Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Lindsey Baum: Unsolved | McCleary, WA

Transcript

Lindsey Baum: Unsolved | McCleary, WA · PNW Haunts & Homicides

0:02
Speaker 1: Over sixteen years have passed since a ten year old
0:05
Speaker 1: girl walked four blocks through a quiet logging town and
0:11
Speaker 1: never came home. Sixteen loss years of tips that went nowhere.
0:18
Speaker 1: Long before hunters stumbled across the fractured skull of Lindsey
0:22
Speaker 1: Baum in the Mountains. The case was characterized by frustration
0:28
Speaker 1: as search warrants and polygraphs ultimately became dead ends.
0:38
Speaker 2: Hi Cassie, Hi, Caitlin.
0:41
Speaker 1: High creepy people, Oh hello hellou. This is PNW Holns
0:47
Speaker 1: and Homicides where we chat about true crime, the paranormal,
0:51
Speaker 1: and all things spooky in the Pacific Northwest.
0:56
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1:00
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1:03
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1:06
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1:12
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1:16
Speaker 1: and share with a fellow true crime listener.
1:21
Speaker 2: McCleary.
1:22
Speaker 1: Washington is a small mill town founded as a logging
1:26
Speaker 1: camp in Gray's Harbor County, with less than two thousand residents.
1:31
Speaker 2: Hey, we know about Gray's Harbor.
1:33
Speaker 1: Grays Harbor, with its tiny grid of two dozen streets
1:39
Speaker 1: talked amongst vast forests. It's a pretty typical rural community.
1:44
Speaker 1: But back in the days of Prohibition, McCleary had a
1:48
Speaker 1: reputation for making high quality moonshine whiskey. These days, however,
1:54
Speaker 1: with a population so small where one company, the Simpson
1:59
Speaker 1: Door Plan, employs over two hundred of its residents, it's
2:04
Speaker 1: truly the type of quiet small town where almost everyone
2:08
Speaker 1: knows each other. Like ten percent of the population works
2:11
Speaker 1: at this single company.
2:13
Speaker 2: Wow. Kind of crazy. Yeah.
2:16
Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, Melissa Baum and her two children,
2:20
Speaker 1: Joshua and Lindsay, had recently relocated from Tennessee after Melissa's divorce,
2:27
Speaker 1: Hoping for a fresh start. Melissa thought McCleary felt like
2:32
Speaker 1: a nice, quiet, safe town. Lindsay was a mama's girl
2:37
Speaker 1: who hated being out past dark. I'm so precious, a
2:43
Speaker 1: girl who'd scribble stories on napkins and dream of filling
2:46
Speaker 1: her own bookshelves one day. She loved Harry Potter and
2:51
Speaker 1: Twilight in particular. Hell yeah, I know, just a girl
2:55
Speaker 1: after our own heart.
2:56
Speaker 2: Seriously.
2:58
Speaker 1: That summer, the family began to settle in, make new
3:01
Speaker 1: friends and plans for the fall and the rest of
3:04
Speaker 1: their future. On June twenty sixth, Lindsay spent the afternoon
3:09
Speaker 1: at a friends school, swimming and talking about what middle
3:12
Speaker 1: school would be like in the fall. She had just
3:16
Speaker 1: finished fifth grade and her eleventh birthday was eleven days away.
3:21
Speaker 1: Oh spooky, I know there's something about it being her
3:25
Speaker 1: eleventh birthday and that it was eleven days away. Ye,
3:29
Speaker 1: kind of gives you the chili willies. That evening, Lindsay
3:33
Speaker 1: asked if she could sleep over. The girls weren't ready
3:36
Speaker 1: for the day to end.
3:38
Speaker 2: So cute.
3:39
Speaker 1: It's like that like late June, Like it's right before
3:43
Speaker 1: the fourth of July. It's like right when like the
3:45
Speaker 1: summer weather gets good and you're just having so much fun.
3:50
Speaker 1: How yeah, and you've gone yeah, well yeah, June twenty
3:54
Speaker 1: six It would be pretty much in any district, I think,
3:57
Speaker 1: unless you go to year round schoolw ooh. Even though
4:03
Speaker 1: it was a summer Friday night, the answer was no oh.
4:08
Speaker 1: Because she and her brother Joshua had argued earlier, he'd
4:12
Speaker 1: turned back home, so she set out on the ten
4:16
Speaker 1: minute walk home alone, without money, a change of clothes,
4:20
Speaker 1: or even her cell phone, which had been accidentally left
4:24
Speaker 1: on its charger at home, which is kind of crazy
4:28
Speaker 1: because I think it's pretty normal these days for kids
4:33
Speaker 1: to have phones. I think, but I'm like, wow, she's
4:36
Speaker 1: not even eleven yet and she has a phone.
4:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like that's wild.
4:40
Speaker 1: To me, just because I'm like, I don't think I
4:42
Speaker 1: got a phone until I was like almost fourteen. And
4:46
Speaker 1: even then it was like like the equivalent of like
4:50
Speaker 1: giving a kid a flip phone. Now, yeah, it's one
4:52
Speaker 1: of those Nokia like touchpad bed Bully's.
4:56
Speaker 3: Mine was definitely a flip phone. I was like, yeah,
4:58
Speaker 3: I feel like I was sixteen. I don't know, I
5:00
Speaker 3: could have been fifteen.
5:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, so cool.
5:06
Speaker 1: She was last seen around nine to fifteen pm by
5:09
Speaker 1: a neighbor walking along Maple Street between fifth and sixth Street.
5:15
Speaker 1: When Lindsay didn't come home, Melissa called her friend's house.
5:20
Speaker 1: The mother said she hadn't seen Lindsay in over an hour.
5:24
Speaker 2: Oh.
5:26
Speaker 1: Melissa called nine one one, stating her daughter was not
5:29
Speaker 1: the kind of kid who wandered off. She would have
5:32
Speaker 1: hurried home as the sun was going down to avoid
5:35
Speaker 1: being alone in the dark in a place where she
5:39
Speaker 1: was only just getting her bearings. I can't even imagine
5:42
Speaker 1: for a kid that already is afraid of the dark.
5:45
Speaker 1: And you know it's still like a new.
5:48
Speaker 2: Town to you.
5:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, they hadn't been living there very long.
5:52
Speaker 2: I have to walk home without your phone. Yeah.
5:55
Speaker 1: In the days before she vanished, Lindsay told her mother
5:59
Speaker 1: she believed a man in a white car had been
6:02
Speaker 1: following her.
6:03
Speaker 2: Well, shit, that's not good. No, And the night.
6:07
Speaker 1: Before she disappeared, she told her mom she had a
6:10
Speaker 1: feeling something bad was going to happen to her. These
6:14
Speaker 1: details suggest she may have been watched or targeted in
6:18
Speaker 1: the days prior to her disappearance. Lindsay's disappearance was taken
6:24
Speaker 1: seriously from the start. From the beginning, her mother, Melissa,
6:28
Speaker 1: was certain that her daughter had not wandered off or
6:31
Speaker 1: run away. By Saturday afternoon, officials agreed. Sheriff Rick Scott
6:37
Speaker 1: stated this young girl didn't simply run off on her own.
6:42
Speaker 1: There was no evidence to support that. On Sunday, the
6:46
Speaker 1: FBI's Seattle Field office arrived and began working the case.
6:51
Speaker 1: Soon dozens of agents were assisting, along with hundreds of
6:54
Speaker 1: police officers and searchers. Which was like, pretty freaking quick
7:00
Speaker 1: your kid to go missing Friday night and the FBI
7:04
Speaker 1: is on the scene by Sunday. I mean, that's got
7:07
Speaker 1: to make you at least feel good that they're doing
7:08
Speaker 1: everything that they can. In the months that followed, Lindsay's
7:14
Speaker 1: case went national. Her photo appeared on the cover of
7:17
Speaker 1: People magazine in twenty ten.
7:20
Speaker 2: Wow. I didn't know they did stuff like that.
7:23
Speaker 1: I you know, People magazine, honestly, will it can be
7:28
Speaker 1: anything that ends up making the.
7:29
Speaker 2: Cover anyone who's a person, I mean, yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
7:35
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of Lindsay's disappearance, scrutiny fell on the
7:39
Speaker 1: family too, of course. Yeah, I mean it's a sad reality.
7:45
Speaker 1: The weight of it eventually forced Melissa and Joshua to
7:48
Speaker 1: leave McCleary entirely, moving to a nearby town to escape
7:52
Speaker 1: what it become unbearable. Years later, Melissa would reflect on
7:58
Speaker 1: what that cost them. I just kind of died inside.
8:02
Speaker 1: It was as if I was in a coma, just numb.
8:07
Speaker 1: It destroyed us, especially Joshua. And he didn't just lose
8:11
Speaker 1: his sister, he lost the mom he knew.
8:15
Speaker 2: That is just so sad hard.
8:19
Speaker 1: I mean, it's got to be so so hard. I mean,
8:22
Speaker 1: the heartbreak of having a missing child and then trying
8:25
Speaker 1: to figure out how you function as a mom to
8:29
Speaker 1: your remaining child. I don't know how you do that,
8:34
Speaker 1: I really don't.
8:36
Speaker 2: I'm sure they both have like the survivor's guilt going on,
8:40
Speaker 2: because he'd gotten an argument with her and left early
8:43
Speaker 2: or whatever had happened.
8:44
Speaker 1: And so they were actually both supposed to be going
8:48
Speaker 1: to this friend's house and hanging out at the pool
8:50
Speaker 1: that day, but they got in a fight as they
8:53
Speaker 1: were leaving the house, and so Josh turned back. Oh
8:58
Speaker 1: so he never even went to the friend's house. He
9:00
Speaker 1: basically just turned back and was like, fuck it, I'm
9:03
Speaker 1: going to stay home.
9:04
Speaker 2: You know, maybe in.
9:06
Speaker 1: Slightly less colorful language, but forget it.
9:09
Speaker 2: I'm going home. Forget you, forget you.
9:14
Speaker 1: In May twenty ten, the Sheriff's Office released surveillance footage
9:19
Speaker 1: from a Shell gas station showing a white truck and
9:23
Speaker 1: a man who entered the store on the night of
9:25
Speaker 1: Lindsay's disappearance. The man had previously told investigators he was
9:31
Speaker 1: not in McCleary that evening. The footage contradicted that account.
9:37
Speaker 1: Investigators identified and interviewed him, as well as two sisters
9:42
Speaker 1: from the McCleary area who were briefly seen speaking with
9:45
Speaker 1: him in the video, but no arrests or charges have
9:50
Speaker 1: ever resulted from those interviews. None of those people are
9:54
Speaker 1: super clearly identified in the source material that I was
9:58
Speaker 1: looking at. That's always interesting because and I'm about to
10:02
Speaker 1: get into it, but there are quite a lot of
10:05
Speaker 1: very specifically named people related to the case that I
10:09
Speaker 1: will talk about. And it's like, so, why are we
10:12
Speaker 1: naming some people and not others? It's kind of interesting
10:15
Speaker 1: to me. Huh, yeah, I don't know. I think in
10:18
Speaker 1: a lot of cases it's just people are able to
10:21
Speaker 1: determine the names. It's not necessarily that, like the police
10:24
Speaker 1: have released specific names. But that's always interesting to me.
10:28
Speaker 1: In a small town like this, I could see where
10:31
Speaker 1: it's like people are like, uh, yeah, no, we know
10:34
Speaker 1: who that was because we all saw him there. Yeah,
10:36
Speaker 1: so we know exactly who you're talking about. Like anyway,
10:40
Speaker 1: over the years, more than forty individuals drew the attention
10:44
Speaker 1: of investigators, more than twenty search warrants were executed, and
10:50
Speaker 1: nearly forty polygraph tests were administered.
10:53
Speaker 3: I feel like that's a lot. Seems like a lot, right,
10:57
Speaker 3: I don't know the standard, but ye, for a small town.
10:59
Speaker 3: I guess it's seems like a lot.
11:00
Speaker 2: Seems like a lot. Yeah, like half the town is
11:03
Speaker 2: being used a murder.
11:05
Speaker 1: Basically, and still no arrest. Of those forty individuals. A
11:12
Speaker 1: few surfaced repeatedly, individuals whose connection to that night or
11:17
Speaker 1: to McCleary itself kept investigators coming back. None have been charged,
11:23
Speaker 1: and each maintains their innocence, and what follows is simply
11:29
Speaker 1: what the public record shows. Private investigator Rose Winquist has
11:35
Speaker 1: worked with Lindsay's case for nearly a decade. Her conclusion
11:39
Speaker 1: is pointed, I think this person was and still is
11:44
Speaker 1: a local. The person either knew Lindsay or was familiar
11:48
Speaker 1: with her in some way. This person was sort of
11:52
Speaker 1: profiling her. She believes the perpetrator was likely a male
11:57
Speaker 1: in his twenties at the time, someone who had been
12:00
Speaker 1: watching Lindsay, who knew her habits, and who coaxed her
12:05
Speaker 1: into a vehicle.
12:08
Speaker 2: It's interesting to me that you would do that in
12:10
Speaker 2: like your small town that you live in.
12:12
Speaker 1: Right, You're like, there's only so many people that they
12:17
Speaker 1: can point to. You're not worried that just statistically your
12:21
Speaker 1: name might come up. Everybody knows everybody.
12:26
Speaker 2: And I feel like everybody's watching always. Huh. Yeah, not
12:32
Speaker 2: that you shouldn't like hurt people anywhere.
12:34
Speaker 1: But well, right, but it just seems like particularly unwise. First,
12:41
Speaker 1: there was an unnamed forty seven year old man who
12:44
Speaker 1: had provided quote inconsistent statements to investigators, just pretty much
12:51
Speaker 1: the number one way of getting on their radar. His
12:56
Speaker 1: home was searched in October two thousand and nine, just
12:59
Speaker 1: months after Lindsay disappeared, but didn't result in an arrest
13:04
Speaker 1: or us knowing exactly who he was.
13:07
Speaker 2: Damn it. Yeah, yeah, we loss he's innocent.
13:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and maybe they figured that whatever connection
13:15
Speaker 1: they initially thought existed was so tenuous that like it
13:20
Speaker 1: wasn't wise to publicly out this person, because you know
13:25
Speaker 1: how that can go. I mean, especially in a small town.
13:28
Speaker 1: It's like that person can just become completely ostracized, and
13:32
Speaker 1: it's like the police like talked to them once and
13:36
Speaker 1: decided they weren't even a good potential suspect. And now
13:39
Speaker 1: it's like you're ruining their life for nothing. Yeah, So
13:42
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's so hard, I know. Next there
13:48
Speaker 1: was Tim Hartman, a local jeweler and volunteer firefighter. In
13:55
Speaker 1: twenty eleven investigators searched his home, but it was until
14:00
Speaker 1: February twenty twelve that the results of the search were
14:04
Speaker 1: publicly released, and though Hartman was listed as a person
14:08
Speaker 1: of interest, he was also never arrested or charged. Hartman's shop,
14:15
Speaker 1: Hartman's Jewelry and Repair, on Fourth Street, is on the
14:19
Speaker 1: route that Lindsay would have taken to get back home
14:22
Speaker 1: the night she disappeared. He initially told police he was
14:26
Speaker 1: not in McCleary at the time, but surveillance video placed
14:30
Speaker 1: him at a convenience store at nine to nineteen pm,
14:35
Speaker 1: four minutes after Lindsay was last seen.
14:38
Speaker 2: Hmm, why would you say you're not there if you're there.
14:42
Speaker 1: It's possible that like the timeline for him just was
14:45
Speaker 1: a little bit like I yeah, because actually so he'd
14:50
Speaker 1: claimed he'd been at a class in Belfair that ended
14:54
Speaker 1: at nine pm, but the FBI determined that the class
14:58
Speaker 1: actually ended at eight fifteen. So you're talking about like
15:03
Speaker 1: a difference of like forty five minutes. Maybe this maybe
15:06
Speaker 1: the class was scheduled to go until nine and it
15:10
Speaker 1: ended early, and like, I don't know, it does kind
15:14
Speaker 1: of obviously it raises suspicion because that's I mean, it
15:18
Speaker 1: puts him literally right there, smacked up.
15:23
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, it's just weird. It is. It's weird.
15:26
Speaker 1: It may mean nothing, you know, could be correlation, not causation.
15:31
Speaker 1: But the October twenty eleven search of Hartman's home, car,
15:37
Speaker 1: and shop produced a notable list of seized items, amongst
15:42
Speaker 1: them ropes and straps, numerous computers and storage devices, a
15:49
Speaker 1: pink sheet with unknown stains, a brown Duffel bag containing
15:54
Speaker 1: what was described as assumed human hair, who handwritten notes
16:00
Speaker 1: referencing the missing child wait what uh huh? And from
16:05
Speaker 1: the passenger side of his car what the search warrant
16:09
Speaker 1: described only as an apparent fingernail. Whether that item was
16:15
Speaker 1: ever forensically identified and what those results showed has never
16:21
Speaker 1: been made public, though again Tim Hartman.
16:26
Speaker 2: Not ever charged so far. Okay, writing notes about her,
16:32
Speaker 2: that's I don't know. I don't know, and I'm not even.
16:36
Speaker 1: Sure that really like the details or like the context
16:39
Speaker 1: of those notes has been publicly released.
16:42
Speaker 2: I don't care what it says, any note about a
16:44
Speaker 2: child who's gone missing. That's why are you noted? Yeah?
16:49
Speaker 2: It does.
16:50
Speaker 1: It does feel a little like I have questions. I
16:54
Speaker 1: have some follow up questions and actually that's okay. You'll
16:59
Speaker 1: you'll probably be like, let's put a pin in that
17:02
Speaker 1: cuz well, yike's this next section. In twenty seventeen, three
17:09
Speaker 1: elderly brothers, Charles Thomas and Edwin Emery were arrested at
17:15
Speaker 1: their Seattle home on child's sex abuse charges after a
17:19
Speaker 1: female family member discovered evidence of decades long abuse and
17:24
Speaker 1: reported it. When investigators searched the home, they found it
17:28
Speaker 1: littered with disturbing material, and among it a copy of
17:34
Speaker 1: Lindsay's missing flyer EW alongside dozens of photos and articles
17:42
Speaker 1: about other missing children. The brothers also owned a property
17:46
Speaker 1: in Shelton, just seventeen miles from McCleary. Investigators searched it
17:51
Speaker 1: with cadaver dogs and assistants from the Department of Homeland Security.
17:56
Speaker 1: No evidence linking the Emery brothers to Lindsay's disappearance was
18:00
Speaker 1: found at either location that we know of, and they
18:03
Speaker 1: have never been charged in connection with her case.
18:07
Speaker 3: Dude, What's what's all these fucking weirdos around town? I
18:11
Speaker 3: still don't like the note taker.
18:12
Speaker 1: Nope, I don't like the note one, but I really
18:15
Speaker 1: disliked the second one because not only did they have
18:19
Speaker 1: Lindsay's like Missing Persons Flyer, they had articles and photos of.
18:24
Speaker 2: Other missing children.
18:25
Speaker 1: That's ikey, it's real ikey, especially considering what they were
18:30
Speaker 1: arrested for. Either those are kind of like a trophy
18:34
Speaker 1: item because they had something.
18:36
Speaker 2: To do with those cases, or they are.
18:39
Speaker 1: Using them for other shall we say personal use you?
18:46
Speaker 2: I mean, I'd rather it be that, even though that's gross.
18:48
Speaker 2: It's real gross, and I hate that.
18:51
Speaker 1: I do, maybe hate it slightly less.
18:54
Speaker 2: Than it's like the nastiest. Would you rather get it?
18:57
Speaker 1: I'm so bad. Twenty twenty one, Paul Beeker was arrested
19:04
Speaker 1: in connection with a two thousand and three kidnapping and
19:06
Speaker 1: rape of a seventeen year old girl in the same town.
19:10
Speaker 1: The victim had been abducted from her own driveway bound
19:15
Speaker 1: and driven to a remote location where she was sexually assaulted.
19:20
Speaker 1: The case had gone cold for nearly two decades before
19:24
Speaker 1: forensic genetic genealogy identified.
19:28
Speaker 2: Baker as the suspect haha.
19:31
Speaker 1: Confirmed by DNA from a coffee cup he discarded at
19:35
Speaker 1: Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. Hahas we have very recently
19:40
Speaker 1: talked about a match so precise it was statistically one
19:46
Speaker 1: in thirty five quadrillion.
19:51
Speaker 2: That's a lot. It's a lot. So I feel like
19:55
Speaker 2: they were pretty certain. Yeah, I would hope, so, yeah, yeah,
20:01
Speaker 2: yeah yeah.
20:03
Speaker 1: He was arrested in twenty twenty one, convicted in June
20:07
Speaker 1: the following year, and sentenced to thirty years in prison
20:10
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter. Given that Beaker had lived in McCleary, in
20:15
Speaker 1: June two thousand and nine, investigators examined whether he had
20:19
Speaker 1: any connection to Lindsay's case. The answer, at least publicly
20:24
Speaker 1: was no.
20:25
Speaker 2: Quote.
20:27
Speaker 1: At this point, investigators have not discovered any evidence linking
20:32
Speaker 1: Baker to the Lindsay bomb investigation. Beeker passed a polygraph
20:37
Speaker 1: in reference to questions involving Lindsay Bomb. The Gray's Harbor
20:42
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office confirmed for whatever that's worth, and polygraphs, as
20:47
Speaker 1: we know, are worth of very debatable. Yeah, yeah, I
20:53
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess it just depends on if you
20:55
Speaker 1: believe in science or Based on that statement, Beeker has
21:01
Speaker 1: likely moved well down the list of investigative priorities, though
21:06
Speaker 1: the case remains open and no one has been formally cleared,
21:12
Speaker 1: which I feel like is very pointed.
21:13
Speaker 2: I don't like that. Yeah, I mean it's been found.
21:17
Speaker 2: No one's been cleared.
21:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, They're like, we're not really eliminating any possibilities at
21:24
Speaker 1: this point, we're just not charging anyone. In the fall
21:29
Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen, hunters in a remote, rugged area near
21:33
Speaker 1: Ellensburg stumbled upon part of a human school.
21:38
Speaker 2: Oh, they didn't find Mel's hole. I would rather them
21:41
Speaker 2: find Mel's hole than a school.
21:43
Speaker 3: I know.
21:47
Speaker 1: Investigators were led to the location and collected it, but
21:52
Speaker 1: without an obvious crime connected to its discovery. It's sat
21:56
Speaker 1: in a queue waiting for DNA analysis from months.
22:01
Speaker 3: Oh shit, I guess I didn't really think about that. Yeah, Like,
22:06
Speaker 3: how long it would take to actually identify it remains damn.
22:11
Speaker 1: Unless they have, you know, a shortlist. For nine years,
22:16
Speaker 1: Lindsay's case had remained officially classified as a missing person investigation.
22:23
Speaker 1: On May tenth, twenty eighteen, that changed. The DNA results
22:28
Speaker 1: came back. The skull fractured belonged to Lindsay Baum. Her
22:35
Speaker 1: death was officially classified as a homicide. After nine years,
22:40
Speaker 1: investigators finally knew what Melissa had known from the very
22:44
Speaker 1: first night. That Lindsay had not wandered off. She had
22:48
Speaker 1: been taken and she had been murdered. Sheriff Scott broke
22:53
Speaker 1: the news first to Melissa, then he stood before the
22:57
Speaker 1: community at a press conference in mc cleary. I am
23:01
Speaker 1: here today to share with you that we brought Lindsey home,
23:05
Speaker 1: he said, Sadly, she was not recovered as we and
23:09
Speaker 1: her family had hoped and prayed these past nine years.
23:14
Speaker 2: And the room gasped.
23:17
Speaker 1: There's something about a room like sitting in for this,
23:23
Speaker 1: you know, at a press conference nearly a decade after
23:27
Speaker 1: this child has gone missing. The fact that they gasped, yeah,
23:31
Speaker 1: because I think typically most of us assume after that
23:37
Speaker 1: long that person is gone. Yeah, they say that, Yeah,
23:42
Speaker 1: And even if they were like in a way still
23:46
Speaker 1: expecting that. I feel like it just says a lot
23:48
Speaker 1: that the people that were present were like still, whether
23:53
Speaker 1: they were shocked or so upset, whatever it was that
23:56
Speaker 1: was driving that reaction.
23:58
Speaker 2: Like the gasp to me is.
24:00
Speaker 1: Just I don't know, It's kind of chilling in its
24:05
Speaker 1: own way, if that makes sense.
24:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. The location where she.
24:10
Speaker 1: Was found sits in the Manustache area, about twenty miles
24:15
Speaker 1: west of Ellensburg, steep forested terrain with large cliffs and
24:20
Speaker 1: deep Ravines, roughly one hundred and sixty eight miles and
24:24
Speaker 1: a three hour drive from McCleary. Investigators noted that a
24:29
Speaker 1: local perpetrator would be less likely to travel that far,
24:33
Speaker 1: suggesting someone with knowledge of or connections too Eastern Washington.
24:41
Speaker 1: As Sheriff Scott put it, the biggest clue now is
24:45
Speaker 1: the Eastern Washington connection. Trying to find some connection in
24:50
Speaker 1: the information we've gathered over the last ten years that
24:55
Speaker 1: is not where you accidentally end up. Someone knew that
25:00
Speaker 1: that area that's far enough away. That part is really chilling.
25:08
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, a multi agency search involving the FBI,
25:13
Speaker 1: the AG's HITS investigators, and over one hundred and sixty
25:19
Speaker 1: volunteers swept a ten agger area in Mason County based
25:24
Speaker 1: on an early tip. Up to twenty five items were
25:28
Speaker 1: recovered as possible evidence, but again, no suspect has ever
25:34
Speaker 1: been charged, but the case remains open with the Gray's
25:38
Speaker 1: Harbor County Sheriff's office and with the FBI. So I
25:42
Speaker 1: mean they have literally been still keeping this alive and
25:47
Speaker 1: like things are happening if they are gathering tips or
25:51
Speaker 1: any new information. Over sixteen years have passed since a
25:56
Speaker 1: ten year old girl walked four blocks through quiet logging
26:01
Speaker 1: town and never came home. Sixteen plus years of tips
26:07
Speaker 1: that went nowhere, long before hunters stumbled across the fractured
26:12
Speaker 1: skull of Lindsay Bomb in the mountains, the case was
26:16
Speaker 1: characterized by frustration, as search warrants and polygraphs ultimately became
26:23
Speaker 1: dead ends. Now her mother eats, sleeps, drives to work,
26:29
Speaker 1: and lives her everyday life with her daughter's ashes around
26:33
Speaker 1: her neck, because that's where Lindsay is now, independent on
26:42
Speaker 1: her mother's chest. I want to know where the rest
26:46
Speaker 1: of my daughter is Priority number one. All I got
26:51
Speaker 1: back of her was a piece of her skull, and
26:55
Speaker 1: this is it right here. Jeez, this is my daughter.
27:01
Speaker 1: Melissa Baum has said more than once that she believes
27:05
Speaker 1: whoever did this did not stop with Lindsey. And that's
27:11
Speaker 1: not speculation for the sake of drama. It is the
27:13
Speaker 1: considered opinion of a mother who has spent over sixteen
27:17
Speaker 1: years paying attention, and of the private investigator who worked
27:24
Speaker 1: alongside her for nearly a decade. Somewhere someone knows something.
27:34
Speaker 1: Maybe they were in McCleary that night, Maybe they knew
27:38
Speaker 1: who the man was. And I say a man, because
27:41
Speaker 1: let's be honest, it is almost certainly a man, but
27:45
Speaker 1: I'm open to the possibility of it being.
27:48
Speaker 2: Some other individual.
27:53
Speaker 1: Maybe they have always known and the weight of it
27:56
Speaker 1: has just become something they carry the way Melissa carries Lindsay.
28:05
Speaker 1: If that is you, or if you know someone it
28:09
Speaker 1: might be called, the tip line will include that and
28:14
Speaker 1: other resources in the show notes. And if you need
28:20
Speaker 1: more motivation than the fact that this is heart wrenching
28:24
Speaker 1: to her family and the community where she lived and
28:32
Speaker 1: probably countless other people, there is also a forty thousand
28:35
Speaker 1: dollars reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
28:41
Speaker 1: Lindsay Joe Baum was born July seventh, nineteen ninety eight.
28:47
Speaker 1: She would have turned twenty seven this year.
28:50
Speaker 2: Wow. She wanted to be a writer and a veterinarian.
28:58
Speaker 1: She loved animals and Harry Potter, and she hated the
29:01
Speaker 1: dark same and she was trying to get home before
29:08
Speaker 1: the sun went down when someone took all of that
29:11
Speaker 1: from her.
29:12
Speaker 2: Her middle name is Joe. That's my middle name.
29:18
Speaker 3: I know.
29:19
Speaker 1: I was like god like, her birthday is so close
29:23
Speaker 1: to yours, and.
29:27
Speaker 2: She's like.
29:29
Speaker 1: Obviously like the same age as I would be turning
29:33
Speaker 1: this year, ten years younger than me. Yeah, so it is, Caitlin.
29:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was just thinking about how I do like
29:44
Speaker 3: the dark, but I don't like to be out in
29:47
Speaker 3: the dark walking by myself because I'm a woman, you know.
29:52
Speaker 3: So there is that like a little bit of even
29:54
Speaker 3: though I love the dark, I don't want to be
29:57
Speaker 3: out on the streets alone in the dark.
30:00
Speaker 1: And the fact that like even in a town that's
30:03
Speaker 1: like that small and you know, supposedly that's safe, that
30:09
Speaker 1: a ten year.
30:10
Speaker 2: Old girl.
30:12
Speaker 1: Her experience in the world is that she is afraid
30:19
Speaker 1: to walk alone. Like she's too young to to have
30:24
Speaker 1: like the real understanding and like experience.
30:30
Speaker 2: She shouldn't have fear that's based in reality.
30:35
Speaker 1: To back up, like she should just be afraid of
30:37
Speaker 1: the dark because of like the imaginary boogeyman, not because
30:42
Speaker 1: there's a real boogeyman.
30:44
Speaker 2: It's crazy that she like had the intuition that something
30:47
Speaker 2: was going to happen to her too.
30:49
Speaker 1: It's like if you've been seeing a car following you,
30:53
Speaker 1: like speaking of the boogeyman. Melissa said many times that
31:02
Speaker 1: she just wants people to remember who her daughter was,
31:07
Speaker 1: a real person, someone who existed, and someone who deserves
31:14
Speaker 1: to rest in peace. I feel like, I guess the
31:18
Speaker 1: mother of a missing and murdered child, the fact that
31:22
Speaker 1: that is like a sentiment that you even have to voice.
31:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's horrifying.
31:29
Speaker 1: On the one hand, right, And then on the other
31:31
Speaker 1: it's like in some of these cases where they're just
31:35
Speaker 1: missing and they're gone forever without like any sort of trace,
31:40
Speaker 1: it does give this like sort of Boogeyman effect that
31:44
Speaker 1: makes it feel not really real to the rest of
31:48
Speaker 1: us sometimes, And I feel like it's important to remember
31:53
Speaker 1: that she was a real person. Whoever did this to
31:57
Speaker 1: her was a real person. They were real fucking monster,
32:01
Speaker 1: but they were a real person.
32:04
Speaker 2: It's so hard to think.
32:06
Speaker 1: About because this is this is one kid, and we
32:09
Speaker 1: know that there are hundreds, like in the state of
32:14
Speaker 1: Washington alone, if not thousands, there are tens of thousands,
32:19
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people that go missing in this
32:21
Speaker 1: country every year, yeah, or over time, maybe not hundreds
32:26
Speaker 1: of thousands every year, but the accumulation, I mean, did.
32:30
Speaker 3: It It is sad like the people don't theoretically aren't
32:40
Speaker 3: caught or in jail.
32:41
Speaker 2: I mean it would be we don't know who it is.
32:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe they got him for something else, Yeah, tax evasion,
32:48
Speaker 1: because you know, those are the crimes they really care about.
32:53
Speaker 1: So sad I keep thinking about her lock it or
32:57
Speaker 1: used to lock it, or it's like a pendant like
33:00
Speaker 1: people some people choose to keep like a portion of
33:04
Speaker 1: their loved ones ashes, yeah, in something like that. But
33:08
Speaker 1: the fact that like that's all you have, it's not
33:12
Speaker 1: just like a portion of what you have that's it.
33:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's depressing.
33:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I mean thinking about that. I mean
33:23
Speaker 1: we've obviously just you know, been through this, and like
33:27
Speaker 1: I have an earn like the idea that you would
33:33
Speaker 1: you would have to like pick and choose what to
33:36
Speaker 1: do with this last piece of this person that you love,
33:43
Speaker 1: this tiny human that you made.
33:47
Speaker 2: Oh my god. And I think about this all.
33:50
Speaker 1: The time, and I'm like, I don't I don't really
33:53
Speaker 1: want to have children of my own. And I think
33:55
Speaker 1: sometimes when I when I talk about these cases, it
33:59
Speaker 1: kind of informed. There's that decision in a way, like
34:02
Speaker 1: definitely not own the things that I would do, Oh
34:07
Speaker 1: my god, Yeah, the crimes that I would perpetrate against
34:11
Speaker 1: the rest of humanity for doing this to my child, right,
34:16
Speaker 1: but she also is an imaginary child, right, this is
34:21
Speaker 1: not a person that exists. And I just, I mean
34:24
Speaker 1: the families and the parents specifically that this happens too.
34:28
Speaker 2: I just.
34:30
Speaker 1: And it's it's so hard to say that any circumstance
34:33
Speaker 1: is worse than another. But like you have no answers,
34:39
Speaker 1: and not that you know, sometimes the answers are horrific, right,
34:44
Speaker 1: but not knowing, I don't know. I don't know how
34:48
Speaker 1: people continue to like wake up in the morning and get.
34:53
Speaker 2: Out of bed. I really don't neither. I was thinking
34:56
Speaker 2: about that, like they just have to.
34:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially not that not to say that if you
35:02
Speaker 3: don't have other family or children that you you know,
35:05
Speaker 3: don't have to as well. But even just like even
35:08
Speaker 3: more you have another child, you still have to.
35:10
Speaker 2: Take care of.
35:11
Speaker 1: And for some people, I think that has to be
35:14
Speaker 1: like sort of the thing that's like your you're guiding light.
35:19
Speaker 1: It's like the thing that keeps you going. And like
35:22
Speaker 1: that makes sense. We have to do some taro before
35:26
Speaker 1: I lose my mind, Okay, and then and then I'm
35:30
Speaker 1: gonna go make us tacos.
35:32
Speaker 2: That sounds good. I need I need some taco love
35:36
Speaker 2: that now I'm sad.
35:39
Speaker 1: I'd love to be able to say that this case
35:42
Speaker 1: has ruined my appetite, but since I you know, I've
35:46
Speaker 1: eaten breakfast and then a lot of chips and salsa,
35:50
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I I am actually still hungry.
35:54
Speaker 2: Why yeah, and whine?
35:59
Speaker 3: What's going on?
36:00
Speaker 1: Ay?
36:01
Speaker 2: We're almost done.
36:06
Speaker 1: This is not gonna be very happy about that.
36:08
Speaker 2: Do you want to draw the card or do you
36:10
Speaker 2: want to hold the puppy? Try to hold the puppy?
36:14
Speaker 2: Just got a forceful lift up my neck.
36:16
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, help me pick a card and then I'll
36:19
Speaker 1: get her.
36:20
Speaker 2: Yeah. Do you run your fingers now? Oh?
36:27
Speaker 1: Oh, it's a very pretty card. It's from our PNW dack.
36:32
Speaker 1: It is a very colorful butterfly. And I'm really curious
36:37
Speaker 1: to see what kind of plant this is. We drew
36:41
Speaker 1: it in the reverse. It's a judgment card.
36:43
Speaker 3: Oh that's interesting, Like was no official judgment yet?
36:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels appropriate that it's in the reverse, but
36:51
Speaker 1: I don't know, we'll see.
36:53
Speaker 2: It's interesting that it's like a black butterfly. I don't
36:55
Speaker 2: know why it is.
36:57
Speaker 1: It looks like a monarch kind of Yeah, I mean
37:01
Speaker 1: it's not, but it looks similar kind of you know,
37:05
Speaker 1: like the colors a lot of black on it, but
37:07
Speaker 1: maybe because it's like a Fromunda.
37:09
Speaker 2: It looks like a Fromunda, it kind of does. Yeah, yeah,
37:13
Speaker 2: that is its belly. Oh, I'm gonna do that. That
37:16
Speaker 2: makes sense. I'll look it up in the Little Book.
37:19
Speaker 2: Judgment is Codduma twenty in the major Oconna.
37:25
Speaker 1: No as Charlotte tries to eat the microphone.
37:31
Speaker 3: Oh, we have gotten this before. It's a tailor's checker
37:34
Speaker 3: spot butterfly.
37:36
Speaker 1: I don't remember seeing that card, so we must have
37:39
Speaker 1: drawn the card from maybe a different deck.
37:42
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know.
37:44
Speaker 3: I'm interested in the interesting, I.
37:50
Speaker 2: Am similarities are so similar.
37:53
Speaker 3: I am interested to see the keywords because I might
37:56
Speaker 3: add to them if they don't, if they're not exactly
37:59
Speaker 3: what is here?
38:00
Speaker 2: Okay?
38:01
Speaker 1: Our keywords are awakening, self realization, choices, assessment, and rebirth.
38:10
Speaker 3: Okay, it's interesting because this one has added reflection, purpose, evaluation, accountability,
38:19
Speaker 3: and consequence.
38:21
Speaker 1: Interesting the ones that I thought was very interesting, very interesting.
38:25
Speaker 1: The judgment card often looks negative, and really, who among
38:30
Speaker 1: us likes to be judged? In the writer Wait Smith deck,
38:35
Speaker 1: a winged figure whom some interpret as the angel Gabriel
38:40
Speaker 1: emerges from a cloud and blows a trumpet beneath him.
38:45
Speaker 1: Several nude people look up, apparently from their coffins, having
38:51
Speaker 1: heard the trumpets blast. They outstretch their arms. Their expressions
38:56
Speaker 1: reveal awe tinged with fear. This contains overtones of Christianity's
39:03
Speaker 1: Day of Judgment, when God judges all souls and hands
39:07
Speaker 1: out rewards or punishments. In a broader sense, however, judgment
39:12
Speaker 1: represents a time of awakening and self realization, when you
39:17
Speaker 1: must make adjustments to reflect who you truly are.
39:21
Speaker 2: And there was a lot of judgment.
39:24
Speaker 3: I'm sure about the family, about the Yeah, the named
39:28
Speaker 3: and unnamed suspects.
39:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
39:32
Speaker 1: Reverse judgment suggests you can't make a decision or won't
39:36
Speaker 1: make the changes necessary so you can move ahead. Perhaps
39:41
Speaker 1: you're confused about how to proceed, or you don't want
39:44
Speaker 1: to face up to the harm you've done, stuff you
39:47
Speaker 1: don't like about yourself, demons you fear. You don't want
39:52
Speaker 1: to look in the mirror and see who you really are,
39:55
Speaker 1: and this can mean ignoring the good things about yourself
39:59
Speaker 1: as as well as the unsavory ones. In some cases,
40:04
Speaker 1: judgment reversed means you're too hard on yourself and others
40:08
Speaker 1: and need to become more tolerant or you know, maybe
40:12
Speaker 1: don't murder people. Yeah, I mean that's definitely a good start.
40:17
Speaker 1: In a reading about money, you may be stuck, afraid,
40:20
Speaker 1: or unwilling to make a decision about your finances, especially
40:25
Speaker 1: if you feel a change will affect your security. This
40:28
Speaker 1: can also mean you're displeased about a legal decision or
40:32
Speaker 1: other money issue.
40:35
Speaker 2: It's pleased about a legal Yeah, what was it? Legal decision? Yes?
40:39
Speaker 2: Thank you? Yeah, I kept trying to say position, or yeah.
40:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not right, I mean close close. If the
40:47
Speaker 1: reading is about your job, judgment reverse suggests your current
40:52
Speaker 1: work situation no longer meets your needs, but you're reluctant
40:56
Speaker 1: to make a change because you're not clear what the
41:00
Speaker 1: future holds. This card can also mean a bad decision
41:04
Speaker 1: your own or someone else's has adversely affected you.
41:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, someone made a very very very very very terrible decision.
41:13
Speaker 2: Sure did It was not Lindsay or Melissa Yeah, or
41:17
Speaker 2: the brother or even Joshua. Yeah.
41:20
Speaker 1: Or you may be judging yourself and others too harshly.
41:24
Speaker 1: In a reading about love, you may feel a partner
41:27
Speaker 1: is too critical of you, or you may be too
41:30
Speaker 1: critical of him or her. This card can also point
41:33
Speaker 1: to a choice you made and regret, or a decision
41:36
Speaker 1: you need to make but are resisting. And there is
41:40
Speaker 1: an extra excerpt. Okay, my advice to you is that
41:46
Speaker 1: it is never too late to fess up to what
41:49
Speaker 1: you are ashamed of having done. Holy shit, hold your
41:53
Speaker 1: own judgment day and clear the slate.
41:57
Speaker 2: Dude.
41:58
Speaker 3: Yeah wow wow, like nuff said.
42:04
Speaker 1: That's from Jane Stone, Confessions of a Tarot Reader.
42:10
Speaker 2: It's never too late to own a Yeah, there.
42:14
Speaker 1: Is literally no statute of limitations.
42:18
Speaker 3: All right, I'm gonna read from the little book and
42:20
Speaker 3: see what it's got while this little munchkin goes crazy.
42:23
Speaker 3: They call it metamorphosis, but they should call it birth.
42:27
Speaker 3: The butterfly emerging from the chrystalis, Yes, I said it right.
42:35
Speaker 3: The butterfly emerging from the crystalis is not the caterpillar
42:39
Speaker 3: that wrapped itself in silk. The caterpillar is dead, broken down,
42:43
Speaker 3: digested ooh. Gradually, its liquefied remains form new structures, eyes, legs, antennae,
42:53
Speaker 3: and paper thin wings. Around and compact body is reconstituted
42:58
Speaker 3: and replaced by a body that stretches outward in delicate formations.
43:03
Speaker 3: The butterfly carries, not the caterpillars memories or idiosyncrasies. Those
43:08
Speaker 3: neural pathways were destroyed. This is a new animal escaping
43:12
Speaker 3: the chrysalis, unaware of how it got there, leaving the
43:17
Speaker 3: only world it has ever known, taking flight as it
43:20
Speaker 3: begins its life. That is kind of sad because it's
43:24
Speaker 3: like she didn't really get to fully begin her life.
43:27
Speaker 1: You know, no, I should say not. She was not
43:30
Speaker 1: even eleven years old, eleven days until her eleventh birthday,
43:36
Speaker 1: just about to enter middle school.
43:38
Speaker 3: It's kind of eerie because it's like you're this little
43:41
Speaker 3: caterpillar on Earth and you pass away and then like
43:44
Speaker 3: the the wings of the butterfly make me think of
43:47
Speaker 3: an angel, and that's like what her Oh that's her life, yes,
43:53
Speaker 3: sheet this crazy dog, some entertainment and yeah.
43:58
Speaker 1: She's been trying so hard to chew the foam on
44:02
Speaker 1: my microphone.
44:03
Speaker 3: She's like, I don't like murder. Can we not talk
44:05
Speaker 3: about that. I'm just a baby, You're just a baby.
44:10
Speaker 2: Okay, we have to take a back stip a. Bye,
44:13
Speaker 2: have a creepy ast day.
44:16
Speaker 1: We'll see you next Thursday.
44:18
Speaker 2: Good Bye, Charlotte.
44:19
Speaker 3: Charlotte says if you were a murderer, you need to
44:22
Speaker 3: pass up right right me ow.
44:25
Speaker 1: Not cool, bro, not cool, not cool dude,