Elizabeth Smart kidnapper now lives near school

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY

A woman who helped kidnap Utah’s Elizabeth Smart is living several blocks away from a Salt Lake City elementary school following her release from prison in September, according to Utah’s sex-offender registry.

Wanda Barzee, 73, is listed in the registry as living in an apartment near the school after her initial placement in a halfway house after she was released on parole much earlier than anticipated despite her refusal to cooperate with mental health professionals while incarcerated.

She was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to helping her husband, street preacher Brian David Mitchell, who abducted Smart at knifepoint in 2002 when she was 14 and repeatedly raped her. Smart was held captive for nine months before she was found and rescued.

Smart, now 31, has become a child safety advocate and is married with three young children. She had no immediate comment.

Federal probation officers did not return a telephone message Monday seeking comment.