NEW YORK — There was a moment during her nine months of captivity that Elizabeth Smart, a then-14-year-old kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in 2002, thought she might be rescued. Police had approached her abductors in the local library and asked why the young girl they had with them was wearing a veil to hide her identity and was mute.
One of her abductors, Brian David Mitchell, explained to the officer that he and his wife were"ministers of Christ" and were protecting their daughter for her eventual marriage. Meanwhile, his spouse, Wanda Barzee, gripped Smart's leg under the table to warn her not to speak.Unexpected: The Backstory of Finding Elizabeth Smart and Growing Up in the Culture of an American Religion
"Over the years he had found that the best way to manipulate people was through religion. If someone says, 'That's against my faith'" ... you really gonna push them?" she said."My captors definitely capitalized on that."In an exclusive conversation with ABC News, Smart described the night of her abduction from the childhood bedroom she shared with her sister. Mitchell had appeared at her bed, she said, telling her he had a knife at her neck and to follow her.
Mitchell was convicted of interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor and is currently serving life in prison."Everything that my captors threatened to do to me or wanted to do to me, they did. And nobody was there to protect me," she said.While in captivity, Smart said she fantasized about a dramatic rescue that never happened. Instead, after being taken to California for the winter, the couple returned to Salt Lake City, where police stopped them for questioning.
Mitchell received two life sentences in 2011. Barzee served six years of a 15-year sentence in federal prison and was released in 2018. Conditions of Barzee's release include having no contact with the Smart family, mental health monitoring and registering as a sex offender."The only thing that I could really do is reconsider my family and my children's safety," she said.
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