HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: It's becoming more apparent that there were several close calls and missed opportunities in the Smart investigation. CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Thursday was a day of celebration for the Smart family. Elizabeth's grandmother said it was like celebrating Thanksgiving in March. One of the things the family did, they celebrated Elizabeth's 15th birthday, which fell last November while she was in captivity. Thursday was a day in which we learned about several near misses. Police now say that Elizabeth was held for two months at a campsite up in the mountains just a couple of miles from her family home. She was so close that during the search she heard one of her uncles calling her name. We also learned that Elizabeth was, for part of the months of her captivity, in Salt Lake City, and was on the streets with her alleged captors, Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, but she was in disguise. No one recognized her. A third near miss in San Diego, California. The three of them traveling out there, spent several months there. At one point, Mitchell was picked up by the San Diego sheriff's office for burglarizing a church, but they didn't know who he was. After six days, he pleaded guilty. They let him go. Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse now saying it was a mistake not to have concentrated on this man they knew first as Emmanuel, later as Mitchell, much earlier in the process. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Missed Opportunities in Elizabeth Smart Investigation