By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-18 04:32:07 | Updated at 2024-11-18 06:49:45
2 hours ago
An Indiana family is demanding answers after a pregnant mother-of-three went missing just days before she was due to give birth to her fourth child.
Emma Baum, 25, was last seen on October 10 in Gary, Indiana, visiting her boyfriend - the father of her unborn child - at the intersection of 25th Avenue and Connecticut Street.
The area that she vanished is known to be desolate, and Baum did not have a working phone on her at the time she disappeared, according to NBC Chicago.
She was also already one centimeter dilated on October 4, and her family now says it is likely she has already given birth - as they comb the area looking for any clues as to her whereabouts.
Volunteers have searched overgrown fields, knocked on doors and passed out flyers, as K-9 units search for her scent, CBS News reports.
Emma Baum, 25, was last seen on October 10 in Gary, Indiana just days before she was set to give birth to her fourth child
Her family is pleading for any help in locating her, as they beg her to come home
Baum's sister, Hailey, has even stopped people in their cars and stopped people who were walking in the neighborhood to ask them if they knew where she may be, she said at an emotional news conference on Friday.
'We have put our own lives at risk,' her other sister, Abigale Smith, added. 'We have run into abandoned houses, we have dug in dirt piles.
'At this point, we have done everything we can, and now we ask the public to please help us.'
The family now suspects her boyfriend knows something about Emma's disappearance, as police confirmed he was taken into custody for an unrelated matter.
The unidentified man has not been charged in connection with Emma's disappearance, Gary Police Commander Jack Hamady said.
She was last seen in a desolate neighborhood of Gary, Indiana, visiting the father of her unborn child
Volunteers have searched overgrown fields, knocked on doors and passed out flyers, as K-9 units search for her scent
He said police have questioned multiple people in connection with the case, and noted to WGN-TV that officers are continuing to scour the area.
'There are three locations that have come up in the investigation, so we've exhausted those means, and looked into video that was possibly in those areas that she was last seen as well.'
Still, Baum's family is not giving up hope.
'We're always going to look for her,' her mother, Jamie Baum, said. 'I'm never going to stop looking for her. My whole family will never stop looking for you, Emma.'
'We love you, Emma. And if you can hear us, there is nothing that you have done to make any of us stop loving you,' Smith added.
Emma is described as 5-feet-3-inches tall with brown hair and brown eyes, though she is known to wear wigs
The family said they hope to have Emma home for Thanksgiving.
She is described as 5-feet-3-inches tall with brown hair and brown eyes.
Baum has several tattoos and scars along her arms, and is known to have experimented with different colored wigs.
