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.
No dog?
And as stated above, when ever i kidnapped or commit a B&E in the middle of the night I like to wear my WHITE hat and WHITE jacket.
Now, the little girl may also really BE terrified at this moment, if her older sister is dead and she has been instructed by someone she knows to tell the police a certain story. Time will tell.
Well they did in the article posted above, but somehow forgot to say if he's black, hispanic, or white:
The alleged kidnapper is described as a man possibly in his 30s about 5 feet 8 inches, with dark hair and a medium build. Police say he was last seen wearing a tan or white jacket with a white cap. He was also carrying a dark handgun.
It could have happened exactly as described and I could be way off.
Workers can turn them off-- but sometimes they don't work. (the alarms and the workers... LOL)
Now, if you are working on a home doing a remodel, are you going to learn the layout of the home? I would say yes.
Uh-oh, red flag there. This is always something I've been careful about. I have read that you have to be extremely cautious when having construction work done. And I remember the Ramsey house in Boulder had been having tons of work done prior to Jon-Benet's death. That's what has always made me go easy on her parents.
Not really. If the house is for sale, they probably had an open house at some point.
Suspect looks at the house, sees the daughter's pictures on prominent display, and locates her her room as he takes the tour. He also has an opportunity to find a way into the house.
The chat room angle, if it plays out, also gives him a way to find out that she's moving, that she's having an open house, etc.
I really hope you're right, as it means she's probably alive and well. But I have a feeling she's a real kidnap victim, and probably no longer with us.
-archy-/-
I meant picture-- sketch. Lots of white males in Utah with dark hair, wearing white jackets and white baseball caps.
Search For Missing Girl Page with Real Video: Eyewitness News at Noon View Real Video - Click On Desired Bandwidth Update:
Police have issued a statewide alert to find a 14-year-old girl apparently kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in an affluent neighborhood early Wednesday. Elizabeth Smart was taken about 2 a.m. when a man, apparently a stranger, forced his way through a window in her Federal Heights home, police said. Her parents were asleep in their bedroom at the time.
Police also were searching nearby foothills Wednesday morning. Tracking dogs also are being used, said Duane Baird, a Salt Lake City Police Department spokesman. Police say the man threatened Smart's 9-year-old sister and said he would harm Elizabeth if her sister said anything. The two girls share a bedroom. The man let the girl take a pair of shoes with her, police said. The sister waited several hours before alerting her parents because of the threat, Baird said. Searchers were scouring the area east of downtown Wednesday morning, looking for clues. Neighbors began the search in the pre-dawn darkness. Police were called at about 4 a.m. The man is described as white, with dark hair and wearing a tan denim-type jacket, a white baseball cap. He is about 5 foot 8 inches tall and was soft-spoken, the sister told police. He gained access to the house by forcing open a window, Baird said. Police say there is no indication that the man knew the girl. Among the leads police are investigating are: _ The family's home is for sale and police are looking at a list of people who toured the house, Baird said. _ They also are looking at the family's computer to see if the girl had contacted strangers online. Meanwhile, at the girl's home, Wes Galloway, victims' advocate for the Salt Lake Police Department said, "This was not a purely random act. He'd have to know that she lived there." He cited U.S. Department of Justice Statistics that in child abductions, acquaintances are responsible for 27 percent of the kidnapping, strangers account for 24 percent and family members are most frequently suspects at 49 percent. There is nothing to indicate a family member had anything to do with the case, Galloway said. The 5-foot, 6-inch girl has blonde hair and was wearing red pajamas. She weighs about 105 pounds. The suspect didn't call the victim by name, nor did he appear to know his way around the house, the sister told police. He had a small black handgun. "A two-hour window gives anyone the opportunity to be away from this area," Baird said. "That does pose a problem." Baird said no other neighbors reported anything suspicious Tuesday night or early Wednesday. Police were at Bryant Intermediate School Wednesday morning interviewing Smart's friends. She is an eighth-grader at the school. Summer break is to start Friday. She was a quiet student who received good grades, said Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake School District spokesman. Her classmates were told of her kidnapping at the beginning of the school day when the principal, Frances Battle, announced at a talent assembly that a member of the school was missing, Olsen said. Smart is a very sweet girl, calm and grounded, said John Anderson, whose daughter Amanda is a close friend of Smart's. "Her parents were very protective of her," he said. The girl was not allowed to attend sleepovers at Amanda's house two blocks away. "They doted on her, loved her." Anderson left work early to check on his daughter. Amanda had been pulled out of the school assembly to be interviewed by police detectives. "I feel very vulnerable," he said. Richmond Tyrrell, one of the Smarts' neighbors, was going into the foothills to help with the search. "I just thought about their family and how terrible it was," he said about hearing the news at 8 a.m. Sissy Galbraith, a teen-ager who plays basketball with Smart on a Mormon church league team, described her friend as athletic and an avid basketball player. She was also heading to the foothills to search. "Everybody loves her. She loves her friends," Galbraith said. (Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
|
Her sister said that she saw the suspect very clearly, which leads police to believe that it was not a family friend.
From story number #2...
"She saw a little bit of what was going on but she couldn't see him real clearly," he said.
These are in direct opposition to each other. The younger sister is what gives me my current opinions of what actually happened. Not to mention that the time of the 'kidnapping' is reported differently in the stories.
That was my first concern, too, when I read the headline.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.