Posted on 06/18/2002 10:50:57 AM PDT by The Energizer
Police now say abductor of 14-year-old Utah girl didn't know he was watched by her sister
By RICH VOSEPKA=
Associated Press Writer=
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Police investigating the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart said Tuesday the man was not aware that the girl's little sister witnessed the apparent abduction.
Two weeks ago, Elizabeth was taken by gunpoint from the queen-sized bed shared by the two girls in the Federal Heights home.
He told Elizabeth to grab some shoes and as he left with her.
Although it was earlier reported that 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart had been warned to remain quiet, police who interviewed the youngster several times now say the man did not speak to the child. The little sister waited two hours before alerting her parents.
``We believe this man may be a trusted person in the neighborhood or community,'' said Salt Lake City Police Capt. Scott Atkinson. The kidnapper was calm, he added.
Police reiterated their description of their suspect: A white man, 30 to 40 years old, with dark hair and hair on his arms and back of his hands. He was wearing tan pants, dark shoes, lighter jacket and a golf hat. He held a small handgun.
``He spoke nicely and dressed nicely,'' Atkinson said.
On Tuesday, Atkinson held up a similar pair of tennis shoes that the kidnapper allowed Elizabeth to take with her. They were white Ralph Lauren athletic shoes with dark stripes and thick soles.
Investigators still want to talk to Bret Michael Edmunds, who continues to elude them. Edmunds isn't a suspect, but he was spotted near the Smart's home two days before the kidnapping, leading police to think he might have information in the case.
``I believe Edmunds is a witness to something, we don't know what,'' Atkinson said.
Edmunds is wanted for parole violation and spraying pepper spray at a West Valley policeman who stopped him.
The community is offering a $250,000 reward for the girl's safe return. Neighborhoods are organizing searches for the teen after a centralized search effort was disbanded Friday.
A Web site to help find Elizabeth has had more than 8 million hits, which overloaded the system, said Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake City mayor.
This is a key lesson of this and other child snatchings. I recommend instructing children to scream loudly if a stranger comes into the house. I see a greater probablility of a safe outcome in that instance than in hoping for the child's safe return once abducted.
Or does innuendo and baseless speculation devoid of any rational purpose sum up all you can contribute to this effort?
I have taken many a flame for this. I still stand by my contention that the sisters story is a fabrication by either herself, or feed to her by her missing sister.
If we make allowances for media misreporting, then perhaps it went along these lines:
She saw the guy while she was in bed, and then later tiptoed to the bedroom door and watched them leave. She could have heard him telling Elizabeth to be quiet or he'd kill her (Elizabeth), and mistaken it to be a comment directed to her. Fear of being seen (and killed) could have sent her back to her bed, where she remained quiet and still. After a long period of terrified silence, she finally crept to her parents' room, and spilled the beans.
The story is still plausible.
Investigators often use the media as an unwitting (or cooperative) tool in psyching/flushing out suspects and even witnesses, as you no doubt know.
BTW, why would anyone think or even imagine that, with all of their current heartache and fear, that the Smart family would enlist you to sway the opinions of people who frequent the FR??
And why would anyone suspect this visibly shaken family of complicity in this horrible crime?? I can say with certainty that if I were a member of a family that was involved in a cover-up that could lead to the harming of a child, the next Thanksgiving dinner would not be pleasant, if it were held at all (please excuse my hyperbole). Indeed, I likely would be a witness, informant, and or misdemeanor defendant who no longer acknowledged being a member of such a family.
As Mark Twain once said, the only way that a secret can exist between two people is if one of them is dead...
Actually, the rants you've seen are against pissants like yourself who have NO, ABSOLUTELY ZERO, information about this case other than what they vaunted news media--you know, the ones you love to revile when they report on the Clintons?--have put out, much of which has been erroneous, and yet you still come up with this wild speculations that don't even have a corrollary in history.
In other words, typical FReeper cretins: The less they know about something, the more extravagant their opinions.
So, you need to understand you're going to be rebuked by those of us who know a little bit more about "the Mormon code" than you do.
The url for this story is http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,405010970,00.html (I don't remember how to do links)
**********************
'We are going to get you'
By Derek Jensen
Deseret News staff writer
In a major development in the 7-day-old Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, police say they may have already talked to the man who abducted the 14-year-old from her Federal Heights home last week.
Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said Tuesday that investigators believe the unidentified suspect is in the area of the Smart home.
"My caution to this suspect is we are going to get you," Dinse told reporters at a late morning news briefing. " And if he's got Elizabeth he'd better release her now."
Forensic evidence, crime scene analysis and "promising leads" led investigators Tuesday to announce they had narrowed their search for Elizabeth's abductor to family, friends and individuals who may have had contact with the family at the time of her abduction, Dinse said.
"It is possible we have already talked to or will soon talk to the suspect responsible for this crime," Dinse said. "We believe that we have an understanding of this suspect . . . I think it is someone who had access to that area, who would have access to that residence."
Despite the narrowing of the search, Dinse said police have not zeroed in on any specific person. Police are also not ruling out the possibility that more than one person was involved in Elizabeth's kidnapping, Dinse said.
To date, police have received 6,000 leads, 600 of which merited follow-up, Dinse said. As of Tuesday morning, detectives had already followed up on about half of these 600.
Police won't say what tools investigators used or what, if any, evidence they discovered inside the Smart home after a search Monday night.
"They wanted to be in the house at the same time the events all occurred," Salt Lake Police Sgt. Fred Louis said. "They went to check lighting and that sort of thing."
Police were in the home between 1:15 a.m. and 2:15 a.m. when it appears Elizabeth was taken by gunpoint from her room, and investigators left the home about 3 a.m., police said.
The search of the Smarts' million-dollar home near 1500 E. Kristianna Circle (420 North) was the latest in a series of developments in a case that has continued to baffle investigators.
Police say a man took Elizabeth by gunpoint from her bedroom between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. last Wednesday as her 9-year-old sister watched. Police originally said the kidnapper threatened to harm Elizabeth if the 9-year-old told anyone what had happened, but in recent days they've remained vague about what exactly the girl saw or heard.
Police interviewed Elizabeth's sister Monday but wouldn't say exactly what she told detectives.
"Her story has been consistent throughout," Salt Lake Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
Elizabeth Smart's father also submitted to a polygraph test Sunday, but authorities won't say what questions were asked, whether he had an attorney present or what the results showed.
"When asked by law enforcement I fully cooperated because I have nothing to hide. We are doing everything in our power to bring back Elizabeth," Edward Smart said in a statement released Monday evening.
Edward Smart's brother, Deseret News photographer Tom Smart, said his brother described the polygraph test as "four hours of hell."
Police said the lie detector test is a common tool used by investigators.
As of Tuesday morning, Elizabeth's father was the only family member who'd taken a polygraph test, police said.
"I think that's a normal thing," Elizabeth's grandmother Dorotha Smart told NBC's "Today Show" Tuesday morning. "It's all right. Any one of us would be happy to go through with that."
As investigators narrowed their search for Elizabeth's kidnapper Tuesday, volunteers once again poured into the Federal Heights Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to take part in the search for the missing 14-year-old.
Air and ground searches were planned for the day, with more ATV searches planned for Wednesday, said cousin Rob Sanders, one of several family members who are helping coordinate the search for Elizabeth.
Volunteers on ATVs searched the West Desert near Tooele on Monday. Searchers on horseback also looked for clues in Utah County, and people on mountain bikes have been searching in various wilderness areas, Sanders said.
"The ATVs and the horses have been extremely critical for us because we're able to cover larger areas we can't cover on foot," Sanders said.
While volunteer numbers have dwindled since the weekend, almost 1,000 people helped look for Elizabeth on Monday, Sanders said. Searchers continued to arrive Tuesday morning at the Federal Heights Ward building from which the search is being coordinated.
While the search for Elizabeth entered its seventh day Tuesday, family members still believe the girl is alive somewhere.
"I would say this," Elizabeth's grandfather told "Today" on NBC, "whoever took her, there isn't a more wonderful girl that's more pure and innocent than Elizabeth. And the greatest thing they could possibly do is just to release her and let her come home. We have great faith as a family that the perpetrator of this will soften his heart and let her come home."
(the secret phrase for today is "a joy and a delight." Don't tell any outsiders, though, or you know what will happen) 8~)
The only explanation that make sence to me are that the cops, or the family, or both know who the kidnapper is. Or, more likely, the kidnapper has contacted the cops or family and has kept his identity hidden. Either way, we aren't being told everything they know. That may be a good thing. But, if they really had no idea what was going on, it seems that they would be telling the public as much as possible so that they could help in the search.
I think that decentralizing the search has effectively killed the search and volunteer effort even though it is being reported as having been expanded by making it decentralized. They could have done the same thing by keeping the centralized command center that directs all of the neighborhood command centers. To me, that would be more effective. Let me know that I am wrong if you have seen an increase in the search effort. I haven't seen it. To me, that suggests that they know who has her or have been contacted by the kidnapper.
I don't buy the polygamy angle. I have met Tom Green a few times. I am freinds with some of his children. He is in jail right now so it wasn't him. There are tons of different Polygamy groups out there and some are plain nuts if you ask me. But, I have never heard of poligamist groups that kidnap their wives. That type of story has been made up by non-polygamists before. There is even an old black and white movie about it. I am a Mormon, not a polygamist. My polygamist friends were always taught that the Mormon church was led by the devil.
No, you're concocting silly fables based on zero information, just like most of the people on these threads.
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