On June 26th of 2009, a tragedy struck family and friends in the small town of McCleary, Washington. (only 21.4 miles away from a  town here in Olympia) Ten-year-old Lindsey Baum went missing only four blocks away from her home, on her way back from her friend’s place.

Lindsey was last seen at roughly 9:15 p.m, on Maple Street and was wearing a light blue pullover hoodie and a pair of blue jeans at the time of her disappearance. Her mother Melissa Baum last saw her child when she (along with her twelve-year-old brother Josh) was heading out to her friend’s house. Melissa said that her children had been bickering over the use of Josh’s bike on the way to “said” friend’s house. When all of a sudden a family friend sent Josh home after the argument died down while she continued onto her friend’s house.

She originally planned on getting permission from her friend’s parents to stay at her house but when her friend found out she couldn’t stay over, she headed home around 9:30 p.m.

“When she didn’t arrive home by 10:00, I started to get nervous,” Melissa Baum said. When there was still no sign of her daughter that’s when eventually Lindsey’s friend’s parents joined the search. Melissa even let their family German Shepard Kadence off its leash in hopes to maybe help find her. At around 10:45 p.m. Melissa called the police and the investigation has officially begun.

Lindsey was an outgoing, talkative and mature girl. She loved to read and write and wanted to grow up to be an author, an illustrator and a veterinarian. Police realized this was not a case of a runaway and began a search with dogs and checked in on the sex offenders in McCleary and neighboring towns. When police were checking the few businesses located near where Lindsey would have been walking home on, they sadly found no camera footage of the girl but did receive clues about who may have been in the area during the time

Undersheriff Rick Scott said, “witnesses were able to place Lindsey within only a couple blocks from her home just after 9:30 p.m.” A neighbor on their way to work was the last to report seeing Lindsey

According to Melissa, Lindsey knew better than to go anywhere with a stranger.Lindsey, although upset about her parents recently finalized the divorce, was looking forward to celebrating her 11th birthday with some friends and seeing the new Harry Potter movie.

The police stopped looking into this as a possible runaway after this, Scott saying that, “it’s become less likely as time goes on.”

9 years later, Lindsey was finally home, but not the way we all hoped for. Last September, in a remote part of eastern Washington, hunters found human remains. Those remains were brought to an FBI lab in Virginia for DNA analysis. Several months later, Rick Scott announced that they were Linsey’s remains. Investigators believe Lindsey had been kidnapped on June in the afternoon and later killed. Scott declined to share the location where her remains were found, only realizing it was a spot seasonally visited by hunters. Rick Scott promised to “bring in the monster responsible for this and hold them accountable.”

Lost in the Shadows is about missing person cases because, if there is no light shone upon events like this, they’ll forever be lost in the shadows. I encourage you to please be respectful no matter what your thoughts or theories.