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American Morning

Another Twist in Abduction of Elizabeth Smart

Aired June 19, 2002 - 08:08   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 CORRESPONDENT: There's another twist now in the abduction of teenager Elizabeth Smart. Police now saying yesterday the girl's younger sister, Mary Catherine, age nine, never was threatened by the intruder, who left the house with her older sister of five years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. SCOTT ATKINSON, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE: The suspect did not know he was observed by this child during the time that he was in the victim's house. The witness observed the suspect at two different times in two different locations within the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Joining us now to sort through it all, what it may mean to investigators, CNN's law enforcement analyst, Mike Brooks, live in Atlanta.

Mike, good to see you again.

MIKE BROOKS, LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: What happens during an investigation when essentially the facts are flipped the way they were yesterday? She was never threatened by the intruder. Apparently she got a look at him twice, as we just heard from the police chief.

BROOKS: Right.

HEMMER: What happens during the course of an investigation that takes things on a different chart?

BROOKS: Well, we're talking about a 9-year-old girl here who has, who went through an extremely, extremely tough situation while her sister was being abducted in the same room. You know, initial questioning of her, she might remember things. You know, it's tough getting into the mind of a 9-year-old, you know?

And also, you know, was she talked to by her parents, you know, saying, you know, did you see this? You saw this man. You know, the initial questioning by her parents could have hurt, but then you get, you have to handle 9-year-olds a lot different than you handle adults. You know, you can't ask multi-part questions. You have to ask single questions, taking into consideration that she is only nine and, you know, and not a full adult.

Now, the initial description, you know, she maybe didn't really know what she saw. It was probably, the room was probably not many lights on at all in the room. You know, and now some of the information is coming out about specifics, you know, about the hair on the back of his arms and the back of the man's hands. These are little things that would lead me to believe that possibly, there's a possibility that she may have been through some kind of hypnosis as part of the investigation.

HEMMER: Is that common, Mike?

BROOKS: Usually it's used as a kind of a last resort for younger kids, but it's not unusual. I've heard of it being used many times in other cases on both children and adults. It's -- and yesterday when one of the, when the law enforcement official was asked if hypnosis had been used, he did not deny it. He said apparently they're using everything they can.

HEMMER: But based on your experience, Mike, do you find that hypnosis works?

BROOKS: I think there's a lot in the subconscious mind that -- when you go through an event, you know, traumatized the way she was during the event, there's, I mean even people who are in accidents and things like that, when, you know, the initial interview with the police, you're not going to remember every detail.

So they've, you know, it sounds like that what she's saying is basically consistent along the three to four interviews that she's done.

And then maybe the hypnosis is an effective tool. Keep in mind it's a tool to maybe get into the subconscious mind and go back and remember, you know, what she might have thought about.

There's a lot of other things, too, that the police are looking into. You know, there's a lot of questions that still need to be asked about the screen, about the window, about the lack of footprints, any ladder marks, those kind of things right outside the window where initially say they said that she may have been abducted from.

So there's, and there's, you know, also the day before she disappeared the mother, Mrs. Smart's father apparently had died, and they had a reception back at their house after the funeral. So there were a lot of family members, because there has been talk about family members possibly being involved, someone that she possibly knew. They're now saying that maybe this person, because of the way he acted, was a trusted person in the community.

You know, just what the relationship between the, you know, between her and her kidnapper remains to be seen.

HEMMER: Hey, Mike, yes, Mike, you mentioned just a couple minutes ago the fact that maybe there was not a whole lot of light in the room. I'll tell you what struck me yesterday, this new description handed out by police talking about tan pants, a tan cap, colors they're describing now, dark hair and a polo shirt.

BROOKS: Right.

HEMMER: I don't want to push too far to the edge of speculation here, Mike, but listen, as we look at the rest of the description given out yesterday, a white male, 34 years old, 5'8" to 5'10" tall, medium build. I mentioned the dark hair and the dark hair on the arms and the back of the hands. But it tells me the color description given out yesterday might be an indication that Mary Catherine saw this man in light.

BROOKS: There's a possibility that maybe, you know, no matter what kind of room you are, if you're in and your eyes are adjusted to the light, you're going to see some colors. But to me some of these details, Bill, would say that maybe it was hypnosis. We go back also, and but she cannot describe his face. Maybe she did not see his face. If she was faking like she was asleep, she probably didn't want to look the guy right in the eye. So maybe that's why they aren't able to say exactly what his facial features and his description is and aren't able to get a composite photo from that.

HEMMER: Mike, tell me this thing...

BROOKS: But there's a lot of questions that remains.

HEMMER: Understood, and a substantial amount of questions here. In the short time we have left here, if police knew this a week ago, why would they not come forward? Or is it your hunch that they just picked up this information recently?

BROOKS: I think they just picked up this information just recently.

HEMMER: Despite the fact that reporters were drilling them with these questions yesterday?

BROOKS: Yes, I think so. And, you know, and this is again a composite of the number of days, a number of questioning, of times of questioning of this little girl who was traumatized so much that morning in her bedroom when her sister was taken away right in front of her.

HEMMER: Good insight.

Thank you, Mike. Mike Brooks in Atlanta.

BROOKS: OK, Bill.

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