Elizabeth Smart has been found!!!!!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-03-12-elizabent-smart_x.htm

Elizabeth Smart found alive in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months ago, was found alive Wednesday walking down a suburban Salt Lake City street with a drifter who had once done work at the family's home. The man was taken into custody and the teenager was whisked away to a long-awaited reunion with her jubilant family.

		More than 16,000 leads were received by police in the Elizabeth Smart case.
		Family photo

"Miracles do exist," said Tom Smart, the girl's uncle.

He said Elizabeth was in good condition and meeting with relatives at the police department. She was expected to go home with her parents late Wednesday.

"I spoke with Ed and Lois Smart, I saw Elizabeth in their arms, she couldn't let go of her little brother," Mayor Rocky Anderson said.


AP
Mitchell

Authorities said Elizabeth, the drifter known as Emmanuel and a woman believed to be his companion were all wearing wigs when they were stopped along a street in suburban Sandy, about 20 miles south of the girl's home in Salt Lake City.

Relatives of Emmanuel, whose real name is Brian Mitchell, have described him as a self-appointed prophet for the homeless who has lived in a teepee in the mountains outside the city. He was hired by the Smarts in November 2001 to work on their roof. Elizabeth disappeared seven months later.

Mitchell and the second suspect, identified only as Wanda Barzee, were in custody at the Sandy police station. No charges were immediately filed, but Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said: "We are convinced she was kidnapped."

Asked whether he believed Elizabeth was held against her will, he said: "At this point, yes, I do." He did not offer a potential motive.

Police stopped Mitchell and the others after receiving calls a minute apart from Rudy and Nancy Montoya and Anita and Alvin Dickerson. Both couples had spotted the trio carrying bedrolls and bags as they walked down the street.

Anita Dickerson, thinking the man resembled the suspect, left her car and looked him in the eye. At the time, she thought Elizabeth she was an older woman wearing a scarf.

"Lots of people had to see them, they just didn't put two and two together," Alvin Dickerson told The Associated Press.

Elizabeth disappeared last summer, part of a frightening string of incidents involving children that included the slayings of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam of San Diego and 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Orange County, Calif.

News that Elizabeth was alive touched off a celebration in front of the Smarts' home in affluent Federal Heights, with neighbors and members of the family's Mormon ward holding blue and yellow balloons.

"How can I even talk? This is such a miracle," said Lynne Godfrey, 57, a neighbor. "I had given up hope — I mean, where would she have been? Who would have taken care of her for a year?"

A month ago, the Smarts held a news conference and released a sketch of a clean-shaven Mitchell. As recently as Tuesday, the family openly criticized police for not devoting enough attention to the former handyman.

Mitchell's sister called authorities with his identity after the family's Feb. 3 news conference. The man's stepson, Mark Thompson, gave investigators photos of a long-haired, bearded Mitchell and said his stepfather was "capable" of kidnapping a child.

He also said Mitchell believes he is a prophet who needs to preach to the homeless and has no source of income other than handouts.

Mitchell was often seen panhandling and preaching to the homeless in downtown Salt Lake City before Elizabeth's disappearance.

Elizabeth's mother, Lois Smart, has said she met Mitchell downtown when he asked for money. She gave him $5 and hired him to help her husband work on the roof. He worked for about five hours and the family didn't see him again.

Elizabeth was 14 when she vanished early on the morning of June 5. Her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, said Elizabeth was taken by a man who may have gotten into the house by cutting a window screen near the back door. The sister pretended to be asleep, and she said the gunman threatened to hurt Elizabeth if she didn't keep quiet.

Last month, Elizabeth's parents said Mary Katherine had come to them recently to say "Emmanuel" bore some resemblance to the kidnapper. This week, they chastised police for not going after Mitchell.

"They should have caught this guy by now," Tom Smart said. "The police are too vested in Ricci."

Elizabeth's father, Ed, was less harsh but expressed his "frustration" at public statements made by police dismissing Mitchell as a potential suspect.

Police said they followed up more than 16,000 leads from the public in addition to those they came up with themselves.

For months, the top potential suspect was Richard Ricci, a handyman who once worked in the Smart household. He insisted he had nothing to do with the kidnapping, and he died Aug. 30 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while in prison on a parole violation.

Over the summer, the Smarts held twice-daily news briefings and thousands of volunteers combed the foothills of Salt Lake City, searching under brush for any sign of the blonde girl.

The family often got calls from the police alerting them to grisly discoveries that might be linked to their missing daughter; they wanted the Smarts to know before the story hit the news.

Sometimes, the news beat the police. Hands and feet had been found in a canyon, or bones had been discovered in the desert. The Smarts would call police to ask if it was Elizabeth. Every time, the answer was no.

Children's advocates were elated by the good news.

"We are very, very relieved," said Marilyn Ward, director of Child Search, a national missing children center based in Houston. "This should help the cause of missing children everywhere. We are thankful she's alive. It gives hope to people to never give up."

Elizabeth Smart has been found!!!!!

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