Bringing Elizabeth Home

by Ed Smart

  BRINGING

  Elizabeth HOME

  A Journey of Faith and Hope

  ED AND LOIS SMART with Laura Morton

  DOUBLEDAY

  New York London Toronto Sydney Auckland

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Acknowledgments

  Bibliography

  Contact Information

  Photo Insert

  Copyright Page

  This book is dedicated with love and gratitude

  to our family—the Francoms and the Smarts.

  And to our six wonderful beautiful children,

  Charles, Elizabeth, Andrew, Mary Katherine, Edward, and William.

  To all those who helped, prayed, and searched.

  And to our Heavenly Father.

  Chapter 1

  JUNE 5, 2002, 3:58 A.M.

  WE AWOKE TO THE SOUND of a voice filled with fright—that of our nine-year-old daughter, Mary Katherine.

  “She's gone. Elizabeth is gone.”

  Mary Katherine stood by Lois's side of the bed, her head covered by her baby blanket. It wasn't unusual to have one of our children come into our room in the middle of the night, and at first we were certain it had just been a bad dream. Mary Katherine and Elizabeth shared a room, and sometimes Elizabeth would sleep in another room, especially if Mary Katherine had kicked her one too many times in her sleep.

  She went on, “You won't find her. A man came and took her. He had a gun.”

  At the mention of a gun, it was obvious that something really out of the ordinary was going on, and Ed nervously sprang from bed to check every room in the house. Lois, panic rising, ran from the room and down the stairs, flicking every light switch on the wall, illuminating the kitchen and adjacent family room. We expected Elizabeth to pop up from the sofa, where she sometimes retreated. There was no motion. No child fast asleep. No sleepy-eyed angel asking, “What's going on?” Lois's eyes fell on the cut screen in the kitchen window, and she screamed in utter disbelief and shock. That's when we both realized that Mary Katherine's words had quickly become our worst nightmare.

  Our daughter Elizabeth was gone.

  Chapter 2

  Although there are many things about this life that I do not understand,

  there are some truths about which I no longer have any doubt.

  —SHERI DEW

  ELIZABETH SMART is our daughter. When she was kidnapped, she became everyone's daughter. She belonged to America. We are not sure why the media picked up on Elizabeth's story, but people became aware of her abduction all around the world. Maybe it was because the media felt an affinity to Salt Lake City, having just been there for three weeks during the 2002 Winter Olympics. We may never know the reason. What separates one missing child from another? Is it race? Money? A slow news time? A holiday?

  This has been a strange, hard, sometimes rewarding, but mostly painful journey. We didn't expect to be in the situation we awoke to the morning of June 5, 2002. We never dreamed we'd someday have to face the harrowing tragedy of losing our daughter at the hands of a stranger. We've all read stories about missing children, and surely our hearts go out to those families who endure the pain of losing a child. The odds are so against bringing a child home safely when they go missing. Ninety-eight percent of abducted children do not survive beyond the first thirty days.

  How many times have you seen the face of a child on a “missing person” poster, or on a flyer in the mail with your discount coupons, or on the side of a milk carton, a billboard, or the evening news? Like most people, we always glanced, but we never really bothered to take a good long look at those faces, study their features, or ask ourselves if we had possibly seen this missing child. We hear about it all the time, but we think, “It'll never happen to me.” But it can happen to you, because it happened to us. When we see those pictures now, we can't help but look at them and know the horror the parents are feeling. We truly know what they are going through.

  We're the parents of six beautiful and amazing children, four boys and two girls, ranging from ages five to seventeen. Charles, our oldest son, is an avid soccer player who is now focused on mountain biking and downhill skiing. He's a senior in high school, and if you looked at his picture you'd probably correctly guess that he has a very active social life. Elizabeth, the next oldest, is a sophomore in high school this year. Andrew, who's in the eighth grade, is the practical joker in our family. He is a whiz with electronics, and we depend on him as the only person in our home who knows how to operate the audiovisual equipment. Andrew loves to snowmobile, so once as an incentive to help him take an interest in school we offered to upgrade our family snowmobile if he put in more time studying. It was the first time Andrew ever brought home straight A's. He even started reading the newspaper in addition to his schoolwork, although he was mostly just looking for that new snowmobile in the classifieds! Andrew also has a knack for playing the banjo. People have stopped us and said that Mary Katherine looks like a budding Grace Kelly. She's very artistic, both visually and musically. She loves playing her harp, painting and drawing horses, dogs, and fairies, and making clay animals, and she is currently taking a watercolor class that she very much enjoys. Her dog, Ollie, is her pride and joy. If teaching the harp doesn't work out for her, she could definitely be a veterinarian. Edward has presence—everyone knows when he is in the room. He is extremely inquisitive and seems to know everything. Even if he doesn't know the answer to a question, he'll make something up, and it always sounds viable. He became convinced that our new black Labrador, Siah, is part German shepherd because Siah is always on the lookout, and he heard that German shepherds are great watchdogs. Edward plays the piano and loves to ride his bike. He is the only one of our children who loves to snowboard. William is our baby. He is a sweet boy who loves his brothers and sisters. He's beginning to branch out and discover his interests, such as baking cookies, cutting out paper objects, and blowing big bubbles with his gum. He is also a terrific little skier. He never wants to be left out, and he needs to always be where the action is.

  Our extended combined family of the Smarts (Ed's family) and Francoms (Lois's family) reaches nearly triple digits, making holidays, birthdays, and graduations rather lively and frequent events. When Elizabeth disappeared, we were so fortunate to have such a large family to depend and lean on. The Francom family and the Smart family equally supported us, offering unflinching and constant encouragement throughout the nine months Elizabeth was gone and in the months since she has been home. We are forever grateful for the love and backing of our family and friends and so many others whom we don't know but were there during our time of need.

  This book is an opening of our pained hearts. Every parent, at one time or another, has surely thought about the unspeakable, unthinkable question: “What would you do if one of your children was taken from you?” It is a terrifying prospect, one we sincerely hope you will never have to face. It was by far the worst nightmare we, as a family, as a couple, and as parents could h
ave ever imagined. The intrusion on our family extended far beyond the empty seat at the dinner table or the gaping hole in our hearts. All of our five other children felt the impact of their sister's disappearance. In many ways, when Elizabeth was taken, all of our children were taken.

  Having given a great deal of thought to writing this book, we knew in our hearts that our journey is one that had to be shared because it is more than the story of our daughter's kidnapping—it is a story of great hope, strong faith, and our trust in our Heavenly Father. As a family, we are practicing members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as Mormons. Our beliefs played a huge part in getting us through our crisis, but they weren't something we turned to as a result of that crisis. We have always been devout people of faith and active members of our church. Though our experience was terribly painful, through our faith and a trust in God's power we gained tremendous strength, which became the cornerstone of how we survived. Having our daughter back home, in our arms, is nothing short of a miracle. It is the ultimate proof that God answers prayers. Granted, sometimes the answer is not the one we pray for, but still, it remains an answer. We feel truly blessed that He answered our prayers the way we had hoped for, though we realize, regretfully, that is not always the outcome in kidnapping cases. We have met so many families with missing children, and we've seen how deep their pain goes. It is something you never get over. In an instant, life as you know it is changed. Not knowing Elizabeth's whereabouts was terribly painful. There were so many days we simply could not accept why someone would do something like this. We can only imagine what it is like for those families who never see their children again or hear the news that their child has been found dead. We dreaded every phone call, every knock on the door, and every time we were asked to “come down to the station” for fear we, too, would hear the unthinkable news.

  What we hope to convey through our journey of faith and hope is that with a strong belief in God and His power, all things are possible. Miracles do happen.

  Former church president and prophet Spencer W. Kimball, author of Faith Precedes the Miracle, wrote many passages in his book that touched us and helped us understand how to better handle adversity. He wrote that in life “there are reservoirs of many kinds. Some reservoirs are to store water. Some are to store food. There should also be reservoirs of knowledge to meet future needs; reservoirs of courage to overcome the floods of fear that put uncertainty in lives; reservoirs of stamina; and reservoirs of faith—especially reservoirs of faith—so that when the world presses upon us, we stand firm and strong; when the temptations of a decaying world about us draw on our energies, sap our spiritual vitality, and seek to pull us down, we need a storage of faith that can carry us over the dull, difficult, terrifying moments, disappointments, disillusionments and adversity, want, confusion, and frustration.” We'd like to think that we discovered reservoirs of all kinds while Elizabeth was missing. We tapped our resources, both internal and external, to chart our course through this nine-month nightmare.

  Since Elizabeth returned home, there have been many questions surrounding what happened to her while she was gone. As her parents, we wish to protect our daughter's privacy and will not share the terrifying details of her captivity. We feel privacy is something Elizabeth, having survived nine months of torment, is entitled to. Perhaps someday she will choose to publicly share her story. That is her decision to make—not ours. We are just overwhelmed to have her home, where she belongs, well on her way to recovering and getting back to being a normal teenager.

  We will never be able to get those nine months back, and for that we feel robbed. Birthdays came and went. Vacations came and went. A school year passed by. We tried to live as normally as we could, but when Elizabeth was taken from us, our definition of normal changed. Given the sudden thrust into the media spotlight and the almost unbearable pain every night when we tucked our children into bed, we did the best we could. We are not perfect, but until the morning of June 5, our lives felt blessed in every way. With her disappearance, we had to reevaluate our priorities—not that they were so far out of line to begin with. Like most people, when life is sailing along as ours had been, we simply took for granted the family we had built together. Ed focused on work and Lois focused on being a stay-at-home mom. We both thought life was as close to perfect as it could get. But losing Elizabeth brought one point painfully home: Nothing is more important in this world than our family. Not money. Not work. Not a fancy new car or an expensive big house. Family, the prayers of so many friends and strangers, and our trust in God are what got us through this experience—and having survived, we have no doubt that we will persevere in any situation as long as we have those three things in our life.

  We recognize that when we decided to utilize the media in our search for Elizabeth, we automatically gave up control over our story. It was a trade-off—one that we understand. We never wanted to be in the public eye. We would have been very content to have led the rest of our lives having never given a media update, an interview, or a public plea for the safe return of our daughter. But that isn't how things worked out. Elizabeth was kidnapped. As parents, we would have done anything for her safe return. Aside from God's help, the media was the most important instrument in bringing our daughter home. We were able to keep Elizabeth's name, photo, and story alive even when all the evidence pointed in a darker direction. Though our story is filled with many incredible twists and turns, we never lost focus on what was important: bringing Elizabeth home.

  Once Elizabeth was found, we believed—however naively— that was the end of the story. There was no way to effectively turn off the media spotlight we had been under for nine months. Elizabeth has a long, bright future, and we want to protect her in as many ways as we can so that she can have a “normal” life. There have been so many outrageous, hurtful, and salacious stories about what really happened with respect to the kidnapping and the investigation, and now that Elizabeth is home we simply cannot allow those stories to stand. We are telling the story from our perspective so that, at the very least, we as a family gain some control over the information and misinformation that has been circulating now for well over a year. This book is a true account of what we endured in the nine months that Elizabeth was missing. Others may choose to tell a different version of what happened during those nine months, and there is very little we can do to stop those efforts. What we can do is speak our truth. We cooperated in the production of the CBS movie that tells a shortened and modified version of Elizabeth's story, but this book contains the genuine facts of what actually happened.

  Every one of us has the ability to make choices in life, but in making those choices we also have to live by them. When a story goes public, there is very little anyone can do to control the way that story is told or the opinions that are formulated as a result of media attention, especially when that attention reaches massive proportions, as it did in our case. We are so grateful for the help we received from all of our friends in the media, especially those who supported our search in every possible way. By writing this book, we risk the chance that our integrity may be challenged. It wouldn't be the first time. We endured that kind of public scrutiny the first few months Elizabeth was gone. When you lose a child the way we did, your honesty and integrity are the first things people question. There were so many unsubstantiated rumors about our family, our daughter, and the abduction. We lived through all of them. But in view of the situation, we feel that Elizabeth should not have to suffer one more minute of pain from her ordeal, nor should her own honesty and integrity ever be challenged.

  Our decision to write this book was made as a family—to ensure that the story be told the right way, with tremendous appreciation for all of those who kept Elizabeth in their prayers, deep gratitude to those who volunteered their time to help us search for our daughter, and humble admiration for the investigators, police officers, detectives, and FBI agents who kept the search going until Elizabeth was found. But the main
reason we wrote this book was to give infinite thanks to our Heavenly Father for answering our prayers.

  Chapter 3

  Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God,

  at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.

  —MOTHER TERESA

  WE BELIEVE THE LORD hears everyone's prayers. There are good, decent people from all walks of life, in all religions, with many different beliefs. We don't feel that the Lord answered our prayers because we are special, righteous, chosen, or because we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There are good people and not so good people in every religion and in all walks of life. Brian David Mitchell had been a member of the church but was excommunicated because his beliefs became radical and self-serving. He had been slowly digressing for years. We have all made our share of mistakes and will probably continue to, but along the way, we'd like to believe that we are improving as people, as husband and wife, as parents, friends, and community leaders. Our parents raised us to believe in God, to have faith, and to rely on the word of the Lord. We have raised our children the same way, and we hope and pray that our legacy continues when we have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. All we can hope for is that we have done what is right as parents and role models for our children. When you're young, you rely on the adults in your life to lead by example. At some point, it is hoped, you discover what you think and believe on your own. That's how you go forward in life.

  Faith ebbs and flows. There were many times after Elizabeth disappeared when we both felt our faith was being tested. We questioned the greater meaning of why we were faced with this extreme adversity. It forced us to face our weaknesses, our inadequacies, and every time we felt low, we both wondered how Elizabeth was coping. We never let our minds wander to those dark thoughts for long. We wanted to believe that Elizabeth was being protected and watched over, that she was being helped. That was the motivation to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and face the next day. We had no choice. We had to be there, together, strong, and prepared—just in case this was the day Elizabeth came home. In the long run, it strengthened our faith and made us aware of our weaknesses and shortcomings. There were so many times in prayer when we felt as if we were pleading for life—for Elizabeth's life, our lives, and the life of everyone around us. We asked our Heavenly Father for forgiveness and for the strength to go on. We humbly asked for the courage to face the days when we had no answers.