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.

[glock rocks]

needle or rifle squad in utah, the choice is up to the condemned.

[glory]

Look at that smile--she reminds me of children running to get in line for a theme park ride--she really seems very joyful! As for gaining weight, she just looks she's a bit older and filled out a little more in the face.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

The Salt Lake Tribune said that he was LDS but he and Barzee were excommunicated at some point. His ex-wife just said he was "anti-Mormon" but perhaps she wasn't thinking of the apostate splinter groups...who knows? This guy seems so out there...I don't see how it matters much what he was against religiously.

He could just be a religious wacko who thought he needed an extra wife or daughter. Apparently he viewed himself as some kind of prophet.

[Illbay]

You need to understand the attitude that most in the "Mormon" community have. They tend to be very trusting, and they want to "help others."

This guy wasn't "brought into their home," he was hired to do about five hours' worth of work around the house. I don't even know that it was "inside work."

And plenty of things like this have happened without any such "trust," such as the abduction of Polly Klaas.

Just because this guy was hired for a few hours' work doesn't mean he had some special powers or knowledge to enable him access. It was STILL an outside job.

I've noticed a lot of "blaming the victim" going on about this case. It has been so from the outset. I have my suspicions why this is so, but I'll just say that I think it is poor, poor behavior.

[Illbay]

Unfortunately I don't think that what he did is considered a "capital offense" any more.

Not that I agree with that, but this guy's looking at long prison time, not death.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

No flames from me, and I'm as PC as they come around here. Momma was not using her brains, and I'm sure she's been beating herself up over it.

This was a good opportunity for me to reinforce to my children the value of fighting back if someone tried to snatch them, and to reiterate that the doors of home are always open, regardless of what someone convinces or coerces them to do. I suspect that this girl was overly naive, and her family had harsh things to say about "fallen" women. The first thing that went through my head was that at some point, the girl thought she wouldn't be welcomed back, because after many sexual assaults,a naive 14 year old girl will feel worthless and devoid of hope.

[glock rocks]

if the lindberg law applies, it's a federal matter. will be interesting to see how and by whom he is arraigned.

[glory]

I hear you--I think perhaps they may have been shooting for she looks bigger, as in older. My guess is she's probably gained an inch or two and filled out a little as a female does in puberty. She seems to have developed breasts and probably a hipline and this made some reporter think she has gained weight, when in fact her body has just developed naturally as any girl's does during puberty.

She loos great! Given the guy is a fringy, perhaps he has some kind of grooming period before a girl can be "engaged" so hopefully she has not been abused sexually.

[Sparky760]

Don't take me the wrong way I am not implying that the blame should be placed anywhere other than this lowlife who kidnapped her. All I am try to point out is with our courts not really putting criminals away, one always has to be vigilant ad suspect about people they don't know. I am a trusting person myself but at 42 I have learned that we don't live in a perfect world. All I am saying is there is a lesson here as well.

[Timeout]

There was a famous case...

Gary Gilmore? He made the state's case more difficult by refusing to appeal his death sentence. He WANTED to die. He chose firing squad...and the state eventually fulfilled his wish.

[Quilla]

That's all I've been able to think about this morning Sparky. Just imagine how horrible the mother has to feel knowing that a person she hired off the street is responsible for her daughter's kidnapping. I'm sure the mother is sufficiently 'beating herself up' over this grave mistake and as a mother, I will not judge her. And considering the kidnapper's exwife claims he's a pedophile only exasperates the guilt the mother must be feeling.

[Illbay]

I don't think this guy followed any "rules" other than the ones inside his own head.

Because this is Utah many are under the mistaken impression that he is a typical "fundy Mormon" (as they call themselves) but I have seen nothing to indicate this.

I think he was a cult of one, and I'm sure the "tenets" of his religion changed from day to day, on a whim.

[Illbay]

Your pronunciations are well-known on these threads.

My pronunciation is that you are as thick as a brick.

[glory]

OH, I agree Illbay, but that's precisely what I meant. Because he was so fringy he may have maintained certain rituals regarding and "outsider", even one he kidnapped. It's just a hope I have so that there is one thing less they will have to "fix" with this young lady.

I never considered him a fundy Mormon so I don't know where that came from. I have lived and interacted with many LDS families and have a number of close friends who are LDS. I don't have any notion that this guy is in anyway a kindred spirit of the LDS families I know.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

Precisely what I was thinking. I wasn't surprised that he has once been LDS (it IS Utah...the majority of the population is or has been LDS), but based on the stories I'd read, the guy is absolutely certifiable. He wanders the streets in freaky robes and tells everyone he's a prophet while begging for change. There's folks like this in New York or any other major city...

[anniegetyourgun]

Furthermore, I don't want to hear a single lib/dem condemn this guy. After all, they embrace bizarre arrangements under the guise of "lifestyle." They embrace their sexually deviant and sadistic god, Alfred Kinsey, and enshrine his philosophy (that all children are sexual at birth) in their sex ed programs. And they embrace Jocelyn Elders who endorsed a recent book that claims there may actually not be a problem with child-adult sexual relationship (their euphemism for child rape is "intergenerational sex").

The lib/dems had better not rejoice in his capture - instead they should send an attorney to plead his alternative lifestyle choices as legitimate.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Excuse me? Who crapped in your wheaties?

If you think that endangering your family somehow makes you more holy, thts your prerogative.

I simply think it wasn't a wise course of action - the better course would be to not bring the guy into the home. As it was, this girl paid a heavy price for her mother's lack of prudence, and should be thankful it wasn't much, much worse. Even so, this was a life altering thing for her.

Consider it a learning experience for us all.

[Lunatic Fringe]

First let me say... thank God she is home and safe.

But now the questions begin, which I am sure the police are asking....

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?

Something seems fishy here....

[AppyPappy]

I thought the "gained weight" comment was completely over the top. You just don't say that about a 14 year-old girl, especially one that has been through what she has experienced. I can't remember where I heard it. I think MSNBC.

[Illbay]

Excuse me? Who crapped in your wheaties?

You did, months ago, with your incessant tale-spinning about what YOU think "really happened" in this episode.

I recall clearly that you are one of the primary spinners-of-whole-cloth-from-nothing on this crime.

You have intimated that it was an "inside job," that the Smart family is somehow involved, etc., etc.

It was disgusting then and it's disgusting now. You don't know these people, and you know nothing about them, yet you make bold to "expose" their secret motives, etc.

This Jerry Springer-like approach to life is a loser's game.