Elizabeth Smart Reuninted with Her Mother**picture***

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE ^ | March 13, 2003 | Elizabeth Neff

[Kentucky]

Police found Elizabeth Smart alive and in the company of a transient panhandler Wednesday, some nine months after she disappeared from her Salt Lake City home. Sandy police located Elizabeth in the suburb with Brian David Mitchell, who had worked odd jobs for the Smarts for five hours in November 2001 and was wanted for questioning. Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said investigators are convinced Elizabeth was kidnapped, and released the name of Wanda Eileen Barzee as a second suspect in the crime.

[TonyS6]

What disturbs me most about the story is that I don't believe a word of it.

1) the sister suddenly remembers after 9 months that it is this particular person? Bet: the sister knew who it was and all along and promised not to say. Bottom line: it wasn't an abduction.

2) the Smart girl is in Salt Lake City with this guy and his "wife" in disguise. She never tried to make a break for it? This is understandable for a 6 year old, but for a 15 year old? As terrible as it sounds, it fits the data better than the story the family is spinning.

What should the police be investigating? That the Smart girl had met the "kidnapper" before hand and agreed to a "kidnapping." In actuality, she and the guy staged a fake kidnapping in order to run away from home.

Unfortunately, I don't think the Smarts or the police like this outcome and will repress it. It is always easier to execute a street person than for the Smarts to admit there was a problem at home.

I am glad the girl is safe. It just could be that her home environment is more stressful or dangerous than we are led to believe.

[Irene Adler]

"Could she not get to a phone? Did she have no opportunity to get away? They were apparantly found walking down a street.... Why did she not just run to a convenience store or a cop?"

Do you remember the case of the NY psychiatrist (I think, or possibly a lawyer) and his live-in who adopted a little girl whom the sadistic man then abused and eventually beat to death? The live-in girlfriend (Hedda Nussbaum was her name, I believe) allowed the poor child to lie unconscious on the floor for a period of 4-6 hours after the man had left the apartment, and she never called 911. If that call had been placed, the child might well have recovered because brain swelling occurred during that time which killed her. Nussbaum got off on an insanity defense because she, too, had been abused by the man.

If it is somehow "understandable" that a grown woman would allow a helpless child to die, once the abuser had left the area, because she, herself, was abused and afraid, then surely we can give an impressionable, quiet, 14 year-old girl a break in this regard. The kid was scared and possibly brainwashed. I have heard it reported that she has said also that she was simply never left alone between her two captors (which remains to be seen). I am sure the two of them told her a lot of scary lies about lots of things. There are plenty of spunky kids out there in the world who might have grabbed a chance to escape, but not all kids are spunky kids.

[Catspaw]

There are some significant unanswered questions in this case, and if you know anything about law enforcement, you are aware that these questions are already being asked in private.

Of course. And that's where they should stay, unless you want the investigation to be tainted and the kidnappers to get off. Of course, you're privy to these interviews, aren't you?

[Catspaw]

Your proof for these assertions are what? Do you have facts to back this up or are you giving us your own personal speculation?

[AppyPappy]

Good point. We see this with grown women all the time. Why not a 14 year-old?

[webstersII]

Duh. Any person with half a brain could come up with these questions without being privy to any inside information.

Apparently you have some inside info because you keep insisting that the questions are not reasonable. Maybe you could fill me and everyone else in on your inside scoop. We would love to hear it.

[lady lawyer]

It's now a choice of lethal injection or firing squad.

[Marysecretary]

What an incredible story. What an incredible young woman! Thanks for posting this. I can recall it somewhat but never knew the details.

[GovernmentShrinker]

No, that girl was located and identified a few days later and turned out to be much older than the reporting witnesses had thought (over 18, maybe even over 21, and definitely not being held against her will).

[Goodman26]

She never tried to make a break for it? This is understandable for a 6 year old, but for a 15 year old? As terrible as it sounds, it fits the data better than the story the family is spinning.

Yeah. At the very least, the guy, Mitchell, has a defense that some on a jury might buy into.

[Irene Adler]

"...a very naive teen from a sternly moral household."

I never saw anything "stern" in these parents. Morality can be very loving and kind; it doesn't have to be "stern", and loving, close-knit, and kind what this family always seemed to be, to me, whenever I saw them and heard them speak on television. I am thinking, right now, of one of the finest, kindest couples I have ever known who are LDS (he has been the bishop of his local ward). They are very fine, truly virtuous people, and very, very kind and generous to others.

Additionally, your comment regarding Elizabeth probably having been told negative stories in the family about "fallen women" sounds overly Victorian and rather farfetched to me, after the LDS families I have known and from what I have seen of the Smart family; they live on planet Earth in the 21st century just like the rest of us.

[lady lawyer]

Appy, they were interviewing his mother-in-law on the radio yesterday. He was born into a Mormon family, but had gone off on a tangent of his own. A couple of other interviewees said he was into alcohol and drugs. He is clearly mentally ill, perhaps a result of the LSD is stepdaughter said he liked. I don't know if he was "anti-Mormon," as much as he had delusions of being some kind of prophet himself.

[Marysecretary]

I'm not sure how to respond. There are a lot of unanswered questions here and I fervently hope and pray that the truth is revealed. Do you think she went with him willingly?

[Catspaw]

You're "asking questions?" No, it's just rank speculation. Do you have any facts to back yourself up? Well, no, you don't. You spend your time in idle speculation, meant only to provide yourself with entertainment. Meanwhile, the police investigation goes on. Do you have access to that investigation? Can you give me some factual basis for your assertions? Well, no, you can't. When you do have some facts, give me a ping.

[Irene Adler]

"What should the police be investigating? That the Smart girl had met the "kidnapper" before hand and agreed to a "kidnapping." In actuality, she and the guy staged a fake kidnapping in order to run away from home. Unfortunately, I don't think the Smarts or the police like this outcome and will repress it. It is always easier to execute a street person than for the Smarts to admit there was a problem at home. I am glad the girl is safe. It just could be that her home environment is more stressful or dangerous than we are led to believe."

This sounds like nonsense to me, and I am sure it will not turn out to have been the case.

[Catspaw]

Yeah. At the very least, the guy, Mitchell, has a defense that some on a jury might buy into.

Oh, don't worry--once Mitchell and his lady friend get lawyered up, we're really going to see a sell job by the defense attorneys. I do expect Mitchell to attempt an insanity defense.

[Tiger28]

My trivial question for Elizabeth Smart ( hey, the media is going to ask tons of them ) would be to ask if was she aware that everyone was looking for her and of the media attention that was given to her kidnapping

her uncle just was on the view (via phone) and someone asked him that exact question- he said she had no idea. had had no exposure to media. she even wondered what all the blue ribbons all over SLC were about

[bonfire]

"She just looks so darned good I could eat her whole! "


Ditto to that.

[CatoRenasci]

I guess hanging became too expensive: have to build the gallows, tie the rope, pay the executioner, etc.

It's a pity, I rather liked the sound of malefactors being sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.

[webstersII]

"Do you have any facts to back yourself up?"

Uhm, lessee, there are two reports of her not solely in the company of these two wackos, one was her in a very public place, the other with a person who said he didn't know it was ES but would have done something about it if he had known. There is a third, unconfirmed, sighting of her at a gas station several months ago. This third one may or may not be related

Let me help you here. Those are called facts. What you do with facts is then called speculation. You are speculating that she was unable to do anything about her situation, even though being around other people. Are you the arbiter of speculation? Can no one else speculate except for you? You are the one who has no facts to back up what you say, but you continue to deride others who speculate a different conclusion than you.