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Why Elizabeth (Smart) ‘Ran Away’ (Not kidnapped)
Newsmax ^ | 3/14/03 | Joan Swirsky

Posted on 03/14/2003 1:54:15 PM PST by hoosierskypilot

I fell in love with my husband-to-be when I was 14, no doubt about it. How did I know it was love? I didn’t. But my adolescent instincts proved accurate. We married as teenagers and are now celebrating our 43rd anniversary – 43 years of undying love. So much for 14-year-olds not knowing how they feel.

I came from a family with strong values. Right was right and wrong was wrong; good was good and bad was bad. By the time I was 10 years old, I knew – as surely as Elizabeth Smart knew from her Mormon upbringing – what was right and what was wrong.

And for many years now, I have been a psychotherapist and what I have learned from my patients’ complicated lives is that appearances don’t count.

I remember one young woman, the daughter of a librarian and schoolteacher, who grew up in a suburban home of the most conventional values. Her “presenting symptom” was dissatisfaction with her job, but I soon learned that she dated men who picked her up when she stopped at a light and even met a man, at midnight, who had called the wrong number and gotten her instead.

Little Ms. Conventional, it turned out, craved the fast life, the life of risk and escape from her mundane background.

I had another patient who married her psychoanalyst. But before that, as a teenager, she spent endless nights at crap tables in Las Vegas, loving every minute. And as a “grown-up married woman,” as she described herself, she said that her “happiest memories in life” were of “dressing up and being there when the highest stakes were on the line.”

So, clearly, stereotypes of 14-year-old innocents – even presented by “experts” using the most sophisticated psychobabble or crime-fighters using the most impressive “profiling” data – leave a lot to the imagination.

Let’s consider one possible Elizabeth Smart scenario. Brian David Mitchell, the drifter (and probably grifter) who paraded through Salt Lake City as Emmanuel, the God-fearing evangelist out to save misguided souls, met young Elizabeth Smart’s mother on the street, where he solicited a handout from the inveterate do-gooder.

It wasn’t enough for her to hand him five dollars; she also invited him to earn more money by fixing the roof of her home, which he did one sunny afternoon in 2001.

That’s the truth, but let’s start to imagine what happened next. The charismatic Mitchell bumped in to the nubile Elizabeth. They talked. He was charming. She was smitten. And although his work was done, they both managed to communicate with each other outside the home over a period of time.

Finally, he might have said: “I want you to come with me, to leave your boring existence – where your father sheds crocodile tears and your mother is a stone – to live a more exciting life, of God, of costumes, of travel, of freedom.”

She may have had doubts, but she finally agreed to an “escape” that left her sympathetic in the eyes of her family but, at the same time, free to live the exciting life she craved.

And true to her expectations, what ensued was more thrilling than she had imagined. She heard people calling out her name but never answered back. She agreed to wear a costume in public that camouflaged her face but she never bolted from her “captors” as she had innumerable opportunities to do.

Even when she was caught by police officers this week and had the perfect chance to fly into their protective arms, she lied about her identity and denied being the Elizabeth Smart whose picture they showed her.

“Oh, that’s the girl who ran away,” she said. And when finally exposed, she asked first, not about her parents or her siblings, but about what would happen to the people with whom she had spent the last nine months.

And what about the so-called forensic evidence that experts said “proved” she was kidnapped, the screen that had been cut in the window of her home (a screen that was too narrow for most adults to squeeze through and that showed no fibers, no DNA, no nothing).

And what about the door that was unlocked, the one that other forensic experts insisted the intruder had both entered and exited? Who unlocked that door? Certainly not Elizabeth Smart’s parents!

And what about Elizabeth’s 8-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, who waited for over two hours to tell her mother and father about her older sister’s so-called abduction? Isn’t it credible or at least possible that Elizabeth entrusted her little sister, who idolized her, with her secret, assured her that she would be fine, and instructed her to “not say a word” until two hours had elapsed?

And what about Elizabeth’s demeanor after she was “found”? Why didn’t the “experts” concentrate on her obviously well-fed, away-from-home sabbatical? Her serenity? The relief one might have expected from a “hostage’?

And what about her family’s reaction – her father’s unconvincing tears and his all-too-eager willingness to go before media cameras and “live” broadcasts, and, as always, her mother’s “cool” reaction? Even during the first hours and on the first day that Elizabeth came home!

Brian Mitchell is, by any measure, a creep (as is his wife). But Elizabeth Smart clearly was attracted to this creep because he offered her a safe but exciting escape from her stultifying life.

My bet is that she will fit in once more to the Smart household. But when given the chance to escape again, she will fly the coop – with joy – but this time without the entire world speculating, erroneously, on her motives.

Good luck, Elizabeth!


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To: hoosierskypilot
Mitchell will get 30 years for this, and he'll get a chance to use his social skills to stay alive.
41 posted on 03/14/2003 2:29:11 PM PST by Fitzcarraldo
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To: Illbay
Keep your cool. You have a long history of being an intelligent poster, not a name caller.

This whole article is speculation, and it is presented as such.

If Elizabeth was taken forcibly, she will be vindicated way before Mitchell is tried and convicted.

42 posted on 03/14/2003 2:29:16 PM PST by george wythe
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To: mass55th
Good grief. How many rooms did he have to choose from? Five? Seven? You people are trying too hard to make this story into something ugly.
43 posted on 03/14/2003 2:29:32 PM PST by alnick
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Comment #44 Removed by Moderator

To: Motherbear
I'm with you, totally. Not to mention that she was probably told that her parents were angry with her, or perhaps that they'd be hurt by these nutcases if she didn't dummy up.

I hope her folks get her in some good therapy, because she'll need it.

45 posted on 03/14/2003 2:29:56 PM PST by truthkeeper
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To: All
I'm having trouble with the parents willing to publicize this girl all over the place. I'd think it would be kept private.
46 posted on 03/14/2003 2:30:27 PM PST by Sacajaweau (Hillary: Constitutional Scholar! NOT)
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To: Sacajaweau
And, if the parent's actions made her think he was "okay", only to have her "marry" him! Imagine their horror! No wonder why they are frantic, and want to emphasize the Amber Alert idea. They do not want to be held responsible in any way.
47 posted on 03/14/2003 2:30:36 PM PST by Pan_Yans Wife (Lurking since 2000.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Oh ... you know this family personally ..?
48 posted on 03/14/2003 2:31:41 PM PST by CyberAnt ( -> -> -> Oswego!!)
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Comment #49 Removed by Moderator

To: Blood of Tyrants
"You think I am that Elizabeth Smart girl who ran away"?

IF (and that's a big IF...) she was brainwashed, psychologically traumatized, etc., is it not possible that he/they could have convinced her that she "ran away" vs. being kidnapped....all a part of reprogramming her to fit what they wanted her to be and what they wanted her to think, so that if/when caught, this would let them off the hook? I think it's possible.

50 posted on 03/14/2003 2:32:33 PM PST by nfldgirl
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To: hoosierskypilot
Let's see. You've been with the same person since you'be been 14 years old, and are married to this same person for 45 years. At the same, time, you are an expert on relationships?

The irony.

51 posted on 03/14/2003 2:33:01 PM PST by DCPatriot
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To: Sacajaweau
The prayers of "all" no doubt are with you. Get a life, lightweight...
52 posted on 03/14/2003 2:33:12 PM PST by tracer (/b>)
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To: hoosierskypilot
I don't think she left her home willingly. I do think people need to remember that this was an extremely naive, impressionable little girl who was most likely threatened and perhaps beaten or worse by her kidnappers. If you took a 14-year old girl and screamed at her hour after hour, day after day (for nine months) that you would kill her and her family if she ever used her real name or tried to escape, how would that little girl react? I'm no expert by any stretch but I think people need to wait on the facts before condemning this girl for something she may not have any choice in participating in.
53 posted on 03/14/2003 2:34:00 PM PST by CheezyD
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To: Don'tMessWithTexas
As the father of an eight year old girl, one of my primary duties is to protect her honor and reputation. If you or anyone else started spreading unsubstantiated rumors about my daughter, I would, with all due respect, be required to jack your jaw.

Bravo. And if I were the father of a 15 year-old girl and the "unsubstantiated rumors" about her honor and reputation turned out to be true, I'd have a hard time keeping myself from "jacking her jaw."

54 posted on 03/14/2003 2:34:26 PM PST by Alberta's Child
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To: Poohbah
I will be completely unsurprised if she has to enter inpatient psychiatric treatment in the next year.

If she doesn't need extensive psychiatric help after this, it would be a miracle.

I agree with you here. Regardless of how this happened, there will be behavior problems ahead.

55 posted on 03/14/2003 2:34:54 PM PST by Canticle_of_Deborah
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To: Blood of Tyrants
I see.

You really don't KNOW Elizabeth Smart, just what you've read in the newspapers.
56 posted on 03/14/2003 2:34:56 PM PST by Poohbah (Beware the fury of a patient man -- John Dryden)
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To: hoosierskypilot
As a casual observer it's pretty interesting to see how these things play out on this forum. I say casual observer because I don't have the time, energy or desire to follow the soap opera atmosphere these types of issues (Westerfield, Smart, etc) usually generate, so I just glance at it from time to time.

However, once again FR falls into two distinct camps -

* One side, so desperate to believe in the inherent goodness of this girl, is convinced she is a victim. So convinced, that they vehemently attack anyone that suggests something different
* the other side, so convinced that the whole thing is a screen hiding the dark secrets of the family and the girl's true motives that they call into question the sanity of the other group

Right now, the two sides are tolerating each other. As this goes on (and once the trial starts) the level of discourse will get less and less hospitable until it degenerates into flat-out nastiness.

Once you don't take a side, it's pretty fun to watch.

57 posted on 03/14/2003 2:35:15 PM PST by Cable225
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To: Alberta's Child
If you had a daughter that was abducted and raped, would you want the media and psychanalysts giving you and your family the equivalent of a media anal exam? Now that she is back home, the particulars of this matter are NONE of your business. The reports on this are coming out in drips and drabs. The whole story has not been presented. What if the initial reports are contrdicted? She has been smeared in the public and her reputation destroyed. If I was her Daddy, I would tell you and other people who are curious about my daughter to stick it.

This case is the business of the police, the courts and the jurors that will sit on the case, EVEN if the abduction is a fraud. If you had a daughter, I think you would want her to be shielded from public ridicule, even if she did something shameful. Maybe not.

58 posted on 03/14/2003 2:35:34 PM PST by Don'tMessWithTexas
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To: Canticle_of_Deborah
Yes, i bet he was fairly ripe, probably never bathed or brushed his teeth. double yuk
59 posted on 03/14/2003 2:36:04 PM PST by mel (Let's get the show on the road. Let's Roll.)
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To: Motherbear
Here is another wild possibility.

If she was kidnapped and raped, her thought might be... "no, if I suggest I ran away, then maybe no one will think too harshly about me now, "... as a rape victim often does feel guilty. If she said she wanted to go, she might falsely believe that that will be the end of it, and no one would think that she was abused.

Just a random thought.
60 posted on 03/14/2003 2:38:01 PM PST by Pan_Yans Wife (Lurking since 2000.)
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