Last Friday they may have gotten one, when FBI agents arrested 26-year-old Bret Michael Edmunds, a homeless man with ties to the Smarts’ neighborhood, who was spotted at a candlelight vigil for the missing 14-year-old. Almost 2,000 miles from the Smart mansion, Edmunds had checked himself into a West Virginia hospital under a pseudonym, and was diagnosed with liver damage after an apparent drug overdose. Cops flew in from Utah to question Edmunds, though it’s not clear whether he played any role in the kidnapping. “He’s a question mark,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse told reporters. “And we want to put a period on that question mark.”
It added a dash of hope to a hard week for the Smart family. Her father, Ed Smart, broke down in tears at a Friday news conference. At a NEWSWEEK photo shoot, a family friend presented Ed and Lois Smart with a framed photograph of Elizabeth playing the harp, taken just a few weeks before she was kidnapped. “Elizabeth’s going to love it when she gets home,” the friend gently consoled Lois. But the Smarts must know that the prospect of Elizabeth’s safe return dims with each passing week.
