Elizabeth Ann Smart was kidnapped at age fourteen on June 5, 2002, by Brian Mitchell from her home in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was held captive by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, and later, in San Diego County, California. Her captivity lasted approximately nine months before she was discovered in Sandy, Utah, approximately 18 miles (29 km) from her home.
Smart was abducted from her home at knife-point by Mitchell, while her younger sister, Mary Katherine, pretended to be asleep. Mitchell, who claimed to be a religious preacher,[1] held Smart at a camp in the woods with Barzee, where he repeatedly raped her. During her captivity, Smart accompanied her captors in public on various occasions dressed head-to-toe in white robes and went largely unrecognized by those she came in contact with.[2]
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Since her abduction and rescue, Smart has become an advocate for missing persons and victims of sexual assault. Barzee was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 2009 for her role in the kidnapping and abduction, although she was granted early release on September 19, 2018, for previously uncredited time served.[3] Mitchell was diagnosed by forensic psychologists as having antisocial and narcissistic personality disorder. Extensive disputes over his competence to stand trial lasted several years before he was deemed mentally capable in 2010. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2011.[4]
One of Smart's abductors, Brian David Mitchell, was born on October 18, 1953, in Salt Lake City, Utah, the third of six children in a Mormon family. His mother was a teacher and his father was a social worker. In order to teach Mitchell about sex, his father reportedly showed his adolescent son explicit photos from a medical journal, and, in order to teach him about independence, he would drive Mitchell to unfamiliar parts of Salt Lake City, and drop him off, leaving him to find his way home.[5]
At age 16, Mitchell exposed himself to a child, and was sent to a juvenile hall. At nineteen, he married sixteen-year-old Karen Minor, with whom he had two children. After their divorce, Minor was awarded custody of both children, after which Mitchell temporarily fled with the children to New Hampshire.[5] He resided in New Hampshire for two years, where he joined a Hare Krishna commune.[6] Mitchell had a history of drug and alcohol abuse in his adult life; upon returning to Salt Lake City, he was inspired to seek sobriety by his brother, who had recently returned from a mission. In Salt Lake City, Mitchell had two additional children with his second wife, Debbie, who herself had three children from a previous marriage. Debbie alleged that Mitchell was abusive during their marriage, and they divorced in 1984. After their separation, Debbie alleged that Mitchell had sexually abused their three-year-old son; the claim could not be medically confirmed, but Mitchell's future visitations with his children were ordered to be supervised by the Division of Child and Family Services. One of Debbie's daughters from her previous marriage would later claim that Mitchell had sexually abused her for four years.[5]
On the day Mitchell and Debbie's divorce was finalized, he married Wanda Elaine Barzee (b. November 6, 1945, in Salt Lake City), a then-forty-year-old divorcee with six children.[5] Barzee had a troubled relationship with her children; one of her daughters would later refer to her as a "monster," and she also claimed that when she was a child, Wanda fed her pet rabbit to her for dinner.[7] Together, Mitchell and Barzee were actively involved in the LDS Church. Eventually Mitchell began going by the name "Immanuel," claiming to be a prophet of God who experienced visions.[5] For this, he was excommunicated from the church.[8] Barzee began going by the name "Hephzibah," and the two would panhandle and preach in downtown Salt Lake City. Mitchell presented himself in an image that was akin to the image of Jesus, dressing in white robes and tunics, and growing a beard.[5]
In the early hours of June 5, 2002, Mitchell broke into the home of Ed and Lois Smart in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, where they lived with their six children.[9] He abducted 14-year-old Elizabeth from the bedroom she shared with Mary Katherine, Elizabeth's nine-year-old sister.[10] Mary Katherine was awakened but pretended to be asleep,[11][12] and later reported that:
A massive regional search effort, organized by the Laura Recovery Center, involved up to 2,000 volunteers each day, as well as dogs and planes.[25] Various websites carried flyers that could be printed or circulated via internet. After many days of intensive searching, the community-led search was ended and efforts were directed to other means of finding Elizabeth.
Mary Katherine's observations were of little use, and there was little usable evidence found at the scene such as fingerprints or DNA. A search using bloodhounds was unsuccessful. Police questioned and interviewed hundreds of potential suspects including a 26-year-old who was cleared after being located in a West Virginia hospital. The investigation had the side effect of returning several at-large criminals to prison, but Elizabeth was not found.[26]
The Salt Lake City police considered Richard Ricci a person of interest early in the investigation.[27] Ricci was a handyman with a history of drug abuse who had worked for the Smarts; he had been jailed on an unrelated parole violation prior.[28] Ricci died of a brain hemorrhage in August 2002.[29][30] To keep Elizabeth's name in the press, her family used a variety of strategies, including making a website about her abduction and providing home videos.[31]
After her kidnapping, Smart was taken by Mitchell into the woods to an encampment outside of Salt Lake City, where she was met by Wanda Barzee.[32] According to Smart's testimony, Barzee "eventually just proceeded to wash my feet and told me to change out of my pajamas into a robe type of garment. And when I refused, she said if I didn't, she would have Brian Mitchell come rip my pajamas off. I put the robe on. He came and performed a ceremony, which was to marry me to him. After that, he proceeded to rape me many times."[33] Mitchell claimed to be an angel and he also told Smart that he was a Davidic King who would "emerge in seven years, be stoned by a mob, lie dead in the streets for three days and then rise up and kill the Antichrist."[34] Smart, he insisted, was the first of many virgin brides he planned to kidnap, each of whom would accompany him as he battled the Antichrist.[34][35]
To keep Smart from escaping, she was shackled to a tree with a metal cable, which allowed her limited mobility outside of the tent she occupied.[32] During her captivity, she was forced to take a new name, and she chose the name Esther, after Esther of the Old Testament (Brian David Mitchell also called her Shearjashub).[36] It was later revealed during court testimony that Mitchell repeatedly raped Smart, sometimes multiple times a day, forced her to look at pornographic magazines, and regularly threatened to kill her.[33][37] He often forced her to drink alcohol and take drugs to lower her resistance, and both starved her and fed her garbage.[32][38] Smart's abuse was facilitated with the assistance of Barzee, whom Smart would later refer to as the "most evil woman" she had ever met.[32]
Smart accompanied Mitchell and Barzee in public on numerous occasions, but her presence was either obscured or unnoticed via various methods of concealment, which often consisted of her wearing a headscarf and a face veil.[2][32] In August 2002, around two months after Smart's kidnapping, Mitchell devised a plan to leave Salt Lake City with Barzee and Smart, possibly to Boston or New York City.[32] To research potential places to relocate, Mitchell and Barzee visited the Salt Lake City Public Library with Smart. There, they were noticed by a library patron due to their unusual styles of dress; each wore full-length robes with veils which concealed most of their faces. The patron was convinced to call police after looking closely at Smart's eyes.[39] A police detective arrived at the library and confronted Mitchell, Barzee, and Smart; however, he was deterred by Mitchell, who claimed that Smart was his daughter (named Augustine Marshall[40]), and they were unable to remove their veils or garb on religious grounds.[32] When questioned by the detective, neither Barzee nor Smart spoke, and Mitchell stated that their religion prohibited women from speaking in public.[39] Smart would later say that Barzee signaled her not to move, and she gripped her legs under the table.[32][41] She later recalled the incident: "I felt like hope was walking out the door. I was mad at myself that I didn't say anything, mad at myself for not taking the chance. So close. I felt terrible that the detective hadn't pushed harder. He just walked away."[41]
Smart also visited grocery stores and a restaurant but went unnoticed.[2] In the fall of 2002, she attended a party with Mitchell and Barzee and was photographed wearing a veil and robe with Mitchell and another party guest.[42]
In September 2002, Mitchell and Barzee left Salt Lake City with Smart, relocating to San Diego County, California, where they held Smart in an encampment in a dry creek bed in Lakeside.[43] Mitchell and Barzee relocated with Smart several times to different encampments in San Diego County, often moving in the middle of the night.[37] On February 12, 2003, Mitchell was arrested in El Cajon for breaking into a church and spent several days in jail over the incident.[37]
In October 2002, Smart's sister Mary Katherine suddenly realized that the abductor's voice was that of an unemployed man the family knew as Immanuel,[16][44] whom the family had hired for a day to work on the roof and rake leaves.[45][46][47]
The police were skeptical because of the short time "Immanuel" had worked for the family, the long time that elapsed, and the short time Mary Katherine had heard the abductor's voice; however, the family had a sketch artist[48] draw "Immanuel's" face from their descriptions, and in February this drawing was released to the media; it was shown on Larry King Live and America's Most Wanted. The drawing was recognized by relatives of Mitchell, who gave police contemporary photographs of him.[49] 152ee80cbc
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