Salt Lake City school girl Elizabeth Smart, 14, was abducted from her home in June 2002 and held by her deranged captors for nine months until she was recognized and rescued.
Itinerant handyman and street preacher Brian David Mitchell, wild eyed and bearded, and his apparent wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, grabbed the girl from her home, where Mitchell had done odd jobs. A highly publicized search followed.
Elizabeth was recognized in nearby Sandy, Utah, in March 2003, even though she was wearing a gray wig and veil. Mitchell, who referred to himself as Immanuel David Isaiah, reportedly had regarded Smart as his second wife.
The kidnappers were arrested but eventually were found incompetent to stand trial. Both are still being held in a Utah mental health facility. Elizabeth, at last report was a music student at Brigham Young University, has said publicly that she fears for her safety if the two are ever released. One suspects she is right to worry. The Smart family published a book about Elizabeth's ordeal, and her abduction was also the subject of a made-for-TV movie.
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