Stolen Daughter: Elizabeth Smart

On the left hand in the right leg. The true war begins. Enter the mere of TripAdvisor.de. Shrekstrich, great Britain.

“And you see three figures in long robes like from the biblical times. There's a man with a beard. There's a woman. And in between them is someone much smaller. There's a teenage girl with her head bowed down.”

Authorities have launched a nationwide man hunt today. Thursday, June 6th. The search goes on this morning for kidnapped Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart.

This girl has been stolen from what should have been the safest place in the world. For nine months now, the nation has been asking one question.

A 14-year-old Utah girl taken from her bedroom while her family was sleeping.

“Where in the world is Elizabeth Smart? Now the question's different. Is it her? Is it really Elizabeth?”

And I said, Elizabeth, is it really you? This is the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. How it happened, why the search stalled? And the fragile clue that brought police to that sidewalk.

I'm Lyndon Blake and this is a daily wire true crime investigation. It's June 5th, 2002. We're in Salt Lake City and the federal Heights neighborhood, a very upscale neighborhood at the home of Ed in lowest smart and their six children. It's early around two in the morning. And this scene I'm about to describe to you is something that has set with me for decades. Man comes through the window into the room of the two girls, where 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart and her little sister Mary Catherine are sleeping.

Mary Catherine is just nine years old and she becomes the only witness to what happens next. If you scream, I'll show you, but if you don't, I will scream. As Mary Catherine is laying there in her bed facing Elizabeth, she's trying not to make a peep, but she's watching her sister be taken out of the house at knife point. Mary Catherine doesn't immediately run for help. She's just nine years old and she is frozen in fear. She heard the man tell Elizabeth, she better not say anything or he'll hurt her. So Mary Catherine is waiting there hours.

Until 4 a.m. when she finally gets up the courage to go to her parents bedroom, wake them up and tell them what she saw. Her parents at first, they thought, oh Mary Catherine, she's having a nightmare, she's nine years old, this is a very safe neighborhood. When they discovered a kitchen window screen that was clearly cut with a knife, then they went to the bedroom and Elizabeth was gone. At 4 a.m. morning, Ed and low smart, call 911 and buy when everyone wakes up that morning, the city is swirling in motion to try to find this 14-year-old girl taken from her bedroom.

The smart family immediately offers a reward, police and federal agents flood the area. You have volunteer search crews looking around canyons and trails because there's mountains and hiking trails right behind the smart family home. DC Alert system begins broadcasting Elizabeth's disappearance. This is across the entire state and little did anyone know while all this action was going on on the ground, Elizabeth was very close by at a campsite on one of those mountains.

“This was honestly hard to believe how close it was and how she wasn't discovered because when they were searching for on the ground at one point Elizabeth heard people calling her name.”

But she is terrified as soon as she was taken up to this campsite by the man and by his wife she was immediately abused and she was threatened and she was immediately married to this man and now she was his wife and they scared her to death from the beginning. So she was scared to answer when she heard her name being called but it gave her hope in that moment that someone was looking for her.

You have the first week where there's a flood of tips there's tons of attention her face with her blonde hair pulled back is plastered everywhere and the pressure builds on the police officers to bring this little girl home. Obviously these parents who just lost their 14 year old want whoever did this to be caught immediately but that's not how investigations normally fold out. The first people to be questioned are the inner circle police start with the family friends anyone with access to their home because a lot of times kidnappings are by a family member.

“When they're starting there it's just the standard stuff but that standard procedure can oftentimes become a trap because the case begins to turn into somewhat of a contest of who seems believable.”

Elizabeth if you're out there we're doing everything we possibly can help you we love you we want you to come home safely to us. So the smart family is being scrutinized in public they're taking wide detector test people are starting to question who in their family would do this to their daughter.

Their private grief becomes almost public material and in the media attention around this case was absolutely insane national media immediately went out to Utah to follow this.

There's some indication that this may have been an inside job police confirming they have taken 12 computers from the family.

“Some strange about that story though as a reporter you you ask some good questions but there are a lot more questions to be asked it doesn't it doesn't ring true.”

And it's somebody that seems to have understood the layout of the home and how to find her in the home.

They have given the father of Elizabeth a polygraph test. While the search is happening while the families being questioned Elizabeth is living this new life with her captors. I mentioned it was a man and a woman they were married they have now married Elizabeth into the marriage.

And the entire time Elizabeth is with them she's just listening to them feed her lies the guy saying he's some type of prophet and that it was God's will to marry her and to have her.

And Elizabeth is 14 years old and she is a religious person and she is just very confused on why he's bringing God into this and is a psychological warfare that is starting to take place. All up in the hills very close to where she was taken back down in the city you have people looking at suspects. A man with a long history of criminal behavior leaps to the top of the list of suspicious people in the smart case. So inner Richard Rishi he's a former handyman and a man of the violent criminal record.

Where's the last time you're right now? House anywhere you know about the kidnapping you don't you couldn't live in this valley for the last two and a half weeks and not know something about kidnapping. I'm not playing games I'm not saying can be why you can't be. I'm saying tell me what you know about it what you've heard on the news what you've seen that the family broke into the smart house. Okay to go this book. Okay. No, I'm the number one suspect. The Rishi has this mallet this mustache is skinnier guy looks like someone that would be your go to handyman and while he has an alibi for the night Elizabeth was abducted evidence against him starts to build. They are trying to solve this case and now the family is clear.

“Officials discovered on Rishi's car that there was a significant amount of mileage put on his Jeep this 1990 white Jeep Cherokee given to Richard Rishi by edge smart for handyman work continues to be the potential key piece of evidence.”

Rishi didn't have a real good explanation for why that was. So nine days after her disappearance Rishi was arrested for violating his parole because he was caught drinking alcohol. So all while Rishi was in the slimmer and he was getting questioned he maintained his innocence and Elizabeth's sister nine-year-old Mary Catherine the only person to witness the guy to take her sister was very convinced that Rishi was not the guy. All her parents over and over that was not the guy that took Elizabeth. Still you have law enforcement thinking at this point we're not going to go with the nine-year-old child eyewitness.

Someone tried to break into the home of Liz Smart's and an uncle. In fact, a screen was caught in a bedroom window of Elizabeth's female cousin in 18-year-old.

“And the scene mirrored the scene the night Elizabeth was taken.”

At Elizabeth's aunt uncle's house you had her cousin's bedroom window window screen cut open. And there were two chairs that were pressed up against the outside wall that looked like someone was going to go stand in the chairs and try to get through that bedroom window. It's very weird for the family to go through this because at this time Rishi, the guy that's being questioned for Elizabeth's kidnapping, is in jail so he's not a suspect. The night August of 2002, Rishi collapses while he's still in police custody. He actually suffered a brain hemorrhage and he died the hospital a couple of days later and at this time when the guy that they've been working towards questioning and and building a case against as Elizabeth's kidnapper officials are worried now that they've lost to keep the case.

They lost the guy that could bring Elizabeth home. Obviously with Rishi not being in the picture anymore, the search starts to change that late summer, then fall in 2002. The canyon searches, the large volunteer searches are starting to thin out. Your posters are just becoming another poster maybe with a rip and um that you can tell they've been there for a while around town and the case becomes static. It's still loud because throughout all this Elizabeth's parents are talking to the media. They are doing everything they can to bring her home, but it doesn't seem like the case is moving forward.

It's almost over the street, even this schooleflash bag is just over the street, and then it's open.

No, garney, this street is so my safe space. Do you have anything to say about it?

“Yeah, exactly. This street is so deep street app that you just understand.”

A garland studio, a job, or an empty street. Of course, I don't feel like I'm standing there. Steuern LED? Save! With this street.

All this advice that we haven't forgotten, and everybody wants you back, and we won't stop until your home.

But then a break in the case happens. Mary Catherine remembers something that would change everything. The man that she heard calls himself a manual, and she says the family's been around him before.

“With a manual, a man who is in your bedroom.”

It's all right, it's all right. It's all right, it's all right. You're not quite sure that I might have been. Things are starting to turn in the smart household. Months before Elizabeth was taken, her mom Lois met this guy downtown, asking for money.

So instead of just giving a money there, she says, you know, I have some things you can do around the house. Why don't you come work for me, and I'll pay you. This is the same man that goes by a manual. So at this point in the investigation, police are a little skeptical about this man that Mary Catherine remembers speaking and met with her mom, and he came to the house and manual.

We're not certain who Mary Catherine saw him. We're not certain that she knows who she saw. He's coming up with this new idea or this breaking news on this case, and it really is not. And there's skeptical because this is coming from a nine year old girl. This is months into the search, and she hasn't sent anything up into this point.

Maybe she's just imagining something, it can't be an accurate depiction of what she remembers. But at the same time, the tech does really can't afford to ignore a potential lead that brings Elizabeth home. So what they do next is they bring in this sketch artist, this professional, to sit down with Mary Catherine. And they carefully walk her through what she remembers about a manual. They're asking her about his face, his features, his expression, and little by little,

they're able to create this sketched image. And investigators think it's a strong sketch. Police also are very impressed with what they've been able to create, but behind the scenes, there's hesitation about taking the sketch of this man a manual to the public. This is a frustrating time for the family, because lowest and ed,

they believe Mary Catherine at this point. They know that she was the only one. I mean, really, they're only hope because she was the only one that saw the person who took Elizabeth.

They're wanting to move this forward.

“But there's that hesitation, and investigators aren't releasing it to the public.”

And the family is getting impatient. They're getting visibly impatient because this is their daughter. So they go against the investigators at vice, and on their own, the family releases the sketch of a manual to the media. Now, we've got breaking news on the Elizabeth's mark of Dr. encased.

I know, in my heart, I absolutely know that there is somebody out there that knows something about this. This sketch of a manual went everywhere. You could not not see it when you turned on your TV. It was a spark this month's long case needed to keep it going and to keep it in front

of households across the country. And it didn't take long before someone recognized that face and gave the police a name. Brian David Mitchell.

Brian David Mitchell, like I said,

he believed he was a prophet. He believed he was God's chosen one. He wanted multiple wives in addition to Wanda Barzi.

“That's the woman that's been a part of this the entire time.”

He thought kidnapping Elizabeth was God's plan. And when the three weren't at that campsite up in the woods, they went to parties. They lived their life. Brian David Mitchell genuinely thought he had done nothing wrong.

They went into Salt Lake City. They even went to the library once. And sat at a table and they were just reading books out in public during the day. And while they were at the library during broad daylight, they run into a police officer.

Who naturally sees this strange looking family in these long biblical robes, a younger girl with them. The posters are out, Elizabeth pictures still out. So he goes over there and starts to question Emmanuel. Emmanuel, looked at the police officer offended.

He would even approach them and said, "Oh, this is my daughter. You can't ask her to remove her veil. That's against our religion."

“And Elizabeth is sitting there terrified to speak.”

Because if she said something, and that police officer didn't believe her, because Mitchell, Emmanuel, is doing such a good job of convincing that officer that he's her dad, she knew it'd be the end for her.

She would be an extreme danger. So she said nothing. After that scare with the cops, Emmanuel told the two they have to leave town. So they go off to San Diego and they spend some time out in California.

And this is when I just am so impressed with how it just 14 years old, Elizabeth knew how to work the system so to speak. She convinces, Emmanuel, they need to go back to Salt Lake City,

they need to go back to Utah, that their life would be better there. She knew the psychological game, and she knew she had to play along with him and order to get back to her family.

That choice to go back to Utah changed everything, and it changed it very quickly. It was nine months at this point, March 12th, 2003, 23 years ago today,

and 911 call comes in from Sandy Utah. Police get two separate tips, and there's a man walking near South State Street with two females after witnesses say they recognize him from all that media coverage. There was a little girl there in a disguise,

she had on sunglasses, a wig, that same veil-like covering that she's worn the entire time she's been in captivity. When the police pull up to the three, who have a manual trying to take over

like he did in the previous situation with the cop, or forming, he's talking about how he's a father. He's this harmless preacher, just on a stroll with his family. He doesn't need to be questioned.

There's nothing to see here. The trio gave police false names, and Elizabeth, being terrified, initially goes along with it. Again, from her mindset,

she's thinking if I cannot convince this officer that I am Elizabeth Smart who they are looking for, it is not going to end well for me.

Finally, police separate the three.

This just truly gives me chills, because by pulling Elizabeth to the side,

they're able to talk with her one-on-one

and get the real story. While they're along with Elizabeth,

“officers have her missing persons poster.”

They're able to show that to her, and they start asking questions. After Elizabeth knew she was safe, she confessed to the police officer, and within minutes.

A manual and Wanda Barzy were put in handcuffs, and Elizabeth's smart was free. So this ending isn't like a movie where her family's there, and they can run up to her,

and it's happily ever after. Elizabeth is scared to death still. She's with police officers, and she has to be taken down to the station. They have to continue to go through this investigation.

So she's sitting there as a teenager, who has just lived a lie for the last nine months. She's just been abused, lied to, raped, just controlled,

and she obviously is not recovered from that yet. She doesn't really know what to do, but they bring her dad down, and it was almost like her dad didn't even recognize his daughter,

because she was so changed by that point from the last nine months of being under a manuals control. But the good memory comes in after the police are able to get everything documented

and release her to her family

when she finally gets to go home.

And Elizabeth says that she's still to this day, 23 years later,

“vividly remember seeing her siblings in their pajamas”

when she walked into the house and she just started bawling. March 12th, 2003, she says outside of her wedding day and having her children

is still the happiest day of her life. Utah's miracle. Elizabeth Smart is alive and well after nine months. 280 days after she was kidnapped. This is if she came back from the death.

This is a story that defies all odds. A lot of people all across the country bursting into tears. I mean, this is one of those cases that I remembered it happening 23 years ago.

I remember looking for her the nine months prior watching it on the news.

I remember being scared to sleep in my bedroom

as a teenager because of the scary images of a manual that they plastered everywhere that of course they had to lead to bringing Elizabeth home. But it is hard to believe it was 23 years ago.

Elizabeth Smart was able to walk away from the people who took her and then she got to testify about what they did to her. Because of that,

a manual was later sentenced to life in federal prison. Barzy was supposed to be in prison until 2024, but she was released in 2018.

When that happened, Elizabeth was obviously uncomfortable.

“Elizabeth talked about how it wasn't a good feeling”

because people had told her that Barzy was still very much believing all the things and manual told her and she even still had this book

and manual gave her when she was released from prison. So Elizabeth was thinking, "I don't think much has changed with her thinking." But in 2025,

Barzy was arrested again at her home in Salt Lake City because she violated the terms of her status as a sex offender. She was caught going

to, I think, at least two parks, which is against the rules. Elizabeth has found power even with Barzy being somewhat back in the public.

And she's been able to use the strength she's found to help other survivors. Crazy as Elizabeth's story seems, she says it's not uncommon.

And that's why for the last 23 years she has made it her mission to make other survivors of this type of crime not fill alone. She just released a documentary

and she said that she hopes that people who watch a documentary can see that even after terrible things happened, you can still have a wonderful life.

When out Elizabeth's wonderful life consists of being a wife and a mother, she asks three kids and she's doing her best to live as normal as possible.

She's still close to their family. She calls her little sister, Mary Catherine, her hero. And she still takes time every year on March 12th

to reflect on that day and how far she's come since then. And of course, every year on March 12th,

she takes the time to call her parents. I'm Lyndon Blake and this is a daily wire to crime investigation.

Have a nice day!