SALT LAKE CITY – The father of the 14-year-old girl abducted from her bedroom nearly two weeks ago said Monday that a garage door was open for some time the night Elizabeth Smart was taken.
"We don't know where the perpetrator came through or went out," said Ed Smart, who had earlier said the kidnapper could have been hiding in the 6,600-square-foot house.
Smart told the Deseret News that he closed the electric garage door that night when he found the doorway blocked by a tarp.
Police said detectives knew the garage door had been open. They would not comment further.
On June 5, between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., a gunman wearing a tan, Scottish-style golf hat entered the bedroom of Elizabeth and her 9-year-old sister and took Elizabeth away at gunpoint, according to police.
Thirteen days into the search, police said they are eliminating dead-end leads but are no closer to identifying a suspect.
"We are closer, but we don't have any particular focus at this time," Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
Police are still seeking drifter Bret Michael Edmunds for questioning. Investigators said his vehicle was spotted near the Smarts' home two days before the kidnapping.
Smart said he made certain other doors were locked that night, but he did not notice a hand-cranked kitchen window left partly open. The screen was found ripped the next morning, he said.
Earlier in the case, police reviewed security videotapes from Shriners Hospital, a few hundred yards from the Smart home, to see if the footage showed vehicles leaving from the direction of the house. Atkinson said Monday there was nothing on the tape that helped the investigation.
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