Ed Smart realizes his daughter was one of the lucky ones.
Elizabeth Smart, whose blond hair, blue eyes and fair complexion became synonymous with kidnapping alerts, is slowly re-immersing herself in the life she was abruptly snatched from almost one year ago.
She's hanging out with girlfriends, jogging and deciding which high school to attend in the fall. Though his daughter is safe at home once again, Ed Smart refuses to let himself, or anyone else for that matter, forget the thousands of children still missing.
Breaking his virtual silence with reporters since his daughter's safe return on March 12, Ed Smart made it a point to contact local media outlets to promote today's National Missing Children's Day.
"Since we got Elizabeth back, I felt that we really needed to make a point of remembering this Sunday all those children that are still missing," Smart said.
Another Utah family, whose teenage daughter, Trisha Autry, was kidnapped and killed in Cache County, is also doing its part to remember missing children today.
Autry's family is requesting everyone "pin a white ribbon on every member of your family and be prepared to respond to questions about that ribbon," according to a statement posted onwww.trishaautryfoundation.com. The statement also requested people drive with their headlights on and leave porch lights on all night to " 'light the way' home for all missing children."
National Missing Children's Day was first proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. The day was prompted by the May 25, 1979, disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz from a New York City street corner on his way to school, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The date for National Missing Children's Day now falls 1 1/2 weeks shy of the June 5, 2002, anniversary of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping. Since the 14-year-old was taken at knifepoint from her bedroom in the middle of the night, her father has become a persistent advocate for child safety and the national AMBER Alert bill recently passed into law, which provides for notification of the public when a child has been kidnapped so they can aid authorities in locating the child.
"Because of Elizabeth Smart, the whole country knows about the AMBER Alert, and because the whole world now knows about the AMBER Alert, children have been saved," said Utah Attorney General spokesman Paul Murphy, who heads the state's AMBER Alert Advisory Committee.
The committee is made up of about 25 people from various law enforcement agencies, broadcast companies, private businesses and other government agencies. Ed Smart is also on the committee.
"I wish what happened to Elizabeth Smart would never have happened," Murphy said, "but because of it, a lot of kids have been saved."
Between 1996 and April 2002, 16 children were saved by AMBER Alerts, Murphy said. In the past year, as more and more states have pushed for alert systems, that number has jumped to 70.
"It's been pretty heartwarming to see people come together like this," Murphy said. "I've had people just call me up and say, 'Hey, I want to help.' We had one lady call and say, 'Hey, I'll give my heart and soul to this.' "
The woman called local companies with electric signs who have agreed to donate their services if an AMBER Alert is initiated. The alerts listed on those signs will add to the 61 road and freeway signs already available to the state in case of another alert.
Another company is also developing technology that will provide a scrolling text to every police agency in the state and even send text messages to personal pagers when an AMBER Alert goes out. It's the same technology that helped a Utah Highway Patrol trooper spot a vehicle the night of May 7 near Park City believed to have been involved in a kidnapping out of Minnesota. The 11-year-old girl has since returned to her home state. Although it now appears the girl left willingly with her alleged captor, Ed Smart and others say the case was a textbook example of how the AMBER Alert and public awareness can save lives.
Utah was the ninth state to implement an AMBER Alert plan. Utah's system was originally named the Rachael Alert, after Rachael Runyon, a 3-year-old Sunset girl who was abducted and killed in 1982. The case is still unsolved.
During a recent conversation with Ed Smart, Runyon's mother questioned if she'd ever know what really happened to her daughter.
"I said, 'I don't know.' I frankly believe that a lot of people know things that haven't come forward in a lot of cases," Smart said. "People have witnessed things or know things that can help bring closure to cases."
Smart conceded that at times he feels almost guilty his daughter's story ended the way it did when so many other parents have never learned what happened to their children. "You want so badly for the same things to happen to them."
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com