***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

[PoisedWoman]

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.

I agree that this is no ordinary case. Your statement about "dark evidence" is tantalizing. What do you think it might be?

My initial intuitive hit on this girl, based on looking into her unhappy looking eyes in all of her photos, was that she left on her own volition, for which I've been flamed over and over. Now the police have "ruled it out," so obviously they were exploring that avenue. And perhaps still are. Why don't the police give a lie detector test to the younger sister?

BTW, our family has a large Mormon contingent, most of whom are pillars of community and church, but one daughter went very wrong, so I know that even in the best of families, kids do weird things. Elizabeth may not have participated in her own disappearance, but it would probably be more hopeful if she had.

[stlnative]

They learned more from the 9 year old after interviewing her again. The police refused to say what they learned. Police are also thinking the 14 year old is STILL alive. Police think that the case will be solved. Police chief, "We are going to get you.." (to suspect)

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

A couple of days ago, Fox News reported that there was solid evidence that the sisters account was true, there was an entry to the bedroom.

The police just said they believe the suspect is still in the area. Rumors that the nine year old sister was taken away from the house were not true.

[freedox]

Wow....interesting news! Sounds like maybe the real reason no composite was released was because the police already had a suspect in mind, and they didn't want him to know he was being watched. I'm particularly interested in the suggestion that the suspect is someone who is associated with the neighborhood. There was an early report in the Salt Lake Tribune, stating that a group of 10 neighbors had apparently been at the Smart home for up to 45 minutes before the police were called that night. The presence of so many neighbors when the police arrived has always suggested to me that others were "consulted" prior to the police being contacted. I suspect that the abductor is someone who is well known in the neighborhood, and the police have very possibly known this all along. I must say, it makes me more hopeful that Elizabeth will be found alive.

[Grig]

I think it's more likely that the police are keeping some things under wraps because they don't want the suspect to feel he is in danger of quick capture. If he feels traped, he may kill her and run. If this girl is alive, she is a hostage and the police need to locate and rescue without tipping their hand in advance.

[bonfire]

Maybe the teens in the neighborhood had a history of "sneaking out". I know the teens in my old neighborhood did. (mine being one of them!)

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I think they want him to run.

[UnsinkableMollyBrown]

Fox has it wrong. The police "hope" that she is alive.

[Grig]

There was an early report in the Salt Lake Tribune, stating that a group of 10 neighbors had apparently been at the Smart home for up to 45 minutes before the police were called that night.

I don't think that is too unusual in a Mormon community. They most likely would check with the nearby families Liz has friends with before calling the police.

[stlnative]

Now they say they have a "picture" of the suspect, but do not have a name. (they did not say what type of picture, but I felt he meant a "Profile", from a FBI Profiler.)

[CFW]

Police: Investigation in case of missing Utah girl being refocused

By Patty Henetz, Associated Press, 6/11/2002 13:14

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Police said Tuesday they are refocusing their investigation into the kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl, concentrating on those who knew Elizabeth Smart while not ruling out a stranger abduction.

''We believe that it is possible that we have already talked to or will soon talk to the suspect that is responsible for this crime,'' Police Chief Rick Dinse said.

Investigators spent several hours in the Smart home early Tuesday morning, searching for clues to the girl's apparent kidnapping at gunpoint a week ago.

[PoisedWoman]

they don't want the suspect to feel he is in danger of quick capture.

Interesting. You may be correct. But he does know that hundreds of people are searching for him 24/7. If he feels confident that they won't find him, he's probably not in SLC area any more.

[Wright is right!]

Poised, let's just say that I'm not quite ready to write the father out of the script just yet. Perhaps not as a principal player, but more along the lines of an intermediary. And there is still the angle that the girl may be escaping something that was at the house - with an accomplice.

Michael

[stlnative]

The police chief, said they are taking on the same thoughts as the parents, That she is STILL alive! They are not public saying that they think she is dead. Also they think it is POSSIBLE that they have already talked to the suspect or will very soon!

[mystery-ak]

I think this case is about to break...they are not telling eveything they know.....This news conference was meant for the abductor.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Rumors that the nine year old sister was taken away from the house were not true

That can't be right. I saw the parents being interviewed on Fox this weekend, and Mrs. Smart clearly said that the little girl had been sent to stay with a grandparent, because she was afraid to be at the house, and Mrs. Smart also implied that they wanted to shield her from the inevitable parade of investigators, reporters, etc. at the house.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I'm thinking by the picture, they may have one from security camera footage, possibly the beer thief who was refered to at the begining of the case.

[freedox]

"They most likely would check with the nearby families Liz has friends with before calling the police."

I agree that this would seem reasonable in the case of a suspected runaway, but it does not seem reasonable at all if they REALLY suspected an abduction by an unknown, armed intruder. That was my point.

[bonfire]

I also heard her say that, GS.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The rumor the reporter asked about infered that she was officialy taken away, like by Child Protective Services.