Elizabeth Ann Smart was
kidnapped at age fourteen on June 4, 2002, by Brian David Mitchell
from her home in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City,
Utah, United States. 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
knifepoint by Mitchell, while her younger sister, Mary Katherine,
pretended to be asleep. Mitchell, who claimed to be a religious
preacher, 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.
Since her abduction, Smart has gone on
to become an advocate for missing persons and victims of sexual
assault. Barzee was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 2010
for her role in the kidnapping and abduction, although she was
granted early release on September 19, 2018, for previously
uncredited time served. Extensive disputes over Mitchell's
competence to stand trial lasted several years before he was deemed
mentally capable in 2010, though he was diagnosed by forensic
psychologists as having antisocial and narcissistic personality
disorders. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole in 2011.
Backgrounds of the kidnappers
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.
At age 16, Mitchell exposed himself to
a child, and was sent to a juvenile hall. At nineteen, he married
and had two children with Karen Minor, who was three years younger
than him, making her 16 years old at the time of their marriage.
After their divorce, Minor was awarded custody of both children,
after which Mitchell temporarily fled with the children to New
Hampshire. He resided in New Hampshire for two years, where he
joined a Hare Krishna commune. 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.
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. Barzee had a troubled relationship with her children; one
of her daughters would later refer to her as a "monster,"
and she would also claim that when she was a child, Wanda fed her pet
rabbit to her for dinner. 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 prophetic visions. For this, he was excommunicated from
the church. 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.
Abduction
In the early hours of June 5, 2002,
Mitchell broke into the home of Edward and Lois Smart in the Federal
Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, where they lived with their
six children. He abducted 14-year-old Elizabeth from the bedroom she
shared with her nine-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, who was
awakened but pretended to be asleep, and later reported the
following:
A white man about the height of her
brother Charles (5 ft 8 in; 172 cm) about 30 or 40 years old, wearing
light-colored clothes and a golf hat. (He was actually wearing
black, did not have a golf hat, and was 48.)
He had dark hair, and also dark hair
on his arms and on the backs of his hands.
The man threatened Elizabeth with a
knife (which Mary Katherine thought was a gun at the time.)
When Elizabeth said "ouch"
after stubbing her toe on a chair, Mitchell said something that
sounded like: "You better be quiet, and I won't hurt you."
She heard Elizabeth ask "Why
are you doing this?" and though the answer was not clear, Mary
Katherine thought the answer might have been "for ransom."
Mitchell was soft-spoken—even
polite, calm, and nicely dressed.
Although Mitchell spoke to Elizabeth
quietly, Mary Katherine thought Mitchell's voice seemed somehow
familiar, but she could not pinpoint where or when she had heard it.
She never got a good look at
Mitchell's face. This fact was kept a secret by the police during
the investigation.
When she thought Elizabeth and the
abductor had gone, Mary Katherine attempted to go to her parents'
bedroom, but only narrowly avoided being seen by Mitchell and
Elizabeth, who were outside the bedroom of the family's boys. She
crept back into her bed, where she hid for an undetermined
time—possibly over two hours. Just before 4 a.m., Mary Katherine
woke her parents and told them what had happened; thinking she had
been dreaming, they did not believe her until they found a screen
window that had been cut with a knife.
Search and investigation
On June 6, 2002, Ed and Lois went on
television and pleaded for the kidnapper to return their daughter.
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. 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.
The Salt Lake City police considered
Richard Ricci a person of interest early into the investigation.
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. Ricci died of a brain hemorrhage in August 2002. Elizabeth's
family persistently kept Elizabeth's name in the press, for example
providing home videos of her, and created a website about her
abduction.
Captivity
After her kidnapping, Smart was taken
by Mitchell into the woods to an encampment outside Salt Lake City,
where she was met by Wanda Barzee. 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."
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." 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.
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. 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). 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. He often forced her to drink alcohol and
take drugs to lower her resistance, and both starved her and fed her
garbage. Smart's abuse was facilitated with the assistance of
Barzee, who Smart would later refer to as the "most evil
woman" she had ever met.
Public appearances
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. 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. 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. 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), and they were unable to remove
their veils or garb on religious grounds. When questioned by the
detective, neither Barzee nor Smart spoke, and Mitchell stated that
their religion prohibited women from speaking in public. Smart would
later say that Barzee signaled her not to move, and she gripped her
legs under the table. 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."
Smart also visited grocery stores and a
restaurant but went unnoticed. 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.
Move to San Diego
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. Mitchell and Barzee relocated with Smart several times
to different encampments in San Diego County, often moving in the
middle of the night. On February 12, 2003, Mitchell was arrested in
El Cajon for breaking into a church and spent several days in jail
over the incident.
Discovery
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, whom the family had hired
for a day to work on the roof and rake leaves.
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
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.
On March 12, 2003, Mitchell was spotted
with a woman and a girl in Sandy, Utah, by two separate couples who
had seen photos of Mitchell on the news. The woman was Wanda Barzee,
and the girl was Elizabeth Smart—disguised in a gray wig,
sunglasses, and veil. Both couples reported their recognition of
Mitchell to the Sandy Police Department, which immediately dispatched
police officers to the location. Smart was recognized by the
officers during questioning, who then rescued her and arrested
Mitchell and Barzee.
"Today, Elizabeth was
introduced to the AMBER Alert when she asked about a videotape in my
office. After watching the coverage, Elizabeth asked why the
legislation has not passed when it saves so many children's lives ...
I could not give her an answer."--Section of open
letter penned by Ed, Lois and Elizabeth Smart to the United States
House of Representatives. March 18, 2003.
One month after the recovery of
Elizabeth Smart, the state of Utah superseded the then-existing
Rachael Alert with the nationwide AMBER alert child abduction alert
system—in part to conform with recently implemented nationwide
procedures. Although the Rachael Alert was superseded, this system
had seen a success in the two years of its existence.
Legal proceedings
Competency evaluations
The court requested that Mitchell
undergo a competency evaluation, based on his claims of being a
religious prophet. While awaiting the evaluation, Mitchell was
incarcerated at the Utah State Hospital. Dr. Stephen Golding, a
psychologist hired by the defense, distinguished between zealous
belief and delusion, and concluded that Mitchell's beliefs
transcended zeal and were in fact delusional. It was Golding's
opinion that Mitchell was not competent to stand trial as a result of
his delusions. The court, however, superseded Golding's opinion and
found Mitchell to be competent in 2004. Plea negotiations
subsequently began between the defense and the prosecution. The
defendant was willing to plead guilty to kidnapping and burglary for
a 10- to 15-year sentence on condition that Smart should not testify.
The prosecution refused to drop sexual assault charges against
Mitchell, and no agreement was reached.
On October 15, 2004, plea negotiations
had still not determined an agreement. The defense appealed as late
as October 21, asking the prosecution to rethink their position in
terms of what they were offering Mitchell. Up until this point the
defense did not highlight breakdown in competence as a contributing
factor to the deterioration of plea negotiations; they cited the lack
of a coming to an agreement as being the result of the sole
discretion of their client. The appeal was subsequently rejected.
Dr. Jennifer Skeem, a psychologist who
initially stated that Mitchell was competent, interviewed Mitchell
again per the defense's request in February 2005. After this
interview, Heidi Buchi, Mitchell's attorney, filed a brief stating
that Mitchell was no longer competent to stand trial. Mitchell
subsequently began to act out in court, while jail staff observed no
change in his behavior and thought process. Ultimately, Judge Judy
Atherton agreed with the defense, asserting that Mitchell's behavior
reflected psychosis. The defendant re-entered Utah State hospital on
August 11, 2005 and remained there until 2008. While in the hospital,
no staff experienced Mitchell as being paranoid in a pathological
sense.
In February 2006, a bill went before
the Utah legislature to allow prosecutors to apply for forcible
medication on defendants to restore their competence to face trial.
Permission to forcibly medicate Wanda Barzee was also sought, relying
upon the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Sell v. United States
(2003), which permits compulsory medication when the state can
demonstrate a compelling interest is served by restoring a person's
competence and that medication would not harm the person or prevent
him from defending himself. In June 2006, a Utah judge approved the
forcible medication of Barzee so that she could stand trial.
On December 18, 2006, Mitchell was
again declared unfit to stand trial in the Utah state courts after
screaming at a judge during a hearing to "forsake those robes
and kneel in the dust." Doctors had been trying to treat
Mitchell without drugs, but prosecutor Kent Morgan said after the
scene in court that a request was likely to be made for permission to
forcibly administer drugs. On December 12, 2008, it was reported that
Mitchell could not legally be forcibly medicated by the State of Utah
to attempt to restore his mental competency, also claiming that it is
"unnecessary and needlessly harsh," and therefore a
violation of the Utah state constitution, to prolong trial
proceedings to this length.
The case was eventually transferred to
Federal court on October 10, 2008. Issues of competency proved to be
the crux of the case, and the court held an evidentiary hearing on
Mitchell's competency on October 1, 2009 and November 30 through
December 11, 2009. On one occasion during a hearing in October, it
was reported that Mitchell burst out singing hymns in court. During
one of these hearings, Smart described Mitchell as "smart,
articulate, evil, wicked, manipulative, sneaky, slimy, selfish,
greedy, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God."
Competency evaluations conducted by Dr.
Noel Gardner, Dr. Welner, and Dr. Richart DeMier were presented at
the hearing. Dr. Gardner maintained that he believed Mitchell was
fully aware of his actions and was attempting to deceive the court.
Dr. Michael Welner, another witness in the case, reviewed 210 sources
and 57 separate interviews including Mitchell, his wife Wanda Barzee,
his family, and Elizabeth Smart. The Court credited Dr. Welner with
presenting a 206-page report. Welner opined that Mitchell was
competent to stand trial, and diagnosed him with non-exclusive
pedophilia, antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality
disorder, malingering, and alcohol abuse in a controlled environment.
Welner believed that Mitchell was highly manipulative and used his
religious expression as a way to coax people into overlooking his
high function and dismissing him as delusional. Experts for the
defense including Dr. DeMier, a clinical psychologist, did not
dispute these diagnoses; they maintained he had a concurrent fixed
delusional disorder, believing that Mitchell was mentally ill at the
time of the crime, and this greatly impaired his judgment. Mitchell
was deemed competent to stand trial on March 1, 2010.
Prosecution and sentencing
Wanda Barzee eventually pled guilty and
was sentenced to concurrent terms of 15 years in state and federal
prison. However, due to the delays and mental evaluations, it took
Mitchell's case almost eight years to come to court.
Mitchell's trial began on November 8,
2010. The defense acknowledged that Mitchell was in fact responsible
for the crimes, but contended that he was legally insane at the time
of the crime, and should therefore be found not guilty by reason of
insanity. The insanity defense for Mitchell was rejected on December
11, 2010, when the jury found him guilty of kidnapping and
transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in
sexual activity. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball sentenced Mitchell
to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mitchell is
currently serving his sentence at U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute, a
high-security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In 2016, Barzee's federal imprisonment
was terminated and she was transferred from the Federal Medical
Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, to the Utah State Prison in
Draper, Utah, to begin serving her state prison sentence. She was
released in September 2018, which Smart protested.
Timeline
Abduction and investigation
June 4, 2002 – The Smart family
arrives late at the Bryant Middle School awards function; Elizabeth
receives awards in physical fitness and academics but does not play
her harp as planned. Family returns home and retires to bed.
June 5, 2002 – Elizabeth is abducted
from her bedroom in the early hours of the morning. Mary Katherine,
her sister, is a witness to the crime. Elizabeth is held prisoner at
a camp in Dry Creek Canyon, the entrance to which is a short distance
from the Smart family house.
June 6, 2002 – Bounty for her rescue
is set at $250,000.
June 7, 2002 – A milkman reports
suspicious activities of Bret Michael Edmunds in neighborhood.
June 9, 2002 – Ed Smart is questioned
and polygraphed.
June 12, 2002 – Manhunt for Bret
Michael Edmunds.
June 14, 2002 – Suspect Richard Ricci
is arrested on unrelated charges.
June 21, 2002 – Bret Michael Edmunds
caught at City Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and questioned
the next day.
June 24, 2002 – Richard Ricci arrest
announced.
July 11, 2002 – Richard Ricci charged
with theft in the Smart home. Denies any involvement with Elizabeth's
kidnapping.
July 24, 2002 – Attempted kidnapping
at the house of Elizabeth's cousin.
August 2002 – Salt Lake City
Detective Richey, based on a tip, confronts Smart and her kidnappers
at the City Library. He is deflected from examining Smart's face by a
religious argument. Smart later testified, "I felt like hope
was walking out the door", as the detective accepted the
argument and left.
August 2002 – Mitchell, Barzee, and
Elizabeth leave Dry Creek Canyon and go to Salt Lake City.
August 27, 2002 – Richard Ricci
collapses.
August 30, 2002 – Richard Ricci dies
of brain hemorrhage.
September 17, 2002 – Police suspend
regular briefings with the Smart family.
September 27, 2002 – Police arrest
Mitchell for shoplifting and later release him.
September 28, 2002 – Barzee and
Elizabeth are spotted in the town of Lakeside, California, in San
Diego County.
October 12, 2002 – Mary Katherine
remembers the voice of the kidnapper as that of the man they knew as
"Immanuel".
February 3, 2003 – Smart family
releases the sketch of the man known as Immanuel.
February 12, 2003 – Mitchell is
arrested in El Cajon, California, in San Diego County, for breaking
into a church. He was not recognized as the criminal wanted in Utah.
February 15, 2003 – America's Most
Wanted features "Immanuel" and requests responses.
February 16, 2003 – Mitchell's family
steps forward and identifies him as the man known as "Immanuel".
February 17, 2003 – Newly published,
more recent photographs of Mitchell made available.
March 5, 2003 – Mitchell, Barzee, and
Elizabeth leave San Diego County, California.
March 12, 2003 – Elizabeth Smart is
found alive in the city of Sandy, Utah.
Aftermath
March 18, 2003 – Mitchell and Barzee
are charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault,
and aggravated burglary.
April 30, 2003 – Elizabeth makes her
first public appearance after her return.
October 27, 2003 – Dateline NBC
interview with Elizabeth.
July 26, 2005 – Mitchell declared
mentally incompetent to stand trial.
December 18, 2006 – Mitchell again
declared unfit to stand trial.
April 30, 2008 – Ed Smart appears on
Madeline McCann One Year On.
November 17, 2008 – People magazine
features Elizabeth Smart as one of their heroes of the year. In the
article Elizabeth says she plans to live in England next year.
October 2009 – In a court hearing
Elizabeth Smart described Mitchell as "smart, articulate,
evil, wicked, manipulative, sneaky, slimy, selfish, greedy, not
spiritual, not religious, not close to God."
November 17, 2009 – Wanda Barzee
sentenced to 15 years for her role in the kidnapping.
March 1, 2010 – Mitchell ruled
competent to stand trial.
December 10, 2010 – Mitchell
convicted in Elizabeth Smart abduction.
May 25, 2011 – Brian David Mitchell
is sentenced to two life sentences in federal prison for the
kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart.
September 11, 2018 – The Utah Board
of Pardons and Parole announced Wanda Barzee is scheduled to be
released on Sep 19 because the board had failed to give her credit
for time served in federal prison.
September 19, 2018 – After serving 9
years in prison 72-year-old Wanda Barzee is released from prison. She
will be on parole, under federal supervision, for five years. Upon
release, she is a registered sex offender (Identification #: 1134472)
in the state of Utah.
December 31, 2018 – Three months
after Barzee's release, it is revealed that she is living near a Salt
Lake City elementary school. There appear to be no restrictions to
how close she can live to a school, though Utah's state rules
disallow her from going on school property.
Media
Television interviews
In October 2003, Elizabeth Smart and
her parents were interviewed for a special segment of Dateline NBC.
The interview, conducted by the Today show's Katie Couric, featured
Elizabeth's first interview with any media outlet. Couric questioned
Elizabeth's parents about their experiences while Elizabeth was
missing, including the Smarts' personal opinions concerning
Elizabeth's captors. Couric then interviewed Elizabeth about school
and her life following her kidnapping.
Shortly after the Dateline interview,
Elizabeth Smart and her family were featured on The Oprah Winfrey
Show, where Winfrey questioned the Smarts about the kidnapping.
In July 2006, legal commentator and
television personality Nancy Grace interviewed Elizabeth Smart,
purportedly to talk about pending legislation on sex-offender
registration, but repeatedly asked her for information about her
experience. In response to the questioning, Elizabeth told Grace,
"I really am here to support the bill and not to go into what,
you know, what happened to me." When Grace persisted, asking
Elizabeth what it was like to see out of a niqab her abductors forced
her to wear, Elizabeth stated: "I'm really not going to talk
about this at this time ... and to be frankly honest I really don't
appreciate you bringing all this up." Grace did not pursue
further questioning about the abduction.
Literature
The Smart family published a book,
Bringing Elizabeth Home (ISBN 978-0385512145). Elizabeth's uncle Tom
Smart co-authored a book with Deseret News journalist Lee Benson,
titled In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart
Investigation (ISBN 978-1556526213), which criticized the
investigation process by the Salt Lake City Police Department, as
well as noting the media influences that led to her successful
recovery.
Film depictions
The kidnapping was depicted in the 2003
television film The Elizabeth Smart Story, which was directed by
Bobby Roth, and based on the book Bringing Elizabeth Home. It starred
Amber Marshall as Elizabeth Smart, Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost as
her parents, and Tom Everett as Brian David Mitchell. It was
nominated for three Young Artist Awards in 2004. The film first aired
on CBS on November 9, 2003, eight months after Elizabeth was found.
In 2017 on the 15th anniversary of her
abduction, Lifetime aired the made-for-TV film titled I Am Elizabeth
Smart, narrated and produced by Smart, which tells the story of her
kidnapping from her own perspective. The film starred Alana Boden as
Elizabeth Smart, Skeet Ulrich as Brian David Mitchell, and Deirdre
Lovejoy as Wanda Ileen Barzee. Also airing in 2017 is Elizabeth
Smart: Autobiography from Biography, a two-hour telefilm.
Notes
The Rachael Alert system was named
after a three-year-old named Rachael Runyan, who had been abducted
and murdered in 1982. Prior to the implementation of the Rachael
Alert child abduction alert system in Utah, her parents had
relentlessly campaigned for the implementation of an effective method
to alert the public and law enforcement of child abductions and
general child safety in Utah. Rachael Alert was formally inaugurated
in May 2002.
