Free Republic

After receiving about 500 tips from viewers, John Walsh, host of “In Pursuit With John Walsh” on the Investigation Discovery network, believes he has narrowed down the list of possible locations Brian Laundrie could be. “We had at least three times more phone calls than we’ve had on any fugitive.” Walsh said. In just three seasons of his show, Walsh has helped authorities capture 26 fugitives and locate eight missing children. He covered the Gabby Petito investigation on his show this week. “We haven’t had this much attention since Elizabeth Smart,” Walsh said. Walsh said the tips he has received...

Ed Smart, the father of kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart, has shared how difficult it was to come to terms with his sexuality in a new interview. The 64-year-old Smart, who came out as gay in August, told CBS This Morning that he struggled to accept himself after a lifetime of believing that being attracted to men was “not acceptable.” “I was praying that I was not [gay]. I didn’t want to believe that I was,” Smart said. “But how do you cure being gay? There is no cure. And for all of those out there that are struggling in the...

Elizabeth Smart is "grateful" for her brutal kidnapping as a 14-year-old, the victims' rights advocate revealed in a lengthy Instagram post. Now 31, Smart reflected on her nine-month ordeal at the hands of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee nearly two decades ago. "I never thought I would say that I'm grateful for what happened to me as a 14 year old girl but I can honestly say that I'm not sorry it happened to me because of what it has allowed me to do, the people I've been able to meet, and the cause that has become and driven...

Ed Smart, the father of kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart, posted on social media Thursday that he is gay, divorcing his wife and doesn’t see a place for himself in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In “one of the hardest letters I have ever written,” Smart wrote in a Facebook message to family and friends that “I have recently acknowledged to myself and my family that I am gay.”

SALT LAKE CITY – A woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart is living several blocks from a Salt Lake City elementary school following her release from prison in September, according to Utah's sex-offender registry. Wanda Barzee, 73, is listed in the registry as living in an apartment near the school after her initial placement in a halfway house. She was released on parole much earlier than anticipated, despite her refusal to cooperate with mental health professionals while incarcerated. ... She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to helping her husband, street preacher Brian David...

A woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap Elizabeth Smart as a teenager in 2002 from her Salt Lake City bedroom and hold her captive will be freed from prison in a surprise move announced Tuesday by state authorities. Wanda Barzee, 72, will be released Sept. 19 after the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole determined it had miscalculated the time she previously served in federal custody, board spokesman Greg Johnson said in a news release. She will be under federal supervision for five years. Barzee pleaded guilty to kidnapping Smart and helping keep her captive for nine...

She was back. Back where she was held captive. Back where she feared she would never see her family again. Back in Imperial County, California. But this time she had shifted from defense to offense. In 2002, Elizabeth Smart made headlines when she was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake. Smart, only 14 at the time, spent nine months held captive in the mountains near her family’s home and later in Imperial County, California, which is where she returned 12 years later for a special mission with Operation Underground Railroad. Operation Underground Railroad For 12 years as a U.S....

The kidnapper serving life in prison for abducting Elizabeth Smart has reportedly been beaten to a bloody pulp in prison. Boo hoo, right? The source is the National Enquirer, so take this how you will. But I don't see why they'd make up something so odd. Anyway, Brian David Mitchell, who abducted Elizabeth when she was 14 and spent the next nine months raping her, has been serving his time in a high security prison in Tuscon, Arizona. Apparently, he's not popular there. Prisoners are known to look down on child molesters and rapists, and Mitchell is both. Add to...

SALT LAKE CITY — Ten years after her kidnapping, Elizabeth Smart is preparing her story of being held captive by a homeless street preacher, her improbable rescue after nine months, and how she advocated for children after the ordeal. St. Martin's Press bought the rights to the memoir from the now 25-year-old senior at Brigham Young University. Smart married a fellow Mormon missionary, Matthew Gilmour, in February. The account is being written by Utah Congressman-elect Chris Stewart, who has authored books with religious and patriotic themes. He was elected in November to serve in the 2nd Congressional District, replacing Jim...

LAIE, Hawaii — Elizabeth Smart and Matthew Gilmour were married Saturday on the North Shore of the island of Oahu. The couple exchanged vows at the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of a small group of immediate family members, according to a statement released by Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas. The wedding party was celebrated at a private reception and luau. Following Saturday's festivities, the couple planned to leave on an extended honeymoon to an undisclosed location. "Elizabeth's desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in...

Kidnapping Survivor Elizabeth Smart Gets Married In Hawaii SALT LAKE CITY -- Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 from her Salt Lake City home and held for what she described as "nine months of hell," married her fiance in Hawaii on Saturday, surrounded by only immediate family. Smart, 24, and Matthew Gilmour became engaged in January, initially announcing a summer wedding. According to the Smart family spokesperson, NBC station KSL of Salt Lake City reported, those plans changed a week ago in order to avoid attention to the unscheduled ceremony in the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church...

Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 from her Salt Lake City home and held for what she described as "nine months of hell," is engaged to be married and anticipates a wedding in early summer, a family spokesman said on Friday. Smart, now a 24-year-old advocate for missing children and occasional TV news commentator, has not publicly identified her fiance, spokesman Chris Thomas said.

The following is the short version of how I recently discovered Mormonism is nothing like I thought it was. A few weeks ago, ABC announced that former kidnapping and rape victim Elizabeth Smart would join them as a commenter on kidnapping cases around the country. With the memory of Casey Anthony lingering in my head, I thought, I'll youtube Elizabeth Smart and see what kind of smooth talker she is to be asked to do this. What I found was a beautiful, poised, graceful woman who would never stoop to entering a "hot body contest" like Casey Anthony, but certainly...

Elizabeth Smart, who at age 14 in 2002 was abducted from her Utah home and held captive for nine months, will reportedly work for ABC News on missing-persons stories.

Brian David Mitchell, the homeless street preacher who abducted, raped and kept a 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart captive for nine months, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday. "We believe it is an appropriate, just and long overdue result for our community, for the Smart family and of course, most importantly, Elizabeth," said Carlie Christensen, U.S. Attorney for Utah. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball issued the sentence Wednesday. A jury found Mitchell guilty in December of Smart's 2002 kidnapping. "Mitchell's heinous conduct, the evidence of his propensity to reoffend mandated such a sentence," Christensen said. Beaming before a group of reporters...

Kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart stormed from a courtroom Wednesday as a psychiatrist testified that her alleged attacker had been motivated by a desire to have children and create a new race in an imaginary Zion.

Elizabeth Smart continued testifying about her 2002 kidnapping Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. Smart began testifying Monday about her ordeal at the hands of Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She described how she was taken from her home in the middle of the night, forced to a campsite in the foothills above her home and held captive and raped repeatedly for several weeks.

Salt Lake City, Utah (CNN) -- A federal appeals court halted the trial of a man accused in the 2002 kidnapping of Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart just as it got under way Thursday in order to review the defense's request to move the trial outside the state.

Elizabeth Smart Kidnapper Apologizes To Family At Sentencing By Emanuella Grinberg and Ashley Hayes, CNN May 21, 2010 Wanda Barzee pleaded guilty earlier to federal charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. (CNN) -- A woman who admitted her role in kidnapping Utah teen Elizabeth Smart in 2002 was sentenced Friday to 15 years in federal prison. Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, apologized to the Smart family during the 30-minute sentencing in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. "I know the gravity of my crimes and how severe they have been, and I'm just so sorry, again, for...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal judge has ordered a woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping Elizabeth Smart to spend 15 years in prison, with credit for about seven years she's already served. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said Friday Wanda Barzee will serve the sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas.