AP Exclusive: Letters from woman charged in Elizabeth Smart kidnapping shed light on fears
By Jennifer Dobner, APWednesday, September 30, 2009
Letters from woman charged in Smart case shared
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — The mother of the woman charged in the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart says her daughter has written letters seeking her forgiveness and expects to spend the rest of her life in jail.
Copies of the letters Wanda Eileen Barzee sent between July 2008 and August 2009 were provided to The Associated Press by her mother, Dora Corbett. Corbett says the letters also speak of her need for repentance.
The 63-year-old Barzee is charged in both state and federal court with the abduction. Barzee and her estranged husband were arrested in March 2003, nine months after they allegedly took the then-14-year-old Smart.
Barzee has been twice deemed incompetent for trial and is under going court-ordered treatment. A competency review hearing is set for Oct. 23.
Tags: Elizabeth smart, Kidnapping, North America, United States, Utah, West Valley City
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October 3, 2009: 9:19 am
Poor Elizabeth Smart — kidnapped 9 months by a “religious” man (Mitchell) with a sex drive for 14 yr old girls. Very poor Elizabeth Smart raised in a church for 21 yrs which was founded by a “religious” man (Joseph Smith) with a sex drive for 14 yr old girls and other men’s wives. In November Elizabeth will become a missionary for the Mormons, she will teach the people of Paris France to sing the same songs that Mitchell sings in court. She will teach the French to honor and revere a man (Joseph Smith) who also used religious emotion as a tool to get 14 yr-old girls in bed. Elizabeth’s tale is a sad one indeed. I sympathize with all the trauma that Elizabeth has gone through, yet much of that trauma is still unrecognized by herself. |
jhaake