When police first questioned the group at the side of the road, Elizabeth called the couple her parents, Sandy Police Officer Troy Rasmussen said.Source"She only admitted right at the last moment," said Sgt. Victor Quezada. "She was very nervous looking, she wouldn't look at us directly."
Daniel Trotta, 24, told The Associated Press that he believed Elizabeth, Mitchell and Barzee had stayed in his basement apartment in Salt Lake City for nearly a week in October. Trotta had befriended Mitchell, a customer at the health-food store where he once worked, and invited the couple and the girl who was with them to stay because they had no home.
Mitchell introduced the girl as his daughter, Trotta said. She said little, always wore a veil and made no effort to escape. Trotta said when he asked once for her name, Mitchell ordered the girl not to respond.
Trotta went to police Sunday after he recognized Mitchell on "America's Most Wanted." He said police dusted his apartment for fingerprints Tuesday. A police spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that officers had been to the apartment
Police, who said they had not recovered the black handgun believed to have been used in the kidnapping, could also not say whether the 15-year-old had tried to escape and where the trio have been since the abductionSource
In September, Mitchell appeared at a late-night party in a downtown Salt Lake City apartment, said freelance photographer Dan Gorder, who snapped shots of the wandering preacher chugging a beer. Mitchell was accompanied by two women dressed in white, veils covering all but their eyes, Gorder said.
"One woman was older, the other looked really young," said Gorder. "They never moved away from him and were looking down most of the time."
Gorder said at the time he was taking the photographs, he had no idea the younger woman was Elizabeth Smart. "It seems pretty farfetched that she would be at a party," he said. "But I wish I would have known."
Gorder said he took seven or eight photographs of the three "because they looked strange." Mitchell noticed the photographs were being taken and "did not look too happy about it," Gorder said. But the drifter -- who told more than 100 partygoers he was Jesus -- made no move to stop the 30-year-old Gorder.
Elizabeth and her alleged captors spent almost a week last October at the Salt Lake City basement apartment of Daniel Trotta, who befriended Mitchell about a year ago. Mitchell shopped at the Wild Oats health food store on 400 South where Trotta worked.Trotta said he felt sympathetic to Mitchell and invited him to sleep for a few nights at his apartment -- one block from Salt Lake City police headquarters. Mitchell showed up with Barzee and a girl he referred to as their daughter. Both women wore scarves over their heads and veils that covered most of their faces.
"It didn't cross my mind that it was Elizabeth Smart," Trotta said. "I wouldn't have suspected anything."
Although Trotta knew of Elizabeth's kidnapping, he thought she must be younger than the tall teen-ager in his apartment. The girl barely spoke, he said. He once asked her what her name was, but Mitchell interrupted him and she did not answer.
Trotta said he left his guests alone during the day when he went to work at Wild Oats, although Mitchell occasionally brought Barzee and Elizabeth to the store. The three usually slept on Trotta's living room floor, he said. Trotta noticed nothing unusual about Elizabeth or her relationship to her "parents."
Occasionally the three of them sang religious hymns to him, Trotta said.
After five or six nights, Mitchell and the others left. He told Trotta he was going to camp in the foothills for a while. He also asked Trotta not to tell anyone that.