- Elizabeth Smart said that she had concerns about abductor Wanda Barzee after she violated the conditions of her parole as a sex offender
- Barzee told police she visited two parks in the month of April because the lord “commanded” her
- Smart said that she had concerned about Barzee’s religious extremism and believed she posed a threat while protesting her release from prison in 2018
Elizabeth Smart is breaking her silence after the arrest of her kidnapper last week.
“Wanda Barzee was recently arrested for entering a public park in Salt Lake City, a place where she’s legally barred from going because she’s a registered sex offender,” Smart says in the video posted to her Instagram.
Barzee was arrested on May 1 for visiting two Salt Lake City parks in the month of April, and according to police allegedly confessed to the offenses.
“Her justification was that she was commanded by the Lord, which unfortunately, is very familiar to me and is probably the most concerning thing, because that’s how they justified kidnapping me,” says Smart.
Smart goes on to thank the Salt Lake City Police Department and other members of law enforcement as well as her supporters in the video.
She also says at one point: “I’ve been vocal about my concerns since Barzee’s initial release.”
Barzee and her husband Brian David Mitchell kidnapped Smart in 2002 and held her captive for close to a year, moving between rundown houses and abandoned campsites in Utah and the San Diego area.
Smart was subjected to near-daily sexual assaults and forced to “marry” Mitchell in a ceremony just hours after her abduction.
Mitchell and Barzee were arrested in 2003, after a tipster saw Smart walking with them following the pair’s public identification. Mitchell would be sentenced to life in prison while Barzee got a 15-year sentence. Ajudge ruled that Barzee could be released from prison in 2018.
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That decision did not sit well with Smart, who was very vocal about the fact that she viewed Barzee to be just as culpable for what happened to her as her husband — and a threat to society
“To my knowledge she has neither complied with medication or treatment and as someone who has experienced first hand just how depraved she truly is, I believe her to be a threat and a danger not just to myself but to the community, any vulnerable person,” Smart said at the time.
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She noted that her biggest concern though was Barzee’s religious extremism, and her belief that the word of a religious figure carries more weight than the law.
At the time, she also noted that she had learned from individuals inside Barzee’s prison that she still carried around a holy book written by Mitchell, the man who kidnapped Smart from her bedroom.
A spokesperson for the SLCPD told PEOPLE that the agency will continue to monitor Barzee moving forward as part of a joint effort with other agencies.
That spokesperson also said that the “criminal prosecution in this matter remains our priority.”
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