Complaint Review: Mt. Vernon Washington Police Department

I have a 13 yr. old niece that came out here to visit with family. That would be; my sister, her new husband, my sisters 3 daughters, my brother-in-laws 3 daughters, my 3 adult children, my husband and myself.

My niece lived in Baraboo, Wi. for the last 7 yrs. She spent 27 days with her natural father in OR. state before she came here.
She came here on the 29th of June, and was having a wonderful time with all her cousins.

On the 2nd day of July, my niece suddenly disappeared! Right out of my yard!

We did not even notice that she was gone until 5 in the afternoon. Everyone in the families went out looking for her. But it was no good. I don't know what was the hardest. Telling our sister that she was gone, or giving up on looking.
We called the police and then my sister.

The police said that they would have an officer call us. We waited for 1 1/2 hrs. Nothing. We called again. Told them she was a missing person, who was from out of state. She didn't know anyone here but family! We couldn't find her anywhere. They told us they would send someone out to talk to the family.

When an officer finally showed, my niece had been missing for approximately 8 hrs. We were in a panic!

My sister in Wisconsin was calling every 10 min. to see if we had found out anything.

We than wound up sitting on the front porch of my sisters home, waiting for the police to figure out what they wanted to do.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. My 19 yr. old son was the last one to see my niece. That made him #1 suspect!

The police said that they wanted to talk to everyone that was here when Lydia was here. But guess what?? They "talked" to my son. And only my son.

We could understand why. What we couldn't understand was that while they talked to him, no one could continue looking for Lydia!

We had to sit there. We sat there from 11 p.m. until 7am waiting for them to let us go looking some more.

We then find out they didn't want anyone but their officers to be out looking.

We sat there all that time and not do anything!
The police wound up taking our son to the station to do some more talking. They finally had search & rescue come out and try to find something.

The dogs found Lydias' scent in my yard, out to the highway, and down the road about 200 yards from my home. From there???

My son got to leave the station at about 7:30am. He told the police that he would be more than willing to take a polygraph. So they let him come to my home for awhile, so they could set up the questions they wanted.

The family was told not to go out looking at all. The police were afraid that we might mess up any evidence that might be ??
Search & rescue tried to find something, but lost Lydias scent and couldn't find anything after the 200 yards.

My family had many offers from search & rescue that was in different counties. But because of the political hoop-la, the police in Skagit County didn't accept. Didn't want the offers. It was very clear that they felt that they could handle it on their own.

It is know Sept. 4th, and we still don't have Lydia. We don't have a clue.

The only thing we are sure of, is that the police department has finally admitted to the family that they don't know what to do. That they have had only 1, mind you 1 missing child in the last 20 or so years.

Oh they apologize to my sister and to us. But how is that getting Lydia home to her family?

This family was out every night for 2 1/2 weeks, around the clock looking for her. All the police did was tell us not to trespass on private property. Even if we got a call from someone who said that they had seen Lydia! (which we did. numerous times!)

We are at a point that the police don't know where to go, the family has lost any leads we had.

If there is anyone out there that can give us a clue as to where to go from here, the family would be very grateful. The police in Mt. Vernon, Washington are not helping one little bit.

The family has even had outside help come in at our own expense.
We don't know what to do.

We do know that the police don't know what their are doing!!