Search and rescue teams have been looking for evidence for the past few days in Kittitas County, Washington, after authorities obtained a DNA match to missing girl Lindsey Baum last Thursday. Yet, the crew announced they had no plans to resume the search on Monday.
KIRO 7 reports that close to two dozen search and rescue workers have been scouring the remote area of Eastern Washington in Kittitas County after the remains of 10-year-old Lindsey Baum were found last week, ending a nine-year search for the little girl, who disappeared from McCleary in 2009.
It was a massive search that took place around 20 miles west of Ellensburg and involved workers from Washington, as well as Idaho and Montana. It included 22 K9 teams, investigators from several counties, and search and rescue ground personnel.
“These search teams and investigators are among the best there are and they understand the relevance to the investigation, the family and the community,”Undersheriff Clay Myers said. “To watch them work, you would never guess they come from over 10 different agencies.”
While the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office and the FBI lead the investigation into Lindsey’s murder, search and rescue crews are contemplating their next steps after announcing they had no plans to continue to search the area on Monday. So far, they’ve given no additional details on what those nexts steps may be.
This isn’t the first time search and rescue crews scoured the area looking for evidence. Hunters found the human remains in September 2017, numerous months before authorities obtained a DNA match to Lindsey. A search began shortly after the remains were found and started again once the last of the snow melted in area, according to the Daily Record.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Lindsay Baum was just shy of her 11th birthday when she vanished on a hot summer night near her home in McLeary, Washington.
It was June 26, 2009, and Lindsay had spent the early evening at a friend’s house about a 10-minute walk from her home. She had gone over with her brother, Joshua, and a group of friends, but Joshua had left ahead of her.
According to an account that aired on Dateline, Lindsey spent the summer day swimming with friends, commiserating about started middle school in the fall before she left with Joshua to another friend’s house. Joshua left ahead of Lindsay after the siblings got into a fight, and Lindsey later walked home alone after her friend’s mother declined a request for a sleepover.
Melissa Baum, Lindsey’s mother, sensed immediately something was wrong when her daughter, which she called a “mama’s girl” failed to come home in time. It wasn’t like Lindsey to show up late and she never wandered off. She also hated the be in the dark alone and would never stay out past sunset.
I just knew something was wrong. I got that feeling right then,” Melissa told Dateline.
As Melissa, a single mother of two, waited for her daughter to return, she became frantic as she assured the officer who arrived to file a missing persons report that Lindsey would never stay gone that long on her own will.
Though Lindsey was a bright and bubbly girl, always full of energy, Melissa said in an interview with CrimeWatch Daily last year that her daughter seemed to have a premonition.
“She said ‘Mom, I just have this really bad feeling that something bad’s going to happen,’ and I said ‘Like what?’” Melissa said.
“And she said ‘I don’t know, I just have a feeling.’ She knew something was coming, but she didn’t know what. And the next night she was gone.”
Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.
[Feature Photo: Lindsey Baum/Family Handout]
