Missing and Murdered Children

Original Post: June 28, 2009Updated: July 28, 2009Contact InfoView Sources

According to news reports all 10-year-old Lindsey Baum was doing Friday night was walking four blocks to her home from a friend’s house.

Lindsey had some sort of argument with her brother on the way to the friend’s house. She was only at the friends home for a short while until the friend’s father, Scott Williams, encouraged Lindsey to return to her home before it got too dark. The time was 9:15 p.m. in McCleary, Washington. In that part of the United States McCleary is just becoming blanketed by darkness. A friend even walked with Lindsey half way to her home. According to the friend nothing untoward happened while they walked together.

Lindsey’s mother, Melissa Baum, says her daughter has never run away from home. She did acknowledge that Lindsey has had difficulty adjusting to her parent’s recent split but she feels confident her daughter would not run away from home. First of all, she does not have money to run away with. Well, when children run away they don’t usually think first about how they will support themselves on the streets. They just go on emotion and run.

Lindsey’s father has been contacted at his home in Tennessee and he is not suspected in his daughter’s disappearance.

According to news accounts McCleary is a small town and the neighbors know each other very well. According to Dave Pimentel of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office:

“Such a small community like this – you can’t do much in a town this size without everybody knowing about it,”… “Everybody in town knows she’s unaccounted for.”¹

Not only does everyone in town know she is unaccounted for, they are all out looking for her. Most of the search is being conducted in the town and surrounding forests. A bloodhound brought into the search failed to pick up Lindsey’s scent.

As of this morning the FBI has been brought into the search because of their experience in solving missing children cases.

Missing Child: Lindsey J. Baum

Lindsey is described as a 10-year-old white female with brown hair and brown eyes. She stands 4’9″ tall and weighs approximately 80 pounds. When last seen she was wearing a gray or blue pullover sweatshirt with blue jeans and black shoes.²

Anyone knowing Lindsey’s whereabouts or the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is asked to call the Grays Harbor 911 Center at (800) 281-6944 or the McCleary Police Department at (360) 495-3107.

Pictures

Contacts

Tipline: 1 (866) 915-8299

Grays Harbor 911 Center: 1 (800) 281-6944

McCleary Police Department: 1 (360) 495-3107

Websites:

1. Lindsey Baum.com
2. Find Lindsey Baum.com

Updates

July 1, 2009

There is really no news in the search for Lindsey Baum. Her mother has been quoted in the local media that she believes her daughter is still alive but no longer in McCleary. She believes someone abducted her daughter. She bases her belief in the fact that the town has been thoroughly searched with no sign of her daughter.

I looked at the list of registered sex offenders in McCleary – list totals four and they all appear to be under the age of 30. One registered sex offender piqued my interest because his offense was communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. It is not a stretch to think he may have had contact with Lindsey because they both have MySpace pages. I was dismayed to see that Lindsey’s MySpace is not set to private. This is not a judgment, but an observation and my opinion. Some of the content on her page makes her appear much older than 10. I am not referring to pictures on her site because I did not see any pictures other than her profile picture. It is just my opinion that Lindsey should have kept her profile private.
I visited the MySpace page of the sex offender in question and I think he professes his desire or attraction for adult females too much. One would never suspect he has a conviction for being a pedophile because he has so many ‘seductive looking’ adult female friends. Oh, well I guess it is a good cover.

I hope Lindsey is found safe and sound and she did just decide to run away from home. Maybe she decided to head out to Tennessee to live with her dad and he is unaware of her plans. The longer Lindsey is missing, the worse the outcome is apt to be.

July 2, 2009

Lindsey’s mother and the father of the friend where Lindsey was last seen volunteered to take polygraph exams. According to a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s office both individuals passed their exams and authorities are happy with their cooperation and timeline of events.
Specialists from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have been brought in to aide in the investigation. Henry Schmidt, one of the investigators with the NCMEC opined that Lindsey most likely left with someone she knows:

“From what knowledge we have and the information that I have that it’s someone that she possibly knows, somebody that is in the area.”…³

Maybe she did meet up with one of the local sex offenders.

I think of two cases in particular of children who went missing and later found murdered. Jamie Rose Bolin went missing and her body was found in the apartment of a neighbor who lived below the family. She was 10-years-old. Destiny Norton was last seen playing on her front porch. Her body was found in a neighbor’s basement. He lived on the other side of a backyard fence. Destiny was just 5-years-old. I guess my point is you really can’t trust anyone just because they are a neighbor and you have known them for quite some time.

July 28, 2009: 2 p.m. PST

Search teams made up of the FBI, Gray’s Harbor and Pierce County Sheriff’s office are in McCleary today following up on leads. They are utilizing search dogs to aid them in the search for Lindsey Baum. CrimeStoppers has offered a $6,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the whereabouts of Lindsey Baum.⁴

Sources

1. FBI Joins Search for Missing 10-Year-Old Girl, KOMONews.com, Last Accessed: June 28, 2009. [↩]
2. Lindsey J. Baum Missing Poster, NCMEC, Last Accessed: June 28, 2009. [↩]
3. FBI: Stranger Not Likely Behind Girl’s Disappearance, KOMO News.com, Last Accessed: July 28, 2009. [↩]
4. Searchers With Dogs Looking for Missing McCleary Girl, KIROTV.com, Last Accessed: July 28, 2009. [↩]