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Thanks, RC!!

All I know is that I've always heard that the hair on your head grows approximately a half inch per month--a little more in the warm weather. I assume any other hair would grow at the same rate. Let's see... it's been about 9 calendar months. So if his beard is much more than 4 1/2 inches long, I'd say he already had at least a little of it as of the morning she disappeared.

I read every article I could find, many with the help of freepers who would post them faithfully on whatever current thread there was, and I never heard that Mary C. was ever said to have negated the possibility that the intruder had facial hair. I guess the very best source of info as to whether "Emmanuel" had a beard at the time of the abduction would be Angela Smart, who saw him at Kinko's on that very day, as she was picking up flyers she'd had printed showing Elizabeth's picture.

I do have some memory that at one point it seemed that the Smarts, in an interview, hinted that she might have said the abductor had a beard or wore a mask. This oblique comment fired up some extended "discussions" on the threads.

Our problem is that we have been told very, very little about what Mary C. really said.

If this matter does come to trial, Mary Catherine's statements to police, which I am sure were recorded, will be revealed in the trial--IF she testifies. I'm sure they will be starting up the grand jury proceedings, also, and she will testify there. There might be a transcript of that, which I'm sure media people will try to get. Then again, there might not be one. Amazingly, in some places, grand jury testimony is not recorded! I believe that in those places, it is not recorded b/c the prosecution wants to hamstring a defense as much as possible. See, suppose Mary C. testifies in the grand jury. Since Emmanuel will obviously be the grand jury's target, his lawyer will want to get her testimony. But the defense lawyer is not allowed in the grand jury. He will move to get a transcript of her testimony. Under federal rules (on which many states' rules are modeled), the defense lawyer couldn't get a copy of the witness' grand jury testimony until AFTER the witness has testified at the defendant's trial. They take a break between direct examination and cross examination to give the defense lawyer time to read the grand jury testimony.