Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — A gunman broke into a home and took a 14-year-old girl from her bedroom Wednesday, warning the girl’s younger sister he would hurt her if she told anyone what she saw, police said.
Police, some with tracking dogs, began searching the foothills for the girl, Elizabeth Smart, before dawn, and authorities used a statewide emergency alert system for the first time to quickly broadcast information about the missing child.
At a late afternoon news conference, Elizabeth’s father appealed for her safe return.
"Elizabeth, if you’re out there, we’re doing everything we possibly can to help you. We love you, we want you to come home safely to us," Edward Smart said.
Mayor Rocky Anderson also announced a $10,000 reward offered for information about her disappearance.
Police said there was no indication the man knew Elizabeth, but authorities were looking at the family’s computer to see if the girl had contacted strangers online, and they interviewed the eighth-grader’s classmates at Bryant Intermediate School.
"This was not a purely random act. He’d have to know that she lived there," said Wes Galloway, victims’ advocate for Salt Lake City police.
Elizabeth’s 9-year-old sister waited several hours before alerting her parents about the abduction because of the threat, police spokesman Dwayne Baird said.
The sister told police that the soft-spoken man got into the house by forcing open a window, and he had a small black handgun. Elizabeth was wearing red pajamas, and the man let her take a pair of shoes, police said.
Baird also said the family’s home is for sale and police are looking at a list of people who toured the house, a seven-bedroom home listed at $1.19 million.
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