The case of missing Iowa cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins has garnered the attention of many. Now Elizabeth Smart has thrown her two cents' into the fray, like she does most missing persons cases. Surprisingly she didn't lead off with her normal rhetoric of believing every missing person is alive just because she made it.
"It makes me sick every time I hear (about cases like this). It makes me sick there are people out there who have a total lack of feeling and conscience that they could go out and kidnap these innocent young children and do whatever else they're going to do to them, take their innocence away and steal their childhood and hurt so many families," said Smart.
Her sentiments are shared, that's for certain. Whoever has these two beautiful little girls is a piece of scum whether it's someone who knew them or not. The type of mentality behind abducting innocent children is the type of mentality that doesn't belong in a functioning society. Whether it's a child sex predator or scorned drug dealer, it doesn't matter. The abduction of the two missing Iowa girls is reprehensible.
Smart also offered some insight on what helped her keep it together while she was being held captive as a kidnapped child victim of sexual perversion:
"I would tell them to find one thing they know it was worth living for. For me it was my parents' love," she said.
For once Elizabeth Smart didn't come across as a pompous windbag. Sure she is the victim of something that no human being should ever have to experience, but the woman has steadily degraded the importance of missing persons investigations since she became a mouthpiece for these very missing persons. She's a good person to go to if you want to hear a harrowing story of survival, hope and "faith," but when it comes to facts, statistics and experience in working in the industry of investigating crimes, she's really not much help. Nonetheless, she's famous for being one of the very few people to survive an abduction of this caliber, so people will always want to hear what she has to say.
Curiously enough, nobody seems to want to ask Jaycee Dugard about what she thinks, and she was held captive for nearly 20 years -- far longer than Smart. She was not only sexually assaulted by her captors, but she was forced to breed children with them in captivity. She went through something quite a bit worse than Smart and she survived. Why aren't people coming to her for an opinion on these cases?
Where are Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins?
Yesterday a cousin of these two missing Iowa cousins gave insight on the family, claiming that two of their other cousins had been abducted back in February. It's been speculated time and time again that these two little girls could have been abducted by someone who was wronged by the family in some way -- possibly holding them for ransom. The FBI agents on the case are not clarifying on any theories or any of their leads, although they insist that they do have leads in the case. They also insist that the missing girls are alive. Here's to hoping they're correct and these girls can be brought home soon.
Crime analyst and profiler Chelsea Hoffman can be found on The Huffington Post, Chelsea Hoffman: Case to Case and many other outlets. Follow @TheRealChelseaH on Twitter or click here to contact Chelsea directly.
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Comments: 20 ( 4 removed by Chelsea Hoffman )
When you hold onto false hope, you are more likely to hinder the process of recovering remains and evidence of homicide and other tragedies, which hinders the process of seeking justice for victims. As someone who works in this industry I've seen at least a dozen times the effects of false hope on family members. When someone wants to blindly believe that a loved on is alive, they sometimes outright refuse to move forward with collaborating with murder investigations, etc etc. Look at the mother of Natalee Holloway, for instance, she fought tooth and nail against declaring her daughter dead, which has been part of the hindrance in finding out the truth of what happened. Then there are those involved in the Madeleine McCann case who support the parents -- they refuse so much, even in the face of facts and forensic evidence, to believe Maddie was killed, that millions of dollars are still thrown at charity events and other frivolous funds which in the end, hinder the search for her body.
JMHO -- and based on actual experience on a broad scale and not just experience of what I've experienced.
There is hope and then there is false hope.
However, if the FBI has reason to believe the girls are alive based on evidence -- they're most likely right.
Would you mind providing a source to "many cases there is no proof" [ of evidence of foul play ] ??
Also, in the case of Etan Patz -- there is proof that he was murdered. A man admitted to strangling him to death after luring him into a basement. There have also been pieces of evidence such as clothing with dead human skin particles on it, which scent/cadaver dogs can smell for up to 100 years.
I have to agree even though Elizabeth Smart was a victim it does not make her an expert to give advice. However I would respect her opinion in the fact that she experienced something that most (thank God) have never experienced.
To me I think I would have to have false hope to get me through my child being abducted. I would have to have something too drive me to get me through it. I don't have kids but if my child was abducted and I didn't have the hope that she/he may still be alive I don't know that I could go on.
Elizabeth Smart did not only have her experience. She also has empathy and compassion for all SURVIVORS and VICTIMS of child abduction, rape, and all the other horrors we pray to God are never visited upon our children or ourselves.
Her experience comes not only from experience, but with research and education. It would be very ignorant for any person to judge her on any level.
I for one will be sure that this ignorant article gets as far as I can send it so that your readers, Ms Hoffman, will decline. I certainly pray that you never have to experience even a glimpse of what this woman and other survivors and victims went through. But until you do, please silence your inaccurate judgments.
A little angry are we?
Like right now she's inserting her same exact rhetoric in the Holly Bobo case, spreading false hope that she's "probably alive" -- even though fatal amounts of the woman's blood, along with other evidence of her murder, were found by TBI and FBI agents almost a year ago.
She's a tool for false hope and nothing more. THAT is my opinion, but it's based off the FACT that she's not trained or educated in the field in which she spreads her opinion.
Do you know if any criminal profilers have commented on this case?
I would really like to read what they think . Does it look like a family member friend of the family or a stranger?
I think Criminal Profiler Pat Brown covered this case as well. I'd google it to find out.
I have NO clue who took the girls. But I think someone in the family knows who does.