Dad Says Utah Girl 'Brainwashed' by Alleged Captor

Reuters (via Netscape) ^ | 3/13/03 | Sue Pleming

[SarahW]

Dad Says Utah Girl 'Brainwashed' by Alleged Captor
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The drifter suspected of snatching a 15-year-old Utah girl rescued after a nine-month ordeal was described on Thursday as a man who believed he was a prophet and who likely brainwashed the child.

Elizabeth Smart was found alive on Wednesday in what relatives described as a "miracle," and reunited with her family after police received a tip from two people in a store just miles from the girl's home where she was abducted from her bedroom last June.

The teen-ager's father, Ed Smart, told reporters he believed his daughter had been "brainwashed" by her alleged abductor, identified by police as Brian David Mitchell, a street preacher and itinerant who once did work around the Smart's home.

"I can just tell that he (Mitchell) did an absolute brainwashing job on her," Smart told ABC's "Good Morning America."

When police picked up the girl in a car in Sandy, Utah, on Wednesday, she was wearing a white veil. A woman identified as Wanda Barzee was also picked up by police.

No charges have been filed against Mitchell and Barzee and little information has been disclosed about the girl's ordeal.

Smart, who broke down at times, said the man had held his daughter at knifepoint until August in the mountains directly above their Salt Lake City home. Elizabeth heard rescuers calling her name but could not reply.

"It kills me she was there for three months, literally up in the hills (behind our house)," Smart told NBC's "Today" show.

Mitchell's stepsons, Mark and Derrick Thompson, told morning television that Mitchell and their mother, Barzee, had traded an "average life," started wearing white robes and sold their possessions to live on the street to preach and panhandle.

Mitchell's stepdaughter, Louree Gayler, said she moved out of their home in her early teens.

"Brian was always hugging me the wrong way and kissing on me and I just didn't like it over there. So I went and moved back with my dad and I haven't seen my mom since," Gayler said on morning television.

After hearing of Smart's disappearance and reports their stepfather might be involved, the Thompson brothers said they had a "gut feeling" Mitchell had taken the little girl and they scoured homeless shelters for them.

They described a bizarre life with their stepfather who had told them he was a prophet and spoke continuously of talking to angels.

Ed Smart said his daughter spent her first night back at home with family members holding them close and watching her favorite video, "The Trouble with Angels."

Investigators renewed their search for Mitchell last month based on descriptions by Elizabeth's younger sister, Mary Catherine, of the intruder who took Elizabeth away at gunpoint for their bedroom.

Smart said the reunion between the two sisters had been particularly poignant.

"It was just tears and hugs. As they fell asleep, they were hand in hand in bed. It was just the thing that I had hoped for and looked forward to," he told ABC.

[SarahW]

Hey, remember this guy... "Chad"? I always thought police should have taken him more seriously...that they dismissed him too quickly as a "show-off". Mitchell was right where Chad said Mitchell was, and wore that stupid white hat.

From a June 6 Cnn report:

While searching the woods of Emigration Canyon just a few miles east of Salt Lake City, one volunteer -- identifying himself only as Chad -- said he saw a man who fit the description of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper trying to cover up his footprints.

"I found some footprints and I decided to follow it," Chad said. "I took about three steps before I saw a guy with a white hat, white shirt, so I just hid myself and basically followed him for a little while."

After losing sight of him, he and other members of his search party said they heard a couple of gunshots.

[Squantos]

Wow....BTTT.....Stay Safe !

[alloysteel]

The "Stockholm Syndrome" is at work here. Patty Hearst was held captive for quite a while by the Symbionese Liberation Army, even participating in several raids, as I recall, and probably had ample opportunity to physically walk away, but was held in place by her own internal fears and doubts in her ability to make a successful escape.

[SarahW]

I'm certain she was made utterly dependant on her captors...
Taken away from all she knew, isolated from help and closely watched...

But I share Ed Smart's frustration that she was in the nearby mountains and not found...

I hope "Chad" gets his "I told you so" moment. If police had not dismissed him and his sighting so quickly, Elizabeth and her family would have been spared much agony.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

I'm sure the Stockholm Syndrome is real but I doubt Patty Hearst had it.

[Humal]

SarahW, I was thinking about this last night especially after hearing how close she had been kept for so long. Thanks for refreshing my memory. Yes, I wonder "What would have happened...." if the police had taken Chad more seriously. Didn't they also have search dogs out? Do you remember? I wonder why they didn't pick up the scent?

[Alberta's Child]

"I can just tell that he (Mitchell) did an absolute brainwashing job on her," Smart told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Here goes the semantic scrambling. We may very well find out that this language is being used by the father because he can't come to grips with the fact that the girl left voluntarily.

This may turn into a fascinating criminal case.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

Why would a 14 year old girl leave voluntarily in the middle of the night with a drifter who had worked 1 day for her family over a year ago?

[caisson71]

I have the same thoughts about this case. Someting smells very fishy and it will be interesting if we ever get to the bottom of this.

[Manic_Episode]

So is her sister in on it too and lying about the gun
Nonsense.

[Sloth]

You are delusional.

[asformeandformyhouse]

Why would a 14 year old girl leave voluntarily in the middle of the night with a drifter who had worked 1 day for her family over a year ago?

Because she's 14.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not suggesting one way or another what the truth is -- but something about this story didn't quite smell right a year ago, and it smells even worse right now.

The story about the younger sister's sudden "recollection" last week of the drifter's description really stinks to high heaven.

FWIW -- the police have come under a lot of criticism over the last 24 hours for dropping the ball on this search. It is entirely possible that they stopped treating this as a top-priority case because they were fairly sure this was not actually an abduction.

[asformeandformyhouse]

We may very well find out that this language is being used by the father because he can't come to grips with the fact that the girl left voluntarily

I too suspect that she left voluntarily. I do not believe she stayed with him voluntarily, however. This is not unheard of for teenagers.

[bonfire]

Anyone over 20 is old and "gross" to a 14 year old. Doubt she left voluntarily with someone she MIGHT have seen for only 5 hours.

[SarahW]

That's really stretching ... all evidence, including interviews with his stepchildren, points to him being a total whackjob, who was into guns and capable of holding one on Elizabeth, and being a master manipulator.

[Zavien Doombringer]

After hearing the evidence and listening to the parents. Here is what I discern;

Elizabeth wanted to leave, she ran away! The screen cut from the inside? Leaving with out a struggle? With someone she had an aquaintence with and her father seems to be despotic. He craves media attention. A normal father would have said thank you for your prayers and thank you Salt Lake police, turned from the camera and console his daughter. Elizabeth was with 2 older, out of shape people, she could have easily out run. People have to sleep, she could have tried and succeded in escape during those times, she wasn't bound. She is 15 years old, all her family and friends call her an intelligent girl, it isn't too hard to know your location with in a 20 mile radius of your home! Especially with mountains as bearing points. She was found walking with the two perps, why didn't she do a 180 and high tail it, that couple would never catch up to her! I believe if you did some investigation on the family, you will find the real reason. Don't forget Ricci, I believe he helped make it happen, he may not have done it, but he made it possible. Elizabeth Ran away, Emmanual did not kidnap, he just aided to the deliquency of a minor.

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

Smart, who broke down at times...

Have you ever seen anyone cry like this? No OScar for Ed.

[Alberta's Child]

You are delusional.

No -- I'm a skeptic. As soon as I hear someone in a case like this use a word like "brainwashing," I'm prepared for what's going to come next -- the "brainwashing" is going to be used to explain some behavior on the part of this girl that any normal person would find bizarre for someone who was abducted by a stranger.

[stlnative]

Lois and Ed Smart wrap their arms around Elizabeth, who is back home with her family nine months after she was abducted from her Federal Heights bedroom. She was found Wednesday in Sandy. Tom Smart, Deseret News


Elizabeth Smart snuggles with her brother William beside her sister, Mary Katherine, at their home in Federal Heights - nine months after she was abducted. Tom Smart, Deseret News