Lindsey Baum, Still Missing

I check for news of her every Friday.  There is no news.  I last posted about missing child Lindsey Baum in October, 2011.

That there is no definitive news does not mean that no work is being done on the case.  In mid-February, Grays Harbor County authorities turned up the heat on a man who has long been a "person of interest" in her disappearance.  His identity is well-known, and easily discoverable, if you are intent on knowing.  I am not giving his name because, in the course of some energetic online amateur sleuthing of Lindsey's case, there have been occasional episodes of maliciousness against people whom authorities have questioned, and even against people with no connection to the case at all (except "psychic" ones).

Someone once suggested a local Youth Minister as a suspect, because he tended to be surrounded by... youth -- and published not just his name and place of employment, but a map to his home.  Someone else, who continues to wield a weird influence, dreamed the initials of an area park ranger and then damned him with the discovery that he owned a... boat.  Do you see the weirdness that can ensue?

In any event, the current real focus is on one individual, whose home and business have both been searched, and who has been interviewed several times.  Caught in a lie, he seems to be the only suspect yet identified, though there still has been no forensic evidence produced beyond the video debunking his alibi.

In a search warrant, police note over 100 items were taken from the McCleary man who owns a jewelry store in the area. The items were taken from his car, home and business and include, according to KIROTV.com:


Apparent fingernail from passenger side of car
Ropes and straps
Numerous computers and computer storage devices
Pink sheet with unknown stains
Brown duffle bag with assumed human hair
Handwritten notes regarding missing child


Just last week, authorities released convenience store footage showing the person of interest. They note that he told police he was out of town when Lindsey vanished, however, the video of him at the store proves he was actually in the area at the time.

From YouTube comment section:

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Department has identified two women seen in a grocery store video from the night that Lindsey Baum disappeared.  County Undersheriff Rick Scott said his agency has been able to find the two sisters, who are local to McCleary, and will interview them soon. The video clip, from Mike’s Market in McCleary on June 26, 2009, was withheld at the request of the FBI until now.
kbkwnews [posted 1 month ago]

****************************************************************************

Around 9:15 pm on June 26, 2009 Lindsey J. Baum, an 11-year old from the tiny town of McCleary, Washington, disappeared while walking from a friend's house to her home, only four short blocks away.

She's now 14.  Her birthday is coming up on July 7.

The physical changes a young girl experiences in that particular span of ages are sure to have greatly altered her appearance.

It feels foolish to continue noting that, on June 26, 2009, Lindsey was 4-foot 9-inches tall, weighed 80 pounds, her brown hair and brown eyes offset by a hooded pullover.

Still, there are things about the face that never change. Those eyes, that mouth, the smile. Face shape, feature spacing and scale. Age-invariant characteristics. Forensic artists (and the software they use) factor in the ways a person has changed in the past, even as short a past as Lindsey's, and how relatives have aged, as well as extrapolations based on large amounts of data from the wider population.

It is reported that Lindsey has a scar over her left eye, a dark brown birthmark on her right wrist and colored fillings in some of her teeth.

But she's doubtless no longer 4'9" and not likely to still weigh 80 pounds. Fourteen to fifteen year old girls average 63-64 inches in height and 105-115 pounds in weight. Of course, her numbers at age 10 were already higher in each category than the average.

That summer evening two years ago, Lindsey had just argued with her brother, but most everyone notes that she wasn't storming off mad. She didn't have the accoutrements you think required of a modern runaway -- no money, no cell phone, no change of clothes.

Some friends set out with her, so she was accompanied for a while before they peeled off to go to their own homes for dinner, or homework, a bath or shower, whatever.

Two of those four blocks are reported to be somewhat industrial -- though we are talking *rural* small town. One block away is access to a major highway.

As any child would be, Lindsey was troubled by her parents' recent divorce. Her father lived in Tennessee. He was deployed to Iraq not long after she went missing.  Her mother and brother no longer live in McCleary.  Life for them has been hard and cruel.

The last time I checked, a reward of $30,000 is being offered by Crimestoppers and the National

Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

There have been many searches, search warrants, several people of interest -- but no signs of Lindsey, and no real clues or advances in the case.  Still, we all still shake our heads and mutter that someone, somewhere, knows something.  What will it take for that someone to tell that something, and will it bring the child home?

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum,

please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office

at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Or simply call 911.

New Search Warrant Served: Lindsey Baum UPDATE

I don't know whether this means progress in the case of missing child Lindsey Baum, but it is heartening to find such a good article at this point in time, after months of silence about her.  Just renewing the information is a positive event -- Someone who has not yet heard the details may now have their memory jogged, may know something.

Thank you, Sky Valley Chronicle, for the update and the comprehensive summation.

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum,

please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office

at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Or simply call 911.

NEW SEARCH WARRANT SERVED IN BAFFLING CASE OF MISSING McCLEARY GIRL October 19, 2011

(McCLEARY, WA) -- FBI officers along with Grays Harbor County sheriff's deputies served a search warrant Tuesday on a McCleary, Washington jewelry store in the continuing search for missing Lindsay Baum.

Detectives searched Hartman's Jewelry and Repair located at 133 South 4th Street in McCleary – the same street in McCleary where then 10-year old Lindsay mysteriously vanished on June 26, 2009. while walking home from a friend’s house.

It was a route just a few blocks from home she had taken many times before.

Detectives also searched the store owners' residence, which is located outside of McCleary.

This latest search is one of many that officials have conducted in the ongoing investigation. 


In June of 2010, one year after Lindsay vanished, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents spent several hours searching a McCleary home in the 100 block of Fir street and an Easy Storage locker in the same community as part of the ongoing investigation.

It has not been disclosed what, if anything, investigators found at either location that might pertain to the missing girl.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s office sought and obtained search warrants to go through both locations during June 2010, which are connected they said, to a person of interest in the investigation.

Local television broadcast reports at that time said the person of interest in the searches was a 47-year-old man who lives at the home that was searched and who shares the storage unit with the home's owners.

The reports said the man is someone investigators spoke to in the days following Baum's disappearance and that he lives one block off the route she would have been walking to get to her house.

Lindsay was just a few weeks shy of her eleventh birthday on July 7th, when she disappeared in the daylight June 26, 2009 while walking a few blocks from a friend’s house to her own home.

By February of 2010 investigators said they had received more than 1,200 tips in the case but at that time had no solid leads. Numerous searches for the girl in a variety of locations turned up nothing.

In late June of 2010 the FBI released a new video (SEE THE VIDEO BELOW) in hopes it might result in new leads in the investigation.

The video clips are from a Shell-Mart gas station in McCleary. They were recorded at approximately 9:30 p.m. on June 26, 2009 — right about the time Lindsay went missing.

The footage shows a man dressed in a brown shirt, black shorts and a Mariners cap, accompanied by a young boy, walking into the gas station and later leaving. It also shows the newer-model white Honda Ridgeline truck the man was driving. 

Both the man and the boy could be important witnesses regarding the disappearance because they were in the vicinity when Lindsay went missing.

The FBI says the man and boy may not be from McCleary. They could have simply been passing through on that evening. If you believe you recognize the man shown — or if you are this individual — you are asked to contact your nearest FBI office as soon as possible.

The FBI, along with the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department and other local and state law enforcement partners, continues to work all existing and new leads in this case. If you have any information about the disappearance of Lindsey Baum, please contact your local FBI office.

ANOTHER VIDEO

On June 3, 2010, also in the hope it might generate some new clues and tips to Lindsay’s disappearance, police investigators in McCleary released the video below of Lindsay Baum that was filmed about eight months before she vanished.



The video was provided to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Department by a neighborhood family whose child, the young boy, is seen in the video with Lindsey.

In the video the kids are seen play-acting a skit they created and was videotaped by the parent.

The video was made on or about November of 2008 and shows what Lindsey looked like about eight months before her disappearance.

The purpose of the video is to show Lindsey’s likeness in full motion, her movements, mannerisms and voice, so that anyone who sees Lindsey may be able to more easily identify who she is.

There is a website dedicated to finding Lindsay Baum: http://www.findlindseybaum.com/

Out in it, Lost

This is the thirty-fifth post on this blog about missing child Lindsey Baum.  Now 13, she was 10-years-old when she went missing the evening of June 26, 2009 while walking the short distance home from a friend's house in McCleary, Washington, a small town west of Olympia.

It's probably only a slight exaggeration to say there have been no leads in the case.  Most of the press about Lindsey has come in the form of reward announcements (now $35,000) and commemorative events -- her birthdays, anniversaries of her disappearance.

There is no new information about her case except for the occasional weirdness contributed by internet "sleuths" -- like the forensic astrologists and the disturbing number of psychic crime fighters who don't seem to have a clue as to the damage they might cause.  I've lost serious sleep over some of their contributions, as they've been known to call/write in tips to law enforcement without including the elucidating tidbit that their information was obtained in a backwater séance conducted by a wannabe Miss Marple whose cusped ass is ascending in venetian retrograde.

One of the worst offenders is a warlock named Ren.  (Now that's a sentence I never thought I'd write!) Ren claims residence in Japan, or Seattle, whichever suits his warlocky mood.

Please note, I've nothing against Wicca, and a great deal for paganism, in fact.  (My Beloved self-indentified, once upon a time, as a Druid.  One of our first dates had for purpose my introduction to a certain tree he knew.)

In 2009, I'd never followed a missing child case before, not with any sense of personal commitment, and I tended to believe in the integrity of anyone I "met" who shared my interest in this lost little girl.  Yes -- even online. Call it an exaggerated extension of my own sense of virtue. This tendency has caused me a whole host of difficulties and despite being made to attend workshops like How Not To Be (Quite Such) An Idiot and So They Say You're Gullible! -- I've not made much headway into becoming Savvy.  You know, Perceptive.  Shrewd.

What is making me squirm right at this very moment is my desire to Show-and-Tell, to sit with my Respected and Respectful Readership and vent, saying, "See!  Would you just look at this crap?" It might make me feel less alone in this big warehouse crammed to the rafters with carefully folded, rolled, bagged, and labelled Remnants of Insanity.

[With the help of psychotherapy, I've traced my Insanity Imagery back to the traumas of my youth. When I was but a child of five, I participated in a three-day forced search for the perfect rug to furnish my grandparents' living room.  Dragged from one textile outlet center to another, pushed through a frenzy of opium-drenched bazaars, insidiously trained -- against my will -- to prefer antique silk or wool colored by natural vegetable dye, by the third day of my carpet enslavement, I distinguished Turkish Ladiks from Iranian Kashans, but did so without enjoyment and in near catatonia.  I learned, above all, that the purportedly loving and discerning adults of my sphere had been rendered completely daft, dotty, buggy, batty, bonkers by a bunch of carpet.]

Give me a moment.
I try to remember that these sordid events of my childhood are also the experiences that shaped me into the perfect Caretaker for the Haddock family ancestral manor -- my knowledge of textiles, no matter how horribly obtained, is matched only by my grasp of the history of ductile iron development.

Okay, let's move on, or return, rather, to the online underbelly of internet cause célèbres -- cases that are not confused by truth value or hampered by much reality.

What matters is that folks like Ren not have their nonsense repeated, especially in a forum designed for the sole furtherance of mine own ridiculousness. There are, also, responsible members of his "community" who have begun to take him to task, as thankless an endeavor as I can imagine:

I think you are just using her as a vehicle to promote your non-existent psychic abilities.
I don't believe a single word you have posted about your supposed involvement in the matter, mainly because you have not posted any evidence indicating it is anything but another one of your fantasies.

Suffice it to say that Ren sometimes asserts findings from his Remote Viewings that could ruin a person.  He dreams, intuits, and magicks lists of potential child kidnappers;  He publishes small facts about real people with real names, with addresses, with jobs and telephone numbers, with shoe sizes and religious affiliations, and, sometimes, with tender children of their own.  He dribbles someone's reality all over his virtual pages and then illustrates them with, say, a helpful Google satellite view of their neighborhood.

You pray that it ends there, but it never does.

In short order, some poor fool, a Gullible, if you like, stumbles upon Ren's assertions through a search for "Lindsey Baum." To Our Bewildered One, not privy to the post-upon-post and site-by-site build-up of Ren's psychic babbling, it might well seem that here was someone with an insider's access to information.  Finally, some details about this innocent child's disappearance;  Finally, someone to blame!  How very exciting, how easily repeated, how effortlessly transformed from Pure Detritus into Semblances of Truth.

It's a fascinating but ugly process, watching inanity be teased from such threads, slowly divorced from the original conning murky source.  A name catches on, an idea takes hold, fevered brains go to work... and within days there's been so much cutting-and-pasting, citing-and-conniving, that you could find a housebound home-schooling Mom in Tucson blogging in red-faced exasperation about Ren's "suspects" and how these Walking Moral Turpitudes have repeatedly lied to the police and totally escaped justice... Though when they find time for police interviews is hard to figure, given that the pediatric sex orgies in the half-finished basements of their double-wides cannot long be left unattended.

It's a wacky world, and Lindsey, in one form or another, is out in it, lost.

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum,

please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office

at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Or simply call 911.

Lindsey Baum -- Two properties being searched

KXRO AM news radio reports:

Grays Harbor County sheriff's deputies and FBI agents are searching two properties in McCleary for a girl who disappeared more than a year ago while walking home from a friend's house. Chief Criminal Deputy Dave Pimintel says detectives served search warrants Tuesday for the two locations - a house and a storage area. Pimentel says the search is similar to several others that have taken place in and around McCleary over the past 11 months. No arrests have been made and police have never identified a suspect in the disappearance of Lindsey Baum who was 10 when she went missing in June of last year. A $30,000 reward is offered for information to solve the case.

Correction:  Lindsey Baum has been missing for over 2 years.  In McCleary, Washington, around 9:15 pm on June 26, 2009, she disappeared somewhere in the 4-block stretch between her friend's house and her home.  She's now 13. The reward for information is now at $35,000.

 

LINDSEY J. BAUM: Two Years Missing

Around 9:15 pm on June 26, 2009 Lindsey J. Baum, an 11-year old from the tiny town of McCleary, Washington, disappeared while walking from a friend's house to her home, only four short blocks away.

She's now 13.  Her birthday is coming up on July 7.

The physical changes a young girl experiences in that particular span of ages are sure to have greatly altered her appearance.

It feels foolish to continue noting that, on June 26, 2009, Lindsey was 4-foot 9-inches tall, weighed 80 pounds, her brown hair and brown eyes offset by a hooded pullover.

Still, there are things about the face that never change. Those eyes, that mouth, the smile. Face shape, feature spacing and scale. Age-invariant characteristics. Forensic artists (and the software they use) factor in the ways a person has changed in the past, even as short a past as Lindsey's, and how relatives have aged, as well as extrapolations based on large amounts of data from the wider population.

It is reported that Lindsey has a scar over her left eye, a dark brown birthmark on her right wrist and colored fillings in some of her teeth.

But she's doubtless no longer 4'9" and not likely to still weigh 80 pounds. Twelve to thirteen year old girls average 60-63 inches in height and 95-105 pounds in weight. Of course, her numbers at age 10 were already higher in each category than the average.

That summer evening two years ago, Lindsey had just argued with her brother, but most everyone notes that she wasn't storming off mad. She didn't have the accoutrements you think required of a modern runaway -- no money, no cell phone, no change of clothes.

Some friends set out with her, so she was accompanied for a while before they peeled off to go to their own homes for dinner, or homework, a bath or shower, whatever.

Two of those four blocks are reported to be somewhat industrial -- though we are talking *rural* small town. One block away is access to a major highway.

As any child would be, Lindsey was troubled by her parents' recent divorce. Her father lived in Tennessee. He was deployed to Iraq not long after she went missing.  Her mother and brother no longer live in McCleary.  Life for them has been hard and cruel.

The last time I checked, a reward of $30,000 is being offered by Crimestoppers and the National

Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

There have been many searches, search warrants, several people of interest -- but no signs of Lindsey, and no real clues or advances in the case.  Still, we all still shake our heads and mutter that someone, somewhere, knows something.  What will it take for that someone to tell that something, and will it bring the child home?

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum,

please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office

at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Or simply call 911.

Lindsey Baum

Lindsey Baum disappeared during the Friday evening of 26 June 2009, as she made the short walk home from a friend's house in her hometown of McCleary, Washington.  

She is now 12 -- her birthday is in July (7/7/98).

It gets to me, the ages she has spanned while missing. We all remember the enormity of the changes to body and mind on the voyage from ten years old to twelve, almost thirteen.

Her appearance is surely quite altered. But there are things about the face that never change. Those eyes, that mouth, the smile.  Face shape, feature spacing and scale. Age-invariant characteristics. Forensic artists (and the software they use) factor in the ways a person has changed in the past, even as short a past as Lindsey's, and how relatives have aged, as well as extrapolations based on large amounts of data from the wider population.

It is reported that Lindsey has a scar over her left eye, a dark brown birthmark on her right wrist and colored fillings in some of her teeth.
But she's doubtless no longer 4'9" and not likely to still weigh 80 pounds.  Twelve to thirteen year old girls average 60-63 inches in height and 95-105 pounds in weight.  Of course, her numbers at age 10 were already higher in each category than the average.

Tipline: (866) 915-8299 Gray’s Harbor Sheriff’s Office)


Reward: $30,000

As far as news, there is little beyond today's report of another "pond and bushes" search: 
 

MCCLEARY, Wash. -- Police and FBI agents are conducting a training exercise, searching a pond and nearby bushes in the area where Lindsey Baum disappeared almost two years ago in the Grays Harbor County town of McCleary.

To read previous blog entries about Lindsey Baum, go HERE.

Lindsey Baum, This Friday

Okay, so the beans were delicious.  The fish was also good, though I surprised myself by doing an olive oil poach.  Robotic cooking.

It's been bugging me that I no longer do weekly updates about Lindsey Baum.  I think of her every day.  Most days.  Often.

I thought it would be over by now.  I have been ready to move on.

Fridays are for clean-up in my world.  The house, the blog, occasionally the heart.  I dutifully plug in "Lindsey Baum" and instruct my search engine to give me the latest news, maybe even just what's been written in the last 24 hours.

[There are days when I suddenly get a whole bunch of hits about Lindsey and I rush to the news outlets, knowing that she's been found... only to find that the sudden spike in interest is as inexplicable as anything else.]

This evening I found something resonant, out of Olympia, Washington, from Sarah's Blog, maintained at OlyBlog.net * (We are the media...).

First you hear the choppers (Where is Lindsey Baum?)
Mon, 02/21/2011 - 1:34pm — Sarah

First you hear the choppers. They don't sound right, they don't sound like the usual medevac to and from the local hospital. You figure out you are hearing at least one circling helicopter and you step outside.


This is loud. They, there is more than one, are flying low. Looks like media. Something is happening.


Have they found Lindsey? This is what you think. It has been days, months, over a year now since she went missing and maybe they found her. Maybe there is a search warrant being served. Maybe an arrest. Or maybe it is something else. But no, this is probably about Lindsey.


Now it is time for info share. Phone calls, web forums checked, information shared. Rumors fly and you work to mine flakes of possible truth from all the mud.

Next time, next chopper, next buzz of electricity flying through the town. You start walking and find yourself across the street as a search warrant is processed, watching the authorities and the media and the townspeople just like you watching everything and each other.

TV news wants to talk with you, with anyone, and hey! you recognize the guy from channel whatever news. But you decline. While watching a guy who is out on his lawn chair watching the scene. Maybe next time you will bring a lawn chair. Not that any of us are relaxed about this. It's just that some of us can't physically stand and watch without quickly becoming exhausted. Which is a great metaphor or something because really.............we can't stand this. We can't handle this. This is so utterly entirely wrong that Lindsey Baum is gone.  [Read the rest HERE.]

* OlyBlog.net is a community collaboration:
"OlyBlog is devoted to citizen journalism, including hyperlocal news and discussion specifically about Olympia, Washington. If you care about this community and are tired of corporate media, then this is the place for you."

To read the various entries from elle est belle la seine la seine elle est belle about Lindsey, click HERE.

Update on some details: Lindsey Baum

This is an odd update to make about the case of Lindsey Baum, the 12-year old child from McCleary, Washington, missing since June 26, 2009.  There is, as is so often the case, no hard news about her.  What is heartening is that people continue to tell her story and keep the hope of finding her alive.

Today, Susan Murphy Milano, of HWT Radio fame, wrote about Lindsey in her blog.  Seeing just the title, and not knowing who Susan Murphy Milano from Eve, I was prepared to be incensed:   "The Connection Between Michael Jackson and Lindsey Baum."

I've become used to finding psychics and other less-than-what-I-consider-reliable-sorts on the other end of searches for updates on missing children.  Lindsey Baum, unfortunately, has attracted quite a nutty following.  So I was feeling combattive when I finally landed on this ersatz linking of Baum and The King of Pop.

It was nice to be disappointed for a change.  She has grabbed the attention that Michael Jackson never fails to attract and has connected it with Lindsey's disappearance, the news of which was eclipsed, at the time, by Jackson's death.

I managed to miss some of the details that Ms. Murphy Milano was able to share.  She based them on the profile at the CUE Center for Missing Persons, I believe, and while don't know their sourcing, either, they have my confidence.

Erring on the side of better-late-than-never, these details seem worth airing here:

Lindsey has the following distinguishing physical characteristics: 

Scar above her left eye;
Birth mark dark brown on right wrist;
Colored fillings in her teeth.

At the time of her disappearance, June 26, 2009, Lindsey Baum was wearing:

A long sleeve hooded shirt (not sweatshirt) light bluish/gray;
Jeans with knees cut out;
Black slip on American Eagle shoes with white rubber soles (no socks);
Bathing suit under clothes (a red/white/blue striped/polkadotted top with mismatched floral print bottoms).

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum, please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Family Website: Lindsey Baum

LINDSEY BAUM: december update

There is no hard news to report on missing child Lindsey Baum, who disappeared June 26, 2009, from her small hometown of McCleary, Washington. She is now twelve years old. 

Local law enforcement, volunteers, the FBI, and Interpol -- all continue to publicize her case, and to search.  There is a $30,000 award being offered to information leading to her recovery.

Shonya Kay (username shonyakay at YouTube) is doing a marvelous job turning out well made videos that both move and keep the various stories alive, without sacrificing the factual evidence that will be what ultimately solves these cases. Drop by her YouTube channel and see the magnificent work she has done.

You can read everything that has appeared on this blog about Lindsey J. Baum, by clicking HERE.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Lindsey's Mom, Dad, and brother -- as well as to all who are searching and working for her return home. 

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum, please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN

1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Family Website: Lindsey Baum

Another Person of Interest

Any news about missing child Lindsey Baum's case seems important, but it is worth noting that the Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office is downplaying this recent development reported by ABC News below, and reported on local King5 News, above:

Investigators Looking for Lindsey Baum
Search Man's House, Storage Unit

Inconsistencies Spur New Search, but Still No Suspects

Authorities have conducted two new searches related to the disappearance of Lindsey Baum, who was 10 years old when she vanished June 26, 2009, while walking home from a friend's house in McCleary, Wash.

Investigators with the Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office and the FBI grew suspicious after they found inconsistencies in information provided a year ago by a 47-year-old man, whose name they will not release.

Some of the man's account failed to match other information the investigators had obtained independently, Grays Harbor Undersherriff Rick Scott told ABCNews.com.

"We found that what we were being told and what we now believed to be true were two different things," Scott said. "Those inconsistencies gave birth to some concerns that we needed to explore further."

The Sheriff's Office obtained search warrants and carried out searches on the man's residence and a shared storage unit Tuesday, seizing some items and speaking to the man at length.

Investigators planned to search his car this morning.

Scott downplayed the new search, emphasizing that this man was one of many persons of interest in the case and has not become a suspect.

"A lot of what we were concerned about has been somewhat explained," Scott said.

"We found nothing yesterday that clearly links him to Lindsey's disappearance.

"We've looked at over 4,000 leads so far," Scott said. "Even if it eliminates someone from further scrutiny, it's a step in the right direction."

Investigators will submit the items they seized from the man's residence and storage unit for forensic testing, but Scott said it may be some time before they learn anything.... [cont.]

June 26, 2010 marked the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 12-year-old Lindsey J. Baum from her hometown of McCleary, Washington -- and another birthday. To read all posts from this blog about Lindsey, click here.

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum, please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765
Family Website: Lindsey Baum

FAIL Blog

there are things that just should not be.

someone entering the following searches should not be directed to this piece-of-fluff, navel-gazing blog:

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and the one that prompted this failed post, in this failed blog -- the one that logged in at 3:03 in the morning, some woman, some man, sitting, nursing a cup of cold, burnt coffee, elbows propped on that red formica dinette table, long in the family, forehead damp from humidity, not heat, god damn it:

doctors in sedalia missourri that takes wellcare

*Months after posting about Andrea, her father and sister wrote me, very angry. In their eyes, I defamed her and said hateful things. They were very hurt by what I wrote, and reminded me how little I actually knew about her, her life, and her death. I have left the posts untouched but want to acknowledge their deep and abiding pain at seeing her name in a silly blog maintained by a silly blogger. Good things will continue to be born through their daughter, their sister, by virtue of the work she did, and the example she set. And Laura Beckett? I wait in pregnant silence for some lecture or outburst about my rude insinuations... but the lectures and the outbursts never come, and that only seals the seams of my knowledge, that only leaves her in unresolved expectancy, that only means she gambled, and she's been punished. I hope to hear of her dancing her way out of the rehab center one day, pain free. More selfishly, I hope the ketamine coma is perfected, and proves to be a real, accessible answer.

**Okay, so I find that kind of... tittilating. La Bonne et Belle Bianca Castafiore, Fred, and The Four-Now-Three Felines cannot stop their giggles, and -- very strangely -- keep checking themselves out in the Roman mirror of blown glass coated with molten lead, that serves as a sort of night light for the passageway to The Laundry Suites. The thing dates from the first century AD and we've no idea how The Captain's family got their sticky little hands on it. Undoubtedly it involved stuff like "swashbuckling," and "booty." I still don't know how to clean it... but have watched enough Antique Roadshow to know that leaving it as is is probably the best thing. Should you know the proper cleaners to use on first century AD Roman mirrors? Leave me a note.

But I digress (because sometimes, most times, that's all I know to do).


[a slightly revamped repost]

Lindsey Baum :: Update

There are a few new items of note regarding the case of missing 11-year-old Lindsey Baum. June 26, 2010, marked the one year anniversary of her disappearance while walking home one evening from a friend's house in her hometown of McCleary, Washington.

The reward for information has grown to $30,000.

More surveillance video has been released in the hope that the men (one in a black plaid shirt, the other in a red tank top) who figure in them may have seen something important on that evening last summer.

If you have any information regarding Lindsey Baum, please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 866-915-8299 [Tip Hotline].

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765
Family Website: Lindsey Baum

To read all entries about Lindsey on this blog, click here.


Man wearing a black plaid shirt:


Man wearing a red tank top:


The black truck:

Lindsey Baum: One Year Missing

Last July 20, I wrote my first blog post about missing 11-year old Lindsey Baum:

Around 9:15 pm on June 26, Lindsey J. Baum, an 11-year old from the tiny town of McCleary, Washington, disappeared while walking from a friend's house to her home, only four short blocks away.

She just had an argument with her brother, but most everyone notes that she wasn't storming off mad. She didn't have the accoutrements you'd think of when thinking of a runaway -- no money, no cell phone, no change of clothes.

Some friends set out with her, so she was accompanied for a while before they peeled off to go to their own homes for dinner, or homework, a bath or shower, whatever.

Two of those four blocks are reported to be somewhat industrial -- though we are talking *rural* small town. One block away is access to a major highway.

As any child would be, Lindsey was troubled by her parents' recent divorce. Her father lives in Tennessee. This detail is the one I have to shrug off -- in my family, similar circumstances played a role in my eldest brother's decision to run away. But he was a savvy teenager, a world traveler; Lindsey just turned 11 (a grand birthday celebration surely awaits her), and only knows McCleary.

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of her disappearance. There have been no sightings, no productive new information, and in this age of information and its technology, that is almost unheard of. Indeed, I would have thought it impossible that in the span of a year, there are no leads to proffer, no tantalizing tidbits to ponder and inspect.

I have wondered, even, what the significance might be of such a complete absence of clues. Unfortunately, to follow that path means to go crazy with notions of vast conspiracy. Fortunately, there is no lack of volunteers willing to go nuts by noting such things as the disturbing habit of such-and-such Youth Minister to be surrounded by... youth. (It only gets worse. A local park ranger, who was identified, not from some actual association with Lindsey, but by a psychic who dreamed his initials had the gall to own a supremely suspicious... boat.

I do not imply that nothing has been done -- not at all. Far from it.

There have been frequent searches, interviews and re-interviews (and amateur sleuthes have had a field day inventing all sorts of suspicious people). A substantial reward has been offered. The FBI is on the case, Interpol has been alerted, and the local Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office has worked long and hard, and will continue to do so.

Rather than mark tomorrow's anniversary by failure and lack, Lindsey's mother Melissa has helped organize an event called a Day of Hope:

McCLEARY, Wash. (CBS/AP) A "day of hope" will be observed Saturday in an Olympia park on the one-year anniversary of Lindsey Baum's disappearance.

Police are still looking for possible leads in the case and hope that they will one day be able to determine what happened to Lindsey, who was 10-years-old when she went missing on June 26, 2009 while walking home from a friend's house in McCleary, Wash.,west of Olympia.

During the observance, called "Lindsey's Day of Hope and Awareness for the Missing," balloons will be released for Lindsey and all of the other missing persons of Washington state, reports The News Tribune. It will take place from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Olympia's Heritage Park.

Previously, police have enlisted the help of the FBI, bloodhounds, and searchers on horseback, but there have been no signs of the missing 4-foot-9-inch, 80 pound girl.

Melissa Baum, Lindsey's mother, says that her daughter was upset by the recent divorce of her parents, but says Lindsey did not have enough money to run away, nor had she ever tried to run away in the past.

After nearly a year of searching, her mother fears the worst.

The search for Lindsey continues, and authorities are offering a $25,000 reward for information regarding the young girl's whereabouts, as well as information leading to the arrest of and charges against the person or people responsible for her disappearance.

If you have any information regarding Missing Child Lindsey Baum, please call the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 866-915-8299.

I finished my first post about Lindsey by explaining how I'd heard of her. SecretWave101 was bothered, early on, by the scant attention being paid this dear child. Full of vim and vinegar, I vowed to follow the case, and publicize it here. I stand by that promise, even knowing now how little help this actually is.

I learned about her over at Dr. SecretWave101's blog. He notes what many of us have seen in our own communities: How legwork and media savvy are manditory to keep the faces and stories of our stolen children front and center in the public's view.

He notes other stuff, too -- having to do with the privilege of stereotype and the insidious mechanisms by which missing and exploited children receive airplay.

Research Lindsey's story and retell it on your own blog -- or where you will. You're likely more creative than I am -- the point is to disseminate, remind, encourage. Yes, and annoy, I suppose, if that should become necessary. (It's de rigueur here at Marlinspike Hall, deep, deep in the Tête de Hergé!)

To see all posts about Lindsey, click here.

"Oh My God, He's Going to Kill Me"

From a desire to "show her mannerisms and allow people to hear her voice," Grays Harbor investigators have released a video of Lindsey Baum playing with a friend. The video was made in November, 2008, and the identity of the young boy is being protected.

Lindsey, now 11, has been missing since June 26, 2009, when she apparently was abducted during a short walk home from visiting a friend in her hometown of McCleary, Washington.

I am sure that other videos of Lindsey exist, so... please tell me that my discomfort at this particular choice is nothing but a personal problem. It sends chills down my spine to hear this child scream "Oh my God, he's going to kill me" over and over -- that she is playing with a friend, that her protests are mock, none of that matters.

The scene is simply chilling and I wonder at the real impetus behind its release.




Browse previous posts on this blog discussing Lindsey and her disappearance, here.

Websites set up by family and friends can be found here and here.

A $25,000 reward has been set up for information leading to Lindsey's recovery.

If you see her or have information regarding her whereabouts, call:

-- 911
-- Grays Harbor County Information tip line 866 915-8299
-- McCleary Police (360) 495-3107

or EMAIL: soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us

the life of those who love the missing

This is sad news.

Lindsey Baum, the 11-year-old girl from McCleary, Washington, whose case I have followed in this blog since her disappearance last June 26, is still missing.

You would think, then, that her mother had already experienced her lowest point in what was already not an easy life.

Some self-proclaimed internet sleuths and psychic rumormongers have delighted in vilifying Melissa Baum, mostly, it seems, out of frustration at having no real progress to report in the case. That she should be so caddy as to continue to have actual, real problems in her actual, real life as a single mother with an emotionally challenged child... Well, how dare she muck up the romance of the situation?

Seldom is the reference to good things when we heave a prim sigh and pronounce that "life must go on..."

Should those on the hovering periphery of tragedy opt for life, then life will demand its way.

(Famously, Edna St. Vincent Millay said: “Life must go on; I forget just why.”)

The mother of missing girl Lindsey Baum has new troubles, as not only has she lost her daughter; now she's lost her home.

"I never thought we'd be homeless, and we are," said Melissa Baum. She and her son can't afford another night in the Tumwater motel they've been staying.

"We have truly lost everything," she said.

Paralyzed by pain, Melissa Baum hasn't worked since her daughter Lindsey disappeared from McCleary while walking home last June.

"You feel like you're being suffocated every waking moment," Melissa Baum said.

She's survived on her son's Social Security, but that wasn't enough to remain in the home they rented before Lindsey vanished.

"What if she gets away and comes home... and we're not there?" Melissa Baum worried. "As hard as it was to walk by bedroom and see police tape and not go in there, she still had a room."

But Baum says her son with special needs could no longer cope in McCleary.

"He has horrible nightmares every night," she said.

Josh expresses guilt over fighting with Lindsey before she disappeared and not walking her home. His behavior problems have escalated and Baum says that prompted a relative who took them in to lock them out.

The Problem Solvers have paid for Baum to stay another two weeks at the motel. The extended stay gives Baum time to send her son back East for the summer to stay with his dad while she looks for work, a place to live, and her missing daughter.

"I would live in a hotel or car the rest of my life if it would bring my daughter home," she said.

Baum is working with the housing authority in Thurston County to find a subsidized apartment but says she's told there's little hope of an opening before July

.















To see all posts relating to Lindsey Baum, click here.

Venus and Earth, as seen from Mars, 26 June 2009

all previous posts about lindsey baum, here.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
McCleary Police Department (Washington) 1-360-533-8765

Family Website with many useful links: LindseyBaum

Lindsey Baum, missing since 26 June 2009, weighs on my mind. Despite the probability that the 11 year old is dead, the occasional news item detailing the miraculous discovery of a longtime missing child -- alive -- is an effective chastisement.

In the beginning of her saga as a missing child, I checked the news daily, often several times. It just seemed impossible to me that anyone could disappear as she apparently did, somewhere between her friend's home and her own, in the space of a few blocks, in as small and quiet a place as McCleary, Washington.

As newsless week piled upon newsless week, I dedicated an hour on Fridays to rereading the same information, regurgitated, in its mess of cross-references.

There is a whole missing child online subculture out there, made up of people who consider themselves sleuthes. This includes those who believe their psychic powers can be brought to bear on any mystery, so long as there are innocent people to scapegoat -- from youth ministers to Melissa, Lindsey's mother.

In the off chance that someone had information about that evening but needed a moral nudge as incentive, a reward was offered. It grew, and recently was doubled to $20,000.

A self-styled witch living in Japan decided to pretend he had the answers.

People magazine featured the dear child on a triptych bit of cover art.

Oprah gave her a minute's bit of airtime.

Nightline showcased the FBI's efforts, and, it looks like, exaggerated the sense of progress, declaring the existence of several "persons of interest" in the area.

A dedicated Search Center organized frequent efforts along local roads, woods, in areas of overgrowth and underbrush. A nearby military base contributed the time and talents of young soldiers -- Lindsey's father was deployed to Iraq.

A divorced Mom with other children, and the object of fierce rumors, Melissa Baum moved away from McCleary.

The 26th day of June in 2009 fell on a Friday.



On June 26, 1284, the Pied Piper of Hamelin led 130 children out of the German town, ensnaring them with music, so that they walked, walked, walked to their deaths, forfeited because the town's adults would not pay the exterminator's tab.

In linguistics pied-piping is the common, informal name for the ability of question words and relative pronouns to drag other words along with them when brought to the front, as part of the phenomenon called Wh-movement. For example, in "For whom are the pictures?", the word "for" is pied-piped by "whom" away from its declarative position ("The pictures are for me"), and in "The mayor, pictures of whom adorn his office walls" both words "pictures of" are pied-piped in front of the relative pronoun, which normally starts the relative clause.

Some researchers believe that the tale has inspired the common English phrase "pay the piper", although others disagree. To "pay the piper" means to face the inevitable consequences of one's actions, possibly alluding to the story where the villagers broke their promise to pay the Piper for his assistance in ridding the town of the rats. The phrase sometimes refers to a financial transaction but often does not.

Also, some experts on pedophilia, such as Ken Lanning, in writing about the seduction of children by some pedophiles, have used the term the "Pied Piper effect" to describe a "unique ability to identify with children."

Richard III of England, king for a whole whopping two years, was the last king to die in battle -- an unfortunate thing, as I think battling kings and world leaders ought to be de rigueur, taking the place of conscripted subjects dying a meaningless death in inexplicable and indefensible wars. Richard III took the throne on June 26 in 1483. In August, he killed his two nephews, Edward V and his brother Richard, threats to his primacy.

(below) King Edward V, unfortunate nephew of Richard III

The Cyclone, that monstrous wooden roller coaster on Coney Island, thrilled its first riders on June 26, 1927.

Proof positive of our inclination to track any and every thing, the Universal Product Code was scanned for the very first time from a pack of Wrigley's gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio on 26 June 1974.

Peter William Sutcliffe (now Coonan), dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, murdered 16 year old Jayne MacDonald on June 26, 1977, a death considered notable due to the fact that the victim was not a prostitute... expanding the realm of acceptable fear and concern.

Shirley Jackson's chilling short story, The Lottery, appeared on June 26, 1948 in The New Yorker and announces its beginning as the next day: The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green.

Folks as wonderfully various as Salvador Allende, Pearl Buck, Aimé Césaire, Patty Smyth, Greg LeMond, and Derek Jeter have celebrated birthdays on 26 June. Liz Claiborne, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, and Strom Thurmond, on the other hand, took their leave that day.

Holidays and observances that land on June 26:

The Christian Feast Days of Anthelm of Belley, Hermogius, John and Paul, Josemaría Escrivá (founder of Opus Dei), Mar Abhai (of the Syriac Orthodox Church), and Vigilius of Trent

Flag Day in Romania

Independence Day, celebrating Madagascar's freedom from France (1960)

International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

International Day in Support of Torture Victims: "This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable." -- Kofi Annan

Sunthorn Phu Day, celebrating the birthday of the Thai poet. This verse forms part of a Lamentation:

Oh, how everything was against me then

Even white ants made their way to my bedroom.

They ate the mat and destroyed all my books.

It was distressing to think of those books

And the yellow robes I used to wear

Had holes in them like my weeping eyes.


******************************************************************************************************

Venus and Earth, as seen from Mars, 26 June 2009:

The "Spirit" rover (Mars Exploration Rover A or MER-2) is one of the two rovers launched to Mars in mid-2003. The rovers arrived at Mars in January of 2004.

How vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderable this Earth, the Theatre upon which all our mighty Designs, all our Navigations, and all our Wars are transacted, is when compared to them. A very fit consideration, and matter of Reflection, for those Kings and Princes who sacrifice the Lives of so many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being Masters of some pitiful corner of this small Spot.

— Christiaan Huygens, The Immense Distance Between the Sun and the Planets, 1698

Update on Missing Child: Lindsey Baum

As is usual, I come away confused by the latest articles, posts, and messages about Lindsey Baum, the 11 year old girl missing from McCleary, Washington, since June 26, 2009 -- abducted, it appears, on her short walk home in what was then a peaceful, naive, and quiet town.

In what I *think* is a typographical error, one news source announced that the reward grew to $120,000. The last I heard, just a few weeks ago, it was $20,000.

Now... $120,000 sounds grand, and let's just run with it! [I haven't yet blogged about my opinion of someone driven by monetary gain in this matter, have I?]

Lindsey J. Baum's case was featured on Nightline Tuesday night. The emphasis was on the techniques employed by the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team -- from interviewing residents and developing profiles to investigating the whereabouts and activities of area sex offenders. The associated ABC News article can be found here.

I recently declared that I would not contribute to the burgeoning use of expressions employing the word "disconnect" as a noun.

There is a real disconnect between what the ABC News show and articles put forward, in terms of the FBI's activity in McCleary, Washington, and the information more locally sourced.

Even so, I will dutifully report that in the wake of this coverage, 12 people have become persons of interest in the case, 2 of whom are apparently of considerable interest.

The best summation of what appears to be a stalled investigation, despite the FBI's special team antics?

"Somebody saw something and somebody suspects something," said Melissa Baum [Lindsey's mother]. "Somebody knows something and they're not coming forward. I think that's my greatest frustration through this all is, I know there's somebody out there and for whatever reason, they're not sharing whatever information that they have."

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I would never have believed that someone could withhold information about a missing child. Of course, I never thought anyone would reach my blog by typing this into their search engine, either:

I know what happened to Lindsey Baum...

Earlier posts about Lindsey on this blog can be found here.

Lindsey Update::Melissa Baum on Issues

Please refresh your memory of missing 11-year-old Lindsey J. Baum by reading past posts about her here.


from CNN
ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL 7:00 PM EST
March 9, 2010 Tuesday

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now we`re going to talk to another mother who`s been through hell.

Melissa Baum`s 10-year-old daughter Lindsey disappeared last June. She`s convinced her daughter is alive. Lindsey vanished walking home from a friend`s house in Washington state. It was only a ten-minute walk -- look at that beautiful child -- through a busy neighborhood.

Recently here on ISSUES, Amber`s mom said she believed her daughter had been swept into a sex trafficking ring and was still alive. Sadly, as we all know now, Amber`s body was found days later.

Melissa Baum, it is a very sad commentary on our society when mothers, their only hope is to hope that their daughters are being held by a sex- trafficking ring. Has it really come to that in America today, Melissa?

MELISSA BAUM, MOTHER OF LINDSEY (via phone): It appears to be the case. You don`t know what else to think. I mean, obviously, we -- we pray that the outcome is not what Mo and Carrie and Chelsea`s families are going through.

I do believe -- I do believe that my daughter is still alive. And law enforcement is very active and working very hard right now, and they`re making some good progress. So at this point, I`m still going with the "no news is good news." I truly believe that my daughter is still alive.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And look at her with that shirt. It says, "Mommy`s - - Mommy`s Little Girl."

BAUM: Mommy`s little troublemaker.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a beautiful child. We are going to keep your case alive, Melissa. We`re going to keep your daughter`s face out there. We`re not going to let this go. It`s just horrific.


The only other news I can find that mentions Lindsey Baum are pieces reiterating the recently raised reward money ($20,000).

Of course, in the face of stories like this one, out of frustration and desperate fear, one starts to wonder -- could he have abducted her? A 20-year-old former church youth group leader was sentenced to at least 51⁄2 years in prison Monday for sexually exploiting a 5-year-old girl he was babysitting...


In what is some small good news for Lindsey's mother, and a win for fairness:

SEATTLE -- The mother of missing McCleary girl Lindsey Baum will not have to pay back unemployment benefits which she was ordered to do.

KIRO 7 spoke with Melissa Baum after she was given a notice that she was to pay $1,000 for unemployment checks that she was not supposed to receive.

Baum took three months unpaid leave from her job as a call center operator and then filed for unemployment when her employer said she could not return to work part-time. Baum left her job so she could assist in the search for her daughter who has been missing since June 26.

Melissa Baum and her remaining children are relocating --

MCCLEARY, Wash. -- The FBI is searching the home of a missing McCleary girl
one last time before her family moves out.Lindsey Baum’s family is moving to
Rainier and Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott said it’s the last
chance to obtain samples of the old house before someone new moves in.

Keep Lindsey's likeness in mind as you are out and about. Keep looking!