Press Release
SOURCE: Newsweek
Newsweek: Polygraph Clean for Dad of Elizabeth Smart, But Uncle's Results 'Inconclusive'
Uncle Pledges Full Cooperation; 'Tear Me Apart' If You Have To
NEW YORK, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Edward Smart, the father of missing Salt Lake City teen Elizabeth Smart, submitted to a polygraph test and came out clean, a well-placed law-enforcement source tells Newsweek. But polygraph results for other members of the prominent Mormon family -- including Elizabeth's uncle, Tom Smart -- were "inconclusive," Newsweek reports in the current issue.
This is the first time I heard " for OTHER MEMBERS of the prominent Mormon family, INCLUDING Elizabeth's uncle, Tom Smart..
In an interview with Newsweek, Tom Smart pledged full cooperation with investigators probing the disappearance of his 14-year-old niece who was snatched from her bed in the middle of the night June 5. It's all right, "tear me apart," if you have to, as long as it will help solve the mystery, he tells Newsweek.
Officials say they have no plans to give a second polygraph to Tom Smart,Why? whose wife, Heidi says "he was in bed with me all night" the evening Elizabeth disappeared, report Los Angeles Correspondent Andrew Murr and Chicago Correspondent Kevin Peraino in the June 24 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, June 17).
Police were increasingly scrutinizing the family last week. "We decided to take a hard look at the family," the law-enforcement source tells Newsweek. Salt Lake City police have repeatedly said they have no suspects yet, and that looking at the Smart clan is just "one among many theories," according to Capt. Scott Atkinson, the lead police spokesman. "The family has been very cooperative," Atkinson says.
Troubling questions remain about how a stranger could have broken into the Smarts' million-dollar home. Some investigators think the screen on the kitchen window where the kidnapper was alleged to have entered was cut from the inside, a sign that the break-in may have been staged. But law-enforcement sources close to the investigation tell Newsweek that they "have no evidence of that." Nonetheless, investigators are puzzled by how someone could have squeezed through the window, which is tall but not very wide and opens with a crank. "We're not so confident about how he got in," a source tells Newsweek.