Edmunds Was at Sunday Vigil for Elizabeth Smart

After eight days of searching...investigators think they're getting -closer to the kidnapper of 14 year old Elizabeth Smart. Tonight... Eyewitness News has learned police have one more strong -reason to talk to this man...Bret Edmunds...

Police confirm they -spotted Edmunds at the -candlelight vigil Sunday night in which hundreds of people rallied for hope for Elizabeth.

Yesterday, police announced they wanted to talk to 26 year old Bret Michael Edmunds... a transient... living in his car... who was spotted in the neighborhood of the Smart home. Now police tell Eyewitness News, they saw him Sunday night, at a place where people were praying for Elizabeth Smart, but, he -slipped away. And just moments ago... we learned that the 266- XJH license plate from Edmunds car, was found discarded in a baseball field just off I-15 in Centerville. Police are at that baseball field right now. We're told a child found the plate earlier tonight, took it home to his mother, who then called police. News Specialist Jed Boal joins us live from the police station.

For more than 24 hours...police have hunted a primary material witness...Bret Michael Edmunds. Now police say, Edmunds showed up at the candlelight vigil Sunday night... Police tell me tonight that's very strange...or an amazing coincidence. Hundreds turned out at Liberty Park for the Vigil, to shine a light of hope for Elizabeth Smart. Among those at the park...Bret Michael Edmunds. People told police, the man was acting strange and drinking beer...but, when they went to find Edmunds, he got away. At that time, police say, they did not know Edmunds would be wanted for questioning in the kidnapping case....they just wanted to talk to him about beer in the park. Since that time, Edmunds has been tough to find...

Sgt. Fred Louis/Salt Lake City P.D./Yesterday: WE BELIEVE HE'S A TRANSIENT LIVING OUT OF HIS CAR....THERE'S NO ADDRESS WE KNOW OF.

Police still do not call Edmunds a suspect. They want to talk to him because a milkman saw him rolling slowly through the Smart's neighborhood. Again, police are looking for his vehicle, a 1997 Green Saturn Sedan, license plate number 266-XJH....but, he's switched some stolen plates around in the past. The search for Edmunds yesterday concentrated in -Draper for most of the day... after his car was spotted in the Suncrest area.

Neighbors in that area say they've seen his car frequently, but, not in the past 24 hours. The leads on Edmunds went cold yesterday...and it remains to be seen if he truly has information on the case when he is found.

Thanks for the ping. This guy has a fairly new car for a transient. Is his name familiar to you as a name of an LDS family in the area? If they are saying the car has been seen frequently in the neighborhood I wonder if he has family nearby? Or was Elizabeth the draw all along?

If he is the perp and was seen alone at the vigil I wonder where Elizabeth is being held? He must have been staying close by all along. That fits in with the family's early statement to check your basements,etc. because he could not keep her in the car.

Prayers for Elizabeth's quick and safe return. I heard about the license plates being found on our local radio news here in NC this morning, so this IS getting good media coverage all over.

I hope he hasn't left the area now.

Same story on Reuters

Man sought in Utah kidnapping spotted at vigil.
By James Nelson

06/14/2002
Reuters English News Service
(C) Reuters Limited 2002.

SALT LAKE CITY, June 14 (Reuters) - A man wanted for questioning in connection with the abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was spotted at a recent Utah prayer vigil for the girl's return, police said on Friday.

But a man arrested for shoplifting in Texas who fit the description of Bret Michael Edmunds was not the man police want to talk to, FBI Dallas bureau spokeswoman Lori Bailey said. "The fingerprint comparison did not match," she said.

Meanwhile, an aunt of the girl begged her abductor to release the teenager, warning at the brink of tears "God knows where you are."

Police said this week they want to talk to Edmunds, a transient with a criminal record, because he may have been seen by a milk delivery man near the girl's home two days before the predawn June 5 abduction.

Edmunds is wanted on two warrants, including one for assaulting a police officer. While saying they want to question him, police have stressed that he is not viewed as a suspect in the case.

Police thought Edmunds had been spotted in Texas and over the border near Clovis, New Mexico, prompting officials to put up roadblocks and search in helicopters.

With the man arrested in Texas not being Edmunds, police were back to square one on his whereabouts.

The girl's 9-year-old sister has told police Elizabeth was abducted at gunpoint from the bedroom the girls shared in the family's $1.19 million home. She said she did not recognize the man in the dark room.

EDMUNDS SEEN AT VIGIL

Salt Lake City Police spokesman Scott Atkinson told reporters on Friday that police had seen Edmunds, who lives in his car, at a vigil held for Smart on Sunday.

That could be important because sometimes people return to the scene of their crime or attend vigils related to a crime, Atkinson said.

"Mr. Edmunds was in fact spotted at the park. It was determined we would not approach him for safety's sake," Atkinson said. Police followed Edmunds out of the park where the vigil was held, but apparently lost him.

Although the girl has been missing for a more than a week, police said they were making progress. "We're getting information we can follow up on. We're conducting interviews. We've narrowed a lot down," Atkinson said.

He declined to comment on local news reports that an uncle may have had an "inconclusive" lie detector test. The father Edward and the girl's uncle Tom Smart have taken polygraph tests.

Former Utah Congressman Wayne Owens, a family friend who has helped organize the search for the girl told CNN on Friday that he would "bet the farm" the uncle was not involved in the girl's disappearance.

Atkinson said the family remains very cooperative with police.

The 9-year-old sister waited in fear for about two hours before telling her parents about what happened because the man had threatened to harm Elizabeth if she said a word.

Atkinson said he had no message for the girl's abductor, but an aunt, Cynthia Smart Owens, did.

"God knows where you are. God knows where Elizabeth is and we are praying with all our hearts to find her. The best you can do is let her go," the woman, near tears, told reporters.

(Andrew Kelly in Houston contributed to this story).

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