Replies

I'd say he already had at least a little of it as of the morning she disappeared.

I believe he did shave his beard prior to the kidnap.

Brian David Mitchell, aka Emmanuel, walks in front of ZCMI Mall on Main Street in Salt Lake City in the spring of 2002. Mitchell is being held in connection with the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart last June. Mitchell, 49, who eventually roamed the streets as an itinerant preacher, grew up in Salt Lake City, the third child in a family of six.(AP Photo/Brian Johnson)

Brian Mitchell -- "Emmanuel", and Elizabeth may have been at a party in Salt Lake City. (My Note: I believe this is the photo taken at China Blue in late August/early September 2002.)

Notice in the first photo (spring 2002) the beard is much longer than in the second photo (late August/early September 2002). I believe he shaved his beard prior to abducting Elizabeth. He then retreated to the hills, allowed for his beard to grow back, and then descended from the hills in early August, 2002.

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.

True. BTW, I believe you're talking about Angela Dumke, Elizabeth's aunt.

Good thoughts. The beard, as seen in the two different pictures, seems to bear out your theory of his having shaved it around the time of the abduction.

However, remember Angela saw him at the Kinko's just hours after Elizabeth disappeared. On TV, she didn't say one way or the other, whether the man she saw had a beard.

He may have had the beard at the time he entered the house, then have shaved it immediately upon getting to his hiding place (with Elizabeth.) That would fit in with what a lot of criminals do, anyway--change their appearance directly after the crime.

In spite of our many assumptions about what Mary C. said, we don't really KNOW exactly what she said. There is nothing to definitively tell us that Mary C. described the man as clean-shaven--or that she described him as bearded, for that matter. We've never heard it straight from her--only distorted, 2nd and 3rd and probably 4th hand reports.