Just days after her father's death, Lois Smart has lost her daughter. Elaine Lafferty, in Los Angeles, reports on one family's nightmare.
A prosperous neighbourhood in Salt Lake City is reeling this week because something happened here that simply does not happen in a place like this.
A man crept into the bedroom of a $1.2 million six-bedroom home deep in the night on Wednesday. He entered a bedroom that was shared by 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart and Mary Katherine, her nine-year-old sister. Brandishing a gun, he allowed the older girl to retrieve some shoes before taking her away. And he told the younger sister he'd kill Elizabeth if she woke her parents and raised an alarm. And then he was gone.
Little Mary Katherine cowered in her bed for two hours before running into her parents' bedroom crying. By that time it was 4 a.m.
Ed Smart, an estate agent and mortgage broker, called police and immediately woke up neighbours, asking if their children were OK. The nightmare had begun.
The kidnapper did not call Elizabeth by name and he did not appear to know his way around the house, the sister told police. No neighbours reported anything suspicious.
The first 24 hours are considered critical in child abductions, critical to finding clues and culprits. So far, police and the FBI in this western city have none.
"We're dedicated to following up on any information, any lead," a police spokesman said. "But as far as solving the case, we are not any closer."
Earlier police had said that despite more than 1,000 tips, with calls arriving at police headquarters about one per minute, they were no closer to finding the girl.
The reward was initially $10,000 but donations from the community boosted the fund to $250,000.
Pictures of the missing girl, who is blonde and sports a bright smile, were posted throughout the city and on the Internet and people started wearing light-blue ribbons - Elizabeth's favourite colour - and hanging them from trees and car antennas.
Many times in such cases the parents are often the first suspects. But this crime could not have happened to a more strait-laced family. The Smarts are deeply religious, part of the Mormon Church, whose members form the majority of Utah's citizens. Their roots in the community go back three generations and they are pillars of the community. But their faith was being tested this week as they struggled to co-operate with police and the media in finding their child. The family fasted and prayed all day Wednesday, and their thoughts turned to Elizabeth's abductor.
The girl's father, Ed Smart, was hospitalised yesterday morning after collapsing from exhaustion. He had slept little in the more than 48 hours since his daughter's disappearance. Earlier, he begged on television for her return: "I would just appreciate it if you have got her to let her go. Please let her go. Please."
On Thursday, mother Lois appeared on the NBC TV Today show, uttered a few words and fell apart. Mrs Smart's father died last week and his funeral had only been on Monday.
"She didn't even have time to mourn her father. She has a broken heart. She cries 24 hours a day," said Lois's brother Mark Francom. "She said to me, 'Why would he pick my home?' "
The family wants to talk to reporters because they believe the attention will help their search. But they adamantly shield their children, particularly Elizabeth's nine-year-old sister.
"We are trying not to talk to her about this, so the pressure's not on, so she's not rethinking this over and over, to help reduce the trauma," said David Smart, one of Ed's brothers.
Thirty hours after Elizabeth's disappearance, her family were out in force at the Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake City, headquarters of the massive effort to find the 14-year -old girl.
The case brought to mind several earlier cases of highly publicised child abductions, including that of Polly Klass, who was taken from her home in the middle of the night in California in the mid- 1990s.
That case pioneered the use of the Internet and technology in launching a nationwide mechianism to find kidnapped children. But sadly, the case ended only several miles from Polly's home, where her body was found several months later. In Utah this week, they are praying that Elizabeth Smart is found alive and is found quickly.