Bringing Elizabeth Home

by Ed Smart

  In an effort to trap the man e-mailing us for ransom, FBI investigators engaged the perpetrator in Internet communication, pretending they were Ed. They were certain this was not Elizabeth's kidnapper because he was unable to answer important detailed questions about the case. The threats were still a very serious crime, and we intended to bring this man to justice for attempting to extort money from us while we were trying to find our daughter. The investigators were able to determine his physical location through his Web server. The e-mails were traced to South Carolina, being sent by Walter K. Holloway, who was nineteen years old. It honestly made us sick to see this young man ruin his life over a hurtful moneymaking scheme. He will spend a good part of his young life behind bars, and for what?

  People came out of the woodwork to extort money from us. Bounty hunters, psychics, religious leaders—you name it, we heard from all of them. If we could simply pay their way to Salt Lake, or if we could find it in our hearts to make a small donation to their organization, or the police aren't doing their job, I'll find Elizabeth—if you pay me! It became ridiculous, but we always had to follow through by speaking to and listening to these people just in case one of them had some bona fide information. One time a man showed up at our house complaining about what a terrible job the police were doing in the investigation. He told us that he was the only person out there really working. He was associated with a group called Soul Miners. He sent us letters all the time with the numbers “671” on the envelopes. We had no idea what the numbers meant. He was very clear that the numbers were on a dollhouse in Elizabeth's room. We assured him he was wrong, but the man refused to leave our house until he saw the dollhouse. Sometime after that, he apparently went to the mayor and told him we had Elizabeth sealed up in a wall, and the police actually came out to our house to question us about his claim! The police diligently followed up on those leads—they combed our neighborhood, checking neighbors' homes to see if there was any shred of truth to his story. Finally, one day Ed received a phone call from the same man, claiming he knew who had Elizabeth. He was asking to come right over to the house with Detective Parks. Ed hesitated, telling the man that Lois wasn't home, then hung up and immediately called Detective Parks, who explained to Ed that this guy was a total nutcase. The police had been dealing with him for months. Finally, realizing the guy was trying to get a confession from us, Ed called him back and said, “I don't appreciate what you're doing. I've called Detective Parks, and he knows nothing about your claim. It's horrendous enough that we're going through this, but what you're doing to us is unbelievable. If you call me or come on my property again, I am going to call the police and have you arrested!” We continued to get letters from him—mostly with pleas for us to come clean and admit what we had done. He warned us that Jesus wouldn't hold us blameless if we didn't repent for our crime.

  Even after Elizabeth came home, the strange visits didn't end. A man showed up on our doorstep sometime after we returned from a trip we took to Hawaii just after Elizabeth was found. A neighbor told us that someone claiming to be an old friend had been by the house that morning. He waited around the street until we came home that afternoon. The man finally came to the door. Ed answered.

  “Hi, Ed. I'm here. It's me. Val. How are you?”

  Ed was clueless about who this man was.

  “I helped in the search. You know me, Ed. Don't you recognize me?”

  Ed responded, “No. I'm sorry. I don't recognize you. I can't invite you into my house, I'm sorry.”

  “Well, Lois knows me. Go ask her.”

  Elizabeth was in the living room playing her harp.

  Lois didn't know who the man was either.

  Ed went back to the doorway and said, “Help me out here. My memory isn't what it used to be. How do we know you?”

  The stranger went on and on about how he was with Elizabeth throughout her captivity. He was in the mountains and was responsible for finding her. Of course, then he told us that he wasn't physically in the mountains with Elizabeth—he was mentally there with her. We had heard enough, and we asked this man to leave immediately. We called the police, who warned the man that if he stepped on our property again, he'd be arrested for trespassing. Out of curiosity, we called Detective Parks to ask him if he knew anything about this guy.

  “Actually, he was at the DA's office all morning, being a nuisance.”

  We wondered if the police had done a background check after he'd been in the station. We were told they had not. The next afternoon, we received a troubling phone call from Detective Parks: “Ed, if that guy ever shows up to your place again, call us immediately. He has just been released from prison for kidnapping and assault.”

  Lois and I reopened our conversations about moving after that call. It seemed that we had no privacy. Everyone knew where we lived, and the threat of one of our other children being taken was very real. The children had just started going places on their own, and once again we had to confine them to the house or insist that they go out with one of us.

  Throughout the investigation, it seemed that we would just get through dealing with one crazy person when another would appear. Over and over again, people would show up with their own agenda. Some offered to help us find Elizabeth—making promises of information leading to the capture of her abductors. We had been through so many ups and downs. Sometimes, well-meaning people offered us a little comic relief, though we are certain their intention was to offer comfort and peace.

  Chapter 19

  AS THE WEEKS and months slipped by, life was getting somewhat back to a routine. The volunteers weren't as plentiful, but the searches continued. People needed to get back to work. They had to go back to their families. They had to continue living, even if it felt as if we were slowly dying on the inside. Lois remembers driving in her car one day and wondering what it would be like to look inside the homes she was passing. She wanted to observe these families, these strangers, in their homes. Were they happy? Did they appreciate what they had? She wanted to see how they celebrated holidays—if for no other reason than to see how the real world was living and to get out of her dark place. We were those people once—quietly living our lives in the privacy of our home. Now we were front-page news. The walls of our home were taken down for the world to observe. Our pain, our sorrow, our loss—exposed for everyone to see. As she passed more houses that day, she saw posters of Elizabeth in many of the windows. The blue ribbons that had gone up so quickly after Elizabeth was taken remained all over town. They were on car antennas, fences, trees, and lampposts; harpists all over the country tied them to their harps. Who were all these people who still cared enough for our daughter that they placed a Missing poster in their window, their car, their storefront? Many people continued to wear the pins with Elizabeth's image. In Washington, there were many members of the Senate and Congress who always advocated for what we were doing for other children and what we were going through, including Dianne Feinstein, Kay Hutchison, Orrin Hatch, Bob Bennett, Jennifer Dunn, Martin Frost, Jim Matheson, and Chris Cannon.

  Before Mary Katherine said the name “Immanuel,” Elizabeth, Brian, and Wanda were probably already on their way to San Diego. Elizabeth has revealed to us that boarding the Greyhound bus in Salt Lake was terrifying because she feared never coming back to Salt Lake and never again seeing her family. That was a huge turning point in Elizabeth's journey. There had been searches in states surrounding Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Nebraska, and Colorado. By the time they left for California, Elizabeth had become resigned to the idea that she might never see her family again. She was a prisoner. The belief that her family would be hurt or killed was firmly planted in her mind. What child would risk bringing harm to the people she loved most?

  Brian, Wanda, and Elizabeth walked around Lakeside, California, which is twenty-five miles east of San Diego. Wanda and Elizabeth were forced to wear robes and veils to cover most of their faces whenever they were in public to be certain Elizabeth would never be recognized—even in San D
iego. When she wasn't wearing her veil, she usually wore sunglasses. They had set up a campsite that they'd live in for the next four months.

  There were occasions when San Diego police directly encountered Mitchell while he held Elizabeth captive. In fact, Brian David Mitchell was arrested on February 12, 2003, for breaking into a church that also housed a preschool. Mitchell was apparently too drunk to carry out his mission of looting the church—he passed out cold. The police found him, woke him, handcuffed him, and brought him to the station for questioning. He gave his name as Michael Jenson. Brian David Mitchell spent six days in jail, where he continued to lie to law-enforcement officials. There was a warrant for his arrest from a misdemeanor shoplifting charge in September, for which Mitchell had failed to appear in court. When police checked his fingerprints, they turned up a name different from the one he'd given—he wasn't Michael Jenson. The police knew the man they had in custody was using an alias. What they never figured out was why.

  Elizabeth and Wanda sat alone for those six days, unaware of Brian's whereabouts. Elizabeth was slowly weakening from malnutrition. In an unbelievable bit of irony, Brian David Mitchell was sitting in a jail cell when America's Most Wanted aired its second story on him, on February 15, 2003. The show said that Brian David Mitchell was someone the police were seeking to question in connection with Elizabeth's kidnapping. The story pointed out that he sometimes used the name “Immanuel” and that he was traveling with his wife, Wanda Barzee.

  For Pete's sake! How much more information did they need? None of the police officers saw the episode of America's Most Wanted that night. Since there was no nationwide alert about Mitchell, the Lakeside police were unaware that he was a wanted man. Three days later, Mitchell went before a judge and confessed that he had used terrible judgment by getting drunk the night he broke into the church. He testified that he was a reformed man and wanted to carry out the message given to him by the Lord as to what to do with his life. He pleaded guilty to vandalism, and was given a $250 fine. The judge told Mitchell to go and do the Lord's work but to stop breaking into churches at night. Brian David Mitchell was released from custody.

  In this and other instances, Brian David Mitchell had been dismissed as an annoying but harmless street person or as a religious zealot. But he was also a man who could hurt a child. He was a man who could assault a child. The police were wrong.

  From the day Elizabeth was taken, leads came pouring in that were fruitless. It was so hard to get our hopes up—even with a sketch of Brian David Mitchell. It wasn't until Mitchell's sister finally called the police and identified the man in the original sketch as her brother that we could put a real name to the face known to us as “Immanuel.” She had heard about the sketch and knew it was her brother we were searching for. Even with that information, the police still turned up very little evidence pointing toward him as the perpetrator of the crime. Barzee's sons identified Mitchell after seeing him on America's Most Wanted several months later.

  The police continued to give us reasons why they could not pursue this very important lead more than they already had. There had been no recent sighting of Brian David Mitchell. He had no known mode of transportation, which meant they were traveling on foot. Logic, statistics, and a lack of evidence precluded the police from looking very intensely. We had heard from a friend of Tom's that a fellow worker at The Deseret News had recently hiked up the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, a frequently traveled hiking path behind our house, and had seen Mitchell numerous times over the years. He knew that in previous years Mitchell had kept a tepee up there. When we called the police to inform them that Brian David Mitchell was practically camped in our backyard, they still did nothing.

  The day Mitchell was incarcerated, Ed held a news conference to announce that we were ready to reveal the story of “Immanuel.” We released the sketch we had and the information that Mary Katherine had identified this man as the man who had taken Elizabeth. We offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could still vindicate Richard Ricci. Detective Baird was even quoted describing Mitchell as “one of the fifty homeless people who worked on the Smarts' home.” Every time we saw Baird appear, we knew disappointment was imminent. Someone had identified Brian David Mitchell from seeing the sketch from the news conference. It was Brian's sister. That was the first time we had a real name for the face. A week later, he was identified again after Wanda Barzee's sons saw America's Most Wanted. They called in the tip and positively identified Brian David Mitchell as the man America was looking for. Word was out about Brian David Mitchell. Doubters were now beginning to come around to the thought that perhaps Richard Ricci was not the man who had taken Elizabeth.

  Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, who was a friend throughout the entire investigation, seemed troubled by the news about Mitchell. He always made time to meet with us. He did what he could do to help the investigation. He kept in touch with Rick Dinse, and one memo he sent to Dinse outlined his concern about the new information pointing toward the man the media knew as “Immanuel.” In his memo, the mayor made the following comments:

  1. The only eyewitness, Mary Katherine Smart, has maintained from the beginning that she did not think Richard Ricci was the abductor.

  2. There is no physical evidence tying Richard Ricci to the abduction.

  3. Richard Ricci has no history of sexual abuse or abduction.

  4. Mary Katherine independently suggested that the abductor may have been “Immanuel.”

  5. Immanuel was somewhat familiar with the Smart home.

  6. Immanuel has a history of child sexual abuse.

  7. Immanuel was seen nearby, at a Kinko's on 1st South Street, near the University of Utah, on the afternoon Elizabeth was abducted.

  8. Immanuel was known to camp out near the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, above the Smart home.

  9. Perhaps most telling, Immanuel apparently has left the area since information about his possible involvement was disclosed.

  FINALLY! Someone from the world of law enforcement would seriously have to take the mayor's points into consideration. The mayor had become outraged by what we had known all along. The Police Department was not aggressively pursuing any angle outside of Richard Ricci, and they were diminishing the relevance of Brian David Mitchell to the case.

  As we started to hear unsavory things about Mitchell, we didn't want to believe that Elizabeth was with him. We heard that he had a history of abuse. The police wrote that off to a nasty divorce and an unhappy ex-wife. A few days after hearing the police opinion on stories that were surfacing about Mitchell, we called one of the detectives working on the case and asked if he knew, without a doubt, that Mitchell hadn't been involved in abuse. We needed to know that there was no chance of this allegation being true. The detective professed that he had heard evidence to that effect and that it was his belief that Mitchell had not abused anyone.

  “How do you know?”

  We were told that one of the officers talked to the ex-wife, and after checking the story, his conclusion was that it was just a nasty divorce.

  That wasn't good enough for us.

  It was beyond hearsay.

  This was our daughter we were fighting for. We'd heard that there had been medical records qualifying the reports of abuse. Had the police checked those out? They had not. As parents we needed hard evidence. We needed to check this out. The thought that our daughter might be in the hands of a known sexual offender was a living nightmare. We pleaded with the officer to follow this through. We needed to know if Elizabeth was with a man who was capable of hurting her—or worse.

  Knowing we didn't have the stamina to go through the ups and downs again, Tom and David had taken it upon themselves to talk with Mitchell's family, who had provided photographs of Mitchell for us to look at. Tom e-mailed them to us. When we pulled them up on the computer, we stared in disbelief. It was incredible. To this point, no lead had turned up anything that had potential. We had found the man we were looking for. It was him. We felt sick.r />
  After Elizabeth came home, people would recall that they had seen Brian David Mitchell and two veiled women all around town. The sightings that were later reported in November and December were false, because Brian, Wanda, and Elizabeth were in California. There was a confirmed report that someone had called in a tip about Brian David Mitchell to the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping tip line in August. A lead had come in, but the police were prioritizing the hundreds of leads they had received, and he was not high on the list. In a bizarre twist, it was reported that Brian David Mitchell had walked into the Deseret News offices, pulled Elizabeth's Missing poster off the wall, said, “Oh, she's been found,” and walked out of the office.

  America's Most Wanted aired its third segment about Mitchell on March 1, 2003. This time the show aired photos provided by Wanda Barzee's sons. A nationwide alert about Mitchell and Barzee had been put out. Calls quickly came in from all over; people were recognizing the man we were looking for—and confirming our suspicion and our hope that Elizabeth was in fact alive.

  Chapter 20

  PRIOR TO KIDNAPPING ELIZABETH, Brian David Mitchell had spent most of his time wandering the streets of Salt Lake City with Wanda Barzee, spouting his own fanatical ramblings. He was directed by prophecy he imagined had been given to him by God. He wrote a lengthy manifesto outlining the details of his mission, extolling the “blessings of polygamy” and calling himself a “just and mighty deity.” Somewhere along the line, Mitchell had become convinced that he was the Davidic King. Lacking volunteers willing to join his mission, Mitchell resorted to kidnapping. Though he had set his sights on other young girls, his first real victim was our daughter. Her captivity lasted nine months before they were captured by police in Sandy, Utah, while walking along a highway. They had just arrived back in Salt Lake, having stopped in Las Vegas en route from San Diego.