MCCLEARY, Wash. — Four years to the day after 10-year-old Lindsey Baum vanished in McCleary, her mother, Melissa Baum, was posting flyers in town with an age-progressed photo showing what Lindsey Baum may look like today.
"Just to point out to the public she's not a little girl anymore," Melissa Baum said. "She's a young woman, and she's not going to look exactly like she did when she disappeared, she's going to look different."
The age-progressed photo was done by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Melissa Baum helped by contributing photos of herself and Lindsey Baum's father when they were roughly the same age.
Baum said the image offers a new hope and also heartache.
"Just seeing it reminds me of how much time I've missed with her," she said.
Since Lindsey Baum vanished, the Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office has checked out 4,000 tips and interviewed nearly 40 people of interest, but investigators have never found anything that leads to her.
Sheriff Rick Scott told KIRO 7 he's never had a case that has become more personal to him.
"We're going to keep working on this until we figure out who did this," Scott said. "We're going to bring Lindsey home, and we're going to hold whoever did this responsible."
As she went from business to business posting the new age-progressed photo of her daughter, Melissa Baum also told KIRO 7 she will never give up on her little girl.
"I want my daughter home no matter what," she said. "I want her home."
Anyone with information about Lindsey's disappearance should call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678 or the McCleary Police Department at 360-533-8765.
KIRO
