Thirteen years later, a heartbroken mother is still waiting for justice in the murder of her 10-year-old daughter, Lindsey Baum.
It was a crime that shocked the entire close-knit community of McCleary.
After a massive investigation and search by law enforcement, the FBI and search teams, to this day, no one knows who killed the young girl.
For over a decade, the kidnapping and murder of Lindsey has weighed heavily on the heart of her mother, Melissa Baum, who carries what’s left of her daughter's ashes in a pendant on a necklace.
“I want to know where the rest of my daughter is, priority number one,” she said. “All I got back of her was a piece of her skull, and this is it, right here. This is my daughter.”
Sunday marks the worst day of the mom’s life.
It was on June 26, 2009 when Lindsey was snatched from the streets of McCleary when she was walking back home from her friend’s house a few blocks away.
The little girl never made it back home.
Her pictures are forever frozen in time.
“I rarely stop and look directly at them because that’s still hard,” said Melissa through tears. “It’s looking at her face that gets me."
Eight years later in 2017, a missing child investigation became a murder mystery when two hunters found a small piece of Lindsey’s remains deep in the woods outside Ellensburg in Kittitas County.
The rest of her body has never been found.
“My daughter deserves to rest in peace,” Baum said. “She was a beautiful bright 10-year-old little girl. She was a 10-year-old little girl. There was no reason for anybody to take her other than sick, vile things.”
Since then, detectives have combed through the woods, gone through thousands of tips, fliers, and pages of work.
Darrin Wallace, the chief of investigations for Grays Harbor County, said the case has kept him up at night.
“It’s definitely a monster,” he said. “We don’t know what happened to her, but we know she ended up deceased. Anybody who would do that to a 10-year-old girl is beyond what you and I can comprehend. It’s not normal.”
Deputies say there are several persons of interest, including Paul Bieker.
The 51-year-old was recently convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl in McCleary six years before Lindsey vanished.
Investigators learned that Bieker lived in McCleary in 2003 in a residence near where the teen lived.
Detectives were able to get Bieker's DNA from a discarded item and it determined that he was a match for the 2003 sexual assault.
Bieker was found guilty of first-degree rape with deliberate cruelty. The statute of limitations for the kidnapping had already expired.
Detectives say it’s rare to have eerie similarities in both cases, in the same tiny town.
“How many people of that mindset live in these communities?” Wallace said. “I wouldn’t think, not very many. So, he’s definitely a person of interest.”
Now Grays Harbor has fresh eyes on the case with four fairly new detectives.
They’re working hand-in-hand with the FBI, the state attorney general’s office, and now the Kittitas County Sheriff Department has received the case filings and will help with the investigation as well.
KOMO news asked the chief if he believes the case can be solved.
“I do think its solvable absolutely,” Wallace said. “My gut, it’s just someone knows something. And someone feeling comfortable enough to say, ‘this is what I know.’”
Lindsey’s mom keeps her daughter's spirit alive and is relentless because she said she still has hope.
“If I don’t do it, who’s going to get justice for Lindsey?” Baum said. “Who’s going to make sure her ten years on this earth count for something? I’m literally the only one she has.”
There is a reward of up to $40,000 for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
If you have any information that could possibly help, call 360-964-1799 or email baumtips@graysharbor.us