Brian David Mitchell
| Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart | |
|---|---|
Smart in June 2012 speaking to local media outlets in Moberly, Missouri
|
|
| Location |
Abduction: Salt Lake City, Utah and San Diego, California areas |
| Date | June 5, 2002 – March 12, 2003 |
|
Attack type
|
Kidnapping |
| Weapons | Knife |
| Victim | Elizabeth Smart |
| Perpetrators | Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee |
Abduction:
Federal Heights
Salt Lake City, Utah
Elizabeth Smart is a woman who, at the age of fourteen, was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 5, 2002. She was rescued by police officers nine months later on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah, about 18 miles from her home, in the captivity of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee, who were indicted for her kidnapping, but initially ruled unfit to stand trial. After both defendants were found competent to stand trial, Barzee was convicted in 2009 and Mitchell was convicted in 2010. Mitchell was held in the Salt Lake County Jail following his sentencing on May 25, 2011. On August 31, he was transferred to a federal prison in Arizona to begin serving a life sentence for his crimes. The abduction of Elizabeth and her rescue were widely reported and were the subject of a made-for-television movie and a published book.
Edward Smart and his wife Lois lived in the affluent neighborhood of Federal Heights in Salt Lake City, Utah, with their six children. On the evening of June 4, 2002, the family attended an awards ceremony at Bryant Middle 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 June 5, 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:
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Wikipedia