Dad Says Utah Girl 'Brainwashed' by Alleged Captor

Reuters (via Netscape) ^ | 3/13/03 | Sue Pleming

[Pan_Yans Wife]

...the questions surrounding the safe return of the person... (Alberta's child quote)

I have read through a number of your posts, and I am trying to understand something. Maybe you would kindly walk me through it.

If she wasn't abducted, then what really did happen? Because I agree with you that MK's story sounds strange. And, there are dozens of other questions. I want to know if you think that this was a staged kidnapping by the family? And, if not, what is it? What do you suspect?

Best wishes.

[SarahW]

I'm not sure why you brought up the M word...

Back to him fighting for an Amber Alert now, (as opposed to months from now), I think he's trying to focus his anger where it will do the most good.

It's silly to say he "should" express more public vitriol at crazies whom the courts and God will deal with now.
Wasting hate and energy screaming about them in public does nothing for abducted children and families of abducted children.

I wouldn't do it either. He might be misdirecting his anger in your opinion, but trying to turn a horrible experience for his family into something positive for the rest of us.

As far as him not seeing things my way at all about the police, you seem to think that being grateful for efforts made cancels out the families frustrations about efforts to find Emmanuel.

He is, again, focusing on the good and the positive, to his credit.

Being generous in that regard is not "wrong" and it doesn't mean he doesn't think they shouldn't have done certain
things differently. He knows the police will review the way they handled information in the case. And slamming the police when they DID work hard (if not always in the ways he would have wished) does no one any good. It would be ungrateful, very bad form.

I am not so generous as to let the police off the hook for their screw-ups. I think police get tunnel vision and it interferes with investigations. But I don't speak for Ed Smart and I never meant to give that impression.

[RecentConvert]

How amazing that you've come to that conclusion in all of 30 days.

Member since : 2003-02-04.

Amazing, isn't it? How much longer would it have taken you to come to the same conclusion?

BTW, your math is wrong. Should be 43 days, not 30. You're undercutting me by 43%.

On we go!

[Texas Gal]

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

[Alberta's Child]

The one possibility I've considered is that the family had established a relationship with this drifter some time ago, and the daughter somehow became attached to him and left on her own. Not entirely "voluntarily," since she's a minor and may have been very impressionable and easily manipulated, but not under duress like an abduction, either.

You have to understand that many people were raising an kinds of questions about this case almost from the beginning. I never did so publicly because it would have been in bad taste (and irrelevant) while the person was still missing. But she is safe now, so the questions can be asked -- and the circumstances surrounding her return have raised more questions than they've answered.

[Alberta's Child]

To follow up my last point, it is entirely possible that the younger sister was "coached" in her story by the parents -- because they knew that the case would attract a lot more attention (from the police and from other citizens) if people thought it was an abduction than it would have attracted if people thought it was a confused teen who ran away.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Then, you seem to be suggesting that the community, and how they see this case, is part of the context.

If Mormons do not believe in plural marriage, why does it appear that the Smarts were not OUTRAGED that she had been taken under the wing of a lunatic who wanted her as a wife? And then publicized their suspicions that she was drawn into the attractive idea of being married to him... last fall, instead of now?

It almost sounds like they were condoning what had happened, by not saying that she had run off with him. Saying that you have a fourteen year old runaway, who has been fallen under the spell of someone who wishes to marry her, seems highly provocative to me. Would the press run with that if 1) plural marriage is illegal and 2) she is a minor?

I then wonder if the Smarts were trying to protect the fragile reputation of the church and thought that the media in UT would not have been as responsive. Because, to the rest of America UT, plural marriage and Mormonism is highly controversial.

[Queen Jadis]

I thought it was strange that she asked about her brother's grades. I am not sure how that makes her family controlling though? The movie is not about "Angels" It's about girls in a catholic school who are supposed to be angels but get into trouble....hence the title. It was made in 1966.

[Iwo Jima]

please check yourself in for some help

I checked into availability and was told that you got the last available space. They said to check back in about ten years.

[Iwo Jima]

Just saw your post about Jeannie Boylan. If there is a trial, her sketch will be subpoenaed and she will probably be a witness --for the defense, it sounds. It appears that she formed opinions and/or was told things by MK which contradict Ed's position.

Did you get the feeling that he found Boylan's involvement a problem, as opposed to just not being helpful?

[Iwo Jima]

Ed said that Elizabeth said that Mitchell had a knife. Of course, Ed is beginning to have zero credibility with me. I can just see the conversation going like this:

ED: He abducted you by threatening you with a gun, right?

ELIZ: No, I told you, he didn't abduct me.

ED: But he had a gun, right?

ELIZ: No, he doesn't even own a gun.

ED: What about a knife. Does he own a knife?

ELIZ: Yes, he has a knife. I've used it while we were camping.

ED TO PRESS: "Elizabeth said HE HAD A KNIFE!"

[Ann Archy]

My guess is that there will NEVER be a trial!!!! Too much information that wasn';t quite correct would come out. They will have to plead guilty to a more minor offense...so no trial.

[Ann Archy]

Whatever........if you think so.

[arthurus]

The father has a voice and manner of speaking that most of us consciously or subsconsciously identify as "Liberal". That leads to suspicion of something not being right. I, for one, can't help but feel uneasy about trusting anything he says, not because of what he says, but because of the sound of it- fingers on the blackboard stuff.

[Iwo Jima]

I am beginning to think that you are right. It would be one messy trial. It all depends on what Eliz. will testify to. But since they are saying that she was "brainwashed," etc., they are undermining her credibility as a witness. I guess that we will know pretty soon what they are charged with, and that should tell us something.

[twigs]

I wonder about the dogs too. I went back and looked at early CNN stories about this. They did have dogs out, but police declined to comment on what they found. Why? Those dogs should have led straight to Elizabeth. There was also an early story about someone Eliz. had been seen talking with at a social event. His sketch was posted on FR and people commented at the time how could she have meet someone so creepy; I have been unable to find that thread. I'm assuming it's not Mitchell, since he supposedly was with Eliz. in the mountains, but I wonder.

[Humal]

"Why? Those dogs should have led straight to Elizabeth."

I agree, especially if she & her kidnappers were hiding in the hills for months afterwards. There have been reports of bloodhounds picking up the trail weeks later. This would have to be in a fairly secluded area, but from the pictures seen, the area behind Elizabeth's house was. I missed the story about someone Elizabeth had been talking to at a social event.

[twigs]

The story about Elizabeth talking about someone at a social event came out on June 6, 2002 from what I can tell. At the time, there was s sketch, but I can't find it now. Someone was also questioned at a nearby convenience store. I think they stole something and the person appeared on tape. At the time, it was thought maybe the person had something to do with Eliz's disappearance. He was a drifter and stole stuff, so maybe it could have had something to do with him, I don't know.

[COBOL2Java]

I'm going to wait and see what comes out about this case before I think a darned thing other than a young girl is now home with her family, and isn't that great?

I'm with you, friend. Assuming she was truly an abductee, I just hope she gets therapy to heal her emotional and mental scars...