Baumgartner worked Lankey case early on

WHITE CLOUD, Mich. (WOOD) - A former White Cloud police officer whose brother became a person of interest in the Amanda Lankey homicide was involved in the investigation from the beginning, police reports show.

Candace Wallis-Baumgartner was one of three officers who met with then-White Cloud Police Chief Roger Ungrey to discuss Lankey's disappearance in 2004, according to a report obtained by 24 Hour News 8.

Lankey, 13, was last seen at the home of Wallis-Baumgartner's brother, Cecil Wallis Sr. The report doesn't mention the family ties.

During that first meeting, "some names were discussed that were friends and acquaintances of Ms. Amanda Lankey," according to the report.

Lankey's body was found two weeks later, in July 2004, in Manistee National Forest.

Ungrey has told The Grand Rapids Press that Wallis-Baumgartner did not play an active role in the investigation because of the connection. 24 Hour News 8 could not reach Ungrey for comment.

Wallis-Baumgartner and her son, Marcus Wallis, are charged with perjury for allegedly lying to detectives investigating the case while they were under investigative subpoenas.

While Wallis-Baumgartner's brother was identified as a person of interest in Lankey's death, he was never charged. However, he was charged last year with raping two teen-aged girls between the ages of 13 and 16 in his home between 1998 and 2002.

One of those girls moved because she feared Cecil Wallis Sr. would find her and intimidate her, court records show.

Court records show that Wallis Sr. was still in jail in October 2011 when he got a visit from his son, Cecil Wallis Jr., his sister, Wallis-Baumgartner, her son and other relatives. That visit was recorded.

During that visit, Cecil Wallis Sr. told his son to contact another man. That man had been dating one of the alleged rape victims and had earlier been lured to Wallis Sr.'s house and assaulted, according to court records.

A week later, Marcus Wallis -- the former officer's son -- allegedly visited a home in White Cloud, asking for that man, as well as the rape victim, records show.

"He came here asking for her," said a woman who lives at the home and who said she answered the door.

She is listed in court records as a witness in the perjury case.

"He said he needed to find her, and he needed to find her immediately, and it was very important. It was kind of scary," she said.

She said the suspect's relatives had accused the rape victim of making up the allegations.

"They told her she was a liar and none of it happened, and if it did happen, she brought it on herself," she said.

Before anything came of the rape charges, Wallis Sr. killed himself.

Wallis-Baumgartner is now charged with two counts of perjury.

She allegedly told detectives she had never falsified a police report, but they say she lied. Authorities say she was fired by the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office in 1999 after falsifying a police report about a drunk driving crash involving her brother to protect him.
 
They also said she lied when she told detectives she had never been asked to help investigate the scene when Lankey's body was found. Other officers said she had been asked to help and had refused.

Now, Amanda's friends and relatives are hoping the perjury charges will lead to a breakthrough in her murder.

"I just want to know the truth," said Amanda's childhood friend, Amber Deam. "It's the most important for me, the truth and finding out what happened; they've hid so much of it for so long."