Posted on 06/05/2002 12:27:43 PM PDT by let freedom sing
Parents Were Asleep In Bedroom
SALT LAKE CITY -- A gunman forced his way into a house and abducted a 14-year-old girl Wednesday while her parents slept in their bedroom, police said.
Police said the man also threatened Elizabeth Smart's 9-year-old sister and said he would harm the teen if her sister said anything. The two girls share a bedroom in the home in the affluent Federal Heights neighborhood.
Her sister waited several hours before alerting her parents because of the threat, said Duane Baird, a Salt Lake City police spokesman.
"A two-hour window gives anyone the opportunity to be away from this area," Baird said.
Searchers began looking for clues before dawn Wednesday.
Elizabeth was abducted at about 2 a.m. on June 5, 2002. The abductor is described as a white male, with dark hair and wearing a white jacket and a white baseball cap. Elizabeth was wearing red pajamas, and he let her take a pair of shoes, police said.
The sister told police that the soft-spoken man got into the house by forcing open a window and had a small black handgun.
A few posters here are being awfully hard on a traumatized 9 year old girl. I'm sure she is confused, in shock, and traumatized. I remember my night terrors very well at that age and the temporary paralysis I had. I wanted to call out, but my mouth wouldnt open. If this girls sister is dead, how can this poor child ever learn to live with herself, knowing if she had spoken a little sooner, her sister might still be alive. What a terrible burden for a young girl. Paralysis during shock or trauma is a a common response.
Frankly, I don't care what the circumstances are. GET HER BACK HOME to her family, then later we can figure out if someone is lying. I don't think a sweet, harp playing, studious, smart Mormon girl in a loving home would run away with her boyfriend in the middle of the night in her red pajamas. But that's just me.
Where is the freaking outrage on these threads? Has the stealing and raping of our children become so common that no one cares any more? I see more outrage over the possible lie of a 9 year old and the possible running away of a 14 year old, than I see for the possible evil monster who stole this baby from her parents. He probably raped her again and again in every way imaginable, then he strangled her or stabbed her. She's dead in a field or ditch right now with ants crawling all over her. There are some heartless people here some times. I dont get it.
I love dogs-- and I know the pain of dog-bite.
5.56mm
I hate to drag on, but I want to give an example of what panic can do to a kid. When I was in fourth grade, I was at a public school at the time (I'm homeschooled now), my dad was late picking me up. I panicked and thought I had been forgotten. Reason had passed me by so much that when I saw his car and it was empty (he was looking for me), rather than stay and wait as I should have, I left and started to look for him. Luckily he was returning to the car at that time and all was well.
Anyway, that bit of history was hardly a traumatic situation, but because I panicked I simply couldn't reason. That's what happens with kids that age. This isn't a jab at adults or anything, but I think that adults forget how kids think and reason, or, in some cases, don't.
I pray that this little girl is ok and is able to escape or call for help.
while you may be right, you can't discount the hide-under-the-bed terror factor!!
Well said, and quite true.
it definitely comes under the "locking the barn door after the horse is gone" umbrella!!
That would be an amazing coincidence. But then, coincidences do happen. From the few pictures I've seen, it appears the house is at the end of a cul-de-sac. Seems that would make it highly unlikely that this was totally random. Might be more likely a worker on an adjacent house, or friend/guest of a neighbor. Strange that investigators think they left on foot rather than getting into a car out front, perhaps he parked on the street behind? My guess is that she was targeted.
Not trying to be a pollyanna, but I don't think we can yet rule out that she left willingly. Perhaps she arranged a staged act with a new boyfriend and didn't let her sister in on it. Teens can be ruthless and creative. Was she angry at her parents?
But still a stalker(either cyber or someone who took notice of her) seems the most likely theory. The only way I could picture it being random would be if someone saw her, say at the mall, followed her home, parked and observed movements, then came back later on a nearby street(assuming there was no backyard fence), and broke into the house.
Except perhaps for swingers with something to hide.
Believe me, Rotweillers bark, and can definetly change someone's mind quickly if they were thinking of breaking into a house.
I know, I have one.. :)
it might be that he is planning on walking her away from a parking area through some in-hospitable ground!!
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