***Smart Case Stumps Police***

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

[MrNeutron1962]

"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 don't think the three girls in Polly Klass's bedroom "Screamed" when she was abducted, and we know what happened there. Therefore, why is this case any different? Because a terrified 9 year old did not run to her parents room the second the armed man closed the door? Do we really know 2 hours passed, or is it just how much time she thinks has past? Was it actually a lot shorter period?

With the absence of any information to the contrary, the only public facts say it was a stranger abduction. He may have stalked her, maybe for weeks or months, we just don’t know. If he did stalk her, then its very possible that he entered the house before, as a prospective buyer, a tradesman of some sort, or even when no one was home.

I do admit it is strange that he didn’t at least tie the younger girl up, but, he may have panicked, I guess she is lucky she wasn’t strangled or bludgeoned to death. In short, I’m cutting the 9 year old a break, and unless facts to the contrary come up, I am choosing to believe her story.

[stlnative]

ooooo... Very good, your probably right! I forgot about the security cameras that might be in the neighborhood.

[Grig]

If I recall correctly, the 9 year old didn't tell about the abduction until a little while AFTER other family members discovered she was missing. I'm sure they wouldn't want to belive the 9 year old either.

[Sloth]

the level of either fear and/or obedience to the abductor ABOVE the level the child feels for her own parents.

Well, DUH. Normally, if you disobey your parents they don't murder people you love. It would be bizarre if a 9-yr-old feared her parents more than some stranger holding a gun on her sister.

[bonfire]

Every kid is different. Many nights I woke up scared when I was little. I would lie there FOREVER as quiet as a mouse, working up the courage to scram down the hall to my parents room. And those fears were from bad dreams, etc. This poor little girl was faced with a REAL demon. Hard to tell how long I might have shivered in the dark before getting the courage to move.

[freedox]

"If I recall correctly, the 9 year old didn't tell about the abduction until a little while AFTER other family members discovered she was missing."

This would sure be news to me. The only story I have heard is that the 9 year old awakened her parents with the news at approximately 4 a.m. I have never read anywhere that the parents at any time considered her story to be suspect.

[stlnative]

Now they are saying a MENTAL picture, but no name for suspect. (They have a "Profile" of the type of person who do this.)


I starting to think they have still nothing and did this media interview to renew the case and to work on the perp.

[Grig]

"One thing that I know about girls this age is that they scream."

I have a 9 and a 10 year old daughter and I can hardly get them to grunt when I go to wake them up after a full night's sleep. An intruder could pick them up, carry them to the car and drive them anywhere before they would realize anything.

[stlnative]

CORRECTION;
have still nothing
Should have been written...still have nothing

[redheadtoo]

One possibility that is not being discussed is that the girl might have been taken for the international white slave trade. This girl is pretty, blond and very young, she would bring a good price to her abductor if she were sold in Asia or the Middle East.

[dead]

Assuming the detectives involved are not complete idiots, I think it would take them less than fifteen minutes to break down a nine-year-old telling a fabricated story.

[texasbluebell]

I wonder if this guy was an older boy in the neighborhood, maybe someone in his later teens? That would make sense too, someone she knew vaguely, and maybe admired, but he may have been much more interested in her than she was in him. He could have been stalking her, and no one paid any attention to it, because he was just part of the local area. And then all it went wrong.

[stlnative]

I am really now thinking that the police are hoping that their latest public statements will sweat the perp out. (let's hope it does)

[texasbluebell]

But then, the younger sister would have recognized him too, and known his name, so my theory doesn't hold water after all!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The police did say they had a forensic pathologist ( or some pro like that, I forget the exact term they used ) interview the girl.

[It's me]

Did anyone hear that the police talked to the person who abducted the child? !!! I just heard it on breaking news on our local San Diego Station. They interrupted the Westerfield trial.

[mystery-ak]

Like I said earlier, this news conference was not for our benefit, it was directed at the abductor...I think they know who he is.....this is about to break.

[stlnative]

What I am getting from this latest news is that they "think" it was someone connected to the neighborhood. (meaning lives there, works or worked there, knows someone that lives there) and that they may have already interviewed the perp or will do so very soon. They had a FBI profile done and reinterviewed the 9 year old sister. Maybe she told them something that makes the Profiler think even more now that this was a stalking kidnapping. (how he acted while he was in the house.) She was being watched by the perp and this was not random kidnapping. The perp has seen Elizabeth before, but Elizabeth may or may not have known who her kidnapper was.


Think about all the people that would be in the neighborhood that do not live there. You have mail carriers, delivery drivers, newspaper carriers, pool cleaners, landscapers, milkmen, etc... plus you have to consider sub-workers that may have been filling in for any of the above people. When people have money like the Smart's do, many people are hired to do work for people like Smart's.

[ChocChipCookie]

''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.

Now THAT is a very, very interesting statement. I would love to be a fly on the wall in Dinse's office.

[lady lawyer]

The little girl went in, woke her parents, and said that a man had taken Elizabeth, and that she -- the little sister -- hadn't known what to do. The father said at first didn't think it could be true, and ran from room to room looking for Elizabeth. Only when he couldn't find her did he fully believe what the 9 year old had said.