Elisa Baker, Zahra Baker’s stepmother, told police the 10-year-old died on Sept. 24 and was dismembered the following day by her father, according to search warrants released Tuesday.

Zahra Baker was reported missing on Oct. 9. Her father, Adam Baker, told Hickory police that he last saw her sleeping in her bedroom at about 2:30 a.m. An Amber Alert was issued and a massive search for Zahra ensued.

The prosthetic leg Zahra wore after losing hers to bone cancer was found on Oct. 26 along Christie Road in Caldwell County. Her remains were found on Nov. 10 in the Dudley Shoals area of Caldwell County.

Elisa Baker told Hickory police on Nov. 19 that Adam Baker dismembered Zahra’s body on Sept. 25 and then disposed of the body parts in various locations, including the Christie Road and Dudley Shoals areas, the warrants say.

After receiving that information, investigators reviewed Adam Baker’s cell phone records and the phone’s GPS locator from Sept. 25, the warrants say. According to those records, Adam Baker's phone was not in the areas where Zahra’s remains were found on the day that Elisa Baker said he disposed of them, according to the documents.

Elisa Baker’s cell phone records indicate that her phone was in those areas on that day, the warrants say.

The warrants do not say how Zahra died.

Elisa Baker’s aunt, Buzzie Winkler, said her niece told her Zahra Baker died after being sick. Elisa and Adam Baker didn't know what to do, Winkler said.

“She said (Zahra) had been sick about two weeks and then they went in and found her dead that night,” Winkler, who visited Elisa Baker in jail this week, said. “They didn't know what to do.”

Elisa Baker’s attorney, Scott Reilly, met with her in jail on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the unsealed warrants. Elisa Baker has been jailed over the course of the investigation, charged with obstruction of justice after police said she admitted to writing a fake ransom note on the day that Zahra was reported missing.

“Don't jump to any conclusion on the case,” Reilly told Channel 9. “Other than that, I don't have any comment.”

The unsealed documents show police and prosecutors sought records from a variety of wireless communication providers, including cell phone records for men Elisa Baker had been romantically involved with before marrying Adam Baker.

One of those men was Aaron Young, who was married to Elisa at some point. The documents say Elisa and Young remained close and that she told Adam that Young was her brother. One warrant says pictures on the Facebook pages maintained by both Elisa and Young showed him with Zahra Baker.

“Obtaining Aaron Young's telephone records or telephone number will likely provide information substantially related to this homicide investigation,” the court documents say.

Young was again mentioned, along with Adam and Elisa Baker, in a portion of the warrants that details investigators’ efforts to get records from the Instant Messaging Virtual Universe website. The social networking and gaming site allows users to create three-dimensional avatars and communicate with each other.

According to a Nov. 8 warrant, police were told that an IMVU user had a conversation with Adam Baker and Elisa Baker "regarding their involvement with chainsaw massacre role-playing" that included Young.

"The date of Sept. 22 was given regarding their virtual family 'doing a murder with chainsaws,"' the warrant says.

Some of the unsealed warrants also showed that police sought Elisa Baker's medical records from several local hospitals. They also wanted information from social service agencies including Caldwell, Gaston and Alexander counties about past allegations of abuse involving Elisa Baker and her three biological children dating as far back as 1999.

The documents also mention a report filed in July 2010 regarding allegations that Elisa Baker had been physically abusing Zahra Baker and had given her a black eye. The report was filed with the Caldwell County Department of Social Services and then transferred to the Catawba County DSS, the warrants say.

The documents also paint a clearer picture of what investigators collected from the Bakers’ home on 21st Avenue NW in Hickory. Warrants from October and November reveal that, in addition to cutting out parts of the wall and floor in the home, officers took cameras and more than a half-dozen cell phones during a search of the home. They also took more than 30 blood swabs, tissue and hair samples and removed hearing aid parts, crutches, latex gloves, a knife and a stun gun from the home.

Police declined to comment on the case and the unsealed warrants. A source told Channel 9 that only a summary of the case has been presented to the district attorney. The case involves thousands more pages of information that has not yet been given to prosecutors.