“I’m very devastated. It kind of hit that my oldest daughter will never get to meet her aunt and I’ll never get to see her again,” said Leala Roberts, Lindsey Baum’s older sister.
KIRO 7 videochatted with Roberts over the phone after news that Baum's remains were recovered.
She said she’d been holding out hope all these years.
“She was so young and so much life ahead of her,” Roberts added. “And it was all taken away from her.”
Lindsey was just 10 years old when she disappeared walking home alone on Maple Street from a friend’s home in June of 2009.
Nine years later, many of the same neighbors still live on the street and remember her disappearance vividly.
Linda Belcher said she remembers Lindsey often walking by her home.
“She had a good friend here,” Linda Belcher recalled. “You know how little girls are. They giggled and you could hear them out there. It just about broke everyone’s heart when she disappeared.”
Lindsey’s disappearance changed the community in McCleary.
Some describe it as a loss of innocence for the small, tight-knit town.
And though years passed, no one forgot the little girl.
“Heartbreaking,” said Beverly Brown. “You know they hunted her for so long, notices were on all the buildings.”
Today, her face can still be seen posted on fliers hanging on this abandoned building in town.
The town also planted a memorial tree in her honor in 2011, on what would have been her 13th birthday.
“It’s sad but good they can find out what happened to her,” David Belcher said. “Hope they find out who did it."
KIRO 7 asked Roberts whether the news brought closure for her.
“It’s kind of closure,” Roberts said. “I don’t think there’s going to be closure fully until we can lay her down to rest and when they find the sick person who did it.”
More news from KIRO 7
- Lindsey Baum found: Missing McCleary girl's remains found in Eastern Washington
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- Police: 11-year-old girl attacked in mall restroom, father tackles suspect in food court
- How Seattle spent $54 million on homelessness in 2017
- Police: Pit bull attacks Jehovah's Witnesses at front door
Cox Media Group
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