Elizabeth Smart Found.....Alive!!!

“I don't know if you all have heard, but they found Elizabeth in a car of the handy man they have been looking for. The family just must be overjoyed. Hug yer children tonight and celebrate that they found one alive this time!”

“That is very good news. Saw it when it broke on Fox News. I hope her kidnappers get the maximum.”

“Insane..I was in Salt Lake last summer..crazy to think she was found...Makes me wonder if she is part of the plot???? most kidnap victims don't survive this long..”

“Thats great news!!!!!!

8)”

“I just read about it. With all the child abductions and murders, her being found alive truely breaks the odds. I couldn't be more happier for her family.”

“Thats unfortunate, now they have to put this kidd through college. Her father is going to be paying 40k a year.”

“They found her about two blocks away from my new store. I live right there in the neighborhood. I know one of the Sandy Cops who found her.

This story is far form over. I have a feeling there are a lot of twists and turns yet to be revealed.”

“"Thats unfortunate, now they have to put this kidd through college. Her father is going to be paying 40k a year."
Ice Tea

you should just wear a sign that says beat me. You will have accomplished the same thing as that post. ”

“Tea, you little flamer, you!”

“I watched the Smart Family news conference.

Their spiritual faith and reverence to God was so overwhelming. Their faith in their local Government and praise of law enforcement was inspiring.

During these times when popular opinion degrades religion, public service, and personal sacrifice their message was a solid stand against the selfish liberal theorists who have poisoned the ideals of this great country.

God Bless the Smarts and God bless America.”

“Amen bacpac”

“I've heard of people who preach hate out of one side of their mouths and religion out of the other at the same time, but I never thought I'd witness it in realtime.

Amazing.”

“Tilt,
And I never thought I would witness people who speak out of their butts either...........”

“Finally some super good news.”

“oooooooooooooooooh, LOLOLOL”

“I am sorry that you have lost the ability to distiguish between hate and passion.”

“I think you're cracked.”

“This story is is chock full of really strange twists and turns. I can't wait for the book to finally be written so we can know what really happened. I was one of the first members of the media on the scene last year when this first happened and have watched this develop over the past eight months. I don't think it is as cut and dried as just a kidnapping. There are some odd things with the family and Elizabeth wasn't quite the sweet little angel protrayed on TV. Lucky for me I'm covering a story in Las Vegas or I'd be running around SLC like a headless chicken right now.

BTW Bacpac, you hate liberals passionately. And I'm sure the god they thank isn't the same one you believe in.”

“Is that why the SLC media keeps asking if she was held against her will?”

“"Thats unfortunate, now they have to put this kidd through college. Her father is going to be paying 40k a year."
Ice Tea
06:44:37 PM
03/12/03

It takes a lot to go over the line here, congrats, you made it.”

“I tried hard on that one. Infact I typed it once deleted it read other TT and came back and typed it again. Well it is true.


BTW, Wasn't it the Smarts that had extramaritale sex in the garage all the time, while tokin on the reffer?

Yeah I think it was, because if they wheren't so damn high they would have noticed that their kidd was gone.

Yeah I think it was, because if they haddn't had so many sex partners they may have known who was in there house and who wasn't.

But who am I to judge.....”

“bacpac, I read this family had been holding twice-a-week news conferences and had just recently blasted the police for not getting leads.

So, it seems "Their faith in their local Government and praise of law enforcement was inspiring. well... it wasn't quite as inspiring as you stated above, when you chose to degrade liberals in one of the strangest linking of things I have ever seen.

From MSNBC:
"On Tuesday, the family openly criticized the police department for not devoting enough attention to Mitchell. “They should have caught this guy by now,” said the girl’s uncle, Tom Smart.
Elizabeth’s father, Ed, was less harsh but expressed his “frustration” at public statements made by the police dismissing Mitchell as a potential suspect."”

“Thanks lizs. All the religion bashing, big brother paranoia, and distain for authority I read on this site is the strangest linking of things I have ever read.

Too bad you missed the press conference.”

“"But who am I to judge....."
Ice Tea
10:31:48 PM
03/12/03"

The only wise thing I've ever seen you post.”

“ice tea,

wrong case, they weren't the smarts. the case you're talking about occurred in california, the girl kidnapped was murdered.”

“Allright, the Evil bacpac is back!”

“Mental illness is alive and "well" here on Trail Talk.”

“© 2003 Bob Lonsberry



Today's Column
GOD FROM HIS HEAVEN CAN WHISPER

I have been really wrong twice in my career.

Once because of my faith; once because of my cynicism.

Ironically, both times it involved girls kidnapped from their homes.

Years ago it was a 3-year-old named Kali. Yesterday it was a
15-year-old named Elizabeth.

Years ago I looked into a liar’s face and believed him. Yesterday I read a father’s words and didn’t believe them.

Yet the miracle happened. And a nation rejoices.

In yesterday morning’s “Salt Lake Tribune” there was an article
about Ed Smart. The father of Elizabeth Smart, abducted from her home some nine months ago, he was criticizing the police for not aggressively tracking down a
homeless man named Emmanuel.

It was an odd lead and an odd story. One more in a series of press statement after press statement, a family crusading for the return of its daughter long after statistics and conventional wisdom said their quest was
pointless.

But there was the story. Some guy telling the cops how to do their
business. And I criticized him for it. I said the police work should be left to the police. I trusted their experience over his passion.

And I was completely and fundamentally wrong.

It was an implausible turn of events. Four months after the
abduction, the lone witness – a frightened 9-year-old sister – had it occur to her that the man who kidnapped Elizabeth may have looked kind of like a homeless
guy who’d worked for a few hours at the family’s home almost a year before.

How likely is that?

Experienced cops and reporters will tell you not likely at all.

And maybe that’s why, when the family took the tip to the police, they sat on it. Investigators tried to track the guy down, but they didn’t notify the public, and the family went along with the authorities’ advice.

For a while.

When four months had passed, and the police had still not asked for help in locating the drifter, the Smart family went public. In all the time since their daughter’s disappearance, the Smarts had cultivated and worked with reporters, pushing and pushing to keep Elizabeth’s face and name in the public’s
consciousness.

There was a press conference, but no stir. That was last month. And
yesterday the paper ran the story about the family’s frustration. Along with a picture.

A picture of a weirdo. Some guy with a long ratty beard and a turban and soiled white robes who dressed like Jesus because he thought he was Jesus. He went by the name of “Emmanuel.”

And two women saw him at about the same time. On State Street, the busiest thoroughfare in Utah, walking with two women, the newspaper for sale on corner racks.

There were two 911 calls and the police came and the hunched over
woman with the gray wig and the hat was Elizabeth Smart.

Fifteen and finally free.

She had been found. Alive. Like something less than 2 percent of the children whose non-family abductions stretch past the first few hours. She wasn’t dead and buried in the distant mountains, she was living on the streets
not a dozen miles from her home, held captive by the mental and physical manipulations of a crazy man.

It was in every regard a miracle.

But it was a miracle true to the principle that God helps those who help themselves.

Because this crime was solved by the Smart family. Elizabeth is home today not because of the massive national investigation that swirled around her
disappearance, but because of a family strategy of outreach and publicity hatched after prayer around a kitchen table.

What a hundred lawmen could not do, a father and an uncle could.

They used the news media to ask the public for tips. They pushed
that over and over and over. Long past the point experts believed it would do any good. While the community quietly whispered that the Smarts needed to accept
reality, the family clung to its faith and its plan.

And it developed the clue that broke the case.

And it made the clue public.

And it ramrodded a newspaper story that included the photograph that probably clicked in the minds of two passersby.

And their daughter came home.

All that’s left to the cops is to do the paperwork.

In the hours since the discovery, the visibility of Emmanuel in the
community, even photographs of him with a woman believed to be Elizabeth, have turned out to be almost common knowledge.

In the hours since the discovery, it has become clear that if the
police had issued a public description of Emmanuel in October, when they were
first told about him by the Smarts, he would in all likelihood have been quickly
located. And Elizabeth, presumably, would have as well.

Yesterday morning the Smarts criticized the police for failing to pursue the Emmanuel lead.

I said they were wrong.

But they weren’t.

I was.

And I will thank God for that for the rest of my life.

by Bob Lonsberry © 2003”

“Maybe bacpac will adopt you, Tea!”

“It's a blessig she was found alive...most cases end up tragicly.”

“Is it me or does that Brian David Michael look like Jon Dorn,Editor of Backpacker Mag??”

“This one still doesn't pass the smell test for me.

I'm glad she's alive, but something strange is going on here.”

“I agree lurker- it seems too weird. It's great she's back with her family, but the whole thing has a "Patty Hearst" flavor.”

“WOW!
aero, I was just thinkin', "Ratty Hearst"”

“mediaman, I look forward to hearing more of your take on this. I remember our discussions on this last summer while I was there.”

“Ok taking bets as to when the "Movie Of The Week" will go into production.
I say give it 2 months.

As a parent I was very happy to hear she was found and alive!
It scares me to think they found her only 20 miles from her home.
No matter what you think of the parents, its the child that suffer.”

“Yeah, Patty Hearst occurred to me last night as well. Will be interesting........”

“Am I the only one who thinks the poor little girls dad is strange? For some reason he just seams to be fake.
I know this probably won't happen but it would not surprise me if after a while it would come out that they are broke and just wanted some publicity or a movie deal.

sorry about that, but the dad is just to weired.”

“well now im hearing that the girl was preg by her father and thats why she was gone for 9 months.
(hearing from chatter around work)


who knows anymore.........”

“here. I wil pile on with comments that may seem stupid in retrospect (never stops me!) . .

It seeems funny to me to. I think there is more to Elizabeth than meets the eye.

Cute kid . . .but in her pictures her eyes look funny . . .can't put my finger on it . . . .she doesn't quite look like she is "there" in any of the picutures in the CNN Gallery . . .even in the harp picuture for instance . . she just looks like she is somewhere else.”

“well . . maple .. .she does look chubbier!



Anyhoo . . .whatever happened I hope that the family, and most importantly, the girl, can work her way through it and live a normal (whatever that means) life.”

“Well, let's just all sit back and watch. I just know there is more to the whole story, and it would not surprise me if the dad is involved.

Need to check the girls eyes a little bit closer next time.”

“i haven't been following this story, so i don't know as much about it. but when i was watching the news this morning, i thought the same thing as Gemini...that her dad seemed really fake. maybe it was just because he was tired of talking in front of the cameras? i don't know, i just thought he wasn't very genuine.”

“Yep, blame the father.....

He's the one person that has been steadfast thru this whole thing.”

“Well, whatever the situation, praise God. I can not imagine being able to keep it together if someone took Newergirl. She is a very blessed girl and her family is very fortunate.”

“i was watching a little last night and i, too feel something is just not right here. i wonder what it is. im sure it will come out sooner or later.”

“People's intuition is usually pretty good. If this many believe something dosen't look right, it probably isn't. Her parents seem a little bit (odd) along the lines of the Ramsey's (the Jon Bennet case) Plus, what the hell? She's been running around Salt Lake, wearing a wig and a veil, for 9 months with this creepy guy without being able to alert someone?”

“Gemini is right. Yes the father is a little fake but that is the norm around here. The predominate religion around here creates that sense. I originally thought he might have something to do with it also, but not anymore. I believe he’s a pretty decent guy. Weird but decent. Mapleleaf, don’t always believe what you hear.

The authorities get all of the praise in this case but they should hang their head in shame. It was the citizens of Salt Lake who are the real heroes. The thousands of search people and the ones who never have stopped looking for her are the ones who should be proud.

The saga will continue but I’m glad she’s safe.”

“I agree, there's something odd about this.”

“If people can't be 'weird but decent' anymore, I'm in TRoUBLE, LOL.”