[TEXOKIE]

I've had a thought which I havent seen anyone else address so far on these threads.

This young lady, by all appearances is a dedicated musician. I am a harpist myself, and I can tell from the little film clips of her playing that she has good technique and can find her way around on the harp. It takes discipline and time to accomplish that. It also usually takes quite a love for one's instrument as well to devote that kind of time to practice and drill.

In my experience, having been around MANY other musicians while growing up, it is HIGHLY unlikely that she would choose to remove herself voluntarily from access to her instrument. I'm not saying it's impossible, but imho the odds just dont seem to favor it. Most musicians,especially the young ones who are starting to see their mastery of the instrument progress, would rather have boils on their tongue than give up their instruments! I even knew a young lady who had been told by a doctor to give up playing her flute because her heart condition would not allow her to tolerate the stresses playing it would cause. Bless her, she passed away before we graduated. She could not feature life without making music.

For what it's worth, I just have to put myself strongly in the column of opinion that the child was taken involuntarily.

[RecentConvert]

We've all seen the long beard of David Mitchell.

I wonder how long it may take to grow such a beard? Anyone has any idea? A year? Maybe less? Maybe more?

[Erasmus]

I hope that Elizabeth practices and plays as much as possible.

Harps are from Heaven.

And Harpists are too.

Did I really type that? <]B^)

[Hildy]

Interesting because by all accounts, Mitchell's wife, Wanda, was an accomplished concert pianist. Actually played for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for a time. So, makes the case for Mitchell's powers even more believable.

[Devil_Anse]

You make a good point. Let me assure you, the harp was not overlooked--on here, or on some other sites!

People would ask, "Where is Elizabeth's harp RIGHT NOW?" This question would usually be asked by people while they were suspecting the Smarts. They would be assuming that if the Smarts were hiding her somewhere, they would have hidden the harp with her. The maddening thing is that we had no way of knowing WHERE the harp was.

Others thought that some psycho "collector" had her hidden in some big rich house not far from her own (big, rich) house. These people figured said psycho would buy her a harp to play, since her angelic appearance while playing the harp, and the heavenly music, would surely appeal to him.

The people with the "psycho collector" theory were the ones who were closest to the truth, in all the discussions that went on. Those--and also the ones who said she'd been stolen as some sort of child bride, or "pure breeding stock" for some psycho polygamist group. They were right, too.

Both of the above fit Mitchell. A few minor points do not fit, such as the fact that Mitchell was not rich, and was not powerful (except, perhaps, as a hypnotist), and Mitchell appears to have been unable to keep enough followers for him to really have a "cult" of any size.

I have no doubt but that, if Mitchell could have stolen and hidden the harp, he would have. Hey, look--it appears he tried to steal her one of her cousins to keep her company! Amazing, his concern for her--at the same time that he was presumably raping her. Mitchell certainly is every bit as weird as any psycho people ever imagined to have done this.