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Bo Cobb
LCC Law Enforcement
Mr. Medrano
10-6-13
The Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart by Brian David Mitchell
Elizabeth Smart was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 3, 1987. Her
mother, Lois, was a homemaker and her father Ed was a real estate developer. She
was the second oldest of six children. As a young girl, Elizabeth was a very kind, smart,
shy and well behaved child. Her greatest passion and most favorite thing to do was play
the harp. Smart was also a skilled equestrienne and distance runner who trained hard to
compete in cross-country racing when she reached high school.
On the evening of June 4, 2002, the Smart family attended an awards ceremony
at Elizabeth's school. After the family returned home and got ready for bed, Ed made
sure the doors were all locked, but he did not turn on the alarm system because if the
children got up and moved around in the middle of the night, it would set the alarm off,
so he didnt usually bother with it. After everyone was asleep, around 1:00 a.m.,
Elizabeth was awakened, in the bedroom she shared with her younger sister, Mary
Katherine, by the sound of footsteps and a whispering voice, "I have a knife to your
neck. Don't make a sound. Get out of bed and come with me, or I will kill you and your
family." Elizabeth could feel the cold sharp blade pressed against her skin. The
kidnapper led Smart out of the house and marched her four hours through the forest
and into the mountains of Utah. He took her to a camp where his wife, Wanda Barzee,
was waiting.

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During the time of Elizabeth's kidnapping, Mary Elizabeth, her sister had been
awakened and trembled under the covers afraid she was next. She quickly ran and told
her parents and they called 911. Immediately, a massive regional search effort was
organized by the Laura Recovery Center. They looked for Elizabeth in the days
following her abduction. Up to 2,000 volunteers a day were dispatched to the area
surrounding her home, trying to find any trace of the missing girl, but she had already
been led into the mountains more than four hours away.
Mitchell and Barzee held Smart captive for the next nine months as they moved
between California and Utah. Mitchell called himself a prophet named Immanuel, and
after performing a bizarre wedding ceremony, he declared Smart to be his wife and
raped her. "I tried to fight him off me," Elizabeth later testified. "A 14-year-old girl against
a grown man doesn't even out so much." She spent many days tied to cables and
repeatedly starved and raped in the mountain camp.
After several months, a breakthrough came in October 2002, when Mary Katherine
suddenly remembered who the kidnapper resembled. It was a man who had once
worked on their home, as a handyman, and who had called himself Immanuel. Police
discovered that Immanuel was a man named Brian David Mitchell, and in February
2003 America's Most Wanted aired his photograph. Shortly after, on March 12, 2003,
someone recognized Mitchell walking with Smart, who was wearing a wig and
sunglasses at a library. Authorities approached and surrounded Mitchell and his wife as
they were leaving and returned Smart to her family that evening. Mitchell and his wife
were arrested.

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Charges
Brian David Mitchell, 51, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, 59, were charged with
kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary in the 2002 abduction of the teenager.
Mitchell's trial on these charges was initially postponed following a court ruling that he
was not mentally competent to stand trial.
Trial
Mitchell's criminal trial on federal kidnapping charges began on November 8,
2010. During the trial both the prosecution and the defense accepted that Mitchell had
kidnapped and assaulted Ms. Smart repeatedly, but the defense claimed that he was
insane at the time and therefore not guilty by reason of insanity. Many stipulations were
presented and many witnesses were called covering Mitchell's alleged sanity and his
alleged insanity.
Victims testimony
Taking the witness stand and staring into the face of her kidnapper, Elizabeth
Smart claimed Mitchell kidnapped her at knifepoint and dragged her up a Utah
mountain, where she survived nine months as a prisoner of the man on trial, Brian
David Mitchell. She told that she lived a seemingly hopeless life of boredom, starvation
and rape.
Defense
Mr. Mitchell was found incompetent to stand trial. He never gave testimony as to why
he committed the crime. However, the victim did testify that he told her that he did this

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to her because she had to suffer sin first, in order to ask for forgiveness.
Sentencing
Wanda Barzee, the wife of Elizabeth Smart's captor, was sentenced to 15 years
for her role in the kidnapping. Mitchell was sent to prison for life. Smart confronted her
assailant during the sentencing hearing. She told him to his face, I want you to know
that I have a wonderful life now, which was actually true. She had begun working hard
as a high profile children's advocate.
Conclusion
As a former victim of such a crime, Smart says the difficult challenge also made
her appreciate her and the opportunities in the United States. She has recently formed
the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which works to develop a program that will teach
young kids how to defend themselves against would be abusers and kidnappers.
Now entering her senior year at Brigham Young University of Utah, she is
married and says her involvement in the prosecution of her kidnapper sparked an
interest in attending law school.


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Sources
KSL News Channel: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15689138
Huffington Post Newspaper: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/05/elizabeth-
smart-interview-returns-to-woods_n_4049394.html?ir=Crime
LA Times Newspaper: http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/brian-david-mitchell
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Smart_kidnapping
Time magazine:
http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2030508,00.html
Salt Lake Tribune Newspaper: http://breaking.sltrib.com/mitchell/
BIO Tru Story: http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-smart-
17176406?page=2