Then we are told that the kidnapper just threatened Elizabeth, not the sister.
Then we are told that the girl didn’t see his face.
Now we are told that the kidnapper never even saw the sister.
OK, as my earlier post shows, I was completely ready to believe the 9 year old was so frightened by the event that it took her 2 hours to tell her parents. I’m beginning to have serious second thoughts about this case. I wonder if there was any kidnapper at all, how about a new "Husband" taking his new wife. I know, I’ve seen the rants about how a Mormon father would never give up his daughter to a polygamist, blah, blah, blah. I’m even willing to admit that the parents angst is genuine. But I’m beginning to wonder if it is for the reasons that we have been led to suspect, or is it that she ran off to set up housekeeping with one of the 100 or so cousins.
So, if its not a polygamist thing, then would a "lonely" 14 year old girl deliberately run away with an older, and possibly in her eyes, more loving and considerate male relative. Does the family know, or suspect who it is, but some kind of "Mormon Code" prevents them from telling the police. Sort of like various Orthodox Jewish sects use Talmudic Law to justify not involving the civil authorities. Perhaps the family is hoping this person will "release " or convince her to return to her family without the whole thing coming out.
I pray I am correct and that she is safe and sound, but now just confused and scared. Does she reappear and come up with another cover story? Does she stay with her new husband and hope it all blows over? Did she underestimate the community and media response, and is now afraid to be charged with a crime? Does she genuinely not what to go home, for whatever reason? Can she leave of her own free will, or is she under house arrest, so to speak, or sadly, is she dead?
I expect some flaming for suggesting a "Mormon Code" (my term for it) is at work here. I’m sure I’ll be told no such thing exists, and maybe not in a codified form, after the Talmud took Thousands of years to reach its current form and interpretation. Perhaps, in response to the pressures of the world at large such a thing is developing in the Mormon community psyche, a silent line of reasoning that those outside the faith just don’t understand.
However, the SLCPD is putting out known information in dribs and drabs. Precisely why they're doing so is open to speculation, of course, but it all seems to point to a belief that Elizabeth may still be alive.
If this guy really was "trusted," there may well be some political sensibilities involved. But the fact that the SLCPD is slowly putting out information indicates that if this is true, they're working their way around them, as opposed to letting them control the case.
This case has more twists than a headful of dreadlocks. I think it's probably useless to speculate anymore.
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 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.
I will try really hard not to flame you on this.
There is no "Mormon Code" of silence. If anyone in the Church knew anything at all about this abduction they would first call the police or the FBI and may relate it later to someone in the Church. Trust me, there would be no tolerance within the Church for the abductor under any situation. There is no "silent line of reasoning" that would gain a kidnapper or other criminal a reprieve from being turned over to law enforcement.
And by "any" I mean to include this charge of polygamist conspiracies. As I and many other people have said repeatedly here, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its faithful members have had nothing whatsoever to do with polygamy for over 100 years. The Church has no tolerance for polygamists and excommunicates them as soon as they may be discovered. There isn't a father in the Church that wouldn't go straight to the authorities (or threaten to shoot him first) if any whacko "plig" (as we used to call them in St. George, Utah) said that he wanted his 14 year-old daughter in "marriage".
I mean to disabuse you of these false notions and conspiracy theories as they are ludicrous and only tend to pollute the threads about the abduction of Elizabeth Smart.
THAT was my husband's gut feeling from the beginning, which I said was off the wall. I'm beginning to wonder now. Hey stranger things have happened, ya never know.
You have the answer exactly. Polygamy and Semi-Partriarchical Clan-ism in the Mormon church is a subculture which goes with the religion itself. They gave up open practice, as it was a precondidition to Utah becoming state in the first place. But don't think for a minute that that meant they would foreswear Brigham Young's example entirely.
The parents appear to be "disciplined" into spouting a protect-family-line devised by the brother, Tom ("patriarch" possibly?).
The speculation I have is that there was to be an arranged marriage of some sort to some extended cousin/family member. Parents were not ready for daughter to marry the "intended." The "intended" with the blessing of the patriarch perhaps decide steal away one night exiting through a cut screen window (although the "assailant" couldn't possibly have entered through it, so we're told.) Maybe he had a gun, maybe he didn't. What the 9 year old is worried about is that she'll be next, in a few short years. And when it's family...well...what can a father say except to call the kidnapper "well-meaning" or well-intentioned" or what ever the strange term was that he used. He got his script and marching orders from "Tom, the patriarch." Most American's wouldn't understand the culture, which is why it is so puzzling.
Elizabeth's "safe" alright, maybe actually married by now, living in one of those more traditional Mormon enclaves in southern Utah, where such "traditionalists" are typically found.
My initial gut feeling was she was 'promised' or something on that line, or maybe just in the mind of that m ale who took her. Felt it was a cousin, then heard she had 80 first cousins, this is one huge family.