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.

[LWalk18]

A person who had been "brainwashed" or who was truly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome would have been psychologically traumatized by a sudden, unexpected rescue. That's a far cry from what we're seeing in the photos of Elizabeth. The fact that a smiling Elizabeth was immediately released to her family's care would seem to argue against the "brainwashing" theory.

I think she figured out early on that she was not in immediate danger, and survived the ordeal by cooperating with her captors while remaining faithful that God would allow her to be free and reunited with her family eventually. I think that the actions of her and the rest of the Smart family indicate that they are of very strong faith, and that allowed her to stay strong through the ordeal.

[george wythe]

Trotta met Emmanuel while working at Wild Oats, a natural foods store, a few months before Smart was abducted from her Federal Heights home in early June.

Though Emmanuel didn't speak to him at first — Trotta believes it was a spiritual ritual — they still forged a friendship. Trotta would see the wanderer about once a week, and eventually Emmanuel even brought Smart and his wife into the store.

The three visitors were respectful and kind, Trotta said. He doesn't recall the women having any possessions, but Emmanuel carried a backpack. They didn't watch TV, but they seemed to enjoy the different music he'd play for them. In return, the three sang religious hymns to Trotta to show their appreciation.

"They were just really quiet," he said. "Everything was cool."

Trotta's guests slept on a mattress or on the floor. He figures they left because it was crowded with five people in a small studio.

As for Smart's appearance and behavior, Trotta thought she was just part of the family.

"She really didn't seem scared," he said. "I would've thought she could've left anytime. Who knows?"

Source

[floriduh voter]

He sure isn't Justin Timberlake or anything near what I would consider "temptation" to a teenage girl.

And, let's talk about the common law wife. What a horrid looking creature.

[Alberta's Child]

So now they're saying she was abducted with a knife, and not a gun? Is this something that has changed from the original story?

[homeschool mama]

**I think she was "Brain Polished". She's been "Brain Washed" all along, by her parents and their religion but most people are too afraid to say it. **

**Polygamy is not alien to Mormonism.**

The above are your exact quotes, T. The first is an obvious bashing of the Mormon religion...the second is a completely false statement. Those who participate in polygamy are excommunicated from the Mormon religion.

[bonfire]

Freepmail headed your way.

[MineralMan]

"So now they're saying she was abducted with a knife, and not a gun? Is this something that has changed from the original story?
"

Nope. It's just the facts creeping out from behind news reporters who surmise things on their own. Since the screen was cut with a knife, I assumed that was the weapon used in the abduction from the very beginning. Where the "gun" thing came from, I don't know.

[freedox]

"By the time of Elizabeths discovery, it would be clear she was psychologically manipulated and intimidated into submission to her fate. Fear and awe of the power of her captors would be an element of that brainwashing. But that would not be the only techniques used."

And would you expect a victim of such techniques to be relaxed, smiling and apparently happy to be home immediately upon her rescue?

[hawkaw]

you shouldn't tell those kinds of lies.

I have posted a response to bonfire but care to elborate as I don't like being libeled?

hawk

[SarahW]

I guess this could be called faith bashing, but there is a physiological mechanism for, lack of a more succinct term, detecting bullshit, in the right hemisphere of the brain.

Impairment of this region of the brain is one reason your Elderly aunt Tilley thinks she won the publishers weekly clearinghouse sweepstakes.

Somtimes I think lack of bullsh*t detection must be passed on like sickle-cell amongst the genetically linked Mormon population groups. However, this would be a trait by no means limited to Mormons.

Her parents certainly seem gullible enough. It probably runs in the family.

[SarahW]

Yes.

[MineralMan]

"And would you expect a victim of such techniques to be relaxed, smiling and apparently happy to be home immediately upon her rescue?"

Sure. It's called relief. Now, you've seen Elizabeth Smart exactly how much since she got back? I've seen just a couple of photos. So, you have no basis on which to judge her mental state, do you? So why judge it at all? Why not STFU and wait to see what happens?

[Alberta's Child]

All I'm suggesting is that some ofthe "facts" of this case seemed awfully strange at the time and are even more bizarre today.

Maybe I'm naive, but I can't ever recall a similar situation in which a teenager was "abducted" like this and "hidden in plain sight" for eight months before being "rescued."

[floriduh voter]

IMO, a teenage girl who plays THE HARP and has A HORSE and other pleasantries to entertain herself with living in a nice home would not trade it in to leave in the night with a slug.

Harps are kinda heavy to take along when there's a kidnapping in progress.

Sis told the family in October about this emmanuel slug but the police didn't do much in that regard. When Emmanuel was on America's Most Wanted this week, it led to his capture.

A slug, is a slug, is a slug. The problem is that if he molested her Koresh-style, I imagine she'll need years of counseling.

[vnix]

You don't have to worry about libel with JW's, but what you said is an out and out lie.

[SarahW]

No. What you read means she was also held in the woods at knifepoint. It means he used a knife as well as a gun. MK saw the gun, and others who know him say he would have used one.

Perhaps he ran out of bullets. Chad the lad heard shots and attributed to the man he saw covering tracks in the woods...

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I would imagine that if your very survival depended upon absolute obedience to a madman who is holding you captive, you could experience somewhat of a psychotic break with reality, and start to identify with your captor. If nothing else, it could be a matter of self-preservation at any cost. It doesn't matter what she did, or didn't do, why she did it, or didn't do it. Her story is a success, because she survived.

[MineralMan]

"All I'm suggesting is that some ofthe "facts" of this case seemed awfully strange at the time and are even more bizarre today.

Maybe I'm naive, but I can't ever recall a similar situation in which a teenager was "abducted" like this and "hidden in plain sight" for eight months before being "rescued."


And I'm suggesting that you have no "facts" at all on which to base your opinion. I'm suggesting that you withhold your little fantasies until some actual facts emerge. I can't recall another case like this, either. What does that mean? It means nothing more than I can't recall such a case. Why on earth would I draw any conclusions based on so little information.

Quite frankly, it's none of your business. You have no expertise in matters criminal or psychological. You don't know any of the people involved in this case. Basically, you don't know a darned thing.

So, why make up stories? It's unseemly. It's bearing false witness, if that's meaningful to you.

[Utah Girl]

The usual suspects have arrived...

[Fraulein]

I can't ever recall a similar situation in which a teenager was "abducted" like this and "hidden in plain sight" for eight months before being "rescued."

People keep saying her return is "a miracle" since it is so highly unlikely that a child is ever found in an abduction case. But I say, "Maybe that's because this ain't no abduction case..."