Smart Says Ordeal Not Life-Altering

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mikenycLI
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Joined: Mon May 26, 2003 2:02 pm
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Smart Says Ordeal Not Life-Altering

Postby mikenycLI » Sat Oct 25, 2003 1:42 pm

Hopefully, this is the end of THIS cottage news story. Can't wait for the trial though, as I wonder about all of the rumors, regarding the veracity of her, and her family's story about the socalled abduction. Lots of unanswered questions, that most, have forgotten about !

Courtesy of washingtonpost.com...

Smart Says Ordeal Not Life-Altering

The Associated Press
Saturday, October 25, 2003; 8:50 AM


SALT LAKE CITY - Elizabeth Smart, whose abduction from her bedroom and reunion with her family nine months later captivated the nation, said in her first public interview that she hasn't changed that much from the girl she was before.

"I think there's some things different about me, but I think I'm still pretty much the same person," the 15-year-old told NBC's Katie Couric in an interview aired Friday.

"It's not like I was, like, all happy and all of a sudden I come back and I'm not, because I'm still happy," she said. "It's the same. It's like it never happened."

Elizabeth was 14 when someone slashed the screen on an open kitchen window in the Smart family home early on June 5, 2002, and abducted her at knifepoint from the bedroom she shared with her younger sister, Mary Katherine, the only witness.

For nine months, her family kept her face and story before the public, not knowing if she was alive but not willing to give up.

On March 12, the publicity paid off. Residents in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy spotted the man Mary Katherine identified as Elizabeth's abductor, a drifter and self-styled prophet named Brian David Mitchell who had done work on the Smart family home. Police found him walking with two people in white robes. One was Elizabeth.

Prosecutors say Mitchell, 50, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, 57, had kidnapped Elizabeth to be Mitchell's second "wife" and held her against her will at a crude campsite in the foothills above the Smart home until Oct. 8. They then took her to California, where they stayed until March 5, according to court documents.

Both are now charged with kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault. They are being held on $10 million bond pending psychological examinations to determine whether they are competent to stand trial.

In the NBC interview from the Smart family's ranch, her parents, Ed and Lois Smart, said Elizabeth was strong and even insisted on taking them to the campsite and showing them how she had lived. Her mother described her daughter as she marched up the hill as "triumphant."

Elizabeth had tried to escape from her abductors but she had been tethered, and they had threatened to kill her family if she cried out for help, her parents said. They said the abductors tried to strip Elizabeth of her identity.

Now, seven months after her return, her parents said Elizabeth has been getting help for coping with her ordeal and is doing well.

She is back at Salt Lake City's East High School, where she admits "weirdoes" at school taunt her as she walks down the hall. But her friends have welcomed her, treating her normally, she said. They still don't ask questions.

"They say, 'It's like you came back from a huge, long vacation,'" she said.

When asked if life is back to normal, she said, "Yeah."

Elizabeth said that if anything has changed, it's that she has more compassion for the homeless after experiencing how they live.

That compassion doesn't extend to her captors. "They didn't have to be" homeless, she said. "They had plenty of opportunity to do what they wanted, but they're such idiots."

The NBC interview was the first of a media blitz to coincide with the Monday release of her parents' book, "Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope."


© 2003 The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dy ... ge=printer

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Grant
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Location: Arizona

Postby Grant » Fri Dec 05, 2003 11:57 am

What I see is a kid who needs deep psychological treatment, and who will have a lifetime of dysfunctional behavior. They're Mormon, for Pete's sake! :roll:

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Rob P
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Postby Rob P » Sun Dec 07, 2003 8:19 am

What about those rumors? Did her father let the kidnapping happen because he believed that Brian David Mitchell was truly a prophet, and that she must be Brian's second wife in order to fulfill his prophecies?

Yeah, she's not life-altered at all. Unless she's stronger than I can ever imagine. Kidnapped from her bed by a middle aged lunatic, who then proceeds to marry her (with the help of his first wife), sexually assaulted and/or raped, living in the woods or panhandling in town with just her eyes exposed. Shrug, those crazy prophets! C'est la vie.