Kidnapper who held Elizabeth Smart captive for months arrested after visiting Utah parks
The woman convicted of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart over two decades ago was arrested Thursday for violating her sex offender probation.Wanda Barzee, who abducted then-14-year-old Smart with her husband Brian David Mitchell in 2002, is accused of illegally visiting Liberty Park and Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.The 79-year-old reportedly told the Salt Lake City Police Department that God encouraged her to visit the green spaces and “sit on the benches and feed the ducks,” according to KUTV.She was not allowed to visit parks due to her sex offender status, according to court records obtained by the outlet.Barzee was reportedly released on the condition that she call authorities once a week, attend court hearings and not “commit any criminal offense.” The two parks are located less than 10 miles from her Salt Lake home, according to KUTV.In 2002, Barzee and Mitchell, who was a street preacher, went through an open window and abducted Smart from her Salt Lake City bedroom at knifepoint.The teen was raped on a near-daily basis, and lived with the couple in run-down homes and campsites in Utah and San Diego.Smart was found nine months later after a good Samaritan saw the trio walking in the suburb of Sandy, Utah and called police.Mitchell was sentenced to life behind bars after being convicted of raping and kidnapping Smart.In 2010, Barzee was sentenced to spend 15 years in prison.
But her time behind bars was cut short.She was set free five years early in 2018 when Utah authorities said they had miscalculated the amount of time she should have served.Barzee was on supervised release for five years, required to receive mental health treatment and she was banned from contacting Smart’s family.Smart, now a married mother in her 30s, was outraged that Barzee was able to leave prison early and demanded that she go to a mental health facility instead of being free.Smart claimed the freed felon “saw me as her slave.She called me her handmaiden.
She neve...