Wanda Barzee, the woman who kidnapped then-14-year-old Elizabeth Smart from her Utah home alongside her husband, has been arrested for entering a park despite being a registered sex offender.
Barzee, 79, and her husband Brian Mitchell abducted Smart from her home at knifepoint and held her captive for nine months in June 2002. While she was held captive, Smart was raped, constrained and threatened with death. She was rescued by police officers on a Utah street in March 2003.
The case sparked national attention, and Smart has gone on to become a child safety advocate. Barzee pleaded guilty in 2009 and Mitchell was convicted in 2011. Barzee was released from prison in 2018.
But she’s behind bars again after she was recently arrested on suspicion of being a sex offender in a protected area. Barzee is accused of visiting “at least two parks in Salt Lake City, including Liberty Park and Sugar House Park,” Salt Lake police spokesperson Brent Weisberg told local outlet KSL.
Barzee is not allowed to visit community parks on account of her sex offender status.
The arrest affidavit states Barzee “admitted” that she visited Liberty Park because “she was commanded to by the Lord,” KSL reports. Barzee also said she visited Sugar House Park because she was “commanded to.”
Barzee also “admitted to going to the park to sit on benches and feed ducks,” the affidavit reviewed by KSL states.
Smart warned against Barzee’s release in 2018. She said Mitchell did manipulate his wife, but Barzee still “in her own right abused me as much as he did.”
“She is a woman who had six children and yet could co-conspire to kidnap a 14-year-old girl, and not only sit next to her while (she was) being raped, but encouraged her husband to continue to rape me,” Smart said at the time.
“So, do I believe she is dangerous? Yes, but not just to me,” she added. “I believe that she is a danger and a threat to any vulnerable person in our community.”
But Barzee’s lawyer Scott Williams maintained she was ready to return to society.
“I do not believe there is any evidence that Ms. Barzee is a risk to the community, and I think it is unfair and counterproductive to make such assertions,” he said in 2018.