Slutis' reaction to movie: 'Hard to watch'
By KIM SCHMIDT, Hub Staff Writer
02/16/2009
Updated 02/16/2009 04:12:53 PM CST
email this storyEmail to a friendprinter friendlyPrinter-friendly
Photo courtesy Omaha World-Herald News Service
Photo courtesy Omaha World-Herald News Service
KEARNEY — For Don and Elaine Sluti of Kearney, watching the made-for-TV drama about their daughter’s kidnapping was tough.
“It was hard for me to watch at times,” Don admitted.
But both he and Elaine previewed Sunday’s drama on their daughter Anne Sluti’s 2001 kidnapping earlier last week. Both thought the Lifetime Movie Network and producer Charlene Blaine-Schulenburg captured Anne’s overall story and her resourcefulness, terror and bravery.
Don said he was emotional as he watched his life portrayed on national TV, while Elaine said she was more reserved.
Advertisement
“There weren’t any real surprises here. We knew the whole story pretty much from Day 1,” she said.
Elaine was prepared to leave the room if the movie got too emotional. But she didn’t have to.
As for Anne, she went to the grocery store while her six-day ordeal played out to millions of people.
“That’s something that happened to her a long time ago, and she’s put it behind her,” Don said.
“She’s definitely not focused or dwelling on this. She’s living her life,” Elaine said.
The movie gave Sherry Morrow, a close friend of the Slutis, the chills.
“It almost made you sick to your stomach, even though you know the outcome was good in the end. I really felt for Don, Elaine, Tom (Sluti, Anne’s brother) and Anne as they went through the movie.
“Rehashing it just kind of brings it back to the surface.”
Steve Jensen, a former Buffalo County Sheriff’s investigator, agreed. He said the emotional parts of the movie came at the beginning and the end.
“I think they portrayed the abduction at the mall pretty well, as I know it happened, and I think at the end where he was crying and she was running to the cop,” he said.
Jensen was the first officer to suggest Anthony Steven Wright, also known as Tony Zappa, as a suspect two days after Anne disappeared. The Mall of America in Minneapolis had been shut down days earlier after a man matching Zappa’s description made threats and terrorized people.
Morrow, Jensen and Kearney Police Department Sgt. Tony Cordova, who was the on-call investigator when Sluti was kidnapped, said the show was fairly accurate.
There were only a few portrayals in the movie Jensen thought were inaccurate: scenes that showed police set up in the Slutis garage, and Anne’s brother Tom punching a police officer in the stomach.
Jensen summed up the movie and Anne’s case in an e-mail to the Hub:
“I have always thought there were two stories in this case. This story about the family and the emotions of losing a daughter to an unknown assailant, and the heroine that is Anne Sluti, who quickly reasoned control of her abductor and in the process, saved herself in the face of horrible circumstances.
“The second story, is the ‘behind-the-scenes’ 24/7/365 work the entire combined investigative unit did. The emotions that we all felt were so much parallel to the Slutis’.”
In hindsight, Jensen said, the movie should send a message to all victims of crime to not give up and to comply with their attackers in order to stay alive.
“I am proud that I was part of the team that worked on the Anne Sluti case. We did all we could do to the best of our ability, training and resources,” Jensen wrote. “But Anne Sluti’s resolve to save herself brought her home safely.”
e-mail to:
[email protected]
2002 ZAPPA TRIAL
Click here for archived stories from the Hub's coverage of Tony Zappa's 2002 trial for Anne Sluti's kidnapping
reply
share
LaraCroftLegacy
15 years ago
North good typing you did there
DarkAlessa now the end of day and Iam the Reaper:silent hill
reply
share