After 15 years behind bars, Wanda Barzee is a free woman.
One of the notorious Elizabeth Smart kidnappers, Barzee walked out of prison yesterday and spent her first evening of freedom in a Salt Lake City hotel room. In an interesting turn of events, she apparently kept other hotel guests awake with loud rantings about religious scriptures and songs of praise for Mormon founder Joseph Smith, according to reports.
However, questions remain as to whether the 72-year-old deserves to be out of prison. She was originally scheduled to be released in 2024, but a parole board recently decided that the seven years she served prior to sentencing should count toward her total sentence.
Early Release
Elizabeth Smart was just 14 years old when she was kidnapped at knife-point from her bedroom in the dead of night and taken to a camp in the Wasatch mountains. Before authorities finally tracked her down, Smart had endured nine months of repeated rape and psychological torture by Barzee and her husband, Brian David Mitchell - a mentally unstable man who had proclaimed himself a messiah and believed he was doing God's work. In 2009, was Barzee was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for her part in the ordeal, while Mitchell received a life sentence.
Given the nature of these crimes, the parole board's decision came as quite the surprise to most experts. However, few were more taken aback by the news than Elizabeth Smart.
A Dire Warning
In a recent interview with 'CBS This Morning,' Smart expressed shock that Wanda Barzee would be allowed to walk free and revealed disturbing details about the abuse she endured. Apparently, Barzee was not only present during the rapes, but she would actually coax her husband to commit the heinous acts.
"I know just how bad she really can be," Smart said. "She would encourage him to rape me. She would sit right next to me like the side of her body would be touching me. So I mean, there were no secrets. She knew what was going on. She was just evil and twisted."
As if that weren't enough, another disturbing detail emerged prior to Barzee's release: she had been spotted in prison carrying the same "book of revelations" that Mitchell wrote while posing as a Christ-like religious figure. Smart is now issuing a dire warning to the public, explaining that Barzee is "highly dangerous" and "poses a threat to any person who's vulnerable out there."
24 comments
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Lionheart
She was sentenced, served her time, and released. Thats the nations judicial approved system in action.
President Trump was voted in as President. That's the approved system in action.
There will always be people who complain, it's just the way people are.
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Joe
Released years early.
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Jeri
So that makes it ok?
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Lionheart
Not if you are a radical anarchist.
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Carl Elfstrom
I have to agree with Lionheart on that one. I was already thinking about saying something similar.
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power to the people
She's 72. People will be watching her closely. Whether she SOULD be out doesn't matter, she's out. I doubt she is going to move to suburbia and become a secret threat. She'll likely end up homeless, or in a very low rent section 8 environment, completely "taken care of" by the gov't.
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pj5977
I agree. This will probably be her fate, although she was released too early, considering her crime. Sitting in prison untreated would have been fruitless. She probably should have been committed to a prison mental facility. I sympathize with Ms. Smart. She has every right to be angry. It seems the bad people get the breaks and the good continue to suffer.
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Joe
She Will be treated like royalty on our dime like all high profile criminals.
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Lea Weisenbach
She is well know now and she is mentally ill..Someone will be watching her...If she dose anything I'm sure she will not make it to jail this time.
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Minister Dave
I believe everyone should be given a second chance, case by case all in all I feel to re enter social and physical freedom is the right thing. We must temper our power to allow for these life issues. But for the grace.......
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Neal
I guess if Elizabeth Smart were your daughter, you may not be so interested in the 2nd chance for people that ruin others lives. she needs mental incarceration.
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Joe
If she decides to murder someone on her second chance I hope it's you.
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Lionheart
I'm not sure who you are referencing, but your comment is one of someone that also needs serious help, much like Wanda Barzee. You wouldn't happen to be a religionist would you? I mention that because they also are not very caring, unless it's with one of their own flock, and even then it's not guaranteed, as most Catholic priests can testify.
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power to the people
Joe.....wow.
Issues.
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Joe
Yes with bleeding hearts that don't have enough brains to see that it is not about punishment or rehabilitation. It is about isolation. The cost of keeping someone in is much lower than the cost of letting them out . I always ask"what if you are the next victims" But there is just no reasoning with stupid.
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power to the people
I don't know how much of that was directed toward me....but "bleeding hearts"? I am definitely not a bleeding heart. How about angry violent 12 year old type responses? "I hope it's you"....that is a display of "not enough brains".
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Joe
Angry...yes! When a small town cop is killed by a hard case with 70 + counts on his record followed up with another two years later with 100+. In the same month our smarter than thou legislators pass a bill that makes it legal to steal and reduces jail time Their solution to prison overpopulation is to turn these animals loose on the rest of us. If you think this right you are way below a 12 year old.
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power to the people
Your response proves you don't know facts... First, the cost of "keeping someone in" is not lower, it's very expensive- $30-60. I live on a lot less- half of what it takes to house and feed the average inmate in a prison.
How about when a cop shoots an unarmed kid weekly, or chase down an innocent couple and turn them into hamburger with well over 100 bullets?(cleveland)
Anyhow, the context of your comment shows a great deal of immaturity.
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Joe
Uncalled-for police shootings are one in millions of confrontation. Two thirds of released prisoners "reoffend" which means another innocent life ruined or ended. It cost about $500,000 to arrest and convict them AGAIN. That's ten years that they could have stayed where they belonged . Yes prisons need to get more cost effective.
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Lori
It is what it is. There isn't much to say, until she tries to kidnap or harm someone again. You'd think they would have committed her for her mental instabilities, rather than letting her go free.
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Carl Elfstrom
Just because she got out doesn't mean she'll stay out very long. I can't recall having heard about her having committed any kidnappings and rapes before this one. Even crazy people learn lessens and change. Besides that, as old as she is it would be a lot harder to find a man who wants a crazy old hag for a girlfriend. And Elizabeth Smart would surely beat her up, if not worse, if she saw her coming. I wish she'd come to Galveston and try to rape me. There's a good chance she'd end up on a spicket, over a slow fire, with an apple in her mouth.
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Deborah Alexander-Gioello
I honestly don't know what Donald Trump has to do with this case; the laws were already in place. Besides, it is up to state legislatures to make laws in their states. Federal law applies to federal offenses and are determined by Congress.
What truly disturbs me is the personal, negative politization of nearly everything. In the context of an organization that, until recently, seemed to be composed of, and attracted, folks of various (or no) religious beliefs with loving hearts, I am appalled.
Where is your compassion for Elizabeth Smart? Wanda Barzee is apparently a very disturbed woman. Don't think that she is harmless just because she is alone. Barzee needs help and compassion, but NOT at the expense of Elizabeth Smart.
Until you or your loved one is a victim of sexual violence and torture, please reserve your judgement and your opinions on this subject.
Out of compassion for those who have no understanding of what Elizabeth Smart and others have survived, I have been very restrained in my remarks. And remember, we have no idea how many victims of sexual violence and torture across the world and across time, never survived to tell the tale.
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power to the people
Deborah- He (trump) doesn't. Some people want to inject politics and their anger concerning politics into everything they do. There are a lot of people with ulterior motives and agendas here.
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What a shame. she needs mental health she will never get. she wad better off incarcerated.