On a more serious note-- if the perp is known to Elizabeth-- there ought to be an actual photo and ID available, very soon.
Posted on 06/08/2002 8:54:36 AM PDT by The people have spoken
A massive air search is planned today for the missing 14-year-old girl, Elizabeth Smart.
It's been a frustrating lack of leads four days after Elizabeth was snatched from her bedroom at gunpoint in front of her little sister.
A supposed suspect sighting in Emigration Canyon didn't pan out.
Sheriff's deputies say the volunteer searcher who reported seeing the suspect at the top of Emigration Canyon has a credibility problem.
Deputy Peggy Faulkner told Channel-13 the man and his twin brother were wearing fake law badges.
Police are discounting another lead from a security camera at a convenience store two miles from Elizabeth's Federal Heights neighborhood.
The store's manager says the tape shows a man like the suspect. Police checked it out and say it led nowhere.
Then there's the tip from the milkman. He supplied the license plate number of a suspicious car. But he couldn't come close to matching any registered Utah car.
Volunteer pilots showed up at 9 am Saturday at Shriner's Hospital. They'll plot a search grid for the Wasatch hills and other places.
Elizabeth disappeared in her pajamas with a pair of Polo white canvas shoes that police say are missing from the house.
Police aren't saying anything about the conversation the intruder reportedly had with the sisters, before taking Elizabeth.
From Friday
--Police say they are frustrated by the lack of solid leads three days into a search for 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart, who was reportedly kidnapped from her home at gunpoint.
"Everyone is still a suspect," Salt Lake City Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said. But the family is not the focus of the investigation, police said.
About 100 detectives are actively working on the case, sifting through the hundreds of tips coming in from the public. None of those tips has helped advance the investigation, police said.
Meanwhile, the family is asking volunteer pilots to fly over the region Saturday and to carry spotters in an effort to cover more ground. A candlelight vigil is planned for a city park Sunday night.
Bob Smither, co-founder of the Laura Recovery Center Foundation, says there is always hope.
In 1997 Smither's 12-year-old daughter Laura was also abducted near her Texas home. Volunteers launched a nationwide search and the girl's body was found 17 days later. Foundation members are now in Salt Lake City leading the volunteer effort and training people who want to help.
"Law enforcement just does not have the resources to put hundreds of people on the ground searching. But a community can do that, and that's what this community is doing to try and find Elizabeth.," Smither's says.
The mere report of a man acting suspiciously was enough for authorities searching for Elizabeth to block off a heavily wooded canyon late Thursday.
One of 1,200 volunteers searching for the girl reported seeing a man acting suspiciously at the top of Emigration Canyon. An all-night search yielded nothing and deputies ruled out that tip by Friday afternoon.
Police on Friday also were asking for information about a man that was seen in the neighborhood a day or two before Elizabeth disappeared. A milkman said he saw the man in an older, dull gray Nissan or Honda, but the license plate number he recalled _ 266RLA _ didn't match any number in the state's database.
The milkman, Charlie Miller, said Friday that he saw the car around 7 a.m. Monday. It drove slowly up and down the Smarts' street, which ends in a cul-de-sac. He said the man followed him up another cul-de-sac street in the neighborhood. That's when he took note of the car and the Utah license plate.
"He was short, he had a white cap, he was wearing plaid," Miller said, adding that the car "had a rough sound to it."
He didn't think much of the sighting until he tried to deliver on Thursday and ran into a police roadblock on the Smarts' street.
Police said that on Wednesday between 1 and 2 a.m., an intruder forced open a window at Elizabeth's home and went into the bedroom where the teen-ager and her 9-year-old sister slept. Police said the gunman warned the younger girl her sister would be harmed if she told anyone.
Because of the gunman's threat, the frightened younger girl waited two hours before alerting her parents, police said.
Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said police have evidence that an intruder was in the house, but wouldn't discuss what the evidence may be. They don't know what the suspect knew about the house or how long the man may have been in the home.
The list of those to be interviewed by police is "a list that's probably longer than any list I've ever seen," Dinse said. "We're going to be interviewing everybody."
No one who has been interviewed has been given a lie-detector test, Dinse said.
"The fact that all the neighbors were there before the police got there is a problem," Dinse said.
He said at least 10 people, mostly neighbors, came into the home in the two to three hours between Elizabeth's disappearance and when police arrived at 4 a.m. Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the girl's father, Ed Smart, was hospitalized Friday morning after collapsing from exhaustion. He had slept little in the hours since his daughter's disappearance. The family did not say which hospital he was in.
Many similarities in cases, except, the Ramseys' put their little girl in front of the camera, in heavy make-up and alluring costumes, and trained her to play the vixen. Also, I don't know if the Smarts called their attorney and refused to be interviewed by PD.
On a more serious note-- if the perp is known to Elizabeth-- there ought to be an actual photo and ID available, very soon.
When I first heard this story, it sounded to me like something a 14yr old and a 9yr old might cook up. Now, after 4 days, I'm not so sure. Still seems very bizarre.
Prayers for the girl and her family.
The home was undergoing remodeling ...
Not good. Lots of strangers coming and going throughout the whole house. Do you know how long the remodeling has been in progress? Wonder if any of the workers are unaccounted for.
Red Butte Canyon eventually meets up with Emigration, the canyon that police say was a dud lead -- that the tipster's credibility was questionable.
I don't know what any of this may mean, but the officer told me that they were hoping they would find Elizabeth and that they would find her alive.
It's hard to imagine that composite sketch being to helpful, but stranger things have happened.
That would be the guy in this sketch:
Red Butte also has that research area that it is pretty much pristine wilderness. Nobody is supposed to go up there, (though people do). It would take a lot of people to search that area. I'll check KSL's site and see if they are saying where they want volunteers to search.
Go for it. It was posted at one of the search-and-rescue team sites where I'm active, and that's what they're there for. It's a pretty cartoonish picture, not too surprising when based at least in part on a very young girl's description. But it may do some good.
If you ever need anything of the sort sized, either up or down, give me a ping; it's no problem.
-archy-/-
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