The Elizabeth Thomsen Case:
Smart's dad: Teen needs time to heal
Abducted Utah girl's father says normal routine is key
By BRIAN LIBERATORE

Article appeared April 23, 2006 on page 1A

I had noticed some parallels between Elizabeth Thomsen's return to her family and the Elizabeth Smart case a few years earlier in Utah. To contact Ed Smart, I first sent an email seeking phone numbers to reporters at USA Today, a fellow Gannett publication. Reporters there said they never got his number but mentioned he had a brother who was a photographer at a Utah paper. A quick search of the newspapers in northern Utah, brought up Ed Smart's brother. Once I explained the article, the brother was glad to give me Ed Smart's cell phone number.

This series of articles won third place for continued news coverage in the 2005-06 New York State Associated Press Association contest.

COLUMBUS - Life for Elizabeth M. Thomsen and her family can return to normal, but it will be a tough road, Ed Smart said.

Smart's daughter Elizabeth was in the national spotlight nearly four years ago when she was taken from her Salt Lake City, Utah, home and held for nine months by a man and a woman still awaiting trial.

"I think one psychiatrist said that in a way it (a child's return) is like a newborn baby bonding back to her family," Smart said in a telephone interview Saturday. "That takes time. The thing that we were always told was that the more normal we could make things, to get a routine, the better."

Smart's daughter, who was 14 when she was kidnapped, is now graduating from high school and will be attending college for music, her father said. "If you met Elizabeth, you would never have any idea of what she went through," her father said.

But for Elizabeth Thomsen, that long road toward normalcy is just beginning.

Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth returned to her parent's dairy farm in Chenango County on Tuesday after a monthlong flight through several southern states with 54-year-old Lewis J. Lee, formerly the pastor of the family's church. Experts say the recovery for Elizabeth and her family may be a long and painful ordeal.

Elizabeth willingly left in the middle of the night March 18 with Lee. For a month, the Thomsen family waited for news of their daughter. It came on Monday when Lee was arrested in Maryland outside the office supply business where he worked as a delivery driver; the teenager was in the truck with him.

Lee is now in Chenango County Jail on $1 million bail and faces felony charges that include custodial interference and rape.

Thomsen's parents have said Lee manipulated the family and Elizabeth's emotions, convincing her to run away with him.

When Lee was arrested, Elizabeth was nervous and "expressed her affection verbally" to the ex-pastor of Christian Baptist Church in Sherburne. Sgt. Ron Riggin of the Maryland State Police Child Recovery Unit described the two as "boyfriend-girlfriend-ish."

Thomsen's older sister, Candace, said Elizabeth was angry at the family for tracking her down and summoning police after she left home.

While Thomsen may have gone willingly with Lee, experts say it's important that people do not assign any blame to Elizabeth.

"She's a victim; she should not be blamed. She was innocent," said Fred Hanna, a professor of human studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "She's been victimized not only physiologically but psychologically. Nobody gets over brainwashing in a day."

Stockholm Syndrome

The bond between Elizabeth Thomsen and Lee has characteristics of Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim "bonds to the abuser," said Dee Graham, an emeritus associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and the author of several books on the subject. The syndrome was named after an incident in Stockholm, Sweden, in which four women taken hostage during a bank robbery grew emotionally attached to their captors.

It's a natural response, Graham said, for a person to replace intense feelings of fear with intense feelings of love. "When you believe that these intense emotions that you're feeling are love instead of terror, then you feel back in control," Graham said.

The condition surfaced during the 1974 case of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, who helped rob a bank with her kidnappers, calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army. Some, including Hearst, said they were suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Others have said Elizabeth Smart also suffered from the syndrome because she spent months living on the streets of Salt Lake City, unrestrained with her kidnappers.

Brian David Mitchell, 52, allegedly took Smart into the foothills near her home, sexually assaulted her and claimed she was his second wife. Mitchell's wife, Wanda Barzee, 60, who is accused of taking part in Smart's kidnapping, also was arrested. Smart was eventually found with her captors less than 15 miles from her home wearing a white robe and a veil over her face.

Ed Smart questioned whether his daughter was afflicted by Stockholm Syndrome because she never developed a lasting bond with her captors.

For Elizabeth Thomsen, shaking misguided feelings toward Lee may be a very difficult process, Hanna said.

"It's more painful for her to admit that she was manipulated and traumatized than it is for her to continue believing what he told her," he said. "(Elizabeth) is in a dilemma."

Those misguided feelings also are likely a result of years of manipulation. "There's a certain vulnerability, especially with a teenager," said Raini Baudendistel, director of the Broome County Crime Victims Assistance Center. Sexual predators, she said, often exploit a child's need for affection and encouragement by acting kind and supportive. It's a grooming process, she said, that allows them to take advantage of a child.Elizabeth Thomsen worked on the family farm and was homeschooled. It's a position that may have made her more susceptible to Lee's manipulation, Graham said: "Because she is isolated, that made her a good victim."

"Sometimes, people have particular needs, and if someone is wily enough to pick up on what those needs are and give the impression that they can fulfill those needs, a naive, inexperienced person will believe those things and take them at face value," Hanna said.

Elizabeth's age, Hanna said, could have prevented her from seeing Lee's intentions.

"That's why we have the law," he said. "Fifteen-year-olds cannot make those decisions."

Recovering from trauma

Recovering from psychological trauma is a long and involved process.

Thomsen's mother said the family would seek counseling for Elizabeth - a necessary step toward recovery, according to Graham.

Beyond the counseling, Smart said, Elizabeth Thomsen will require support from her family, friends and the community: "I think a lot depends on how the family accepts her and accepts what she's been through," he said.

Edna Rawlings, who worked as a clinical psychologist with the University of Cincinnati's Department of Psychology, agreed. "I worry about this little girl," she said. "It does take the love of the community, an un-ambivalent love around her. She cannot be considered an outcast or a pariah. She needs support for her to figure out what happened. It can be very confusing for the girl."

One of the most difficult obstacles for Elizabeth Smart, her father said, comes from being associated solely with the tragedy that consumed nine months of her life. "That's a very hard thing to deal with," Smart said. But, he added, it's not insurmountable.

"I think Elizabeth (Smart) put it best," Ed Smart said. "This (her kidnapping) was like a hole in front of her. And now she's jumped over it and she's running forward."