Missing Teen Elizabeth Smart Found Alive
SALT LAKE CITY - Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nearly eight months ago, was found alive Wednesday during a traffic stop in suburban Salt Lake City, police said.
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"Miracles do exist," said the girl's uncle, Tom Smart.
The girl was found in the car of a drifter who was pulled over in a traffic stop Wednesday afternoon, Sandy police spokeswoman Michelle Burnette said.
"Two separate women called in and said they thought they had spotted 'Emmanuel,'" she said. Emmanuel, whose real name is Brian David Mitchell, once did work on the Smart's home.
Sandy police pulled over Mitchell, another woman and a girl who looked like Elizabeth. They later confirmed her identity, police said.
Salt Lake City police detectives arrived to take over the investigation. Smart was transferred to the Salt Lake city police station. Mitchell was in custody at the Sandy police station.
Last month, Elizabeth's parents announced a new reward for information and asked for help in their search for the handyman known only as "Emanuel." They released a sketch of the man.
At the time, they said Elizabeth's sister, Mary Katharine, had come to them recently to say "Emanuel" bore some resemblance to the man who took Elizabeth from their room at gunpoint.
Elizabeth's kidnapping was part of a frightening string of child abductions that included the slayings of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam of San Diego and 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Orange County, Calif.