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Edmonds, or someone else, was blackmailing the Smarts about the gay business, they got sick of paying, saw a kidnapping/ransom as the next step. ..... Could be. And maybe the Smarts ran out of money. NE story says Smarts were about to sell their large home and move the entire family into a small ski cabin in the mountains.

I feel the noose beginning to tighten, but Elizabeth may not be in it. Motivations. Perps. Rationale. Besides that extraordinary statement that the Smarts were moving to a ski cabin, the NE article also mentioned that Elizabeth was very cautious, never walked around neighborhood without her sister. Perhaps she had been threatened before. Maybe recently.

Was "ski cabin" on property that would become or already was a ski resort? Lots of money in that kind of venture. Was Ed Smart part of some real estate consortium? Were all of his partners above board? Was he?

Other peculiar piece of the puzzle: Mary Kathrine can read the Polo logo on the perp's shirt...and we're supposed to believe she didn't see his face?

Uncle's bizarre statement on Larry King that "this is a beautiful story." (Sounds like he's president of the SLC chapter of NAMBLA.)

Every time she's interviewed, Lois Smart keeps talking TO Elizabeth... Lois may know who has her daughter. Lois may know why the girl was taken. And Lois truly cannot stand her husband...just notice the way she looks at him.

OK. So Ed Smart was losing money. Perhaps in his legitimate business, perhaps also in some shady business. Internat porn sales? Heroin sales? Gay sex prostitution ring that was discovered by blackmailer?

Who is blackmailer?

Edmund worked for Smart as male model or prostitute and Smart owed him money?

Dark-complected guy with Scottish golf cap and hairy hands/arms shows up in the house. Maybe not altogether a surprise? Maybe not altogether a stranger? Is the mob muscling in on the Net porn business? Am I raciallly profiling? Would they pass up the chance to blackmail a guy like Ed Smart who has so much to lose, financially and in terms of reputation in his rather straight-laced community?

Ed Smart remodels houses for at least part of his living. He owed contractor tons of money? Contractor was threatening to take the house, took daughter instead? Said he'd bring her back when Smart pays up? Ed Smart gets hysterical and calls police after two hours of consulting with neighbors and obliterating fingerprints.

Cops release no sketch. Why should they? They already know who they're looking for. But perp is truly ticked that Smart called the cops...now he may actually kill the girl. Or cause her death "accidentally." Or spirit her away, out of the country. Profiling again: Is dark-skinned guy Arabic? A Lebanese contractor? Or Tunisian? Iranian? Did he wrap LLiz in a burqa-type veil, give/sell her to an oil prince? (I'm getting ahead of the National Enquirer, but somebody has to do it.)

Lois Smart continues to hate her husband. She may break stride with him and give the game away. I'm certain she would if she believed it would bring back Elizabeth. But breaking stride means disobeying her church, I think, and all of her values.

Living in a Mormon community is wonderful when things go right, but what about when things fall apart at the seams? What if Ed Smart turns out to be a lying, filthy perverted creep? What happens to Lois? Will your neighbors ostracize you? Your friends turn their backs? The humiliation and embarrassment Lois Smart is going through must be horrendous on top of her grief about losing her daughter. What a rotten position she's in, with Elizabeth missing and all of her other children to protect. Protect from what? Death? Their father? The truth? Even MORE shame and embarrassment? Phew!

There are some other things to factor in here. Despite protestations to the press, I don't think the family is as close as they pretend to be. Tom Smart, who has appeared suspicious to me from the start with his erratic hyperactivity and his bizarre statements, may be the blackmailer. Tom said today he lives 25 miles out of town...while all the others are right near grandpa's house. It has been reported that Tom is not an observant Mormon, a backslider, if you will. His wife Heidi always looks nervous and extremely frightened on camera.

Also, I thought the family were lifelong residents of SLC. Tom said today they moved there when he was 13, so they're not exactly the tightest insiders--not as tight as the Francoms, whose roots go all the way back. A Francom ancestor was Brigham Young's bodyguard.

Some interesting family dynamics going on here. Tom draws Ed into his perversions, then blackmails him because he himself is into the Mob for gambling debts? Tom, as a photog for Deseret, has an inside track with sports teams.

There is a whole lot going on here behind the scenes. Enough to start a Salt Lake City version of the old soap opera "Dallas".

May you never be in the position of having a child abducted. The Smarts are having their lives ripped apart with the loss of a child, and they have thrown open everything to investigators. And quite frankly some of your statements are slanderous. Head of the SLC chapter of NAMBLA???

And there is nothing wrong with Lois Smart talking to her daughter. She is hoping against hope that her daughter is alive and can hear her, and she is doing what any mother would do, tell her that she loves her, to pray, and remember that the Lord is with her.

As far as having a cabin goes, my family has a cabin, and we are far from wealthy. It is actually a log home that my father and brothers built. They've been offered 4-5 times what it cost to build, but won't sell. It is nice to have somewhere to escape from the everyday pressures of life. I don't see anything nefarious in that desire. As far as living in a ski cabin, there are very nice expensive cabins just up the canyons from SLC, which are actually like homes, and the areas have all the amenities of small cities. I haven't heard that the Smarts were planning to move to a ski cabin, do you have a source?

As far as Lois Smart hating her husband, I don't see that. She appears at press conferences and is condemned for not looking sad enough, she doesn't appear and is condemned for hiding something.

And believe you me, if (heaven forbid) Ed Smart or whomever turns out to have anything to do with this abduction, Lois Smart will NOT be ostracized. We do not punish people for the sins of others.