Elizabeth Smart to Missing Woman: 'We Will Find You'

Elizabeth Laguna-Salgado vanished in broad daylight in Provo, Utah, a year ago
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 20, 2016 8:13 AM CDT
Elizabeth Smart to Missing Woman: 'We Will Find You'
In this Friday photo, missing woman Elizabeth Laguna-Salgado's mother and two uncles are seen after an interview with the "Daily Herald."   (Spenser Heaps/The Daily Herald via AP)

From one Elizabeth to another, an appeal to be strong and hopeful emerged Monday as Utah marked the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 26-year-old Elizabeth Laguna-Salgado, per NBC News. "We will find you. We are looking, and we won't give up," Elizabeth Smart Gilmour, who herself was kidnapped at age 14, said at a press conference with Laguna-Salgado's family and her own father, Ed Smart. "Survive. Do whatever you need to survive." Laguna-Salgado vanished one year ago Saturday after leaving a local language center in Provo during daylight hours to make the 18-block walk to her apartment; she never arrived. She had only been in Provo for a couple of weeks after returning from a mission in Mexico for the Mormon church.

Her family believes she's being held against her will, and the Smarts are involved because they know how important continued exposure is in cases where leads are starting to fall off and memories are beginning to fade. "I have faith in humanity and this community and that we can bring her home," said Smart, now 28, per KUTV. "You brought me home. Why can't it happen again? Why can't another miracle happen?" Ed Smart concurs, with KUTV noting the news conferences he held on an almost daily basis while his own daughter was missing. "The family still holds out great hope she is out there," he says. "It is hard to conceive that somebody did not see something out there." Laguna-Salgado is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall, about 125 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. (Smart's baby girl recently celebrated her first birthday.)

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