Human remains found in Goulburn have been identified as 30-year-old Parramatta woman Samah Baker.
On July 28, officers from The Hume Police District established a crime scene in grassland off the Hume Highway after a woman located the remains of a human body.
Extensive further searches of the area revealed further remains.
Following the examination and analysis by NSW Health Pathology, the remains were confirmed as belonging to Baker.
The young woman was last seen after she was dropped off at her home in Parramatta by a friend early on the morning of January 4, 2019.
Baker’s former boyfriend James Hachem was arrested later that year and charged with her murder.
His Supreme Court case in May this year revealed that Hachem killed Baker in the early hours of January 4, 2019.
The Court was told Hachem waited for Baker in his car in the street outside her Parramatta unit block. After watching her kiss someone else he became greatly angered.
Hacham then concocted a story about his parents having been involved in a car accident in order to convince Baker to leave her unit and see him, where he then killed her and proceeded to place her body in the boot of his mother’s car.
He was sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment and a non-parole period of 18 years, backdated to his arrest in 2019.
Following the news that her remains had been located, Baker’s family released the below statement:
“On Friday, January 4, 2019, Samah was taken away from us in the cruellest way,” the Baker family said.
“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 Baker family said the news of the 30-year-old’s remains being discovered four and a half years later isn’t a “neat resolution,” but that it does offer a small measure of what they’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,” the statement continued.
“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.”
Police will continue to liaise with the NSW Coroner.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.