Kittitas County Sheriff's Office
Authorities in Washington kicked off a massive search Saturday after a body discovered in a rocky area of wilderness was identified as that of a 10-year-old girl who went missing in 2009. The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office said 10 different agencies came together to scour land just outside Ellensburg, where a group of hunters stumbled upon the body last fall. The identity of the body was only confirmed this week, when FBI investigators said a DNA sample proved it was that of Lindsey Baum, a girl from the small town of McCleary who vanished after leaving a friend’s house nearly a decade ago. That revelation has triggered a kidnapping and homicide investigation, with authorities now vowing to track down the “monster” responsible for Baum’s death. “We’ve brought Lindsey home. We’ve recovered her. Sadly, she was not recovered as we and her family had hoped and prayed these last nine years,” Sheriff Rick Scott of Grays Harbor County said at a news conference this week.