Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart

Elizabeth Smart is a 15-year-old Utah girl who disappeared on June 5, 2002, in the morning hours from her house in the Federal Heights area of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was kidnapped at gunpoint as her 9 year old sister was forced by the kidnapper(s) not to tell her parents for at least two hours.

The police actively worked on the case, and they had signaled a suspect in custody. The suspect, Richard Ricci, died a few weeks later in jail.

On March 12, 2003, Smart was found alive during a traffic stop in Sandy, Utah involving Brian David Mitchell, who was taken into custody. Mitchell is thought to have worked as a handyman at the Smart residence.

Unresolved questions

Many, many questions remained unanswered after Elizabeth's recovery, even though round-the-clock attention was given the case by the cable news channels.

For instance, Elizabeth was stopped by police while casually walking in broad daylight with two other persons. Why did she not identify herself as Elizabeth Smart?

Also, her face was on numerous versions of "Missing" and "Reward" flyers and posters all over town. Did she realize that there had been a massive search for her?

The two people with her, Brian David Mitchell and Rhonda Eileen Barzee, were placed under arrest as her abductors. But had Elizabeth truly been held against her will?

Even the facts surrounding her alleged abduction are still hazy. There are no matching prints for Mitchell in Elizabeth's bedroom. The little sister's story that she had been abducted at gunpoint, changed to "knifepoint," as reported by the authorities.

Undoubtedly, the many questions and discrepancies in this case will be addressed in the inevitable march to the trial of Mitchell and Barzee. But the case is also interesting for its involvement of the media since day one of the disappearance.

Media influence

Elizabeth's parents and extended family persistently maintained a presence in the local and national media, fighting hard to keep their story of family loss, faith and hope from fading away.

They provided the media with home movies of Elizabeth as both a teenager and as a child, and uploaded over 20 photos of her on a website which served as a resource center, http://www.elizabethsmart.com/. They have been generally commended for this, although some questioned why the media was paying so much attention to a blonde, blue-eyed missing girl when so many other missing children did not receive the same level of media coverage. Media critics speculated that a black, asian, latino, male, or even ugly child would not have had any national media exposure after the first 24 hours.

The parents' continued cries for help in the media brought much good will, in the form of large groups of volunteers conducting searches throughout different terrains, and also built a platform from which to promote the "Amber Alert."

On the other hand, however, daily media attention brought about much sensational speculation. Night after night, talk shows such as CNN's "Larry King Live" featured commentators who mercilessly villified early suspects. This kind of discussion may have tainted many of the appearances of Smart family members.

In addition, there developed some tensions as the parents accused the police of not thoroughly following up on leads.

Ironically, on the day of Elizabeth's return, the authorities joined the media in roundly congratulating themselves on a job well done.

It should also be noted that the story of Elizabeth Smart's recovery came at a time of intense unrelenting debate among members of the United Nations Security Council on whether to go to war against Iraq. Elizabeth's story came as a breath of fresh air and it took the spotlight away from the US push for war. The day after her return, an informal poll on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Moneyline" asked the question, "Will the United States have won the moral argument if it wins a security council majority, whether or not there's a veto?"

An "Elizabeth Smart Factor" may have influenced the poll results. Although Lou Dobbs is an outspoken conservative, 63% of the voters said No.