Elizabeth Smart who vanished from Utah home found safe

Seattle Times ^ | March 12, 2003 | Mike Carter

[homeschool mama]

Mark Furhman? (sp?)

[Admin Moderator]

This is a general warning, anyone who engages in personal attacks or religion bashing will get a suspension. This is the only warning.

[valleygal]

I think there is a group similar to the one you described
on the AZ border. I've heard about it a time or two but would need to research it.

[stlnative]

One of the most recent pictures of Liz before the kidnapping.


Picture of her leaving the Police Station and returning home.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Apparently Mitchell was a very persuasive, especially with children.

Con artists can be very persuasive with anybody, children especially. Evil is as evil does.

[Shermy]

so maybe that is why Ed went off the deep end about the Amber Alert.....

That's an astute connection. That would explain it.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Oh, yes... I heard this. Such tragedy for the parents of those boys! I cannot imagine the pain they live with.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Gives real religion a black eye.

Er, No. This shows him for what he is. If Hitler went to mass every Sunday, would that have given Christianity a "black eye"? Nonsense.

[marajade]

Furhman's name is spelled correctly...

[motexva]

Kevin, I recall no shortage of posts from last summer to the effect that the police did not believe some aspects of the sister's story. There were allegations that the parents' stories weren't holding together either.

Could a young child have gotten confused about what she saw or heard in a terrifying or confusing situation? Some people confess to terrible crimes they did not commit under stressful police questioning - could a young child start telling police what she thought they wanted to hear under this same stress? Could a rebellious child and her manipulative seducer concoct a bizarre skit for the benefit of the sister, for reasons only known to their cracked minds?

I don't have answers to these questions, but Kevin, why didn't she run off at any point in the last months? He was apparently taking her to parties, to parks, even reports of Burger Kings. True she was in San Diego and perhaps elsewhere for several months, but she has apparently been in SLC for some time. Anywhere in that town she went, she could have revealed herself - "I am Elizabeth Smart! Help me! Save me from this man!" Why didn't she?

The Viet Cong couldn't brainwash people, the North Koreans couldn't, the Nazis supposedly could but their victims apparently needed steady doses of subtle narcotics and neuro-poisons - do you think some itenerant street preacher could have pulled this off?

My view of this guy is that he's a Rasputin type - very persuasive and charismatic, especially to a young girl experiencing the alienation and rebellion common to that age.

There's a lot more to this story than what we have now. I'm sorry if my questions and assertions disturb you, but I have a feeling all of us are going to be profoundly disillusioned by what we discover about this case.

[Partisan Hack]

This is a general warning, anyone who engages in personal attacks or religion bashing will get a suspension. This is the only warning.

The larger thread of the afternoon was pulled because of it. Way too much to talk about here (even some controversy!) without needing to resort to disparaging religious remarks.

[homeschool mama]

Thank you.

[Palladin]

Where were you today when you found out about Elizabeth?

Last week, you told me not to ping you anymore, so I didn't.

But I bet you got pinged right and left by everyone else today!

Anyway, we can all go to bed happy tonight that this lovely child has been restored to the bosom of her family.

[GLDNGUN]

Mormons get unfairly razzed a lot about a perceived history of plural marriages/child brides. In this case the prejudices will be reinforced, it appears.

Perceived? It is historical fact that many early Mormon leaders had many wives, including "child" brides. Joseph Smith took a bride of 13 years of age, for example. He and Brigham Young both had dozens of wives. In this case perception is reality.

[CCWoody]

Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old Salt Lake City girl kidnapped from her home last June, had been held in a polygamous relationship by a man who believed God had told him to take her as another wife. ~ Article

I wonder if he is going to claim he is a prophet as well.

Woody.

[Hildy]

Consensual? You're out of your mind. She was taken from her bedroom, she was in the mountains behind her home, could hear them calling for her and couldn't do anything about it. Why is it so hard to believe that a crazy maniac could do this to a beautiful young girl.

[valleygal]

Remember that boy from California, who was kidnapped, back in the eighties I think... Steven... they made a movie, "My name is Steven".

I think it was Steven's brother that killed Carole Sund, her daughter and their foreign exchange student. He also killed another gal. Somehere around Yosemite, I think.

[Palladin]

Maybe not. The weirdo might be sterile or impotent. He has no natural children, only stepchildren.

[Nataku X]

actually, it's every American teenage girl's dream to be starved into too-thinness (up to a point, anyway). I know it is mine.

Point being, if you want to badly maul a girl's self esteem, don't let her shave or makeup, and force her into fatness. She probably -wanted- to wear the veil after a while.