ELIZABETH SMART

Missing: 6/05/02 Age: 14

Recovered: 3/03

 

At age fourteen, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom on June 5, 2002 in Salt Lake City. Elizabeth’s only witness of the abduction was her 9-year-old sister Mary-Katherine who Elizabeth shared a room with. Mary-Katherine later stated that she pretended to be a sleep so that Elizabeth’s abductor would not harm her. Approximately two hours after the abduction, Mary-Katherine woke up her parents and told them what had happened. The Smarts were still reluctant to believe Mary-Katherine until later after finding a cut window screen. Elizabeth’s father later that morning went on news notifying the country of his daughter’s abduction.

Elizabeth was held captive for nine months by Brian D. “Emmanuel” Mitchell, a former employee of the Smarts, and his wife Wanda Lleen Barzee. Mitchell professed himself as a prophet of God and minister to the homeless. He later stated that he kidnapped Elizabeth to become his second wife, and held her tied to a tree in Arlington Hills for some time before moving her to California.

Nine months after her abduction in Salt Lake City, a biker who had recently seen the episode about Elizabeth Smart on America’s Most Wanted spotted her, Mitchell, and his wife in Sandy, Utah and notified police. After being questioned, it was quickly determined that the child was Elizabeth Smart and Mitchell and Barzee were arrested.  

Mitchell and Barzee first plead incompetent to stand trial in 2004, but were later deemed competent, found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years in jail in 2009.