Page 21 - Bed Smart News Today

Coming up -- ed smart finally comes face to face with his daughter. >> i ran over there and i grabbed her. and i just started crying. and finally, i said, elizabeth? is it you? years ago, my doctor told me

Months earlier, elizabeth smart finally gets to go home. friends, family and neighbors rejoice. >> the streets were lined with photographers and media and people wishing her well. she kept saying, what are all these balloons for? who are all these people? she didnt realize how big the magnitude of her kidnapping had become. and she didnt understand that they were there wishing her well. >> its real! its real! >> an elated ed smart who spent much of the last nine months in front of the cameras pl...

>> meanwhile, "americas most wanted" is turning up the heat. >> his photo changes dramatically depending on the length of his hair and beard. hundreds of miles away, elizabeth said she took another chance by suggesting to mitchell they go back to utah. nine months after elizabeth first went missing, both gambles pay off. coming up -- ed smart finally comes face to face with his daughter. >> i ran over there and i grabbed her. and i just started crying. and finally, i said, elizabeth? is it you...

I knew the threats that i had been told for nine months, and i knew what they were, and i was scared. and at the same time, i -- i thought that this is it. this is it. im done. this is it, like this is over. >> her father, ed, gets a call to come to the police station where an officer tells him they think they have found elizabeth. >> i look across the room. and theres this amazingly mature young woman. it was not the -- >> the 14-year-old girl. >> -- the 14-year-old elizabeth that had left us n...

Summer 2002 in the early weeks and months after her disappearance, elizabeth smart is still nowhere to be found. her father, ed, struggles to keep her name and face out there with daily press conferences. >> i still feel so strongly inside that she is waiting for us to find her. >> the investigation zeros in on a local handyman named richard ricci who did work on the smarts house. >> richard was referred by another contractor. he came up here and did jobs, painting and yardwork. you know, he was...

Been home to life and could be in the future. more news later. but now back to the elizabeth smart story here on mbs. on february 3rd, 2003, eight months after their daughter was snatched from her bedroom, ed and lois smart take a gamble. they hold a press conference to release the composite sketch of the man elizabeths sister believes is the kidnapper. ed shares what he remembers of his encounter with the man in question. >> talked with him about where he was from, what he was doing. he indic...

June 5th, 2002, just before 4:00 a.m., ed and lois smart are sleeping in their salt lake city home. parents of six children. theyre awakened by their youngest daughter, 9-year-old mary katherine. >> she had her blanket over her head, almost as a shawl. and she said, "somebodys taken elizabeth." >> first she said, "elizabeths gone. youre not going to find her. shes gone." >> shaking off sleep, ed and lois get out of bed and start searching the house. >> you go and look in the rooms. >> went acros...

>> its like having your child all over again. >> exactly. yeah. it was. yeah. i carried her for nine months next to my heart. she was gone for nine months. and i was still carrying her in my heart. >> taken from her room nine months earlier, elizabeth smart finally gets to go home. friends, family and neighbors rejoice. >> the streets were lined with photographers and media and people wishing her well. she kept saying, what are all these balloons for? who are all these people? she didnt realize ...

You know, if you cant let it go, then youre always stuck there. >> ed, you know, i cant imagine as a father you not wanting to just -- >> strangle him? >> -- reach over and strangle him. what does it take for you not to just want to take out every human emotion imaginable on the man who could do something like that to your little girl? >> the fact that elizabeth came home and that we have her back is such a miracle and such a blessing that -- >> we had to keep remembering, he did not kill her. h...

Ed works with a sketch artist to develop a likeness of emmanuel. but police make the decision not to go public with it. >> all the circumstantial evidence pointed to richard ricci. it just seemed the most likely scenario as opposed to a man who was in the smarts house for a total of three hours of his entire life. >> but mary katherine is certain the man she saw take elizabeth is emmanuel. ed and lois are willing to believe she is right and that elizabeth may still be alive. they grow frustrated...