Utah Girl Kidnapped From Room At Gunpoint

sandiego.com ^ | June 5, 2002 | ap

[let freedom sing]

Parents Were Asleep In Bedroom

SALT LAKE CITY -- A gunman forced his way into a house and abducted a 14-year-old girl Wednesday while her parents slept in their bedroom, police said.

Police said the man also threatened Elizabeth Smart's 9-year-old sister and said he would harm the teen if her sister said anything. The two girls share a bedroom in the home in the affluent Federal Heights neighborhood.

Her sister waited several hours before alerting her parents because of the threat, said Duane Baird, a Salt Lake City police spokesman.

"A two-hour window gives anyone the opportunity to be away from this area," Baird said.

Searchers began looking for clues before dawn Wednesday.

Elizabeth was abducted at about 2 a.m. on June 5, 2002. The abductor is described as a white male, with dark hair and wearing a white jacket and a white baseball cap. Elizabeth was wearing red pajamas, and he let her take a pair of shoes, police said.

The sister told police that the soft-spoken man got into the house by forcing open a window and had a small black handgun.

cont. here

[let freedom sing]

copy cat crimes?

pretty sick, angry people-- really need more attention to detail-- we can know why they do it, but that doesn't help much.

[Bonaparte]

"How do they know this [that he didn't know his way around house]?"

Since he had to go off clean pathways to enter by the window, his shoes were probably dirty and left a tale of meanderings on the carpet/floors. It's a large, irregularly shaped house with 8 people living in it. Even if he'd been in there before, possibly as one of the workman doing the remodeling, he might still get lost, especially in the dark.

[Rebelbase]

Optimist. /sarcasm.

[Mo1]

Wow, good catch. Any SLC FReepers here with access to local reports?

The other thing I am wondering .. this is an upscale neighborhood

Did they have an alarm and if so did they normally turn it on?? Because if the they .. why didn't the alarm go off when the guy broke into the house??

[Bonaparte]

"He took her out of the house in her pj's, so he didn't intend that she would live very long."

Consider how long he would have had to stay there while Elizabeth changed clothes. Could be he was just wanted to get out of there fast, before one or both of the girls broke down and started making noise. He may have had a change of clothes for her in a nearby vehicle.

Or you may be right.

[wheezer]

This entails that the big sister left voluntarily with someone she knew - ie, it was planned. I don't believe it was planned because if it were the big sister would not have left in her pj's.

That's what I think, and especially so if the family was planning an out of town move.

IMHO, little sis kept her agreement to give a two hour head start. Slipped up when she said she got a "good look" and changed to "not too good a look". Little sis isn't ready to rat out big sis just yet...who knows, maybe she thinks the boyfriend is cute.

A white jacket and hat for a nightime break in?....puh-leeeze!

[Mo1]

(and praying that it's) the ran-away with boyfriend scenario

So am I because the other scenarios don't look good

[Bonaparte]

"I can't understand why so many of you state that the perp had to go through the house in order to find the girl."

I think I can help you out with that. The girls didn't sleep in the kitchen and, as another more detailed article posted on this thread has made clear, the intruder came through a kitchen window.

No, no. No need to thank me...

[texasbluebell]

...there have been quite a few younger girls disappearing out west. Serial killer maybe?

I heard something chilling once. That there are from 40 to 50 serial killers at any one time in the US! Horrors...

[BJClinton]

Somebody else on this thread pointed out that they probably have it off when they're at home. I have an alarm that came with the house and I only use it when on vacation. I prefer the Glock and Remmington home security system.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

This entails that the big sister left voluntarily with someone she knew - ie, it was planned.

I have no strong opinion on this. I wouldn't have thought it possible until a few years ago, but know better now. I am surprised that nobody has referenced the disappearance and murder in Connecticut a couple of weeks ago. A 13 year old girl disappeared, and her body was discovered. It turns out that she had been meeting men in online chat rooms, and meeting them for various kinds of kinky sex. It was like the 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar' story, but with a 13 year old, not Diane Keaton. (That story was based on a true story itself.)

[mystery-ak]

Kids lie....but I don't think a child, watching her parents becoming more and more hysterical as time passes would put her parents through that....but what do I know!

[caa26]

I think the problem is too many parents are intersted in their own activities and use the computer, television, etc..., as a virtual babysitter. And, then some parents think using a software package to block out certain websites and areas of the internet is enough protection.

Never underestimate the intelligence of kids navigating on the computer, and the lengths pedophiles will go to stalk out kids on the internet.

[vaudine]

Workers are practically invisible on some jobs. I remember a case a couple of years ago of abduction of a girl by a construction worker who was NOT at her home but next door, and had been watching her.They caught him after FBI profiling, but I think the girl had been murdered.

vaudine