Elizabeth Smart found Alive

[AR182]

Missing teen Smart found alive

Utah girl found with former family handyman

BREAKING NEWS
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

March 12 ? Missing Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart has been found alive at a restaurant in Sandy, Utah, and is in custody, police said Wednesday.
THE TEEN?S disappearance from her home June 5 in Salt Lake City sparked a massive search and nationwide media attention.

Elizabeth, who was 14 at the time of her disappearance, was with a middle-aged man named Emmanuel Mitchell and an unidentified woman, police in suburban Sandy said, NBC reported.
Mitchell was a handyman in the Smart home for one day about nine months before Elizabeth?s disappearance.
A citizen called police to report a suspicious group of people at a Burger King in Sandy, NBC reported.
Salt Lake City police were interviewing Elizabeth with her parents

 

[djv]

That is great news. Im getting sick of all these young ladies showing up dead. This is real good news.

 

[no all]

great news for her and her family

when I get home I hope to hear more of the details on the news

 

[ryson]

At a time when we need some good new this is the best news I have heard in months!!

 

[Blitz]

With all the bad news you hear these days, this story is a breath of fresh air.

I'm so happy for her family...

 

[SixFive]

My wife just called and told me about this. WOW!! That is awesome news!

 

[bjfinste]

I really thought there was no way she'd still be alive. This truly is great news. I can't imagine the joy her family is feeling right now.

 

[BahamaMama]

with everything huge in the news for the past 5+ months, is this by far the most incredibly happy thing or WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can't even imagine the joy she and her family are feeling right now!!!!

 

[Snake Plissken]

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Nosigar]

Thank God!:clap:

This made me very happy.

 

[gardenweasel]

that`s incredible

that`s incredible

and a stone cold miracle....that`s beating the odds bigtime....a great thing......couldn`t be happier...

 

[AR182]

I think we all agree that this is wonderful news & a true miracle, but think that the news channels are over doing the coverage. I am quickly getting tired of this non stop talking with aunts, uncles, neighbors, supermarket clerks, etc. Enough.I will find it news worthy when Elizabeth Smart is ready to talk, but not 10 hours of analyzing what she said after.

 

[TheShrimp]

"Elizabeth's mother, Lois Smart, said in February that she met Mitchell in downtown Salt Lake City when he asked her for money. She gave him $5 and hired him to help her husband repair their home's roof in November 2001. He worked at the home for about five hours. Seven months later, Elizabeth disappeared."

Without sounding too cold, here's a notion: don't hire homeless people to come into your house to do work. Can't really blame the mom, but that's a bad bad decision.

A disproportionate number of homeless people are mentally ill, and that's a fact, Jack! I wouldnt' say they're necessarily psychopaths or sociopaths or kidnappers but metal illness takes a lot of forms.

I don't know how many of you have had many conversations with a homeless person, or have lived in an area where you see the same homeless people every single day. But it usually doesn't take too long interacting with some homeless people to realize you're talking to someone who is freakin' NUTS. Not nuts like Mike Tyson is nuts, nuts like the guy from "A Beautiful Mind" is nuts. Real nuts.

I suppose there are some homeless who are just "down on their luck" but there are ways around wrapping yourself in blankets and sleeping on grass in the middle of a city if you're a sane person. I know that's only one notion of homelessness, but from the sound of it, that's what this Mitchell guy was like.

 

[Blazer]

smart

smart

Not nuts like Mike Tyson is nuts, nuts like the guy from "A Beautiful Mind" is nuts. Real nuts.

-I laughed so hard I cried.

Great news. It has been so long I had forgotten she was missing.

 

[TheShrimp]

Ok, you might not want to hear it, but I'll say it...

Ok, you might not want to hear it, but I'll say it...

"We kept telling her, do this for your family, do this for yourself. Do the right thing - we know you're Elizabeth Smart," said Sergeant Victor Quezada.

Two questions....

1. Does that sound like something you'd have to say to a girl who is happy to go home?

2. What sounds more probable to you,

a. that a man can enter a room with two girls in it, take one, and neither girl makes enough of a sound for 3 hours to wake up either parents or one of many other siblings in the house?

b. That possibly the girl decided to leave home with the "prophet" and known polygamist keeping in mind that this is the mormon culture where girls as young as 13 have been known to leave home and get married? [Remember Tom Green, convicted Polygamist whose 5 wives were of ages 13, 14, and 16?]

I think the scenario we'd all be most comfortable with is that this girl was quietly taken as knife point, the little sister was so frightened that she didn't say anything for hours and that through psychological and/or physical control, the Elizabeth Smart was unable to make a break, make a call, send a signal for 280 days straights.

But, I for one, will not be surprised if things are a little less comfortable than that if they all come to light. The media is already hinting at it, but they can only show restraint for so long. Pretty soon, someone is going to pop up on the TV and suggest that maybe this girl wasn't necessarily so reluctant to leave home and that Daddy, unable to really believe it, began his media bltiz to get her back.

 

[Blazer]

stat rape

stat rape

Shrimp-
You are correct. There is some shady dealing here. The fact does remain willing or not she is underage to make the decesion for herself. This is the perfect example of why stat. rape exhists.

 

[TheShrimp]

The following is quoted from Title 76, Chapter 5, Part 4 ("Sexual Offenses") of the Utah State Code:

76-5-401. Unlawful sexual intercourse.
A person commits unlawful sexual intercourse if, under circumstances not amounting to a violation of section 76-5-402 [rape], section 76-5-402.1 [rape of a child], or section 76-5-405 [aggravated sexual assault], that person has sexual intercourse with a person, not that person's spouse, who is under sixteen years of age.

Note the not that person's spouse line. The current legal age to marry in Utah is 14, but one needs consent. That's how old Elizabeth Smart was when she disappeared.

Mormons have traditionally married at 13. Moreso before outlawing polygamy (over 100 years ago). But the OUTLAW polygamists today (who believe they are the "right" mormons, and not without valid reasons) take wives as young as 13.

As bad as it may sound to some of us, lots of cultures have always thought that beginning menstruation means ready to bear children.