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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.)
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