Why dismember?

[teddiebear1955]

I just assumed it was to help prevent identification should she ever be found. I would think there would be exceptionally few missing persons who are also amputees...

MOO.... I think that EB was/is very mean person. She hated Zahra from the moment she met her. She was made to bring her here(new hubby) and take care of her, no extra money but extra work. Zahra got attention that EB wanted both from AB and from outsiders.
And i believe when she was raped that EB told AB she was entering puberty and was acting moody ( explaining blood away )
Zahra (if hit in the head) may have been sleeping alot so AB ignored her.
As for dismembering ...hmmmm i think EB wanted to experiment...cant believe i'm saying this ..wanted to hurt Zahra as much as possible...knowing full well that Zahra wouldnt live thru it .maybe even told AB that she could fix her ....
EB in jail singin like a canary ...well of course and blame it all on AB !!!!!!
sorry i have to stop now ..but you get where i'm going with this ....jmoo

 

[Mountain_Kat]

I don't think that's enough lidocaine to numb someone for dismemberment and if that much lidocaine was used, it may be lethal for someone her age and size.

Dismemberment for stealthy transportation of the body out of the house and to create difficulty in finding the remains and identifying them if found.

When I had my bone marrow biopsy, they used six ampules of lidocaine, and I was still in agony. No way is the amount found on the search warrant enough to numb someone for...dismemberment, imo. Plus, if you were going to kill someone via that method, why would you care how much pain they felt? You're killing them, you know?

JMO

 

[MIbarb]

I can only think of one reason--they had something to hide.

 

[Harmony 2]

From a psychological perspective, I found this on the net about dismemberment from this book:

Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool By Ronald M. Holmes, Stephen T. Holmes

http://books.google.com/books?id=a2...A#v=onepage&q=dismemberment profiling&f=false

 

[Kat]

Thanks Harmony.

I was just going to add my thoughts and your post says it more clearly than I was thinking.

Why was Zahra dismembered? To obscure evidence...I agree.

But also to obliterate her. To completely destroy her and all that she represented to the murderer(s).

Murdering is one thing but to take apart a human body and then to distribute those pieces of that human being shows a deep seated hatred to me. Seething almost obsessive hatred. IMHO. Especially when the victim is a little girl who posed no threat to anyone.

JMHO.

 

[x_files]

Plans made while doing meth?


I may be giving her more credit than she deserves, but I think she is a really good manipulator.

Plans well on meth.
It does sound like the case.

 

[cyberborg]

My thoughts are, not finding the body (so no COD) and claiming natural causes in which they panicked about reporting ... so dumped her works as a Defense -- if they just hid the remains well.

What blows this defense out of the water was to dismember. That's a desperate act that does not gel with the above ... so goes to clearly show a need to cover-up the crime, so desperately the remains needed to be 'destroyed'.

A Jury could sympathize with parents who lost their child and acted in-appropriately in dumping rather than reporting. The topic of dismemberment, to have knowledge of or to have participated in ... crosses all boundaries and places the parents in a new heinous light.

It is interesting that they went to these lengths to destroy and hide the body (CoD) yet EB broke quickly once caught and spilled ... hoping to save herself and implicate AB. Hmmmm?

 

[miabellamoure]

If the ransom note was legit, I'd say it was for concealment purposes. Hoping she would just be listed as kidnapped and stay that way when no one ever found her.

I think it may have been to also hide evidence of other crimes.

Odd if they really rationalized that a "ranson note & missing (kidnapped) child would not cause a LOT of attention...seems it would have been better to have kept quiet.

If anyone had asked in EB's family where Zahra was lately...they could have just said she went back home to live with her Grandparents, Bio-Mom, etc. which would have bought them a lot more time to figure out a plan to get away with this.

 

[scmom]

Here's an interesting link with an article on reasons for dismemberment.
http://www.legalmedicinejournal.com/article/S1344-6223(06)00097-6/abstract

Also from
http://listverse.com/2010/11/01/15-ways-we-handle-the-dead/

In modern times, the most likely reasons for dismemberment are to hide the identity of the deceased, or to make the corpse more accessible for transport or fitting into tight spaces. Thus, it is typically performed postmortem. Because fingerprints, hair samples, facial modeling and toe prints can all be used to indicate identity, there are good reasons why many murderers take the extra time to do this.

 

[lauriej]

...She had to have tried at least a fake sentiment in Australia based on the wedding pictures because IMO Zahra looks really happy there. .

..it has been noted that those wedding pics that included zahra, in the blue dress, weren't of E&A's wedding, but one previously.

..she is so adorable in those pics, i bet she had a great time and danced the night away...

 

[K9Snoop]

I don't know what the laws are concerning a death at home, but in PA, you have to have an autopsy. My uncle died in his sleep at home in his bed and the law required one.

An autopsy is not always required. If the person is under physician care or hospice care (which may denote a terminal condition) then an autopsy is not always necessary. At death, hospice is called and they send out some folks who will wash and dress the body and report the at-home death. At the funeral home, a cursory examiniation was done prior to the death certificate issuance. If there are no overt signs of murder then the paperwork goes forward. And for the more morid among us - in my state - the family can transport the body themselves to the F'home and a death certificate is not required unless transporting across state lines.

 

[darnudes]

What's funny (although that is not the right word) but what is funny, strange, weird, bizarre, is that many weeks later after knowing Zahra was dismembered, people are still trying to find a reason why.

Personally speaking, putting my thinking cap on, there is one reason and one reason only why you would want to cut up a body into small pieces and put those pieces in separate places. I don't need to spell it out.

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to, to justify the behaviour of those involved. I guess I have seen too damn much in my life. Anyway, carry on. I'm sure there is a lot of grist for the mills for certain lawyers in them thar hills such as these.

 

[peg4x4]

I was a vet tec at one time,and raised on a farm.... Actual dismemberment is not that hard if you seperate at the joints.. I can not imagion doing this to a child..

 

[miabellamoure]

That's a good point - perhaps they realized that an intact body with one missing leg would be too easily identified - though any ten year old found in an area with one missing ten year old would be fairly easy.

Perhaps they didn't realize it is extremely easy to tell the difference between a recent (postmortem) amputation and an old antemortem one.

And the only part of that that doesn't make sense to me is if AB & EB were hoping to confuse LE in the identity of this as being of a female child with a single leg amputatee why stop with the legs?

More importantly...why not discard that mattress AND the prosthetic leg a GREAT distance away from where they did...like in another state?

Maybe it was to go along with their kidnapping alibi...look, the kidnappers even dismembered only her leg & stump...???? Sheesh...

The only thing that comes to mind when I hear what I've heard so far in this case is...DUMB & DUMBER!

 

[SunnyinMO]

Since I doubt anyone here is an evil child murderer, can we ever understand the why? I for one do not want to understand why.

 

[KMouse]

An autopsy is not always required. If the person is under physician care or hospice care (which may denote a terminal condition) then an autopsy is not always necessary. At death, hospice is called and they send out some folks who will wash and dress the body and report the at-home death. At the funeral home, a cursory examiniation was done prior to the death certificate issuance. If there are no overt signs of murder then the paperwork goes forward. And for the more morid among us - in my state - the family can transport the body themselves to the F'home and a death certificate is not required unless transporting across state lines.

Where I live if the death happens at home and it is expected as in somebody being home for pallative care then the doctor fills out a form prior. If the death is unexpected and occurs in the home then the medical examiner must be notified. In both situations the police are notified. The medical examiner will perform an autopsy on people who die at home but were not expected to die.

 

[balaney]

I think Zahra was dismembered because she had an amputated leg and if they left her body whole someplace and it was found, it would hit the news and people would be aware that there was a dead child with an amputation - fingers would point to the Bakers. I think they were going to go on for awhile pretending she did not exist then move and start their lives over as a married couple with no kids. There would be no Zahra papertrail.

 

[PorcineGranny]

While she may have been dismembered for the reason stated above, I feel she was dismembered because she had been sexually attacked and her parents wanted to hide that fact as it is a crime and would put a light on their treatment and abuse of this child.

If she had just died, why not notify authorities, no, I think there is something very evil and sinister to dismember her little body.

 

[Dr. Know?]

Welcome Kmouse!

 

[PorcineGranny]

Just my opinion, but to even consider dismemberment there had to be some type of physical signs of abuse or possibly a purposeful type killing after she was raped. I just can't see anyone bringing on that kind of actual work for no good reason. Especially these people.

May God bless Zahra and hold her dear always. I so wish someone had saved her, but then we have to trust in our Heavenly Father and his wisdom.

I pray she will get justice.