By GARY HENDERSON
Staff Writer

(11/3/94) -- The father of Polly Klaas, whose kidnapping from her California home last year captured national attention, says David and Susan Smith of Union are making a mistake by not being more open with the news media.

Marc Klaas, now a journalist with the television show "American Journal," said he told the family's spokeswoman, Margaret Gregory, that he would like to visit with the Smiths without cameras or microphones.

"I tried to make it clear what I wanted to do," Klaas said. "I wanted to talk with them parent to parent."

But Klaas said he believes Gregory kept him from talking to the Smiths.

"After four days, I gave up and went home," Klaas said from Californina Wednesday morning.

"They said the parents were suffering too much grief to talk to anybody," Klaas said. "I tried really hard for four days, but they didn't want to talk to me."

Klaas' 12-year-old daughter, Polly, was abducted from home last October in a case that attracted nationwide attention. Polly had friends over for a slumber party when a man walked through the door and grabbed her. Polly's slain body was found about two months later under a stack of plywood 50 miles from home.

The Smiths granted reporters interviews the first two days after their children disappeared, but Gregory said they stopped because they needed time with their family.

Gregory, a former journalist, handles public relations for the Richland County Sheriff's Department in Columbia.

"I am a family member, and my department allowed me to take vacation on short notice," Gregory said. "David and Susan needed time for themselves to gather their thoughts. They were overwhelmed. That's why they asked me to handle it for them."

The Smiths made a tearful appeal Wednesday morning for the safe return of their children. It was the first public appearance for the couple in several days. They did not take questions from reporters after their statements.

John Rabon, vice president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Arlington, Va., said the likelihood the children have been harmed increases the longer the ordeal drags on.

"It increases by the minute," Rabon said. "It is not a good situation, considering the tender age of the kids."

Rabon said without a car and witnesses other than the children's mother, the case seems hopeless. He said prior cases like this one cannot be studied because there are none.

Rabon said the lack of clues makes it ever important to keep the abduction of the Smith children alive in the news media.

"This case is like Jell-O," Rabon said. "The more you squeeze it, the less you have in your hand.

"Why would a black man steal two white children?"

Rabon said officials have reached an unpleasant point in the investigation.

"You've got to start looking at family members and friends," Rabon said. "They'll have to receive more investigation than before."

Klaas said he wanted to let the Smiths know how law enforcement agencies look at the abduction of children.

"It was important for them to know parents are the No. 1 suspects," Klaas said. "About 98 percent of all abductions of children are committed by family members. It's rare for a child to be abducted by a stranger."

Officials have not identified any family members as suspects.

Klaas said when his daughter disappeared from her home, he told police he'd do anything necessary to eliminate himself as a suspect so they could turn their attention to an unknown abductor.

"I volunteered to take a polygraph and told them I'd stand on the table nude, if that's what it took," Klaas said.

A prison parolee was later arrested and charged with Polly's murder.

Gregory said the Smiths declined to speak to Klaas because they considered him a member of the news media because of his affiliation with "American Journal."

Klaas said David Smith Sr., the missing children's grandfather, lobbied to get his son and daughter-in-law to speak with him.

"He has the right focus," Klaas said. "The man is in agony. His only interest was in getting the children returned."

"They chose not to speak to him," Gregory said. "It was their decision, not mine."

Klaas, however, believes it may not be the Smiths' decisions, but those of their advisers -- specifically Gregory -- that are keeping them hidden from reporters.

He said it's regrettable because life-and-death decisions are being made.

"There are bad decisions, in fact abominable decisions, being made by whoever it is that is keeping them away from the media," Klaas said. "They are missing opportunities they have to use the world's attention to help find their children."

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