MCCLEARY, Wash. - The National Guard has joined the FBI, search and rescue teams and dozens of volunteers in looking for a 10-year-old girl who vanished Friday while walking home from a friend's house.Meanwhile, friends and family members have planned a prayer vigil for Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. at Beerbauer Park.
Lindsey J. Baum was last seen between 9 and 10 p.m. Friday when she left her friend's home on Maple Street, where she had been visiting, said Dave Pimentel of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office.
Lindsey was going to walk the four blocks to her home on Mommsen Road, which is roughly a 10-minute walk. But something happened in that short distance - Lindsey never arrived home.
Her mysterious disappearance has left police, family - along with the whole town - affled and concerned at the girl's disappearance in a town of 1,550 where everyone knows their neighbors.
The search is going national online as Lindsey's information is now on the front page of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children web site.
A wide-ranging search was launched early Saturday in the town and the surrounding forests. The town was criss-crossed three times, but not a trace of Lindsey has been found. Even bloodhounds failed to pick up her scent.
Three times as many people joined the search on Sunday and many more were expected Monday, as they scour areas that weren't checked earlier.
"We searched all of the outlying area of the logging roads... and up the highway, and along the railroad tracks," said volunteer Stephanie Ross.
Deputies are asking for tips or any information anyone might have about Lindsey.
"Call us up. It may mean nothing to you; it may be very, very important to this investigation," said Rick Scott, Grays Harbor County Undersheriff.
They've established a new tip line at 1-866-915-8299.
Police are hesitant to call the girl's disappearance a case of foul play just yet, but the girl's family fears the worst.
"I've tried to keep the thought of somebody grabbing her out of my mind," her mother, Melissa Baum, said Sunday.
She says Lindsey argued with her brother on her way to a friend's house Friday night. She talked to her friend for a bit, then started for home as darkness fell.
The friend's father, Scott Williams, said he asked Lindsey to go home before it got too dark.
"She was here 10, 15 minutes, and then, you know, we said, 'You should probably get going before it gets dark,' and that was the last we heard of her," he said.
Witnesses say Lindsey seemed normal as she headed out around 9:15. Another friend even walked her part of the way, but Lindsey never showed up at her home.
Searchers fan out to search for Lindsey Baum, 10.
"I want to think that everything's OK, but there's a part of me that thinks the worst," Williams says.
Now hope has turned to anxiety and alarm among frustrated search teams. The mother is also at a loss.
She says her daughter is upset about her recent divorce, but doesn't have money to run away - and has never tried to run away before. Her mom
doubts at this point that Lindsey is trying to hide.
"If somebody does have her, I wish they would just drop her off somewhere where she can get to a pay phone and call 911 or call home, so that we can come and get her," she says, sobbing.
Lindsey's father lives in Tennessee. Police have contacted him, and he's not suspected of any involvement in Lindsey's disappearance.
Pimentel said it's strange that nobody saw anything unusual.
"Such a small community like this - you can't do much in a town this size without everybody knowing about it," he said. "Everybody in town knows she's unaccounted for."
Lindsey was last seen wearing a gray or blue hooded pullover sweatshirt, with blue jeans and black shoes. She has brown eyes, brown hair, and stands about 4-feet-9-inches and weighs about 80 pounds.
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