In August 2002, two months after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared, Salt Lake police were called to the downtown library to check out a homeless man wearing robes and his two female companions.
"Are you Elizabeth Smart?" the officer asked the young girl with the man.
"No, I'm Augustine Marshall," the girl replied.
The officer took no further action.
Tom Smart, Elizabeth's uncle, said that incident was just one of the many "eye-popping" moments he writes about in his new book, "In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation."
The book, written by Tom Smart and Lee Benson, both Deseret Morning News employees, is available nationwide beginning today. Benson writes a column for the newspaper, and Smart is a longtime member of the photo department. His photos illustrated many of the stories the newspaper printed during the high-profile case.
Tom Smart calls his niece's abduction one of the most incredible stories he's ever been a part of or seen. But the majority of the public doesn't know the whole story, according to Smart.
"There's so little that people really knew about what happened behind the scenes," Smart said. "There are a lot of head-slapping moments in the book. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction."
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in June 2002. She was found nine months later in Sandy, walking down State Street with Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.
A state grand jury charged both Mitchell and Barzee with aggravated kidnapping, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping. All of the charges are first-degree felonies except for the last one, which is a second-degree felony.
Barzee, 59, was ruled incompetent to stand trial. But the state now seeks to have her forcibly medicated. A hearing on that issue has not been set.
Mitchell, 51, is in the middle of his second competency hearing. He was found competent to stand trial after his first hearing. His second hearing is scheduled to resume in May.
The book looks at what the Smart family was doing during those rare moments when the eyes of the media weren't on them and also how Salt Lake police handled, or allegedly mishandled, the investigation.
" 'In Plain Sight' details how the Salt Lake police bungled the case from beginning to end," according to a news release distributed by Chicago Review Press.
But Tom Smart said his intention in writing the book wasn't simply to talk about what police did wrong. He said he hopes it will help investigators in future cases learn from the mistakes made. Specifically, he said, the book shows why focusing on one particular theory or suspect, such as one-time "person of interest" Richard Ricci, can be damaging. Ricci had done some work for the Smarts and the investigation centered on him for some time. He ultimately died of natural causes while in prison on unrelated charges.
"Mistakes are made in most major investigations. This is not an indictment of Salt Lake City police," Smart said, noting there were a number of officers who did good work on the case.
But police continued to focus on Ricci, even as Mary Katherine Smart, Elizabeth's younger sister and the only witness to the abduction, said the former Smart handyman was not the man she saw come into the girls' shared room the night of the abduction.
Mary Katherine, according to the book, said as early as October 2002 that she thought another former worker at the Smarts' house, known as Emmanuel, was the abductor.
Salt Lake police detective Dwayne Baird issued a brief statement on behalf of Chief Rick Dinse regarding the book.
"Chief Dinse has no intention of reading the book and has no further comment on it," he said.
Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, also declined comment. Elizabeth, now 17, was not interviewed for the book.
"In Plain Sight" also shows how the media and the community played a role in the saga, Benson said.
"It tells a story with a relatively happy ending with what happens when everyone works together," he said.
This is the second book written by a member of the Smart family about Elizabeth's ordeal. Her parents, Ed and Lois Smart, wrote a book about the abduction from their perspective a few months after Elizabeth was found. The book was eventually turned into a made-for-TV movie.
Although the cases against Mitchell and Barzee are still outstanding, Tom Smart does not believe the book will have any effect on the legal outcome or influence any potential jury.
Both Tom Smart and Benson said a good-faith effort was made to release the book after the cases against the alleged kidnappers were completed.
"There's no way we thought this book would come out before a trial," Benson said.
Mitchell was originally scheduled to go to trial in February, but the second competency hearing has delayed the process.
Tom Smart said he will donate half of his proceeds from the book to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Rape Crisis Center.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com