Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Elizabeth Smart found alive!!

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-12-2003, 05:55 PM:

After being abducted from the bedroom of her home over 9 months ago 14 year old Elizabeth Smart was found alive today wandering the streets of Salt Lake City with a couple. The Male of that couple was the one that Elizabeths sister identified from a sketch about a month ago, and had previously also done work at the Smart home on at least one occasion.

The police have schedulaed a news conference at 5PM mountain time. It will also be interesting to see how and if Richard Ricci fit into all of this....he died mysteriously while in the hospital about 6 months ago.

Some of you may not be familiar with this case but there has been a national hunt ongoing for her since she disappeared.
Mark @ CLACO

From the SL Tribune....
Sandy City Police say they have found Elizabeth Smart alive. Police confirmed at 3 p.m. Wednesday that the girl was located in the Salt Lake City suburb, and are planning to hold a news conference at 5:00 this afternoon.
Smart, the 15-year-old daughter of Edward and Lois Smart, disappeared from her Salt Lake City home early Wednesday, June 5, 2002. The search for the missing girl became a nationwide hunt that concluded 280 days later when she was found today in a Sandy neighborhood.
Police followed thousands of leads before focusing their search on
Richard Albert Ricci, who had worked odd jobs for the family. Ricci died August 30, 2002 due to complications from a brain hemorrhage. More recently, police were seeking Brian David "Emmanuel" Mitchell, who worked odd jobs for the Smarts in November 2001, for questioning in the case.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-12-2003, 06:37 PM:

It is very happy news Elizabeth Smart was found alive. Few could possibly imagine the level of joy and relief felt by the girl's parents. I only hope that in the 9 months she was kidnapped that she has not gone through any great physical or psychological harm. Everyone should pray for Elizabeth and her family to regain a normal life as soon as possible.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-12-2003, 06:54 PM:

For once a story like that has a happy ending. Will be interesting to hear the details as they come out.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 03-13-2003, 01:11 AM:

Her "Circle Surround" desings were neat ideas & her other cinema products were good value for the money. It is good to know that now we will be assured of continued support for all of her products.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 03-13-2003, 01:45 AM:

quote:
Her "Circle Surround" desings were neat ideas & her other cinema products were good value for the money. It is good to know that now we will be assured of continued support for all of her products.

huh?

I'm relieved to hear that they found her. So many times the familys are not that lucky. I couldn't even imagine ever being in their position...

A happy day for Utah!

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 03-13-2003, 06:27 AM:

Heart Warming - It is great to see her home with her family.
The couple that kidnapped her should still be put away for life.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-14-2003, 04:10 AM:

Toronto Star

Mar. 14, 2003. 01:00 AM

Abducted teen told police drifters were her parents
Elizabeth Smart, 15, safely home But mysteries in abduction deepenElizabeth Smart safely home But mysteries in abduction deepen

BYMAGGIE HABERMAN AND JOSE MARTINEZ

SALT LAKE CITY—Elizabeth Smart wouldn't even answer to her own name.

When the missing Utah teen turned up Wednesday — after a bizarre nine-month odyssey with a pair of drifters — she gave cops a phony identity, called herself a runaway and referred to her captors as her parents.

"We took her aside. She kind of just blurted out, `I know who you think I am. You guys think I'm that Elizabeth Smart girl who ran away,'"said Utah, Police Officer Bill O'Neal.

Asked again whether she was the missing 15-year-old, she gave police in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy another puzzling answer.

"Thou sayeth," she said.

"I'll take that as a yes," replied Sergeant Victor Quezada.

The teen was wearing a veil over her face when she was spotted with Brian Mitchell, 49, a former family handyman accused of kidnapping her from her bedroom at knifepoint in June, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, 57.

Elizabeth called herself Augustine Marshall and refused to reveal her true identity until a tearful reunion with her parents at the Sandy police station.

"I just grabbed her and held her and was crying and crying and crying," said her father, Edward Smart. "And I said, `Is it really you?' And she said `Yes.'"

Mitchell and Barzee — who were being held last night on suspicion of aggravated kidnapping — allegedly held the girl against her will in a journey that spanned from the mountains in Utah to campsites in California.

Along the way, there were several sightings of the trio draped in bizarre white robes — at a party in Salt Lake City, at a store near San Diego and in Nevada.

"There's no question that she was psychologically affected by her connection to this group," said Salt Lake City Police Chief Rich Dinse.

Elizabeth, now 15, stayed out of sight yesterday as local and federal prosecutors considered what criminal charges to file against Barzee and Mitchell — who once worked on the roof of the Smart family's house.

The jubilant father also took a jab at investigators, saying mistakes had been made in the long search for Elizabeth.

Though the girl was right in their backyard, he said, investigators had focused on another Smart handyman, Richard Ricci, who died in prison.

Police said Elizabeth was held in the Utah mountains from June to August. In August, the three shifted to California, where they remained until early Wednesday, when they returned to Utah. They were quickly recognized from sketches put out by the Smart family.

The sightings led to a joyous homecoming, and Elizabeth popped in her favourite video and played the harp at her parents' urging. "She struggled through a couple of pieces, and she said, `Well, it has been nine months,"' said her father.

Police say they made mistakes in their effort to find Elizabeth, fixing on the wrong suspects and withholding a composite sketch of the man now being held in her abduction.

But at a news conference yesterday, Dinse said their two goals had been met: Elizabeth was found safe and her captors were in custody.

Members of the Smart family had criticized the department for dismissing Mitchell.

In a wide-ranging news conference with FBI agent Chip Burrus, Dinse said Mitchell fancied himself a polygamist, although he refused to say if Elizabeth was sexually assaulted.

Authorities in California disclosed yesterday that Mitchell had been arrested and held for six days in San Diego County last month for vandalizing a church.

Daniel Trotta, who says he unknowingly sheltered Elizabeth and the drifter couple in a Salt Lake City apartment for several days last fall, claims the girl never expressed fear and had opportunities to escape.

Authorities have refused to confirm Trotta's account.

Kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst said yesterday that she understands why Elizabeth Smart would have been unable to escape from her captors.

"You have been so abused and so robbed of your free will and so frightened that you believe any lie that your abductor has told you," Hearst told CNN's Larry King. "You think that either you will be killed if you reach out to get help or ... your family will be killed.''

From The Star's wire services

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-14-2003, 04:14 AM:

Toronto Sun

Friday, March 14, 2003

'SHE HEARD US CALLING HER'
Abducted Utah teen recalled hearing searchers

By BILL KAUFMAN, IN UTAH

SALT LAKE CITY -- A captive Elizabeth Smart could hear would-be rescuers calling her name while being held in a foothills canyon behind her home, her dad said yesterday.

"She (knew) she had people calling out for her ... I can't believe it," said Ed Smart, recalling the days last summer when hundreds of seachers looked for her in Dry Creek Canyon near the family's affluent neighbourhood.

Hours after she vanished, Elizabeth, then 14, heard an uncle, David Francom, calling her, family members said yesterday.

But the numerous searches all proved in vain and melted away, to be replaced by furtive hopes that flyers and billboards would lead to solid tips.

"It's the darndest thing -- it's like that Chandra Levy thing," said Tom Owens, an uncle who organized many of the searches, referring to the Washington, D.C., intern whose body was found in 2001 after repeated searches of the same area.

"I'm dying to go up there myself to see what the hiding hole was."

Nine months of anguished uncertainty ended Wednesday when Elizabeth was spotted walking in the suburb of Sandy with self-styled preacher Brian Mitchell, 49, and Wanda Ilene Barzee, 57.

Elizabeth spent yesterday at home with her mother, Lois, as her father and scores of relatives gathered on the lawn of the nearby Latter Day Saints (Mormon) centre to happily face hordes of reporters.

"It's real, it's real," an ecstatic Ed Smart said. "I'm always sitting there, hugging her. I didn't want to (come here and) leave her."

The father, at times overcome with emotion, said his daughter spent a quiet, loving night with her family.

"Elizabeth is happy. She's well," said Smart, adding she's changed from the 14-year-old who was abducted from her home on June 5, 2002. "She's really a young woman (now)."

Family members urged the teen to once again play the upright harp she hadn't stroked since last spring.

"She said, 'It's been nine months, you know,' " her father said.

Elizabeth spent time watching her favourite video -- The Trouble with Angels -- said Smart, and was overwhelmed by the number of supportive e-mails she's received.

She also cuddled in bed with her sister, Mary Katherine -- "just kind of tucked in and holding hands" -- Smart said.

The girl hasn't been pressed for details of her nine-month ordeal, her dad said. "What is going to come out is going to come out -- I don't have it in me to make it harder," he said.

The crucial witness in the drama, Smart said, was 10-year-old Mary Katherine, who insisted last October the man she'd seen kidnap her sister was Brian David Mitchell, a religious zealot who went by the name Emmanuel, which is Hebrew for Jesus.

"She's my hero -- I can't get over how she was inspired to come forward on Emmanuel," he said.

Smart also had kind words for Mitchell's sister, who reportedly told police her brother might be holding the teen.

"At great risk, she came forward to say: 'I think he's the person' and I thank her from the bottom of my heart," he said. "I knew someone would be out there."

Smart said he has "no doubt" his daughter was brainwashed. "I have no doubt she feared for her life that night," he added.

As for Mitchell, who had been briefly hired by the family last year to do some maintenance work on their home, Smart said he's the type of person "who just shouldn't be out there."

UNLIKELY ABDUCTOR

He recalled dealing with Mitchell, and described an unlikely abductor.

"He was so soft-spoken and quiet; I could never guess such an animal could exist behind someone who could look so reasonable," Smart said.

Mitchell, he said, had been watching his daughter for some time, although he didn't elaborate.

The smiling father said he reached his lowest point in early December while sharing his pain with John Walsh, host of the TV show America's Most Wanted, which recently ran pictures of Mitchell, leading to several tips.

"I was pretty low ... I prayed and prayed and prayed she was out there," he said.

"What an absolute miracle ... He answers the prayers of the world," he said.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-14-2003, 09:43 AM:

quote:
The teen was wearing a veil over her face when she was spotted with Brian Mitchell, 49, a former family handyman accused of kidnapping her from her bedroom at knifepoint in June, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, 57.

Doesn't Michael Jackson's kids wear veils and masks all the time? [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 03-15-2003, 10:59 AM:

How will they keep her "down on the farm" now (so to speak) now that she has been a "wife"?

One reason it took so long to find her was because she was brainwashed into using an alias. When asked, she would give her name as Liz Panastereo.

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-01-2003, 04:49 PM:

This case has revealed an ugly side in the past week.

Two reporters who worked on the Elizabeth Smart story for the Salt Lake Tribune have been

fired. Why? They sold information about the Smart case to the National Enquirer for $20,000 -- then lied to their editor about it. The Tribune's editor may lose his job as a result.

Also, the Enquirer has publicly apologized to the Smart family and retracted a story that contained the material for which the reporters were paid.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-01-2003, 07:12 PM:

Actually the newspapers here in SLC are without doubt dismal at best [Eek!]

. There are two papers.....The Deseret News is mainly (controled) by the LSD Church, while the Salt Lake Trib has the reporting and story gathering abilities of a four year old. Imagine, we get headlines in the Trib that were yesterdays news!! I never even bother with the Desert News as its way too biased, nor with the Tribs old news [sleep]

.....
So what does one in Salt Lake City do to get the news [Confused]

.......?
Many of us read it on the internet, or buy a real paper from out of town at many newstands here in town....

On the other side TV news here is great and on the ball....but thats if your interested in the local news.....

As for the Smart case I would have to agree that the local Police bungled it pretty badly. They could have never caught her based on their average response time of 32 min....she woulda been in the next county by then.
Mark

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 05-02-2003, 07:48 AM:

The Salt Lake Tribune's editor resigned yesterday because of this latest scandal.

I wouldn't be so quick to prejudge the Deseret News. Its stories on the developments this week drew more website visits than the stories about Miss Smart being found.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-03-2003, 07:01 PM:

Charles,
You go right ahead ane enjoy the Desert News.......
Many, many people out here really do think the Smart case has something strange going on behind it.....Strange family, strange police department, strange abductors...it all adds up to being VERY strange...... [thumbsup]

Mark

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-04-2003, 08:17 PM:

Get yourself a sub to the NY Times. It won't help you much with local matters but it is truly the Newspaper of Record.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 05-04-2003, 11:15 PM:

I sometimes buy a copy of the NYT at the Starbucks near my house....but I still prefer the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun Times...those are real papers...perhaps not the record type, but none the less a couple of the greatest papers in existance....(lets see what Charles says to his one....)
Mark