After nine years investigators said the remains of Lindsey Baum, a McCleary girl missing since 2009, were located.
“I’m here today to share with you that we’ve brought Lindsey home. We recovered her,” said Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott during a news conference in McCleary.
“Her remains were recovered in September of 2017, unknowingly, by some hunters in a remote portion of eastern Washington,” Scott said.
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Baum vanished while walking home from a friend's house on June 26th, 2009. For years her disappearance was handled as a missing person's case. No suspect has been identified and no arrests have been made.
Scott said it took several months before DNA tests confirmed the remains found were Baum's leading to the theory she had been murdered and her body dumped in the wilderness.
Some residents of McCleary came to the small town’s community center to hear the news for themselves.
“She was my granddaughter’s friend and she’s so precious,” said Julie Colbert, who said she was part of Team Lindsey, a group of townspeople who spent nine years working to find Baum. “[We] did everything we could to find her and we always thought we would, but it never came about."
Many said they hope finding the missing girl's remains also means bringing her killer to justice.
“I hope so, I really do,” said Terese Norton who came to the community center with her teenage daughters. “There’s just too much of this going on in this day and age and it needs to stop.”
Cox Media Group
