Wanda Barzee, who infamously helped Brian David Mitchell kidnap Elizabeth Smart back in 2002, was nowhere to be found Tuesday morning at her own parole hearing, which she apparently “refused to attend.” Smart didn’t attend the parole hearing in time although she tried to, KUTV reported. She also had plenty to say about Barzee, including that she believes she has not changed.
A member of the Pardons and Parole board commented on the 72-year-old woman’s absence by saying “It is my understanding that Mrs. Barzee has refused to attend her hearing.”
“She’s not acting like a person that is trying to change the way she previously was,” he said.“Once she gets out she would probably pick up where she left off.”
Even Scott Williams, Barzee’s attorney, was surprised his client didn’t show.
Elizabeth Smart was pleased to hear Barzee is still behind bars.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj7tPA0jqFK/?hl=en&taken-by=elizabeth_smart_official
“It’s only 11:00am and today has already been an eventful day. This morning was the parole hearing for Wanda Barzee, one of the people who kidnapped and held me captive for nine months,” she said. The funny side of this morning was I got to the state prison once it was already over 😬, that was just due to a silly mix up. And the good news is she was not released.”
Smart, who was kidnapped when she was 14, said she believes her captor has not changed because she’s learned that Barzee is still reading a “manuscript” about kidnapping young girls.
“But I have recently learned that she is still carrying around a manuscript called, ‘The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah’ and is reading from it. In this manuscript were the ‘revelations’ [Brian] Mitchell ‘received’ from God to kidnap myself and 6 other young girls to all become his wives, it also ‘revealed’ his other highly disturbing and dangerous ideas,” she said. “This is proof to me that she hasn’t changed, and if the prior 15+ years hasn’t changed her I don’t see how the future years will.”
Smart’s father Ed Smart agreed that Barzee wasn’t acting like someone who had changed.
“She’s not acting like a person that is trying to change the way she previously was,” he said. “Once she gets out she would probably pick up where she left off.”
It will be decided in the next few weeks if Barzee will let out, but if she isn’t she’ll be behind bars until 2024, when she would be pushing 80 years old.
Barzee’s children spoke out years ago about her. One of them called her a “monster.”
Another said Barzee once served up her pet rabbit for dinner. She also recalled a family “prayer session” where Mitchell pulled out pictures of naked women.
“My mom was praying and I was kneeling there, and Brian actually nudged me and he pulled out some photos of some nude women and laid them up on the bed, and it seems that they were trying to get me to participate with them that day,” she said.
Mitchell is serving life in federal prison.
[Image via Fox 13 screengrab]
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