Topic: Wanda Barzee

The Elizabeth Smart kidnapping occurred on June 5, 2002, when 14-year-old American girl Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City, Utah, bedroom. Smart was found alive nine months later on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah, about 18 miles from her home, in the company of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee, who were indicted for her kidnapping, but initially ruled unfit to stand trial. Her abduction and recovery were widely reported and were the subject of a made-for-television movie and a published book.

Ed and Lois Smart resided in the affluent neighborhood of Federal Heights in Salt Lake City, Utah with their six children. On the evening of June 4, 2002, the family attended an award ceremony at Elizabeth's school. After the family returned home and got ready for bed, Ed made sure the doors were all locked, but he did not turn on the alarm. "If the children got up and moved , it would set the alarm off. And so we just said we’re not going to bother with it," Lois later explained.

In the early hours of the morning, Brian David Mitchell allegedly broke into the home and came to the bedroom that Elizabeth shared with her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine. While Mary Katherine pretended to be asleep, she watched the abduction, and later gave these statements as to what happened: