[LatelineNews: 2002-6-15] SALT LAKE CITY - A man wanted for questioning in connection with the abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was spotted at a recent Utah prayer vigil for the girl's return, police said on Friday.
But a man arrested for shoplifting in Texas who fit the description of Bret Michael Edmunds was not the man police want to talk to, FBI Dallas bureau spokeswoman Lori Bailey said. "The fingerprint comparison did not match," she said.
Meanwhile, an aunt of the girl begged her abductor to release the teenager, warning at the brink of tears "God knows where you are."
Police said this week they want to talk to Edmunds, a transient with a criminal record, because he may have been seen by a milk delivery man near the girl's home two days before the predawn June 5 abduction.
Edmunds is wanted on two warrants, including one for assaulting a police officer. While saying they want to question him, police have stressed that he is not viewed as a suspect in the case.
Police thought Edmunds had been spotted in Texas and over the border near Clovis, New Mexico, prompting officials to put up roadblocks and search in helicopters.
With the man arrested in Texas not being Edmunds, police were back to square one on his whereabouts.
The girl's 9-year-old sister has told police Elizabeth was abducted at gunpoint from the bedroom the girls shared in the family's $1.19 million home. She said she did not recognize the man in the dark room.
EDMUNDS SEEN AT VIGIL (But WAS it REALLY Edmunds?)
Salt Lake City Police spokesman Scott Atkinson told reporters on Friday that police had seen Edmunds, who lives in his car, at a vigil held for Smart on Sunday.
That could be important because sometimes people return to the scene of their crime or attend vigils related to a crime, Atkinson said.
"Mr. Edmunds was in fact spotted at the park. It was determined we would not approach him for safety's sake," Atkinson said. Police followed Edmunds out of the park where the vigil was held, but apparently lost him.
Although the girl has been missing for a more than a week, police said they were making progress. "We're getting information we can follow up on. We're conducting interviews. We've narrowed a lot down," Atkinson said.
He declined to comment on local news reports that an uncle may have had an "inconclusive" lie detector test. The father Edward and the girl's uncle Tom Smart have taken polygraph tests.
Former Utah Congressman Wayne Owens, a family friend who has helped organize the search for the girl told CNN on Friday that he would "bet the farm" the uncle was not involved in the girl's disappearance.
Atkinson said the family remains very cooperative with police.
The 9-year-old sister waited in fear for about two hours before telling her parents about what happened because the man had threatened to harm Elizabeth if she said a word.
Atkinson said he had no message for the girl's abductor, but an aunt, Cynthia Smart Owens, did.
"God knows where you are. God knows where Elizabeth is and we are praying with all our hearts to find her. The best you can do is let her go," the woman, near tears, told reporters. Reuters