Volunteers Search for Missing Girl (all day. No leads yet. Police frustrated.)

AP ^ | 6/6/02 | staff

[ppaul]

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Hundreds of volunteer searchers fanned out Thursday morning, responding to a plea for help from a desperate father of a 14-year-old girl who authorities say was abducted from her bedroom. Frustrated police said they had no good leads.

Police with tracking dogs, helicopters and a new statewide emergency alert system searched for Elizabeth Smart, who vanished early Wednesday.

SALT LAKE CITY, 6-JUN-2002: 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted early June 5 from
her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, at gunpoint by an unknown intruder.

Police turned their focus toward following up on thousands of tips about her disappearance, but "a lot of things have not panned out," Police Chief Rick Dinse said late Thursday morning. "We don't feel we're any closer (to solving the case),"

As for suspects: "Nobody's been eliminated," he said.

A crowd of about 400 volunteers formed a long line to check in at a search command center at the Shriners Hospital for Children in the wealthy Federal Heights neighborhood, where the family lives.

Organizers said so many people showed up that they ran out of forms for searchers to sign. Teams of volunteers headed out to comb the surrounding neighborhoods and the Wasatch Mountain foothills.

A $250,000 reward for her safe return was offered. The reward was initially $10,000, but donations from the community boosted the fund, Dinse said.

Elizabeth's parents went on national TV networks Thursday to renew their plea for their daughter's return.

"This person, whoever he is, I don't think he knows what he's doing," Elizabeth's father, Edward, said on NBC's "Today" show. "She's just the sweetheart in our family and we just want her back."

Police believe the intruder forced open a window somewhere in the house -- though not in the bedroom where the girl and her 9-year-old sister slept -- at about 1 a.m. Wednesday. The parents and other children also were home and sleeping. The family has six children in all.

The assailant was described as white with dark hair and wearing a tan denim-type jacket and a white baseball cap. He is about 5 foot 8 inches tall and was soft-spoken, the sister told police.

Police said he brandished a small, black handgun and told the younger girl her sister would be harmed if the alarm was raised. Elizabeth was wearing red pajamas, and the man let her take a pair of shoes, police said.

No ransom demand had been received as of Thursday morning, police said.

The assailant didn't call the victim by name, and he didn't appear to know his way around the house, the sister told police. No neighbors reported anything suspicious.

Because of the man's threat, the younger girl waited several hours before alerting her parents, which would have given the abductor time to get well away from the area, police spokesman Dwayne Baird said.

"He could be in the Midwest, he could be Los Angeles or San Francisco," Baird said. "Sometimes they take them around the corner of the house, sometimes they take them overseas."

Police were investigating recently paroled sex offenders and contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A $10,000 reward was announced by Mayor Rocky Anderson.

"If the perpetrator is watching, we want him to know that he will be brought to justice. But that certainly he will fare better if he will demonstrate some semblance of compassion and return this young girl to her family," Anderson said.

The Smarts' home is for sale, listed for $1.19 million, and police were trying to interview potential buyers or contractors who may have had recent access to the house.

Baird said investigators were trying to determine whether any neighbors had surveillance cameras that might have caught anything on videotape. Officers also searched the family's computer to see if Elizabeth had had contact with any strangers online, but her father said she doesn't use the Internet.

"This was not a purely random act. He'd have to know that she lived there," said Wes Galloway, victims' advocate for Salt Lake City police.

On Wednesday, the search expanded hour by hour and by evening was considered a nationwide search.

Edward Smart said a neighboring family had been the target of a foiled kidnapping plot 10 years ago, so he ran to their home and told the parents, "Please go check your children."

The blond girl, who graduated from middle school Tuesday, is 5-foot, 6-inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds. Friends described her as sweet and shy and said she was an accomplished harp player and a good athlete. About 350 people attended a prayer vigil for her Wednesday night.

Elizabeth's disappearance was the first use of Utah's Emergency Alert System. It was created in April to quickly broadcast information about an abducted child.

Link to article HERE.

[Utah Girl]

From what I have gathered, the home did have an alarm system. The father (advice from the police) isn't saying whether or not the system was turned on.

And since I live in Utah, the mindset can be a bit different here. It is a safer place to live, mostly. But, things are changing, and I don't think we Utahns realize to the extent they have changed in the last five years. I have a friend who is a police detective and he just shudders at the number of young girls he sees just walking the streets of the town I live in, the girls are walking alone after 10PM. Unfortunately, we all have to be more aware that there are people out there who can and will do us harm, and we have to teach our children skills. I can guarantee you that the businesses in the area that do home alarms will be extremely busy in the next while.

[VaBthang4]

Something is shady in this and I dont like the Father's statement or demeanor.

Just writing this in order to have it down for future reference.

[buffyt]

My kids are 18, 19, and 21 now but I still tell them to scream and fight and NEVER let a stranger take you anywhere. My 18 year old is 200 lbs. body builder, but there are still sickos who would prey on him. Perhaps during car theft.

My daughter (19) is tiny, petite, size zero jeans at Limited, size extra small shirts (I don't know where her tiny size came from, my mom I guess, I am quite tall). A flea could overpower her! I tell her to scream, fight, kick, bite. Even if an abductor shoots you, at least you are still in public and maybe someone will come to your aid as the abductor runs away.

My 18 year old and I were discussing yesterday what you could do if you thought someone was hanging onto the bottom of your car (Like De Niro did in Cape Fear) We decided you could drive fast and hard over speed bumps, pot holes, cactus! OUCHERS. And you would probably get sued for doing this.

[buffyt]

Excellent, your reply in #14! So true, you are exactly right!

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I don't like the father's statement to the neighbors either. It seems odd and out of place. That being said, it doesn't connect to anything else so I will just keep it filed in the back of my mind.

[JennysCool]

Hate to say it, but I'm getting a few odd undercurrents from the coverage, too ... Guess we'll all see ...

[reformedcrat]

This case sounds most like the Polly Klauss case a few years ago. The pervert (Richard Allen Davis) broke into the home during the night while the mother and step-father slept. He went into Polly's room where she had other girls over for a sleep-over. As commanded by Davis, the girls did not scream. He stole Polly who was later found dead on a country road. Davis is on death row in California. Of course we all wish the girls had screamed bloody murder, but no matter how well you train your kids, you cannot know they will be brave enough to scream when the time comes. I also feel so sad for the little sister. Marty

[Thisiswhoweare]

What if the brother had something to do with it, in the sense that alot of siblings wish the other disappeared or gone or worse dead as, they believe that the parents favor the one over the other.

Also, police should check out ice cream truck drivers, painters,and janitors at the school she attends and also,persons that work at the hospital nearby. No young person that's not professional wold qualify for a home for sale that size and price.

If the perp doesn't return her and they find her, may she rest in the hands of the Lord and leave this situation behind.

[geege]

I'm sure too that the home alarm system business will be booming in that area......I live in beatiful Hunterdon County NJ and my boyfriend who lives in the same area never locks the door at night till I come home.......he just goes to bed and leaves everything open.....OK so he's got a 12 gauge in the closet but still....I don't live in a million dollar home but I lock my door even when I'm outside hanging out with the neighbors.....I don't trust anyone....

[Utah Girl]

And I live in Provo, Utah, in a very safe area. My parents live in a very nice area of Provo, where my mom never locked the door, except when they went to bed. That all ended when a thief started targeting homes in that area, the thief would walk into an unlocked home, steal a purse, and leave. This was occurring during the day when the moms were at home. My mother now locks the door all the time. Same thing with car doors, etc. Better to be on the safe side. Of course, I'm a bit jaded, I was a nanny for a year in NYC, and came home very suspicious...

[geege]

A nanny in NYC....must have been "culture shock" for you....When I lived in Yonkers NY...nice neighborhood... we were robbed by a junkie that opened our locked door with a butter knife...the person in the downstairs apartment had her door open and heard someone going up the steps and thought it was my father coming home early from work....The junkie eventually got caught and pointed out all the houses he hit....it was scarey...he let my cat out....I couldn't figure out how he got outside since I was the last one the leave and he was sleeping on the bed......

[RnMomof7]

Do you know the family UG ?

[Utah Girl]

No. I live in Provo, about 45 miles south of SLC. Very sad situation. We all need to pray for the family, especially for Elizabeth and for her nine-year-old sister.

[VaBthang4]

If someone snatched my [You gotta understand my Alpha-male mentality] daughter out of my own house [Which will never happen]I would go the Hell off! Then I'd put $1,000,000,000.00 bounty out on the drip that would've taken her if she wasnt released unharmed immediately.

I sure wouldnt be out in front of the friggin TV Cameras pretending to cry and not being able to produce tears, all while "appealing" to the kidnapper to return her.

Sorry folks but this guy is shady.

I dont have a shred of evidence past my own perceptions...but the scenario is lame. If he isnt involved....he knows who is.

[Utah Girl]

Actually, the father's response rang true to me. All of us can't be Rambo's and just because his behavior isn't what you think it should be, doesn't mean he is involved in any way with this.

[Dog Gone]

It's a certainty that the attacker either knew or stalked the victim. That greatly narrows down the possible world of suspects.

There is more than a small possibility that this is actually a kidnapping for ransom, possibly by someone who is mentally unstable. In any event, it was quite premeditated.

It's an incredibly unusual crime. Either there is a lot we don't know about the victim, which I rather doubt, or this is a very unique criminal. I am sure he will be caught. It's not a random act of violence, and somebody saw this man. He had to have known the house and observed the girl before this happened.

[JennysCool]

I think we are all charitable people (well, at least FReepers. Well, okay, most FReepers), but unfortunately, as a society, I think that cretin Susan Smith sort of made us a little wary of what is said in these sorts of press conferences. Sad, but true. Still, there's nothing wrong with being a touch wary in this day and age. Gosh, I hope she is found safe. We've all had enough of this.

[Utah Girl]

That's true. I'd forgotten about Susan Smith. Thanks for your calming words. :)

[JennysCool]

Well, we TRY to be calming! :-) Haven't "talked" to you since the Olympics; hope all is well with you.