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.
