Elizabeth Ann Smart was kidnapped at age 14 on June 5, 2002, by Brian David Mitchell. 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. Since her abduction, Smart has gone on to become an advocate for missing persons and victims of sexual assault. Mitchell was diagnosed by forensic psychologists as having antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders, and sentenced to life in prison in 2011. Barzee was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 2010 for her role in the kidnapping and abduction, but was granted early release on September 19, 2018, for previously uncredited time served.
About Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in brief
Elizabeth Ann Smart was kidnapped at age 14 on June 5, 2002, by Brian David Mitchell. 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. During her captivity, Smart accompanied her captors in public on various occasions 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. Mitchell was diagnosed by forensic psychologists as having antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders, and sentenced to life in prison in 2011. Mitchell and Barzee were actively involved in the LDS Church. Mitchell presented himself in an image that was akin to the image of Jesus, dressing in white robes and tunics, growing a beard and growing a mustache. He was excommunicated from the church for this, and went by the name \”Hephzibah,\” and the two would panhandle and preach in downtown 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 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.
After their divorce, Mitchell temporarily fled with the children to New Hampshire for two years, where he joined a Hare Krishna commune. He had two children with Karen Minor, who was three years younger than he, making her 16 years old at the time of their marriage. Mitchell married Wanda Elaine Barzee on the day Mitchell and Debbie’s divorce was finalized, a then-forty-year old divorcee with six children. In the early hours of June 5,. Mitchell broke into the home of Edward and Lois Smart with their six children and abducted 14-yearold Elizabeth. Mary Katherine- who was awakened from the bedroom she shared with her sister, but pretended to be asleep, thought she had been dreaming and later reported the abduction to her parents. Just a few hours later, Elizabeth and the abductor had gone, but she only narrowly avoided being seen by her parents, who were outside the bedroom of the family’s home. When she woke up, Mary Katherine told her parents what had happened and thought Elizabeth had been abducted and told them what had been said to her. Elizabeth and her parents were shocked, but they were able to convince her to go back to bed where she hid for an undetermined amount of time—possibly over two hours before telling them what happened. Mitchell, who claimed to be a religious preacher, held Smart at a camp in the woods with Barzee. He repeatedly raped her. For this, he was jailed for life in 2011, but was deemed mentally capable in 2010.
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