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Elizabeth Smart: A Complete Timeline of Her Kidnapping, Rescue and Aftermath
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In early June 2002, days earlier than she was set to graduate from center college, 14-year-old Elizabeth Good was taken from her dwelling in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, and held captive by avenue preacher Brian David Mitchell and his spouse, Wanda Barzee.
Chained to a tree in a campsite simply miles from dwelling, Good was repeatedly raped, starved and compelled to drink alcohol and look at pornography. She was additionally typically delivered to city as her captors acquired provisions, her face hid by a veil, so close to and but so removed from the anxious household and volunteers who desperately combed the realm.
However this was a uncommon horror story with a contented ending, because the clues led to {the teenager}’s protected return lower than a 12 months after her disappearance. And regardless of the authorized obstacles that threatened to indefinitely delay a trial, Good finally noticed her captors obtain their simply punishment as she continued her exceptional restoration from the life-changing ordeal.
Here’s a full timeline of Good’s abduction and aftermath:
Fall 2001: Good first encounters Mitchell
Good and her mom, Lois, come throughout a clean-shaven Mitchell panhandling in downtown Salt Lake Metropolis. Lois fingers over 5 {dollars} and says he can earn extra by engaged on the household roof, a suggestion the beggar, who calls himself “Immanuel,” accepts for a day job in November.
[Watch Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography on A&E Crime Central.]
June 5, 2002: Good is kidnapped
Good is jolted awake within the early-morning hours by a knife pressed to her throat and a voice ordering her off the bed. Her youthful sister, Mary Katherine, can be woke up, although she stays immobile till dashing to their mother and father a number of hours later.
Good, who acknowledges her now-bearded abductor as Immanuel, is pressured on a grueling hike up the foothills behind her dwelling till they attain a campsite, the place they’re “married” in a ceremony by Barzee.
June 14, 2002: Police arrest a possible suspect
Richard Ricci, a profession legal who additionally labored on the Good dwelling, is arrested for a parole violation, although he’s not but a proper suspect. 4 weeks later he’s charged with stealing jewellery and different gadgets from each the Smarts and one other household within the neighborhood.
July 24, 2002: Mitchell makes an attempt to abduct Good’s cousin
Police are summoned to the house of Lois’ sister after a daughter is woke up by somebody chopping by a bed room window. It’s later revealed that Mitchell and Barzee had been behind the tried break-in, with Mitchell searching for to make Good’s 15-year-old cousin one other bride.
August 30, 2002: Prime suspect Ricci dies in jail
Three days after struggling a mind hemorrhage that left him in a coma, Ricci is faraway from life assist. Good household spokesman Chris Thomas means that Ricci’s loss of life may encourage others harboring helpful info to come back ahead. “Maybe these individuals will now be extra inclined to inform police what they know,” he says.
September 2002: Mitchell, Barzee and Good take a bus to California
The trio will spend the following a number of months within the San Diego space, shifting between campsites and consuming at homeless shelters. Good later writes about Mitchell’s try and kidnap one other lady throughout this time.
Oct 12, 2002: Mary Katherine remembers her sister’s abductor
The recollection comes as Mary Katherine thumbs by a Guinness Ebook of World Information. Upon coming to a web page of a muscular lady, she immediately remembers the homeless handyman who helped repair the roof the earlier 12 months, his voice equivalent to the one which ordered her sister out of their room on that traumatic night time in June.
February 3, 2003: The Good household publicizes Mitchell’s police sketch
After clashing with authorities over the problem, the Good household goes public with a sketch of “Immanuel.” Police downplay the importance of releasing the sketch, however a girl quickly comes ahead to say that the suspect could also be her brother, whereas Mitchell’s stepson identifies him after seeing the sketch and a photograph on the February 15 episode of America’s Most Wished.
February 2003: Good persuades Mitchell to take them again to Salt Lake Metropolis
Following Mitchell’s announcement that the household will transfer to a faraway metropolis like New York or Boston, Good shrewdly reveals her “perception” that God needs them to return to Salt Lake Metropolis. Mitchell agrees and shortly has them hitchhiking again to Utah.
March 12, 2003: Good is rescued and reunited along with her household
Good and her two captors are found strolling the road in Sandy, Utah, a number of miles from Salt Lake Metropolis. {The teenager} is taken to the police station in her hometown, the place she joyfully reunites along with her household.
Elizabeth Good poses for a portrait along with her mother and father, Ed and Lois, at their Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah dwelling on February 22, 2004
Photograph: Lois Good through Getty Photos
July 26, 2005: Mitchell is discovered incompetent to face trial
One 12 months after Barzee is deemed unfit for trial, a state decide points the identical ruling for Mitchell, placing the case on maintain as each are confined to Utah State Hospital.
March 5, 2008: Mitchell and Barzee are indicted on federal costs
A federal grand jury indicts Mitchell and Barzee on costs of interstate kidnapping and illegal transportation of a minor throughout state strains. In October, after the state decide denies a request to forcibly medicate Mitchell, the case is transferred to the federal courtroom system.
November 17, 2009: Barzee pleads responsible
Two weeks earlier than one other competency listening to commences for Mitchell, Barzee formally admits to her position within the kidnapping and enslavement of Good. “I am so sorry, Elizabeth, for all of the ache and struggling I precipitated you and your loved ones,” she says in courtroom. “It’s my hope it is possible for you to to search out it in your coronary heart and forgive me.”
March 1, 2010: Mitchell is deemed competent for trial
After years of disrupting hearings by delivering admonishments and singing hymns, Mitchell is discovered competent to face trial. “The proof proves that Mitchell has the capability to help his counsel in his protection and the power to behave appropriately within the courtroom,” the federal decide writes in his 149-page ruling.
Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee mugshots, March 2003
Photographs: Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Division/Getty Photos
Might 21, 2010: Barzee receives a 15-year sentence
Barzee is sentenced to fifteen years in federal jail for kidnapping and sexual assault and one to fifteen years on the Utah State Jail for the tried kidnapping of Good’s cousin, the sentences to run concurrently. The defendant additionally receives a stern admonishment from Good’s mom: “What you probably did to our household and our lady Elizabeth was improper. It was improper, and it was evil,” Lois tells Barzee. “You harm our household in methods you will by no means know.”
November 1, 2010: Mitchell’s trial begins
Mitchell’s long-awaited trial on felony kidnapping, sexual assault and housebreaking costs begins with jury choice. Just a few days later, after the trial’s sudden halt over a request for a brand new venue, an appeals courtroom guidelines that proceedings can proceed in Salt Lake Metropolis.
November 8-10, 2010: Good tells her story in courtroom
Coming back from her worldwide Mormon missionary work for 3 days of testimony, a composed Good particulars the sexual abuse and horrific situations she endured over 9 months in captivity. She additionally recollects a state of affairs wherein she was almost rescued by a detective in a library, however was too scared to ask for assist.
November 18-19, 2010: Barzee testifies towards Mitchell
Taking the stand as a part of her plea deal, Barzee explains the “revelation” that drove her husband’s want to abduct women till he had 350 wives, and describes how she adopted orders to organize the primary campsite for Good’s arrival.
December 10, 2010: Mitchell is convicted
Rejecting the protection’s madness argument, the jury finds Mitchell responsible of kidnapping and illegal transportation of a minor throughout state strains for sexual exercise. Good, who’s seen exchanging smiles along with her mom when the decision is introduced, afterward says she is “thrilled” with the result.
Might 25, 2011: Mitchell is sentenced to life in jail
Good, who has launched the Elizabeth Good Basis to fight sexual violence, confronts her abductor shortly earlier than he receives a life sentence for his crimes. “I do know that you recognize what you probably did was improper,” she says. “You took away 9 months of my life that may by no means be returned, however on this life or subsequent, you’ll have to be held answerable for these actions, and I hope you’re prepared for when that point comes.”
Elizabeth Good holding her e book “The place There’s Hope” on April 6, 2018 in Common Metropolis, California
Photograph: David Livingston/Getty Photos
October 7, 2013: Good authors a memoir
Now married, Good publishes her first memoir of the ordeal, My Story. She follows with a second e book in March 2018, The place There’s Hope: Therapeutic, Transferring Ahead, and By no means Giving Up.
Sept. 19, 2018: Barzee is launched from jail
Barzee is granted her freedom below the situations that she registers as a intercourse offender and take part in a psychological well being therapy program. Good, who’d voiced her opposition to the parole board’s determination, follows with an Instagram put up: “Might all of us stay vigilant in watching over our households, associates, and neighborhood from anybody who would search to harm or take benefit. I actually imagine life is supposed to be comfortable and delightful, and it doesn’t matter what occurs that may stay my aim for me and for my household.”
Watch I Am Elizabeth Good on Lifetime Film Membership
