[TonyS6]

What disturbs me most about the story is that I don't believe a word of it.

1) the sister suddenly remembers after 9 months that it is this particular person? Bet: the sister knew who it was and all along and promised not to say. Bottom line: it wasn't an abduction.

2) the Smart girl is in Salt Lake City with this guy and his "wife" in disguise. She never tried to make a break for it? This is understandable for a 6 year old, but for a 15 year old? As terrible as it sounds, it fits the data better than the story the family is spinning.

What should the police be investigating? That the Smart girl had met the "kidnapper" before hand and agreed to a "kidnapping." In actuality, she and the guy staged a fake kidnapping in order to run away from home.

Unfortunately, I don't think the Smarts or the police like this outcome and will repress it. It is always easier to execute a street person than for the Smarts to admit there was a problem at home.

I am glad the girl is safe. It just could be that her home environment is more stressful or dangerous than we are led to believe.

[Catspaw]

Your proof for these assertions are what? Do you have facts to back this up or are you giving us your own personal speculation?

[Goodman26]

She never tried to make a break for it? This is understandable for a 6 year old, but for a 15 year old? As terrible as it sounds, it fits the data better than the story the family is spinning.

Yeah. At the very least, the guy, Mitchell, has a defense that some on a jury might buy into.

[Marysecretary]

I'm not sure how to respond. There are a lot of unanswered questions here and I fervently hope and pray that the truth is revealed. Do you think she went with him willingly?

[Irene Adler]

"What should the police be investigating? That the Smart girl had met the "kidnapper" before hand and agreed to a "kidnapping." In actuality, she and the guy staged a fake kidnapping in order to run away from home. Unfortunately, I don't think the Smarts or the police like this outcome and will repress it. It is always easier to execute a street person than for the Smarts to admit there was a problem at home. I am glad the girl is safe. It just could be that her home environment is more stressful or dangerous than we are led to believe."

This sounds like nonsense to me, and I am sure it will not turn out to have been the case.

[carola]

The police blew it. Because of the location of the house on a secluded cul de sac it seemed a given early on that the kidnapper had been at the house at some previous time. How difficult is it to investigate every person who had been in that house in the last five years? Why wait until nine months later when the sister finally decides it might have been Emmanuel? Apparently Emmanuel was well known in the community and obviously a nut of some kind. Emmanuel's former wife was telling everyone yesterday that the man is a pedophile, yet he was ignored as a suspect until recently.

I agree that there are fishy aspects to this case, but the important thing is that Elizabeth is alive and with her family.

[AppyPappy]

A 14 year-old CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT agree to a kidnapping. At all. Ever. A 14 year-old can run away but if another person gets involved, it's a crime for that other person.

I repeat, she CANNOT CONSENT to what happened because of her age. She's isn't old enough to make the decision.

[MineralMan]

"What should the police be investigating? That the Smart girl had met the "kidnapper" before hand and agreed to a "kidnapping." In actuality, she and the guy staged a fake kidnapping in order to run away from home.
"

Pure, and poor speculation. Can you not, like the rest of us, wait to see what the story really is? Is it really necessary for you to inject your sordid little fantasy about what happened.

You do not know what happened. I do not know what happened. Elizabeth Smart _does_ know what happened, and I imagine we're going to find out, eventually.

Until then, your speculations are spurious.

[RecentConvert]

In actuality, she and the guy staged a fake kidnapping in order to run away from home.

You stage a kidnapping in order to run away?

If she wanted to run away, they would not have planned the way they did. They could have met at a given place at a given time to run away. Why risk it by entering a residence, armed, in the middle of the night with seven other people in the residence? Moreover there was nothing indicating that ES wanted to run away. Nothing.

Furthermore, had ES planned on running away she would have taken along with her any personal items she might have needed during her escapade, but no personal items were missing.

The NYT reported back in June 2002 MK hearing Elizabeth ask the abductor what he (the abductor) intented to do with her. The abductor responded (according to MK) that if she kept quite he intended to held her captive. Not an indication of willingly running away!

And, MK reported that the abductor told ES to wear her snickers prior to leaving the premises. Again, another indication that ES did not plan to run away, or she would have had those shoes, along with other items, handy.

From what I've read, there is nothing pointing out to a run-away and plenty of evidence that she was forced against her will. I've followed this case since June 5 and the above are some of the reasons why she was kidnapped. I'm not gonna go back and search all my notes to convince you.

[twigs]

This kind of stuff happens to adults; it's not at all surprising it would happen to a young protected child who had never had to worry a moment about her own security. I worked for a man once who was new to our office. In retrospect, I realize he was probably trained in psychological warfare (he had been in special ops). He first chose one person to use as a example of what would happen if anyone dared challenge anything he said (he dramatically fired her). She had been the rising star in the office and the nicest person there and within a short period, had most of the other people hating her. Then he had everyone scared for their jobs, then got "nice" and pretended like he would defend them against anyone who would threaten their job security. Just a couple of us saw what was happening and he got rid of us as soon as possible. If I had not witnessed it, I would never have believed it was possible.

We need to assume that Elizabeth was indeed traumatized into submission. The truth will come out in time and we will know what happened.