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Warrants released in Baum case

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goinsfl:
October 3, 2009

A newly released search warrant in the case for missing 11-year-old Lindsey Baum outlines suspicious activity and inconsistent statements that led investigators to a home outside McCleary last weekend.

The warrant includes statements from friends and family regarding a man at the residence in connection with strange phone activity, disturbing conversations involving Lindsey, conflicting alibis and a past accusation of sexual assault.

In the court filing, investigators say they believe Lindsey has been kidnapped, and after what they have refered to as a “credible” tip, believed they would find evidence of her kidnapping at the home.

The Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office has since announced it could not find any evidence of wrongdoing. Some forensic samples taken at the home and a neighboring property on Sept. 25 along Foreman Road still await testing. Results could take months.

Lindsey went missing on June 26 while walking a short distance from her friend’s house in McCleary along a house-lined street at dusk. Despite two confirmed sightings of her within blocks of her house, she never made it home and investigators have not yet been able to explain her disappearance.

The search warrant, released Friday, lists dozens of items investigators were looking for as potential evidence, ranging from clothing matching Lindsey’s to weapons to cars on the property.

Attempts to contact the man and family members Friday via e-mail were not returned.

In news reports after the search warrants were executed, the owner of the property said he’s contacted a lawyer about suing the police and the media, saying they had no right to put the family through the search.
 

 


Much of the warrant lists suspicious reports focusing on a man at the home, who is not being named because he has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

Investigators say he fixated on Lindsey’s disappearance in the days after she went missing and made disturbing comments about believing the girl had been murdered when most authorities still thought her to be lost.

“(The man) told (a friend) he could not believe that a girl had been taken and cut up and dismembered,” the warrant stated. “It should be noted that the media and investigators did not believe that Baum was the victim of a crime until the week following her disappearance.”

A friend also reported the man became “agitated” when investigators questioned him about the case, the warrant stated. He “obsessed” about Lindsey and the possibility she had been kidnapped, the court papers said.

The warrant also lists the man as a suspect in an alleged attempted rape in 2000 when he was a teenager. The man allegedly allowed several children to watch pornography before barricading a 12-year-old girl in a room and trying to rape her. The girl’s friends reported the alleged assault, but the girl declined to make a statement to police at the time.

“She said that she cried and struggled and after about two hours he released her,” the alleged victim recently told investigators when interviewed because of the Baum case.

The warrant states police officers also stopped the man on July 31 when Lindsey’s mother reported his vehicle following her. The man said he thought the mother had been acting suspiciously.

A car similar to the man’s vehicle was reportedly seen shortly before Lindsey’s disappearance near the intersection on Maple Street where she was last spotted, according to the warrant. The man also worked part-time at a business nearby, one that Baum had been in often.

When contacted by investigators, the man reported he had been at a second job in Olympia on the night of the disappearance, according to the warrant. The man’s supervisor at that job told investigators the man was suspended during that time and could not have been working.

When confronted with the inconsistency, the man provided a second alibi that investigators could not verify.

The warrant also outlines suspicious phone activity that stops suddenly at about the time Lindsey disappeared.

“This is contrary to the pattern of cell phone usage shown in (the man’s) cell phone records,” the warrant stated. “He normally has frequent cell phone activity until at least midnight or 1 a.m. each day.”

A person identifying him or herself as a friend of the man’s family in an online forum said the family has always cooperated with investigators and has actively tried to help with the search for Lindsey.

“Someone has found someone to blame,” the poster wrote. “This is ridiculous.”

The poster said the family has been upset by the allegations and has had people trespassing on the property since the searches were launched.

“This is all utter nonsense,” the poster wrote.

Lindsey Baum is 4-foot-9 with brown eyes and brown hair. She was wearing a blue shirt and jeans when she disappeared.

Anyone who might have any information about the whereabouts of Lindsey Baum should call 1-866-915-8299 or via e-mail soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us. Information may also be mailed to PO Box 305 McCleary, 98557.



http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2009/10/03/local_news/doc4ac708ecc05e8423735653.txt

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