I'm glad, for the sake of the everyone concerned, that Elizabeth Smart was returned safely to her family. However, I do not believe Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at all. The police say the reason why she was unable to escape is because she became psychologically attached to her kidnappers.
Heck, no. She was unable to escape because she was a teenager, having a good time. She ran away from her seemingly overbearing responsibilities and her 'devout and affluent Mormon family.'
Officer Bill O'Neal, upon discovering the girl, reports that '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".
Obviously, the girl took off. Come on--the girl partied with the couple! That's why she could hear her uncle calling for her from 15 feet away but never responded. That's why the teenage girl and alleged kidnappers always looked so comfortable together:
"They were always very pleasant,' said Richard Mason, a 45-year-old homeless man. 'She didn't seem like she was kidnapped. She acted like she was part of the family".
I think she was happy vagabonding with the couple. Have a look at this article and notice that it has not one direct quote from Elizabeth, neither detailing her abduction nor discussing any kind of fear... just a surprise that such a big deal was made of her absence.
My mom thought I was kidnapped once. She saw my backpack, strewn across the back porch. I was nowhere to be found.
My dad was called from work, the police came to the house, my junior high interrogated my closest friends... all the while, I was waiting at the neighbor's house. I had missed the bus and needed a ride to school. I thought my my mom was golfing and knew my dad was at work... so I left my backpack at home and waited for my neighbor to get ready for work so that she could bring me to school.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Rodney Welch
Your analysis isn't credible. I think it's closer to the truth to say that what Elizabeth Smart experienced was something like what Patti Hearst experienced; a desire to stay alive by playing along and assuming your assigned role, only to discover that the role has taken over the real you.
"We are what we pretend to be," Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. wrote. "So we must be very careful what we pretend to be."
2 - Eric Olsen
R, point well taken and probably closer to the truth, but the key to the Vonnegut quote is that we BECOME what we pretend to be. It's a process.
3 - Megan Fermanis
I totally agree with you Rebecca. I was thinking that exact same thing while watching the news this morning. Good for you for writing the truth even if some people don't want to hear it.
4 - Jennifer Parkhurst
Becky when I found out about elizabeth I didn't understand why she never let herself be found. Thanks to you now I know.
5 - Rebecca
Criticism taken... it's not a very credible analysis--I just have a lot of questions. Most of the people I've spoken to have the same suspicions. Megan and Jenny, it's good to know that you don't think I'm completely off base.
6 - Eric Olsen
Rebecca, I don't think you're totally off base. It's very complicated, and reality is probably a combination of psychological states.
7 - Tom
This just goes to prove how little people understand about how the brain works, especially under duress - especially a teenager's brain under duress. I can't believe I'm actually seeing people question the authenticity of this event. Good grief.
8 - Rodney Welch
I think you're totally off-base from the moment you say: "However, I do not believe Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at all." What do you think she did -- called the homeless guy on the phone and said "Come get me; my devout and affluent Mormon family is asleep"?
9 - Rebecca
Maybe it was a psychological defense mechanism but I suspect that the girl enjoyed herself.
Has a statement been issued regarding the captors? I am curious to hear what they'll say.
10 - rebecca
See this page for more support to my theory.
11 - murphy
Rebecca, I have to agree with Eric when he says it's a combination of psychological states.
I am sure she was not on a joy ride. You should not underestimate the weight of religious fervor in this situation.
the homeless guy called himself "emmanuel", he obviously had some kind of prophet complex. A devout teenager, in a scary, potentially life-threatening situation would find it much more comfortable to believe that this abductor was an emmisary from God than to believe that she was in the hands of a dangerous criminal.
And how far a step from the belief in his God-ordained status to the full commitment to assist him? Assisting her abductor would be assisting God!
I have no trouble whatsoever believing that Elizabeth was psychologically manipulated.
Did she have fun during her 8 months away? I'm sure she did! Teenagers will have fun in the most horrific circumstances.
But I do believe she was manipulated.
12 - james
You don't know what you are talking about. A girl is taken out of her bedroom in the middle of the night at knife point. A man threatens to kill her and her family. She walk four miles in the middle of the night in pajamas with a knife at her back. He takes her to a hole in the ground where he and another woman sexually assault her. He keeps her in the hole tied with a rope around her leg for months. This is a girl who may have started to think about her first date a few years hence. You don't think that was a reference changing event? How did you put it? "...she partied with the couple!"
After you get out of the hole, having been forced to do things you never dreamed of...you are numb...you are lost...you have no sense of reality. You are sullied, lost....the people that feed you...you remember them...the same ones who made you live in a hole for months...say let's go, we're going to walk around town, wear this veil, by the way...I won't mention the knife again because I don't have to.
A few months later, a policeman starts to penetrate your altered reality with probing questions....at first you give the party line...then you see there may be some hope...you say
`I know who you think I am. You guys think I'm that Elizabeth Smart girl who ran away.'
13 - traci
Rebecca, I think your case is very possible and I've been questioning the whole thing myself. I don't understand how Elizabeth could have been psychologically wounded so quickly in her captivity.. I believe the incident with the search in which she heard her uncle calling her name was just 'right after' the 'kidnapping.' (If my facts are wrong, please inform me) If that's the case, how could she have NOT done anything... And for her sister to not say anything to their parents until two freaking hours later? Gimme a break! Was her sister also 'brain washed' into waiting two full hours? There are a lot of things about this case that just plain don't make sense...
Also, she was so plump when she returned... they must've fed her well and she must've have a hearty time, or else who the hell can eat that much when they are NOT happy or under distress...????
I'm not saying she could not have been kidnapped, but I say it's could very well be a possibility. Heck, being the cynical person that I am, I could even consider that the whole kidnapping was set up...
14 - traci
btw, is there any news or any talk of a psychologically analysis of Elizabeth Smart? I'd really love to see the report...
15 - rebecca
I'm not saying it must be true but I did see that the cover of this week's National Enquirer reads: "Elizabeth Smart Ran Away."
I am fairly sure we won't hear anything more from her family or psychologists.
One of the conspiracy theories I heard was that her dad set up the kidnapping (of nine months) because Elizabeth was pregnant. That's why she was constantly dressed in robes and that's why she seemed so well-fed when she returned. Hmm.
16 - traci
That's funny, who's child could it have been then? And it wasn't like the abductors just turned the child in, it was members of the public that reported them. So the duration of the kidnapping doesn't seem 'planned'... Anyways, I'm amazed at the lack of emotion the Smarts (publicly) show toward the perpetrators (which is one of the reasons I feel like the family set it up). Anyone else?
17 - Non Mormon
I heard that all of the footage of Elizabeth was from when she was 11 or 12. They never showed any recent pictures of her because she had nose rings and lots of piercings. If they did show a recent picture of her then the piercing were airbrushed out before being revealed to the public. Can anyone confirm this/
18 - rebecca
I looked around the web but couldn't find any information about nose piercings or otherwise.
Where did you hear about it?
19 - Kimberley
This is what I think happened. Brian Mitchell got the girl to go with him but once she was alone with him in his wife things got out of hand. The parents were so strict with Elizabeth and kept her looking like a little girl for so long may be she just jumped at a chance to get out.
20 - something smells bad
I think its funny how she was gone for 9 months and then returns having had gained weight and looking like a teenager who just went through the stress and trama of giving birth. And her father didn't seem like a man who just was reunited with his "lost" baby girl. Hmm, who could be the father of this missing child? Mormans are twisted, and they hide a lot from the public. Don't be surprised when the truth comes out........
21 - Chris Arabia
"Mormans are twisted, and they hide a lot from the public."
It's Mormons--M-O-R-M-O-N-S. Like your kind of people, except with the second M. You're too stupid to make an effective bigot. If you want to know what smells bad, look in the mirror.
General note: anti-Mormon bigotry is still bigotry.
22 - pinky
Yeah... I mean who wouldn't want to be tied up to a tree and raped? Sounds like she had a blast.
23 - rebecca
I hadn't realized that she was tied to a tree and raped. I haven't heard that at all. Wow, if she was, am I sorry. That makes me sick.
Where is this information revealed?
24 - ItsJustMe
I'm just wondering something else. It took the sister a couple of hours to tell the parents she'd witnessed Elizabeth being kidnapped and then it took her a few months to come up with it being Emmanuel. Why so long? What triggered that? I read something that said that he'd only worked for them one time, for about 5 hours. How much exposure could the little girl had to him if she didn't recognize him when he entered the room? I find it odd they way the media continues to say he was a person that worked for the family as if he were around alot. Has anyone heard about this? Also I'm curious too if anyone's seen any statements released by the "kidnappers"?
25 - ItsJustMe
I'm just wondering something else. It took the sister a couple of hours to tell the parents she'd witnessed Elizabeth being kidnapped and then it took her 4 months to come up with it being Emmanuel. Why so long? What triggered that? I read something that said that he'd only worked for them one time, for about 5 hours. How much exposure could the little girl had to him if she didn't recognize him when he entered the room? I find it odd they way the media continues to say he was a person that worked for the family as if he were around alot. Has anyone heard about this? Also I'm curious too if anyone's seen any statements released by the "kidnappers"?