For weeks last summer, family photos and videos of Elizabeth Smart, the kidnapped Utah teenager, flickered across the television screens of America as police sought clues to her disappearance. Few imagined that, nine months after she was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, she would reappear safe and well.
Now it appears that her kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, a handyman who had worked at the Smart home, believed himself to be a prophet in direct consultation with God. Mitchell, a Mormon, had supposedly decided that Elizabeth, who is now 15, was to be his second bride.
Her father, Ed Smart, said yesterday that his daughter was recovering and had been playing the harp and watching her favourite video, Trouble with Angels.
Mitchell, who was known locally as Emmanuel, and who claimed that God had told him to preach to the homeless, was being questioned by a clearly ecstatic local police force. Also being interviewed was Mitchell’s wife, Wanda Barzee.
Elizabeth, then 14, was taken from the bedroom she shared with her 10-year-old sister, Mary, who pretended to be asleep. Mary later told her parents that she believed that Mitchell had been the kidnapper.
Police had meanwhile concentrated most of their efforts on another suspect, also a handyman, called Richard Ricci. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage last August in jail where he was being held on a parole violation.
The Smart family, who have been critical of the investigation, doubted that Ricci was the abductor and pressed the police to step up their inquiry. Ricci’s widow was also critical of the police for apparently targeting her husband to the exclusion of other leads. It was only last month that police finally issued details and an artist’s impression of Mitchell.
Two neighbours of Mitchell tipped off the police and he, his wife and Elizabeth were tracked down on Wednesday. Mitchell’s sister had also come forward with details of where he might be. All three were wearing wigs and Elizabeth and Barzee were wearing what appeared to be religious veils. They were carrying bedrolls.
The trio had apparently been travelling in Utah and California and had spent time near San Diego. The Smart family believe that Elizabeth had been brainwashed and that this was the reason she had not made her escape. Initially, she had been held at knifepoint in the canyons outside Salt Lake City and had been too terrified to reply when she heard searchers calling her name.
”Physically, she’s OK,” Mr Smart said. ”I know that she’s been through brainwashing. For her to have gone through the past nine months has just been horrible, absolutely horrible. I don’t know what kind of hell she went through.”
Her uncle, Tom Smart, said: ”She’s in shock. She’s been in the hands of a very sick person.”
Despite the euphoria — there will be a public celebration in Liberty Park in Salt Lake City today — the investigation is likely to come under scrutiny. The police denied they had spent too much time pursuing the wrong man.
Barzee’s stepdaughter, Louree Gayler, told reporters that Mitchell and Barzee often prayed for hours at a time and behaved in a bizarre way. Ms Gayler said that she had once been forced to eat her pet rabbit and that Mitchell had shot a dog in front of her.
The Smart family called for legislation to create a national system of ”amber alerts” when a child goes missing. – Guardian Unlimited Â