Zahra Baker Case: Stepmom Elisa Baker Investigated for Bigamy

Nov. 19, 2010— -- Police are investigating possible bigamy charges against the stepmother of Zahra Baker, the disabled North Carolina girl whose body was found dismembered earlier this month.

"It's something that we found out during the course of this [Zahra's] investigation," a police official told ABC News of the investigation into Elisa Baker's alleged second husband. The investigation is not connected to Zahra's death, the official said.

The bizarre twist in the case comes as investigators wait for a "couple hundred" pieces of evidence related to Zahra Baker's death to return from lab analysis, the official said.

Elisa Baker is currently in jail, held on charges including felony obstruction of justice for allegedly admitting to penning a $1 million ransom note that was discovered Oct. 9, the same day Zahra was first reported missing from her Hickory, N.C., home. Zahra lost her left leg and hearing in a childhood battle with cancer. The girl's prosthetic leg, a bone fragment and remains were found in separate locations.

The man who was reportedly married to Elisa Baker before she married Adam Baker in Australia in 2008 lived across the street from the Baker family's Sawmills, N.C., home, according to divorce papers cited in a report by ABC News' Charlotte affiliate WSOC.

"She always told us it was her brother and then, after they moved out, I found out it was her old man," neighbor Bobby Green told WSOC.

Last month, it was revealed in court that Elisa Baker had received $10,000 over the past year from a man in England, but he is not involved in the bigamy investigation, police said.

An attorney for Elisa Baker, Scott Reilly, was unavailable for comment on the bigamy allegations.

Her current husband, Adam Baker, was also held in prison on unrelated charges, but has been released on bond.

Adam Baker Denies He Dismembered Zahra

Elisa Baker remains in jail despite her request to the court to lower bail. She argued in court papers that her bail should be reduced because she has been cooperating with the invesitgation into Zahra's death, telling police that the girl's body was dismembered and showing police where to fiind the remains.

Adam Baker made rare public comments earlier this week to deny he had anything to do with his daughter's dismemberment.

"There's no way I would do that to my baby," Adam Baker told WBTV. "There's no way in the world I would hurt my daughter."

In jailhouse letters, Elisa Baker said her husband, Adam, did something "horrifying" to Zahra after she was dead. Adam Baker's attorney told ABC News Tuesday those claims were nothing more than a "desperate" attempt at distraction.

Two weeks before police announced they had found Zahra Baker's remains, Elisa Baker indicated in another jailhouse letter obtained exclusively by ABC News that the child was dead, but expressed no remorse or guilt -- only self-pity and vague accusations against her husband.

"I was trying to save us both, but why should I? He is letting everyone destroy me," Elisa Baker wrote, referring to Adam Baker.

In an earlier letter Elisa Baker wrote, "We really didn't kill her, but what he [Adam Baker] did after the fact is kinda horrifying."

In the latest letter, Baker said she "ain't the monster people are saying."

She also said she was frustrated by her lawyer's refusal to allow her to do TV interview requests. "I want a chance to be heard damn it. This is my life and everyone is playing with and I have no control over what is said or done," she wrote.

She sarcastically commented on the negative media attention she's received. "Maybe I should just change my name to Evil, what do you think? LOL."

In the letter, written to crime memorabilia dealer Eric Gein, Baker says she will be living alone when she gets out of prison. In three rambling pages, she never mentions Zahra or any concern for her stepdaughter, who was still a missing person when the letter was written on Oct. 29. She also doesn't cite any remorse for the girl's disappearance.

Gein, who runs the website SerialKillersInk.net, told ABC News he contacted Elisa Baker by letter weeks ago under an assumed name. The most recent letter is the third he received in return.

A capital punishment attorney, Lisa Dubs, has been "provisionally appointed for any potential homicide charge" in Baker's defense, according to Baker's primary attorney Scott Reilly.

Zahra was reported missing by her stepmother and father on Oct. 9, but police have said no one outside of the family has reported seeing her since Sept. 25.

The girl had a grueling life. Stricken with bone cancer, she lost her left leg and much of her hearing. Relatives and neighbors said that Elisa Baker, was abusive to Zahra, who was often bruised.

ABC News' Yunji de Nies and Dean Schabner contributed to this report.