What Happened To American Activist Elizabeth Smart?
American Activist Elizabeth Smart was dragged by Mitchell and yelled at her with a knife while her younger sister Mary Katherine pretended to be asleep.
As a religious preacher, Mitchell kidnapped Elizabeth with Wanda Barzee to a camp in the woods and brutally raped her there.
Elizabeth joined her kidnappers on multiple occasions in public while blending in almost utterly unobserved by anyone she interacted with. Since her abduction and subsequent return, Smart has advocated for sexual assault victims and missing persons.
Wanda Barzee received a 15-year federal prison sentence in 2010 for her involvement in the kidnapping and abduction; however, on September 19, 2018, she was granted an early release due to time already spent that had not been given credit.
Mitchell was found to have narcissistic and antisocial personality disorder by forensic psychologists. There had been a long debate about his capacity to do so before he was declared mentally able to stand trial in 2010. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release in 2011.
How Long Was Elizabeth Smart Kidnapped?
Elizabeth Ann Smart, then fourteen, was taken from her home in the Federal Heights district of Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 5, 2002, by Brian David Mitchell.
She was held hostage by Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, his wife, initially in San Diego County, California, and later on the outskirts of Salt Lake City.
Before being discovered in Sandy, Utah, some 18 miles (29 km) from her home, Elizabeth had been held captive for around nine months.
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Elizabeth Smart Kidnappers
One of Smart’s captors, Brian David Mitchell, was one of six children born into a Mormon household on October 18, 1953, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Brian married Karen Minor when he was nineteen; she was three years younger than him and had two children. Minor was given custody of both children during their divorce, and Mitchell briefly fled with the kids to New Hampshire.
Mitchell had three children from his first marriage and two more in Salt Lake City with Debbie, his second wife. Debbie alleged Mitchell had assaulted her during their marriage, leading to their divorce in 1984.
When Mitchell and Debbie’s divorce was formally finalized, Wanda Elaine Barzee, a divorcee who was 40 and had six children, married Mitchell.
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