^LINDSEY J BAUM - 10 yo - McCleary WA

(CBS)

A desperate search for a Washington State girl missing for more than
two weeks is all-the-more urgent because her father's National Guard
unit is due to deploy to Iraq soon.


Police say Lindsey Baum, 11, of the small town of McCleary,
disappeared the night of June 26 while walking home from a friend's
house just four blocks away.


More than 100 searchers have used dogs, horses and helicopters
seeking any trace of Lindsey, but investigators says they have little
to go on, and they're appealing to the public for help.


Lindsey's parents and the local police chief appeared on "The Early Show" Monday.

MCCLEARY, Wash. -- The search for
missing 11-year-old Lindsey Baum got nationwide attention when her
parents appeared on CBS' 'The Early Show' Monday morning.“My
heart tells me she is alive; where I don’t know,” Melissa Baum,
Lindsey’s mother, said on 'The Early Show.' “I would give anything to
know where she is.”Lindsey disappeared on June 26 while walking
home in McCleary and although thousands of fliers have been passed out
and both the FBI and law enforcement in McCleary have been searching
for her, there has been no sign of Lindsey. Her 11th birthday was July
7.Authorities have been working on the theory that she might
have run away to Tennessee, where her father lives, but Rick Scott of
the Gray’s Harbor County Sheriff’s Office said it’s unlikely that
someone her age would be gone this long without “surfacing in some
manner.” Lindsey’s father, Scott Baum, a member of the Tennessee
National Guard who is deploying to Iraq soon, told authorities that he
has not seen or heard from his daughter since her disappearance.Lindsey
is 4 feet 9 inches tall, 80 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.
She was last seen wearing a light blue hooded pullover shirt and blue
jeans.Officials have not had any new developments in the case
but ask anyone with information to contact the Grays Harbor County
Sheriff’s office at 866-915-8299 or send an e-mail to:
soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.

While the official search for Lindsey Baum has been scaled back, no one in this town is giving up on finding her.

"We continue to get tips, we continually talk to the public," said McLeary
Police Chief George Crumb. "I don't believe they've given up hope."

At the town's annual Bear Festival over the weekend, volunteers were
passing out flyers with photos of the missing girl, who missed her 11th
birthday last week.

"I know she's out there and I know she's
alive," said Lindsey's mom, Melissa. "I just want her to know if she
can hear me that I'm never going to stop looking for you. I'm going to
look for you until I have you back. I swear I will never stop looking.

Lindsey vanished June 26 after leaving a friend's house to walk home. But
something happened in that short distance, and she never arrived.

The investigation, which has involved multiple local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, has turned up nothing.

"Still from day one we haven't gotten any real viable good leads," Crumb said.
"Leads keep coming in, but actual things we can work on, nothing has
been presented to us."

Detectives don't want to see Lindsey's story disappear from the headlines, because each story could kick loose that one crucial tip.

At the height of the search, 75 members of the search and rescue team, as well as up to 35 officers and
countless volunteers were scouring Grays Harbor County for the girl,
who disappeared while walking home last month.

Lindsey's mother and the police chief appeared on a national TV program Monday morning
to urge anyone with information to call investigators.

"Please, if anybody knows anything, even if you don't think it's
important to you, it may be very beneficial to this case in bringing
Lindsey home."

Lindsey Baum's father Scott made the emotional
plea Wednesday as the family still waits for word of what happened to
their daughter.

Lindsey disappeared June 26 walking home from a friend's house. Her parents are confident she's still alive.

"I feel her in my heart. I just know she's alive," said her mother
Melissa. "I just want to say to whoever has my daughter: 'Please, just
let her go.' I don't care who you are, I don't care where you are, I
just want my daughter back."

The parents came forward Wednesday eager to make sure their daughter isn't forgotten.

"We want to keep her face out there," Melissa Baum said. "We want people to see who she is."

They've even created a couple of Web sites for folks to contact: lindseybaum.com and findlindseybaum.com.

"The search continues even though we don't see it," Scott Baum said.
"There's still people out there looking for her. Everybody still has
faith and that's all I can ask for is people don't give up on her."

Scott lives in Tennessee and is a member of the National Guard there. He was set to deploy to Iraq soon, but that may change.

"There's talk that they're not going to deploy me," he said.

It means he could stay stateside and stay on the search for his daughter.

"Just please bring my daughter home. Give us the peace of mind. Let her go unharmed."

Melissa added: "I still feel in my heart I know she's alive, but every day that goes by is just agony."

The Baum's have been contacted by other families across the nation who've
been through the pain of a missing child offering words of
encouragement, but saying it doesn't get easier.

TUMWATER, Wash. - Police are investigating whether the attempted
abduction of a girl in Tumwater on Wednesday is linked to last month's
highly publicized disappearance of 11-year-old Lindsey Baum in McCleary.

Officials say three men tried to kidnap the 14-year-old girl in broad
daylight on Wednesday as she was walking along a busy street, but the
girl was able to escape by running away.

Lindsey Baum

The close call left the girl very shaken, and now detectives are
comparing the similarities between her experience and Lindsey Baum's
unexplained disappearance June 26 in McCleary, about 13 miles away."We investigate because child lurings aren't as common as most crimes,
and when you have two communities that are so close together and the
circumstances where obviously it occurred in public areas. And the
girls are approximately the same age," says Detective Jen Kolb of the
Tumwater Police Department. The Tumwater girl, whose name is being withheld, says she was walking
along Capitol Boulevard to her mother's place of work when the three
men jumped out of a black pickup.
They were yelling, "Hey, pretty lady, how are you?" then came after her, she says.The girl started running, and the men chased after her. But soon after
they gave up the chase, ran back to the pickup and drove off.The experience left the girl scared, alone and distraught. So she ran
to her mother's place of work and breathlessly told her what had
happened.
"She was very scared, shaken - didn't know what to think or what to do," says her mother.
The girl now says she believes the men wanted to hurt her.
"In a way, yeah. ... Just the way they were talking to me and trying to come to me," she says.
Kolb said she finds the case "very disturbing" and is struck by the parallels to the disappearance of Lindsey Baum.
Investigators want anyone with information to call the Tumwater Police Department at (360) 754-4200.
* * * * *
A 14-year-old girl said three men attempted to lure her about 4:30
p.m. Wednesday as she walked in the area of Capitol Boulevard and
Dennis Street. She said a pickup carrying three men pulled
over, and two got out and approached her. One called out to her. When
she saw they were following her, she ran away, she said. She said the men briefly chased her before getting back in the truck and leaving.The
vehicle is described as an older, lowered, small black truck with
tinted windows and stickers on the tailgate. The girl did not get a
good look at the driver, but she described the men who chased her as
white males, 18 or 19 years old, between 5 feet, 8 inches, and 5 feet,
11 inches tall, of medium build, and wearing baseball caps sideways.
Both were wearing plain white T-shirts and baggy blue jeans.

Poster's Note: At this point there is no connection between this report and Lindsey. However, I found it interesting that the victim was in the same age range and the van had plates from Lindsey's state.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's deputies are looking for a man who they say tried to lure a small child. Investigators
say a man in his 50's approached an 11-year-old child Monday near the
area of Hartnell Rd. and Cain Dr. in Santa Maria. The man reportedly
asked the child to help him find his missing dog. Deputies say
the man was driving a white cargo-type van with no side windows. They
also say the van was possibly bearing Washington license plates. The man is described as a white male adult, about 50-years-old. He was about 5' 8" tall, weighing about 150 lbs. Anyone who may have seen the man is asked to call the Sheriff's Department.

Investigators hope a $6,000 reward will help bring a missing McCleary girl home. Lindsey Baum, 11, hasn't been seen since June 26 when she disappeared while walking home from a friend's house.
Two people spotted the then 10-year-old along the way, but she never
made it home and investigators have found no evidence that could
explain her disappearance.In an effort to find out what happened to their daughter, Lindsey's family created two Web sites: http://lindseybaum.com/ and http://findlindseybaum.com/. Both sites have photos of Lindsey and links to detectives working the case. The money is being offered by CrimeStoppers and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.Lindsey
is 4 feet 9 inches tall, 80 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She
was last seen wearing a light blue hooded pullover shirt and blue jeans.Anyone
with information about Lindsey’s disappearance is asked to call the
Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office at 1-866-915-8299 or send an e-mail to soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.

Lindsey Baum’s father returned to Tennessee last weekend to attend
to personal issues and sort out his possible deployment to Iraq,
according to The Daily World of Aberdeen.
Grays Harbor Undersheriff Rick Scott told the newspaper that Scott Baum, a member of
the Tennessee National Guard who has orders to deploy to Iraq, headed
home but hopes to remain in the country to help with the effort to find
his 11-year-old daughter.
Scott said Baum had a round-trip ticket so he could return quickly if anything changed.
Baum went missing June 26 as she walked a few blocks from a friend’s
house to her home in McCleary. The 4-foot-9, brown-haired girl last was
seen wearing a light-blue hooded shirt, blue jeans and black shoes.
Scott said Lindsey’s mother, Melissa Baum, has worked with family members to start two Web sites dedicated to the search: www.findlindseybaum.com and www.lindseybaum.com.
Investigators hope a $6,000 reward will prompt someone to come
forward with information about Lindsey’s disappearance. The money is
being offered by Crimestoppers and the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. Anyone with information is asked to call local
authorities or the investigation’s tip line at 866-915-8299.

When a parent hears that a child is missing, heartbreak for the family
instantaneously comes to the surface. The emotional rollercoaster that
this family must be going through is something most of us, thankfully
will never be able to understand.

Lindsey Baum, a 10-year-old
girl from McCleary, Wash. went missing on June 26 while walking home
from a friend’s house. She has never been seen since.

Having a daughter almost the same age as Baum, has made me even more empathetic
and more cautious about her walking alone or being out of my sight. Our
motto is “stay where I can see you”.

While we have all heard about the disappearance, it is disconcerting that more has not been
seen or heard within the media over this young girl just vanishing.

When Elizabeth Smart disappeared from her home in Utah, state, national and
even global attention was given to the case for months and months. Her
family even appeared on Oprah and other national television shows in
hopes of finding her.

Why is Baum’s disappearance any less important? There are bits and pieces seen here and there on nightly
newscasts but the constant coverage and continual reminders of her
disappearance have vanished right along with her.

There are hundreds of children who disappear in this country every year, many of
them taken by someone outside of their family and friends, yet we only
hear of a select few.

Now, the family has announced that there is a $6,000 reward for information given that will help find Baum and/or her abductor.

Is this one reason Baum’s disappearance hasn’t gotten the same media attention – money?
Searchers have been probing trails, rivers, roads, and every other place they can think of for this child, but to no avail.

Now her father may be deployed to Iraq soon and would like nothing more
than to see his daughter and know she is safe before he leaves.

Every child deserves to be safe and when one of them goes missing, their
disappearance should be a top story on the news each night. Race,
religion, age, money, none of this should matter.

For now, thoughts and prayers go out to Lindsey Baum and her family, prayers
that they will not only find her, but that they will find her alive.
Hope that she will return home to the arms of all of those who have
searched for her.

Search teams from the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office, the FBI and Pierce County are in McCleary today conducting another search for missing 10-year-old Lindsey Baum.The
teams, including search dog, are battling very high heat as the check
up on additional tips and re-check area hoping to find Lindsey missing
since June 26.A $6,000 reward is being offered by Crimestoppers for information that helps find her.

It's been more than a month since Lindsey Baum disappeared while walking home from a friend's house, but investigators are not giving up.

On Tuesday, detectives from Pierce County joined the search, hoping to turn up new leads or tips in the case.

They searched homes, trash cans and crawl spaces near where Lindsey was last
seen, and cadaver-sniffing dogs were also brought in to comb the area.

Everywhere you look in this small town there's a photo of Lindsey -- posted in
store windows, hanging on the side of a truck parked on Main Street.

Everyone knows her name and everyone wants her to come home.

Spending time here you get the feeling the the girl's disappearance has changed
the town. Instead of trading the usual neighborhood gossip, it seems
all anyone talks about is what might have happened to Lindsey.

Kevin Pratt lives in McCleary and says he's always keeping his eyes open and thinking of the missing girl.

"Every time I go out in these wooded areas, any time I'm out anywhere I'm
looking for anything for anything out of the ordinary."

The investigation into Lindsey's disappearance, which has involved multiple
local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, has turned up
nothing.

Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Richard Scott told Q13 FOX News that
they recently received quite a few tips, so they checked them out on
Tuesday with the help of several agencies including the FBI, Aberdeen
Police, Crime Stoppers and Thurston, Mason and Pierce County Sheriff's
Offices. Pierce County Search & Rescue dogs also helped in the
search.

The search teams braved temperatures of more than a hundred degrees and
searched several areas in McCleary including an abandoned house, but
came up empty. Investigators also went door-to-door and handed-out
flyers.

10-year-old Lindsey Baum disappeared on June 26 as she walked from a
friend's house to her own home. Her mom called police when Lindsey
failed to show the night she disappeared.

The FBI along with the National Center For Missing And Exploited
children joined the search days after the little girl disappeared.

Undersheriff Scott has been trying to find out what happened to the
little girl. He says so far in the investigation, they've received
about 700 tips. He told Q13 FOX News, "This is a girl with no means, no
money, and no true opportunity to leave. We have nothing specifically
that is pointing us in any direction that is going to allow us to rule
out any scenario.... this may be a worst case scenario criminal
investigation involving a predator or predatory behavior."

Lindsey's mom Melissa Baum told Q13 FOX News that she knows the police
will find her little girl and she prays it's sooner than later because
of the extremely hot weather. Baum says, "It's hot and if she's in an
old house, shed or basement somewhere she's probably burning-up and
that's been bothering me the last couple days because it's been so hot.
I just worry."

Lindsey also missed her 11th birthday. Melissa says they'll have a huge party for her when she comes home.

Lindsey is 4'9" tall and 80 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She
was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt with blue jeans and black shoes.

A $6,000 reward is now being offered in hopes that it'll prompt someone
to come forward with information about Lindsey's disappearance.
Investigators say the money is being offered by Crime Stoppers and the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Melissa says she's in the process of setting-up a search center in
McCleary. She says it'll help organize volunteers to look for her
daughter. Melissa says if you're interested in volunteering or making a
donation, go to www.findlindseybaum.com

As temperatures soar near 100, teams from the Grays Harbor County
Sheriff's Office, the FBI and Pierce County are in McCleary Tuesday
conducting another search for missing 10-year-old Lindsey Baum.The
teams, including search dogs, are battling the heat as they check up on
additional tips and re-check the area hoping to find the girl who has
been missing since June 26.The skyrocketing temperatures are making the search very difficult for people and animals."It's
really hard. It's hot. It's hot for us; it's hot for the dogs. The
scent conditions aren't as good," said searcher Beth Chesier.Searchers
and dogs have been seeking refuge inside a cool building to rest and
drink as much water as possible before the teams hit the field again,
going door to door interviewing everyone to find some clue that will
lead to Lindsey.Though the work is hard in the heat, searchers said they're glad to be part of the effort to help bring Lindsey home.A $6,000 reward is being offered by Crimestoppers for information that helps find her.

Searchers returned to the streets of McCleary under a brutal sun
Tuesday to follow up on new leads in the hunt for 11-year-old Lindsey
Baum, according to The Daily World of Aberdeen. About 25
officers and searchers with dogs braved near-record temperatures to
re-canvass areas of town, Grays Harbor Undersheriff Rick Scott said.A
recent $6,000 reward for information in the missing girl’s case has
produced a new wave of tips, Scott said. Surrounding law enforcement
agencies including the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and the
Aberdeen Police Department sent officers to help perform follow-up
searches and interviews.About six core investigators have been
leading the effort to find Lindsey, who disappeared while walking a few
blocks home June 26. The detectives have found no evidence explaining
the 4-foot-9, brown-haired girl’s disappearance, but they continue
sorting through thousands of tips.
Officers and volunteers knocked on doors throughout town Tuesday,
asking new questions and trying to reach people missed in previous
interviews, Scott said.Two teams with cadaver search dogs also
roamed the town, he said, but the hot conditions limited the available
scents and quickly wore out the dogs.Scott said detectives and
extra officers expect to follow up on new tips in town for at least the
rest of the week. He asked anyone with any potentially helpful
information to call 866-915-8299.