Bringing Elizabeth Home (7 page)

Our family and some of our close friends became extremely involved in the Elizabeth Smart Search Center, organizing many of the local donations we needed to keep the center running and the volunteers working. If it was too hot to stand in the sun, they made sure canopies were brought in. Numerous stories were relayed to us about the many times the phone would ring at the center and it would be someone offering whatever we needed at that moment free of charge: food, water, thousands of posters, flashlights, batteries, communication devices, and so on. There were so many acts of such kindness. People were hand-making buttons with Elizabeth's image and a caption that said, “Pray for me.” People started to wear light blue ribbons on their lapels. When Elizabeth missed her graduation from junior high school, her teachers and friends made a sign out of blue ribbons and tied it to the chain-link fence; it read, “We h You Liz.” Eventually companies offered to manufacture the buttons and ribbons for us. Charles, in a sign of solidarity and hope for his sister, wore three blue ribbons around his wrist with a heart-shaped bead on each. He wore the ribbons until Elizabeth came home, and then for a few months after, until they became so frayed and worn that he finally cut them off at the one-year anniversary of Elizabeth's kidnapping. He even wore a button on his tuxedo lapel when he attended the junior prom.

We made a point of trying to get to the search center every day to thank the volunteers, but we want to be sure that everyone who donated their time, supplies, and services knows how truly grateful we are for all you did. You will never know the depth of our appreciation. Your generosity overflowed, and our hearts were deeply touched by all of you.

Within the first week, an additional $250,000 reward was announced, raised from private donations. The reward would be given to any person with information leading to the rescue of our daughter. Their generous contributions were one of our greatest blessings. Their gift made possible what we could not do on our own. Police Chief Rick Dinse appointed Don Bell to head up the investigation, along with Salt Lake law-enforcement officials and members of the FBI.

Shriner's Hospital was the first official search center site to be set up after Elizabeth's disappearance. Shriner's Hospital has always been kind to our community, and their allowing us to set up the search center there was very generous. Located just down the road from our house, it had the available space to handle the onslaught of volunteers who came by to help. The morning of June 6, we stopped by to thank everyone who'd interrupted their lives to aid our search. It had been only twenty-four hours, but it felt as if a lifetime had passed. We knew in our hearts that this was the best way we could bring Elizabeth home. As gut-wrenching as it was, we had to keep the search parties going out and the volunteers coming in. We had to be there to support those who came out to give so generously of their time.

The first few days always began with appearances on the morning talk shows. We tried to maintain our composure morning after morning as we made a national plea for the person or persons who had our daughter to bring her home. The morning of June 6, Lois fell apart during an interview on the
Today
show. Normally a pillar of strength, the thought of Elizabeth being lost was more than she could bear, but she was willing to go through anything to bring Elizabeth home. Together we were two halves of a complete whole. The balance worked for us—it helped save our spirits.

Since we had never had a need for a publicist prior to the kidnapping, it was hard to imagine that Elizabeth's abduction warranted hiring one. Yet the media coverage became so dense, the family simply could not handle the load. People were calling for interviews, statements, exclusives, and appearances. Neither of us had the savvy to understand how to make the media work to help us in our situation, but we certainly knew we couldn't bring Elizabeth home without it. We found true friends in Chris Thomas and the Intrepid Group, a public relations firm based in Salt Lake City, which had been referred to our family through Tom. The first few months were donated free of charge, but when the workload became a full-time job, Chris was handed the account. He managed our media, sometimes eighteen hours a day, for nine months—until Elizabeth came home.

Chris played a very important role in helping direct our family, especially Ed, through the media frenzy that seemed to be feeding on our misfortune. He was with our family so often that Lois came to refer to him as her fifth son. Ed felt as if he had found another brother in Chris. He acted as a buffer between the press and our family. There were many times that Ed simply wasn't able to face the cameras. Chris was there for the family. Chris understood the importance of working the press to keep the search for Elizabeth alive. He protected all of us from the media when sleep deprivation and our emotions became burdensome and we stopped making sense. He felt as if the Lord had sent him to help us—and looking back, he was a tremendous help. Chris prepared us to go in front of the media, working with focus points we had prepared beforehand during family meetings. He helped Ed focus on the message he needed to get out in his two-minute segments on the talk shows or during the daily press conferences.

Investigators continued to interview Mary Katherine, being extremely cautious not to push too hard so that she didn't have to relive the horror of witnessing her sister being stolen. Our family was deeply concerned for her well-being. We had received helpful advice from trauma counselors about how to reduce the stress she might have been feeling in coming up with details of that fateful night. There was a chance that she would completely shut down from too much questioning, rendering her unable to recall any specific details.

Mary Katherine stood firmly by her story of what happened the night that Elizabeth was taken. At one point, a specialist tried to hypnotize her—but still she wouldn't budge from what she saw. Now, it is important to point out that what Mary Katherine recalled was not necessarily what happened. The police were careful to avoid letting all of the information about the break-in go public. Mary Katherine believed that she saw a man take Elizabeth at gunpoint. Initially, I understood that he tapped Mary Katherine on the shoulder, and when she turned over she saw Brian looking at her nightstand. Then she saw Brian pull out what she believed to be a gun and point it at Elizabeth. Elizabeth said, “Why are you doing this?” Mary Katherine thought she heard Brian say “ransom” or “hostage.” Elizabeth stubbed her toe in the darkness of the bedroom and said, “Ouch.” She heard Brian say to Elizabeth, “Be quiet or I am going to kill you.” At this point Mary Katherine was feigning sleep. Brian told Elizabeth to get some shoes. For a moment a light went on in the closet where Elizabeth would put on her running shoes. Mary Katherine believes that Brian walked with Elizabeth down the hallway and looked into her brothers' bedrooms. They walked down the stairs and out of the house through the back door. Mary Katherine never knew which door they went out. A few seconds after that, she heard Elizabeth say “ouch” a second time; she believed Elizabeth had fallen. Only seconds later, Brian and Elizabeth would fade into the night. As this is being written, there are other details that we are not at liberty to talk about because of the pending trial.

Mary Katherine is a very strong little girl, but outside of these investigation interviews we realized that she wasn't talking about Elizabeth at all—not even the good times they shared. Mary Katherine was afraid that people wanted to talk to her about the kidnapping all the time, and it frightened her. Lois reassured her that it was okay to talk about Elizabeth without talking about the kidnapping. With a little encouragement, Mary Katherine slowly started bringing Elizabeth's name into conversations. She'd talk about the trips we'd taken, sleeping in the same room, and the sisterly bond they shared. Mary Katherine wanted to focus on the wonderful, happy times we had together as a family, and this helped her tremendously to bring Elizabeth back into our home while she was gone.

By Thursday afternoon, workers from both foundations had several volunteers running the Elizabeth Smart Search Center at the Shriner's Hospital. They brought a copy of the search manual created by the Laura Recovery Center, instructing parents on how to run such an effort. Dawn Davis, a volunteer from the Texas center and the sister of the volunteer who had been first to arrive, flew to Salt Lake City to join the effort. They held a training meeting to direct the searchers on safety and organization of search parties, which was important, because we would later be told that we could be personally liable if someone got hurt while searching for Elizabeth. Within forty-eight hours of setting up the center, help was coming from all over the area. We marveled at the number of people who were there to help—almost 2,000 volunteers. Family had rounded up ward members, extended-family members, and friends, arranging for nearly five times the number of people used in a typical search. Did this give us an advantage? We certainly thought so. If Elizabeth was out there, we would find her and bring her home.

The two foundations' teams did their best to organize the search. They were very helpful.

For the most part, we were unaware of all the details that made up the central command center that was functioning as the Elizabeth Smart Search Center. We stopped by the center as often as we could, but we wanted to stay near the house in case Elizabeth tried to contact us or a ransom was called in. Members from both sides of the family had primary contact with and were part of the search staff. The teams of experts were capable and very dedicated. Many who lived in Salt Lake who wanted to come down and search were given the day off to help. Business owners were incredibly supportive, donating so excessively that we actually had a surplus of items. Donations came in to help pay for the expenses. Volunteers headed into the hills on those hot summer days, instructed to look for anything suspicious and to contact central command with any leads. The search turned up every hair clip left behind on the trails, Band-Aids, bits of cloth, berets, pieces of litter, and even a roll of duct tape. Anything that a young girl might have used—they found it.

For the first forty-eight hours, nothing seemed to turn up that helped bring us closer to finding Elizabeth. Then, around 7:00
P.M.
on Thursday, a twenty-two-person search group saw a man wearing a white T-shirt and a white baseball cap. He was pacing back and forth as if he was waiting for something. Someone shouted at the man, sending him scrambling into the thick brush in Pinecrest Canyon. Searchers then heard at least two gunshots. Searchers thought this was a breakthrough in the case. Search dogs were let loose and helicopters were dispatched to fly over the mountains to look for this man. The effort yielded nothing.

At the end of each day, volunteers were debriefed about their searches; a copy of each report went to the police, another was kept at the center, and a third was turned over to us. The importance of and need for trust among local authorities, the federal investigators, and the family was stressed. Hundreds of leads resulted from the search. The police worked around the clock tirelessly. It became apparent that the police, who at one point numbered over a hundred, had become overwhelmed, as the entire situation was intense. There was some concern about the follow-up on leads—some were not followed up on at all, and some were lost. Leaks to the media were also beginning to occur—yet another intrusion on our privacy and a source of mistrust between the police and us.

Chapter 10

E
D

We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from these trials and difficulties better and purer for them if we only trust in God.

—GEORGE Q. CANNON

T
HE INVESTIGATION PROCESS
took a tremendous toll on me personally. As we've mentioned before, the procedure in these types of cases is to look closely at immediate family members—no one is above suspicion. All sorts of rumors were floating in the press about our family. The plan police put into action was to exert enormous pressure on family members who might have knowledge about the crime. From that perspective, our case was not exceptional.

After our home was sealed as a crime scene, the police turned the girls' bedroom upside down looking for clues. Had Elizabeth been corresponding with anyone out of the ordinary? Maybe one of the other children was involved in some kind of cult or organization that had an interest in abducting Elizabeth. As outrageous as it seemed to us, statistically the likelihood was that a family member was involved. We, of course, knew that no one in our family was capable of committing such a horrendous crime.

Unfortunately, when the investigators started looking at our family, the obvious thought was that I might be involved. In further questioning at the police station, they kept challenging my honesty and integrity. This was definitely one of the lowest points of my life. I hadn't slept for days after Elizabeth was kidnapped. I was unable to close my eyes without seeing my daughter's image. The police were pushing me to the point of breaking—which was their goal. If they could break me, surely I'd confess. But confess to what? I had done nothing wrong. As if it wasn't enough what Elizabeth's abduction had done to our foundation as a family, the painful effects of all this stress had put me in a state of profound despair.

I was emotionally and physically exhausted, and I was finally at the breaking point. I had been crying uncontrollably for three days—since the morning Elizabeth was taken. That night two FBI agents had to help me up the stairs to my bedroom, since I was unable to make the climb on my own. A little later, around eleven, Lois called my dad and told him she thought I needed help. He came over right away and suggested I get medical attention. The impact of what was happening was settling in, and my mind was overwhelmed by the situation our family was facing. I was checked into the hospital, unable to stop myself from crying.