In her first sit-down interview since the news of her abductor’s upcoming prison release, Elizabeth Smart shared additional details on kidnapper Wanda Barzee, some of which have never been heard before.
“…Just the feeling that kind of radiated from her. It just was dark. And it was evil. And I just knew that she — she wasn’t there to help me, that she wasn’t there to protect me,” Smart told CBS in a Tuesday morning interview while describing Barzee, who was complicit in Smart’s 2002 kidnapping.
“Perhaps that’s what worries me, because I know just how bad she really can be. She would encourage him to rape me. She would sit right next to me. Like, the side of her body would be touching me.”
Barzee will be out of prison on Wednesday, something Smart is strongly against. During the interview, Smart provided disturbing, never-before-heard details about Barzee and her “reading materials” in prison. Smart claimed Barzee still had a book in her possession written by fellow kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell.
“Through my sources, I’ve heard that she’s still carrying around this ‘book of revelations’ that Brian Mitchell wrote… that said he should kidnap me, and not just kidnap me but six other young girls, and that we’d all be his wives,” Smart said.
So far, the allegations against Barzee carrying the book in prison has been unconfirmed. Smart, however, feels that it’s credible information.
“Clearly she hasn’t let go.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Barzee conspired with her husband Mitchell, who kidnapped Smart from her family home in 2002. Mitchell held Smart, then 14, at knifepoint in her own bedroom and forced her out of her home in the middle of the night.
Mitchell then led Smart into a nearby secluded area and forced to go through a “marriage” with him, claiming her to be his new wife. According to Smart, Mitchell forced her through woods while she wore only her pajamas, then raped her after the mock marriage ceremony. He then shackled her to a wire between two trees while Barzee fully cooperated and was complicit in the kidnapping.
For the next nine months, Smart was raped almost daily by Mitchell. During his trial, Smart told the jury that Mitchell treated her “like an animal,” and forced her to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. He also forced her to watch him have sex with Barzee. Further, he often denied her food and water as a means to control her and have Smart completely dependent upon him.
The couple kept Smart for nine months until authorities found her walking down a street in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City just 18 miles from her family’s residence. Smart was walking alongside Barzee and Mitchell when police stopped them.
In 2011, Mitchell received life in prison while Barzee received 15 years in federal prison, in addition to a concurrent sentence of to one to 15 years in state prison. The parole board stated Barzee completed her sentence, and despite public outrage and protest, will be released on September 19.
“I have been reassured multiple times that she will be kept a very close eye on,” Smart added. “And as soon as she messes up, which I’ve been reassured that she will, she will be taken back to federal prison for the duration of the five years.”
Part of Barzee’s parole condition states she cannot have any contact with Smart or any of Smart’s family members.
Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.
[Feature Photo: Elizabeth Smart via AP/Rick Bowmer, File]
