Wanda Barzee, Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapper pled guilty to attempted kidnapping of Elizabeth’s cousin in a Utah court on Monday. Wanda Barzee pled guilty to trying to kidnap Elizabeth Smart’s cousin one month after Elizabeth’s kidnapping.
Barzee and her husband, Brian David Mitchell attempted to break into the Salt Lake City home of Smart’s 15-year-old cousin and kidnapper her. They planned to hold the two girls together. The girl has not been named. The girl woke up during the attempt and they were unable to kidnap her, according to court documents.
Barzee pled guilty to Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapping in November and is awaiting sentencing.
Barzee made a plea deal in which one of the state charges against her in Elizabeth Smarts’ kidnapping was dropped in exchange for her testimony against her estranged husband, Brian David Mitchell in his state and federal cases. Barzee faces up to 15 years for one of the state charges and her sentencing is scheduled for May 21.
Last Tuesday, four of Wanda Barzee’s adult children appeared on the Oprah Show and told a heart wrenching story of their childhood and upbringing. Several of them were not surprised when their mother was named in Elizabeth Smart’s kidnapping. For more on that story, click here.
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.
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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Source: CNN and ABC 4
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Comments
I don't know why they didn't name the girl. It was made public knowledge in 2003 that it was Elizabeth Smart's cousin Jessica Wright whose bedroom Mitchell tried to break into, & everyone knows that Mitchell was really after Jessica's younger sister Olivia, who is Elizabeth's favorite cousin. There's really no point in withholding their names.
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