Posted on 03/13/2003 9:51:55 AM PST by SarahW
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The drifter suspected of snatching a 15-year-old Utah girl rescued after a nine-month ordeal was described on Thursday as a man who believed he was a prophet and who likely brainwashed the child.
Elizabeth Smart was found alive on Wednesday in what relatives described as a "miracle," and reunited with her family after police received a tip from two people in a store just miles from the girl's home where she was abducted from her bedroom last June.
The teen-ager's father, Ed Smart, told reporters he believed his daughter had been "brainwashed" by her alleged abductor, identified by police as Brian David Mitchell, a street preacher and itinerant who once did work around the Smart's home.
"I can just tell that he (Mitchell) did an absolute brainwashing job on her," Smart told ABC's "Good Morning America."
When police picked up the girl in a car in Sandy, Utah, on Wednesday, she was wearing a white veil. A woman identified as Wanda Barzee was also picked up by police.
No charges have been filed against Mitchell and Barzee and little information has been disclosed about the girl's ordeal.
Smart, who broke down at times, said the man had held his daughter at knifepoint until August in the mountains directly above their Salt Lake City home. Elizabeth heard rescuers calling her name but could not reply.
"It kills me she was there for three months, literally up in the hills (behind our house)," Smart told NBC's "Today" show.
Mitchell's stepsons, Mark and Derrick Thompson, told morning television that Mitchell and their mother, Barzee, had traded an "average life," started wearing white robes and sold their possessions to live on the street to preach and panhandle.
Mitchell's stepdaughter, Louree Gayler, said she moved out of their home in her early teens.
"Brian was always hugging me the wrong way and kissing on me and I just didn't like it over there. So I went and moved back with my dad and I haven't seen my mom since," Gayler said on morning television.
After hearing of Smart's disappearance and reports their stepfather might be involved, the Thompson brothers said they had a "gut feeling" Mitchell had taken the little girl and they scoured homeless shelters for them.
They described a bizarre life with their stepfather who had told them he was a prophet and spoke continuously of talking to angels.
Ed Smart said his daughter spent her first night back at home with family members holding them close and watching her favorite video, "The Trouble with Angels."
Investigators renewed their search for Mitchell last month based on descriptions by Elizabeth's younger sister, Mary Catherine, of the intruder who took Elizabeth away at gunpoint for their bedroom.
Smart said the reunion between the two sisters had been particularly poignant.
"It was just tears and hugs. As they fell asleep, they were hand in hand in bed. It was just the thing that I had hoped for and looked forward to," he told ABC.
That's true ---she actually doesn't look traumatized in any way, she looks healthy and happy, happy to see her parents but also like the past few months wasn't really horrible either. Hopefully the couple was treating her well enough, maybe like a replacement daughter and weren't abusing her.
If it was voluntary, or staged to look like an abduction, it might have had nothing to do with any attraction to the man. Might have been an attraction for his so-called "mission." Teens can often be very idealistic -- or she might have needed to get away for other reasons.
SourceMonths after her disappearance, Elizabeth Smart and the Mitchells apparently lived a short while in a downtown apartment — about a block away from Salt Lake City police headquarters — as a guest of Daniel Trotta.
Elizabeth, who "was always veiled" and "really didn't seem scared," according to Trotta, sang hymns, listened to music, ate meals, talked about favorite classes she'd taken in school and slept overnight for nearly a week sometime in October at Oxford Place (about 300 East and 300 South).
"I didn't think it was strange," Trotta said, adding that he figured she and the woman wore the veils as part of a religious "meditation practice."
I believe in Original Sin and Total Depravity so I confess my own evil.
It's not a fact that Mormonism is slightly different than Christianity.
I will abandon this thread so that I don't get banned :-)
I sorry for offending you personally.
Yes it is rampant but there is even a bigger problem. This is a "closed society". So all problems must get reported to the elders of the congregation first (as all JWs consider government a tool of satin). Thus, the kids come forward and tell the elders of the congregation. But the elders need 2 witnesses to the crime before they do anything. Of course when was the last time that you heard a paedophile let a witness watch him molest a kid? So the elders say to the kid and his/her family, well there is only one eye witness and thus, we will close the case. The kids are also told to stay silent on the issue because it is important to keep the image of the organizaion "clean". Thus, no one knows what has happened. A lot of them have been kicked out of the organization and family home. they are shunned by their families as per the organization's requirements. But at the same time the organization has allowed the paedophile to keep his priviliges and even move up in the congregation - Dan Fitzwater in Las Vegas is a classic case. He assaulted ast least 17 kids with the knowledge of the JW leadership (aka Watchtower). A lot of advocates trying to change the policies with the organization have also been disfeelowshipped and are being shunned by their families.
The other concern is that whether the JW is a convicted paedophile or not, he/she must still go into public and knock on doors as mandated by the organization. You as a member of the public don't know if the person coming to your door is a convicted paedophile or not and that could pose a risk to your children. I'm all for free religion and allowing JWs to knock on my door but they need to take proper steps to alert the public as to what they are doing and who may be coming to your door.
I and others worked with reporter Laurie Goodstein at the New York Times and got a story out on it on August 11, 2002. As much as I hate liberal rags she did one great story for us. Dateline ran it back on May 28, 2002 and I got my Canadian documentary friends at CBC (The Fifth Estate) to do the story on January 29, 2003. Panorama at the BBC also ran with it last year too.
For more information click here - the Silentlambs web site.
The database that this organization keeps on file shows at least 23,720 documented cases within this organization. Lawsuits are just starting in this. One in the USA has just past summary judgement stage. There are about 100 lawsuits starting up this year. I think when these lawsuits get to the trial phase in court you may see more press interest in the stories.
Hope that helps.
hawk
Again, I'm not blaming her. If it comes across that way then I'm sorry. But this would not be the first case that played out in the manner I mentioned. Police cases of this nature show that both the truly abducted and the 'duped followers' (for lack of a better word) both respond that they were abducted upon being located. I'm glad she's home with her family and hope she is able to have something approaching a normal life inthe years to come.
Then again maybe I read too many crime stories for my own good.
I rest my case.
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