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Nancy Grace
Update on the Lindsey Baum Disappearance
Aired March 15, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Vanished into thin air.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look for her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just need to kind her.
GRACE: So many cases --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re still looking.
GRACE: -- so few leads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Missing.
GRACE: Missing person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our duty to find her.
GRACE: Missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The witness had seen the suspect on NANCY GRACE.
GRACE: There is a God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NANCY GRACE show was out there for us.
GRACE: Found alive.
Fifty people, 50 days, 50 nights.
Let`s don`t give up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where were you the night Lindsey Baum disappeared?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody has seen something, somebody has heard something. Somebody knows something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please bring my daughter home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here`s what detectives had to work with. Lindsey was last seen walking home from a friend`s house in McCleary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was still daylight outside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blocks from her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wouldn`t stay out that late after dark.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She never made it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No screams for help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sign of Lindsey Baum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No screams or anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police, volunteers and search dogs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scouring the woods. Divers searching under water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detectives don`t know what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No suspect named and a limited list of persons of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did she vanish without a trace?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want people to see who she is. We just want her back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Tonight, NANCY GRACE: AMERICA`S MISSING.
Every day, 2,300 people go missing in America, disappear, vanish. Their families left waiting, wondering, hoping, but never forgetting. And neither have we.
Fifty people, 50 days -- for 50 nights, we go live, spotlighting America`s missing children, girls, boys, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents. They`re gone, but where?
Tonight, a 10-year-old girl, a Washington Girl Scout, Lindsey Baum, vanishes into thin air after leaving a little friend`s house, just before her 11th birthday, never seen again. Police and FBI searching homes and storage facilities, as grainy surveillance video emerges from a local gas station. Is there finally a break in the case?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s quite frustrating. I know the law enforcement is doing everything they possibly can. I mean, if anybody saw anything that night, I just wish they`d come forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or heard anything. They might not even realize that they saw or heard something significant. It could be anything -- a strange car driving through town that you`ve never seen before. Or somebody that looked kind of out of place or somebody that you know, your neighbor may be acting a little suspicious. Or maybe had claw marks on their face.
You know, Lindsay has very long fingernails. And she`s not afraid to use them as a weapon. Anything could mean everything to finding our daughter. I just -- I want to say to whoever has my daughter, to please just let her go.
I just -- I want to say to whoever held my daughter, please let her go. I don`t -- I don`t care who you are. I don`t care where you are. I just want my daughter back. And if you would just drop her off in a public place, or call me and I`ll meet you somewhere, I don`t care. I just want my daughter back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, just bring my daughter home. You know, give us a piece of mind. Let her go unharmed. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting worse and worse every day that goes by. I still feel in my heart I know she`s alive, but every day that goes by is just agony.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: To just disappear, your child, your daughter. A lot of people have given up, but not her family. Tonight, her mother is joining us live. But, first, to Jean Casarez. Jean, I want to go through the details of Lindsey`s disappearance.
CASAREZ: Well, it all began when she left home to go visit a friend -- go to a friend`s house to play. She was at the friend`s house for only 10 to 15 minutes, and the father of the little play friend said, you know, you need to go back home.
And, remember, this is western Washington, so in the summer months, June 26th, actually, 2009, she -- it was daylight at 9:00 when she probably about left that little play friend`s house. At 9:15, she was spotted by a motorist that knew her about halfway home.
But she never got home. She never returned. And that is when her mother got into action and called the police that night.
GRACE: Jean, how far away was the little friend?
CASAREZ: You know, Nancy, it was about four blocks away -- that close, very close. And this is a very small town. Nancy, the police force in McCleary, Washington -- four. They had four in their police force when this happened.
So, it was a relatively crime-free area, small-town America.
GRACE: She only had two blocks to go.
We are taking your calls. Out to Doug McDowell, morning host, KBKW NewsTalk. He`s joining us from Aberdeen.
Doug, thanks for being with us. I`m sure you recall when Lindsey Baum went missing.
DOUG MCDOWELL, MORNING HOST, KBWK NEWSTALK (via telephone): Oh, absolutely. It was -- it was big news here, and the whole, all of Grays Harbor was just kind of struck by the seriousness and how quickly she just vanished into thin air. And the thing is, is this hasn`t stopped. People are still concerned.
I have the sheriff on my show once a month, Sheriff Mike Whelan, Grays Harbor County sheriff, and each time we have him on, we kind of recap what`s happened so far. And it`s really amazing that with all the tips that have been coming in and the FBI helping as well, they haven`t been able to locate her or the assailant -- if she was, indeed, abducted or whatever happened. It`s just like she disappeared into thin air.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Amanda in Wyoming. Hi, Amanda.
AMANDA, CALLER FROM WYOMING: Hi, Nancy. How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. Thank you for calling. What`s your question?
AMANDA: You know, there`s so many people in the cities nowadays, and to think that nobody has seen her is -- it`s hard for me to believe.
GRACE: You know, I agree. And I`m just looking at these photos, Amanda in Wyoming, and I just saw the picture of Lindsey Baum in the car seat, asleep. Now, that`s love. When you are looking at your child asleep and they`re so -- you love them so much, you just have to take a picture of them.
AMANDA: I completely agree. I have three children myself, and two step children and one of my own. To tell you that the thought of somebody not seeing my child walk home from school or not seeing my child walk home from a friend`s house is very frightening to me. There should be -- there`s somebody out there that knows, that saw what happened to that little girl. I guarantee it. They`re just not saying anything because they`re afraid to say it nowadays.
GRACE: To Steven Friederich with the "Daily World," tracking dogs could not pick up her scent? And this is after a neighbor that knew her observed her about three blocks from her home?
STEVEN FRIEDERICH, REPORTER, THE DAILY WORLD, COVERING STORY (via telephone): Yes, that`s about right. At this point the sheriff`s offices says that they`ve scaled down the number of people that are out there looking for her, and -- from about 45 actual search and rescue experts down to about 23.
And they`re going into targeted areas where they`ve gotten tips. And just like, hey, this is Mariet (ph), children like to hang out, they like to hang out even the creek, by the mill, and that sort of thing.
GRACE: Right.
To Mike Brooks, something`s not right because if a child was actually on that street, a tracker dog would have picked up her scent.
MIKE BROOKS, FMR. DC POLICE DETECTIVE SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: No, Nancy, you`re absolutely right. The bloodhounds would have picked up a scent and it would have gone so far as to where she went and maybe gotten into a car.
But, no, there`s no scent whatsoever. You know we`ve talked about scent evidence before. It can be around for almost a month.
GRACE: Back out to Mike Brooks, former fed, with the FBI. Mike, what do you think?
BROOKS: You know, Nancy, it`s a mystery. I mean, did she run away? Apparently, there was nothing on her MySpace or her computers at all that indicated she wanted to run away.
You know, just the normal, you know, mom/daughter kind of things. But you know, she`s 10 years old. It just looks like she`s disappeared.
Apparently, the one place where she was supposed to go by or she had to walk by, the Shell station, it has video surveillance, that`s turned up negative, too, as of now.
GRACE: Are they absolutely certainly -- back out to Steve Friederich with "The Daily World" joining us from Aberdeen -- are they absolutely certain about the date and the time the neighbor that spotted her, about the date and the time she spotted the little girl?
FRIEDERICH: You know, I asked about that. And the sheriff seems to say yes. I mean, the neighbor knew the child and the neighbor knew the brother, that the neighbor had actually stopped a fight between the two of them, like, shortly beforehand. And the neighbor was on the way to work. She`s a public employee, works for a nearby county.
GRACE: So, that`s pretty much confirmed yet the tracking dog is not picking up a scent whatsoever.
Everyone, the tip line, 866-915-8299. Please, help find 10-year-old Lindsey Baum.
And to Matt Zarrell, what more can you tell us?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: They`re searching by every means you can imagine -- ground, air, they`ve got a special airplane in the air that`s going to read from the ground using radar -- infrared. They`re going to use that, read it on the ground and hope to find her that way.
GRACE: Matt, what can you tell me about the mom taking a polygraph?
ZARRELL: Well, reports that the mom came out late last night and said that she wants to take a polygraph. She wants to rule out that she`s involved. She said, I didn`t snatch my kid, my kid is missing, please help me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lindsey didn`t run away. She was taken. There`s no doubt in my mind that she didn`t run away. And if she has the opportunity to get to a phone or to get away, she`s going to come home or she`s going to call 911 or she`s going to call -- the only number she knows by heart are my home phone and my cell phone, and she does not have her cell phone with her.
So, if she gets the opportunity to call, it`s going to be one of those numbers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re trying to get information about the missing girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten-year-old Lindsey Baum was last seen walking home from a friend`s house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was supposed to walk about five blocks to get home. She never made it the half mile to her house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still feel in my heart, I know she`s alive. You know what? We`re not giving up on her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How could nobody see anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Searchers retraced the girl`s last known steps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not able to rule anything out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police, volunteers and search dogs have been looking for Lindsey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no evidence to point us in any specific direction.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vanished out of thin air is what it appears to be. There`s nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve tried to keep the thought of somebody grabbing her out of my mind. She wouldn`t stay out that late after dark. She doesn`t like to be outside by herself.
And if somebody does have her, I wish they would just drop her off somewhere where she can get to a pay phone and call 911 or call home so that we can come and get her.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Fifty nights, 50 of America`s missing. Twenty-three hundred people go missing in America every single day -- mothers, fathers, boys, girls, your children and grandparents, gone. Many people give up, their families still hoping for the best.
Tonight, we are taking your calls and the spotlight tonight on Lindsey Baum. She left just before her 11th birthday, just around the corner, just four blocks away to a little friend`s house.
Joining me right now and taking your calls live, Melissa Baum, this is Lindsey`s mother.
Melissa, thank you for being with us. What can you tell us about the day Lindsey went missing?
MELISSA BAUM, MOTHER: It was just a normal, beautiful sunny day. They`d just gotten out of school for the summer, and she was swimming over at a friend`s house with quite a large group of their friends, and she had come in to take a shower and was going to run down to her best friend`s house, along with her friend, to get some clothes for her to spend the night. And 30 minutes later, they weren`t back yet.
So, I tried calling the friend`s house and found that Lindsey had left about 15 to 20 minutes prior to that. And she just never made it home.
GRACE: What time of the day or night was it?
BAUM: She -- it was about 9:15.
GRACE: Was it still daylight?
BAUM: It was. Otherwise she wouldn`t have left the house at all. But it was still daylight, and it actually didn`t get dark until a little after 10:30 that night.
GRACE: Now, Melissa, you`re saying that she left to go get some clothes for another little friend and she left with someone?
BAUM: She left with a group of friends, to include her brother and her best friend that was going to spend the night.
GRACE: What happened to them? When did they peel off?
BAUM: At some point on the way to her friend`s house, they all kind of dispersed, and my son had come home. And Lindsey and Michaela (ph) went on to her house. And I guess Lindsey was just over there for just a few minutes, and something happened where Michaela wasn`t able to spend the night after all, and so, Lindsey headed home by herself.
GRACE: And how long --
BAUM: And didn`t make it.
GRACE: -- would that walk take, what, 10 minutes, 15 minutes?
BAUM: At the most, oh, no, no more than 10 minutes.
GRACE: And when did it strike you that she was gone?
BAUM: I knew something was wrong by 10:00 when we couldn`t find her, even though I kept thinking maybe she had gotten sidetracked and -- or ran into another friend and was maybe up at the park or, you know, somewhere right there close by and just not paying attention to the time. But we were out looking for her and calling her friends, trying to find her.
But by the time dark set in, I was -- I was in a panic. I knew she`d be home before dark. She wouldn`t stay out past dark.
GRACE: The tip line, 866-915-8299. There is a $30,000 reward. Somebody out there knows where this little girl is -- this little Girl Scout who has gone missing.
Take a look at Lindsey Baum, at 10 years old, 4`9", 80 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, was wearing a light blue hooded pullover shirt and blue jeans. Only went four blocks. And when she was spotted by a neighbor, she was just two blocks from home.
Back to Lindsey`s mom, Melissa, with us tonight.
Melissa, who else was at home that night?
BAUM: Just myself and my son.
GRACE: And how old is your son?
BAUM: At the time, he was 11 -- 12, sorry. He was 12.
GRACE: OK.
BAUM: He`s 14 now.
GRACE: When it got to be 10:00, Melissa, what did you do?
BAUM: It was shortly after that that we contacted law enforcement.
GRACE: So, let me get this straight. What time did she leave Michaela`s house?
BAUM: She left Michaela`s house about 9:30.
GRACE: So, about 9:30, she was to walk home, just four blocks, still daylight. At 10:00, you knew it was all wrong.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I`m here today to do is to appeal to everybody out there watching, please bring my daughter home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is Lindsey Baum?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was taken just a short walk from her friend`s house to her home in McCleary, Washington. She never made it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing that was found on the computer or on her cell phone has led to anything definite.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you know anything, contact the hot lines, contact any 911 centers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has afforded us the opportunity to talk to some more people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, bring my daughter home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But nothing specific about her disappearance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: She only had two blocks left to get home. It was broad daylight in the summertime, just two blocks away from her mother, who was waiting for her with open arms.
We are talking about a little Girl Scout, Lindsey Baum. Take a look. There is a $30,000 reward. Her family has never given up.
Tip line, 866- 915-8299.
We are taking your calls live.
To Jessica in Kentucky. Hi, Jessica.
JESSICA, CALLER FROM KENTUCKY: Hello. I understand and I want to say my heart goes out to the family. But even though it was daylight, could it have been kind of dark?
Because I know in summertime, you know, when it`s still light, it`s still kind of dark, and for it to be, you know, five blocks away -- I have a 10-year-old daughter. She`s not allowed out of my sight because it`s getting so bad out there. I won`t even let her walk home from the bus stop because you never know what`s going to happen.
But could it be that, you know, maybe it wasn`t as bright as, you know, like, sunny, sunny day? It could have been --
GRACE: Let`s find out. Let`s go to Melissa Baum, this is Lindsey`s mother joining us from McCleary, Washington -- Melissa.
BAUM: It wasn`t, like, sunny bright -- no, but it was still perfectly daylight out. But the point was she wasn`t supposed to walk home by herself. She just did it, rather than calling me.
GRACE: She was supposed to come back with her little friend, Michaela.
BAUM: Right.
GRACE: To Sheryl McCollum --
BAUM: And Michaela wasn`t able to --
GRACE: You go ahead. Go ahead, Melissa.
BAUM: I was just going to say because Michaela -- when Michaela wasn`t able to come back, Lindsey should have called me, but for whatever reason, she didn`t. She just left the house and walked home.
GRACE: Crime analyst, director of Cold Case Squad, Pine Lake PD, author of "Cold Case: Pathways to Justice." Sheryl McCollum, help us out.
MCCOLLUM: Nancy, there`s absolutely no physical evidence in this case. That`s one of the factors that law enforcement is having to deal with. They have nowhere to turn. They`re waiting on somebody to come forward. And that is, again, the reason this show is so vital tonight.
GRACE: Which means to me she was taken by car two blocks from her parent`s home.
MCCOLLUM: Absolutely.
GRACE: Now, what do we know about the neighborhood, the area? Was it near an interstate? Was it near a shopping center? What do we know about the neighbors surrounding her? These are the questions we`ve got to look at in the search for 10-year-old Girl Scout Lindsey Baum.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 10-year-old girl vanishes just blocks from her home. Her mom says someone kidnapped her. Where is Lindsey Baum?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did she vanish without a trace?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just know that she was coming back from her friend`s house and did not come home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every passing hour, new worries that the friendly girl who would talk with anybody is in serious trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relentless search to find her, special plane equipped with heat-sensing cameras, scouring the woods, divers searching underwater, sniffer dogs covering the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police haven`t found any evidence to explain her disappearance, and her dad is getting desperate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, if anybody knows anything, even if you don`t think it`s important to you, it may be very beneficial to this case in bringing Lindsey home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Out to Matt Zarrell, our producer on the story. Matt, take me back to the time she went missing. What happened?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: Well, she was with friends about six blocks away from her house, in a very small community just west of Seattle. She`s walking home with that six blocks away, she never makes it home.
There`s a gas station in the middle of her walk that has surveillance video. She`s not seen in the surveillance video. She is sighted walking a few blocks from the house, never makes it home.
GRACE: And between the time she is sighted, I believe, by a neighbor, about three blocks from her own home. This is around 9:30 at night. I`m a little confused about who would send the child out to walk home alone at 9:30 at night. That aside, how long between that sighting by the neighbor and the time she was reported missing by her mother?
ZARRELL: It was about an hour later. Mom said she went out and looked for a few minutes and then called cops. And then went out looking again.
GRACE: And mom has taken and apparently passed a poly, right?
ZARRELL: Yes, she has.
GRACE: Why? Why did she feel she had to take a poly?
ZARRELL: She did not want the finger being pointed at her. She said I wanted to step forward and make sure everyone knows I had nothing to do with this. My daughter is missing. Please help me find her.
GRACE: Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI, weigh in, Mike.
BROOKS: Well, Nancy, you know, it`s very unusual as Matt said because that Shell station is right on the way.
And, in fact, there were two other people -- you know it`s a very, very small community, and everybody knows everybody else. In fact, there were two people that actually saw her on the way home and said, oh, yes, well, we saw her walking on the way and then she just vanished into thin air, Nancy.
But it close to an interstate so there`s always a possibility that she could have been abducted and someone just jumped on the interstate and took her out of the area.
GRACE: Now, how close is it to an interstate and do you know what interstate it is?
BROOKS: No, I was talking to one of my sources that said it`s very, very close to an interstate. I wish I could tell you what the route number is. But apparently it is -- it`s very accessible to the interstate nearby.
GRACE: What about it? Back to Jacob Jones -- tell me about how close it is to an interstate. What interstate is it and where does it head?
JACOB JONES: Well, it`s within minutes. I mean maybe five minutes of a couple of different interstates. There`s the 108 running north and south. And then there`s Highway 8 that goes in between Gray`s Harbor and Olympia.
So there`s a lot of ways out of town within a close proximity. And I know that that`s a concern to authorities.
GRACE: Let`s assume she`s still alive. Out to the lawyers, to Joe Lawless, what would you advise whoever has Lindsey Baum?
JOE LAWLESS, ATTORNEY: Obviously, I`d advise them to turn her into a police station right away. I mean, that`s the only thing you can advise. The circumstances under which they do, it is up to them. But the longer they have her, the deeper trouble they`re going to get in and God help them if anything happens to that child.
GRACE: Lauren?
LAUREN LAKE: That`s exactly right. All you can do is tell them come to your senses, get a grip, turn her into the police and then beg for some kind of mercy.
GRACE: And Gloria Allred, I`ve seen it argued many, many times at trial. He turned himself in. He came to the cops. And believe it or not it does make a difference to juries and prosecutors.
GLORIA ALLRED: It does make a difference. And even if the person doesn`t want to turn themselves in, perhaps he could make an anonymous call to the police and say where she is and that would be very important to the family and to the police.
GRACE: Out to the lines -- Angie in New Hampshire. Hi, Angie.
ANGIE, CALLER FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE: Hi. I love you. I can`t believe I got through.
GRACE: Thank you for calling, dear. What`s your question?
ANGIE: Well, thank you so much for all you do for these kids because who would be there? But anyway, I want to say God bless you and then I want to ask you a question. This little girl, we`ve seen so many on your show, dear, that are just walking home from a friend`s house. I mean, was she living with her mom and dad?
You know I think they think that, oh, they`re at a friend`s house. They`ll be safe walking home. You know, I`m old fashion. I used to walk my kids to the friend`s house and them pick them up and walk them back.
But I was wondering who was in charge of her and if you could get the word out, walk the kids to the friend`s house. I feel so bad when I hear this. And I wanted to know your opinion on that.
GRACE: I agree with her, Mike Brooks. I remember as a child if we went anywhere, our parents would take us, pick us up, or it was usually just across the street. They would open the door and watch as we walk home.
BROOKS: Absolutely. I mean, I didn`t get without one block, and if my father whistled, I knew that was the time to come home.
But, Nancy, you know, in a small community like this, you know, a lot of people probably don`t even lock their doors, and you know, because it is. Nothing ever happens there. But you know, again, some who people live in small communities like this, they get lulled into a false sense of security.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. This father set to go to Iraq to serve his country while his 11-year-old little girl is missing. The tip line, 866-915-8299.
Lindsey Baum, the missing girl scout. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to keep her face out there. We want people to see who she is and just to appeal to whoever has her. If you know somebody that does have her, if you suspect somebody that may have her, we just want her back. We just -- we love her and we miss her so much.
And every day without her is absolutely unbearable. We just -- we just want her back. That`s all we want right now, is we just want her back and we want her back safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are talking about a 10-year-old little cheerleader. She was just two blocks away from home when she was last spotted. Her mother is taking calls live, along with the rest of the panel.
Out to the lines, Dorothy in Arizona. Hi, Dorothy.
DOROTHY, CALLER FROM ARIZONA: Hi, Nancy. Hi, first, I`d like to say I`m really sorry to hear, you know, what the parents are going through.
But my question is: why did they rely on the child to make sure that she would call or something like that before she left the other friend`s house? Because I know, like, with my kids when my daughter would go up the street, her best friend was three blocks away, and if one of my friends couldn`t take her, we had a game plan where I would stand outside, watch her walk up to the corner, and the neighbor on the corner would come out, I`d call her, she`d watch her go around the corner until she made it to the other girl`s house.
GRACE: You know what Dorothy, that`s a really good idea.
I want to go to Marc Klaas, president and founder of Klaaskids Foundation.
You know what, would have, could have, should have. Isn`t it true that when a child goes missing, the parents beat themselves up? I could have done this, I should have, I would have -- it doesn`t matter. There was a predator looking for this girl.
She was supposed to walk home with her friend, Michaela. That`s the plan. They had a plan in place. But she`s 10. She didn`t follow the plan.
MARC KLAAS, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: And Melissa understands this and realizes that this perfectly illustrates that little kids should not be out walking alone. They should always be with another person simply because there`s strength in numbers, and it`s a good idea for kids 10 and over to have cell phone. You know, cell phones keep you connected, and they`re also GPS compatible. So that if there is an emergency, theoretically, you would be able to follow that.
Now, Nancy, I`ve been to McCleary. I know this area a little bit. And I can tell you that it`s a very small cutoff community.
There are no attractions there. It`s completely surrounded by the rainforest. You can stand in the middle of town, and you`re really no more than 200 yards from the rainforest in almost any directions.
There`s about 1, 500 people that live there. Not a lot of people come there that don`t belong there.
I think there`s two possibilities here. I think the first possibility and the most likely one is that she is a crime victim and that the person that committed that crime is probably within -- lives within a block or two of where Lindsey live. The other possibility is that she ran away.
GRACE: To Dr. Panchali Dhar, it`s been a year and a half. Can we determine cause of death if her remains are found?
DR. PANCHALI DHAR, MD, INTERNAL MEDICINE: Well, if she was strangled, that would be difficult to do because she`s completely skeletonized. Now, let`s say the bones have fractures or dents, then, it would mean that there was a blunt instrument used or some kind of trauma was done to her.
GRACE: We are hoping to bring Lindsey home alive to her mother, Melissa, who is joining us tonight.
As we go to break, please, help us find another of America`s missing. Jennifer Poole, 39 years old, vanishes April 28th, 2010, Bay Shore, New York. White, female, 5`6", 140 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. Take a look. Tattoo on neck says "Joey."
If you have information, please call 800-220-8477.
If your loved one is missing and you need help, go online, CNN.com/NancyGrace. Send us your story. We want to help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BAUM, FATHER OF MISSING 10-YR-OLD GIRL, LINDSEY: My name`s Scott Baum. I`m Lindsey`s father. I`m in from Tennessee. What I`m here today to do is to appeal to everybody out there watching, please bring my daughter home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls in the search for a missing 10- year- old Girl Scout out of Washington, Lindsey Baum -- last seen only two blocks from her mom`s home.
Out to the lines. Christine in Louisiana. Hi, Christine.
Hi, dear, what`s your question?
CHRISTINE, CALLER FROM LOUISIANA: My question is, when Lindsey was swimming at these people`s homes, my thing is the people that allow her to swim there, they took control over her safety. And when it was time for her to go home, whether it was day or night, an adult should have been monitoring her going, making sure that this child gets back home safe. That was not done.
And my question is, why wasn`t that done?
GRACE: You know what, that`s a really good point. I want to go out to Melissa Baum. This is Lindsey`s mother.
What did the family say?
BAUM: Well, the family -- they feel horrible. I hold no blame to them, no. At this point, I could blame myself, I could blame them, I could spend the rest of my life putting blame. The fact is, it happens.
And ultimately, the only person who blame is the person who stole my child. And I just can`t live full of the anger and frustration and blame. I have to get through each day, and I have to find my daughter. And I speak to their -- her parents on a regular basis almost every day.
She`s become quite a good friend of mine. And I know the guilt she feels and it -- hindsight`s 20/20, and if you have ever lived in a town of 1,400 people, you know, and you can see from one end of the street to the other, basically, you just get caught up. You develop a false sense of security without even realizing it. So, no, she shouldn`t have been home. And she did have a cell phone.
But none of us knew at the time that she had left it at home on the charger which was all the more proof that Lindsey intended on coming straight back because she didn`t walk out the door, she didn`t leave her bedroom without her cell phone in her hand.
GRACE: We are showing shots of Lindsey now. There is a $30,000 reward.
Out to the lines. Samantha in Maryland. Hi, Samantha.
SAMANTHA, CALLER FROM MARYLAND: Hi, Nancy. Thank you for taking my call. My question this evening is, is there any other video, surveillance, anywhere she could have been? Maybe with a certain someone or anything out there other than the gas station?
GRACE: Let`s talk about the gas station video. What do we know?
Out to Doug McDowell, morning host KBKW NewsTalk. What can you tell me about this surveillance video, and what about searching a storage facility?
MCDOWELL: Well, with the video, I think that`s the only one that exists, the one that was taken at the Shell station. I believe one of those people came and identified themselves. And then, in July, the Grays Harbor County sheriff`s office, they were searching in McCleary for the missing girl and this is, of course, Lindsey Baum. And Undersheriff Rick Scott told the Aberdeen Daily World that they were searching a house and they also searched a storage area and they turned up no smoking gun or red flag to, quote, "Scott (ph)," when they made this search.
But then, they did something else, too, and the FBI had some inmates from Cedar Creek Corrections Center, and this was in October, go and search dense vegetation where she could have been at one point or -- and then maybe moved or placed there if, indeed, something had happened to her. And they wanted to recheck all of that ground. In fact, the superintendent, Douglas Cole, of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, said that the inmates genuinely were interested in trying to solve this case.
But, when you, you know, hear Melissa, I mean, McCleary is the last place you would ever think that something like this would happen. And so, I can see why all the parents would be totally, you know, flabbergasted by what has happened here because you just would not expect it.
GRACE: To Jean Casarez, give me the significance on this gas station, this 7-Eleven convenience store video, and I want to talk about potential person of interest buying donuts that day. What does this video mean to me? What`s the significance of buying donuts and why was the storage facility searched, Jean Casarez?
CASAREZ: All right. The video is significant because she would have walked by that Shell gas station on the way home. It was just released, Nancy, this surveillance video. And there were some unknown people that they were trying to find.
One man stepped forward and said, I was just passing through town, but I still think they have not been able to identify some of the other people in this video.
As far as the donuts, there have been five search warrants executed in this case, Nancy. They are fascinating to read, and I say that on a legal sense. But the donuts come from a man who voluntarily allowed people in his home, law enforcement, but probable cause that he had been dealing in child porn on his computer. And he said that he had gotten donuts on the day that Lindsey Baum went missing.
GRACE: But he`s diabetic.
CASAREZ: But he`s diabetic.
GRACE: He got donuts for whom?
CASAREZ: For the children.
GRACE: What children?
CASAREZ: What children? I don`t know.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Nowasa in Kentucky. Hi, Nowasa.
NOWASA, KENTUCKY: Hi, Nancy. I`ve been trying to get a hold of you for, like, four years.
GRACE: Thank you.
NOWASA: I`ve got a set of twins, myself, and I love seeing your pictures that you show.
But this devastates me. We live in a world where we cannot trust anybody. We can`t trust our neighbors. We can`t trust -- we don`t know our best friends, who they could turn out to be.
And it just -- this is -- I`m curious to know, the little girl went to this person`s house. And yes, it might have been they`re best friends and all that, and I have no right to say anything bad at some people, but did they even give a call to the mother to say, hey, she`s walking home?
GRACE: That`s a good question. That`s a good question, Nowasa in Kentucky.
What about it, Ms. Baum? Did they call to let you know she was coming home?
BAUM: No. And again, there was -- they had a lot of stuff -- something had gone on, so they kind of were in the middle of something apparently at the time she left and just didn`t think to call me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: These are the faces of America`s missing. Every 30 seconds, another child, sister, brother, father, mother, disappears. Families left behind, wondering, waiting, hoping. We have not forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen-year-old Kimberly Arrington disappeared on October 30th, 1998 in Montgomery, Alabama.
WALTER ARRINGTON, JR., FATHER: My name Walter Arrington, Jr. I`m Kimberly Arrington`s father. We as of today have not found what has happened to Kimberly.
CAPT. KEITH BARNETT, MONTGOMERY POLICE DEPARTMENT: I`m Captain Keith Barnett. It`s our understanding from the family and friends that it appeared she was probably going to be going down to a local drugstore that was just a few blocks from her residence. And that we have no evidence to show that she ever actually arrived there.
ARRINGTON: At the time I was at work. Kimberly was at home with her mother and her sisters and brother. Somebody might have picked her up or she got in the car with somebody that she probably knows I suppose, but I don`t think she would have got in the car with anybody she didn`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arrington was 5`4" and 110 pounds.
ARRINGTON: She wouldn`t have taken off like that. She wasn`t that type of person that would take off with anybody. We hadn`t heard anything. All of the leads they said they was tracing down, they end up with nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was wearing a gray Bugle Boy shirt with a collar, light blue jeans and white Reebok sneakers with gray trim.
ARRINGTON: It is quite frustrating. I mean, for the family, friends, classmates and all, we get these people calling us and when they see something they call us about it or they ask us, have we heard anything? So, it`s been an ongoing struggle for the whole family. She would be a grown woman now. That`s what`s making it so bad, like, missing a whole -- her growing up, childhood.
BARNETT: We`re still hopeful that she is out there somewhere. And that we can find her alive. But we, you know, we are making sure we try and take every step to see, you know, if we can at least locate her for the family.
ARRINGTON: I still have this feeling that she`s somewhere. That somebody got her. I got a feeling somebody got her. I can`t see her not contacting us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kimberly Arrington`s mother died in 2005. Walter Arrington recalls one of the last things his wife asked was whether he`d continue to look for Kim.
ARRINGTON: We are still looking for Kimberly. We are praying. Yes, we do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, she would be 28 years old.
If you have any information about Arrington`s disappearance, call 1- 800-THE-LOST.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: I`m Nancy grace. See you tomorrow night, 9:00 sharp Eastern. Until then, we are looking. Keep the faith, friend. Good night.
END
