Nothing pertinent to case was found on them, police say
Posted on 06/20/2002 11:26:35 PM PDT by stlnative
Smarts' computers returned
Nothing pertinent to case was found on them, police say
By Derek Jensen
Deseret News staff writer
Police have finished examining three personal computers taken from the Federal Heights home of Elizabeth Smart following the 14-year-old's abduction more than two weeks ago. Printable poster:
The three computers from the Smart home were part of 12 computers seized by investigators in the days following Elizabeth's abduction June 5.
Blue balloons and ribbons line Virginia Street leading up to the Smart family's house. Youths from two LDS wards hung the decorations.
Jeremy Harmon, Deseret News
Most of the remaining nine computers have already been returned, but at daily press briefing Thursday morning Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse refused to say which family members were asked to surrender their computers.
Dinse refused to say what investigators found on the computers but did say that nothing on the computers has been linked to Elizabeth's kidnapping.
"We found nothing on the computers that creates a nexus to this crime," Dinse said.
With the search for Elizabeth now in its 16th day, police say they have several bits of evidence but nothing to tie those pieces together. Dinse admitted Thursday investigators were no closer to solving the case than they were Wednesday but added, "We may be closer than two weeks ago."
"We don't have anything that's leading us in one particular direction," Salt Lake Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
Police continue to keep a lid on most of what they know. Wednesday, they released new details that Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister Mary Katherine feigned sleep to avoid detection by the kidnapper and that Mary Katherine saw the burglar in another part of the house when she first tried to report the abduction to her parents.
"We are still evaluating what we want to go out in front of the media," Dinse said. "These things have some potential within the investigation."
Here are some examples:
Additional information:
Web sites:
• Police won't explain how Mary Katherine got a good enough look at her sister's abductor to be able to describe his pants, shirt, jacket, hair on his hands and hat without seeing his face. "She saw the individual," Dinse said. "How good a look she got at his face we are not clarifying.
"The fact that we have not put out a composite is a specific reason on our part, and I'd rather not discuss that in the media," Dinse added. "We are not putting out a composite, and we are not clarifying why we are not putting out a composite."
• Police said Mary Katherine heard the kidnapper threaten Elizabeth's life but won't clarify whether she recognized his voice.
• When Mary Katherine first went to tell her parents of Elizabeth's abduction, she saw the kidnapper with her sister in another part of the house. Police, however, won't identify that location in the house.
• Forensic evidence, including items from Elizabeth and other members of the Smart family, has been collected and sent away for analysis. Dinse, however, would not say what any of the tests have found so far.
The kidnapper still hasn't contacted police, although Dinse said he was aware of a ransom request Tuesday that was e-mailed to police. Dinse, however, said the note came after the deadline for meeting the ransom. Dinse said the note was not taken very seriously but is being investigated.
Elizabeth's family continued to express its belief Thursday that the 14-year-old is still alive.
Thursday, Smart family members expressed their gratitude with a full-page newspaper advertisement that featured a painting of Mary Katherine and Elizabeth hand-in-hand with a message of gratitude below.
"Words cannot express the feeling in our hearts," the advertisement reads. "The Family wants to express our deepest gratitude to every individual, volunteer, search group, business, service provider, community, responsible journalist and law enforcement agency . . . the list is overwhelming.
"Each person who has and continues to search, hope and pray for Elizabeth's safe return will always be a part of our human family.
"Please continue the heightened awareness to bring Elizabeth and other missing children home."
Police Thursday morning said they had pulled off some of the 100 detectives from agencies outside of the FBI and Salt Lake police who'd been working the case.
"The magnitude of the number of leads that come in has slowed down," Atkinson said.
The volunteer search effort has also shifted into local communities. Former Salt Lake Mayor Ted Wilson, a search organizer, relayed the motto of "everyone a searcher."
Besides organized community searches, family members are asking everyone to look for Elizabeth during their daily activities such as jogging, walking dogs or talking with neighbors, Wilson said.
"The big break in this case may come from someone out there just seeing something unusual," Wilson said.
Organized searches by search and rescue teams and law enforcement officials are also planned Saturday in Weber County. Police in Juab County have also searched their communities, Wilson said. Anyone interested in joining a search party or helping can go to www.elizabethsmart.com. The Web site is receiving about 2 million hits a day, Elizabeth's uncle David Smart said. People can also send search information and inquiries via fax at 801-521-8881.
About 60 youth group members from Elizabeth Smart's Arlington Hills LDS Ward and the neighboring Federal Heights Ward hung blue balloons and blue ribbons along Virginia Street leading up to the Smart house Wednesday night.
Charlene Holmstrom, Elizabeth's LDS Young Women's president, said the youth groups meet every Wednesday for an activity and this week they wanted to do something for Elizabeth. They wanted to fly balloons to let the Smart family know they are loved and to encourage neighbors to keep up the search effort.
"We want to keep her in the forefront," Holmstrom said.
Blue is Elizabeth's favorite color, and blue ribbons have been worn by the Smart family and supporters during the two-week search. Holmstrom hopes the next time blue balloons are displayed it's for a celebration.
"When Elizabeth comes home, there's going to be more balloons," she said, fighting back tears. "We'll buy every one in Utah and let them go so the entire state can see she's home."
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ Police have given polygraphs exams to members of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart's family as well as people not in the family, but continue to refuse to comment on the test results, Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said Thursday.
Police also have searched the hard drives of 12 computers, Dinse said. Most of the computers have been returned.
"We have found nothing on computers that creates a nexus to this crime," Dinse said. "There certainly are questions and they have been asked and responded to .... We are mostly done with the computers."
Much of Thursday's news briefing centered on reporters' questions about the computers. Later, Salt Lake City Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said police had heard that the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer's Friday edition would report on the Smart family and what may have been found in the computers.
Atkinson also said police would no longer hold daily briefings until there is a major development in the case.
Sixteen days into the investigation of Elizabeth's abduction, police say they still have no suspect. The girl reportedly was taken from her bedroom at gunpoint in the early hours of June 5. The only witness was her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine.
This week the police account of Elizabeth's kidnapping changed.
Police say Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, who was sleeping in the same bed, feigned sleep during the abduction and soon after tried to go to her parent's bedroom to alert them.
But instead Mary Katherine Smart saw that the kidnapper was still in the home and returned to her room. She didn't tell her parents for two hours, police said.
Police had initially reported, based on secondhand accounts, that Mary Katherine had been threatened by the kidnapper to keep quiet about the abduction.
Police are looking for a white man, 30 to 40 years old, with dark hair and hair on his arms and back of his hands. He was wearing tan pants, dark shoes, lighter jacket and a Scottish-style golf hat. He held a small handgun.
 Bret Michael Edmunds
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Police have repeatedly said they don't consider Edmunds a suspect, but may have seen something in the Federal Heights neighborhood that would help the investigation.
Detective Lt. Cory Lyman, who is heading the city police task force on the case, said the 30-member task force has at times swelled to 100 investigators.
That doesn't take into account the number of investigators from other agencies in Utah and other states. "It's been really impressive," Lyman said.
Police have received a total of 8,000 to 10,000 leads, of which 1,300 warranted follow-up. Up to 900 of those leads have been cleared and about 400 remain to be looked at, police said.
Dinse also said the investigation "is maybe closer than two weeks ago" to being solved.
The television show "America's Most Wanted" on Wednesday forwarded to Salt Lake City what appeared to be a ransom note, program spokesman Avery Mann said Thursday.
Mann said the e-mail was sent Saturday night, but not to the proper tip line. Instead, it went to a site used for live chats with an operator. It was discovered during a regular check of the show's Web site, which Mann said are done to make sure tips arrive where they are supposed to.
"We became aware of it yesterday afternoon, and immediately turned it over," Mann said Thursday.
The note demanded a $50,000 payment by June 17 to be dropped off at the "Morman" temple, Mann said. "We could immediately tell it was a hoax," he said.
"It appears it was sent by someone who did not have clear knowledge of the case," said police spokesman Dwayne Baird. "It's like our psychics. They call up and give us everything we've read in the papers. We're literally getting a ton of that kind of stuff."
FBI agents have looked at other kidnappings, including one that ended with the suspect's suicide in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and two teens taken from the same apartment complex in Oregon, said special agent Dan Roberts.
But no firm theories have emerged. Elizabeth's abduction "could be a burglary gone wrong, a peeping Tom that got caught," Roberts said.
The community is offering a $250,000 reward for Elizabeth's safe return.
"Our families believe in the depths of our hearts that Elizabeth is alive and we pray for her safe return," said Elizabeth's uncle, Tom Smart, reading a statement from the family.
"Please let us not lose sight of bringing Elizabeth home," he said.
She is very spiritual:
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Hobbies:
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The search for a transient wanted for questioning in connection with her disappearance continued. But authorities were at pains to point out that he was wanted for questioning "as a witness" not as a suspect.
Police say Bret Michael Edmunds, 26, is a potential witness because he knew the neighborhood and did odd jobs in the area.
| Computers Examined In Elizabeth Search |
Friday, June 21, 2002 |
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Three computers belonging to the family of Elizabeth Smart were among 12 examined and analyzed by authorities investigating the 14-year-old's disappearance, police said Thursday. In addition, polygraph tests have been given to those "inside and outside" Elizabeth's family and other investigative tactics are being used, Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said at a news conference. However, police have been unable to identify a suspect in Elizabeth's June 5 disappearance from her Federal Heights home, and no one, including her family members, has been ruled out, he said. Dinse sought to explain contradictory information about the sequence of telephone calls made to police, family members and neighbors the night Elizabeth vanished. He also said that contrary to a police watch log that said a member of the Smart family had called neighbors before alerting police, authorities now believe the first call was to the Salt Lake Police Department. Dinse did not explain how the discrepancy had been resolved. "We believe the first call was to the police at 4:01," he said. "We believe we have satisfied our questions regarding that." A gunman allegedly abducted Elizabeth between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. that morning from the room where she was sleeping with her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine. Police said earlier this week the younger girl pretended to be asleep while her sister was taken, then went to alert her parents. She retreated after seeing the man in a hallway, and emerged two hours later when she felt it was safe, police said. The Deseret News also has reported that Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, called his brother Tom Smart at 3:30 a.m. But the men's sister, Cynthia Smart-Owens, said after the news conference that Tom Smart must have been mistaken about the time. Even if the family did call others first, it doesn't particularly bother authorities, said Dan Roberts, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Salt Lake office. "This is such an unusual type of crime . . . for them to naturally turn to friends and neighbors for guidance and assistance in the middle of the night, I don't think that is unusual." As for the computers, Dinse said authorities were searching for indications Elizabeth had been talking to anyone online or receiving e-mails from anyone. He would not say what was found on the hard drives, but emphasized that "we have found nothing on the computers that creates a nexus to this crime. There certainly were questions, and those questions have been asked and responded to." Two personal computers and one with business material on it were among those turned over by the Smart family at police request, Dinse said, and all three now have been returned. He did not say who owned the other nine computers, but said "we are mostly done with [them]." The National Enquirer tabloid newspaper is expected to publish a story today about the contents of the computer, said Det. Dwayne Baird. Police have described the purported kidnapper as a white man, 30 to 40 years old, with dark hair and hair on his arms and backs of his hands. He was wearing tan pants, dark shoes, lighter jacket and a Scottish-style golf hat and carried a handgun. Police also still are looking for Bret Michael Edmunds, 26, who they say may have seen something in the neighborhood that could help the investigation. Edmunds is not considered a suspect, police stressed. Other aspects of the investigation have involved driving Mary Katherine around the Smart neighborhood in hopes of finding a route the two sisters took when they went jogging the night before the abduction, Dinse said. Forensic evidence is being analyzed in state and federal labs, including some items belonging to family members and Elizabeth, and others taken for purposes of elimination in case material is found for comparisons. Roberts said investigators have looked at other kidnapping cases in Idaho Falls and Oregon, but no link between those cases and Elizabeth's abduction has been found. Dinse told The Associated Press that only one ransom request had been received -- an e-mail forwarded to police from "America's Most Wanted." The e-mail demanded that $50,000 be dropped off at the "Morman" temple by June 17. Police received the e-mail after that date, Dinse said, and the writer did not follow up. "We're not taking that seriously. We haven't heard anything else on it." He said authorities are still following up on leads, some of them "very promising." But, said Baird, daily news briefings will be discontinued until there is a major development in the case. "The investigation is a critical part of what we're doing to solve this case, and get her home and safe, we hope," Dinse said. "We're not telling you a lot of things we're doing . . . we're doing that purposefully, to protect that investigation." _________ Tribune reporter Linda Fantin contributed to this report |
Could you please add me to your ping list? Thanks.
The National Enquirer alleges this in the latest issue to hit the stands today.
Uh, oh. Like odd jobs at the Smart house for instance???
QUESTION: Is there anything on the computers that is troubling, perhaps information deleted from the computers, files deleted, in the last two weeks?
ROBERTS: That's probably something the chief can answer better than I. I am not sure about that.
DINSE: To the best of my knowledge, we have found nothing that appeared to be deleted.
QUESTION: Have you found anything illegal?
DINSE: We will take five more questions, and then we will have to break this off.
QUESTION: Have you found anything illegal on those computers?
DINSE: Not to my knowledge.
QUESTION: Has there been any red flags from Elizabeth's school or the potential high school, like maybe a possible teacher? We know that Elizabeth was active in track; she was being recruited to be on the track team at the local high school. Have any of those teachers, male teachers, have they been looked at, or are there any suspects from the school or here at the church?
DINSE: We have looked at all of those leads that have come in regarding the school, church and other locations. And as of right now, we have not focused in on any suspect as a result of that.
QUESTION: Chief, there is word that there is a tabloid report that's due out tomorrow from one of the major tabloid magazines in America that really outlines some pretty salacious material having to do with the family and perhaps inappropriate behavior. Could you characterize if that's appropriate in this case, if it has anything to do with case or if it's irresponsible?
DINSE: I am aware and I have heard of that publication and what -- that they are going to come out with some information. I have not seen it. I have not specifically seen the information that they are going to publish. I have been told something about it, and at this time I am not in a position to comment on it. I can only reiterate that the family has been very supportive of us. They have done everything that we have asked them to do. And they have been very candid with us. And at this point, that's really all I can say and comment on.
Why do you say that?
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