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American Morning

Elizabeth's Ordeal

Aired March 14, 2003 - 09:09   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: I want to get back to Salt Lake City right now, and the latest on Elizabeth Smart, now back safe at home, and the focus there now turning to the police in Salt Lake and how they handled the kidnapping and why Elizabeth did not try and escape earlier, all questions we have heard now for two days at end.
Rusty Dornin back in Salt Lake with us this morning to top off both of these issues.

Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, the thing that is so incredible is that she was held captive sort of in plain sight. There are so many people coming forward saying they saw her with Mitchell and his wife attired in these religious garbs. We have a photo of them in San Diego walking through a park, and you can see why people didn't recognize her, but there was this question why didn't she speak out?

Police say there was a huge psychological impact on her after the abduction, but it's very curious, Sandy Police told us this morning, that she kept denying when they approached her that she was Elizabeth Smart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. VICTOR QUEZADA, SANDY, UTAH POLICE: I had a flyer brought to the scene from another officer. We compared it right with her face. Even though she had the glasses on, the wig on, the T-shirt tied around herself in a scarf fashion, I put it up to her and we all looked at each other, myself and officer Raspus (ph), and gave a thumb's up as positive identification. It's over, it's you, we know it's you.

She, again, made those statements, you guys think I'm Elizabeth Smart, I'm not. Kept denying who she was. Right to the very end. I thought we'll give it one more shot. We'll put everybody in police cars and they're in custody. Asked her one last time, just for your own heart, your family's heart, it's over with. Just tell us who you are. Are you Elizabeth Smart? She then uttered the words "thou sayeth." I never heard that phrase before, so I asked her what thou sayeth, and I said we'll take that as a yes; myself and Oscar O'Neal looked at each other and said we'll take that as a yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Officers said that after that, she seemed a little bit relieved and did cry in the patrol car apparently going back to the station, but they told me there was something about her eyes, that she didn't seem like a 14, 15-year-old girl, that she seemed like she had been through a lot -- Bill.

HEMMER: Is there an explanation as to why the police waited for months to put out a sketch of this man known as Emmanuel, knowing that Mary Katherine had talked with it to police back in October?

DORNIN: They couldn't identify who he was, and the three people who knew what he looked like, her parents and her younger sister, they couldn't quite agree on an exact sketch, so they didn't know which sketch to put out. And they didn't want to put one that would make people look for someone that didn't look like this guy. So when they finally went forward, it was the family that put the sketch out, it was not the police on February 3rd. When they went on "America's Most Wanted," that was when the sister of the suspect called and had a photograph, and also the stepson called.

HEMMER: Thank you, Rusty. Rusty Dornin, again, in Salt Lake City.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 14, 2003 - 09:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get back to Salt Lake City right now, and the latest on Elizabeth Smart, now back safe at home, and the focus there now turning to the police in Salt Lake and how they handled the kidnapping and why Elizabeth did not try and escape earlier, all questions we have heard now for two days at end.
Rusty Dornin back in Salt Lake with us this morning to top off both of these issues.

Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, the thing that is so incredible is that she was held captive sort of in plain sight. There are so many people coming forward saying they saw her with Mitchell and his wife attired in these religious garbs. We have a photo of them in San Diego walking through a park, and you can see why people didn't recognize her, but there was this question why didn't she speak out?

Police say there was a huge psychological impact on her after the abduction, but it's very curious, Sandy Police told us this morning, that she kept denying when they approached her that she was Elizabeth Smart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. VICTOR QUEZADA, SANDY, UTAH POLICE: I had a flyer brought to the scene from another officer. We compared it right with her face. Even though she had the glasses on, the wig on, the T-shirt tied around herself in a scarf fashion, I put it up to her and we all looked at each other, myself and officer Raspus (ph), and gave a thumb's up as positive identification. It's over, it's you, we know it's you.

She, again, made those statements, you guys think I'm Elizabeth Smart, I'm not. Kept denying who she was. Right to the very end. I thought we'll give it one more shot. We'll put everybody in police cars and they're in custody. Asked her one last time, just for your own heart, your family's heart, it's over with. Just tell us who you are. Are you Elizabeth Smart? She then uttered the words "thou sayeth." I never heard that phrase before, so I asked her what thou sayeth, and I said we'll take that as a yes; myself and Oscar O'Neal looked at each other and said we'll take that as a yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Officers said that after that, she seemed a little bit relieved and did cry in the patrol car apparently going back to the station, but they told me there was something about her eyes, that she didn't seem like a 14, 15-year-old girl, that she seemed like she had been through a lot -- Bill.

HEMMER: Is there an explanation as to why the police waited for months to put out a sketch of this man known as Emmanuel, knowing that Mary Katherine had talked with it to police back in October?

DORNIN: They couldn't identify who he was, and the three people who knew what he looked like, her parents and her younger sister, they couldn't quite agree on an exact sketch, so they didn't know which sketch to put out. And they didn't want to put one that would make people look for someone that didn't look like this guy. So when they finally went forward, it was the family that put the sketch out, it was not the police on February 3rd. When they went on "America's Most Wanted," that was when the sister of the suspect called and had a photograph, and also the stepson called.

HEMMER: Thank you, Rusty. Rusty Dornin, again, in Salt Lake City.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com