McCLEARY, Wash. - The Grays Harbor County Sheriff's department is making room for a new base of operations in the search for a missing McCleary girl. The base of operations for the search will be in the County Sheriff's offices starting this weekend. Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott tells KBKW that the McCleary Bear Festival this weekend required the parking and rooms that were being used to accommodate the investigators in the case. "We'll work out of here, go to McCleary as needed, and be able to follow up on leads outside of McCleary in a more organized fashion."
Officials will begin tearing down the extensive interagency efforts in McCleary, and releasing some of the 15 to 10 officers per day that have been assisting in the investigation. "We're going to have to accept that this is going to be a case that's assigned to a smaller team of officers" said Scott. Earlier in the week deputies and investigators gave the McCleary family some breathing room on Tuesday - Lindsey's 11th birthday. The father, Scott Baum, says he wants to see his daughter again before he deploys to Iraq. Baum is a member of the Tennessee National Guard and says he's set to deploy in a few weeks. Scott said that video footage taken from a nearby Shell station yielded no stand-out leads, some leads are still being investigated from the video. Scott added that the footage is now being investigated by forensics teams, in hopes of enhancing some of the video. Grays Harbor County Sheriff Mike Whelan says that investigators have received many tips, and that so far the investigation has yielded no primary suspects. "We've been sending teams of detectives out to follow up on those tips" "as far as suspects are concerned, we don't have anyone that we can say is the suspect" Investigators would still like to talk to anyone who may have seen anything in McCleary between 9 and 10 pm Friday - june 26th when the little girl failed to return to her home on Mommsen Road from a friend's house on Maple street a few blocks away.
Lindsey turned 11 years old on Tuesday, and is described as 4 foot-9, 80 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a grey pullover hoodie with blue jeans and black shoes.
Anyone with any information is urged to contact the Grays Harbor Emergency 911 Center at 360-533-8765, toll free at 866-915-8299, or the McCleary Police Department at 360-495-3107.
Police are also asking that people get their facts from the police or local media, and to not flood tip lines with rumors heard second hand, or online. Investigators looking for the missing McCleary girl say it's unlikely she ran away or is playing a prank on her family, FBI investigators have said it is also unlikely that she was abducted by a stranger, and more likely someone she knew. Police are following up on several leads in the case, Scott tells us that the Forensic Investigation on Lindsey's home computer has turned up little more, and that they have expanded the computer level search to other computers that Lindsey may have used to access her internet profiles, including the local public library's computer. "I just need my daughter home," Melissa Baum, the girl's mother told The Aberdeen Daily World. She said she's afraid someone has taken her daughter and away from McCleary, a town of about 1,500. Lindsey's mother reported her missing Friday night. Chief George Crumb of the McCleary Police Department said that weekend that friends and family are assisting the search, and that while his department hopes Baum just ran off on her own, "she's been gone far too long." Melissa Baum said she is afraid someone has taken her daughter, and taken her away from McCleary.
"If anyone does have her, bring her back home or take her to a pay phone where she can call home," Baum said.
No Amber Alert was initiated because no one had seen anyone take her. Lindsey Baum was reported as a missing child.
"It did not meet any of the criteria for an Amber Alert," Crumb said.
McCleary Police set up the initial search, but called in the Sheriffs Office at 4 a.m., Patrick said. Thurston County sheriffs deputies, FBI Officials, and the Washington State Patrol are also assisting.
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