Police have yet to find big break in missing Lindsey Baum case

Right: Lindsey Baum

The Daily World

dailyworld.com

Steven Friederich

September 27, 2009

McCLEARY — Investigators have yet to find...Lindsey Baum, who has been missing for three months as of Saturday.

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The Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office served search warrants on two residences outside the McCleary city limits Friday and began combing through junk cars and a number of buildings.

The search on the properties in question intensified Saturday, bumping up the civilian search and rescue experts and law enforcement personnel from 30 people on Friday to 50 people on Saturday. Search dogs were also brought.

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Chief Criminal Deputy Dave Pimentel said he conducted interviews with a number of people Friday, but said no suspects or persons of interests have been named and no arrests have been made. “So far, we have not found that smoking gun, we have not found anything that would jump out at us, but without forensic analysis done at the lab, we can’t really say whether what we’ve found will help our cause or not.”

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Three months ago Saturday, Baum disappeared just a few blocks away from her home near downtown McCleary. Despite two confirmed sightings within blocks of her house, no trace of her has been found.

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Pimentel said he couldn’t reveal what led detectives to two isolated locations along Foreman Road, just outside of McCleary. Deputies were restricting access to the road and checking licenses to make sure only local residents could get through a road block. The restrictions are in place through Sunday.

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Detectives combed an abandoned home and an adjoining shed or barn from morning until night on Friday. The property is on about 11 acres of land, Pimentel said. On Saturday, Pimentel said detectives brought in search dogs and search and rescue experts to help comb the surrounding brush, trees and grasslands.

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At a second site, detectives set up a mobile command unit from the King County Sheriff’s Office near dozens of junk cars and debris at a second residence along Foreman Road. The property owners were told to leave the area...

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“There are a lot of creeps out there,” [a neighbor] said. “A lot of parents have become more protective. She asked me once if she disappeared like Lindsey, would I ever stop looking for her?” Smith said. “I told her I would never give up. Never.

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...I can only imagine what’s happening to Lindsey’s mother. I just hope she gets an answer someday. This is a parent’s worst nightmare.”

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