Ryan Reynolds (6:18)

Elizabeth, if you're out there, we're doing everything we possibly can to help you. We love you. We want you to come home safely to us.

Lyndon Blake (6:29)

So the Smart family is being scrutinized in public. They're taking lie detector test. People are starting to question who in their family would do this to their daughter. Their private grief becomes almost public material. And the media attention around this case was absolutely insane. National media immediately went out to Utah to follow this. There's some indication that this may have been an inside job.

Investigator/Detective (6:57)

Police confirming they have taken 12 computers from the family. There's something strange about that story, though. As a reporter, you ask some good questions, but there are a lot more questions to be asked. It doesn't ring true.

Reporter (7:08)

And it's somebody that seems to have understood the layout of the home and how to find her. In the home.

Investigator/Detective (7:13)

They have given the father of Elizabeth a polygraph test.

Lyndon Blake (7:17)

So while the search is happening, while the family's being questioned, Elizabeth is living this new life with her captors. I mentioned it was a man and a woman. They were married. They have now married Elizabeth into the marriage. And the entire time Elizabeth is with them, she's just listening to them feed her lies. The guy saying he's some type of prophet and that it was God's will to marry her and to have her. And Elizabeth is 14 years old, and she is a religious partner, and she is just very confused on why he's bringing God into this. And it's a psychological warfare that is starting to take place all up in the hills, very close to where she was taken. Back down in the city, you have people looking at suspects.

News Anchor (8:12)

A man with a long history of criminal behavior leaps to the top of the list of suspicious people in the Smart case.

Lyndon Blake (8:18)

So enter Richard Rishi. He's a former handyman and a man of the violent criminal record.

Investigator/Detective (8:25)

When was the last time you were in that house?

Ryan Reynolds (8:28)

In April.

Investigator/Detective (8:29)

What you know about the kidnapping? I don't. You couldn't live in this valley for the last two and a half weeks and not know something about kidnapping. I'm not playing games. I'm not saying tell me why you did the kidnapping. I'm saying tell me what you know about it, what you've Heard on the news what you've seen in the press. Broke into the Smarts house, okay, Took Elizabeth, okay. Now I'm the number one suspect.

Lyndon Blake (8:52)

So Rishi has this mullet, this mustache, He's a skinnier guy, looks like someone that would be your go to handyman. And while he has an alibi for the night Elizabeth was abducted, evidence against him starts to build. They are trying to solve this case. And now the family is close. Officials discovered on Rishi's car that there was a significant amount of mileage put on his Jeep.

Investigator/Detective (9:19)

This 1990 white Jeep Cherokee given to Richard Reese by Ed Smart for handyman Work continues to be the potential key piece of evidence.

Lyndon Blake (9:27)

And Rishi didn't have a real good explanation for why that was so. Nine days after her disappearance, Rishi was arrested for violating his parole because he was caught drinking alcohol. So all while Rishi was in the slammer and he was getting questioned, he maintained his innocence. And Elizabeth's sister, nine year old Mary Catherine, the only person to witness the guy take her sister was very convinced that Rishi was not the guy. She told her parents over and over that was not the guy that took Elizabeth. Still, you have law enforcement thinking that at this point we're not gonna go with the nine year old child eyewitness. So at this point, we're a little over a month after Elizabeth was kidnapped and there's an interesting wrinkle in the investigation. There was a break in at Elizabeth's aunt and uncle's house.

Reporter (10:20)

Someone tried to break into the home of Liz Smart's aunt and uncle.

Investigator/Detective (10:24)

In fact, a screen was cut on

Lyndon Blake (10:25)

the bedroom window of Elizabeth's female cousin,

Reporter (10:28)

an 18 year old.

Lyndon Blake (10:29)

And the scene mirrored the scene the night Elizabeth was taken at Elizabeth's aunt and uncle's house. You had her cousin's bedroom window window screen cut open and there were two chairs that were pressed up against the outside wall that looked like someone was gonna go stand in the chairs and try to get through that bedroom window. It was very weird for the family to go through this because at this time, Rishi, the guy that's being questioned for Elizabeth's kidnapping, is, is in jail. So he's not a suspect. Then in late August of 2002, Rishi collapses. While he's still in police custody, he actually suffered a brain hemorrhage and he died at the hospital a couple of days later. And at this time when the guy that they've been working towards questioning and building a case against as Elizabeth's kidnapper, officials are Worried now that they've lost the key, the case they lost the guy that could bring Elizabeth home. Obviously, with Rishi not being in the picture anymore, the search starts to change. That late summer, then fall in 2002, the canyon searches, the large volunteer searches, are starting to thin out. Your posters are just becoming another poster, maybe with a rip in them that you can tell they've been there for a while, around town. And the case becomes static. It's still loud because throughout all this, Elizabeth's parents are talking to the media. They are doing everything they can to bring her home, but it doesn't seem like the case is moving forward.

News Anchor (12:09)

Elizabeth, you can hear us. We love you, Elizabeth. We haven't forgotten, and everybody wants you back, and we won't stop until you're home.

Lyndon Blake (12:17)

But then a break in the case happens. Mary Catherine remembers something that would change everything. The man that she heard calls himself Emmanuel. And she says the family's been around him before. With Emmanuel, the man who was in

Investigator/Detective (12:33)

your bedroom, You're not quite sure, but it might have been.

Lyndon Blake (12:41)

Things are starting to turn in the smart household. Months before Elizabeth was taken, her mom, Lois, met this guy downtown asking for money. So instead of just giving him money there, she says, you know, I have some things you can do around the house. Why don't you come work for me and I'll pay you. This is the same man that goes by Emmanuel. So at this point in the investigation, police are a little skeptical about this man that Mary Catherine remembers speaking and not with her mom. And he came to the house. Emmanuel.

Reporter (13:16)

We're not certain who Mary Catherine saw, and we're not certain that she knows who she sought. He's coming up with this new idea or this breaking news on this case, and it really is not.

Lyndon Blake (13:28)

And they're skeptical because this is coming from a nine year old girl. This is months into the search, and she hasn't said anything up until this point. Maybe she's just imagining something. It can't be an accurate depiction of what she remembers. But at the same time, detectives really can't afford to ignore a potential lead that brings Elizabeth home. So what they do next is they bring in this sketch artist, this professional, to sit down with Mary Catherine. And they carefully walk her through what she remembers about Emmanuel. They're asking her about his face, his features, his expression. And little by little, they're able to create this sketched image. And investigators think it's a strong sketch. Police also are very impressed with what they've been able to create. But behind the scenes, there's hesitation about taking the sketch of this man, Emmanuel to the public. This is a frustrating time for the family because Lois and Ed, they believe Mary Catherine at this point. They know that she was the only one. I mean, really their only hope, because she was the only one that saw the person who took Elizabeth. So they're going with it. They're wanting to move this forward, but there's that hesitation. And investigators aren't releasing it to the public. And the family is getting impatient. They are getting visibly impatient because this is their daughter. So they go against the investigator's advice. And on their own, the family releases the sketch of Emmanuelle to the media.

Investigator/Detective (15:11)

Now we've got breaking news on the Elizabeth Smart abduction case.

News Anchor (15:15)

I know in my heart, I absolutely know that there is somebody out there that knows something about this.

Lyndon Blake (15:23)

This sketch of Emmanuel went everywhere. You could not not see it when you turned on your tv. It was a spark. This months long case needed to keep it going and to keep it in front of households across the country. And it didn't take long before someone recognized that face and gave the police a name. Brian David Mitchell. Brian David Mitchell. Like I said, he believed he was a prophet. He believed he was God's chosen one. He wanted multiple wives in addition to Wanda Barzee. That's the woman that's been a part of this the entire time. He thought kidnapping Elizabeth was God's plan. And when the three weren't at that campsite up in the woods, they went to parties. They lived their life. Brian David Mitchell genuinely thought he had done nothing wrong. They went into Salt Lake City. They even went to the library once and sat at a table. And they were just reading books out in public during the day. And while they were at the library during broad daylight, they run into a police officer who naturally sees this strange looking family in these long biblical robes, a younger girl with them. The posters are out. Elizabeth's picture's still out. So he goes over there and starts to question Emmanuel. Emmanuel looked at the police officer, offended. He would even approach them and said, oh, this is my daughter. You can't ask her to remove her veil. That's against our religion. And Elizabeth is sitting there terrified to speak because if she said something and that police officer didn't believe her because Mitchell, Emmanuel, is doing such a good job of convincing that officer that he's her dad, she knew it'd be the end for her. She would be in extreme danger. So she said nothing. After that scare with the cops, Emmanuel told the two they have to leave town. So they go off to San Diego and they spend some time out in California. And this is when I just am so impressed with how at just 14 years old, Elizabeth knew how to work the system, so to speak. She convinces Emmanuel that they need to go back to Salt Lake City, that they need to go back to Utah, that their life would be better there. She knew the psychological game, and she knew she had to play along with him in order to get back to her family. That choice to go back to Utah changed everything, and it changed it very quickly. It was nine months at this point. March 12, 2003, 23 years ago today, a 911 call comes in from Sandy, Utah. Police get two separate tips that there's a man walking near South State street with two females. After witnesses say they recognize him from all that media coverage. There was a little girl there in a disguise. She had on sunglasses, a wig, that same veil, like, covering that she's worn the entire time she's been in captivity. When the police pull up to the three, you have Emmanuel trying to take over like he did in the previous situation with the cop. He's performing, he's talking about how he's a father, he's this harmless preacher just on a stroll with his family. He doesn't need to be questioned. There's nothing to see here. The trio gave police false names. And Elizabeth, being terrified, initially goes along with it. Again, from her mindset, she's thinking, if I cannot convince this officer that I am Elizabeth Smart, who they are looking for, it is not going to end well for me. Finally, police separate the three. This just truly gives me chills because by pulling Elizabeth to the side away from Emmanuel and and Barzi, they're able to talk with her one on one and get the real story. While they're alone with Elizabeth, officers have her missing person's poster. They're able to show that to her, and they start asking questions. After Elizabeth knew she was safe, she confessed to the police officer, and within minutes, Emmanuel and Wanda Barzee were put in handcuffs and Elizabeth Smart was free. So this ending isn't like a movie where her family's there and they can run up to her and it's happily ever after. Elizabeth is scared to death still. She's with police officers and she has to be taken down to the station. They have to continue to go through this investigation. So she's sitting there as a teenager who has just lived a lie for the last nine months. She's just been abused, lied to, raped, just controlled and she obviously is not recovered from that yet. She doesn't really know what to do. But they bring her dad down, and it was almost like her dad didn't even recognize his daughter because she was so changed by that point. From the last nine months of being under Emmanuel's control. But the good memory comes in after the police are able to get everything documented and release her to her family, when she finally gets to go home. And Elizabeth says that she still, to this day, 23 years later, vividly remembers seeing her siblings in their pajamas when she walked into the house, and she just started bawling. March 12, 2003, she says outside of her wedding day and having her children is still the happiest day of her life.

Reporter (21:45)

Utah's miracle. Elizabeth Smart is alive and well after

News Anchor (21:49)

nine months, 280 days after she was. It's as if she came back from the dead.

Lyndon Blake (21:53)

This is a story that defies all odds.

News Anchor (21:55)

A lot of people all across the country bursting into tears.

Lyndon Blake (21:58)

I mean, this is. It was one of those cases that I remembered it happening 23 years ago. I remember looking for her the nine months prior, watching it on the news. I remember being scared to sleep in my bedroom as a teenager because of the scary images of Emmanuel that they plastered everywhere that, of course, they had to to lead to bringing Elizabeth home. But it is hard to believe. It was 23 years ago. Elizabeth Smart was able to walk away from the people who took her, and then she got to testify about what they did to her. Because of that, Emmanuel was later sentenced to life in federal prison. Barzi was supposed to be in prison until 2024, but she was released in 2018. When that happened, Elizabeth was obviously uncomfortable. Elizabeth talked about how it wasn't a good feeling because people had told her that Barzi was still very much believing all the things Emmanuel told her. And she even still had this book Emmanuel gave her when she was released from prison. So Elizabeth was thinking, I don't think much has changed with her thinking. But in 2025, Barzi was arrested again at her home in Salt Lake City because she violated the terms of her status as a sex offender. She was caught going to, I think, at least two parks, which is against the rules. Elizabeth has found power even with Barzi being somewhat back in the public, and she's been able to use the strength she's found to help other survivors. As crazy as Elizabeth's story seems, she says it's not uncommon. And that's why, for the last 23 years, she has made it her mission to make other survivors of this type of crime not feel alone. She just released a documentary, and she said that she hopes that people who watch the documentary can see that even after terrible things happen, you can still have a wonderful life. WINNELL Elizabeth's wonderful life consists of being a wife and a mother. She has three kids and she's doing her best to live as normal as possible. She's still close with her family. She calls her little sister, Mary Catherine, her hero. And she still takes time every year on March 12th to reflect on that day and how far she's come since then. And of course, every year on March 12, she takes the time to call her parents. I'm Lyndon Blake and this is a Daily Wire True Crime Investigation.

Sponsor/Ad Narrator (24:46)

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