The remains were identified this week.
The body of a 10-year-old girl who has been missing for nearly ten years has been found in Washington State.
Lindsey Baum disappeared in 2009 when she was walking to a friend’s house. Her body was found last fall but the remains weren’t identified as hers until this week by authorities due to a delay in DNA testing.
Baum’s body was found by hunters on rocky terrain, 180 miles east of where she disappeared from her McCleary home. Her mom vehemently denied her daughter ran away at the time of her disappearance.
Kittitas County Sheriff's Office led a search Saturday of the terrain that Undersheriff Clay Myers described as "steep, heavily timbered with large cliffs and deep ravines."
The case has now been ruled a kidnapping and homicide investigation, police said.
"For the last nine years we've not been able to definitively say what this was, beyond this was a missing child," Sheriff Rick Scott said. "...Now, the reality is we need to find a homicide suspect."
He said the family is "understandably devastated" at the news.
It was not immediately clear when Lindsey died, police said.
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