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American Morning

Interview with Jake, Kathleen Garn

Aired June 18, 2002 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It's nearly two weeks now since 14- year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared from her home in Salt Lake City. Elizabeth's father, on Monday, admitted that he left the garage door open the day before his daughter's abduction, left open for about two hours' time, fueling speculation an intruder may have been able to hide once entering that home.

Former Utah Senator, Jake Garn, and his wife Kathleen, close friends of the Smart family. They also helped organize volunteers to search for Elizabeth.

And the Garns this morning with us live in Salt Lake -- really appreciate your time and getting up early for us.

Senator, what would you like America to know about your relationship with the Smart family, what kind of people they are? After all, your relationship goes back about 15 years' time.

JAKE GARN, SMART FAMILY FRIEND: It even goes back further to that, the high school with the grandmother and Charles Smart, the grandfather, for more than 40 years. They are a remarkable family. You couldn't ask for a better family, more loving, more kind to each other. And that extends to the brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts.

So this is an unbelievable tragedy for some very remarkable people. I'm amazed at how well they have done under such difficult circumstances.

HEMMER: Also, Senator, when you consider their lives have become very public now -- we all know that many men in the family have been given lie detector tests -- how have they withstood that pressure and that attention and people looking at them in some corners saying they might be suspects as well?

J. GARN: That is very difficult, obviously, but they have handled it extremely well. They all feel that, yes, it's common procedure to investigate family. But I will guarantee you, no one in this family was involved. I know them too well, and those kinds of rumors simply are not true at all. But they've handled it beautifully under intense pressure.

HEMMER: I know both of you have contributed mightily in terms of the volunteer effort. Kathleen, over the weekend, a number of the tips that for a while have been flooding into police did not dry up, but they were down considerably. I think they went down from possibly 1,000 on a previous weekend to only about 200 this past weekend. Has that made things discouraging, and has that made things more difficult in the hunt?

KATHLEEN GARN, SMART FAMILY FRIEND: No, I don't believe so. I think now that we've gone from the main headquarters here and gone out to the communities is reviving again. People who are looking to their own communities, going to their own back yards and going around their neighborhoods and the fields and the creeks around their places that they know where to hunt and look for.

So just yesterday we organized 13 more cities, and they were excited and they're up and going this morning to look for Elizabeth.

HEMMER: Yeah, the nine-year-old sister of Elizabeth, Mary Catherine, according to police reports, the only one present when the abductor apparently came into this home. What kind of a girl is she? And knowing that she has spoken with police I think at least five times, possibly more by now, has her story ever changed, do you know of?

K. GARN: No, it never has changed. It's been consistent every single time. Mary Catherine is also a harpist. She played at a wedding just about three weeks ago in our neighborhood, and it was a beautiful -- she did a beautiful job. But she's a very quiet girl, she's very obedient.

She -- I teach in a primary class in our church and she is always quiet, very reverent, very obedient to other people.

HEMMER: Senator, we're told that Elizabeth is very smart and well accomplished in her 14 young years. What more have we not learned about her in terms of her character and maybe her personality? What kind of a gal was she?

J. GARN: Well, she was a model 14-year-old. Maybe I should say she was not a normal 14-year-old, because she was so nice and so talented. And I'm not exaggerating in any way when I say this was a model family.

I know the parents well. Kathleen knows the children better than I. But just terrific people. They do not deserve to have -- no one does, but they do not deserve to have this happening to them.

HEMMER: And Senator, quickly, I know you've conducted a number of fly-overs. How as the search gone in terms of how much ground you've covered in the Salt Lake area or the rest of the state of Utah, sir?

J. GARN: Well, fortunately we've not only had thousands of volunteers on the ground, but we've had a lot of pilots who have donated their time and energy to fly in the more remote areas into the canyons to look at places where it's very difficult for ground searchers to go. So there's been a lot of area uncovered. Unfortunately, we have found nothing unusual. I flew yesterday and wished I had found something, but simply have not at this point. But I am grateful to all the volunteers who have been willing to take their airplanes, their time and their expense to search for this wonderful little girl.

HEMMER: Hey, good luck, OK? Thanks for your time this morning.

K. GARN: Thank you.

J. GARN: Thank you.

K. GARN: We love you, Elizabeth.

HEMMER: Former Senator Jake Garn, and his wife Kathleen, thanks again.

K. GARN: Love you, Elizabeth.

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