comforter used to "conceal and transport the body parts" was also stashed in the dumpster.

Investigators eventually found Zahra's prosthetic leg wrapped in a white trash bag and tossed in a separate dumpster. A piece of bone and additional body parts were found at two additional locations.