Police: Drifter Tried to Take Smart Cousin

March 14 -- The homeless street preacher accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart also tried to abduct her 18-year-old cousin, possibly to build a collection of multiple wives, police and the teens' families said today.

Brian David Mitchell, who is being held along with his wife on suspicion of aggravated kidnapping, also targeted Elizabeth's cousin, Jessica Wright, who bears a close resemblance to the 15-year-old kidnap victim, police said.

A July 24 report from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department says the screen on Wright's bedroom window was cut horizontally and vertically during the night and a chair was left beneath the window. Police also found a chair under a kitchen window at the Smart household after Elizabeth was taken June 5. Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, has said he believes the kidnapper entered their home by cutting a window screen near the back door from the outside.

"We are presenting this evidence to the District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney as we speak," Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard told a news conference. "I believe that we have solid information and solid leads that could connect the two households and the perpetrator to the two households together. … In interviewing [the] suspects and in developing evidence with Salt Lake City Police Department and with the FBI, [that] has led us to believe that the perpetrators of the Elizabeth Smart situation also had something to do with this case."

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Kennard said he hopes he has enough evidence to present attempted kidnapping charges in the Wright case either Monday or Tuesday. He would not reveal what evidence allegedly ties Elizabeth's alleged kidnappers to the attempted break-in at the Wright home or how Mitchell may have learned about the cousin.

According to the report filed after the incident, Wright was awakened at 3 a.m.by the sound of pictures on her desk falling to the floor and observed a thin object sticking through the closed metal blinds of her window. The object then disappeared and she fled the room.

Wright's father, also awakened by the falling pictures, released the family dog into the back yard. The dog, the report said, immediately went to the teen's window, then went to the back fence and began barking.