Wayne Watne Should be a Person of Interest in Lindsey Baum Case

Some people at the scared monkeys website, and others who have commented on my original article “Vanished! Lindsey Baum Disappears Just Minutes from her Home,” 7/5/09, seem convinced that Wayne Scott Watne must have abducted her. Guided by my own research I am not so eager to jump on that bandwagon. All the evidence against Watne is circumstantial and not nearly as compelling as some think; it most surely would not support an arrest at this point.

The Circumstances

Police believe Baum was abducted by someone she knew. The Baums were neighbors of Watne, and according to news accounts, neighbors in the small town of McCleary knew each other very well. Missingandmurderedchildren.com, 7/28/09. Lindsey Baum attended the church where Watne was a missionary, and Watne used to take brother Josh Baum fishing. Clearly, had Watne intercepted Lindsey on the night she disappeared, she would have gone with him quietly.

Map of McCleary showing possible abduction site

One of my readers informed me that Wayne Watne had refused to take a polygraph test that would have cleared him as a suspect. Another wrote than innocent people have no reason not to take a polygraph.

Allow me to comment based on the experience gained from 14 years of practicing law. It’s true that a guilty will take a polygraph only if he’s a cool customer and believes he can lie without showing the physical symptoms the machine measures.

I’m betting that Watne consulted a lawyer before he was to be tested. It is rare for an attorney to advise even an innocent man to submit to this test, for several reasons. First, the polygraph is sufficiently inaccurate that its results are not admissible in court. Second, an innocent man can show ‘false positives’ on the device, even if he doesn’t suffer from anxiety disorder. Third, it is not unlawful for police to tell a suspect he ‘flunked’ the test even if he passed or the results are inconclusive. They normally do this when they think the suspect is hiding something, or if they have independent evidence of guilt. Thus taking the polygraph would not automatically clear Watne as a suspect.

The McCleary police may see things differently, and would have noted Watne’s refusal to take the polygraph in their Lindsey Baum file, even though his consultation with a lawyer and refusal to sit for a polygraph are not admissible.