Elizabeth Smart makes plea for help in search for missing Utah woman
PROVO, Utah - Searches intensified over the weekend for a missing Utah woman after her family and Elizabeth Smart issued an impassioned plea for the public's help in finding the 26-year-old, who has been missing since April 16.
Some 250 people searched Saturday for Elizabeth "Elena" Laguna Salgado of Chiapas, Mexico, who moved to Provo about a month ago to study English.
Provo Police Chief John King has said there is no evidence of a kidnapping, but called the woman's disappearance suspicious, saying she was a responsible person who usually talked with family every day.
She hasn't been heard from since April 16 when she left school. Her cellphone has been turned off and there has been no activity on her credit cards or any other sign of where she is or what happened, King said.
On Friday, Laguna Salgado's family issued an impassioned plea for help at a news conference organized by Elizabeth Smart.
Smart was 14 when she was snatched out of her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002. She was held captive for nine months before being found walking with her captor on a busy street in Sandy - close to where Friday's news conference was held at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Smart and her father said they organized the event to bring attention to the story. They said the key to finding Smart in 2003 - nine months after she was abducted - was that the American public knew her face and her story.
Smart urged the public to help find Laguna Salgado even though there's no evidence of a kidnapping.
"Maybe we're wrong, but if we're right then at least we're doing everything we can," she said.
Smart recalled what it was like when she was first abducted: "It's terrifying. You don't know what's going on. You don't know why it happened to you. You don't know what the future is. You don't know if people are looking for you."
Laguna Salgado's uncle, Rosemberg Salgado, also spoke at the news conference.
He called his niece an optimistic, spiritual woman who just finished a Mormon mission in Mexico.
"Elizabeth, if you are watching this, please know that we love you and that we are going to be looking for you," said Salgado, crying. "We won't stop until we find you."
Asked if his niece mentioned anything odd in recent conversations, Salgado said she told him a boy had been bugging her to go on a date and that she made up having a boyfriend to get rid of him.
Authorities have said they were interviewing the missing woman's classmates at the Nomen Global Language Center.
Provo Police Lt. Brandon Post told CBS affiliate KUTV that authorities had questioned two men who had asked Laguna Salgado out, but said at this time, "there's nothing suspicious in their background or in their dealings with her."
Over the weekend, searchers combed her walking route from school, neighborhoods surrounding the Mexican restaurant where she worked and the apartment building where she lived.
"There were some items that some people found that were suspicious in nature, and our detectives were looking at those to determine and see if they were related or not," said Provo Police Lt. Brandon Post, according to KUTV.
A vigil was held for the 26-year-old on Monday night. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact authorities at 801-852-6201.