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.
Mrs Kus
And another article reported that the younger sister said that Elizabeth asked the man what he was going to do to her, and he said he "might hold her for ransom." But if that's the case, it's ominous that no ransom demand has been phoned in yet.
And if he wasn't sure what he was going to do with her at the time he abducted her, that also doesn't sound good to me. If he had really been planning on a kidnapping, he would have been better organized.
Mrs Kus
Degradation of the crime scene alert.
Sad deal when one has an alarm system an elects not to either use it or test it . A small little barking dog is a great backup and friend in cases like these we seem to see more of each and every day.
I'll stop the monday morning quarterback thing now...... People just need to be aware that safe and sound is not a gimme these days.
Stay Safe !
Did Elizabeth have a secret boyfriend who didn't want her to move (I realize this is stretching it, but nevertheless has to be asked)..
Praying they find her. And for all those who are thinking, but won't ask..."NO, I do not suspect her parents"..
sw
BTW, I thought milkmen were long a thing of the past.
Milk is the unofficial state beverage of Utah-- large families appreciate the luxury of a milkman, as milkmen have to be somewhat competitive.
I noticed from the RE listing, that the father is the broker, he owns the business. Both abductees from prominent wealthy families. Both taken from their beds in the middle of the night. Both from Rocky Mountain states, populated area.
Just because one is born with blonde hair and blue eyes does not guarantee that one will be attractive. But both Elizabeth and JonBenet were not only beautiful, but very angelic looking as well.
The Ramseys had told police that there were many people in and out of their house in the week prior to the tragedy.
Elizabeth's abductor told the sister he would be holding her "for ransom," but no attempt has been made to collect any money.
JonBenet's family was left that crazy note written in the house, demanding money, but it's unlikely that money was what they wanted.
I pray to God I'm wrong....
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