True Crime with Kendall Rae - The Kidnapping and Incredible Survival Story of Elizabeth Smart

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

Interview footage via Biography - Elizabeth Smart's Story: https://youtu.be/l8HVc4pn_NE Elizabeth Smart’s Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/e2Xkq2zuXEg Elizabeth Smart Foundation: https://www.elizabethsmartfoundation.org/ Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Doug Pike here for Kirk Holmes, a third generation custom builder that builds all around Houston and even up throughout the hill country now. They've got a Southern Living Showcase home in Mission Ranch up in College Station that you are welcome to tour. Or you can start your search down here in their offices or even at their website to see what your dream home truly can look like. They back their homes with a 20 year structural warranty too. Kirkhomes.com. That's K-U-R-K because at Kirkhomes it's all about you. Hey guys and welcome back to my channel. Welcome to another true crime video. So I've got to say I am really looking forward to filming this video. I am fascinated by this case. I think it's really inspirational and a great one

to start the new year off with. So hope you guys find it as interesting as I do if you have not yet heard of the Elizabeth Smart case. I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with at least some details of this case, especially if you are alive or able to understand what was going on in the early 2000s.

This case was all over the news, all over the tabloids. It was highly public. There's definitely a lot to go over here, so let's just jump into it. Elizabeth was born on November 3rd, 1987. She was a second child of Ed and Lois Smart. The Smart family had six kids in their family, four boys and two girls.

And Elizabeth definitely lived the picture perfect life. When she was growing up, she lived in a very upscale neighborhood in Salt Lake City in a very, very big house. And Elizabeth was described as a very normal little girl, you could say. She was well behaved, she was pretty mellow, she was into playing with her friends and dolls, and also loved to play the harp and was really really good at the harp. I grew up very much like that happily ever after little girl. She would actually spend hours of her time playing the harp just for fun. She really loved it and her parents like to hear it throughout their house. At this point Elizabeth was in middle school and she was really excited for high school, of course, looking forward to that

and looking forward to having more freedom, getting to kind of date boys, and of course get her driver's license. Elizabeth said she always felt like she had the dream life and she did. She had a very idealic childhood and she thought that, you know, this would continue on in her life, she would eventually meet the man of her dreams, get married, have kids, and live the same life that her parents were giving her. She and her family belonged to the Mormon Church, so family values were obviously very important to them. Also, as you may know, Mormons tend to live a pretty strict lifestyle. A lot of them don't smoke, they don't drink. Some of them don't even drink caffeine. They definitely don't use drugs and they do not have sex before marriage.

Elizabeth grew up with these values and was planning on following them in her life. And Elizabeth loved being part of the church. She really had good friends within the church and she had a very close relationship with her parents for sure and her siblings. So everything was going good in Elizabeth's life up until 2002. That year, the Olympics were actually held in Salt Lake City,

and that was a really big deal. They had tons of tourism come in. There was a lot of commotion. The transportation systems were extended. They also kind of relaxed some of their alcohol laws. And around this time, her family were also pretty stressed out. Elizabeth's grandfather ended up being diagnosed with a brain tumor, and it was very aggressive, and he only lived two months after this diagnosis. Linden for surgery quite soon after he was diagnosed, and passed away two months after. His funeral was on June 3rd, 2002, and the following day, the smart family was just really tired and burnt out after, you know, the funeral. That's always such an exhausting experience. They were all feeling pretty down and just tired and wanted to stay home, but there was an important award ceremony that night at

the middle school. And this was going to be a big night for Elizabeth because she was going to be playing the harp there. Her mom tried to have somewhat of a normal evening for them. She made them dinner, but she burned it because she was so stressed out so she cracked the window up in a bit in their kitchen. But they still had their dinner and they were able to get to the award ceremony on time. That went well. They came back. everything was normal. And when they got home, Elizabeth and her sister, Mary Catherine decided to go up to their room, start getting ready for bed and read some Ella and Chanted, which is what they were reading every night. At this time, Elizabeth was 14 years old and Mary Catherine was nine. And what's really interesting is Ella

and Chanted is actually a story about a 14 year old girl who is cursed to fall through on any commands that she is given. So it's pretty ironic considering what happens. After they finished reading the book, they went to sleep and then at 2 a.m Elizabeth was awoken by a man holding a knife to her neck and he said, I have a knife at your neck. Don't make any sound and come with me. And at first she said she almost thought this was a dream. Like she couldn't quite figure out if this was really happening. And I can't even imagine, I mean, first wake up, you're so confused, let alone in a situation like that.

There'd be so much shock, but then she said the adrenaline just kicked in right away and she was wide awake in alert. I feel like this is everyone's worst nightmare. Definitely was mine when I was younger. I'm sure pretty much all kids had this fear at some point, but thinking about someone coming and taking you out of your bed at night, that's just terrifying.

Don't make a sound. Get up and come with me. And that second time that I heard this voice, yeah, I was instantly awake. And Elizabeth was so smart in that moment. This voice, yeah, I was instantly awake. And Elizabeth was so smart in that moment. She knew that there was a chance that he could hurt Mary Catherine as well.

So she just hoped that she stayed sleeping during all this because she was, you know, just laying there right next to her. But it turns out that Mary Catherine was actually awake during the whole thing and watched all of this happen. And as he's pulling her out of the bed, he tells her she better not make a sound or he will kill her entire family. And she believes him. What if I don't do what he says? He might take my sister. He might hurt my sister. I have to go. Of course, Elizabeth was thinking about yelling out and her sister wanted to reach out and grab her

or yell for their parents or go get help, but they knew that this man had a knife and could kill them at any moment. So this guy starts leading Elizabeth out of her room out down the hallway of her house and it's kind of creaky so Mary Catherine can hear where they are out in the house and she's hoping that their parents somehow hear it and wake up. We had some squeaks on the floor so you could kind of tell where they were. At one point she got out of her bed and almost ran to her parents' room to tell them what was going on in the house, but she said she just got too scared. She became paralyzed and fear. I mean, I can't even imagine at that age how freaked out you would be watching all of this unfold at nine.

She thought she heard him and that he was going to come back and grab her, so she ran back to her bed, jumped under the covers and hid until it was silent. Once the house was completely silent, then she got up and ran to her parents' room. Elizabeth had been walked over to her closet to get a pair of shoes and then walked right out of her house, out of the kitchen door. He takes her out of the house

and he's holding the knife behind her kind of up towards her back as he's walking and pushing behind her So she has no choice but to move forward and in the direction that he wants and of course this whole time He's telling her, you know, if you move if you make a sound I'll kill you. I'll kill your family And that was Elizabeth's biggest fear something happening to her sister or her parents Especially because of her so she decided to listen to this guy and hope that someone would be able to save her. So Elizabeth was being abducted by a man named Brian David Mitchell. Let's talk a little bit more about him before we go forward. Brian was born in 1953 in

Salt Lake City to Cheryl and Irene Mitchell. He was also raised at a Mormon house and had five siblings, so he was very interested in the smart family for this reason. And it was actually part of his strategy to kidnap someone in the Mormon faith so that he understood their mindset a little more. He would know how to manipulate someone who is Mormon. He would know their fears, some of their beliefs, their values, you know, there's so much he could use. Now his dad, Cheryl, actually was a social worker, strangely enough, but he was horrible, horrible to his son. He taught Brian all about sex when he was only eight years old and forced him to look at all these pictures in medical journals, and that really messed him up.

Also, he would do weird things like drop him far away from his house and random locations and make him get back on his own no matter how long it took. And he started acting inappropriately towards girls pretty young. When he was 16, he completely exposed himself to this girl who was only eight years old and asked her to touch him. So he obviously got some time for this. And since he was only 16 at the time,

it was just juvenile, but that was kind of the start of everything for him. He would just go down a worse path from there. And when he got out of juvenile around age 19, he ended up getting married. He married a 17 year old named Karen Minor, and they had two children together. And they did not care about their kids at all. Makes me so mad when people like this end up being able to have children, but they would drink and smoke and party and completely neglected their kids,

acted like they didn't even have kids. Eventually he and Karen decided to get a divorce and on the day of their custody hearing, he ended up kidnapping his children. And he took them to New Hampshire and actually stayed there for two years in this weird commune. It was a hair-crischner commune. And it provided him and his kids with somewhere to stay and food, you know, the basics.

Eventually, he decided to go back to Salt Lake City. And he actually had a brother there who was really into the Mormon faith still and kind of brought him back into the church and helped him get clean. And he put on this big act that he was going to change his life around. After a little while, he ended up meeting his second wife, who was named Debbie. She already had three kids, so between the two of them, they had five. But their marriage did not last long. And when Debbie left, she said that Brian was inappropriate with her three-year-old son and that he was really abusive to her as well. And in an effort to save his marriage with Debbie, he decided to put his other two kids with Karen in foster care.

You know, kind of get rid of the baggage, maybe she'll stick around that type of thing. But this did not work, and she filed for divorce from him in 1984. And one of Debbie's daughters actually said that Brian had assaulted her as well for years. So after this divorce of finalized, he moved on pretty quick once again and found a woman named Wanda Barzi. Wanda was 40 years old and had six kids.

And her kids say that she was also just an evil person. She was like a monster to them. She was abusive. She was not a mother to them. She was abusive. She was not a mother to them in any way shape or form. Weird when people like that end up with six kids. Wanda and Bran also had their faith in common. They were both really into the LDS church. Bran was next level though. Okay, he thought he was a prophet. He was like full nine yards talking to God,

thought he was the chosen one, the Messiah, whatever. He thought he was like here to save the planet. He's one of those guys. He goes through this whole spiritual awakening and he starts to call himself a manual. And he decides to give Wanda the name Hepsava. So he brings us up with his friends at the Mormon church, like, hey, just so you guys know, I am the chosen one,

but they weren't out buying it and they ended up kicking him out of the church and, you know, he took wandered with him. And this is when he really lost it. He started wearing white robes around, he grew out his beards that he could look like Jesus. They would spend their days panhandling the streets for money and Brian would just scream out Bible verses that random strangers really productive. And he would do all of this while dressed up as Jesus and sharing his prophetic visions. Brian was so off the deep end at this point

that even his own mother had to get a restraining order from him around this time. And he was deep in this man. He even wrote a 27 page manuscript and was forcing a bunch of people to read it or trying to. But it seemed like Wanda was the only one that was really entertaining his whole fantasy and just going along with it. Whether she really believed him, I don't know. So anyway, back to the smart house. Elizabeth has just been kidnapped.

They just headed out the kitchen door. It's the middle of the night, so it's pitch dark and it's pretty quiet. Most people are sleep around this time. Elizabeth's heart is pounding, obviously. She's questioning whether or not this could be a dream. Is this really happening to me right now? Am I being kidnapped?

It just seemed impossible. Like it could not actually be happening to her. But he continued to force her up this hill near their house with the knife, you know, pushed up against her back. There was nothing that she could do. And as they're going up the hill, they suddenly see headlights and it turns out that it's a police car.

Elizabeth is, of course, thinking, oh my god, they're going to save me. This is amazing. Brian pushed her down behind a bush and he told her to be quiet. Brian was incredibly nervous. She said that he just was holding his breath waiting for the car to pass and that at one point he actually set out loud. If this work is true, God let this car pass. And it did the car pass. It caught drove right by Elizabeth Smart on the night of her kidnapping. So they kept on going and they started kind of hiking up

this mountain and all the way up, he's telling her not to peep, don't scream, don't try to run, or I will kill you. And then I'll go kill your whole family. She started thinking about all the other kids that she had heard about being taken in the past, you know, on the news, stories that she had heard. And oftentimes it ended up with their remains being found. She knew that her chance of being rescued was already slim and she thought maybe this guy was just going to rape her and kill her and dump her body off in the desert somewhere. So at that point, she actually asked him at 14 years old. Can you just rate me? Kill me? Get it over with so that my parents know what happened to me. Elizabeth said he had this

terribly creepy smile and he looked at her and said, I'm not going to kill you yet. So after a little while, they turned off of the main trail onto a, you know, barely used side trail. All the way Elizabeth was trying to think of anything she could to scare this guy to get in his head. She could tell he was easily manipulated. So she starts telling him, you know, there's very little chance you're going to get in his head. She could tell he was easily manipulated. So she starts telling him, you know, there's very little chance you're going to get away with this. My parents are going to find me and you're going to go to prison for the rest of your life. Are you sure you want that? And she starts telling him, you know, if you just let me go, my parents won't press charges. We can pretend this never happened. And she's trying to convince him that that's the smartest idea for him, but he's not buying it. And he told me, I know exactly what I'm doing.

And I know what the consequences are. The only difference is I'm not gonna get caught. And right at that moment, Elizabeth, while she was looking at him, she realizes that she knows who this man is. Seven months earlier, Elizabeth and her mom and her siblings were downtown shopping for clothes and stuff. There was this guy begging for money

on the streets and her mom gave him a five dollar bill. She said that she remembered him being really friendly and having this very calm voice that she was able to memorize. And he told her mom that his name was Emmanuel. Her mom ended up chatting with him a little bit and then gave him her husband's phone number and said, just give him a call and we might need some help on our house. They live in this big house and they had a ton of contractors working on it all the time. So she figured there was something that they could probably give him to do and help this guy out a little bit and clearly this ended up being a huge mistake,

but Ed did hire him. He asked him to come work on their house and cut down some trees. So as Elizabeth is being dragged up this hill by this guy, she realizes that this is a guy her parents hired and invited to their house. Meanwhile, Mary Catherine is back in bed paralyzed with fear. She finally decides that it's quite enough to leave her room that there's a good chance that the guy is gone

and she runs to her parents room. She wakes up her dad and says, dad, someone just came in the house and took Lisbeth. Lisbeth is gone. Her parents jump out of bed, start searching the entire house. Mary Catherine kept telling them that she definitely wasn't in the house. I mean, they were searching everywhere. They looked in the other siblings room. Everyone was awake soon. And then her mom went down into the kitchen and saw that window that she had left open because of the smoke.

And there was a slashed screen. At this point, they knew Elizabeth was gone. And her mom just fell to the ground screaming. Her brother said that it was the worst sound he'd ever heard in his life. I remember waking up that night to probably one of the worst sounds I've ever heard and that was my mom just crying. So around 4am, they called the police and then they started calling all their other family members. They have a lot of family in Utah and they wanted them all to come over as soon as possible and help. They started making calls to family members at 5 a.m.

and pretty much everyone was there by 6. And it's a it's a call that you you never want to hear. You never want to get you get a call like that. It's just it, it's so surreal. And the police never sealed this as a crime scene, which is so, so odd. They were letting the family just stay in the house. They were bringing all these people over all these family members, and they were all walking through the house, just destroying the crime scene.

I was just blown away. I've never seen a crime scene that was so totally contaminated. And since it was so late at night and this is the graveyard shift when a lot of new officers and experienced officers are working, they had no idea how to handle this scene. Nothing was taped off. They weren't keeping a log of who was coming and going. And when an experienced officer got there, they were like, what the hell are you guys doing? There's always people in here. And at this point, you know, their thinking, is it possible that someone in the family

could have done this? Maybe this is a cover-up for a murder. So they had to bring all of the members of the family down to the police station and separate police cars and question them. They brought a cadaver dog back to the house to search, didn't find anything, and their family was just totally distressed being separated after this horrific couple of hours that they had had. Especially Mary Catherine. I mean, she's just like

by herself and talking to police. She starts telling them what she remembers and it was quite a bit. She said that he was a white man 30 to 40 years old. He was around the same height as her brother Charles, so like five, eight. She also recognized his voice. She said that it was calm and familiar and that she had definitely heard it before. She also thought that she heard this man say that he was kidnapping Elizabeth for ransom money. So after they interviewed her and they learned a little bit more information, their family is feeling really frustrated. The things aren't moving fast enough. They felt like they were wasting all their time doing the wrong things.

And this was precious time that they should be out searching for Elizabeth. And they even made them wait three hours to put out any photos of Elizabeth or any alerts and anything like that. And this is crazy because 65% of children who are kidnapped are killed within the first three hours. So that is crucial time that they just made them wait for no reason. Every second matters in a situation like this. And I understand having suspicion about the family, but you should also be doing everything you can actively to search for a missing child at the same time. And they just weren't doing that.

And after they cleared the family, they left incredibly frustrated with the police. And this would just be the start of their frustration. They went to the media and of course they were interested and missing white girl and you target stolen from her bed. Like people were very interested. It'd be wonderful if every missing child got coverage like this, but Elizabeth definitely got a lot.

Her photo was all over the news, they were covering it pretty much constantly locally. And pretty much the whole community knew about this case the next day. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is hiking this mountain with Brian, and they're almost to the top. Elizabeth happened to be wearing bright red PJs that night, and as the sun started coming out, Brian started freaking out that people were going to be able to see her climbing the mountain. He said specifically that she looked like a red flame and that if there were any runners, you know, maybe they would spot her.

Eventually, they made it to his secret camp that he had all set up. This was very, very well thought out. And as they approached the camp, he starts telling her that his wife is waiting for them. And Elizabeth starts thinking, maybe he's not gonna just kill me. Maybe this is a couple that has never been able to have a baby and they want me to be their kid or something. She said she started getting a little bit more hope for her future at this point.

When they got to the camp area, there were tarps set up on the ground and a tent. And as they started approaching the campsite, this woman appears out from behind tree, and she was wearing these long linen robes and a headdress. This woman walked up to Elizabeth and gave her a hug. And Elizabeth said it was a really hard hug, kind of a controlling hug. And this woman is Wanda Barzi, Ryan's wife. Wanda then took Elizabeth into the tent and started washing her feet. She then told Elizabeth to undress and put on a robe. Obviously this was really, really scary to Elizabeth and at first

she refused but Wanda said if you don't, Brian's just gonna come here and take your clothes off. So she followed orders, she undressed, put the robe on and sat down on this bucket in the tent. Wanda left her there, crying alone and terrified. I just sunken into complete hopelessness, despair. And then Brian came back into the tent and started performing some type of marriage ceremony on her. As Elizabeth just sat there sobbing, he said that Elizabeth was now his wife in the eyes of Jesus Christ.

And then he said, we now have to consummate our marriage. And Elizabeth, even though she was young, she was pretty sure she knew what that meant and was terrified that that was going to happen to her, especially because it was so important in her faith to maintain your virginity. This was incredibly hard for her. I mean after this happened, she felt like she lost everything like she was not even a worthy person because she did not have her virginity anymore. This was so so scary to her. She said after it happened that she thought about all the other children that were murdered by their captors and she said for a moment she felt like they were the lucky ones that she was in hell on earth and couldn't escape. She thought they're in heaven right now and I wish I could be there. After this all had happened she lay there for a little while and eventually decided that

she was going to run. As soon as she had the opportunity she was gonna bolt out of there but she had to get up her energy first. She had just hiked up this whole mountain. Imagine the adrenaline that would be going off the entire time through something like this. So she was exhausted and took a nap and she decided that when she woke up she was just gonna bolt. But unfortunately, when she woke up she saw Brian in front of her and he was tying her leg up with a metal cord. He had tied it around her ankle and he was connected to a tree so her hope of running was gone. At this point she could only move 20 feet in any direction and she would have that as her entire world for weeks, for weeks on it and at this point she was just feeling so so hopeless. Meanwhile her parents are obviously still freaking out back at home.

Her mother was barely hanging on. Honestly, both parents were just absolutely stunned that this could happen to their daughter, to their family. Neither of them were sleeping at all. They were crying constantly to the point where they almost could barely see. Lois said that she would try to stay really strong during the day for the other kids, but at night she would just fall apart. At this point, and Lois were told that it was crucial for them to make a public statement

themselves and kind of appeal to the community. Hopefully this would get people to join the search efforts, get people to be on the lookout for Elizabeth. You know, media coverage always helps. Lois decided she was too emotional to do this. Understandably, so Ed was the one to do it. Well, let's bend the fear out there. We're doing everything we possibly can to help you.

We love you. We want you to come home safely to us. And luckily, this worked. A lot of people really felt his pain. Tons of people ended up coming out to support the family. We just can't even fathom who it is or why they took her. We can't believe that it's really happened. So they were feeling hopeful that maybe with enough prayers

and enough support and people searching that they could bring Elizabeth home. Back at the camp, Elizabeth is getting used to being chained up all the time. This camp had now become her prison. And she wasn't even that far away from her house. And all day, she just had to listen to Brian and Wanda, you know, ramble about some whack-ass shit that they were pulling out of nowhere, just repeating things out of the Bible.

Brian would just literally say things that he could tell he had heard, and he thought they made him sound wise and he ended up telling Elizabeth that he was an angel and a Davidic King which means that he was part of the bloodline of the Hebrew Messiah. He said that he would emerge in seven years, be stoned by a mob, lie dead in the streets for three days and then rise up to kill the mob lied dead in the streets for three days and then rise up to kill the anti-Christ. And he filled her in on his whole plan how Elizabeth was part of it and God wanted all of this to happen and Elizabeth was just gonna be one of many brides that Brian was hoping to acquire. Eventually he wanted Elizabeth to take

on a new identity to completely forget who she was and he made her pick a name out of the Bible and she ended up choosing the name Esther. And throughout her kidnapping she was abused in so many ways. She was obviously physically assaulted, she was raped, she was not given water, not given food basic nourishment for us to just sit there for hours and every time she thought that it couldn't get any worse it did. He would starve her for days at a time. He would give her garbage for her food and very, very little water,

mainly because he didn't have access to much either. She never knew when the next time that she would get food or water would be, and eventually she just became these people's slave. They made her do anything that they said. She was completely an object to them. From the beginning, it was clear that Wanda was not like also being held captive by Brian.

That she was a willing participant in this kidnapping, and she was essentially his evil accomplice. And Brian used her faith to manipulate Elizabeth so much. To scare her, he would force her to watch pornography, force her to drink. He wanted to keep me as a possession and I was like how long is it gonna be like this? What if it's until they die? He claimed that he was a prophet for God and God was telling him that Elizabeth needed to experience all the sins of earth before She truly became pure. He said that she had to sink to her lowest low before she could be the wife of a prophet.

One time, Brian even made her drink wine. He poured her a cup of it, said that she had to take a sip, or he would not give her any food or water. And she was so desperate for something at that point that she took a sip, then he forced her to have the whole thing, then he would pour her another cup,

make her drink all of that. And she was 14 years old, so obviously this is gonna make her feel drunk. She said after a while though that this feeling was kind of welcomed. That being numb in any way was comforting to her, and I completely understand that. And soon every day became the same for Elizabeth. Listening to them ramble about their religious thoughts, Listen to Brian talk about being a prophet, being starved, being thirsty, being bored, and being raped, and

eventually Wanda ended up getting a little jealous of Elizabeth. She felt like, you know, she was younger and prettier, and Brian had been giving her all the attention and wasn't fulfilling her needs, Yadda Yadda. So, Brian comes up with a schedule where he's going to be with Wanda in the morning hours and in the the attention and wasn't fulfilling her needs, yada yada. So, Brian comes up with a schedule where he's going to be with Wanda in the morning hours and in the afternoon hours into the evening, he's going to be with Elizabeth. One day Elizabeth and Brian went to go get water by themselves and while they were there, he tried to rape her. And Elizabeth reminded him of the rules and said, you can't do that to Wanda and he said, okay, well, Wanda will never know. She said, no, I will tell Wanda.

And he didn't do it. And that's when she really, she had some power that he would listen to her on some things. She said that she, of course, was still feeling sad. She was feeling scared. She was feeling that pain, but she just had to shut it down completely in order to survive.

Brian really wanted her to forget her old life. Back when he first kidnapped her, he had burned her pajamas so that she didn't even have clothes. She was somehow able to keep a small part of her shoe and a safety pin from her PJs. To kind of reminder of her old life, but eventually he found this and threw it out. So she ended up wearing the same clothes that Bryan and Wanda were wearing, which was just a robe and slippers. At this point, it has been weeks since Elizabeth has been gone but her parents are still hanging on to hope. They just have a feeling that she's still out there but they felt like their life had kind of paused. They were just frozen in time. Every time the

foam had rang, Lewis's heart would just stop and she'd feel like it was gonna be the call that they found her body or something like that. Ed and Lois continued to go on the news as often as they could, they did as many interviews as they could the whole family did. The search efforts had been going on for weeks since Elizabeth went missing and they actually were able to round up over 2,000 people on one of the days. The search effort was organized by the Laura Recovery Center and they were actually able to set up headquarters for their search at the Shriner's Hospital in Salt Lake City.

And having so many people care about Elizabeth and their family and support them really did help at and lowest through this hard time. Everyone wanted them to know that they were at least thinking of them and they continued to search the entire area for weeks after Elizabeth went missing. And this is so, so, so crazy, but on the third day of searching for Elizabeth, so back in the beginning of the search, someone was calling out Elizabeth's name, and it was close enough that Elizabeth actually heard it. The first time she heard it, she thought, I must be dreaming, and she heard them a second time. And at that point, she knew it was definitely someone

in her family looking for her, and she said it sounded like her uncle's voice. But Brian heard the noise too, and he said that if Elizabeth made any sound to try to get their attention, that he would kill her and her whole family. And Elizabeth was terrified at this point. She listened to pretty much everything he said. She listened as the voice is just slowly faded away. And you imagine how helpless you would feel. And imagine being the family member if you knew how close she was. They've never figured out exactly who it was, but there's a good chance it was her

uncle David who is very involved in her entire case and the search efforts. It was very close with Elizabeth and Ed. Speaking of which, Ed was just an absolute wreck during all of this. He's feeling totally helpless. Think about how hard that would be as a father to not have control of your little girl. To think some man has her and he's out there and you can't do anything to save her. He was constantly worrying about Elizabeth, is someone caring for her, are they treating her okay, is she alive? He just loved his daughter so, so much and eventually it just became too much and

Ed had a breakdown on the third day. His family ended up admitting him to the hospital. He was sedated and he pretty much could not function. I want to ask you about Elizabeth's father because I understand he collapsed. Edward literally hasn't had any sleep for three days. He wanted to be here very badly. Eventually they had a bishop come to the hotel room and prayed with him and he said after this, he just felt re-energized.

Obviously he was still devastated, but he felt the urge to get back to work, to continue looking, to be there for the rest of his family. So he said he got right out of the bed and got his clothes on and went right back home. But every day after that was a battle for them all. Neither of the parents were sleeping. That is so hard on your body, especially with the stress that they were going through. That's when you need to sleep the most, right? But I completely understand, like, how could you sleep when your daughter is gone? Thankfully, Elizabeth, on the other hand, was not having trouble sleeping, and she was using sleep as a coping mechanism. This was

actually part of her survival plan. She wanted to sleep away the time as much as possible, and she said it was the only time where she could completely escape. Luckily, she wasn't having any nightmares when she was sleeping. She was able to just kind of completely break from that reality. When she was awake, she would cope by thinking about her faith, praying to God, thinking about all the other miracles that God had pulled off in the Bible and hoping that maybe she would get a miracle as well. Her family never gave up hope that she was alive. Eventually, they decided to offer a $250,000 reward and they distribute these flyers all

across the state and all over the internet as well. They put up billboards and they kept her name and face in the news as much as they possibly could and agreed to every interview that they could. The latest on a developing story ended involves every parent's worst nightmare. Authorities in Salt Lake City, Utah say 14-year-old Elizabeth

smart was taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night. So like I said earlier, kids that get abducted are normally killed within three hours. It's very rare to reunite with a child after they have been kidnapped, but Ed and Lois did not give a pope and they felt like she

was still alive. By this point it had been weeks since Elizabeth had first gone missing and the public was demanding answers. The media had nothing to give, so what do they do? They stirred up. Suddenly there were reports coming out from an anonymous source saying that the screen had been cut from the inside of the smart house. Basically, suggesting that this was an inside job, someone from in the family set this all up. But her family said they were fine with being scrutinized if this meant people were still

interested in the case. We hope they do their job. And if that means we come under scrutiny, then so be it. Police eye relatives in probe. Looks as though the screen was cut from the inside. Then right after this, another anonymous source came forward from the police station and said that someone in the family had failed their polygraph test. It ended up being Elizabeth's uncle whose test was inconclusive, but that can be for so many different reasons.

I know I always have to point this out in videos, but polygraph tests are almost never used in court because they're so unreliable. Obviously as an adult, when a kid goes missing, you're gonna feel guilty, even if you didn't do it. Just because you think, you know, maybe there's something that you could have done. So these should not have been taken seriously from the beginning at all, but it was only marked as inconclusive. And of course, the media took this and ran with it and the family had to go through, on top of everything else,

trying to prove that they were innocent. There were rumors that David and Ed were fighting a lot. They had a secret bad relationship. They had to literally make a press conference and clear that up. Maybe one brother doesn't like another brother. You know, don't get me wrong in that. This family is... We love each other. We love each other more than any brother possibly could. But other than these rumors from some source,

there is no solid evidence to point to the family at all. But at this point, some people started turning on the smart family, thinking that they somehow did this, that there's no way that someone came into their house, took Elizabeth and was able to pull it off, that it had to be some type of coverup by the family. But meanwhile, while everyone's looking for answers and starting to blame the family,

Ryan is already planning his next kidnapping, and he tells Elizabeth that his next victim is going to be her cousin. He literally came up to her and said, I had a revelation. Your cousin, Olivia, is supposed to be my next wife. Olivia was also only 14 years old at this point. So Elizabeth is terrified thinking about her cousin getting wrapped up in this as well. She tried to convince him it wasn't a good idea that he could get caught again, but it didn't work. Brian decided to go ahead with his plan to Kinnap Olivia. So on July 24th,

he left the campsite, packed up the same knife that he used to Kinnap Alizabeth with. He brought duct tape and some extra clothes and headed to Olivia's house. Alizabeth had been kidnapped for 49 days at this point. She was already getting used to her life, but she couldn't even imagine her cousin having to go through what she was going through. She knew that if Olivia was kidnapped, her life would be over just like she thought hers was. So Brian decides that he's going to break into Olivia's house through the window. As he's up against the window, cutting the screen, he ends up knocking some picture frames off the window sill, and this wakes up Olivia's mother.

She comes into the room, turns on the lights, and actually sees him with the knife, trying to cut the window. She starts screaming, and this scared Brian enough for him to fluid the scene. And when they called the police and told them about this, they instantly said, you know, we're related to Elizabeth Smart,

and we think this could be connected. And the police downplayed that from the start. They said they just did not believe that there was a connection between Elizabeth's kidnapping and this breaking. They thought it was likely some sick joke that someone in the public was playing on the family to scare them because of their circumstances.

They thought it was very unlikely to be the same person that took Elizabeth, a boy where they wrong. Elizabeth was so relieved when she saw Brian come back to the campsite without Olivia and heard about how his plan did not work. And at this point, she had been in there for nearly 50 days and she had gone into complete survival mode.

And part of her survival plan was to keep quiet, to not talk about her previous life at all, to not really talk unless she had to. She never brought up anything from her past, as she noticed, whenever she did, it seemed to upset Brian, like he wanted her to just forget her whole life before him. At this time, Elizabeth had been chained up

the entire time she was in captivity. She had a 20-foot radius where she could kind of walk around the campsite, but that was it. And after building up a little bit more trust with him and acting like she had completely accepted her new life, she convinced him to unshain her. He said that if she did try to escape the camp that he would come find her, He would murder her and murder her whole family as well. So that was enough to keep Elizabeth there. At one point she decided to try to run away because Brian was really drunk. She thought he would barely notice it, but even when he was drunk he still noticed she was gone and Wanda had to chase her down, bring her back and she said you know if you do

that again you're going to meet an angel with a sword. Brian punished her as well. He beat her and he told her that if she tried to leave again and she survived, he would bring her back and chain her up at that point. But he decided to continue to let her live freely around the campsite, which I thought was interesting. Eventually, Wanda and Brian got a huge fight. Wanda was just sick and tired of living up there with no food, no water, and she felt like Elizabeth was getting all the attention.

She wasn't getting her needs met, blah, blah. She said that she was bored and sick of living up there. She wanted to go back into reality, be around people, go to parties, go to the store, things like that. And at first Brian was very hesitant, but eventually he agreed that this was a good idea. And not only were they going to leave the camp, but they were going to have Elizabeth join them.

Now this obviously seems incredibly risky. Like someone could totally recognize her and call the police, especially in Salt Lake City. And all he did was disguise her in a veil, which was covering the lower part of her face. You could still see her eyes, and I think she's still fairly recognizable. So I'm surprised that he was willing to take that risk.

So when they were finally leaving the mountain, Elizabeth finally realized how high they really were. The hike took quite a long time for them to get back down. They started this routine of going into the city together to panhandle for money. Brian will also steal food and alcohol and he actually called this plundering, which is a Bible turn.

So of course, he justified anything bad that he did and said that God was telling him to do it. So then on one of their trips down to Panhandle, they decide to stop by this house party that just is open. And this party was actually being hosted by an art collective. So tons of interesting people there, they even had flame throwers in the front yard. Elizabeth said it was pretty exciting, especially

for her, you know, she hadn't experienced much in a long time. But this was also just wild for Elizabeth because not only had she never been to a party before, but she had been stuck with Blanda and Brian for months and being around all these other people was so chaotic to her. And she was surprised that no one recognized her at this house party and get this. Someone actually took a photo of Elizabeth at this party. You can see she just looks totally overwhelmed. And that guy that she's standing within the photo actually sense that she was in a bad situation. But he didn't think he was, you know, a straight-up kidnapping or anything.

He just thought Elizabeth was dating this weird guy and he actually ended up pulling her aside and telling her that this guy's an asshole and you should get away from him. To him, Elizabeth seemed scared and lost. He could tell something was off, but he didn't know how bad obviously and he didn't feel like it was his place to do anything other than to advise Elizabeth not to be with this guy. And he said that he feels guilty to this day that he talked to her at a party and was not able to figure out what was going on or do anything more.

I have a daughter. I'm family at friends. I can't believe this kind of stuff happens. I... During the party, some random guy came up to Brian and handed him a handle of absent and it was homemade So it got him super super super drunk He started just downing this bottle until someone finally grabbed it away from him

It was like don't steal all our shit, dude. So he gets super drunk He starts acting extremely obnoxious and eventually he caused such a scene that someone at the party said Hey, we got to get this profit out of here So they kicked him out, they kicked Elizabeth and wandered out with him. And it's just crazy, that no one when they were out at this party recognized Elizabeth, especially in Salt Lake City.

I mean, she was all over the news. I mean, I guess when you're impaired, maybe that's the last thing you're thinking about. But Elizabeth headed back up the mountain with them and continued living in their captivity. She believed that if she ran away or said anything to anyone that Brian would kill her and her whole family, she felt like she just needed to wait a little bit longer to be rescued hopefully. And I feel like this was smart, you know? Some people have been

somewhat critical of Elizabeth believe it or not for not like running away or doing something or asking any of those people for help. And of course, maybe in a perfect world that would have worked, but with the fear and the trauma that she had been through, it just, it was too much for her. To even wrap her mind around one of her family members being murdered was just too terrifying. Plus, this guy had taken her out of her bed, out of her safe home with a knife. Who knows what else he's gonna do? She'd also seen him go after her cousin.

So she feels like he's stalking her whole family. If she does anything wrong, it could be her fault that something happens to them. So she was stuck. She really was. And I think it's incredibly sad and pathetic, honestly, that anyone tries to tell her You know, you should have done something sooner. That's just so obnoxious that people seriously have that mindset

Until you have been kidnapped and have been held against your will do not tell a victim When they should have done something or how they should have done it or why didn't you do it? I just think it is so so sad that she had to go through people asking questions like that after all of this. But anyway, so the summer was coming to a close, they were headed into the winter months and Brian decided that their campsite may not be the best place for them to hang out all winter. So of course he decides to move to a much warmer spot California not too far away. So one day in August of 2002, they went to the Librarian Salt Lake City

to look for a map to figure out how to get to California. They go into the library just like they had always done, but this time someone recognizes Elizabeth. Thankfully this person called 911 and told them and a detective came to the library. So this should have been the moment it all ended. The detective waited until Brian was in the bathroom to approach Wanda and Elizabeth.

He actually went right up to them and said that he was looking for Elizabeth's smart and asked if they could remove their veils. But Brian came out of the bathroom right during this and stepped in and said this was his daughter and that it's against their religion to take their veil off and that an officer cannot force you to do this. The officer said he tried one more time to convince this young woman to take

her veil off but he said Brian was very convincing and he was calm in the way he talked and just said you know it's against our religion you can't do that and there was nothing he could really do. But he didn't go and report it further or get any more information on them or follow them. This guy just let them go. And of course, Elizabeth wanted to say something while the detective was standing there, but the whole time Wanda had her hand gripped on Elizabeth's thigh really tightly, you know, letting her know if you do anything, you're going to suffer the consequences.

Elizabeth thought in her mind that the detective would have pushed harder, that he would have called back up or done something, but he didn't. So her abduction continued. And what's really sad to think about and hard for Elizabeth to this day is she could have ended her abduction a lot sooner if she had just, you know, made the right face or made a small noise. And she said it's just it's so hard for her but she's come to terms with understanding.

You know it's not her fault that fear is paralyzing and you really can't imagine what it would be like to be in her situation unless you actually were. To have had this guy hold a knife to you, to have almost killed you, to have almost kidnapped her cousin, she is so petrified by this guy that she she doesn't want to take any chances that he could do something to her. In her mind, if she did say something and the officer started the process but then you know decided, no I don't really think it's you or something happened that she'd be stuck going home with him and that he would just take her back to the camp and kill her

and then she would never make it home so she felt like she had to be very strategic in her escape but shortly after this the three of them boarded a bus to San Diego. They set up their camp in a remote area near lakeside in a dry creek bed. Elizabeth said it was a dirty and disgusting place and she felt even worse being California because she knew there was even less of a chance of someone Recognizing her at this point It had been four months since her abduction and she definitely was starting to feel pretty hopeless Elizabeth said that at this point she just wanted to feel numb So she started asking for more and more alcohol one night

She asked for more beer and ended up drinking a ton and Thring up getting violently sick and Elizabeth woke up drinking a ton and throwing up, getting violently sick, and Elizabeth woke up with like puking her hair. She just was too young for all of that and it was such a terrible experience. Brian started to go to the local LDS church in Lakeside and this is when he met someone named Verl Kim. And this guy Verl had a teenage stepdaughter that would stay with him on weekends and sometimes on every other Wednesday.

And when Brian saw a picture of her, he decided that she was going to be his next wife. He was going to kidnap her too. And one night he got up the courage to break into his friend's house, but the night that he did that someone heard him trying to get in just like last time, they woke up, turned on the lights, so he got freaked out and left. So luckily no one else was kidnapped. So it's still just Elizabeth, Wanda and Brian outside alone. At one point someone came too close to their camp, so Brian moved them even further out from civilization. Elizabeth was just miserable, going through the motions every single day,

completely insurvival mode, just down emotionally. And one day, Brian went up to Elizabeth and showed her a newspaper article talking about her. It had a picture of her parents, and this gave her so much hope to know that they were still looking. And Brian just said, I thought they would have given up by now. But they definitely had not given up. In fact, they were cranking things up even more. All the rumors about the family were starting to pretty much dissipate, and the police were definitely focusing on an intruder situation.

They soon realized that the family had over 60 contractors come to their house in the past few years. They had a huge house, tons of people working on it, so people in and out all the time, and they started thinking, maybe it was someone that was familiar with the house. And Brian was already on their list of suspects because when they went through Everyone, they found he was one with a criminal record. They found out that Brian was involved in a pharmacy robbery and that he had shot a cop. Honestly, they couldn't believe a family like the smarts would have some sketch

You do like this working in their house. So the police start working on trying to gather as much on the possible suspects as they can. At this point, there was still nothing to offer on the media. So rumors started to circulate again that a possible resting place had been found. At one point, there was talk that an area where Elizabeth was decapitated was found.

Their family was desperate for answers. The public is also desperate for answers. And all this pressure on the police made them really hone in on a suspect. They really wanted to wrap this up. And they started thinking that it was this guy named Richard Reesey who did it. Richard was a local handyman with a history of drug abuse, and he had also worked in the smart family home. So he seemed like a decent possibility and for some reason the police were really stuck on him over Brian and this guy was actually Ardian Jail. He was arrested just nine days after Elizabeth was first taken and sent to the Utah State prison for a parole violation.

So the police ended up interrogating him pretty intensely. And you know that I think you're involved in this. I wonder if you were in there and you were doing this and she woke up, what would you do? And you're telling me, I would be there. Well, I'll get a sit. You're a f***ing teller, you pal. Sit down, sit down.

It's never gonna stop. It's never gonna end. It's just gonna go on. For hours and hours, just convince that he did it. We know you did it. We know you did it. And he kept saying, no, it wasn't me. To the point where eventually, he started crying

and was like, just imagine what it would be like in my shoes. You're being accused of this and you didn't do it. I'm a little fucking lost, dude. I have one. Pretty sure my mother's shoes. But they still thought that he did it. And he was just being stubborn and didn't want to, you know,

say where the body was or anything so that he wouldn't have to face more jail time. They were really, really honing in on him, hoping to have this case solved and an answer for the family soon. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's family really doesn't think it is Richard. But the police were not able to solve this case with Richard because Richard ended up dying of a brain hemorrhage in August of 2002, just randomly. Reese was rushed to a hospital afterorrhage in August of 2002 just randomly. Lisa was rushed to a hospital after having breathing trouble in his cell.

And when he was in the hospital, the police even put out a statement saying that it's crucial that he stays alive for their investigation. The police are saying that it's very important that Richard live. But he didn't, so that was a pretty big setback for them because they thought this was their guy. And at first, Elizabeth's family was hoping that that would kind of put the idea of him being it to rest, then maybe they could look at some other options,

but the police saw it completely differently. They wanted the case to close with the death of Richard. The smart family felt so angry about this that they were just going to assume that he did it and that all the answers would die with him. They had a feeling still that Elizabeth was out there and that her kidnapper was still running free. And the family had a good reason for feeling like it wasn't Richard because in October

of 2002, something crazy happened. Elizabeth's sister, Mary Catherine, was just lying in her bed. When suddenly, she just remembered who the person who abducted Elizabeth was, it just came to her. She went running to her dad and told him, I remember who it was. It was that homeless guy that we gave $5 and then he came and worked at the house.

And that's when her dad put two and two together and realized that it was a manual. Also known as Brian Mitchell. So they take this information to the police and the police make a composite sketch, but they really don't believe Mary Catherine very much. They thought it would be too hard for her to remember all those details, and then it would be strange for her

to be able to recall someone being in her house that long ago, you know, that only came one time. But she said she even recognized the guy's voice that it sounded familiar to her. And she said she even recognized the guy's voice that it sounded familiar to her. And she said that from the beginning, she just finally figured out where it was from. So this should have been a big deal. This should have come out to the public right away. But obviously this is a tricky situation because if you go ahead and release this information to the public that, you know, we think it's this guy named Emmanuel, he worked in the house,

blah, blah, blah, here's a composite sketch. There's a chance that this will give Brian a warning. That maybe he will do something to Elizabeth if he does have her out of fear. That's always a concern, but at the same time, their family knew so many tips could come into this. So many leads, it could solve the case. So this was a big disagreement for the police and the family.

The family really wanted to release a composite sketch and get some leads. So finally in December of 2002 John Walsh who I'm sure many of you know who he is if you're into true crime, if not look him up, he started getting involved in the case and trying to help them. He works with America's most wanted and they work on trying to solve cases like this. He thought it was just ridiculous that the police were not allowing them to release a composite sketch. He felt like it would really help the case out. So he actually went on Larry King himself and with permission from the family, he spilled

the beans about the whole situation and what Mary Catherine had said, the manual thing, all of it. Their young daughter has now said that she believes that Risi wasn't the guy in there that night, that it may have been another guy that did some work on their roof. So meanwhile, Elizabeth had just turned 15 in captivity. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's all came and went and she spent all of the holidays with Brian and Wanda. At one point her photo was taken, you can see her here. They were eating at some holiday meal

for homeless people. And at this point, Elizabeth was just feeling so drained, so tired, so sick of all of this, wondering if she's ever going to make it out of this situation. In February of 2003, eight months after she had been first kidnapped. Brian decided to leave Wanda and Elizabeth at the campsite without any food and water.

They had already not had anything for three days at that point to go find more. And Elizabeth didn't think she would even survive to see him come back. She said she was just laying there thinking about how ironic it would be if she were to die of starvation or dehydration after everything that she had been through.

And she just started laughing and she told God that she hopes she has a good sense of humor in her next life. And Elizabeth said that at this moment, she felt truly at peace with everything, that she was okay with dying, that she was grateful for everything that she did have in her life before she was taken into captivity And she decided that if she died right there that that would be okay and then suddenly it starts to rain, right? It's like out of a movie. She was able to drink the rain water Which kept her going and kind of gave her a sign to keep on fighting and the will to live to her

It was a miracle after several days Brian finally came back to the campsite and the will to live. To her, it was a miracle. After several days, Brian finally came back to the campsite, and while he was gone instead of finding food for his wives, he was buying alcohol, prescription drugs, and breaking into the LDS church. He was arrested for breaking and entering, but somehow he fooled the judge into letting him go and made it back up to the campsite.

Elizabeth said that she just could not believe how good of luck this guy had for such a terrible person. So they continued living on in their campsite as normal for days. And at one point, a helicopter actually passed over them and Brian got really paranoid about this. Elizabeth was hoping someone would just jump out of the helicopter and rescue her, but unfortunately did not happen. But Brian felt like they were too obvious out there, and he instead wanted to go mix into a big city. But he started thinking about taking them back east to Chicago or Philadelphia. And as soon as Elizabeth heard this, she just thought this cannot happen. Like I've at least got to stay in the West, so I have more chances of being recognized.

And the more she thought about it, she started to realize, you know, I really need to get back to Utah. That is going to be my best chance of being found. So Elizabeth came up with a plan. She ended up telling Brian that God had spoken to her this time and said, you got to go back to Utah so you can plunder some more wives. And after thinking about it, Brian agreed and thought, you know, God probably did tell you that.

Let's listen to God. So they headed back to Utah and they were going to hitchhike the whole way back. Brian dressed her up in a wig and sunglasses. And at this point, she had definitely earned some trust with him. You know, the fact that she hadn't reacted when the detective was there, I think he felt a lot safer moving with her at this point. So he was willing to do the hitchhiking thing instead of, you know, riding the bus, since I was too expensive. It was very hard to get

rides. Even without our ropes, I think we still looked strange. So once they got back to Utah, Ryan started just kind of mingling around Salt Lake like everything was fine. And they started going to soup or salads very often. And right around this time, Ed had released the composite sketch to the public. So people knew to look for this specific guy that was going by a manual. So Elizabeth's uncle David brings a photo to the super salad because they kept getting tips that he was seen there. And they asked the waitress if she has seen Brian in the restaurant and she says yes, he and his wife come in all the time. I thought they were just part of some weird, religious cult. I don't know what's up with their outfits, but I've seen them.

And then she said, you know, the last time he was here though, he had two women with him, and one was younger. And her uncle knew that this was huge for the case, that this was really her. He felt the most hopeful he had the entire time. Also around this time, Wanda and Brian's families recognized them and came forward and said that they thought they did it. They haven't been able to find them recently and they think that they would do something like this. And they ended up giving the police tons of information on them. So now the police have definitely shift gears. They have realized that it is most likely Brian who has Elizabeth and that there's a good chance

she's still alive. So they're constantly putting out information to the public to keep on alert for this guy. So then one day, two different people called police and said that they saw Brian with Elizabeth smart in a Walmart. And since two people called, the police thought this is probably them, so they completely surrounded the Walmart. And when they came outside, there was cops everywhere. When the police confronted Brian and asked for his ID, he said that he did not have it. He said his name was Peter

Marshall and that they had given up all of their earthly possessions in order to be messengers for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they had no idea. They said they were traveling preachers and that Elizabeth was their daughter. Elizabeth was still dressed in a wig that clearly did not look real. Sunglasses. It was so obviously a disguise and police knew that this was Elizabeth's mark for sure, but she wouldn't say a word. They could tell that she was terrified about Brian so they knew that they needed to separate them and kind of be able to talk to her on her own. Once they got her alone, they told her, you know, we know you're Elizabeth smart. You just have to tell us and this can all be over, but she said, no, no, I don't know who that is. They even held

up a flyer of Elizabeth. Rainics were facing, said, this is you. And she said, no, no, I don't know who that is. They even held up a flyer of Elizabeth. Rainik's her face and said, this is you. And she said, no, no, it's not me. She was so scared that something would go wrong and she would end up being stuck going back with Brian and Wanda. And who knows what they would do to her? The police knew that she was just too afraid

to say anything in front of Brian and Wanda. So they ended up putting her in their police car. They were gonna take her back and interrogate her at the police station. And as they're loading her into the back of the car, one of the officers just says to her, you know, this is your final chance to tell us who you are. Just tell us who you are, and this can all be over.

You are Elizabeth Smart, right? And she said, thou sayest. This is how they talked normally. She thought that Brian wouldn't notice if she just spoke how they normally spoke, you know, thou and doth. So obviously the police took this as a yes. I am Elizabeth Smart.

They took her back to the police station, put her in this room, and she said that she was just sitting there thinking about what was gonna happen next when suddenly the door opens and it was her dad. Ed could hardly believe his eyes. After all that time to see Elizabeth right in front of him, just getting emotional. This is intense stuff.

I just cannot imagine what it would be like after all that time, all the emotions you'd have, the questions, and the door burst in open without any warning. And there was my dad. He came running over and started hugging me. I held her back and I said, Elizabeth, is it really you? And finally, she said, yes, dad.

And then she starts to cry. And we're just a mess. A mess of happiness and joy. I was just so thrilled to be able to look at her and see her and hear her talk and know that she wanted to be back with us as a family. Elizabeth was then reunited with all of her family members and was just filled with joy, hugging them all, they were all crying. I mean, a lot of them thought that she was never coming back. And so did the media, so did the public. So when they found out that Elizabeth

was alive, everyone just went crazy. It really felt like a true miracle that she was alive, fairly unharmed. She just had been through so much. 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart was found alive today. And of course, people were curious. Where had Elizabeth Smart been all of this time? But her parents really shut her down from the media. They wanted her to focus on healing and getting back to herself. And of course the public had tons of opinions, people saying that she should like go to some type of rehab center before she goes home or she shouldn't even be back into her normal life until she's gone through therapy, blah blah blah, which I understand people's point with that. But Elizabeth made it very clear that at that time she

did not want to do therapy at all. She didn't feel like she needed it and maybe she didn't. She said her parents became her therapist and that it was important to her that she has control over what is going to happen to her now. I mean, she's been living without any control over anything for nine months. So at this point, she wanted to to make all her decisions and she made that decision to not get therapy right away and just go home, be with her family and talk to them. Eventually she did see some therapists but she says that most of her healing came from her parents. Her mom would always say to her that you know this man stole nine months from you. But the best punishment that

you can give him is to just be happy. And so Elizabeth did. She went on continuing her life and was very happy. She had a new appreciation for everything, I think. I think anyone would after going through something like that. So while she is reuniting with her family, they've got to figure out all the legal proceedings. How are they going to make sure that Elizabeth gets justice? So when they started interrogating Brian, he went full religious nut on them. They said from the beginning they could tell

he was putting on a show that he wanted to be deemed not competent to stand trial, that he was hoping to use his mental illness to get out of this. He was going to act insane and just go that route. You're not Jesus Christ. You're not Jesus Christ, but I am your problem. I am his servant. of this. He was going to act in sane and just go that route. The officers even tried to get him to admit that he went against the Mormon church, but Brian just kept on rambling about his religion, politics, and his book. The officers asked

him to please leave out religion from what he was talking about because they couldn't understand anything he was saying and he'd already put the family through so much help. The least that he could do is just explain what happened. He continued to just blame the Bible, blame his faith for what he had done, why he had done it, that he was supposed to be doing this.

They continued to struggle to get answers out of him even to simple yes or no questions. Every time they started asking tough questions, Brian would just talk in circles. At one point, he even started singing hymns while he was being interrogated. He just knew that if he rambled enough that maybe he would be deemed insane.

Sadly, the legal proceedings took way too long because of Brian and because of the whole battle over his mental health. They were constantly evaluating him, fighting over whether or not he'd be able to stand trial, and this took years. It took like eight years for her to get justice. Wanda and Brian were charged on March 18, 2003, and they were charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, and aggravated burglary. Thankfully, the court did deem him competent enough to stand trial in 2004. At first, he agreed to plead guilty to kidnapping

and burglary in exchange for a 10-15-year sentence on the condition that Elizabeth would not testify against him. And thankfully, the prosecution stayed strong and refused to drop the sexual assault charges that he was trying to get dropped. And throughout court, Brian pulled out all the stops. He would try to act as crazy as he could in court, try to make a scene. And in February of 2005, Brian's lawyer filed a brief statement that he would no longer be competent to stand trial. But this was all an act. Like, he'd act crazy when he was at the trial, then he'd go back to jail

and his security guards in jail said he would act completely fine. Brian, David Mitchell and his wife, Juan de Barzi, are undergoing competency evaluations to see whether they'll be able to stand trial. But the judge ultimately agreed that Brian had psychosis. He went back to Utah State Hospital on August 11th, 2005 and stayed there until 2008. All just wasting time. And everyone that worked there said he was acting fine, acting completely normal the whole time. Then in February of 2006, a bill was passed

that allowed prosecutors in Utah to apply for defendants to be forcibly medicated, to make them competent enough to face trial. And they ended up deciding to let them do this with Wanda, but not with Bryant because it was unnecessarily harsh. Anyway, Wanda just pled guilty and she only got 10 years in prison. Brian ended up yelling at the judge once again,

saying, for sake those robes and kneel in the dust, and at this point he was found not competent to stand trial again. His case just continued to be stalled, hearings were held on his competency in 2008 and 2009, but Elizabeth was not having it and she would actually be the one to make that final push for justice. She ended up testifying against Brian and she said that he is smart, he's articulate,

he's evil, wicked and manipulative, that all of this was just an act that he sneaky, slimy, selfish, greedy, not spiritual, not religious, and not close to God. They had one final doctor, do an evaluation, Dr. Michael Welner. He reviewed 210 sources and 57 interviews with Brian, and he determined that Brian was competent to stand trial. He concluded that Brian was a very manipulative person who just used religion to make people believe that he was delusional.

So his trial finally started on March 1, 2010. He was deemed competent enough to stand trial and they started trial on November 8, 2010. Finally, and thankfully his insanity defense was rejected. The jury found him guilty of transporting and kidnapping a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity. And he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And he's currently serving his sentence in a high security prison in Indiana.

I hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in America, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible. The man convicted of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart will spend the rest of his life in prison. I was grateful that he's going to be in prison for the rest of his life. In 2016, Wanda was transferred from the Federal Medical Center to the Utah State Prison and started serving her prison sentence. And on September 11th, 2008, the parole board announced that she would be getting out on September 19th that year.

This was hugely upsetting for Elizabeth. You know, at this point, Wanda had only served nine years. Elizabeth said this was not enough time. She spoke out against her release and the dangers to society, but they went ahead and let her out anyway. And she is out to this day, and you guys will not believe this, but recently she moved near a school. 73-year-old Wanda Barzi has moved into this modest home in Salt Lake City. Parkview Elementary School is just 600 yards away. The public has been very upset about her living there.

I'm not sure if she still is. I'm sure she is. But nothing can be done. They can't force her to move or anything because there were no restrictions in her parole limiting her from living near school, which just seems like a duh. The fact that that woman is free just makes me want to throw up.

I mean, I feel like both of them should have been prisoners for the rest of their life as they made her be. I'm probably wondering what has life been like for Elizabeth since this? Well, she has been extremely strong, incredibly strong, like inspirational to the next level. She had, you know, spent years healing herself and she decided to face him at trial. She looked him right in the eyes and said that she was not afraid. At this point, he was nothing to her. She didn't care what happened to him. He was not part of her life. As an adult, Elizabeth became an advocate for victims of kidnapping and sexual assault,

especially children. In 2011, she founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. On a missionary trip overseas, she met Matthew Gilmore from Scotland and they started dating and the two of them actually got married in February of 2012. Not only that, Elizabeth now has three kids. Chloe who was born in 2015, James who was born in 2017 in Olivia who was born in 2018. On May 1st 2013, Elizabeth made a speech at a human trafficking conference at Johns Hopkins University. She talked about the importance of normalizing sexuality in women and rejected the idea that the value of girls and women is based on virginity or sexual history.

And I absolutely love that she has made that part of her message now. And to this day, Elizabeth is continuing to speak around the world and inspire so many people. She's helped endless people. Find strength to do all types of things. I mean, just hearing her story alone is inspiring whether you can relate or not. And that's why I love stories like this because it reminds me that if Elizabeth

could get through this and survive this, then I can do anything. It makes me feel like I can do anything. Elizabeth has a wonderful TED Talk that I think you guys should all listen to. I will link it below. I will also link her newest documentary, which is available on YouTube,

so you can hear this all from her. Or you can check out her published books. That is going to be it for me today guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. Doug Pike here for Kirk Holmes, a third-generation custom builder that builds all around Houston

and even up throughout the hill country now. They've got a Southern Living Showcase home in Mission Ranch up in College Station that you are welcome to tour or you can start your search down here in their offices or even at their website to see what your dream home truly can look like. They back their homes with a 20 year structural warranty too. Kirkhomes.com that's KURK because at Kirkhomes it's all about you. Hi, this is Gail from Navy Federal Credit Union.

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