To: sandude
"I believe that MK's statements have been consistent and LE and the family have gone to great lengths to not influence her memories."
This is what we have been told publicly by LE, and I can't fault you for buying it. Maybe it's true. Just for fun (and the entertainment of others) let me expound a bit on my reasons for finding MK's story implausible.
I assume you have seen a layout of the Smart home. The bedroom from which Elizabeth was allegedly abducted is on the same floor and in very close proximity to other bedrooms. Not only this, but she actually shared a bed with another sibling. In order to get down the stairs, Elizabeth had to be marched right past the door to her parents' bedroom. There have been reports that Elizabeth and her abductor even stopped by the bathroom during the abduction. We have been lead to believe that Elizabeth was forced to go with this man against her will. In my mind, this scenario is pushing the envelope at best. This modus operandus would have involved an incredible amount of risk to the perpetrator. Although it has been argued otherwise, I find it very hard to believe that a 14 y/o girl and her 9 y/o sister would both remain absolutely quiet during a forced abduction as has been described. Even if attempts were made to remain silent, I find it hard to believe that two parents in the next room would sleep through all of this activity.
I also have problems with the presence of so many friends and neighbors on the scene when the police arrived. According to police reports, these neighbors had not only entered the house, but had also been outside of the home quite literally "beating the bushes" in search of Elizabeth. Did these people have no concern for their own safety? What if someone had actually found that "armed gunman" hiding in the bushes? Were entire families brought to the Smart home to face the possibility of encountering an armed gunman......or were family members left behind unguarded in a neighborhood where an armed kidnapper reportedly lurked? In my mind, the behavior of the neighbors is inconsistent with the belief that a dangerous gunman was running loose in the neighborhood. I would think that their primary thoughts would have been for the safety of their own families.
Perhaps what makes me most doubtful about the abduction story is the lack of "fleshing out" of details. In addition to the lack of a physical description, we have not been told how the alleged perpetrator entered the house, how he left, what he said, what Elizabeth said, what Elizabeth's emotional reactions were, where MK's second sighting of the abductor took place, how MK knew that 2 hours had passed before running to her parents......in short, we don't have enough details to actually envision what we are being told happened. Perhaps the police have their reasons for keeping such details to themselves, but I can't imagine what they might be. I can't recall another child abduction case wherein the details of the actual event were kept so closely guarded.
All of these questions have been discussed here previously, and I know that others have their own thoughts on the feasibility of the abduction story. I will say that I was very encouraged by Jeanne Boylan's remarks following her interview with MK. Whatever she got from that interview, she seemed to me to be very upbeat, very impressed with the way the case was being handled, and very hopeful for a positive outcome.
413 posted on 8/22/02 6:20 PM Pacific by freedox
The doors could have been closed, perhaps even by the abductor before entering Liz's room.
There have been reports that Elizabeth and her abductor even stopped by the bathroom during the abduction.
Not confirmed.
We have been lead to believe that Elizabeth was forced to go with this man against her will.
An eyewitness reported this. Either you believe Mary Katherine or you don't. If you don't then you have to believe that LE is completely stupid to have a 9 year old girl fool them for over 3 months.
This modus operandus would have involved an incredible amount of risk to the perpetrator.
A cat burglar thrives on this risk. I think a psychologist could even make a case that this type of criminal could look for greater risks as time went on much in the same way a drug addict goes for more powerful or stronger doses to get high.
I find it very hard to believe that a 14 y/o girl and her 9 y/o sister would both remain absolutely quiet during a forced abduction as has been described.
I don't find this hard to believe. Either through a belief that being quiet would bring a quick end to this "hostage" situation or from fear that making any noise would get Elizabeth or her family killed. I am looking forward to the day when the perpetrator’s words are made known.
Even if attempts were made to remain silent, I find it hard to believe that two parents in the next room would sleep through all of this activity.
Some people, especially those in homes that have many occupants, will sleep through most incidental noise. There is nothing remarkable about the parents not waking especially if their door was closed.
This was cleared up in the Tribune article that came out after Ricci’s death. The initial officers who arrived at the scene failed to protect the residence. Instead, they searched for Elizabeth in the neighborhood. They failed to tell the Smarts to keep everyone out of the house. I think that they believed this was a runaway situation and didn’t think it was important. They decided several hours later that detectives needed to be called in. By then the scene was contaminated. The SLPD has taken full responsibility for this and has said they need to train their patrolmen on how to handle matters like this. I know the Smart haters will say that the family should have known better. There is no course of study that a parent must pass. I ‘m sure that the Smarts wish that things had been handled differently that morning but to indict them for this lapse in knowledge is not fair. Please send your complaints to the SLPD, they blew it, not the Smarts.
In my mind, the behavior of the neighbors is inconsistent with the belief that a dangerous gunman was running loose in the neighborhood. I would think that their primary thoughts would have been for the safety of their own families.
How many times in the last year have we seen ordinary citizens put themselves in harms way to help complete strangers. They do this out of a sense of duty to their fellow man. Why would you expect anything less when it is a neighbor who is in danger?
Perhaps what makes me most doubtful about the abduction story is the lack of "fleshing out" of details… Perhaps the police have their reasons for keeping such details to themselves, but I can't imagine what they might be.
LE owes us no explanation of the events of that night. Their job is to do what they can to bring Elizabeth home and to successfully prosecute her abductor and his accomplices. We are all going to have to be patient. Hopefully it will all make sense when we find out the details. There are many good reasons for them to be tight lipped about their investigation. Jeanne Boylan found that peace of mind, maybe we will to.
I think it is odd that at least one of these young girls didn't show some sort of emotion while this was going on. Maybe Elizabeth did show something, and we just haven't been told about it. If she was too afraid to scream, I still would expect her to at least shed a few tears and even make some sort of sobbing noise, if, as the police theory goes, she was "roughly" led down the stairs. The idea that both girls were quiet and obedient as zombies is just very weird.
I have always wondered if what the girls thought was a "small black handgun" was really what Mary K. thought it was. Seems it would have been easy to convince them in the dark that he was armed, even if he really wasn't. However, if we believe that Mary K. really told police she saw a small black handgun, it almost doesn't matter, since the effect was the same whether it was real or not--the effect was, a threat of harm.
Even if Elizabeth was warned not to make any noise, how would the man really feel sure she wouldn't? It seems that he would have taken more precaution on this than he reportedly did. The reports say Elizabeth "yelped" when she either skinned her knee or stubbed her toe. If she's the kind of person who couldn't restrain herself from making a very clear noise on that small provocation, how could she be so stoic as to be absolutely quiet in the face of such terror as a man dragging her off?
As for the parents' room, I seem to remember that it was actually a bathroom that opened onto the hall, and if you entered the parents' room from the hall, you'd have to go through the bathroom. I never found the Newsweek diagram of the house easy to use. I would bet that the hallway depicted in it looks shorter than it really is; this was a million-dollar home.
I can't figure out why it seems that the police don't know how Elizabeth and the man left the house. Even when a home-security system is not on alarm, I think there will still be a computer record showing any wired door being opened. Maybe the police do know this and just aren't telling.
As for the neighbors, it sounds like they behaved the way most neighbors would--rushing to the house, running around the neighborhood, etc. I don't think they'd have felt threatened physically, since there were a lot of them, and reportedly only one missing girl and one man. As Sandude said, people have been known to put themselves in harm's way to help others in an emergency. I'm sure many of them had their adrenalin up by then. I don't believe that all the neighbors could have been in on any big scheme to hide something.
There is one neighbor I wish I knew more about--Sue Ann Adams. She, too, was reportedly a victim of a crime by Ricci. She was reported to have been the first neighbor to get over to the Smarts' after the alarm was raised. (From the fairly recent article in which the mistakes in scene contamination are admitted by the police, who vow to train their officers better.) Ed Smart referred her to Ricci when she needed a contractor in about April, 2001. A shirt from Sue Ann Adams' home was taken from Ricci's things in a consensual search by police, on June 19. (This is in the affidavit connected to the indictment of Ricci for burglary of Sue Ann's home.)
Ed Smart says he felt safe in the neighborhood, yet he was so aware of the Beesley kidnap attempt 10 yrs before, that he immediately went to the Beesleys and said "check your kids."
There is a small article by Bill Bickel at about.com, in which he wonders about the full relationship between Ed Smart and Richard Ricci. I'm not suggesting anything sexual, but I do wonder how well these men knew each other. So does Bickel.
http://crime.about.com/library/weekly/aa090302a.htm