Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - True Crime This Week: Kidnappings

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

This week on True Crime This Week, Vanessa Richardson revisits a militant group kidnapping media heiress Patty Hearst from her apartment. But after she helped them rob a bank, people wondered if she was a victim... or an accomplice. The same week in 2003, the investigation into the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart took a drastic turn when her parents released a sketch of her abductor, sparking a nationwide manhunt. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Scams, Money and Murder to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Scams, Money and Murder is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios 🎧 Need More to Binge?  Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Crime House 24/7, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Murder True Crime Stories, and more wherever you get your podcasts! Follow me on Social Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson. Exciting news. Conspiracy theories, cults and crimes is leveling up. Starting the week of January 12th, you'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays, we unravel the conspiracy or the cult, and on Fridays we look at a corresponding crime. Every week has a theme. Tech, bioterror, power, paranoia, you name it. Follow conspiracy theories, cults and crimes now on your podcast app, because you're about to dive deeper, get weirder, and go darker than ever before. This is Crime House.

This week in crime history, we're looking at two infamous kidnappings. On February 4, 1974, 19-year-old Patty Hurst was taken from her home by a violent group of self-described revolutionaries. Almost three decades later, in 2003, another shocking abduction haunted the nation when the composite sketch of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart Subductor was released to the public. Welcome to True Crime This Week. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Sunday, we'll be revisiting notorious crimes from the coming week in history. From serial killers to mysterious disappearances or murders, every episode will explore stories that share a common theme. Each week will cover

two stories, one further in the past and one more rooted in the present. Here at Crimehouse, we I know none of this would be possible without you, our community. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following True Crime This Week, wherever you get your podcasts. And for ad-free and early access to True Crime This Week, plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. This week's theme is notorious kidnapping cases. We'll start today's episode in 1974 when Patty Hurst was ripped from her life of privilege and taken hostage by a group of radical militants.

Then we'll skip forward to 2003 when Elizabeth Smart's parents turned their 14-year-old daughter's kidnapping case on its head by publicly sharing information the police had kept to themselves. Both cases made headlines around the nation, even the world. They were stories of fear, resilience, uncertainty, and they changed the way we think about safety forever. We'll get into both of these stories coming up. Whether it's with your besties or date night,

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Go's got you covered. more at gotransit.com slash tickets. It was around 9 p.m. on February 4th, 1974. 19-year-old college student Patty Hurst was at her apartment in Berkeley, California, with her fiancé, 26-year-old Stephen Weed. As they settled in for the night, there was an unexpected knock on the door. Stephen and Patty found it odd. It was getting late and they weren't expecting anyone.

Berkeley was a college town, though. It was entirely possible that it was just a friend dropping by. So Stephen went to answer the door, Patty following behind him. They didn't have a window or peephole to see who it was, so Stephen cracked the door. It was a woman, neither of them knew. The stranger claimed she'd accidentally backed her car into theirs and asked if she could use their phone.

Patty wasn't happy about that. She turned and headed back towards the living room, leaving Stephen to figure it out. A moment later, there was a loud noise as the woman and two men barged their way into the apartment. They were all carrying weapons. They beat Stephen until he was barely conscious, then tied Patty up and carried her outside.

After a brief struggle, they forced her into the trunk of her car, and sped away. Patty had no idea what they wanted or where they were taking her, but she was pretty sure she knew why she'd been targeted. Her name. Patty belonged to one of the world's richest and most powerful families. Her grandfather, William Randolph Hearst, was the founder of a vast media empire. The company is still wildly successful today, generating billions of every year. Patty had been raised accordingly, growing up in a mansion outside of San Francisco with her parents and four sisters. But even though being a Hearst came with a lot of perks, it also came with a lot of expectations, and Patty wasn't all that interested in following the

blueprint her family set out for her. She was a bit of a rebel, pushing against the high society behavior and expectations demanded by her mother, Catherine. And although Patty's father, Randolph, appreciated his daughter's verve, her teachers weren't as amused. Patty quickly wore out her welcome at the various upper-class schools she went to, and by the time she graduated high school, she'd gone to five different institutions. Her final one proved to have the biggest impact on her. It was there that she met her soon-to-be fiancé, Steve. Like the rest of Patty's life so far, the match wasn't without controversy. Steve wasn't a fellow student.

He was Patty's math teacher and seven years her elder. Safe to say, Patty's parents didn't approve of their relationship, but she didn't seem to care what her parents thought because she and Steve moved in together and, enrolled at nearby UC Berkeley, and then they got engaged in December 1973 when Patty was 19. Even though Randolph and Catherine weren't thrilled, they still printed an engagement announcement in the San Francisco papers. That's where 29-year-old Bill Harris first saw the name Patty Hurst. Bill was a postal worker and member of a Bay Area militant group,

called the Symbionese Liberation Army, or SLA. They considered themselves guerrilla warriors and wanted to get rid of capitalism and start a war with the government. Their motto was, quote, death to the fascist insect that praise upon the life of the people. After Bill saw the engagement announcement, he had an idea. Two members of the SLA had recently been arrested for a shooting in Oakland.

Bill thought the group could use a high-profile captive like Patty to negotiate a prisoner swap. As an added bonus, Patty would be a great metaphor for their cause. An absurdly wealthy family like the Hearsts were the epitome of capitalism. By kidnapping one of their daughters, the SLA would make headlines, and presumably a lot of money. After reading the engagement announcement, Bill went to the bill. Berkeley campus and was able to find Patty's address. Over the next month or two, Bill and the SLA found out that despite being from an important, well-known family, Patty didn't have any security.

So on the night of February 4, 1974, Bill and two other SLA members abducted Patty from her apartment. After shoving her in their car, they drove to their safe house and locked her in a closet. Like Bill predicted, the kidnapping made headlines immediately. Along with Steve, multiple people around the apartment complex had witnessed the kidnapping. They went to the authorities, and it wasn't long before the media found out about it. The next day, February 5th, the media converged on the Hearst's sprawling home. home outside San Francisco, trying to get a sound bite from her panic-stricken parents. But the hearths were in the dark, too.

Thankfully, they only had to wait one more day to find out what happened to their daughter. On February 6th, the SLA contacted a Berkeley radio station by mail. In their letter, which was written in the style of an arrest warrant for Patty, the SLA took responsibility for the kidnapping. However, they didn't make a ransom demand. That came six days later on February 12th, but the SLA didn't ask for a prisoner swap like they'd initially intended to. They didn't ask for money either, at least not for them. In exchange for Patty's safe return, the SLA wanted the Hearst family to invest millions of dollars into a food program for Americans living in poverty. To prove Patty was safe, the SLA also included a voice message from her

via tape. She told her parents that she was okay and urged them to listen to the SLA's demands. Catherine and Randolph were prepared to do as they asked, but the SLA's request, but the SLA's request, was a logistical nightmare. The Hearsts had to create a multi-million dollar food distribution plan from scratch and quickly, but they were willing to do whatever it took to get their daughter back. And on February 22nd, 10 days after the SLA's request, the Hursts managed to launch a food giveaway program called People in Need. It was an unmitigated, disaster. So many people showed up to the first day of distributions that it descended into riots. Making matters worse, the SLA refused to let Patty go unless things improved.

As the Hearsts were trying to organize their program over the next few weeks, the SLA continued to send them recordings from Patty. She didn't sound impressed with their efforts to free her. In one recording from March 1974, she said, quote, I don't believe that you're doing anything at all. But Catherine and Randolph refused to give up. They managed to smooth things out over the course of the next month. By March 26, 1974, the Hearsts had spent $2 million and given away over 150,000 bags of food.

It seemed like this time they'd done enough to secure Patty's release, and it appeared the SLA would honor their word. On April 2nd, almost two months after Patty was kidnapped, they promised to send more details about her release within 72 hours. But the following day, the hearse received an alarming recording. Apparently, there'd been a change of plans, but not from the SLA. From Patty. In the recording, she called herself Tanya

and claimed that she was no longer the SLA's prisoner because she'd joined them. The Hursts could hardly believe it. Patty had never been very political, and now she was suddenly joining the group that had kidnapped her? It just didn't make sense. They were certain that Patty wasn't in control of the situation, she had to be speaking under duress.

But on April 15, 1974, 12 days after they heard that tape, everything changed. That day, five armed members of the SLA charged into a bank in San Francisco and stole $10,000. As the group held up the tellers at gunpoint,

the bank's surveillance system was recording there every, every move. When the authorities reviewed the footage, they were shocked to see a familiar face among the robbers. It was the now 20-year-old Patty Hurst. She certainly didn't seem like a captive. Patty was armed with a gun and was a full participant in the heist. In case there were any doubts, she sent out another recording after the robbery. She said she was, quote, a soldier in the people's army. No matter what her parents believed,

Patty's case changed at that moment. All of a sudden, the authorities were less interested in rescuing her and more interested in arresting her. And they were willing to do whatever it took to catch her. Did you know that Staples Professional can tailor a custom program to make running your business easy. With a Staples Professional account, you get one vendor, one delivery, and one invoice

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Investing is all about the future. So what do you think is going to happen? Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point. I think it would come down to precious metals. I hope we don't go cashless. I would say land is a safe investment. Technology companies. Solar energy.

Robotic pollinators might be a thing. A wrestler to face a robot? That will have to happen. So whatever you think is going to happen in the future, you can invest in it at WealthSimple. Start now at WealthSimple.com. On April 15, 1974, the Symbianese Liberation Army robbed a bank in San Francisco. Patty Hurst, who they'd kidnapped a little over two months earlier, helped them do it.

And if she was to be believed, she'd done it voluntarily. The authorities took her at her word. Less than 10 days later, the FBI launched an investigation into the SLA and released, a wanted poster with several of its members, Patty was on it. Shortly after the release of the wanted poster, the SLA moved their safe house to another neighborhood in San Francisco. Before long, they moved yet again to a safe house hundreds of miles away in South Los Angeles. The LAPD didn't know the SLA was there until a few of them attracted some unwanted attention. In May 1974, about a month after the bank robbery, Patty went on a supply run with

one of her kidnappers, Bill Harris, and his wife, Emily. Bill and Emily headed into a Mel's Sporting Good store while Patty waited in the group's van. Apparently, Bill and Emily tried to shoplift, or at least the store clerk thought they did, and chased them outside. Patty could see the confrontation from her vantage point in the van. She decided to help Bill and Emily out by grabbing a gun and firing 10 rounds into the storefront. The distraction worked. Amidst the chaos, Bill and Emily were able to get away and jump into the van. If anyone still had hope that Patty was just playing along with the SLA, this incident all but squashed it. If Patty had let Bill and Emily be arrested, she would have become a free woman.

She could have even made a run for it while they went into the store. Instead, she decided to prove her loyalty to the SLA, and now the authorities would definitely be after her. After Patty, Bill, and Emily made their getaway, they ditched the van and stole a couple different cars to cover their tracks. But just in case the police were onto them, they decided to lay low at a motel near Disneyland. That decision saved their lives. They didn't know it at the time, but the LAPD had found the SLA's hideout.

One day after the Mel's sporting goods debacle, the police surrounded the safe house. The standoff ended in a gunfight and the house caught fire. All six SLA members who were inside were killed. Patty, Bill, and Emily watched the destruction live on television from their motel. After that, the three of them went even further underground. By November 1974, about five months after the SLA's safe house was burned down, Catherine and Randolph Hearst hadn't heard any news from their daughter. It seems like they may have given up on ever getting her back.

Around that time, the Hearsts withdrew their $50,000 reward for Patty's safe return. Meanwhile, Patty, Bill, and Emily were quietly rebuilding the SLA, raising funds and recruiting new members. By the following April, they were running out of resources, so they turned back to a tried and true method of getting some cash. A bank robbery. On April 21st, 1975, Patty, Bill, Emily, and another SLA comrade held up a bank in Carmichael, California. During the robbery, an innocent, 42-year-old woman named Myrna Opshall, was shot and killed, allegedly by Emily. The SLA managed to get away with $15,000, but the heist put them back on the authorities' radar. Patty and the others were able to hide for a few more months, but in September 1975,

the FBI identified two of their safe houses in San Francisco, and on the 18th of that month, the authorities made their move. At one house, the FBI arrested three SLA members, including Bill and Emily Harris. They found Patty an hour later at the second safe. house. Nineteen months after she was taken from her apartment, she was finally in custody. Now it was time to settle the question everyone had been wondering ever since Patty declared her allegiance to the SLA. Whose side was she really on? Initially, she seemed to be loyal to the SLA. When Patty was first arrested, she described her

occupation as, quote, urban gorilla. But once Patty was reunited with her family, things started to change. The Hearsts hired a top-of-the-line defense team for their daughter's upcoming trial and were adamant that she was a victim. When the trial began, the defense's version of Patty's captivity was horrifying. They claimed she'd been kept in a closet for days, blindfolded. Then she was repeatedly shoved in a garbage can so the SLA could move her from one safe house to another. According to the defense, Patty's days were filled with the SLA preaching about their cause and torture. She reported being sleep deprived, raped, and threatened. She claimed that nothing she did was her choice. However, the jury didn't see it that way. In March

1976, more than two years after Patty Hurst was kidnapped, she was found guilty of armed robbery. She got a seven-year sentence, but only ended up serving two. Bill and Emily Harris were both found guilty of kidnapping and served eight years in prison. Patty eventually received a full pardon for her part in the SLA's crime spree by President Bill Clinton. She went on to move past her ordeal, marrying a member of her security team and starting a family. To this day, the debate continues over what Patty's experience with the SLA really was like. Bill Harris claims that while Patty was never a full convert to the SLA's cause, it was her decision to stay with the group.

He maintains that she was treated well and that her version of events came from a need to protect herself at trial. Whatever the truth is, the fact remains that Patty didn't choose to be kidnapped. The SLA put their own so-called noble causes ahead of a young woman's life. And because of that, Patty Hurst's life was changed forever. Up next, another kidnapping story that dominated the headlines and a moment from this week in 2003 that signaled a turning point in the infamous case of Elizabeth Smart. On February 3, 2003, Ed and Lois Smart called a press conference in their hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. About seven months earlier, their 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth had been abducted from the Smart's home in the middle of the night. since then the investigation had gone nowhere.

But Ed and Lois felt like the police weren't doing everything they could to find Elizabeth. There was a crucial piece of information the authorities hadn't shared with the public. And if they wouldn't, the smarts would. During their press conference, Ed and Lois displayed a sketch of a middle-aged man. He had short, wavy hair, hollow cheekbones, and light-colored, almost haunting eyes. According to them, this was the man who'd taken their daughter. The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart had a huge impact on the Salt Lake City community and the entire nation. It was the sort of thing that just didn't seem possible.

The Smarts were a big, tight-knit religious family who lived in a large, an affluent neighborhood. Elizabeth's parents, Ed and Lois, had six kids, two girls, and four boys. The Smarts practiced Mormonism, which was common where they lived. About half the population of Salt Lake City was Mormon. That meant a lot of people, including Elizabeth and her family, felt like they lived in a safe, like-minded community bubble. But bubbles are notoriously easy to burn. The night of June 4, 2002, Lois Smart was feeling a bit distracted. She burned some potatoes while cooking and opened a kitchen window to air it out. When the family went to sleep, she forgot to shut the window.

That night, 14-year-old Elizabeth and her 9-year-old sister, Mary Catherine, read the book Ella Enchanted in the bed they shared together. After a while, they drifted off to sleep. When Elizabeth woke up, it was still dark. She was disoriented, but instantly knew what had woken her. There was a cold knife pressed against her throat. A male voice told Elizabeth to get out of bed and threatened to kill her and her family if she tried anything. Elizabeth could feel her sister sleeping next to her and was terrified of what the man would do to Mary Catherine if Elizabeth screamed.

So she let the intruder lead her out of her room, then through the front door and into the night. Elizabeth didn't know it, but the commotion had actually woken Mary Catherine up. She was so scared of what he'd said, she couldn't bring herself to get out of bed. Finally, after a few hours had passed, she felt safe enough to run to her parents' room and tell them what happened.

She told them, Elizabeth's gone. Lois and Ed assumed Mary Catherine meant Elizabeth had just left the girl's room. They thought maybe the girls had gotten into a fight or something, and Elizabeth was sleeping elsewhere in the house. But the moment Lois saw the kitchen window she'd accidentally left open, she knew something terrible had happened. The screen was cut, which meant someone had broken in, and kidnapped her daughter. They called the police who arrived by 4 a.m. It's unclear exactly how long this was after the kidnapping, but at least a few hours had gone by. By this point, Elizabeth's captor had driven her deep into the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City before stopping. They'd been hiking uphill for a long time,

when at some point Elizabeth realized she recognized him. The previous fall, her parents had hired him off the street to do some odd jobs around the house. He called himself Emmanuel. In reality, he was 49-year-old Brian David Mitchell. Elizabeth's kidnapping was the beginning of a twisted mission he'd concocted. Brian thought he was a prophet and was destined to have multiple wives. And Brian had decided Elizabeth would. be wife number two. But Elizabeth didn't know any of that as she walked into the darkness. After

hours of hiking, they reached a campsite on the side of a mountain. There was a tent and a few tarps on the ground. A woman in a headdress and long robe was there waiting for them. This was 57-year-old Wanda Barzee, Brian's first wife. Wanda and Brian put Elizabeth in the tent, forced her to undress, and then Wanda oversaw a marriage ceremony between Brian and Elizabeth. We don't know what the ceremony entailed, but we do know what horrors happened in its aftermath. Brian raped Elizabeth, then chained her to a tree by the ankle with a metal cable. Elizabeth described the days that followed as full of boredom, hunger, and rape. She was sometimes kept in a hole with a board over it.

Brian threatened her often, saying he would kill her family if she tried to run away. He withheld food and forced her to drink alcohol and look at porn. He seemed to believe wearing her down would eventually purify her. Meanwhile, the authorities were desperately trying to find Elizabeth. In the first two weeks after she went missing, the police conducted an astounding 850 searches for her. They deployed everything at their disposal, bloodhounds, helicopters, infrared cameras. Despite all those resources, it was her own family who came closest to finding her. During one search, Elizabeth's uncle came so close to Brian's

campsite, she could hear him shouting her name. But before Elizabeth could do anything, Brian threatened to kill her if she made any noise. The whole time, Elizabeth was only a few miles from home. It made her captivity all the more agonizing, especially when she heard her own search party looking for her. Three days after she was kidnapped, Elizabeth could hear her own uncle's voice in the woods, calling her name. Brian heard it too and told her not to make a sound. He warned her that if anyone found their campsite, he would kill them and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth kept quiet. Eventually her uncle's voice faded into the distance. In those first few days, the police were also looking into anyone associated, with the Smart family, it turned out Ed and Lois frequently hired men who were down on their luck to work on their house. And less than 10 days after Elizabeth's kidnapping, they believed they were zeroing in on a suspect. Unfortunately, it wasn't Brian Mitchell. With the RBC Avion Visa, you can book any airline, any flight, any time. So start taking off your travel list.

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On June 11, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they don't kill a cop and bury them, what are you going to do to me? What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series for from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of Shadows wherever you get your podcasts. In the aftermath of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping in June 2002, the police zeroed in on a suspect.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Elizabeth's actual kidnapper, Brian Mitchell. It was one of the smarts handymen, 48-year-old Richard Ritchie, as a suspicious person because of his violent criminal background. There wasn't any evidence immediately tying him to the kidnapping, but four weeks after Elizabeth was taken, Richard was arrested for stealing from some of the families in the neighborhood. The police also found something else when they questioned him. Apparently, he revealed he'd driven hundreds of miles

around the time Elizabeth was kidnapped, but he wouldn't say why, or where he went. It all sounded suspicious. The problem was Elizabeth's little sister, Mary Catherine, had actually seen her sister's abductor, and she didn't think it was Richard. Of course, she was right,

but Richard seemed too likely a culprit. Despite what Mary Catherine said, the police continued to focus on Richard as a suspect. By the end of July 2002, Elizabeth had been trapped at Brian's campsite for around 50 days. The police weren't any closer to finding her, and around this time, Brian decided he was going to take another wife. According to Elizabeth, she accidentally mentioned she had a 15-year-old cousin. Brian latched on to this piece of information and decided to go and. after her. On July 24, 2002, Brian went down to Salt Lake City to kidnap her. But it didn't go off as

smoothly as Elizabeth's abduction had. One of the kids in the house woke up when Brian tried cutting the screen to a bedroom window. The police were called immediately, but Brian left before anyone saw him. Even though this happened to another member of the smart family, And it also involved a window screen getting cut. The police didn't think this crime was related to Elizabeth's kidnapping. The smart family was going through a living nightmare, and it got worse in early August when the police's number one suspect, Richard Ritchie, died from a brain aneurysm.

Seemingly, any answers about their daughter's whereabouts died with him. It seemed like Lois and Ed had different coping mechanisms during this difficult time. Lois focused on their kids and keeping the family functioning. Meanwhile, Ed decided to keep the investigation moving. He did media appearances and tried to get his daughter's face and name out there however he could. He did a good job, too. They got thousands of tips from all over the country in response to Elizabeth's story. Soon, she was a household name.

Elizabeth didn't know about any of it. She was busy just trying to survive. After her cousin's attempted abduction, she decided to change tactics with Brian. Instead of fighting him, she tried cooperating. Her strategy worked. Brian decided to finally unchain Elizabeth, and eventually he even took her and Wanda into the city to scavenge for food. During one of these excursions, he actually took her to a party, hiding her face with a veil. There's a haunting photo someone took at this event.

It shows Elizabeth, concealed in white robes, standing beside Brian, surrounded by people. She didn't scream or run. She was still too terrified to risk it. At some point before the fall of 2002, Brian took Elizabeth and Wanda into town again. He was thinking about moving to San Diego, so they went to the library to look at maps and find the best route to get there. Brian dressed Elizabeth in a robe and veil that covered her face and kept her by his side. This time, someone noticed them and got an uneasy feeling. They called the police, and an officer showed up at the same. the library. All he needed to do was take one look under Elizabeth's veil and she'd be free.

But when Brian was approached, he claimed the robe was for religious reasons. While he spoke, Wanda grabbed Elizabeth's leg as hard as she could, her nails digging in her thigh. It was a clear message. Do not say anything. Brian was so convincing the office of the office of eventually decided that he was telling the truth and let them go. Elizabeth was devastated, and tragically, things would continue getting worse. In September 2002, four months after she'd been kidnapped, Brian took Elizabeth and Wanda to San Diego. Elizabeth was terrified.

She was certain that no one in San Diego would know who she was, and her chances of being rescued would disappear. When they boarded the bus out of Salt Lake City, Elizabeth felt like she just received a death sentence. By October 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart had been missing for around four months. With each passing day, her family tried to prepare themselves for the unimaginable.

Elizabeth might be gone for good. But on October 12th, a breakthrough came when everyone least expected it. Elizabeth's now 10-year-old sister, Mary Catherine, was reading a Guinness Book of World Records and saw a photo of a muscular woman on one of the pages. Something about the image reminded her of a handyman named Emmanuel her parents had hired the year before. And just like that, she remembered. Her sister's abductor had the same voice as Immanuel.

She told her parents, and the smarts immediately went to the police. They didn't have a photo of Emmanuel, but they remembered enough about his appearance to get a good sketch of him. However, the authorities didn't want to release it. They said they were currently focused on other suspects. As frustrating as it was, the family listened to the police. and sat on the sketch. Four excruciating months went by without a break in the case. Finally, on February 3rd, 2003, the smarts took matters into their own hands.

They held a press conference and released the image themselves, begging anyone who recognized the man in it to come forward. They also showed the sketch on America's Most Wanted, a few days after its initial release. It had an immediate impact on the case. Emmanuel, a.k.a. Brian David Mitchell, had a. sister and a stepson. When they saw the sketch, they came forward and said they knew him. Others called in to identify him as well.

Police got more photos of him and released those to the public. Soon, the entire nation knew the face of the man, that had taken Elizabeth. By this point, it had been about eight months since Elizabeth was kidnapped, and four months since Brian and Wanda had brought her to San Diego. Throughout that time,

they moved around the city and set up tents at various locations. They were on the move so much, nobody was able to identify Brian or Elizabeth, even after the sketch was released. Brian didn't know he'd been named as a suspect in Elizabeth's kidnapping, but at the end of February, he decided they'd stayed in San Diego long enough. He thought they should go to the East Coast.

This terrified Elizabeth. It was even further away from home. She knew it was even more unlikely she'd be recognized there. So she decided to do something to stop it. By this point, she'd been with Brian and Wanda for nine months. She understood them and how they thought. Elizabeth knew Brian would only do something if he thought it was his idea. So she told him that she had a feeling God was telling them to return to Salt Lake City.

She told Brian pray on it and see for himself. It worked. Brian decided that God was indeed telling them to go back. back to Utah. The trio hitchhiked from San Diego all the way to a town called Sandy, just outside Salt Lake City. They arrived on March 12, 2003. Brian was unaware that for the last month or so, his face had been broadcast throughout the country, so he didn't seem especially nervous to take Wanda and Elizabeth to Walmart. He still took precautions, though. He put Elizabeth in a gray wig and sunglasses with a shirt wrapped around her head. He was actually the one who needed

the disguise. Two different couples recognized him and called the police. Within minutes of leaving the store, Wanda, Brian, and Elizabeth were surrounded by cop cars. Elizabeth couldn't seem to wrap her head around the fact that she was rescued. When the police asked her name, she gave them a fake one. But the authorities knew who she really was. They separated Elizabeth from Brian, and she confirmed her true identity. After that, they took Elizabeth to the police station and called her father. It wasn't until Ed arrived and wrapped her in a hug that she began to cry.

The nightmare was finally over. But the ordeal wasn't quite finished. Wanda and Brian were in custody, but they claimed they were mentally unfit to stand trial. After a years long back and forth, they finally were indicted in 2008. Wanda pled guilty in 2009 and was required to issue an apology to Elizabeth. Her sentence was 15 years, but she was released after only nine, although she had to register as a sex offender and enroll in the child. a mental health program. Brian's trial began in 2010. Wanda testified against him, and so did

Elizabeth. The world got to hear what she had gone through in those terrifying months. According to Elizabeth herself, she addressed Brian directly. She said, quote, you took away nine months of my life that can never be returned. But in this life or next, you will have to be held responsible for those actions. And I hope you are ready for when that time comes. Brian was ultimately convicted on federal charges of kidnapping and the unlawful transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity. He'd also been charged with state crimes of aggravated sexual assault, but those were dismissed

so he could be placed in a federal prison, where he had been charged with state crimes of aggravated sexual assault, where he will spend the rest of his life. Today, Elizabeth is an author and advocate for sexual violence victims. She went on to Mary in 2012 and has three children. When she tells her story, she does so with courageous stoicism and has made every effort to turn her tragedy into something positive. When we look back at this week in crime history, there's a reason the abductions of Patty Hurst and Elizabeth Smart feel so remarkable,

and not just because they're both famous kidnappings. Both of these cases caused a national crisis of identity, changing the way we think about safety. Everyone thought Patty lived this privileged life that made her immune to the troubles the rest of us face. So it was not only terrifying to see her abducted, but to possibly side with her kidnappers. In Elizabeth's case, her kidnapping seemed just as unlikely and frightening.

It reminded the world that no matter how safe things might seem, danger could lurk around any corner. Neither of these women thought something so terrible could happen to them, but it did. And in the face of indescribable horror, they were able to survive. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is True Crime This Week. True Crime This Week is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible.

Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following True Crime This Week, wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly matters. And for ad-free and early access to True Crime This Week, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. True Crime This Week is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and is a Crime House original, powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the True Crime This Week team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon,

Sarah Camp, Kate Murdoch, and Honeya Saeed. Thank you for that. listening. Looking for your next listen? Hi, it's Vanessa Richardson, and I have exciting news. Conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes is leveling up. Starting the week of January 12th, you'll be getting two episodes every week. Wednesdays, we unravel the conspiracy or the cult, and on Fridays we look at a corresponding crime. Follow conspiracy theories, cults and crimes now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen.