"It feels like losing her all over again": Missing woman's remains identified
Human remains discovered in a grassland area in New South Wales have been positively identified as those belonging to Samah Baker, a victim of a tragic murder.
The individual responsible for her murder, James Hachem, who had an intermittent relationship with her, was convicted last year for the crime that occurred in January 2019. He was subsequently handed a 24-year prison sentence in May of this year.
The recent discovery, made on July 28th, involved a woman stumbling upon the remains approximately 100 metres to the south of the Windellama Overpass in Goulburn.
Law enforcement officials have now officially confirmed the identity of these remains as belonging to Samah Baker.
The Baker family, in response to this development, released a statement expressing the persistent anguish they have endured since Samah's untimely death.
While the identification of her remains offers some solace after four-and-a-half years, it doesn't provide a complete sense of closure. The family highlighted how each new twist in the case exacerbates the wounds that have barely started healing, serving as a stark reminder of their profound loss. The statement poignantly conveys the feeling that even though her physical remains have been located, it evokes the sensation of losing her all over again.
Samah, a 30-year-old resident of Sydney, had been engaged in a tumultuous and occasionally violent relationship with Hachem, who was 37 years old, ever since their initial encounter at work in 2015.
Despite numerous breakups, Baker eventually moved on and found a new partner in December 2018. The court proceedings unveiled that Hachem had obsessively watched Baker, even waiting outside her apartment and growing increasingly furious when he observed her with her new partner on the early morning of January 4.
He concocted a ruse involving a fabricated story about his parents being in a car accident to lure Baker out of her apartment before committing the heinous act.
Hachem's premeditation extended to purchasing materials, such as a double sheet, gloves, cleaning supplies and a digging trowel from a Bunnings store, before embarking on a journey to remote regions in rural New South Wales. At the time of Hachem's sentencing, Baker's body had not yet been discovered, compounding the grief experienced by her family and friends.
The full statement from the Baker family reads:
"On Friday 4 January 2019, Samah was taken away from us in the cruellest way.
"In the years that followed, our grief has been compounded by the fact that we have not been able to have a funeral or lay her to rest.
"We never got to say goodbye to her or tell her we loved her for the last time.
"The news of her remains being discovered four and a half years later isn't a neat resolution, but it does offer a small measure of what we've been longing for all this time.
"Each development in the case feels like a reopening of our barely healed wounds, reminding us of the harsh reality of our loss.
"Even though what remains of Samah has been found, it feels like losing her all over again.
We ask for privacy in dealing with our grief."
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