20 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19,2002
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Youngersisters saw abductor in Utah case
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY Police investigating the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart said Tuesday the abductor was not aware that the girl's younger sister saw him.
Two weeks ago, a man took Elizabeth at gunpoint from the queen-sized bed shared by the two girls in the Federal Heights home.
Although it was earlier reported that 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart had been warned to remain quiet, police who interviewed the youngster three times now say the man did not speak to the child. The little sister waited two hours before alerting her parents.
He told Elizabeth to grab some shoes as he left with her.
He said the girl's account changed as investigators with special skill at interviewing child witnesses helped jog her memory.
"We believe this man may be a trusted person in the neighborhood or community," said Salt Lake City Police Capt. Scott Atkinson. The kidnapper was calm, he said.
Police reiterated their description of their suspect: A white man, 30 to 40 years old, with dark hair, hair on his arms and
back of his hands. He was wearing tan pants, dark shoes, a light jacket and a golf hat. He held a small handgun.
"He spoke nicely and dressed nicely," Atkinson said.
On Tuesday, Atkinson held up a similar pair of tennis shoes that the kidnapper allowed Elizabeth to take with her. They were white Ralph Lauren athletic shoes with dark stripes and thick soles.
Edmunds is wanted for parole violation and spraying pepper spray at a West Valley policeman who stopped him.
"I believe Edmunds is a witness to something, we don't know what," Atkinson said.
The community is offering a $250,000 reward for the girl's safe return. Neighborhoods are organizing searches for the teen after a centralized search effort was disbanded Friday.
Investigators still want to talk to Bret Michael Edmunds, who continues to elude them. Edmunds isn't a suspect, but he was spotted near the Smart's home two days before the kidnapping, leading police to think he might have information in the case.
A Web site to help find Elizabeth has had more than 8 million hits, which overloaded the system, said Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake City mayor.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Both sides in the nation's abortion debate will be watching on Wednesday when a Kentucky public health board decides whether to turn down federal family-planning money that is used to dispense birth control pills to women.
Kentucky considers suspending public funding for birth control
The Associated Press
Hard-line abortion foes want the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Board to reject Title X funding, claiming that the pill can cause the equivalent of an abortion.
The showdown vote Wednesday night in Wilder could reverberate far beyond the northernmost corner of Kentucky, a heavily Roman Catholic area that is a hotbed of anti-abortion fervor.
It is almost unheard of for a community to reject Title X money. In one of the rare instances since the federal program was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon, McHenry County, Ill., voted in 1998 to refuse the funding, though in that case the debate had to do with whether parents should be notified if their teenage daughters get contraceptives.
Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, said the Kentucky board's rejection of the money.would be a huge
victory for the anti-abortion movement and a "blueprint for victory" in other communities.
On the other side of the issue, Elizabeth Cavendish, legal director for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said the debate shows that "pro-choice Americans cannot be complacent about fundamental freedoms such as the right to use contraception."
"It reveals the extremism of the antichoice agenda," she said.
Board chairman Greg Kennedy predicted a close vote.
Title X funding provided nearly $170,000 this fiscal year to the health board, which serves four urban and rural counties just south of Cincinnati. The money was used to provide contraceptives and related reproductive health care services to thousands of poor women.
The health clinics that are overseen by the 29-member board also provide gynecological care for poor women, including pregnancy tests, breast exams and screening for sexually transmitted diseases.
Kennedy said the loss of Title X funding could prompt women to seek those services at other clinics where they could obtain contraceptives.