In the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 5, 2002, a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Her nine-year-old sister, with whom she shared a room, witnessed the abduction as she, in

self-defense, pretended to be asleep. She was able to describe the man, though many details,

such as age and what he was wearing, would ultimately prove to be incorrect, likely to the age of the young witness.

She heard the man telling her sister he wouldn't hurt her if she remained quiet.

And when her sister asked the man why he was taking her, she remembered him replying

for ransom.

The nine-year-old girl attempted to jolt out of the room to tell her parents when she thought the coast was clear.

However, the abductor and her sister were in the hall and she returned to her bed.

It would be it was presumed two more hours before the girl felt safe enough to approach her

parents' room to tell them what had happened

that her sister was taken by a man.

They didn't believe her at first or perhaps they didn't want to

figuring the entire event came to life in the wild

imaginings or dreams of the nine-year-old girl. After all, these things only happened to

other people in other places.

Upon inspection of the house, their 14-year-old daughter was nowhere to be found.

They found a screen that had been cut, the window unlocked, and the reality of what

they'd been told hit. It was 4 a.m. The next day, June 6th the parents of the abducted girl went on television pleading for the safe return of their daughter and in the following days the story went national and within days every

American who wasn't sleeping under a rock knew the name Elizabeth Ann Smart.

2002 wasn't an unusual year in the staggering number of children who went missing.

There were thousands upon thousands. And the press, after Elizabeth Smart's

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