*Possible* Lead in the Lindsey Baum Case

Lindsey Baum, 2009

An Aberdeen, Washington, man who worked for a non-profit that assisted children, “The Gregorian Group," has been arrested "on suspicion of multiple child rapes and molestations."

Gregory Brian Johnson will also be investigated for any ties to the disappearance of Lindsey Baum, last seen in nearby McCleary in June 2009.  She would now be sixteen. Gregory Johnson lived in McCleary at the time Lindsey went missing.

The following information comes from KIROTV.com:

MONTESANO, Wash. — Gregory Brian Johnson, 48, who heads an Aberdeen nonprofit organization that works with children, has been arrested on suspicion of multiple child rapes and molestations.
On Tuesday, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office told KIRO 7 it will investigate whether Johnson could have had anything to do with the 2009 disappearance of Lindsey Baum, who lived in nearby McCleary.
A department spokesman said that’s standard practice whenever someone in Grays Harbor County is suspected of abusing young girls.
Johnson was arrested on Halloween after a now-23-year-old woman told Aberdeen police that Johnson had repeatedly raped and molested her from the time she was 9 years old.  Sgt. Art Laur said the woman agreed to wear a recording device and got Johnson to admit “to some of the statements she told us about what happened to her.”
The woman's 11-year-old half-brother also told police Johnson molested him from the time he was 4.
While the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office investigates a possible connection to the Baum case, Aberdeen police are investigating whether Johnson may have abused any of the children he came in contact with through his nonprofit organization.  “The Gregorian Group” operated out of a downtown Aberdeen office building and offered young people a place to hang out, and coordinated hiking and camping outings, according to its Facebook page.  That office is now closed.
Johnson remains behind bars at the Grays Harbor County Jail in Montesano.

Although I've not posted about Lindsey lately, I check every week for reliable news on her case, and there has been nothing but the various odd psychic insights and the heartrending prayers for her not to be forgotten.  This is the first solid bit of information in years, and even this is a stretch.  Yet, the feeling has always been that the perpetrator would turn out to be a "local," and a serial violator.

Way back in July 2009, the first post on this blog about missing child Lindsey gave these details, and there has been precious little to add in the five years since:

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... [He served a tour in Iraq shortly after her abduction, and I'm not sure where he lives now.  Lindsey's mother and brother have relocated but remain near McCleary.]

Lindsey, as depicted through "age progression" technology

To read all posts concerning Lindsey Baum published on this blog, click HERE.



© 2013 L. Ryan

Skull not that of missing Lindsey Baum

previous posts about lindsey baum

Mystery skull found in Washington state crab pot yields few clues

Published April 03, 2014

Associated Press

Authorities say a human skull found in a crab pot off the Washington coast belongs to a female, but it doesn't match anyone in a national DNA database.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office says the skull found off Westport was sent to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., and run through the Combined DNA Index System. No matches were found.

KXRO-AM reports the DNA profile did indicate the skull is from a female, and her age is unknown.

The Sheriff's Office says the results show the skull does not belong to Lindsey Baum, a 10-year-old girl who disappeared in June 2009. She was last seen leaving a friend's house in McCleary, about 50 miles from Westport.

A fisherman found the skull Feb. 21 in a crab pot about 2 miles off Westport in water about 100 feet deep.

Skull found in crab pot sent for DNA identification

This sounds like a poorly thought out hoax to me.  Hoping so.
To read background posts from this blog on missing child Lindsey Baum, click HERE.

Informant Told Lewis County Detectives Lindsey Baum's Body Was Put in Crab Pot
By Stephanie Schendel sschendel@chronline.com 
Posted: Friday, February 28, 2014 10:14 pm | Updated: 5:17 pm, Sat Mar 1, 2014.


Possible Link?: Man Who Testified in Riffe Murder Trial Also Provided Information on Missing McLeary Girl

Nearly a year before a child-sized skull was recovered in a crab pot two miles off the coast of Westport, Lewis County deputies sent information to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office about a tip they received from an informant indicating that missing McCleary girl Lindsey Baum’s body had been put inside a crab pot and dumped into the ocean.


A skull was recovered on Feb. 21 after a local fisherman pulled up his crab pot about 2.3 miles off the coast of Westport, according to Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Dave Pimentel.
[Read the rest of Schendel's article HERE.]

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

From KOMONews.com

Skull found in Westport crab pot going to FBI lab
By Associated Press Published: Feb 24, 2014 at 12:12 PM PDT

WESTPORT, Wash. (AP) - The human skull found in a crab pot off the Washington coast is being sent to the FBI crime lab at Quantico, Va.

Grays Harbor Undersheriff Dave Pimentel tells KXRO investigators hope to extract DNA, which may lead to an identification.

The partial human skull was found Friday morning in a crab pot about 2 miles off of Westport. The fisherman set the pot the previous week in water 90-to-100 feet deep.

An anthropologist in King County confirmed the skull is human.


Pimentel says nothing else is known about the skull, including how it got into the crab pot.

Simple, Brilliant Innovation: Still Looking for Lindsey Baum

KIROtv.com published this article two days ago,  and in the very simplicity of the project lies its brilliance.  It seems like a wonderful idea to be taken nationwide, worldwide, in the search for missing persons.

PACIFIC, Wash. — On Wednesday, aged-progressed posters of missing child Lindsey Baum will be added to Gordon Trucking trailers as part of the Washington State Patrol's Homeward Bound Program.
Baum was last seen on June 26, 2009, in McCleary.   She was 10 when she disappeared.

Posters of Baum have been traveling around the country on 10 Gordon Trucking trailers since 2010.
Members of Lindsey Baum’s family will be at the event at Gordon Trucking.

An age-progressed photo of Baum was created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last summer.

Anyone with information about the disappearance of Lindsey Baum should call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tip line at 1-800-THE-LOST.

More information about the Homeward Bound program can be found here  and a gallery of Washington State's Missing Children can be found at this link.

Remains Found in Washington, Near McCleary (UPDATED)

UPDATE, 11/14/2013:

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Investigators say the human remains found in a remote area on the Nisqually Indian Reservation belonged to an adult woman.

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

It's been a good long while since I've updated information on missing and endangered child Lindsey Baum.
There have been some remains found in the area -- in the Nisqually Reservation in Washington state.  The reports don't indicate the age or sex of the remains found, and clearly, it is terrible news for some poor family, but I pray this is not Lindsey.

[*I'm informed this is about 35 miles from where she was last seen.]

The Olympian reports:

A search for more body parts Sunday afternoon on the Nisqually Indian Reservation -- a search that was triggered Saturday after a dog found the lower portion of a human leg with foot -- turned up a human rib cage, pelvis, parts of a skull, a jawbone with teeth and tissue-type matter, a Thurston County Sheriff’s Sergeant said.  

The mostly skeletal remains of a rib cage and pelvis were found by a dog team about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, followed by the other human remains later in the day.  

All of it was then turned over to the Thurston County Coroner’s Office, Sgt. Ray Brady said.
The search took place around the 13600 block of Peter Kalama Drive, as well as areas near the Nisqually River, an old fish hatchery and on adjacent roads in the area. The rib cage and pelvis were found near the hatchery, he said. 

Age, race and gender of the human remains still needs to be determined, Brady said, plus the Sheriff’s Office will be matching that information to any missing persons or runaways.
“There’s enough to hopefully identify the person,” he said. 

Brady added that it appeared as though animals had scattered the remains. 

He said Sunday’s search, which began at 8 a.m. and involved about 30 search and rescue volunteers and dog teams, wrapped up about 6 p.m. 

Sunday’s search was the extension of a search that began Saturday afternoon after a dog returned to its owner in the 13600 block of Peter Kalama Drive on the Nisqually Indian Reservation with the lower portion of a leg with foot. 

The lower portion of the human leg that was found on Saturday was partly skeletal, Brady said.
Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock added that some tissue was attached. 

Warnock said Saturday that the leg would be examined for tool marks, such as those created by a handsaw or something electric. 

Brady said anyone with information is asked to call Thurston County dispatch at 360-704-2740 or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.

A few weeks ago, I posted an aged-advanced likeness of her -- and that's how she appears to me now, in my mind, a beautiful, free young teen.

Since I'm writing about her, here is all the known information about her case, and if you click HERE, you can see the various posts about her from this blog, with links to other areas of interest.



Lindsey Jo Baum 

Missing Since: 06/26/09
Missing From: McCleary, WA
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age at Disappearance: 10
Date Of Birth: 07/07/98
Height: 4’10
Weight: 90 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown/Dark Blonde
Colored fillings in her teeth
Clothing: 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 red/white/blue in color for both pieces but mismatched bottoms a floral print, top stripes and polka dots.

Details of Disappearance:

Lindsey disappeared on June 26,2009 while walking home [from a friend's home] in McCleary, WA at about 9:30 in the evening. This was one of the longest days of the year and didn’t get dark until around 10:30 that night. It was still daylight out as she left for the short 5-10 minute walk home.

She never made it home that night.

Who to Contact with Information:
Grays Harbor County Information Hot-line (Tip line) (866) 915-8299, Email: soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us 
[OR DIAL 911]



© 2013 L. Ryan

Age-Progression Photo of Missing Child Lindsey Baum

It's been four years since Lindsey Baum disappeared just before her tenth birthday.  After the first year of her disappearance, it became painfully obvious that the photos of little Lindsey were eventually going to lose their effectiveness. Imagine the changes she has gone through in four years, now fourteen. Wait, fifteen.

Gosh...

Lindsey's Mom and Dad helped the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children develop an age progression photo of what Lindsey may look like today by providing photos of themselves at the same age:

LINDSEY BAUM
Age-progressed photo
Anyone with information about Lindsey's disappearance should call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678 or the McCleary Police Department at 360-533-8765.
Or simply dial 911.

DOB:  Jul 7, 1998
Age Now: 15
Missing:  Jun 26, 2009
Missing From:
   MCCLEARY
   WA
   United States
Sex:  Female
Race:  White
Hair:  Brown
Eyes:  Brown
Height:  4'9" (145cm)
Weight:  80lbs (36kg)

© 2013 L. Ryan

To the person in Gig Harbor who keeps logging on to read about Lindsey Baum:

You have repeatedly visited this blog to read, apparently, the same post about Lindsey, over and over during the past three days.

If you know something about the case, I urge you to contact the Phone Tip line at 1-866-915-8299 or to email soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us

You can also simply dial 911 anywhere and provide any information you might have.

I realize you are probably someone who simply misses Lindsey and maybe are just revisiting the past, as I know how frustrating it must be not to have any leads in an endangered missing child case.  If you want to read all the posts on this blog about her, click HERE -- not every post is exactly "on point," but maybe you will find the information you seek.

She has been gone since June 26, 2009.

If you do know something, even something that seems minor, please share it.  And... there is a $35,000 reward for information leading to Lindsey.

© 2013 L. Ryan

Have You Seen Lindsey Baum?

All previous blog posts about missing child Lindsey Baum

There is no news about missing child Lindsey Baum but I've been remiss at keeping her name and face fresh here... The following is taken from the initial page of the Official Website for Missing Child Lindsey Baum.

At *this* moment, it has been 1290 Days, 16 Hours, 36 Minutes, and 31 Seconds since her abduction.


Lindsey Jo Baum 

Missing Since: 06/26/09
Missing From: McCleary, WA
Classification: Endangered Missing
Age at Disappearance: 10
Date Of Birth: 07/07/98
Height: 4’10
Weight: 90 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown/Dark Blonde
Colored fillings in her teeth
Clothing: 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 red/white/blue in color for both pieces but mismatched bottoms a floral print, top stripes and polka dots.

Details of Disappearance:

Lindsey disappeared on June 26,2009 while walking home [from a friend's home] in McCleary, WA at about 9:30 in the evening. This was one of the longest days of the year and didn’t get dark until around 10:30 that night. It was still daylight out as she left for the short 5-10 minute walk home.

She never made it home that night.

Who to Contact with Information:
Grays Harbor County Information Hot-line (Tip line) (866) 915-8299, Email: soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us or you may submit a tip via the contact us link on Lindsey’s Official website and the information will be passed on to the Law Enforcement officials working Lindsey’s case.
[OR DIAL 911]

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.

 

Vanished With Beth Holloway: Lindsey Baum

In the final show of its first season, Vanished With Beth Holloway will feature the case of missing child Lindsey Baum.  Episode 10, "Baum; Hill" airs tomorrow night, Monday, July 25, 2001 on LIFE at 11 pm

Sadly, the TV Guide synopsis manages to accurately sum up all we know about Lindsey's disappearance, despite two years of searches, interviews, and thorough investigation:   [She is] a girl who disappeared while returning home from a friend's house.

Lindsey Baum turned 13 on July 7.  It's important to keep in mind the considerable changes in appearance that can happen, not just in the course of any two years, but in the course of these years, in particular.  Lindsey was just 10 when she disappeared on her way home from a friend's house on June 26, 2009 in the small and seemingly untroubled town of McCleary, Washington.

A $35,000.00 reward continues to be offered for information leading to her return.

At a gathering marking her birthday, Grays Harbor County Sheriff Mike Wheelan said: "We still have full time people devoted to it, the FBI still has full time people devoted to it. We have not given up, and this case has not gone cold, and we're going to continue working it."

Grays Harbor County Information Hot-line (Tip line) (866) 915-8299

CUE Center For Missing Persons -24 Hour Tip Line ( 910) 232-1687

You may leave a confidential tip HERE, at Help Find Lindsey Baum.

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.

To read all posts from this blog relating to Lindsey Baum, click HERE.

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.

Searching for Lindsey Baum: New Eyes

Again, there is no new hard news in the search to find missing Lindsey Baum, now 12, who disappeared from her hometown of McCleary, Washington, on June 26, 2009.

Efforts at searching the local area continue, however, and now that effort will be augmented by hunters and other "outdoors folk."

The Center for Missing Persons, a subset of Community United Effort (CUE), is an organization headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The non profit, all volunteer group is asking for area hunters to adopt a piece of land and or property that they are familiar with or hunt on regularly to search for missing Lindsey Baum; registration will begin on January 10, 2011 and run throughout the month. Hunters may call in directly to the center at (910) 232-1687 anytime or visit CUE on the web at http://www.ncmissingpersons.org and click on “The Hunt” where they can enter and submit information (registration form below); during the effort a map will go up coloring in areas that have been adopted. “We are also extending invitations to forestry,hunting clubs and park personnel as well as land owners in the concerned areas of focus”.



Areas this effort will concentrate on will be the McCleary town itself and 15 miles radius of each direction leaving the place Lindsey was last seen. These areas consist of the following:


McCleary Focus Area


• North – The National Olympic Forest


• South – Malone-Porter


• South East – The Capitol Forest


• East – Shelton


• West – Elma & Grays Harbor County

There is a $30,000.00 dollar reward for Lindsey safe return and further details can be located about the case and the reward at her official web sites created for her where tipsters can remain anonymous at www.findlindseybaum.com or helpfindlindseybaum.com.


If anyone has information on the direct location or concerning this missing child case please contact the Grays Harbor County Information Hot-line (Tip line) (866) 915-8299...

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 print Lindsey Missing Poster, go HERE.
To print The Hunt For Lindsey Baum CUE Poster, go HERE.

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:

"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