Police in North Carolina believe they have found a prosthetic leg belonging to missing Australian girl Zahra Baker, who is feared dead.
Zahra, who lost a leg to bone cancer and is hearing impaired, was reported missing from her home in the small North Carolina town of Hickory on October 9. She lived there with her Australian father Adam Baker and American stepmother Elisa.
Police believe Zahra has been murdered and have refused to rule out her father and stepmother, whom Baker met on the internet, as suspects.
Hickory police chief Tom Adkins told reporters on Wednesday that the leg was found in a brushy area off a Christie Road in Caldwell County late on Tuesday afternoon.
"We are attempting to positively confirm the prosthetic leg is Zahra's by the serial number inside the outer cover," Adkins.
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"The prosthetic leg was originally fitted in Australia and will take some time to confirm its hers."
Hickory police are in the process of obtaining her Australian medical records, including the model, composition and serial number of the leg.
DNA testing was still being conducted on a mattress found earlier at the Foothills Environmental landfill.
Adam and Elisa Baker, who told police Zahra may have been the victim of a kidnap, have not been ruled out as suspects in the October 9 disappearance.
Elisa Baker, 42, remains in custody after police charged her with obstruction of justice for allegedly writing a fake ransom note found on the day police were alerted Zahra was missing.
Former Queensland sugar mill worker Adam Baker was arrested on Monday on charges not related to his daughter's disappearance. The charges included five counts of writing worthless checks, two counts of communicating threats and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.
