Elizabeth Smart has revealed she finds it ‘troubling’ that one of the kidnappers who held her captive for nine month will be freed in six years.
Smart posted a candid Instagram post about Wanda Barzee, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping her in 2002.
A hearing was held on Tuesday before the state parole board in Salt Lake City that could have helped Barzee, 72, get out of prison earlier – but she refused to attend.
Barzee has also refused to take a psychological evaluation that she must undergo to get out before her scheduled release in January 2024.
‘The good news is she was not released,’ Smart wrote in her Instagram caption.
Elizabeth Smart posted a candid Instagram post about Wanda Barzee, her former captor who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2002 and was up for parole this week
A hearing was held on Tuesday before the state parole board that could have helped Barzee, 72, get out of prison earlier – but she refused to attend
‘However what I find troubling is that, regardless of her threat level, she will be released in 2024, six years from now. It is possible that she could be paroled before then…hopefully not.’
Smart said the reason she wanted Barzee to stay in jail was not out of revenge for taking nine months of her life.
‘I do not think I’m a vindictive or vengeful person,’ the mother-of-two wrote. ‘If change were truly possible in her case then perhaps parole/release could be justified.’
But Smart said she realized Barzee would never change when she found out her former abductor still carried and read from ‘The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah’.
‘In this manuscript were the “revelations” Mitchell “received” from God to kidnap myself and six other young girls to be his wife,’ Smart explained, referring to her captor and rapist Brian David Mitchell.
Barzee (pictured left in 2002 and right in 2016) also refused to take a psychological evaluation she would need to undergo to get out before her scheduled release in January 2024
But Smart (pictured before her kidnapping in 2002) said she knew Barzee would never change after finding out she still read from ‘The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah’
‘It also “revealed” his other highly disturbing and dangerous ideas.’
‘This is proof to me that she hasn’t changed, and if the prior 15+ years hasn’t changed her I don’t see how the future years will.’
‘In this manuscript were the “revelations” Mitchell “received” from God to kidnap myself,’ Smart explained, referring to her captor and rapist Brian David Mitchell (pictured in 2002)
Smart said she would ‘continue to pray’ that Barzee is never a threat to herself, her family, ‘or any vulnerable person ever again’.
‘A lot can happen between now and the years to come, so in the meantime I will continue to make my family my priority, working to advocate and protect victims and children, and live my life the best way I know how.’
Smart’s father Ed echoed his daughter’s sentiments on Tuesday, saying that she had accepted the fact that Barzee would eventually be released.
Ed also revealed that, although he was not worried for his daughter’s safety, he feared that Barzee could be a danger to others.
He found that Barzee’s refusal to attend the parole hearing or take the psychological exam seems to indicate that she has the same mindset when she kidnapped his daughter.
‘It’s Barzee as usual,’ Ed said. ‘I would hate for her to have the opportunity to do that again to someone else.’
Smart was just 14 years old when Mitchell and Barzee abducted her from her Salt Lake City home on June 5, 2002.
Smart said she would ‘continue to pray’ that Barzee is never a threat to herself, her family, ‘or any vulnerable person ever again’. Mitchell is serving a life sentence for her kidnapping
Smart’s father Ed echoed his daughter’s sentiments on Tuesday, saying that she had accepted Barzee’s eventual release
Mitchell raped Smart on a daily basis in her nine months of captivity, during which the trio traveled from Utah to Southern California and back.
Before the kidnapping, the Smart family had paid Mitchell to do handyman work at the house after thinking he was just a man down on his luck.
Smart was rescued nine months after her abduction on March 12, 2003, when two witnesses recognized Mitchell and Barzee from an America’s Most Wanted episode.
The couple were both charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated sexual assault.
Barzee testified against her husband in court, as did Smart, in 2009. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison in 2011.
‘I know that you know what you did was wrong,’ Smart told Mitchell at his sentencing.
Since her kidnapping, Smart (pictured with her husband and two children) has become an author and an advocate for survivors missing persons and sexual abuse victims
Smart said she has since been able to forgive her captors to move on with her own life
‘You took away nine months of my life that can never be returned.’
Barzee was transferred from federal prison to Utah state prison in 2016 to serve her time for the aggravated kidnapping charge.
Scott Williams, her attorney at trial, said after the parole hearing that he believes his former client should be released because she has served the agreed-upon years as established in a plea agreement.
Williams said he hasn’t been in touch with Barzee for about a year and doesn’t know why she didn’t attend the hearing or take the psychological examination.
He said she has been diagnosed with several mental illnesses.
Earlier this year, Smart said she has finally been able to forgive her captors.
‘My captors will never care if I forgive them, it will not make a day of difference to them at all, but it will make a huge difference to me,’ she said.
‘If I stay angry from holding onto this in my life, it would be eating away at me. I love myself too much to do that to myself.’