***Smart Case Stumps Police***

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE ^ | 6/12/02 | KEVIN CANTERA

[MVV]

BY KEVIN CANTERA
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

    Six days after a teen-age girl reportedly was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home by an unknown gunman, police said Monday they have ruled out the possibility Elizabeth Smart staged her own abduction and was a runaway.
    With no credible leads and almost no physical evidence, baffled investigators have re-examined the family's Federal Heights home, reinterviewed members of the family and administered a polygraph test to the 14-year-old girl's father, said Salt Lake City police Capt. Scott Atkinson. He emphasized Edward Smart is not a suspect in his daughter's disappearance.
    Edward Smart took the lie detector test willingly Sunday and the results were being scrutinized by FBI agents Monday, said Atkinson.
    "We are looking at every possible angle. [The polygraph] is just one of the tools we've been using," Atkinson said.
    Investigators refused to say what questions Smart had been asked during the interview. He is the only family member to be tested, but Atkinson said other relatives could be asked to take a similar test.
    "We are no closer to solving the case," Atkinson said, noting that 100 detectives, including about 40 federal agents, were sifting through "hundreds" of leads pouring in to police dispatchers from around the country.
    In a brief statement Monday, Edward Smart said he took the test because he had "nothing to hide. . . . It's not uncommon in a case like this for a polygraph to be administered. When asked by law enforcement, I fully cooperated."
    Elizabeth was taken by an armed intruder inside her family's Federal Heights home between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. Wednesday, according to police. The man, who reportedly carried a small black handgun, entered the bedroom shared by Elizabeth and her 9-year-old sister. He forced Elizabeth to go with him and threatened the younger girl that if she told anyone, her sister would be hurt, the child told police.
    The girl -- the only witness to the abduction -- waited two hours or more, then woke her parents, police said. The abductor "didn't leave any clues," Atkinson said. Police planned to question the 9-year-old girl, but would probably not issue a more detailed description of the suspect, he said.
    Dozens of off-road enthusiasts were asked Monday to bring their all-terrain vehicles to a wide expanse of barren desert west of Salt Lake City to hunt for clues.
    "Every day we want a place where we can do one search," said Tom Smart, Elizabeth's uncle, in making the plea for the off-road quest. No specific information prompted the plan to search the desert, said Smart, who suggested "horse posses" might be used to hunt for the girl in the future.
    Between 400 and 500 volunteers took part in other search efforts, going through neighborhoods, city parks and surrounding foothills, calling Elizabeth's name and posting fliers.
    Residents throughout Utah have been asked to search their own property -- under boat covers and inside vacation cabins, for instance -- and the Utah Farm Bureau Federation encouraged the state's farmers to comb their farms, fields and outbuildings.
    As the hunt continues, Elizabeth's loved ones remain hopeful.
    "The whole family believes she is alive," said Elizabeth's cousin, Sierra Smart, who said she is as perplexed as police investigators by the girl's disappearance. "It is exactly as confusing as it appears. There's no secret."
   kcantera@sltrib.com

[MVV]

Whatever happened to this little girl? I am sorry to say I fear the worst, she absolutely just vanished from the face of the earth!

[MVV]

Ping FYI!

[widowithfoursons]

It keeps coming to me that the 9 year old must have known the abductor, or she would not have waited to tell her folks. I know this sounds strange, but my dad was a Mormon bishop, and you wouldn't believe the secrecy inherent in this sect. There is also practically complete obedience toward the church leaders. I could be way off base here, but how else can this be explained unless the culprit was a family member?

[UnsinkableMollyBrown]

You are way off base. The 9 year old could very well have been told that he (the perp) was going to watch her door, and if she so much as made a peep or moved from her bed, he would kill her sister, then her, then the rest of the family. Would you look into the hallway?

The dig against the church was completely out of line.

[Wright is right!]

"The dig against the church was completely out of line."

A lot of "out-of-line digs" have borne much politically-incorrect fruit in criminal investigations. We shall see when this case is resolved if the "dig" was "out-of-line." For a 9-year-old to witness her sister being taken at gunpoint and then be so obedient as to not inform her parents places the level of either fear and/or obedience to the abductor ABOVE the level the child feels for her own parents. That does NOT suggest that the intruder, if there was one, would be only a casual acquaintance.

There's still one or two pieces of dark evidence that are deeply deeply hidden in this case that will 'splain what happened and why. This is no ordinary abduction.

Michael

[Wright is right!]

I do not believe the headline is correct - "SMART Case Stumps Police." The correct headline should read "Police Say Smart Case "A Stumper"

Methinks that the POH-leece know a lot more than they're saying. This one has the potential to be a really sad shocker.

Michael

[Grig]

but my dad was a Mormon bishop, and you wouldn't believe the secrecy inherent in this sect. There is also practically complete obedience toward the church leaders. I could be way off base here, but how else can this be explained unless the culprit was a family member?

No offence meant, but as a practising Mormon I can say that your perceptions are very flawed, and your comments only show that you don't know us our our faith as well as you might think you do.

The only thing the church keeps secret is the confessions of the members, and if those confessions involve some element of crime the Bishop is obligated to involve the authorities. No Bishop would ever keep silent in a case like this and allow this girl to go unfound by his silence if he knew of anything that he could tell the police that would help.

Nor are any Church leaders blindly followed. Members are obligated to pray and find out from God if He approves of their leaders. Their obedience stems from the answer they get from God, and even then it only applies to those things that are within the duties of that leader. Any memeber who knows of a Church leader who is unworthy of his calling because of great sin is justified in refusing to sustain that leader, and is obligated to inform the correct church authority.

You overlook the very obvious explanation that they guy had a gun and the girl was afraid for her life. If it was someone that the girl would blindly obey and follow without question, why would a gun even be needed?

[Grig]

A lot of "out-of-line digs" have borne much politically-incorrect fruit in criminal investigations.

The dig was not out of line because it was 'politically-incorrect', it was out of line because it is a total fiction that springs from a bias that is based on incorrect information. It is disgusting that some people's first reaction is to WANT it to turn into a scandle for the Church.

[Iwo Jima]

My suspicion is along the same lines as yours,but with some differences.

One thing that I know about girls this age is that they scream. They seem to always be screaming -- over anything and everything and nothing. I cannot imagine that a stranger would come into these girls' bedroom with a gun and that there would not be lots of screaming. I also cannot believe that the nine year old would have sat there for as long as she says that she did before going tell her parents. I'm not buying that for a minute.

Instead of thinking that the facts point to an intruder who in the girls' mind had greater authority than their parents, I think that these facts point to the conclusion that Elizabeth was not taken against her will. She is almost certainly being held against her will (I am being an optimist here), but I cannot accept the common assumption that she was taken against her will.

I think that she "sneaked out," a time-honored tradition engaged in by teenagers for generations and especially among children of very strict parents. Except that here, something went terribly wrong, and Elizabeth didn't come back.

If this scenario is correct, then Elizabeth probably left much earlier than the younger sister has stated. That, and the fact that it wasn't a forced taking, could explain why there have been entirely no clues.

What probably happened is that the younger girl woke up and discovered that Elizabeth had been gone far longer than planned. She then made up this story to tell her parents.

I am not blaming Elizabeth for what has happened to her or trashing her. I am just saying that the story as told by the sister just does not add up, and it does not help the search for Elizabeth to proceed on a flawed assumption of how and when she came to be missing.

[Grig]

This might be too optimistic, but perhaps she did sneak off with some guy, and after sneaking out, they fell asleep, woke up late, and she is too ashamed and afraid to come back and face the music. Especialy with all the media attention and everything.

The police have ruled out her being a runaway though.

[Iwo Jima]

Do you remember the old Everly Brothers song "Wake Up, Little Susie"? Seriously, I never considered Elizabeth to be a runaway. And I do think that she has meet with foul play. I just think that it all started by her voluntarily leaving her home in the dead of night. I also think that the father knows this.

Did you see the "window" that the intruder is supposed to have passed in and out of? It is one of those octagonal hatch-type windows that a probably less than one foot wide at its widest point. I cannot imagine a grown man getting in and out of this window, especailly with a gun, hoping to be undetected. It's just too bizarre!

You could imagine a slim 14 year old girl getting through a window like that, but not a grown man. Who would ever have such a window as that placed in the place that it was (just over a roof covering the first floor) that a grown man could get in and out of? No, this window and the entire set-up screams out "ideal teenager sneak-out" and is totally inconsistent a kidnapping which began at the home.

[Wright is right!]

"Instead of thinking that the facts point to an intruder who in the girls' mind had greater authority than their parents, I think that these facts point to the conclusion that Elizabeth was not taken against her will."

I allow that your theory IS consistent with elements of mine - and I agree with you that it's almost certain that she departed the room of her "own volition," while not necessarily of her own "free will."

I can see her leaving the house for some reason, but I'm not seeing it as any kind of "hooking up" with a boy. Either we're being shown some very old photos and videos of this 14-year old (taken when she was very much younger) or the Light Of Awakening has not yet been turned on in her body. She still appears angelic and pre-pubescent, a tremendous rarity for a 14-year-old in this day and age. If she was, indeed, still pre-pubescent, then she wouldn't be sneaking away for sex because her body wouldn't be interested in it yet. So what else would she want to do that parental disapproval of it would force her to sneak out in order to indulge in it? Pot? Doesn't look likely.

One thing's for sure - what happened after she left the room is NOT what she THOUGHT was going to happen, or she would not have gone either willingly OR of her own volition. And you're right about young girls - they do tend to have juvenile reflexive responses (screaming, gigling, etc.) out of proportion to the stumuli that causes them. The absence of that and the rote repetition of the 9-year-old's story doesn't add up, either. It just doesn't fit the age group.

I'll stick to the idea that the POH-leece know more than they're saying. And this case is looking worse and worse by the hour.

Michael

[Anamensis]

she absolutely just vanished from the face of the earth!

Twenty bucks says she's handcuffed to a bed in some pervert's basement less than 2.5 miles from her house.

[Grig]

And I do think that she has meet with foul play.

I'm afraid so too, I just wish it were not so.

Did you see the "window" that the intruder is supposed to have passed in and out of? It is one of those octagonal hatch-type windows that a probably less than one foot wide at its widest point. I cannot imagine a grown man getting in and out of this window, especailly with a gun, hoping to be undetected. It's just too bizarre!

Up here windows like that don't open or have a screen, they are just decorative. If the 9 year old is telling a cover story and sticking to it, she must also belive that her sister is not in any danger and must knows what was planned originally.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Fox News report that police are now looking at people who know the Smarts and away from the stranger idea. A press conference about this case is going to be on within minutes.

[Grig]

Man I wish Fox News would stream their video.

[stlnative]

On Fox News Channel Now (Police believe they have already talked to the suspect or will very soon) - They think he from the neighborhood or had a reason that connected him to the neighborhood...(like a relative lived in the area, he works in the area, etc...)

The younger sister ONLY saw the profile of the suspect, this was reported earlier.
This is why a sketch has not been done on the prep.

[bonfire]

Keep us posted. Thanks..

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The police aren't discounting any suspect at this time, they say they have already talked to the main suspect or will soon talk to them. Workers have been in the house recently. The crime lab people were back in the house last night. The police are being cagey, but like they know something solid.

[Grig]

Just the fact that they have a main suspect is encouraging to me.