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Like door-to-door salesmen in blue windbreakers, FBI agents and local officers spent the day knocking on doors along Maple Street, greeting many residents with questions that had been asked before.
Grays Harbor Undersheriff Rick Scott said detectives and federal agents intend to re-question many people along the neighborhood street as part of a larger review of the investigation.
“We’re not plowing any new ground,” Scott said. “We’re just going over what we’ve already done.”
Investigators are following new recommendations from the FBI Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team, which specializes in kidnapping cases nationwide. Scott said the FBI team has been advising detectives since the beginning of the search, but its experts recently finished a third-party review of the investigation and offered suggestions on new approaches and follow-up interviews.
“Today was sort of the kickoff,” Scott said. He later added, “These are the techniques and these are the recommendations that have been successful” in other cases.
Lindsey Baum went missing June 26 while walking a short distance back home along Maple Street. She was sighted twice along the way, but investigators have found no evidence explaining how she disappeared.
FBI agents teamed up with officers from several departments Monday to make the door-to-door interviews. Scott said departments from Aberdeen, McCleary, Montesano, Lacey, Thurston County, Mason County, the State Patrol and others volunteered officers to help in the effort.
A couple of dozen officers combed the streets, stopping to chat with homeowners. Police cruisers crowded the main roads.
Scott said investigators have prioritized the expert recommendations and hope to keep the extra officers around for several days to complete the new round of interviews.
“We want to do it until it’s done,” he said.
The FBI brought in profilers, psychologists, computer technicians and many others to work on the case, Scott said. They also provided a mobile command center to serve as a clearinghouse for any information collected.
“There’s a lot of resources the FBI can bring to the table,” he said.
Some residents invited investigators inside. Others hung in the doorways to ask questions, the sessions lasting minutes or hours.
Standing outside his mother’s Maple Street home, David Belcher said investigators spent about three hours Monday morning interviewing him and the others at the house.
“They were really polite,” he said. “Whatever it takes, as long as they find out who did this.”
