(Elizabeth) Smart family relying on faith

Every day for three months, Lois Smart took her children to visit her bedridden father. The kids, with a work ethic impressed upon them by their parents, kept the lawn mowed and planted a flower garden for their granddad.

Myron Francom died at his home in Holladay last Saturday, leaving nine children and 51 grandchildren. On Monday, granddaughter Elizabeth Smart played the harp at his funeral. She played "Silent Night" because Christmas, when all his large clan gathered together, was her grandfather's favorite time, and that was his favorite tune.

Two nights later, a gunman crept into Elizabeth's bedroom and took her from her devoted LDS family, so devastating Lois Smart that she now finds it nearly impossible to speak.

Thursday morning, Lois Smart appeared on the "Today" show, uttered a few words and fell apart.

"She didn't even have time to mourn her father. She has a broken heart. She cries 24 hours a day," her brother Mark Francom said. "She said to me, 'Why would he pick my home?' "

Lois is the second-youngest of eight siblings; her husband Ed is the second-oldest of six. Their six children range in age from 3 to 15.

The Francoms have lived in the Salt Lake area for three generations. The Smarts' roots stretch back to Charles C. Rich, one of Brigham Young's 12 apostles. Rich ran the Winter Quarters camp in Nebraska in 1846-47 during the Mormons' pioneer trek to the Salt Lake Valley.

Lois and Ed Smart married 16 years ago, when both were in their late 20s, after meeting at a church function for young adults. "That's where the spark was kindled," said David Smart, one of Ed's brothers.

Ed Smart has built two businesses, Smart Realty and First National Mortgage. Described as "a real entrepreneur," Ed bought houses, fixed them up and sold them. He was just finishing up a remodeling project on his current Federal Heights home, listed with a $1.19 million asking price.

The Smart children are all musical. Elizabeth and her sister play the harp. Their brothers play piano and the banjo. Musical shows are always part of family gatherings. They had picnics in their grandfather's back yard and mountain weekends in the family cabin in Brighton, a Wasatch Mountain ski resort.

"They'd always be picked up from school. Not left. They were always well-trained, very responsible," Mark Francom said.

"That's the thing that's so diabolical. That man couldn't have picked a mother more devoted," Francom said. "Even he, in his perverted way, couldn't have imagined what this has done to her."

The Smart family wants to talk to reporters because they believe the attention will help their search. But they adamantly shield their children, particularly Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister who the abductor terrorized into two hours of silence before she went to her parents to tell them what had happened.

"We are trying not to talk to her about this, so the pressure's not on, so she's not rethinking this over and over, to help reduce the trauma," David Smart said.

The family's ties to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints run deep. On Wednesday, President Gordon B. Hinckley called Charles Smart, Elizabeth's grandfather.

"He said, 'Charles, we're sorry for your trouble. We remembered you in our prayers in the temple. Is there anything else we can do?' " Smart said.

President Hinckley's son, Richard, led the prayer meeting at the Federal Heights Ward Wednesday night. An estimated 300 people turned out. "I thought we would have 30 people," Charles Smart said. "A lot of people there weren't members of the church."

On Thursday, 100 LDS missionaries turned out to help search along with more than 1,000 other volunteers.

On Thursday, church leaders issued an unusual official statement that expressed concern for Elizabeth, called on her abductor to release her unharmed and "welcomed" church members to help with the search effort and bring comfort to the family.

Thirty hours after Elizabeth's disappearance, her family was out in force at the Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake City, headquarters of the massive volunteer search effort to find the 14-year-old girl.

A $250,000 reward for her safe return had been posted. Volunteers have spread out across the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains and the streets of Salt Lake City.

"It's about the most exciting testimony of civic volunteering and love," Charles Smart said.

"We are completely consumed by this," said Francom. "Every passing hour is just really hard to take."

Their thoughts turned to Elizabeth's abductor. "Many prayers have been given (in) hope he would soften his heart," Francom said. "That is what we hope will be his lesson. That she with her bright, beautiful smile will come back to us."

"We have our faith," added Laurie Francom Warner, one of Elizabeth's many cousins. "God is the most important person on our side."

So sad, I'm praying so hard for them. It is nice to see the outpouring of help from the community which already was a helpful group prior to a tragedy.

My prayers are with this fine Morman family. I truly feel their pain and suffering. I pray that Elizabeth will be found safe and sound.

Update:

Police say a milkman saw a suspicious car driving in the Smart's Federal Heights neighborhood early Monday morning. It was a gray, older model Nissan or Honda. The Utah license plate number given was 266 RDA. Police have been unable to find record of that plate. If you have any information on the car, call the tip line below.

Police call the volunteer sighting of a possible suspect in Emigration Canyon last night "just another lead."

It has been truly heartening to see the community pull together to find Elizabeth. I just read another article about out-of-state people who are coming to help in the search by profiling, etc and they say it is essential that the family, law enforcement, and community are involved when a child disappears. The chances of that child being found safe and alive increase enormously. One of the men said that some families are dysfunctional, the community is apathetic, and law enforcement at times can be less than enthusiastic. I can't imagine not wanting to help to find a missing child.

Thank you for the ping.

All day today Elizabeth has been on my heart. Prayers of the saints...

I just received this new info from Dog. We need to keep those prayers going. There are thousands of volunteers out looking for Elizabeth:

there is a break in the missing girl case....it seems a store has turned over a digital video security tape that shows a man matching the perp stealing a case of beer .....only 2 miles from the girls home and minutes after her kidnapping..

The guy had a WHITE baseball cap on the same kind as the kid sister claims the kidnapper had on...

Like the case of Alexis Patterson here in Milwaukee, the reality has to be realized, that these little girls are dead. Both cases are frightening and alarming. In the Utah case, some vulture deliberately decided he was going to have *that* young girl. Someone that bold and uncontrolable is going to get caught, too satanic and insane to stop. Next time, maybe some father will be able to shoot him and then grind his brains into the carpet. Then we'll get to hear about what a "good boy" he was, and the the neighbors will tell how quiet he was, and how society done him wrong.

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