Elizabeth Smart
The young girl whose face became known worldwide is doing her best to avoid the spotlight and get back to being a normal teenager.
Her only formal public appearance since her recovery was April 30 during a ceremony at the White House when President Bush signed the AMBER Alert bill. She did not speak and has not given any interviews since her recovery. But that doesn't mean she has spent her time locked away in her house.
Her father, Ed Smart, said Elizabeth spends a lot of time with friends, jogging and practicing the harp.
"She's dying to drive," he said.
Elizabeth, 15, has been doing correspondence work with a tutor and plans to attend East High School in the fall as a sophomore with the friends she went to school with before her kidnapping.
Her parents rarely ask her about her kidnapping ordeal unless she brings up the subject. "When she wants to talk about it, Elizabeth and Lois are very close and they'll talk," Ed Smart said.
Her father also said that Elizabeth's nine months with Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet and religious fanatic, does not appear to be influencing her own religious beliefs. The Smart family still attends the Arlington Hills Ward of The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"I think that she knows for herself how she feels about the church and she believes in the church," Ed Smart said. "It's hard to even fathom what she went through. . . . In our minds, there's no justification — whether you're a zealot or not — for what he did."
Ed and Lois Smart
Ed continues to work out of his home office as a mortgage broker. "The business has never been better," he said. Lois continues to work as a stay-at-home mother to the couple's six children. Ed credits his wife with helping their remaining five children stay together as a family during Elizabeth's disappearance. "It was very important for things to keep going in our family," he said. "I would say she was definitely stronger than I was through this whole thing."
Ed said he and his wife have tried to maintain their family's privacy as much as possible, despite being recognized most places they go. "Everyone that comes up to us, they're talking about how their kids prayed for Elizabeth and for us," he said.
Ed attributes his daughter's safe return to divine intervention. In October, Mary Katherine Smart, Elizabeth's younger sister and the only witness to the abduction, recognized the kidnapper as a man who called himself Emmanuel and worked at the Smart home for about five hours several months before the kidnapping. "I absolutely believe it was revelation," Ed said of his daughter's ability to finally place Mitchell as the man who she saw in Elizabeth's room the morning of June 5, 2002. "I can't help but feel she was prompted and inspired. When he was here at the house he was as clean cut as you or me. It was not the same-looking person that came into the house and took Elizabeth."
Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee
The couple accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart have been at the Salt Lake County Jail since their March 12 arrests in Sandy.
Mitchell and Barzee have separate attorneys. Their next court appearances are on hold until mental competency exams for each are completed.
Mitchell apparently does not want a competency examination, a move that recently forced Judge Judith Atherton to order the release of his personal records to his attorneys.
Completion of both mental evaluations could still be a month away.
David Smart
Elizabeth's uncle worked endless hours organizing searches and posting information on the Internet that he and the family hoped would lead to Elizabeth's safe return.
The work that went into organizing the searches is evident today in the small basement office of his house, where giant maps with numerous markings are set against a back wall. In a corner are newspaper clippings and "Missing" posters of Elizabeth. On his desk are business cards from various news organizations.
Since Elizabeth was found, David Smart said he has been "trying to get back into a regular swing." But that isn't quite as easy as it sounds.
For the first time in nine months, Smart can go back to his job at RealmLogic, a software company, without thinking about the next search effort or rehashing results from the previous search.
"You have to retrain your mind to get back into your normal work flow," he said.
But even "normal" is a little bit different from nine months ago.
"One of the biggest changes is all the relationships I've gained with people in the state and across the nation," Smart said. "We want people to know how grateful we are to the community, law enforcement (and) the media for all the help. All in all, appreciation of everyone's efforts. We'll never forget it."
Although today marks the one-year anniversary of Elizabeth's abduction, David Smart said it's really more of a day to forget, and March 12, the day she was recovered, is the day to be remembered.
If anything, Smart said people should take time today to remember all the other missing children who have not come back yet.
Tom Smart
A photographer for the Deseret News, Elizabeth's uncle became the focus of media attention when his name was mentioned as a possible suspect in his niece's disappearance. Currently on an extended leave of absence from the paper to spend time with his family, he plans to return to work in the fall.
"It changed our world on that day," he said of Elizabeth's June 5, 2002, abduction. "It's been a brutal year with an amazingly miraculous ending. I think that the overwhelming feeling is just one of gratitude. . . . A lot of times in the last year you have to decide to laugh or cry, and there's been a lot of both, but the overwhelming thing has been gratitude."
Bret Michael Edmunds
He was never officially declared a suspect, but a nationwide manhunt was launched for Edmunds shortly after Elizabeth was kidnapped. A milkman had spotted his car in Elizabeth's neighborhood.
The search for Edmunds ended June 21 when he checked himself into a West Virginia hospital under an alias, reportedly for liver failure due to extensive drug use.
Edmunds was quickly cleared in connection with Elizabeth's kidnapping. He was returned to Utah to face several other charges, however, and later sentenced to up to five years in prison for failure to stop for police and assault on a peace officer.
In March, Edmunds was transferred to the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison, where he is today. He has an initial parole hearing scheduled for June 17.
Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said Edmunds has received numerous requests from both local and national media representatives for interviews but has turned them down.
Edmunds has not had any write-ups or disciplines since being incarcerated and is considered a non-problem inmate.
Rick Dinse
The Salt Lake City police chief's department came under fire following Elizabeth's return for failing to go public with information that Brian David Mitchell, who spent part of a day working at the Smart home, may have been the person responsible for Elizabeth's disappearance.
Dinse said he takes full responsibility for his department's intense focus on former Smart handyman Richard Ricci as a top potential suspect as well as his investigators' failure to publish sketches of Emmanuel, later identified as Mitchell.
"Looking back on it, the best of all outcomes has occurred, and I don't think that anyone should ever look at it in any other fashion," Dinse said.
Chris Thomas
Partners in the Intrepid Group in Salt Lake City, Thomas and Mike Grass were contacted just days after Elizabeth was kidnapped to coordinate the media's increasing demands on the family. After three weeks, Grass returned to his regular duties so the company's other clients wouldn't be ignored.
For the next nine months, Thomas became the main contact for members of the media looking for the latest information on the Smarts or requesting interviews with the family. During that time, Thomas answered thousands of phone calls at all hours. Putting in 14- to 16-hour days was common.
On April 29, the Smarts decided it was time to handle the media on their own and said "thank you" and "goodbye" to Thomas.
After taking an overdue vacation, Thomas today is getting back into the groove of his duties at the Intrepid Group. But, as strange as it sounds, he said he's had to adjust to his less hectic schedule.
"It's odd being home at 6 without the cell phone on," he said.
Even though life may be a little slower now, the job that Thomas did for nine months hasn't gone unrecognized. The Intrepid Group is now getting a number of requests from organizations across the United States for training on how their spokespeople should manage a crisis situation. Thomas has been asked to speak at the Public Relations Society of America's national convention in New Orleans in October. In addition, Thomas and Grass recently were featured on the cover of Public Relations Tactics Magazine.
"It's given me a completely different perspective on the media and life in general," Thomas said of the past nine months. "It showed me how important family is. The joy of seeing (Elizabeth and her family) together on (March 12) . . . it's indescribable."
Sandy police
It started off as another routine call for officers Bill O'Neal, Karen Jones, Victor Quezada and Troy Rasmussen. But because of their alertness and their actions, the four officers were able to bring the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping ordeal to an end when they found her walking with Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee on State Street in Sandy March 12.
Following a whirlwind of media exposure in the days after Elizabeth's recovery, the four officers became minor celebrities. They were getting requests for their autographs on a fairly regular basis.
O'Neal said he was even asked for an autograph while mowing his grass. When he went back to his duties as a traffic officer, some motorists asked if they could keep their tickets because it had his signature, he said.
Being recognized occasionally had its advantages. Jones said she responded to two domestic violence calls shortly after Elizabeth was found, and in both cases the parties calmed down after recognizing her from the media coverage.
While the officers say the recognition and the "thank yous" have been nice, it's time to move on.
"The big picture is to get (Elizabeth) back to being a teen," Quezada said. "The focus should be on her."
Richard and Angela Ricci
Richard Ricci's name was brought up by police early in the investigation, and he remained a focus of the case even after his death Aug. 30. Many believed Ricci was responsible for Smart's abduction up until the day Elizabeth was found in Sandy with Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.
Ricci suffered a brain hemorrhage while in prison Aug. 27 and died three days later.
When contacted by the Deseret News this week, Angela Ricci, Richard's widow, said she was aware of Thursday's anniversary and had been thinking about it, but she referred all other comments to her spokeswoman, Nancy Pomeroy.
The past year has been rough for Angela Ricci, Pomeroy said. She has been trying to support herself and her 12-year-old son since Richard died and was laid off from her job just last week due to company cutbacks.
The anniversary of Elizabeth's abduction is sure to stir up memories of the past year.
"It's hard for her because the one thing she always did was love and believe in her husband. She's very happy Elizabeth came home. But Richard did not," Pomeroy said.
Pomeroy said Angela Ricci has not decided whether to pursue legal action over law enforcement's focus on her husband.
While today marks the one-year anniversary of Elizabeth's abduction, Feb. 14 would have marked the one-year wedding anniversary for the Riccis.
"It's safe to assume (the past year) was very hard on her, and a lot of people thought it was Richard," Pomeroy said. "Her life changed and it wasn't particularly for the better."