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Paul Nelson, KSL Newsradio Neighbors of the Smart family look back on when the impossible abduction of a 14-year-old girl happened on their street. Residents along Kristianna Circle vividly remember June 5, 2002 as the day the neighborhood was turned upside down.
"I was awakened with the helicopters coming over," one person recalls. "The street was jammed with media cars and trucks and so forth," says neighbor Howard Jorgensen. "I remember the traffic and the police and the FBI," says neighbor Marjorie Dunham.
Some neighbors say they're disappointed the people reportedly responsible for the kidnapping are still waiting to be tried.
A few cars pass through Kristianna Circle today, which is nothing like how it was five years ago when the country focused on what happened here. "They had the news media, of course, here, and the streets were blocked at one point," Dunham remembers. Neighbor Reed Clegg says, "Cars kept pouring back and forth here on this cul-de-sac."
But, along with the shock of the kidnapping, neighbors remember how relieved they felt when Elizabeth Smart was found. One neighbor recalls, "That was a happy day for everyone. People were running up and down… neighbors were running up and down shouting, ‘They found her! They found her!'"
People here say they can't believe it's already been five years since the abduction.
