Elizabeth Smart kidnapping
Encyclopedia
The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart occurred on June 5, 2002, when 14-year-old American girl Elizabeth Smart was abducted
from her Salt Lake City, Utah
, bedroom. Smart was found alive nine months later on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah
, about 18 miles from her home, in the company of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee, who were indicted for her kidnapping
, but initially ruled unfit to stand trial. Barzee, in 2009, and Mitchell, in 2010, were eventually convicted. Her abduction and recovery were widely reported and were the subject of a made-for-television movie
and a published book. He was held in the Salt Lake County Jail following his sentencing on May 25, 2011. On August 31, he was transferred to federal prison to begin serving a life sentence for his crimes.
with their six children. On the evening of June 4, 2002, the family attended an award 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. "If the children got up and moved [in the night], it would set the alarm off. And so we just said we’re not going to bother with it," Lois later explained.
In the early hours of the morning, Brian David Mitchell broke into the home and came to the bedroom that Elizabeth shared with her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine. While Mary Katherine pretended to be asleep, she watched the abduction, and later gave these statements as to what happened:
By listening to the creaking floor as Elizabeth and Mitchell walked, Mary Katherine thought she could tell where Mitchell and Elizabeth were. So when it seemed safe, Mary Katherine hopped out of bed to tell her parents. But she froze in terror when she nearly ran into Mitchell and Elizabeth as they seemed to be looking into her brothers' bedroom. Fearful that she had been spotted by the abductor, she crept back into her bed. "I thought, you know, be quiet, because if he hears you, he might take you too, and you're the only person who has seen this," Mary Katherine said in a later interview. "I was, like, shaking." She hid for an undetermined amount of time. Investigators later concluded that she may have been hiding over two hours before she felt safe enough to come out.
Just before 4 a.m., Mary Katherine came to her parents' bedroom and woke them up. She told them Elizabeth was gone, but her parents thought she was having a bad dream. Ed went from room to room, and didn’t find her. Mary Katherine told him, "You’re not going to find her. A man came and took her. He had a gun." Still, the parents found this hard to believe until Lois spotted a screen window downstairs that had been cut with a knife.
That morning, Ed went on television and asked the kidnapper to return his daughter. A massive search for Elizabeth began.
According to Smart's October 1, 2009 US federal court testimony, after Smart had gone to bed on June 4, 2002, a man Smart identified as Brian Mitchell had entered her bedroom and had "placed his hand on my chest and then put the knife up to my neck. He told me to get up quietly and if I didn't then he would kill me and my family. He was whispering, but it was still loud enough it could wake someone. He was dressed in sweats, sweatshirt, stocking cap, tennis shoes." After Smart had been led to Mitchell's camp in the woods, a woman Smart identified as Wanda 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."
It was later revealed during court testimony that Mitchell repeatedly raped Smart, sometimes multiple times daily and forced her to watch pornographic films. He often forced her to drink alcohol to lower her resistance. Once, when she vomited after drinking a large portion of alcohol, she was forced to sleep face-down in the vomit.
, looked for Elizabeth in the days immediately 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. Word spread quickly as an impromptu coalition of websites facilitated the distribution of information about Elizabeth Smart with flyers that could be downloaded for printing or immediately circulated online by email or Internet fax. Volunteers combed the hills near her family's home and extended the search using search dogs and aircraft. After many days of intensive searching, the community-led search was closed by the local volunteers and efforts were directed to other means of finding Elizabeth.
Although police had an eyewitness, Mary Katherine's report was not very helpful to investigators. Furthermore, there was almost no significant forensic evidence such as clear fingerprint
s or DNA
samples to help identify the abductor, hindering the investigation. A search using bloodhound dogs was unsuccessful in following Mitchell and Elizabeth's path on foot. Police questioned and interviewed hundreds of potential suspects including one individual, Bret Michael Edmunds, a 26-year-old drifter who was pursued across the country but ultimately was cleared of suspicion in the case after being located in a West Virginia hospital suffering from a drug overdose. One by one, the leads that were pursued often put at-large criminals back in prison, but they did not produce the desired result of finding Elizabeth.
Ultimately, the Salt Lake City police signaled that their prime person of interest was Richard Ricci, being held in custody for unrelated reasons. Ricci, a handyman hired by the Smarts, was on parole for a 1983 attempted murder of police officer Mike Hill. He was charged with felony burglaries of homes in the area similar in circumstances to the break-in at the Smarts. Ricci later died in jail from a brain hemorrhage a few weeks after he refused to provide a confession to Utah corrections officers. With his death, it seemed that all leads were exhausted. Upon discovery of the actual kidnappers, Ricci's widow issued a statement expressing relief at Smart's safe return and her husband's innocence.
The Smarts and their extended family persistently maintained a presence in the local and national media, in order to keep Elizabeth's name in the press, providing the media with home videos of her as a teenager and as a child, and created a website to serve as a resource center.
After several months, a breakthrough came in October 2002, when Mary Katherine suddenly remembered where she had heard Mitchell's voice, telling her parents "I think I know who it is: Emmanuel."
The Smarts sought to help unemployed people in the community by paying them for odd jobs or handy work around the property. Mitchell, who called himself "Emmanuel", had been the one who informed many homeless people that the Smarts would hire them, and also worked for them himself one day. He worked at the Smarts' home for five hours, helping on the roof and raking leaves. He was clean, soft-spoken, well-groomed, caucasian, 5'8″ tall, with dark hair, and was "about 45 years old". It seemed clear that "Emmanuel" was not his real name, but had something to do with his self-proclaimed calling as a prophet of God and minister to the homeless. Lois and some of the children had met him downtown as he was asking for spare change.
Mary Katherine now identified "Emmanuel"/Mitchell as the man who had abducted her sister. When this was reported to the police, they had doubts as to its reliability. Mary Katherine had barely heard the suspect's quiet voice and for only a few minutes, and had just come out of a sleep. When it was reported several months later that she thought it was the voice of a man she had only met briefly and more than a year before, the police did not consider it a worthy lead.
Tensions developed as the parents accused the police of not thoroughly following up on this lead. The family used the services of sketch artist Dalene Nielson to draw "Emmanuel's" face from memory. In February, this drawing was released to the media, with the assistance of John Walsh
, who revealed it in an appearance on Larry King Live
and on his own series, America's Most Wanted
. The drawing was recognized by Emmanuel's family, who reported his actual name, Brian David Mitchell, to the police, and provided them with contemporary photographs of Mitchell.
On March 12, 2003, just over nine months after the abduction, Mitchell, who was now wanted by police for questioning, was spotted traveling with two companions in Sandy
, Utah
, by an alert biker who had heard of the kidnapping on America's Most Wanted
the night before, and alerted police. The companions were Elizabeth Smart—disguised in a gray wig, sunglasses, and veil — and Wanda Ileen Barzee. Smart was finally recognized by the officers during questioning, and was promptly reunited with her family. Mitchell and Barzee were taken into custody as suspected kidnappers.
by a Utah grand jury. Mitchell's trial on these charges was initially postponed following a court ruling that he was not mentally competent
to stand trial.
For several months, Mitchell and Barzee were held on US$10 million bond awaiting the outcome of mental competency tests. Prosecutors said that Mitchell and Barzee kidnapped Elizabeth to be Mitchell's "second wife
", held her against her will in the foothills near Arlington Hills until October 8, and then took her to California
, where they stayed until March 5.
In January 2004, Barzee was found incompetent to stand trial on charges including kidnapping
, sexual assault
, and burglary
. On July 26, 2005, Mitchell was also found incompetent to stand trial, facing the same charges. A district judge ordered him held until he was deemed fit for trial. Barzee's condition had not improved since she was found incompetent to stand trial. Barzee also refused to take medication "that might restore her mental competence."
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.
In early October 2009, a third competency trial for Mitchell was underway, with Elizabeth Smart testifying. As Mitchell’s third competency hearing moved forward, both Mitchell and Barzee remained incarcerated at Utah State Hospital
(a psychiatric hospital
), where Barzee was still being medicated until she was competent to stand trial.
Most recently, the U.S. Attorney's Office retained Dr. Michael Welner
, a noted forensic psychiatrist
and the chairman of The Forensic Panel in New York City, to address questions related to Mitchell’s competency to stand trial. The report written by Dr. Welner, which exceeded 200 pages in length, had provoked objections from the defense as well as motions to exclude witnesses. However, on November 16, 2009, U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball denied the motions of the defense, ruling that Dr. Welner’s methodology on the case "represents the best practices in forensic psychiatry and psychology".
On November 17, 2009, Wanda Barzee, the wife of Elizabeth Smart's captor, was sentenced to 15 years for her role in the kidnapping. Her husband, the captor, was still considered as unfit to stand trial. However, on December 1, 2009 a psychiatric nurse who observed Brian David Mitchell stated she believes Mitchell has faked psychiatric symptoms and behaviors to avoid prosecution and remain at a state hospital.
Barzee is currently serving her 15-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell
in Texas
, which holds female inmates in need of special medical and mental health services; she is scheduled for release in 2016.
to stand trial revolved around his revelation
s and whether in following them made him incompetent and/or insane. In the federal trial his insanity defense was based on his propensity to receive revelations from God, as he claims, and then to act out according to what he is told by those revelations, something which met the standard for an insanity defense according to his lawyers. However other people, especially Elizabeth Smart and Wanda Barzee as well as other lay witnesses, testified that Mitchell used these so called revelations only to manipulate others and for self gratification.
Utah State Competency Hearing
Mitchell was declared incompetent to stand trial by Salt Lake City District Judge Judy Atherton on July 26, 2005, who ordered he be retained until he becomes competent to stand trial. The ruling was based on expert psychological reports, mainly from Dr Jennifer Skeem, who found Mitchell to be a paranoid schizophrenic with little grasp of reality who could not rationally assist counsel in preparing a defense nor did he understand the legal proceedings against him. The same Judge rejected forcibly medicating Mitchell due to the reported low probability of a positive outcome. Mitchell was committed to a psychiatric prison hospital in Salt Lake City. He was again found "incompetent to stand trial" on December 18, 2006.
Federal District Court Competency Hearing
In 2008 US Attorney Brett Tolman
commenced federal proceedings to prove Mitchell's competency to stand trial before the statutes of limitations expired for a federal kidnapping case. His strategy was based on both expert witness testimony, mainly from New York forensic psychiatrist
Michael Welner, an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and chairman of The Forensic Panel, plus many lay witnesses including Elizabeth Smart and staffers who attended to Michell in the State Hospital
. The use of lay witnesses testifying as to his competence was a new legal strategy utilized in hearings to determine competence and has established a precedent. Several defense motions to stop lay witnesses testifying and to move the trial outside of Utah were rejected. The hearing commenced in October 2009, with Smart giving early testimony, and continued throughout November and December 2009.
The mental health professionals who found Mitchell incompetent (over time) include: Richart DeMier, a court appointed forensic psychologist from the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, who said Mitchell was not making rational decisions about his criminal defense and specifically stated, "If he believes he's going to be miraculously delivered from prison by God in two years time, that's not a rational thought process." He concluded that Mitchell is a paranoid schizophrenic who is incompetent partly due to Mitchell's belief "that he is divinely ordained to fulfill a special role at the end of the world, putting himself on par with Jesus or God"; Dr. Paul Whitehead, a Utah State Hospital psychologist, who found him incompetent in 2005 diagnosing him with a delusional disorder; forensic psychologist Stephen Golding
, who concluded Mitchell to have a delusional disorder
with deviant sexual behavior and paranoia
; and Dr Jennifer Skeem, a psychology professor from the University of California-Irvine who found Mitchell incompetent to stand trial for the Utah state process in 2004, finding that he has a rare delusional disorder
. She wrote in her 2004 report for Judge Atherton that Mitchell believes that "he would be held in jail for seven years until a day of judgment when he would be rescued by God and reunited with Smart and his now-estranged wife, Wanda Barzee" which would be during 2010, counting from the time of Mitchell's arrest.
Michael Welner
, a psychiatrist from New York City, found Mitchell competent to stand trial, finding that he suffers from a range of disorders, including pedophilia
, anti-social
and narcissistic personality disorders, but that he was neither psychotic nor delusion
al. Dr Welner was critical of other mental health professionals who did not research the level of acceptance and the roles played by revelations, prophets and prophesies in religions of the Latter Day Saints movements or Mormonism
which Mitchell was a part of. His conclusions included the fact that Mitchell can control situations and that "Lust trumped religion" for Mitchell. He also noted that Mitchell is used to operating in a parallel world of concealment and obfuscation just as most polygamist breakaway groups from the modern LDS church do. In his conclusions, he also compared Mitchell's behavior to that of pedophile Catholic priests who "routinely and dramatically distort their relationship with God" to justify their sexual acts.
In this third competency hearing, this time before Judge
Dale Kimball of the U.S. Federal Court for the District of Utah
, Mitchell was found competent to stand trial on March 1, 2010, with Kimball's describing Mitchell as an "effectively misleading psychopath" who has manipulated people into thinking him incompetent.
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 lay witnesses were called covering Mitchell's alleged sanity and his alleged insanity. The defense relied most of all on the testimony of two mental health professionals, Dr. Paul Whitehead and Dr. Richard DeMier. Dr. Whitehead is the clinical director of the forensic unit at the Utah State Hospital
and studied Mitchell extensively since his arrest in 2003 and concluded that Mitchell suffered from a delusional disorder which made him both incompetent to stand trial and not responsible for his crimes. Dr. DeMier testified that Mitchell suffers from both grandiose and paranoid delusions which he characterized as bizarre however he offered no opinion as to what Mitchell's mental health was at the time of the crimes between 2002 to 2003 because he only analysed his mental state as of 2008.
Prosecutors presented many lay witnesses for rebuttal to the insanity defense. A total of seven lay witnesses were called to testify on December 3, 2010 regarding Mitchell's cruelty and religious beliefs including his two former step daughters who testified that Mitchell abused them long before he claimed to be "Immanuel" or a prophet. Also testifying was a former Mormon missionary who said that he met and spoke to Mitchell in San Diego during the time he had Elizabeth Smart with him describing Mitchell as very well behaved and very polite. A US Marshal who escorted Mitchell into the courtroom each day testified that Mitchell only sings inside the court room. The officer also said that Mitchell spent his time in the nearby holding cell following proceedings, napping or exercising. Mitchell's behavior outside the courtroom changed only when his wife Wanda Barzee testified with Mitchell standing as close as possible to the monitor, not moving during the duration of her time on the stand.
Then a Utah psychiatrist, Dr. Noel Gardner, testified during five hours that he disagreed with defense experts and claimed that Mitchell is not delusional nor sincere in his religious beliefs and was only a pedophile. Gardner evaluated Mitchell in 2003 and found him to have narcissistic personality disorder but was competent for trial. The prosecutions last witness was Dr Welner, a forensic psychiatrist from New York City, who spent more than 1,600 hours working on a report on Mitchell, and charged the U.S Attorney's Office nearly $750,000 for all his work. His 206-page report is believed to be the most extensive study of Mitchell to date and lists 210 sources of information, including interviews with Smart and Mitchell's estranged wife, Wanda Barzee. Dr Welner testified that Mitchell does not suffer from a mental illness, but rather pedophilia, anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder adding that to know Brian Mitchell is to be fooled by Brian Mitchell. Amongst other things he testified that Mitchell would abandon his revelations when it suited him which showed they weren't sincere and that Mitchell used blessings to control his wife and used threats and force as a way to control Elizabeth Smart. He noted that although Mitchell could repent for not following his own revelations, Wanda could not and would be eternally damned if she disobeyed him.
The defense then called as its rebuttal witness a third forensic psychologist Dr. Stephen Golding, an emeritus professor at the University of Utah, who rejected most of Dr. Welner's testimony and disputed several point by point arguments made earlier by the prosecution's expert witnesses. He stated that a study Dr. Welner used did not have enough scientific backing to be considered reliable. He also stated that delusions can wane and vary over time so it was irrelevant what Mitchel's behavior was during isolated incidents. He was also critical of Dr. Welner for claiming that Mitchell's ability to learn chess whilst in custody was proof of a non-delusional mind, claiming that the thought was simply a myth and not backed up by any research.
However the jury ended up deliberating for only about five hours, a relatively short time given the amount of evidence they needed to cover, rejected the insanity plea and returned guilty verdicts on both counts early on Friday, December 10, 2010.
On May 25, 2011, Judge Dale Kimball sentenced Mitchell to life in prison. Mitchell is currently serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson
, a high security federal prison
.
, 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. Elizabeth disclosed that Mitchell forced her to keep a diary and to write in it daily. She knew he would read the entries she made, so she wrote such things as: "I like it here. They are nice to me." But below the entries in English, she wrote in French things such as: "I hate it here. I hate them. I want to be back with my family."
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 burqa
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 then gave a non-apology apology
, but did not pursue further questioning about the incident.
Elizabeth also revealed that after her experience, she has more compassion for the homeless. Asked if she felt sorry for her captors, she stated that she was not referring to them and that they were homeless by choice and she had no compassion for their condition or what they did to her. But she went on to say, "It's hard to be cold. It's hard to not have enough to eat."
Smart appeared on the E! network program "Young, Beautiful & Vanished: 15 Unthinkable Crimes" in 2009, speaking briefly about her time in captivity and her return home.
The Elizabeth Smart Story that aired November 9, 2003 on CBS
. The Smarts claimed they wanted to avoid subjecting their daughter to the limelight, but that after realizing it was inevitable, they decided it would be preferable to allow a film authorized by them to be created, rather than allowing an unauthorized version to surface.
A lawyer for Mitchell said the national broadcast of the television film would further delay justice and considered filing a motion. The piece characterizes Mitchell and Barzee as deranged religious zealots, and provides no background on either of them. 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, criticizing the investigation process by the Salt Lake City Police Department, as well as noting the media influences that led to her successful recovery.
Multimedia
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
from her Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
, bedroom. Smart was found alive nine months later on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah
Sandy, Utah
Sandy is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is a suburb of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah....
, about 18 miles from her home, in the company of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee, who were indicted for her kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, but initially ruled unfit to stand trial. Barzee, in 2009, and Mitchell, in 2010, were eventually convicted. Her abduction and recovery were widely reported and were the subject of a made-for-television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
and a published book. He was held in the Salt Lake County Jail following his sentencing on May 25, 2011. On August 31, he was transferred to federal prison to begin serving a life sentence for his crimes.
Abduction
Ed and Lois Smart resided in the affluent neighborhood of Federal Heights in Salt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
with their six children. On the evening of June 4, 2002, the family attended an award 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. "If the children got up and moved [in the night], it would set the alarm off. And so we just said we’re not going to bother with it," Lois later explained.
In the early hours of the morning, Brian David Mitchell broke into the home and came to the bedroom that Elizabeth shared with her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine. While Mary Katherine pretended to be asleep, she watched the abduction, and later gave these statements as to what happened:
- A white man about the height of her brother Charles (5 ft 8 in) 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 49.)
- He had dark hair, and also dark hair on his arms and on the back of his hands.
- The man threatened Elizabeth with a knife.
- 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 couldn’t 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.
By listening to the creaking floor as Elizabeth and Mitchell walked, Mary Katherine thought she could tell where Mitchell and Elizabeth were. So when it seemed safe, Mary Katherine hopped out of bed to tell her parents. But she froze in terror when she nearly ran into Mitchell and Elizabeth as they seemed to be looking into her brothers' bedroom. Fearful that she had been spotted by the abductor, she crept back into her bed. "I thought, you know, be quiet, because if he hears you, he might take you too, and you're the only person who has seen this," Mary Katherine said in a later interview. "I was, like, shaking." She hid for an undetermined amount of time. Investigators later concluded that she may have been hiding over two hours before she felt safe enough to come out.
Just before 4 a.m., Mary Katherine came to her parents' bedroom and woke them up. She told them Elizabeth was gone, but her parents thought she was having a bad dream. Ed went from room to room, and didn’t find her. Mary Katherine told him, "You’re not going to find her. A man came and took her. He had a gun." Still, the parents found this hard to believe until Lois spotted a screen window downstairs that had been cut with a knife.
That morning, Ed went on television and asked the kidnapper to return his daughter. A massive search for Elizabeth began.
According to Smart's October 1, 2009 US federal court testimony, after Smart had gone to bed on June 4, 2002, a man Smart identified as Brian Mitchell had entered her bedroom and had "placed his hand on my chest and then put the knife up to my neck. He told me to get up quietly and if I didn't then he would kill me and my family. He was whispering, but it was still loud enough it could wake someone. He was dressed in sweats, sweatshirt, stocking cap, tennis shoes." After Smart had been led to Mitchell's camp in the woods, a woman Smart identified as Wanda 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."
It was later revealed during court testimony that Mitchell repeatedly raped Smart, sometimes multiple times daily and forced her to watch pornographic films. He often forced her to drink alcohol to lower her resistance. Once, when she vomited after drinking a large portion of alcohol, she was forced to sleep face-down in the vomit.
Search and investigation
A massive regional search effort, organized by the Laura Recovery CenterLaura Recovery Center
The Laura Recovery Center exists to prevent abductions and runaways and to recover missing children by fostering a Triangle of Trust among law enforcement, communities and a missing child's families. The center is headquartered in Friendswood, Texas, United States...
, looked for Elizabeth in the days immediately 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. Word spread quickly as an impromptu coalition of websites facilitated the distribution of information about Elizabeth Smart with flyers that could be downloaded for printing or immediately circulated online by email or Internet fax. Volunteers combed the hills near her family's home and extended the search using search dogs and aircraft. After many days of intensive searching, the community-led search was closed by the local volunteers and efforts were directed to other means of finding Elizabeth.
Although police had an eyewitness, Mary Katherine's report was not very helpful to investigators. Furthermore, there was almost no significant forensic evidence such as clear fingerprint
Fingerprint
A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...
s or DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
samples to help identify the abductor, hindering the investigation. A search using bloodhound dogs was unsuccessful in following Mitchell and Elizabeth's path on foot. Police questioned and interviewed hundreds of potential suspects including one individual, Bret Michael Edmunds, a 26-year-old drifter who was pursued across the country but ultimately was cleared of suspicion in the case after being located in a West Virginia hospital suffering from a drug overdose. One by one, the leads that were pursued often put at-large criminals back in prison, but they did not produce the desired result of finding Elizabeth.
Ultimately, the Salt Lake City police signaled that their prime person of interest was Richard Ricci, being held in custody for unrelated reasons. Ricci, a handyman hired by the Smarts, was on parole for a 1983 attempted murder of police officer Mike Hill. He was charged with felony burglaries of homes in the area similar in circumstances to the break-in at the Smarts. Ricci later died in jail from a brain hemorrhage a few weeks after he refused to provide a confession to Utah corrections officers. With his death, it seemed that all leads were exhausted. Upon discovery of the actual kidnappers, Ricci's widow issued a statement expressing relief at Smart's safe return and her husband's innocence.
The Smarts and their extended family persistently maintained a presence in the local and national media, in order to keep Elizabeth's name in the press, providing the media with home videos of her as a teenager and as a child, and created a website to serve as a resource center.
After several months, a breakthrough came in October 2002, when Mary Katherine suddenly remembered where she had heard Mitchell's voice, telling her parents "I think I know who it is: Emmanuel."
The Smarts sought to help unemployed people in the community by paying them for odd jobs or handy work around the property. Mitchell, who called himself "Emmanuel", had been the one who informed many homeless people that the Smarts would hire them, and also worked for them himself one day. He worked at the Smarts' home for five hours, helping on the roof and raking leaves. He was clean, soft-spoken, well-groomed, caucasian, 5'8″ tall, with dark hair, and was "about 45 years old". It seemed clear that "Emmanuel" was not his real name, but had something to do with his self-proclaimed calling as a prophet of God and minister to the homeless. Lois and some of the children had met him downtown as he was asking for spare change.
Mary Katherine now identified "Emmanuel"/Mitchell as the man who had abducted her sister. When this was reported to the police, they had doubts as to its reliability. Mary Katherine had barely heard the suspect's quiet voice and for only a few minutes, and had just come out of a sleep. When it was reported several months later that she thought it was the voice of a man she had only met briefly and more than a year before, the police did not consider it a worthy lead.
Tensions developed as the parents accused the police of not thoroughly following up on this lead. The family used the services of sketch artist Dalene Nielson to draw "Emmanuel's" face from memory. In February, this drawing was released to the media, with the assistance of John Walsh
John Walsh
John Edward Walsh is an American television personality, criminal investigator, human and victim rights advocate and formerly the host, as well as creator, of America's Most Wanted...
, who revealed it in an appearance on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
and on his own series, America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
. The drawing was recognized by Emmanuel's family, who reported his actual name, Brian David Mitchell, to the police, and provided them with contemporary photographs of Mitchell.
On March 12, 2003, just over nine months after the abduction, Mitchell, who was now wanted by police for questioning, was spotted traveling with two companions in Sandy
Sandy, Utah
Sandy is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is a suburb of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah....
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, by an alert biker who had heard of the kidnapping on America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
the night before, and alerted police. The companions were Elizabeth Smart—disguised in a gray wig, sunglasses, and veil — and Wanda Ileen Barzee. Smart was finally recognized by the officers during questioning, and was promptly reunited with her family. Mitchell and Barzee were taken into custody as suspected kidnappers.
Legal proceedings
Brian David Mitchell, (born October 18, 1953) and his wife Wanda Ileen Barzee were indictedIndictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
by a Utah grand jury. Mitchell's trial on these charges was initially postponed following a court ruling that he was not mentally competent
Competence (law)
In American law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings. Defendants that do not possess sufficient "competence" are usually excluded from criminal prosecution, while witnesses found not to possess requisite competence cannot testify...
to stand trial.
For several months, Mitchell and Barzee were held on US$10 million bond awaiting the outcome of mental competency tests. Prosecutors said that Mitchell and Barzee kidnapped Elizabeth to be Mitchell's "second wife
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
", held her against her will in the foothills near Arlington Hills until October 8, and then took her to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where they stayed until March 5.
In January 2004, Barzee was found incompetent to stand trial on charges including kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, sexual assault
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
, and burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
. On July 26, 2005, Mitchell was also found incompetent to stand trial, facing the same charges. A district judge ordered him held until he was deemed fit for trial. Barzee's condition had not improved since she was found incompetent to stand trial. Barzee also refused to take medication "that might restore her mental competence."
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
Sell v. United States
Sell v. United States, is a landmark decision in which the United States Supreme Court imposed stringent limits on the right of a lower court to order the forcible administration of antipsychotic medication to a criminal defendant who had been determined to be incompetent to stand trial for the...
(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.
In early October 2009, a third competency trial for Mitchell was underway, with Elizabeth Smart testifying. As Mitchell’s third competency hearing moved forward, both Mitchell and Barzee remained incarcerated at Utah State Hospital
Utah State Hospital
The Utah State Hospital is a mental hospital located in Provo, Utah, United States of America. The current Superintendent is Dallas Earnshaw.-History:...
(a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
), where Barzee was still being medicated until she was competent to stand trial.
Most recently, the U.S. Attorney's Office retained Dr. Michael Welner
Michael Welner
Michael Mark Welner, M.D., is an American Forensic Psychiatrist. He is founder and Chairman of The Forensic Panel, a forensic science practice, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Law Duquesne University School of Law...
, a noted forensic psychiatrist
Forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry is a sub-speciality of psychiatry and an auxiliar science of criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry...
and the chairman of The Forensic Panel in New York City, to address questions related to Mitchell’s competency to stand trial. The report written by Dr. Welner, which exceeded 200 pages in length, had provoked objections from the defense as well as motions to exclude witnesses. However, on November 16, 2009, U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball denied the motions of the defense, ruling that Dr. Welner’s methodology on the case "represents the best practices in forensic psychiatry and psychology".
On November 17, 2009, Wanda Barzee, the wife of Elizabeth Smart's captor, was sentenced to 15 years for her role in the kidnapping. Her husband, the captor, was still considered as unfit to stand trial. However, on December 1, 2009 a psychiatric nurse who observed Brian David Mitchell stated she believes Mitchell has faked psychiatric symptoms and behaviors to avoid prosecution and remain at a state hospital.
Barzee is currently serving her 15-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
The Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, is a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility that provides specialized medical and mental health services to female offenders. FMC Carswell is located in the northeast corner of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth . Its address is...
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, which holds female inmates in need of special medical and mental health services; she is scheduled for release in 2016.
Competency hearings and conflicting medical opinions
The issues surrounding Brian David Mitchell's competenceCompetence (law)
In American law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings. Defendants that do not possess sufficient "competence" are usually excluded from criminal prosecution, while witnesses found not to possess requisite competence cannot testify...
to stand trial revolved around his revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
s and whether in following them made him incompetent and/or insane. In the federal trial his insanity defense was based on his propensity to receive revelations from God, as he claims, and then to act out according to what he is told by those revelations, something which met the standard for an insanity defense according to his lawyers. However other people, especially Elizabeth Smart and Wanda Barzee as well as other lay witnesses, testified that Mitchell used these so called revelations only to manipulate others and for self gratification.
Utah State Competency Hearing
Mitchell was declared incompetent to stand trial by Salt Lake City District Judge Judy Atherton on July 26, 2005, who ordered he be retained until he becomes competent to stand trial. The ruling was based on expert psychological reports, mainly from Dr Jennifer Skeem, who found Mitchell to be a paranoid schizophrenic with little grasp of reality who could not rationally assist counsel in preparing a defense nor did he understand the legal proceedings against him. The same Judge rejected forcibly medicating Mitchell due to the reported low probability of a positive outcome. Mitchell was committed to a psychiatric prison hospital in Salt Lake City. He was again found "incompetent to stand trial" on December 18, 2006.
Federal District Court Competency Hearing
In 2008 US Attorney Brett Tolman
Brett Tolman
Brett Tolman was the United States Attorney for the District of Utah from July 2006 to December 2009. Before becoming U.S. Attorney, Tolman worked as counsel in the Senate Judiciary Committee for committee chairs Orrin Hatch and then Arlen Specter during the 109th United States Congress...
commenced federal proceedings to prove Mitchell's competency to stand trial before the statutes of limitations expired for a federal kidnapping case. His strategy was based on both expert witness testimony, mainly from New York forensic psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Michael Welner, an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine and chairman of The Forensic Panel, plus many lay witnesses including Elizabeth Smart and staffers who attended to Michell in the State Hospital
Utah State Hospital
The Utah State Hospital is a mental hospital located in Provo, Utah, United States of America. The current Superintendent is Dallas Earnshaw.-History:...
. The use of lay witnesses testifying as to his competence was a new legal strategy utilized in hearings to determine competence and has established a precedent. Several defense motions to stop lay witnesses testifying and to move the trial outside of Utah were rejected. The hearing commenced in October 2009, with Smart giving early testimony, and continued throughout November and December 2009.
The mental health professionals who found Mitchell incompetent (over time) include: Richart DeMier, a court appointed forensic psychologist from the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, who said Mitchell was not making rational decisions about his criminal defense and specifically stated, "If he believes he's going to be miraculously delivered from prison by God in two years time, that's not a rational thought process." He concluded that Mitchell is a paranoid schizophrenic who is incompetent partly due to Mitchell's belief "that he is divinely ordained to fulfill a special role at the end of the world, putting himself on par with Jesus or God"; Dr. Paul Whitehead, a Utah State Hospital psychologist, who found him incompetent in 2005 diagnosing him with a delusional disorder; forensic psychologist Stephen Golding
Stephen L. Golding
Stephen L. Golding is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Utah and a forensic psychologist who has written a large amount of articles on the process of determining whether people are competent to stand trial....
, who concluded Mitchell to have a delusional disorder
Delusional disorder
Delusional disorder is an uncommon psychiatric condition in which patients present with circumscribed symptoms of non-bizarre delusions, but with the absence of prominent hallucinations and no thought disorder, mood disorder, or significant flattening of affect...
with deviant sexual behavior and paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
; and Dr Jennifer Skeem, a psychology professor from the University of California-Irvine who found Mitchell incompetent to stand trial for the Utah state process in 2004, finding that he has a rare delusional disorder
Delusional disorder
Delusional disorder is an uncommon psychiatric condition in which patients present with circumscribed symptoms of non-bizarre delusions, but with the absence of prominent hallucinations and no thought disorder, mood disorder, or significant flattening of affect...
. She wrote in her 2004 report for Judge Atherton that Mitchell believes that "he would be held in jail for seven years until a day of judgment when he would be rescued by God and reunited with Smart and his now-estranged wife, Wanda Barzee" which would be during 2010, counting from the time of Mitchell's arrest.
Michael Welner
Michael Welner
Michael Mark Welner, M.D., is an American Forensic Psychiatrist. He is founder and Chairman of The Forensic Panel, a forensic science practice, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Law Duquesne University School of Law...
, a psychiatrist from New York City, found Mitchell competent to stand trial, finding that he suffers from a range of disorders, including pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
, anti-social
Anti-social behaviour
Anti-social behaviour is behaviour that lacks consideration for others and that may cause damage to society, whether intentionally or through negligence, as opposed to pro-social behaviour, behaviour that helps or benefits society...
and narcissistic personality disorders, but that he was neither psychotic nor delusion
Delusion
A delusion is a false belief held with absolute conviction despite superior evidence. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological...
al. Dr Welner was critical of other mental health professionals who did not research the level of acceptance and the roles played by revelations, prophets and prophesies in religions of the Latter Day Saints movements or Mormonism
Mormonism
Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...
which Mitchell was a part of. His conclusions included the fact that Mitchell can control situations and that "Lust trumped religion" for Mitchell. He also noted that Mitchell is used to operating in a parallel world of concealment and obfuscation just as most polygamist breakaway groups from the modern LDS church do. In his conclusions, he also compared Mitchell's behavior to that of pedophile Catholic priests who "routinely and dramatically distort their relationship with God" to justify their sexual acts.
In this third competency hearing, this time before Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Dale Kimball of the U.S. Federal Court for the District of Utah
United States District Court for the District of Utah
The United States District Court for the District of Utah is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Utah...
, Mitchell was found competent to stand trial on March 1, 2010, with Kimball's describing Mitchell as an "effectively misleading psychopath" who has manipulated people into thinking him incompetent.
2010 federal court 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 lay witnesses were called covering Mitchell's alleged sanity and his alleged insanity. The defense relied most of all on the testimony of two mental health professionals, Dr. Paul Whitehead and Dr. Richard DeMier. Dr. Whitehead is the clinical director of the forensic unit at the Utah State Hospital
Utah State Hospital
The Utah State Hospital is a mental hospital located in Provo, Utah, United States of America. The current Superintendent is Dallas Earnshaw.-History:...
and studied Mitchell extensively since his arrest in 2003 and concluded that Mitchell suffered from a delusional disorder which made him both incompetent to stand trial and not responsible for his crimes. Dr. DeMier testified that Mitchell suffers from both grandiose and paranoid delusions which he characterized as bizarre however he offered no opinion as to what Mitchell's mental health was at the time of the crimes between 2002 to 2003 because he only analysed his mental state as of 2008.
Prosecutors presented many lay witnesses for rebuttal to the insanity defense. A total of seven lay witnesses were called to testify on December 3, 2010 regarding Mitchell's cruelty and religious beliefs including his two former step daughters who testified that Mitchell abused them long before he claimed to be "Immanuel" or a prophet. Also testifying was a former Mormon missionary who said that he met and spoke to Mitchell in San Diego during the time he had Elizabeth Smart with him describing Mitchell as very well behaved and very polite. A US Marshal who escorted Mitchell into the courtroom each day testified that Mitchell only sings inside the court room. The officer also said that Mitchell spent his time in the nearby holding cell following proceedings, napping or exercising. Mitchell's behavior outside the courtroom changed only when his wife Wanda Barzee testified with Mitchell standing as close as possible to the monitor, not moving during the duration of her time on the stand.
Then a Utah psychiatrist, Dr. Noel Gardner, testified during five hours that he disagreed with defense experts and claimed that Mitchell is not delusional nor sincere in his religious beliefs and was only a pedophile. Gardner evaluated Mitchell in 2003 and found him to have narcissistic personality disorder but was competent for trial. The prosecutions last witness was Dr Welner, a forensic psychiatrist from New York City, who spent more than 1,600 hours working on a report on Mitchell, and charged the U.S Attorney's Office nearly $750,000 for all his work. His 206-page report is believed to be the most extensive study of Mitchell to date and lists 210 sources of information, including interviews with Smart and Mitchell's estranged wife, Wanda Barzee. Dr Welner testified that Mitchell does not suffer from a mental illness, but rather pedophilia, anti-social personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder adding that to know Brian Mitchell is to be fooled by Brian Mitchell. Amongst other things he testified that Mitchell would abandon his revelations when it suited him which showed they weren't sincere and that Mitchell used blessings to control his wife and used threats and force as a way to control Elizabeth Smart. He noted that although Mitchell could repent for not following his own revelations, Wanda could not and would be eternally damned if she disobeyed him.
The defense then called as its rebuttal witness a third forensic psychologist Dr. Stephen Golding, an emeritus professor at the University of Utah, who rejected most of Dr. Welner's testimony and disputed several point by point arguments made earlier by the prosecution's expert witnesses. He stated that a study Dr. Welner used did not have enough scientific backing to be considered reliable. He also stated that delusions can wane and vary over time so it was irrelevant what Mitchel's behavior was during isolated incidents. He was also critical of Dr. Welner for claiming that Mitchell's ability to learn chess whilst in custody was proof of a non-delusional mind, claiming that the thought was simply a myth and not backed up by any research.
However the jury ended up deliberating for only about five hours, a relatively short time given the amount of evidence they needed to cover, rejected the insanity plea and returned guilty verdicts on both counts early on Friday, December 10, 2010.
On May 25, 2011, Judge Dale Kimball sentenced Mitchell to life in prison. Mitchell is currently serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson
United States Penitentiary, Tucson
United States Penitentiary, Tucson is a prison operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons located in Tucson, Arizona. Located southeast of Downtown Tucson near Interstate 10 and Wilmot Road, the institution is part of a larger Federal Correctional Complex that includes Federal Correctional...
, a high security federal prison
Federal prison
Federal prisons are run by national governments in countries where subdivisions of the country also operate prisons.In the United States federal prisons are operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In Canada the Correctional Service of Canada operates federal prisons. Prison sentences in these...
.
Abduction timeline
- June 4, 2002 – 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 taken to a camp in Dry Creek Canyon, the entrance of which is a short distance from the Smart family house, where she is held prisoner.
- June 6, 2002 – Bounty for her return is 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 VirginiaMartinsburg, West VirginiaMartinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
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 Elizabeth's cousin's house.
- 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, CaliforniaLakeside, CaliforniaLakeside is a Census Designated Place in San Diego County, California. The population was 20,648 at the 2010 census, up from 19,560 as of the 2000 census.- History :...
, in San Diego County. - October 12, 2002 – Mary Katherine remembers the voice of the kidnapper as that of the man they knew as "Emmanuel".
- February 3, 2003 – Smart family releases the sketch of the man known as Emmanuel.
- February 12, 2003 – Mitchell is arrested in El Cajon, CaliforniaEl Cajon, California-History:El Cajon is located on the Rancho El Cajon Mexican land grant made in 1845 to María Antonia Estudillo, wife of Miguel Pedrorena. In 1876 Amaziah Lord Knox , a New Englander who had recently moved to California, established a hotel there to serve the growing number of people traveling...
, in San Diego County, for breaking into a church. He was recognized as the criminal wanted in Utah. - February 15, 2003 – America's Most WantedAmerica's Most WantedAmerica's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
features Emmanuel and requests responses. - February 16, 2003 – Mitchell's family steps forward and identifies him as the man known as "Emmanuel".
- February 17, 2003 – Newly published, more recent photographs of Mitchell made available.
- March 5, 2003 – Mitchell, Barzee, and Elizabeth leave San Diego County, CaliforniaSan Diego County, CaliforniaSan Diego County is a large county located in the southwestern corner of the US state of California. Hence, San Diego County is also located in the southwestern corner of the 48 contiguous United States. Its county seat and largest city is San Diego. Its population was about 2,813,835 in the 2000...
. - March 12, 2003 – Elizabeth Smart found alive in the city of Sandy, UtahSandy, UtahSandy is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is a suburb of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah....
. - March 18, 2003 – Mitchell and Barzee 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 NBCDateline NBCDateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
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 life in federal prison for the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart.
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 CouricKatie Couric
Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric is an American journalist and author. She serves as Special Correspondent for ABC News, contributing to ABC World News, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, This Week and primetime news specials...
, 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
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, where Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
questioned the Smarts about the kidnapping. Elizabeth disclosed that Mitchell forced her to keep a diary and to write in it daily. She knew he would read the entries she made, so she wrote such things as: "I like it here. They are nice to me." But below the entries in English, she wrote in French things such as: "I hate it here. I hate them. I want to be back with my family."
In July 2006, legal commentator and television personality Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace
Nancy Ann Grace is an American legal commentator, television host, television journalist, and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a victims' rights standpoint, with an outspoken style that has won her both praise and condemnation...
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 burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
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 then gave a non-apology apology
Non-apology apology
A non-apology apology is a statement in the form of an apology but that is not in fact an apology at all. It is common in both politics and public relations...
, but did not pursue further questioning about the incident.
Elizabeth also revealed that after her experience, she has more compassion for the homeless. Asked if she felt sorry for her captors, she stated that she was not referring to them and that they were homeless by choice and she had no compassion for their condition or what they did to her. But she went on to say, "It's hard to be cold. It's hard to not have enough to eat."
Smart appeared on the E! network program "Young, Beautiful & Vanished: 15 Unthinkable Crimes" in 2009, speaking briefly about her time in captivity and her return home.
Book and film
The Smart family published a book, Bringing Elizabeth Home, which was used as the basis of the television movieTelevision movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
The Elizabeth Smart Story that aired November 9, 2003 on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. The Smarts claimed they wanted to avoid subjecting their daughter to the limelight, but that after realizing it was inevitable, they decided it would be preferable to allow a film authorized by them to be created, rather than allowing an unauthorized version to surface.
A lawyer for Mitchell said the national broadcast of the television film would further delay justice and considered filing a motion. The piece characterizes Mitchell and Barzee as deranged religious zealots, and provides no background on either of them. 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, criticizing the investigation process by the Salt Lake City Police Department, as well as noting the media influences that led to her successful recovery.
See also
Cases of children kept in captivity- List of kidnappings
- Missing white woman syndromeMissing white woman syndromeMissing white woman syndrome or missing pretty girl syndrome is a term used by some media and social critics to describe the seemingly disproportionate degree of coverage in television, radio, newspaper and magazine reporting of a misfortune, most often a missing person case, involving a young,...
External links
- Elizabeth Smart Missing Child Profile at America's Most Wanted
- Brian Mitchell Profile at America's Most Wanted
- Transcript of Elizabeth Smart's 1 October 2009 testimony in US federal court (CBS News)
Multimedia
- NPR's This American Life, episode #286: "MInd Games: The Invisible Girl" – Writer/narrater, Scott Carrier; producer, Ira GlassIra GlassIra Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.- Early life :...
(segment start: 43:30 minutes in podcast)