I ran this article about a year ago under a different title. This version has a few revisions:
I am not into being socially correct, and if questioning someone’s account of something, and pointing out evidence that contradicts that account, is considered “judgment” then no one in society would ever be held accountable for anything. I do not judge Elizabeth Smart’s soul, only her account of what happened to her and why it happened. God may have given Elizabeth a miraculous ability to not be affected by kidnapping, terror, rape, and being tied to a tree, but God gave me intelligent discrimination and I intend to use it to examine the Elizabeth Smart case.
First off, I want to make it clear that only Elizabeth Smart, Brian David Mitchell, and Wanda Barzee know what truly happened to Elizabeth. I am not presenting my opinion as fact. But it is an opinion based on my experience as a survivor of severe trauma, death threats, rape, terror, and humiliation.
Most people are aware of Elizabeth’s story which began in June of 2002. Elizabeth was age fourteen at the time and was allegedly kidnapped at knife point from her bed at around 2:00 a.m. by self-proclaimed prophet, Brian David Mitchell. The story is that Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, held Elizabeth captive for nine months in the mountains of Utah, just a few miles from her home. Elizabeth’s account of things is that the couple kept her chained to a tree, constantly threatened her life, and that Mitchell repeatedly raped and molested her. There are also charges of sexual abuse against Wanda Barzee.
According to an article in People Magazine, Elizabeth’s abduction began when Mitchell, who was forty eight years-old at the time, entered the Smart family home through an unlocked window. Mitchell allegedly went up to Elizabeth’s room, told her to get her tennis shoes on, and then swept her away to a pre-prepared campsite in the mountains. The story goes that Elizabeth’s younger sister, Mary Katherine (then nine years-old), was terrified and pretended to be asleep. Reports about the case say that when police arrived, Mary Katherine gave them an incorrect description of the abductor and police say that she did not even get a good look at him. She also described him as soft-spoken, calm and polite.
.
(Richard Ricci)
During the first few months of the investigation, Richard Ricci, a handyman with a criminal record, and who had done some work at the Smart residence, was arrested on another charge while investigators worked on finding evidence to charge him in the disappearance of Elizabeth. Ricci remained in prison for three months and he strongly denied any involvement in the case. But investigators, the media, and even members of the Smart family were nearly convinced that Ricci was guilty. Ricci died in prison before the accusations against him were withdrawn. Ricci died with the reputation of being a kidnapper and possible murderer of Elizabeth Smart. Ricci died from a brain hemorrhage. His mind, and thus his body, probably could not take the stress of being falsely accused of the crime.
After Ricci’s death, and maybe out of guilt, Elizabeth’s younger sister Mary Katherine ‘suddenly remembered’ who she thought “kidnapped” her older sister. Four months after Elizabeth Smart went missing, Mary Katherine went to her parents with the revelation that she thought she knew who took Elizabeth. The younger daughter told Ed and Lois Smart that it was “Emmanuel,” a homeless man who had also done some work on the Smart home.
Emmanuel was Brian David Mitchell. Yet the police department placed their attention on Ricci’s so-called guilt and did not follow through on Mary Katherine’s new evidence. Maybe because the police also thought it was strange that Mary Katherine ‘suddenly remembered” who the “abductor” was and they didn’t believe her?
In this interview with Oprah Winfrey, Oprah comments how Mary Katherine “miraculously” remembered that it was Emmanuel who took Elizabeth. I see guilt on the face of Mary Katherine in that video –guilt that she went so long with a lie and that she let Ricci suffer as he did? Maybe so. Siblings will go along with each other in order to be accepted by them. Mary Katherine looked up to Elizabeth. Would she do almost anything for her –even lie about the “abduction?”
Commenting on her new revelation, Mary Katherine said in the interview with Oprah, “I was thinking of who might have taken Elizabeth.” This does not sound like a traumatic repressed memory returning. She says that she was deliberately thinking about “who” might have taken her sister. If Elizabeth had truly been kidnapped, hadn’t Mary Katherine done that a million times before? What was different about this time? Some people might say that “God put the name into her mind.” Maybe so, but when you combine all the other evidence, you have to ask, was Mary Katherine guilt-ridden over Ricci being falsely accused and decided that she finally needed to be truthful? Maybe she even missed her sister so much that she was finally ready to provide the correct information?
Elizabeth was found in the spring of 2003, when several people called police after they noticed an odd-looking trio on the streets of Sandy Utah. An officer found the three people and asked the teenager if she was Elizabeth Smart. Interestingly, Elizabeth said she was not the “girl who ran away.” Curious choice of words. Freudian slip?
Mitchell
Barzee
After her ordeal was over, Elizabeth was quoted as saying that she was “too terrified to cry out” and that Mitchell told her that if she did, he would kill her entire family. So we have a young girl who was very sheltered in her life, naive’, and we assume she was a virgin at the time of the “kidnapping.” She is suddenly victimized by a strange man in her own bed at knife-point, threatened with death, raped, kept isolated, tied to a tree, held captive for nine months while repeatedly being threatened with death and her family’s lives all threatened. Yet, the very night that she is rescued by officers, Elizabeth Smart nonchalantly goes off to sleep in her own bed, without any fear, telling her parents, “Don’t worry, I’ll be here in the morning.” As a survivor of rape and having had a knife to my throat while being threatened with death if I told of the abuse, I can say with authority….bullshit. Even Oprah commented how “unbelievable” that is.
When Elizabeth appeared on Oprah, she made mention of her first week home being so good because of a “shower and a bed.” Not being safe, no more rapes, no more fear…just a shower and a bed.
Another red flag to me is that Elizabeth said she didn’t live in fear of her kidnappers getting out. Anyone who was tortured, raped, and held prisoner as she supposedly was, would have remnants of some kind of fear of their perpetrator coming after them again one day –this is what true victims experience, even if the perpetrator is in prison, and often, even if they are dead.
Another “miracle” is that by her own admission, Elizabeth Smart has had no professional therapy. She “just talked to her parents” about the whole ordeal. She says she feels no need to talk to a mental health professional about what happened to her.
Here’s another problem, Elizabeth Smart said in her interview with Oprah, “I spent nine months with them.” If someone is kidnapped, threatened with death, and raped, they would say, “I was held captive for nine months” or “While in captivity.”
There are witnesses who saw Elizabeth with Mitchell and Barzee at several public places, including a restaurant where Elizabeth got up and served herself food at the buffet without looking like she was in fear at all. An employee at the restaurant said she showed no outward signs of being held against her will. Elizabeth was fourteen years old, she could have removed her veil, said to everyone in the restaurant, “I am Elizabeth Smart; these people kidnapped me!” and in one second she would have been rescued by everyone in the restaurant, and her captors apprehended.
She had another opportunity when she, Mitchell, and Barzee were stopped by police after complaints that the trio had been harassing customers at a restaurant. Elizabeth said nothing to the officers about who she was.
People explain Elizabeth’s behavior by saying that she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome but from the moment that she was rescued, Elizabeth Smart has shown absolutely no signs of having suffered from that syndrome.
Read the account of what happened when a police officer finally recognized Elizabeth Smart:
“Sandy Police Officer Karen Jones was the first on the scene. She stopped the trio and asked for some identification. Mitchell told her they were the “Marshall” family from Miami, Florida, and said they didn’t need identification because they were messengers from God. The next officer to arrive was Troy Rasmussen. As soon as he saw the girl in the gray wig, he was convinced that it was Elizabeth Smart. Rasmussen called for assistance, and the police separated Elizabeth from Mitchell and Barzee and questioned her alone. She said she was 18 and insisted that she was not Elizabeth Smart. They asked her questions about her parents’ background, and she stumbled with her answers, then changed course and said they were her stepparents. She openly showed her annoyance with the officers and their persistent questions.”
In this People Magazine article, Elizabeth says, “I feel so fortunate that I was able to come through this unscarred.”
Unscarred? I thought she was repeatedly raped? People magazine’s interviewer remarked, “It’s hard to believe Elizabeth Smart could be completely untouched by what she went through.” Yea, that’s why I don’t necessarily believe it.
Victims who are psychologically attached to their kidnappers -to the point of not trying to escape when they have an opportunity- do not just magically dissolve their bond with the perpetrator once they are rescued. The psychological attachment-conditioning, and fears of death, do not just disappear into the wind the day they are is rescued.
Further evidence that Elizabeth might have been on a runaway adventure gone bad, is found in a report that TV news personality, Katie Couric, apparently received some heat from Elizabeth’s parents about a planned interview with Elizabeth. The report stated that Ed and Lois Smart made it clear that Couric was not to ask Elizabeth any questions that might “traumatize her.” Yet Elizabeth said that from the first day she came home that she was fine. So if she had put it all behind her by the time of the interview, and was no longer traumatized, then what would her parents have to fear? If Elizabeth has the remarkable ability to not be affected in the least by rape and trauma, then why wouldn’t she be able to speak of it? Was Ed and Lois’s fear due to their not wanting Couric to ask some hard questions that might make Elizabeth and the Smart family look bad? Could it be that they did not want the truth to come out?
Referring to Elizabeth, Couric told the Associated Press, “Part of her healing process is her ability to make decisions and do what she wants to do, obviously with her parents’ consent.” First off, this is an oxymoronic statement, and secondly, why would part of the girl’s healing process be to make her own decisions? When you are kidnapped at knife point, raped, tied to a tree, and terrorized in captivity for nine months your healing process would consist of therapy that treats Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Therapy allowing a teen to make her own decisions is indicative of a rebellious girl who ran away because of restrictive conservative Mormon parents.
Elizabeth Smart was asked by Couric in the interview what some of the best things were about being back with her family. Curiously, Elizabeth answers, “Um, just being back and not having to be, like, told I’m a horrible, evil, wicked, evil, evil girl every ten seconds.” Hmmm. Not that you aren’t being raped and tortured anymore? I think that if Elizabeth ran away willingly, she got more than she bargained for with this man, and instead of the freedom and excitement she was looking for, the two nut jobs turned against her and demeaned her.
In the Oprah interview, it is clear that Elizabeth had an average life, was admittedly narrow-minded, and sheltered from the outside world. Elizabeth says herself, “Before, I was just your average Mormon girl.”
If Elizabeth Smart was tired of being a good Mormon girl, and tired of Harp lessons –and if she was rebellious, hormonal, and curious for an adventure, it is plausible that she went willingly with Mitchell. Elizabeth might have ended up enduring things that she did not expect, but if Elizabeth suffered severe trauma, how is it that she was able to just talk to her parents for therapy and not show any signs of PTSD?
Was Elizabeth Smart kidnapped, raped, threatened with death, held hostage and tied to a tree? Or did she become a victim of her own mistake? If she went willingly, it is very different from being a true victim, and she would be partially culpable in any bad experiences that she endured. Elizabeth says, “From the day I came home, I haven’t wasted time looking back.” She does not sound like a victim in this statement. This sounds like a girl who had guilt over what she did and it was to her advantage to ‘put it all in the past and not dwell on it.’ True victims of rape and trauma despise it when people tell them to “put it all behind you,” “Don’t dwell on the past,” or “Let it go.”
According to a story at FOX news, after Mitchell’s arrest, his defense attorney said that Mitchell considers Elizabeth a “Remnant who will return” and that “no harm came to her during their relationship and the adventure that went on.” Delusions of a deranged man? Or the truth slipping out about Elizabeth needing an escape from her family?
Elizabeth Smart made a very telling comment when she commented on her life at college in Provo, Utah. She remarked that it had been difficult for her parents to allow her to be on her own, and that she had to live with her parents in the summer. Elizabeth said, “I have to play by their rules.”
Conclusions:
After Jaycee Lee Dugard was found and Elizabeth Smart’s case was back in the news, I could not figure out what it was about Elizabeth and her family that had begun to create anger in me. Then I realized that it is because of her and her parent’s arrogant attitude –acting as if they and Elizabeth are ‘superior beings’ because Elizabeth had ‘put it all behind her right away and didn’t allow it to define her life’ and that ‘it wasn’t affecting her at all’ and that she had no ‘useless need for therapy.’
The Smart case made me think to myself “What’s wrong with me?” “Why was I so sick, dysfunctional, full of phobias and fear? Why did I have panic attacks, suffer from deep depression, have nightmares, and want to die? Why did I need so many years of therapy and all Elizabeth had to do was talk to her parents?” It finally became clear to me that Elizabeth’s comments were demeaning to victims of child sexual abuse, kidnapping, and torture. If she was truly a victim then she ought to explain in detail how exactly just talking to her parents has cured her.
To my knowledge, Elizabeth Smart has never once publicly shown any symptoms, traits, or characteristics of having been though a trauma. To my knowledge, she and her family have never stated publicly that she shows signs of having been through trauma. On the contrary, they have made it a point to say how she is perfectly fine. I see a girl who has the perfect image that Americans love; a blonde haired blue-eyed fair-skinned girl who dresses the part, wears her hair correctly, and who comes from an upscale, church-going, nice Mormon family. Did Elizabeth Smart feel trapped with the seemingly perfect conservative religious family who kept her on a tight leash? Was she a teenager who was intrigued by Mitchell in some way and willingly took off with him but ended up getting more than she bargained for? Is she now a girl who has to maintain the perfect image of the perfect daughter of the perfect mother, in the All-American perfect family?
There are many people who think that Elizabeth Smart was unscathed by her trauma ‘because of her faith.’ Oh? Is Elizabeth Smart somehow ‘above’ all the victims of child sexual abuse who also loved God when they were being abused? What about all the victims who were rescued through Divine intervention, and who all retained their love of God and faith in Him, but who still suffer from their trauma and rapes? Are they not as ‘special’ as Elizabeth? Because this is how Elizabeth Smart and her family make it sound.
I do not find Elizabeth Smart’s situation to be as “horrifying and shocking” as most everyone else does. If her story is true, she is probably a lot better off than those of us who endured years of incest, physical abuse, death threats, and psychological torment by the parents who should have loved us.
It is a true and realistic emotion for those of us who endured molestation and rape by family members to feel that we suffered more than Elizabeth Smart. Nine months with two strangers might be a much better place than nine years with a father who raped and terrorized his child on a constant basis, and a mother who facilitated the incest, and sexually abused her daughter too.
Jean Casarez of Court TV just reported that she spoke with Elizabeth Smart after her testimony today. Casarez told Elizabeth that Elizabeth represented and spoke for abuse victims everywhere. Jean Casarez doesn’t know what the hell she is talking about. Elizabeth Smart does not speak for me, nor can she represent me because I do not believe Elizabeth Smart was traumatized.
References
- S.L. girl taken from her home”, Deseret News, June 5, 2002, Page A01
- Sister reported the abduction relatively quickly”, Deseret News, June 16, 2002, Page A15
- Utah Girl, 15, Is Found Alive 9 Months After Kidnapping”, New York Times, March 16, 2003 Section A, Page 1, Column 3
- The Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, by Anthony Bruno, TruTV
- A Second Chance at Life, by Cathy Free, Alex Tresniowski, People Magazine
- Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, Wikipedia
- http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1768352/elizabeth_smart_interview_on_oprah/
- Couric Defends Elizabeth Smart TV Q and A, by Stephen M. Silverman
- Attorney: Mitchell Considers Elizabeth Smart His Wife, Associated Press
- The State of Utah, detailed charges filed against Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, Third District Court, The Smoking Gun Archive
EVIL SITS AT THE DINNER TABLE 
I love everything about your post. When her latest interview aired I was screaming at the tv. Everything about the newly married “unscarred” non- emotional Elizabeth was so fake to me… right down to her newly acquired accent that she’s taken from her husband. #unreal
Thank you Simone.
I DVR’d her interview the other night, and have not had time to watch it. But I caught the end where she tried to explain why she did not want to go with the police, and lied to them, about who she was when she was finally rescued (her 9 month-long prayers answered about being rescued). She said she lied because she feared the police would not believe her if she said she was Elizabeth??? um okay.
I have re-watch in order to get it straight because that comment was truly unbelievable to me.
Right on, on everything, and thank you for writing this. Reading the Smart story always sets off the Hinky Meter for me. Some poor handyman groping his way through a large house in the dark to lead out Elizabeth against her will? And your take on the younger sister is excellent – I never thought of that way but that sounds very right. Always thought it was baloney that the young sister suddenly remembers something. Good for you for writing, and God bless you in your continued recovery from difficult times.
Debi, my heart is swelling with gratitude to you for daring to think outside the expected norms, outside the “polite” way of thinking, outside the “nice thing to think,” outside society’s apple-pie concepts.
Thank you for daring to express your view here.
God Bless you too.
Alethea
Very brave post, and I think that you’re just sensitive and aware enough to know instinctively that something just doesn’t add up. The most perfect families are usually the farthest from that. But my experience of mormon friends is that there is a belief that they are both better than others, and in a strange cult like way. So perhaps E Smart is a product of her mormon environment? Either way, be proud that you have said what might be hard for others to hear. It seems that victims that deny their experiences, unfortunately release them in other ways, for lack of a better phrase.
“The most perfect families are usually the farthest from that.”
Thank you Chris. They are too much like the “Stepford Family,” too robotic, almost programmed…as you say, “cult-like.”
Thanks for having an open mind and allowing your thinking to go beyond the ‘expected norms’ of society, and what is ‘supposed’ to be said, about people like Elizabeth Smart.
Some of the posts discuss how different people grieve and deal with trauma differently. But I suspect that some trauma, like that which she experience, is so unbelievable that the victim either spends years getting over it, or locks it away. I make no judgement about which is better. Her language does not sound like that of a victim, and that is where I, like you Alethea, struggle to believe something in the story.
As a former prodigal harp player and wunderkind (with a physical appearance not unlike E), I too was struck down in my prime, so to speak. But I was not a victim of anyone, but rather a physical then mental breakdown. It’s very hard to sustain being “perfect” at that age. This completely altered my identity. But unlike the Smarts, my family went through all the phases of grief, not just denial, although that lasted for a long time.
My main concern is that she may be suffering in silence because her LDS culture doesn’t allow her to be weak. But then again, maybe she genuinely finds solace in her family church, etc. Her responses to being back, for example “Um, just being back and not having to be, like, told I’m a horrible, evil, wicked, evil, evil girl every ten seconds,” may be the extent to which she feels comfortable revealing her self, or maybe that’s just really all that really happened. And I can’t help wondering how she managed to not get pregnant. When you compare others who have been in a similar situation, others held captive like that, her demeanor seems starkly anomalous.
Ah, I meant to say that her culture doesn’t allow her to be “seen as ” weak. Owning what has happened, and addressing it to move forward in a healthy way is actually the hardest thing to do. Not for the weak, by any means!
“But I suspect that some trauma, like that which she experience, is so unbelievable that the victim either spends years getting over it, or locks it away.”
The case is often both. When we repress severe trauma and psychological torture, we will spend years getting over it –only much later in life when repression no longer serves its purpose and screams out to be heard –usually in the 30-50 age range.
I am sympathetic with your physical and mental breakdown. Are you okay now?
My main concern is that she may be suffering in silence because her LDS culture doesn’t allow her to be weak.
I don’t know, she seems very arrogant and self-assured in her non-victimhood. I don’t know that she is suffering in silence. Maybe, but no one can be sure.
“I can’t help wondering how she managed to not get pregnant.”
She might have gotten pregnant. She looked pretty healthy, maybe too healthy, when she was rescued. But that’s really none of my business anyway. I am focused on what she says publicly to children and adult survivors. She looks pretty young in her rescue photos, so blocking it out might be what has happened to her.
“When you compare others who have been in a similar situation, others held captive like that, her demeanor seems starkly anomalous.”
This is exactly why I am so vigilant about her case. I am concerned about what she puts forth to other victims of repeated rape and trauma. If she truly was repeatedly brutalized, raped, and traumatized as she says…and if she truly has healed without any therapy and without much thought about her ordeal…then she is one in one billion, and she needs to realize that her words, demeanor, and advice can make victims and adult survivors feel pretty damn inferior and worthless.
I agree that trauma of all kinds takes a long time to deal with, and the fear or hurt can re manifest in ways that one cannot control. While I have never been abused, I understand the ongoing healing work that is required to get over any trauma. Thanks for asking, I am much better today, but that is relative. I am not completely disabled and have a pretty great life, but with significant limits. I cannot be spontaneous, depend on others, and some weekends can’t stop crying because it makes me so sad because of what I cannot do, and the physical pain. It’s a cycle, and have made progress over the past 15+ years, even if it’s exhausting. Therapy has helped tremendously, and allowing myself to be upset and recognize that it has been a hard road. Had I remained in denial, I would not be able to have the good things I have now, including greater patience for myself and others.
Where I am in total agreement with you is that it is not good for survivors to feel inferior because they couldn’t just “deal with it” like E Smart supposedly did. We should be careful not to persecute her in the process, as she is probably not so much arrogant, as she is unaware. It’s like the first time I went to live overseas, and realized that you don’t really know what you don’t know! And as another mentioned, it can take years for you to realize what happened. And with age things become clear that were vague ideas or things you heard when younger. Just like things you learned in school or in college might not click for years, and then you have a lightbulb moment.
ps sorry for posting here, as I just noticed you have another posting too!
Chris,
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Her name is Ysatis De Saint-Simone PhD (Specialist in Stress Control and Rejuvenation)
Blog: http://ysatisdesaintsimone.wordpress.com/
She helped save and change my life, and well as many hundreds of other people.
In addition to healing emotions, physical disease, and psychological problems, she can also enable you to
gain personal power, motivation, confidence, joy of living, peace of mind, truly know yourself from the inside out, rejuvenate naturally and become AWARE of your potentials. It’s a very powerful and awesome therapy.
Be sure to check out her blog so you can read how her therapy works in detail, the benefits of knowing yourself, and her bio.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask ~
I think where you and I might disagree on Elizabeth is that you might think I am “persecuting” her. This is my stance:
Silence is approval. Someone needs to point out where she might be causing a lot of grief for children and other survivors of trauma, torture, and rape. Not too many people have dared to say these things about her. No one in her immediate circle is ever going to speak the truth to her.
Persecution is not a fair word because I do not intend on afflicting any pain or suffering on her, or to proceed against her with some kind of action. I merely voice myself. I am true to myself, and in the process, those other victims who feel as I do might say to themselves, “Thank you Alethea, I sure feel the same and so glad you dared to say it.” If Elizabeth Smart is so healed and self-assured as she claims, and if she was not a runaway and was a total victim, then her reading anything I say would cause her to just wave her hand and not pay me, or my silly opinions (silly to her) much mind.
If she is not healed inside, and or, was a runaway, then she will read my words and take them to heart somewhere inside herself, because we all know the truth deep inside. If there is any truth in what I say about her ordeal and about her repression of trauma, then she might educate herself, back off from so much public speaking, or might one day look to heal what has not been healed inside her.
Yes, she may be very unaware. But when a person takes on the role of public speaking, conferences, and works openly for organizations for abuse etc etc, then they have a duty and obligation to be informed and to make themselves aware.
Alethea
Chris, I forgot to say that she does the therapy via telephone. She has had clients around the globe. All one needs is a speakerphone, an hour or two a week of privacy, and a will to heal.
I have read this article and all the posts so I’m writing to you because I want to help you heal. I am not a religious person at all and for the most part I do not find comfort in numbers of followers, I refuse to join the masses in displaying my life on Facebook or Twitter because I feel my life is mine and mine alone, and this is where I may be able to she’d some light on what I think happened. Maybe she went willingly or maybe she was kidnapped as you make very good points but what I have learned is that denile is the only way I was able to move forward. I choose to deny my
abuse and try and make everyone around me think I was perfect and unscaved by my tour- cher. I’m 35 years away from my denile and I can tell you at 48 years old I have adult children and am hauted to my core. I do not know why I chose to deal the way I did but it was a huge mistake. Elizabeth Smart will have to face the demons one way or another, I just hope for her sake she will face it before she has children and a husband that will have to live with her, my family never deserved it, and I should never tried to pretend it was fine. I hope this helps you..
“…I’m writing to you because I want to help you heal.”
I already have.
You can read about my healing here:
https://ordinaryevil.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-the-disease-from-hell-and-for-some-rooted-in-child-sexual-abuse/?preview=true&preview_id=10995&preview_nonce=7c311e7504
and here:
“…but what I have learned is that denile is the only way I was able to move forward. I choose to deny my abuse and try and make everyone around me think I was perfect and unscaved by my tour- cher. I’m 35 years away from my denile and I can tell you at 48 years old I have adult children and am hauted to my core.”
As you have written a contradiction here, I hope you realize that denial does not work, nor does it heal.
Amen.
WOW! Such an interesting blog. No, I am not a victim of rape , torture or kidnapping, but I totally agree with all the points you’re trying to convey. Your resources are valid and it does seems beyond unreasonable for someone to be able to return home on DAY 1 and erase all the negativity that’s happened over the past nine months.
I find it very courageous that you’re able to speak out and tell exactly how you feel about a certain situation that you’re able to relate to and still hold your grounds.
After reading about all the possible escapes and not once try, seems a little fishy to me as well. Don’t worry, only time will tell and the truth will be exposed.
Monea! Thank you for voicing your opinion. I must admit that it feels good, and it helps me, to have someone understand my points.
“Your resources are valid and it does seems beyond unreasonable for someone to be able to return home on DAY 1 and erase all the negativity that’s happened over the past nine months.”
I am glad you wrote this because it is so much more complicated and severe than mere “negativity.” It is coming home, being fine, and erasing nine months of severe fear, trauma, degradation, humiliation, shame, terror, entrapment, and over 1,000 repeated rapes.
It is not scientifically possible to do this. The human mind is a scientifically working mechanism.
Thanks so much for expressing yourself.
Jealous much?? You see this all the time, if you’re jealous of someone then you hate them. You’re jealous of Elizabeth Smart. Of what she has, who she is, and of the life she has CHOSEN to live. Don’t hate the Smart family cause they have money. 😉
How do you know whether or not I have money? Judge much?
I have money. What has cash got to do with anything? The blogger makes some excellent points.
Have you ever been raped or abused? Because I do not think so otherwise you would understand where she is coming from.
Brave blog. Brave girl you are to make a post like this. I am an abuse victim myself and at first I thought “this is jealousy because Smart has moved on” because I have also. However I did years of counselling, years of feeling ashamed, feeling like I was to blame. I do not know what my opinion is here but I will say brilliant piece. I will be a regular reader from now on. Olive.
Thank you for saying this Olive. I was actually about to delete all my Elizabeth Smart posts because of all the negative feedback I get. I was not going to delete them because I am backing down, or because of a change of heart. I wanted to delete them because of all the people who don’t get my point. No matter how many words I use to try and spell it out, they don’t get my entire point. Which is:
There is something not right with her and her family.
She gives the impression that she has not taken the time to educate herself on how odd (“odd” meaning different, unusual) she is and how her experience with “healing” defies the experience of virtually every other victim of countless rapes, kidnapping, torture and death threats.
She puts herself out there with an arrogance and ‘holier than thou’ attitude.
She offers some of the most superficial and ridiculous advice to heal extremely complicated and serious trauma-based symptoms.
I think she is probably repressing her trauma and emotional pain. One day, when she is older and when life throws her some real stress, it will surface in some way.
All of the above make many victims and survivors of trauma feel very unworthy, defective, and as if they are doing something wrong….
I am not jealous of Elizabeth Smart. I do not want her life and feel much more at peace with who I am -with all of my human weaknesses- than to ever want to be her, or to have her so-called “healing.”
Thank you for posting Olive. I hope you hang around.
Hi Althea I am only seeing this now.
May I ask how many people who have given you “negative feedback” have told you they were abused also?
I just really and truly doubt any of them have been? Or perhaps I am wrong?
I think to understand your point, well then you have to UNDERSTAND what being abused does to someone… And that I do.
Thanks Olive. Sorry it took me so long to reply, my Internet was down since Friday.
The people who react negatively to my opinions are usually people who have NOT been sexually abused as children. Good observation.
Interesting article, What I read is …. if people do not fall off the face of the earth in desperate depression and have PTSD trauma for the rest of their lives … they were not real victims? I hope you are kidding! Everyone deals with trauma in their own personal way. There is no right or wrong way to deal with being victimized. I do not know the Smart family, and I think it is ridiculous that some of you post that they appear “cult like.” Outrageous! She is a survivor and not one soul out in cyberland can state that she lies because she is not a textbook victim. I suffer from PTSD and I don’t .. for one minute … think that every victim of disguisting crimes have to suffer for the rest of their lives …to be validated. This article seems full of waa waa talk. Pull up your big girl panties, and stop accusing people of things because you feel bad for yourself. OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Well then, if you suffer from PTSD, and think that Elizabeth is such a well-balanced rape and torture survivor, then why don’t you apply her ‘move on with your life,’ ’72 hour recovery retail therapy’ to your own life. Surely, if Elizabet Smart has been able to heal being raped over 1,000 times, death threats, kidnapping and being tied to a tree, then surely you can use her technique to rid yourself of your PTSD. If you support her so much, and her form of “therapy,” then it shouldn’t take you long to be totally free of all your problems.
Dear Alethea,
There is no such thing as a “calculating runaway” children do not run away from loving non-dysfunctional homes.
I mean lets say for the sake of the argument that she did run away with the perv on her own will and even that she thought she was “in love”………….We do not know what went on in Ms Smart home for her to do that.That is really a mal-adjusted child that would do that.
Her parents are very religious.Religion is very invalidating.Invalidation is psychological abuse.Also emotional abuse.There are many dysfuctional behaviour within a family that would make children act in odd ways or run away.WE do not know.
But if nothing else.If she was there on her own will and even “enjoying the sex” it is statutory rape.Which many call just rape.
Actually if she did “enjoy” it and was there thinking she was in “love” it may even be more damaging than if she hated it in the long run.
It would be a lot more confusing and severelly emotionally abusive besides the sexual abuse which would have a lot more complex trauma.
Seriously as good as you blog is.You really are doing a disfavor to runaways and children of 14 with what you are implying.
There are many victims of child abuse of 14 who willingly participated through pure manipulation and for many other reasons.Previous abuse, dysfunctional toxic families, ect.
Young boys get hard when they are being abused.Their bodies do react in an arousing way.That makes the trauma the more complex and harder to heal from.
That is exactly how you get CPTSD and PTSD.
I do agree with you that Ms Smart looks to me like a brainwashed victim and speaks like one too.Like a female member of a cult.
“children do not run away from loving non-dysfunctional homes.”
The Smart family is, in my opinion, far from a loving non-dysfunctional family. I find them to appear cult-like themselves and would not be surprised if there is a history of incest in that family. This may be why E. Smart is so robotic and dissociated from her kidnapping, trauma, torture and rapes.
“Her parents are very religious.”
They *appear* religious. I find it to be suspicious.
and you are missing the point of my article. I am fully aware how children become sexually involved with a perpetrator because their body responds (read my recent article on this) to the sexual stimulation………..FULLY AWARE.
I am coming to this blog very late but I find this post morally reprehensible.
YOU, yes Ms. Holier-than-thou-martyr-of-the-universe, Do NOT speak for every single victim of abuse.
Guess what! I’ve been abused, raped, and mistreated. Authorities said it was one of the worst cases of child abuse they’d ever seen. So, just to get that out of the way, because you seem to love undercutting other people who disagree with you by claiming they “didn’t have it as bad.” So I’ve been abused! Just like YOU.
UNLIKE you, however, I CHOOSE not to define myself by the bad things that have happened to me. I CHOOSE instead to make something of it.
This entire long winded entry reads like an elaborate justification on your own behalf to wallow in your self-satisfied pity.
You are no longer a child and you have a CHOICE in how you feel and how you define yourself and how you present yourself to the world.
If you honestly feel that bad why are you alive? Suicide is a choice too. Living like this isn’t living at all and I don’t mean this response to be cruel but as a wakeup call. I’ve been there too and one day you will look back and regret wasting all this time on focusing on something you had no control over. You only live once. Don’t let the person who hurt you take any more of your life away.
Dear “Anonymous,”
No where in my post did I say I still suffer from all the serious physical, emotional, and psychological problems that used to incapacitate me. You have erroneously concluded that I am still suffering, or as you would call it, ‘walking around with a woe’s me attitude.’ I no longer suffer and I am now near a place of true peace, unlimited potential, and freedom from disease and illness. I do still have some lingering issues that are related to having enjoyed sex with my father, but I am working on that in therapy and the symptoms are diminishing with each session. Soon I will be free of everything.
No, “anonymous,” it is E. Smart who has the “Holier-than-thou-martyr-of-the-universe” attitude. That is one of my issues with her, and I am not alone. Many incest, rape and trauma survivors have a problem with Miss Smart’s attitude and casual advice to “move on” as if one should simply choose a different outfit to wear.
You have tried to simplify an extremely complex issue by acting as if someone with PTSD, migraine headaches, nightmares, serious physical disease and a multitude of uncontrollable physical illnesses can just wave those things away like a pesky fly.
You claim to be so healthy and balanced, but I find you to be a very unhealthy person who probably has some serious issues in your life, but you are so into superficiality and positive thinking that you don’t even recognize your own problems.
What healthy, healed survivor of severe child abuse goes around telling someone they disagree with to kill themselves?
Take a look in the mirror “anonymous” and point your finger at yourself, because I am positive that I am much more at peace and living a more joyful healthy life than you are.
You might want to work on your anger issues and question your need to so vehemently defend the Elizabeth Smart 72 hour recovery therapy.
Good luck and best wishes to you,
Alethea
Thank you Anonymous! This is the best comment on here!!! Ms. Holier-than-though-martyr-of-the-universe!!! Haha You are so right, it IS a choice! And Alethea, you have wasted your life away on this blog hating on Elizabeth Smart! How about instead you use your time to go do good! That’s why Elizabeth is so much better off than you, instead of sitting on a blog complaining and crying about how bad of a situation she was in, she’s out doing good in the world!
PS Alethea, you’re probably the type of person who believes in the 9/11 Cover Up as well…. Stop being such a miserable person!
It is a choice that comes with healing and it isn’t magical healing – you need to work on it.
I do not believe this blogger is miserable. She has her eyes wide open and her points are valid.
Go do some research into abuse victims not having any trauma or emotional scarring.
Doesn’t happen without work.
Jose,
This blog is only a part of my life, it certainly doesn’t count for the times of my life that are full of peace and beauty. Child rape, death threats, trauma, and physical and emotional suffering do not usually fall in line with laughter and feeling good. It is a dark and disturbingly painful topic. Would you feel better if I posted a joke every day? Or an inspiring photo? Because I have many of both. However, if it takes “feelgoodism” for you to think my Blog does good for others, then maybe you ought to take off?
It the collective need in humans to feel good and have feel good stories that contributes to the evil of this society.
Go find a Blog that talks about superficial pleasantries. If you don’t like the truth, then don’t hang around here.
I also choose not to let the person who hurt me have any part in my life. . . However I didn’t get there over night.
You have suggested this blogger commit suicide. Now that IS morally reprehensible. And a little bit sick.
Did you get over your trauma with no counseling or emotional scarring at all? I find that hard to believe !!! No abuse victim in the world has ever come out saying “Hey I got over it, all good baby!!”.
Fact. Ask any sexual abuse counselor.
It is not that easy
Brilliant article and thank you for writing it! I have questioned all that you have and I must say I don’t believe a word of the Smart’s story. Where’d Elizabeth get the wig? Where are the people in the party pictures who have yet to comment on this strange trio that crashed their party in San Diego?
As you said, numerous opportunities to free herself went without taking and yes, ES was too plump and shiny after such an “ordeal”, and quite the resilient one to just shrug it off and ‘move on’.
I believe the Smart’s orchestrated the whole mess to cover up a wayward teen’s untimely pregnancy. They insult every real victim out there and join the likes of John Ramsey in promoting their farce. I believe someday ES will have to confess because a secret like that is too hard to keep. Let’s hope Mary Katherine doesn’t have a conscience either.
Thanks again for great blog.
Sincerely, Laura H.
Dear Laura,
Thank you so much for taking the time to make positive feedback. I have had a number of people be very angry with me for what I write about Elizabeth Smart.
I think Mary Katherine grew a conscience when she realized that Richard Ricci had been falsely accused and was paying a huge price for it. It is a tragedy that he died from the whole thing, and the Smart’s never publicly apologized to his family for what they did to that man.
I am so grateful to find your blog today. E. Smart was in Baltimore a couple of days speaking to a packed audience. In an interview afterward, she was all over the place in her answers to the interviewer’s questions. At one point she said she thought it was okay if a victim chose to take a day here and there to cry but not to make it a way of life. She mentioned “retail therapy” as one of the possible ways to help victims ease the pain.
I must admit that her her demeanor sent a chill through me. She came off as cold, insincere and self-serving. But that is not what has driven me to post here. By the way, this blog is a godsend to me. Althea, you are an inspiration, a strong positive role model, and a talented writer.
Someone mentioned the gist of Smart’s “move on with life” message to me two days ago. As someone who has been in treatment for PTSD and DID for the past 7 years, hearing this felt like an assault. For me, one of the most trying aspects of living as a survivor of childhood abuse is the constant SELF-INFLICTED abuse for spending the time, energy and money on endless therapy. So when someone makes a dismissive remark like this, it just intensifies the already-constant sense of self-shame.
When I told my therapist about how ashamed I felt upon hearing, once again, that trauma survivors should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, he basically told me much of what is written on this blog. But reading it from other survivors like Althea has made all the difference in the world to me. Thank you.
Anne, it’s late and I had a long day, but your comment made me cry. THANK YOU. I am moved beyond words that you said these things and I thank God that you are honest enough, and courageous enough, to go against the grain on the topic of Elizabeth Smart.
I want to write more, but I am too tired now. I plan to respond to you further on this tomorrow.
Thank you for making my night!
Anne, I am wondering how the other attendees felt about Elizabeth’s statements and attitude? Did you feel as though others thought the same as you did?
Thanks for Sharing that. I wish more people would speak up. I wish there were reporters who would ask Elizabeth Smart tough questions. I think it is perhaps politically incorrect to ask tough questions to someone who is a “rape/kidnap survivor”. Nobody wants to be the one who beat up on the poor girl who was kidnapped and raped. It’s a risk that no one in the media wants to take. It’s just easier to just accept her ridiculous account.
I understand that we are all different, and not all victims of rape or molestation, live in fear. I know personally women, and men who for the most part, live happy full lives. They do sometimes have moments of sadness, but, only close freinds and family know about these times. Ed Smart said, his daughter is fine more than once, that’s because, he knows she is not, but, the rest of the world can not help this girl, it was no reason for this man, to say, she cries at night, and we have to leave the light on for her, or she is a differnt person.No reason at all, even if nothing happened, and she ran away, she still is changed and has issues to deal with. I am very glad she was found, and is trying to live her life, and I bet, therapy has been secretly or will be in her future, but, it is her business, and she need not share it with the world.I think everyone should be happy, she is doing as well as she seems, but, if you look closer, you can see, that somethings did happen to her, but, you have to be able to see beneath the surface. Some smiles, are disguising pain and cries, underneath.
Rosalind, Of course not all victims live in fear. Every single case is entirely different, and each victim was abused in very different ways, by different people, and for different lengths of time. My guess is that those people you know, were not raped, tortured, and sexually abused for years as children by their own family members, and did not endure multiple death threats as a children.
Alicia Kozakiewicz was taken for 96 hours. 96 hours…..Elizabeth Smart was taken for 6,480 hours.
Alicia says, “It’s hard, and the PTSD, the nightmare and the flashbacks and everything, it was really a life sentence,” Alicia said. “He might have been sentenced to 19 years, but for me and for all other survivors, it’s a lifetime.”
Alicia has been dynamic in doing many things for abuse and kidnapping survivors, even in the midst of her having some pretty bad days. I do not find that Elizabeth Smart has done much for children or survivors of sexual abuse.
Elizabeth’s family plays a huge role in her acting, portraying….being what she is ‘supposed to be.’ But I also find a sense of arrogance in Elizabeth’s mannerism, tone, and words. Was that forced on her by her family, and by the role she was forced to play? Or does she have some self-importance issues on her own? The human ego, if not kept in check, tends to rapidly grow.
I think it’s unfortunate that much of the debate here is centered around a distain for the Mormon church.
I wish we could get down to the truth of the matter but a lot of people are not going to even listen to your arguments because all they hear is “I hate the Mormon church”.
This should not be a debate about Mormons.
I sought articles like this because I am very cynical of what I see in the Elizabeth Smart case. I think this article makes some very compelling points. The fact that Elizabeth Smart comes from a Mormon family is
Irrelevant. There seems to be plenty of evidence here that the Smart family is not being completely truthful.
Someone brought up “what business is this of ours who cares what Elizabeth Smart did”. It became our business when the Smart family used this story to mobilize the media the community and the police to look for their “kidnapped” daughter. Leaving one man dead in its wake and another in prison. Not to mention the fact that she has parlayed this event into a media career. So she likes the attention enough to make a media career out of it but she doesn’t want to answer a question. Well I’m sorry it doesn’t work that way you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You either want the media attention or you don’t. If you just want to go live your private life that as a veterian and have everyone leave you alone then that’s fine. No no that’s not what she wants. She wants all the benefits from being in the media spotlight but doesn’t want to have to answer any questions to anybody.
And apparently the media is perfectly willing to go along with this as long as you’re cute and blonde like a bunch of lemmings and hapless dopes.
Well some of us are freethinkers. Some of us don’t go along with what the media tells us. Some of us actually think things through for ourselves and what we see in the Elizabeth Smart case doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t add up and they won’t answer questions and it makes me very cynical. And this is coming from a Mormon.
You want to find out what happened to Elizabeth Smart? Stop using your cynicism of Elizabeth Smart as a vehicle to bash the Mormon church. Then instead of being seen as people who have an ax to grind you’ll be seen as people who have valid points that need to be looked into.
The Smart family may be able to fend off the media but I don’t think they’re going to be able to fend off a few million Mormons with questions.
You make great points Hymie. Great comment. But it is not so much Mormonism that has to do with certain aspects of the case, but the Smarts, the media, and Mormons themselves utilizing Mormonism for self-aggrandizement and proselytizing. I personally have never used the Smart case to bash Mormonism, but I have made a a comment here and there as a result of being angry with Elizabeth Smart and her family. But my anger has never been about Mormonism, it has been about how she portrays herself to other survivors of sexual abuse and kidnapping.
Maybe I’m missing the “proselytizing” here. I’m curious, where is the evidence of that?
Also, “self-aggrandizement”? That might be a stretch. They are certainly being opportunistic, but “self-aggrandizement” implies putting yourself above others. Where is the evidence of that?
The Media is going to keep pointing out the fact that they are Mormon. They can’t keep that down even if they try. It has become part of the story whether they like it or not.
I can’t believe you have me defending the Smart family here.
Look, you have valid questions and points, but they are going to be overlooked and dismissed by many if you keep making baseless allegations. Stick with the facts. There is enough factual evidence to raise suspicion for any thinking person. Your subjective observations are your undoing.
I can make points about this case and fair minded people will listen to me because I’m not on a witch hunt. I’m simply on a truth hunt. The truth has no agenda. I don’t hate the Smart family. I hope we are wrong about them. I hope this is all a bunch of circumstantial evidence that turns out to be bologna. I hate that I have to stand out and and find unpleasant things like this about people. Sometimes I envy the mindless drones who buy into the media message. This is the burden of being a free thinker.
Let go of your anger. Let God judge the Smart family. What good does hating them do for you?
I do think they should answer questions and be held accountable if they are the phonies they appear to be. But it will never happen if we don’t have a fact based message that people who don’t hate Elizabeth Smart can get behind .
Hymie,
If you don’t see Ed Smart as someone who is into self-aggrandizement, then I don’t know what to tell you.
As far as the proselytizing goes. I see the Smart family using Elizabeth’s story as promoting Mormonism…as a religion for anyone who wants to also “experience a miracle” ‘like Elizabeth did.’ I don’t see them doing it humbly, or by example, as Jesus taught. I see them using it as, ‘We prayed and prayed for her to return and she did, so we are special and you could be too if you only you were Mormon.’ Elizabeth does it too when she acts high and mighty about how she has supposedly “not suffered one sign of trauma.” She is arrogant about it. That is how I see it. You might read her differently. It does not make me, or you, right or wrong. It is how we each perceive things differently.
“Look, you have valid questions and points, but they are going to be overlooked and dismissed by many if you keep making baseless allegations. Stick with the facts. There is enough factual evidence to raise suspicion for any thinking person. Your subjective observations are your undoing.”
I have no idea what you are talking about here. I have used the facts of the Smart case, and Elizabeth’s own words to criticize her. If you are talking about the proselytizing and self-aggrandizement, I have addressed that in this comment. I don’t know what else you are talking about.
“Let go of your anger. Let God judge the Smart family. What good does hating them do for you?”
Oh please! I get so bored with people who accuse others of “hate” merely for having a different opinion than themselves, and for criticizing the actions and words of others. God gave us a mind to judge right and wrong, to express ourselves when someone is harming others, and to use judgement to stop things that are not okay. You claim to be a “free thinker” but you accuse me of “hate” just because I happen to use my own free thinking mind.
Look into your own heart instead of accusing me of hate. Turn your finger at yourself instead of acting all high and mighty: “let go of your anger.”
You don’t know me and you don’t know my heart, and there is something called “righteous anger,” and it is used to stop injustice. If no one judged others, or got angry in this world…it would be hell on earth.
i think this may be an orchestration of church and state, in an effort to “clean” up this conservative town…..ricci was an ex con and probably didnt adhere to the “good mormon civilian type” and emmanuel was a true eccentric, with some mental illness, but he seemed to make quite a scene in his town and probably ruffled quite a few feathers by being kicked out of the church for being too demonstrative…..i think this was a work of the church and the the govt……it all seems made up and unreal…..how everything is spoken and talked about, and rather NOT talked about……there is no quality of authenticity in ANY of the smarts responses….i say it was a total set up, a total frame!! to clean up the community and the bring fame to the smarts and to the mormon church….
just my take…..
You may be right Teller. The Mormons have used this story to say, “See, Elizabeth is a MORMON and she was found, and she is just fine. You should become Mormon too, so you can be just like her.”
The Smarts look like a Stepford family.
This is interesting, when I read up on the case, I found her ‘rescue’ very odd, she did seem to want to prolong her ‘missing’ status by denying she was Elizabeth….
First of all, how dare anyone forget that this is a real person who has a %50 chance of actually suffering from what she has claimed?
Secondly, I think the OP is more frustrated at the fact that they have felt more trauma than what E.S. has shown.
Thirdly, even if E.S. lied, so what? What is it to you?
And fourthly, as much as you banter on and make hairbrained, half baked claims, you will never discover the truth.
I admit, I was curious about this site because I was hoping that E.S. had received some excellent, first rate therapy. Her home life appears to be stable and centered around Mormon family values, which, no offense, might greatly help her recover. I imagine the psychological trauma from being raped by your own parent would have been a great deal worse, considering the fractured trust of a caregiver who is supposed to love you, but is instead abusing you.
E.S. was allegedly abused by a stranger, unfamiliar with her family, and perhaps the trauma was less impactful. Also, her family perhaps uses the power of prayer to find mental clarity and healing.
But even if she did run away, what’s it to you, OP? You can’t stand seeing… what? E.S. be happier than you? Your anecdotal evidence is not proof. Forgive everyone and move on with your life. Or become a real detective and figure out mysteries that actually matter, please.
All of this fits a cruel stereotype of “second wouding” a victim goes through. Who in the hell is anyone to judge her or her family? Her actions are and will be those of a victim of abuse. She will look as good as she can on the outside and battle demons within for the rest of her life. Leave her alone to do it. Quit being abusive and judgmental. What she and anyone who has been through abuse needs is to know that whatever she did, with whatever physical and mental ability she had was OKAY!!! She was in an out of control, irrational situation. 99% of these comments are very irrational, stemming from the same kind of tortured minds. Try kindness. It works for others, but is best for yourself, as well.
Stephanie,
Like it or not, and whether Elizabeth Smart is aware of it or not, she wounded me and many other survivors of child sexual abuse with some of her remarks and attitude.
So it is my reaction to her secondary wounding of me and others that you take issue with.
“Who in the hell is anyone to judge her or her family?”
Anyone who has been sexually abused as a child or raped, or otherwise severely traumatized –whom she, her family, and the media have said she represents, has a right to question her, get angry, or “judge” her. So does anyone, abused or not, who has their own mind and opinion.
You Stephanie are judging me for having an opinion that is contrary to yours. You are judging me and other abuse survivors for feeling angry about what a supposed victim of rape and trauma has claimed about healing from rape and trauma. You judge me and others for feeling different, inferior, and frustrated that Elizabeth Smart and her family have put forth the notion that she has simply moved on from everything, has no after-effects, and is “unscarred” by her ordeal –all without offering anyone any explanation of how this ‘miraculous healing’ has occurred.
“She will look as good as she can on the outside and battle demons within for the rest of her life.”
Not according to her or her family. According to them, she has “not wasted time looking back,” “not allowed it to define her life.” According to the Smart camp, she is fine and recovered ‘as if nothing ever happened.’
“Try kindness. It works for others, but is best for yourself, as well.”
Sorry, but there is something called “righteous anger” and I don’t cater to people-pleasing niceness when it comes to very serious subjects. I believe in expressing oneself with truth and conviction.
If E. Smart and her family are going to speak their ‘truth’ with conviction, then they had better be prepared for other people to react negatively to their comments. –Just as you have reacted negatively to mine. So you Stephanie are being judgmental and “unkind” to me. But I say this to point it out to you, not because it bothers me. I don’t care two hoots what you think of me, but I did want to point out your hypocriticism.
Alethea
Hi, I would like to say first and foremost this blog is very well written! I found the entire Smart Matter very curious, to say the least. I do not have for one moment any doubt that Elizabeth was abducted and forcibly raped by her captor(s). She seems like a Stepford Wife to me, very robotic and weird. In a special that aired on MSNBC over the weekend the Smarts said that Elizabeth and the entire family had to go through counseling. It seems like Elizabeth is in some sort of dermal, she seems very void of emotions. It is strange, which probably leads the writer of this blog to believe that her situation may not have been by force? I don’t think that’s the case, this to me, is a weird family all involved with religion. I have seen other families over religious that act similar to them. I also think Ed Smart is gay, it’s all over the Internet, he reminds me of that Reverend Ted Haggard, he is very similar to him. SO he’s a man that went and had six children, and is all involved in his religion, but he’s a screaming queen. Religion breeds, lies and cover ups and denials, that is what I think we are seeing here..Thanks for this blog, it’s very interesting..
Thank you Joan! She DOES seem like a Stepford wife, very robotic. I think dead behind her eyes.
Interesting take on the case found here:
http://thefraudulentelizabethsmart.blogspot.com/2010/12/profile-on-elizabeth-smart-year-2006.html
“Ed Smart is not that smart, but I’ll get to that… anybody in his position in the media in salt lake city, being as connected as he was, knew runaways got no attention whatsoever from the media or the police. none. zip. nada. in order to find his daughter, he would have to report her as abducted.
The rest of the story is easy to follow… as they needed, they shaped the story to be whatever they needed it to be… all of a sudden the sister remembers who it was that took her. these people were living in the woods behind their house in a tent! surely Elizabeth spoke to someone during that time, perhaps one of her siblings… thats how they knew who she was with… that is also how they knew that she was alive!!!
As long as this dragged on, no matter how sorry you felt for the family, with what we were told, it was a given that she was dead. or worse. but most likely dead or would be before she was found.People dont break into houses and steal little girls and let them live…. it just doesnt happen. But this family stated on numerous occasions that they KNEW she was alive… believe in whatever hokus pokus you want, I believe them. I believe they KNEW.”
Thank you for posting Joan!
Reminder: When Elizabeth was found and approached on the day of her “rescue”, she answered the officer, who recognized her; “you think I’m that girl that ran away.”
Freudian slip of the century?
I found the ‘Fradulent Elizabeth’ site a few days ago and was going to e-mail it to Alethea.
I have wondered over the last few months if Elizabeth has been or is being mind-controlled – literally.
I too believe that Ed Smart is gay. There have been comments to stories over the years that he is known to go to gay bars and try to pick up men.
I am a lesbian. The first few times I saw him in 2002, my gaydar went off with a frequency.
At times I wonder who is the ringleader more – Ed…or Lois.
He is much more vocal. Until the trial, Lois was like a showpiece.
My main issue is not if Elizabeth was kidnapped or not. Point is, she was absent from the familial home for 9 months.
It is her reaction after returning, the Smart parents and family conduct during the time she was missing, and in the last 8 years that greatly concerns me.
‘In a special that aired on MSNBC over the weekend the Smarts said that Elizabeth and the entire family had to go through counseling.’
Counselling is different from therapy; and there are several types of therapy. Can you please provide a link to this special, Joan? A title? Because other than telling her story to a couple of forensic psychologists in March 2002 and seeing a psychiatrist once or twice – with her parents present – does not therapy make.
Which is it, I wonder? Elizabeth never had therapy or she ‘talked’ to a few people? If she did indeed go to therapy and she is denying it…why?
No one would blame her or shame her if Elizabeth said she had.
Except perhaps her parents.
And that would damage all her ‘unscarred, moved on’ position.
I don’t know about mind control. I have seen Elizabeth look very in control, controlling, and strong in interviews.
I don’t know if Ed is gay, but I see him as a weak man controlled by the women in the family.
Counseling IS different from therapy. Counseling is a waste of time and money for trauma and abuse victims. Counseling might help someone who needs to decide what subjects to take in school, or if they should ditch their jealous boyfriend, but trauma victims need deep therapy.
“No one would blame her or shame her if Elizabeth said she had [a need for therapy].”
Maybe, maybe not. She made a few ‘holier than thou’ statements when she was first ‘rescued.’ She waved therapy away like a pesky fly and said that all SHE needed was to talk to her parents. If she does feel the need to have more intense therapy –real therapy– then she might be hiding that need because of those earlier statements and the tone she used in making them.
ohKAY! well obviously you only know what the ‘press’ has said in articles & on TV shows but you cant always believe what you see or read. you need to know her before you start babling. Yeh, it all may seem a little far out there to some of you. She DID endure alot & its not all what you think or it may seem. Just because someone doesnt go to therapy doesnt mean they werent abused. I know i never did. I have only told a few select people & i am not affected by it. I think she does represent abuducted children. I believe she represents that you can move forward & have a good life without dewlling on the past. the past IS the past. & if you always dwell on it you cant be happy. Just my opinion & yeh this may not be proper gramatically but i really dont care. I am just saying until you know Elizabeth dont talk about her. Yes,you can have your own oppinion but just so you know the press nor tv are always correct. & maybe she didnt want the whole world to know what happened. i know i dont.
Maddison,
So the press is completely in error about every statement she, or her parents, have ever made? and I have also based myself on her statements, on television, from her own mouth.
Were you kidnapped for nine months and raped up to four times a day, tied to a tree, taken from your bed and threatened with death with a knife? (Elizabeth’s story)
Were you raped by your father as a child and did you have a ‘sexual relationship’ with him for years, and were you threatened with death by your father with his police knife? –all while your mother did nothing, except strike you and choke you when you tried to tell? Well, that is my story.
I don’t know what kind of abuse you went through as a child, but if you suffered all of what E. Smart did, or what I did, then you would not be able to just “move forward” and be fine. If you truly think you were not affected then you must not have endured much, or you are dissociating from it in order to survive.
“I believe she represents that you can move forward & have a good life without dwelling on the past. the past IS the past. & if you always dwell on it you cant be happy. Just my opinion…”
Your opinion is ignorant, harmful, and it minimizes and degrades the millions of people who suffer in one way or another from severe trauma and severe child sexual abuse.
Elizabeth and her family chose to put themselves out there by making statements, doing the talk shows, and by giving interviews on news programs etc. Therefore, I have every right to scrutinize what they say.
It’s a big surprise how after all she has supposedly gone through that she doesn’t NEED some mental help I have known many people who have been molested as young children and they definitely have had or need help however it appears Elizabeths secret life continues probably to this day I also heard she was whisked out of the way because she was pregnant and has to be away till it was smoothed over and ya that deal with mormons and the masons is so true also Elizabeth is most definitely still keepin the secret to this day lets just see how it pans out in court with Mitchell n Barzee my bet it will be settled fast out of court!! Well see!!
Wow, these comments and this article are stupid. If you actually knew the smart family you would know that there not at all like you guys say they are.
Well then, if you feel that we are all so stupid, and if you know the Smarts, then please enlighten us with your wisdom. Share your knowledge instead of merely making a blanket statement that is of no use to anyone.
‘If you actually knew.’ That could be just the point. Alethea DOESN’T KNOW the Smarts, as far as I can tell. Therefore, she must – can and does, thankfully, – comment on what she believes because of what she has read and observed.
Yes, she and others may be ‘limited’ in what we know because we do not personally know Elizabeth and her family, but this paragraph is meaningless if you consider the reality or truth of our world.
KNOWING anyone does not mean they are actually kind. Safe. Trustworthy. Of faith. Units of people can decive and often do, deliberately or subconciously. I am, in reality, one of the most caring people others can meet. I am also analytical, logical, and prefer to look at things that way. I know I’m caring because I know me, but no one else can ever really be utterly certain of my caring or any motive I seem to have. I COULD be another Ted Bundy. I know I’m not. But can others really be sure I am not dangerous, evil, dysfunctional, etc? Of course not. Why, then, do otherwise seemingly smart (no pun) and rational observers insist on clinging to what they see or want to see as truth? The Smart family LOOKS/SEEMS PERFECT and kind. It does NOT mean they ever were, on any real level. Ask the child of a pedophile. Oh, wait. That child is me, 26 years too late.
If Alethea is correct and Elizabeth’s family are hiding some realities, how likely is it that they would publicly share that they are not kind or as happy as they claim, or any knowledge with their friends, church or general society about their supposed ordeal?
The way people thought/think they know my family is not what is. The Smart family may be nice, but their insistence on seemingly having no lingering effects from what Elizabeth and, thus the family, is alleged to have gone through (Mitchell is, as far as I know, still currently unconvicted) makes me seriously concerned. The more rosier an apple is held out to be, the more rotten and poisonous it is likely to be. Remember the Queen and Snow White?
The catholic church has held itself up as ‘godly’ for centuries – and clearly, it is not. Not in the way that has any importance to me. You allow members of an instituition or other unit of people to harm others within…the church, as an example, has lost credibility.
As have the Smarts, in a great way and to the disservice and anguish of some more chronically ‘kidnapped’ or abused individuals.
By virtue of their trying so damn hard to continually present themselves as undamaged, unaffected, people of faith who have by nearly that alone ‘moved’ on, the Smart parents, Elizabeth and Mary Katherine only do more to solidify my belief that they are a seriously dysfunctional unit.
You are right on one thing. Alethea apparently does not know the Smarts’. You have seemed to imply, however, that you may. Can you shed some light on how the Smart family is ‘not at all like you guys say they are?’ Because if they are not, WHAT ARE the Smart family members like? I have honestly asked that question for years. WHO are they really? No one other than Alethea appears to be willing to have a serious, possibly all-angles, discussion about this.
As the Smarts continually hold themselves out as models, we, the public have both the right, the need – and the duty – to critique the model.
Dear Serieve,
Thank you for posting. Welcome.
“The Smart family LOOKS/SEEMS PERFECT and kind. It does NOT mean they ever were, on any real level. Ask the child of a pedophile. Oh, wait. That child is me, 26 years too late.”
Thank you for being honest. Or one could ask me too –about my devout, church cleaning mother, or about my ‘upstanding’ police-officer father. Those who abuse children in middle, upper class families, know how to play the role of goodness to outsiders and neighbors.
“If Alethea is correct and Elizabeth’s family are hiding some realities, how likely is it that they would publicly share that they are not kind or as happy as they claim, or any knowledge with their friends, church or general society about their supposed ordeal?”
My mother’s biggest problem was not the incest, but the shame of anyone finding out.
“The more rosier an apple is held out to be, the more rotten and poisonous it is likely to be. Remember the Queen and Snow White?”
So true! I distrust good-looking, well-dressed, socially acceptable people just as much as anyone else. You and I know that behind closed doors, people are VERY different.
“As have the Smarts, in a great way and to the disservice and anguish of some more chronically ‘kidnapped’ or abused individuals.”
If one checks deep into Mormonism, there is also much child sexual abuse attached to it and the links to Freemasonry are interesting. In my opinion, Mormonism is a cult.
“By virtue of their trying so damn hard to continually present themselves as undamaged, unaffected, people of faith who have by nearly that alone ‘moved’ on, the Smart parents, Elizabeth and Mary Katherine only do more to solidify my belief that they are a seriously dysfunctional unit.”
Yes yes! People who are honest do not have to try so damn hard to show everyone how honest they are.
“WHAT ARE the Smart family members like? I have honestly asked that question for years. WHO are they really? No one other than Alethea appears to be willing to have a serious, possibly all-angles, discussion about this.”
That’s because they and the press have brainwashed the entire country into believing the image that has been portrayed. They have dulled the senses of the American public, so much so, that people are afraid to question things or to be truthful about their very real concerns. Like me, some people have questioned their own reality about abuse!
“As the Smarts continually hold themselves out as models, we, the public have both the right, the need – and the duty – to critique the model.”
Ah!!!!! Brilliantly put!!!
AMEN!! They really arent. But you can see how judgmental people are. Its honestly, sickening. Her parents & Grandparents went through hell the enitre time she was gone. Her mom visably upset, Her dad constantly sick to his stomach, her Grandmother with out words…. Yeh, that to me sounds like its fake too. I’m sorry but thats hard to fake for 9 months if she was “pregnant” or “fake story” for a “secret life”. Dont judge unless you know.
“Judgment” is using our God-given intelligent discrimination to discern what makes sense and what does not.
Assuming the family went through hell because of what we see in the media is dangerous. My father, a psychiatrist and hypocritical ‘Christian’ who spent his life outside the home preaching ‘the word’ was an abusive (mentally, physically and sexually) sociopath indoors.
Some of his tricks include dehydrating himself so he could pass out in public which would lead one of the family members to move back home to take care of him and with this, another pet to abuse. Hitting himself so there were bruises which he later used to claim all of the family members were against him. He’s also done the whole eating of things that could easily upset his body so it could look like he was sick.
So lets not ignore the fact that we’re all human beings and faking things or lieing are easily possible.
It’s scientifically and medically impossible to ‘go back to being normal’ after trauma. Even after years of therapy, you’re just never the same.
Right on Lindsey! Thanks for telling it like it is. What appears to be, isn’t always what is. I grew up with two hypocrites as well. One was a police-officer, and the other, a devout Catholic.
Wow. You endured something pretty heavy as a child.
I wish the American public would get the fact that the ‘golden family’ might have some pretty interesting and dark skeletons in their closets.
“It’s scientifically and medically impossible to ‘go back to being normal’ after trauma. Even after years of therapy, you’re just never the same.”
You got that right.
There are a few items to consider in this case. After watching her interview with O Oprah, I was taken back! I know terror, rape, being held against my will, and it’s for sure she would not have gone home and as she puts it. My Mom said they don’t have control over you anymore, and move on with your life. It’s as if this trauma never took place. In theory I suspect one of two things is going on. She trusted this man she went with no knife was involved, and she like him and was sexually abused and found him to be comforting to her. That’s classic character of a molester. Then she became a part of this sick way of life and dissociated from the trauma all together. She began a new life with a new family with my guess some mind control on the abductor’s behalf. They created a “safe loving situation” for her. That as well is very common in abduction situations, there is a need to protect your perpetrator to survive.
Back to the parents, it’s far to odd of a reaction to their daughters abduction and trauma. My feeling is that she is also a victim of abuse in her family and that is why she was a perfect target for the abductor. Once she was found there was no going back on the story that she was kidnaped it was all over the press and her parents insisted that was the case.
In conclusion my theory is that she does not have PTSD because the trauma is not over. She is still in trauma mode only, I think that, this time its her parents that are the perpetrators! I feel her sister did not come forward because she too was probably molested by this man and was afraid to tell, because he wanted it to be a secret. There are secrets in abuse and always to keep the victim quiet. It comes from feeling love and comfort, natural human instant to crave that, when we live in a situation where it’s scarce. Desperate to feel love and ashamed at the same time provided for then being abused. The cycle continues in this young ladies life and she probably does not even know. Dissociation, from the real pain and the lack of knowing who is safe and who is not. Dependent on those to care for her even if they are unaware of how to really love it’s the only thing she know.
In time when and if she can distance herself from her family she will feel the effects of the trauma both with her captor so called. Then the real work begins with the trauma that started it all that comes from the family.
Mary
MySoberScene.com
Executive
Hi Mary. Thanks for posting your thoughts.
I remember her saying that: ‘My Mom said they don’t have control over you anymore, and move on with your life. It’s as if this trauma never took place.’
I remember thinking how ignorant this is. A person can try to lie to their own self –to their conscious mind– but the subconscious, where all the trauma is lodged, will not just move on, ‘let go.’ Where do people think all that trauma goes? That it just flies out the window?
“In theory I suspect one of two things is going on. She trusted this man she went with no knife was involved, and she like him and was sexually abused and found him to be comforting to her. That’s classic character of a molester.”
Very true.
“Then she became a part of this sick way of life and dissociated from the trauma all together. She began a new life with a new family with my guess some mind control on the abductor’s behalf. They created a “safe loving situation” for her. That as well is very common in abduction situations, there is a need to protect your perpetrator to survive.”
Sure, this is classic Stockholm Syndrome but the problem is that -from the very night of her rescue- Elizabeth has never shown any signs of having had this syndrome.
It’s possible that there was some kind of abuse in the family, but there is no evidence of that so I prefer not to go there.
However, I do often wonder why a fourteen year-old girl was sleeping in the same bed as her little sister. They had plenty of money for two beds. No one has mentioned it much, but I think it’s a little weird.
“In conclusion my theory is that she does not have PTSD because the trauma is not over. She is still in trauma mode only this time its her parents that are the perpetrators!”
I disagree. I think her parents are strict and controlling, maybe a little neurotic, but not inflicting trauma on her and her sister.
“Her sister did not come forward because she too was probably molested by this man and was afraid to tell, because he wanted it to be a secret.”
I strongly disagree with this. I think she had guilt about not telling right away and later, for blaming Ricci, but I think that Mitchell’s sole focus that night was Elizabeth.
But you’re right, if she was as seriously traumatized as she says, she will, in time, feel the effects of the trauma
This article puts the final nail in the coffin. I’ve read all the court transcripts, as well as the entire report filed on the day they found her. She’s been lying since the start, and several locals say that Elizabeth had already ran away multiple times before her ‘kidnapping’.
And she will continue to lie until she has no further use for her parent’s money, and her Mormon society. There’s a good chance she’ll never want to leave her original world either, unless things become as uncomfortable as they did when she ran away.
I have a hunch we haven’t heard the last of this girl. She has the demeanor of sociopath, and her various interviews reflect a young woman with little to no emotion, who has lived a life of spoiled entitlement, minus any deep substance. But will her perjury be enough to keep her mouth shut? It may, but her obvious arrogance may play a part in the truth finally being revealed.
Thanks for posting Johnny.
Where can I see an account of the locals who say she had run away before? I’ve heard this from more than one person but can’t find any new articles on it.
What I want to know is why we the people were not able to see her testimony so that we can judge her truthfulness? All we have is Jean Casarez’s account of things from Court TV and Jean seems to think that Elizabeth is an angel and her family is golden.
I will can personally tell you that she had not run away from her home .
How can you personally tell us? Are you a sibling of Elizabeth’s? One of her doctors or another family service provider. One of her uncles? Can you provide any proof that Elizabeth has never run away from home or attempted too?
That being said, on the flip side…can anyone at all point to article links, interviews, some credible source that Elizabeth in fact HAD or HAS tried to run away from home?
I keep reading comments online that say things to the effect of ‘she ran away from age 10 on,’ ‘the police said…’ but have NEVER been able to find any source or data to either (or neither) confirm nor deny this.
“I keep reading comments online that say things to the effect of ‘she ran away from age 10 on,’ ‘the police said…’ but have NEVER been able to find any source or data to either (or neither) confirm nor deny this.”
Yea, interesting isn’t it?
Children do not start running away at 10 because they are calculating.If she did there was something very wrong going on in her home.I was a runaway at 13.I had probably failure to thrive and given up on life.I ran away to isolate and let myself die on the streets.I spoke to noone and just sat on the streets starring into space………………..Seriously.You blaming a child for how children act out abuse is not sending a good message and helps noone.It perpetuates the very thing you are trying to erradicate.
Ignorance about child abuse.
I believe E.Smart was a victim.Yeah but in my opinion she still is because by the looks of her and how she talks about it she is still dissociated.
I used to talk about my story like it had happened to someone else not me.I kind of still do.I was raped at 3-4 and molested by my father and many other men and i could talk about it like i read it on a book or somewhere eventhough i remembered it.
My article was not about “blaming a victim” it was to address the fact that she might be publicly giving one story, when there is a much more truthful version. She does a disservice to all victims and survivors of child sexual abuse if she is lying, but more importantly, her attitude and “move on with your life” 72-hour therapy is harmful and insulting to other victims.
Yes me too. I personally know the family & i can tell you she wouldnt run away & that she never did.
I believe, the true victim of this soap opera was Richard Ricci and his family. But why media does not talk about him?, why all the focus is on E-Smart?. Not even the bloggers mention him as a true victim?
He suffered brain hemorrage in jail because he could no longer handle this accusation.
I agree Sam.
Soap opera…great term. I agree, Richard Ricci was a victim.
Thanks Alethea, Have just been reading up on Wanda and a letter she wrote to her mother Dora Corbett..she says she expects to stand trial and is very nervous. Alethea can you explain a little more to me about the medication that Judge Judith Alherton(not sure if that is the correct name) ruled Wanda should be forcibly medicated. Why? what is the medication and do you know what is supposed to be wrong with her.
I have not followed that aspect of this case. I have so much going on in my life that I can’t keep up with all the details, but if you find anything of interest, leave us a comment. Thanks!
I just started reading “In Plain Sight”, so am unfamiliar with many of the details of the case. But I’m thinking: girl who has just been singled out at school for her running ability, wearing tennis shoes, walking through her own neighborhood AND SHE DOESN’T RUN???? At that point, I’m thinking something doesn’t add up.
Welcome and keep us posted with your thoughts on the book.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3341727/
Transcript of alleged abduction..mary Katherine and her nightime visits.
http://www.steveospage.com/?p=539
More questions than answers…comments are also interesting.
http://mountainmeadowsmassacre.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=9527
Here is the link to the previous post.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/elizabeth_smart/1_index.html#
Hi Alethea, had a hard job of finding a photo of what Mitchell and Wanda looked like at the time of meeting Elizabeth…Mitchell was clean shaven and said to be very articulate. As you can see Wanda was a pretty girl with a nice smile. We only once again have the Smarts side of the story and how long Mitchell worked at the house. Maybe Mitchell witnessed goings on and Elizabeth confided in him, we will never know. But Mitchell looked nothing like the Smarts and the press have tried to portray,
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/sexual_assault/elizabeth_smart/1_index.html#
Thank you! Thanks for commenting. I will check out the link.
Alethea, could you guide me to your main page. Many thanks.
Sure:
https://ordinaryevil.wordpress.com/
Alethea, I have just written an article about the Smart case on the forum..The Bastards…I have also left a link there to you site…
Now that we have seen Elizabeth has sworn under oath that she was raped 4 times a day. I would like your opinion. I wonder if Lacee knows the Smarts as she has left a post reproaching me for my thought process. Lacee must understand that because Elizabeth said these things happened does not make it true. Lacee must also understand that free speech is not ilegal.We are all entitled to our thoughts. There is something very wrong with this case.
I feel sad for the Victims of Elizabeth Smarts’s adventure. Mr. Ricci’s death in jail breaks my heart. But the fucked-up Media run by bunch of hypocrats, does not even mention his name and his family’s grief.
Their fucked-up focus is on Elizabeth Smart. But they are stupid enough to deny the truth.Who will answer the untimely death of this man in Jail?
“But they are stupid enough to deny the truth.”
As if you knew what the truth is!
“As if you knew what the truth is!”
And you do?
“But they are stupid enough to deny the truth.”
“As if you knew what the truth is!”
All_Black, or Ed Smart, whichever name you prefer:
I note you appear to have some knowledge of your – sorry, the Smart family. If I am correct, could you please elaborate in more than one sentence that is of no use? If you are going to comment on this blog, perhaps you could be so diplomatic as to productively communicate in an ongoing discussion of the Elizabeth Smart case in such a form that is beneficial as opposed to simply emotionally self-serving. For example, you could state WHY you believe Sam is incorrect and WHY you disagree.