Posted on 03/02/2003 2:05:54 PM PST by Palladin
Yes, Elizabeth does have a hard road ahead. But, as her mother has said many times, "Elizabeth, you are a strong girl."
As for why SLCPD or the FBI didn't find her or release a little more helpful information, "Politics!" As long as they had Ricci, they played on that.
Which brings to mind, whatever happened to Dr. Henry Lee? :)
If she was covering for Elizabeth, she wouldn't have given pat answers to their questions.
Remembering all the times the Smart interviews directly addressed Elizabeth, or spoke to the perp, and the strangely hesitant way Ed gave conflicting answers at different times - and I'm trying to remember what they were, but can't right now - could it be that MK had told her parents early on who she believed had taken her sister?
Would revealing that Elizabeth had run away - that the Smart home was less than happy - have produced a sense of "shame" in Ed and Lois? One so strong that they would feel the need to hide that fact?
We know that Elizabeth had a habit of jogging. I think this has been discussed, that the perp made contact with her during one or more of the sessions. Was Mitchell watching her at other times? Is this how MK would have known him? Seems more likely than meeting him during a 5 hour roof job.
But it could be that she met him when he approached Lois for "spare change." I do think it is a question we are entitled to know the answer, right now, and not at a later date.
Anybody care to comment? Add your own thoughts?
Another thing, wasn't it Tom who first gave the big "NO" to a composite drawing? None of us understood that.
I do not think she was attracted to Mitchell, so who knows? Maybe after she left, the situation became unmanageable. Plus the fact that Mitchell doesn't seem to fit early descriptions, sketches, etc.
Maybe you should review the specifics of her (Patty Hearst) violent abduction and the awful treatment she received shortly thereafter (before the machine gun part). Fear causes people to behave strangely.
There's so many threads on this, I'm forgetting where I've been - and why. :)
Her zombie-like appearance may have been from seeing the house go up in flames and having participated in shooting at police.
One post is interesting in that Hearst made it clear that she wants "to leave the past alone." This is in reference to having to face Sara Jane Olson & Bill & Emily Harris as a witness.
Hearst declared to Talk Magazine in June 2000 when she was named as a key witness in another SLA case against Olson, "I'm at the end of my rope. I keep trying to forget these people and they keep dragging me back into it."
Hmmm....Couldn't she have just sent a message to the Smarts or called that Elizabeth needs an attorney now, to keep her mouth shut, rather than appear on television?
You made your point.
I didn't remember the case as well as I thought. At the time, I remember feeling very sorry for her and was probably more influenced by the media than I realized (I was young). They were turning her into a brainwashed victim. She was a victim, but unless she was driven mentally incapacitated, she had free will to chose right from wrong.
No need for sarcasm. I see you did go back to review some facts in Google. Did you recall/discover that she was kidnapped at the age of 19 from her apartment, beat up, stuffed in a trunk, interrogated, held in a closet for over 50 days, suffered sensory deprivation, etc., etc. - all causing her to go into survival mode?
I'm not sure why, in light of these facts, you don't see how she got a rotten deal. She never did fire the machine gun in the bank - she was put on trial for grand theft and then convicted - serving 2 years out of the seven year term. Then, she was pardoned by Jimmy Carter.
Maybe your idea of a rotten deal is different than mine....
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