Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper Wanda Barzee’s family on the Oprah Show. Four of Wanda Barzee’s children appeared on the Oprah show Tuesday to discuss their mother and having Brian David Mitchell as a step-father.
In 2002, Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was kidnapped from her own bed in Salt Lake City. Wanda Eileen Barzee, 63, has already confessed to the kidnapping and has been sentenced. Brian David Mitchell has yet to stand trial.
Elizabeth Smart testified at Brian David Mitchell’s competency hearing in October of 2009. She said she was taken to a remote campsite just a few files from her home. She said that they performed a religious ceremony in which Smart was married to Mitchell, and Barzee washed her feet and dressed her in robes for the ceremony.
Smart testified that Barzee was upset over Mitchell's relationship with Smart. Smart also testified that she was raped 3-4 times a day by Mitchell during the nine months of captivity, except for the time Mitchell was in jail in California for a week when she was held by Barzee. To read more about Elizabeth Smarts testimony, click here.
In 2003, Wanda Eileen Barzee’s mental competency was questioned. She spent time in a Utah State hospital and was ordered by a court to take anti-psychotic medication. Over the past seven years, her competency was been restored and she was deemed by the court as ready to go to trial. For more information on Barzee’s case, click here.
Brian David Mitchell, 56, was charged with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines in 2008. He was arrested in 2003 in connection with the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, and faces a lifetime prison sentence if convicted.
Mitchell’s stepdaughter, LouRee Gaylor, 34, testified that Brian David Mitchell wanted to be recognized as a Mormon prophet and that he was obsessed with his personal habits, that he ate on a rigid schedule and exercised excessively. She also testified that Mitchell had a nice demeanor when he met outsiders, but that he did that to manipulate people.
Gaylor testified that she lived with the Mitchell’s for about two years in the late 1980s and moved out after she learned that they cooked and served her a pet rabbit for dinner once.
Gaylor testified that Mitchell was dominating, used abusive language, showed inappropriate sexual behavior, and showed pornographic pictures to her once during a family prayer session. Prosecutors stated that Mitchell is competent and that he is faking psychiatric symptoms to avoid being prosecuted. For more on David Brian Mitchell’s trial, click here.
The Elizabeth Smart case is similar to the Jaycee Dugard case in that they were both kidnapped for an extended period of time at a very young age, and both found alive. Jaycee Dugard was found in August of this year and is still recovering from her 18 year captivity; she also had two children by Phillip Garrido, her accused kidnapper. For more on Jaycee Dugard's case, click here.
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