The Woman Who Helped Her Husband Forced A Girl To Be A Second Wife

She was a mother of six, a church organist in a quiet Salt Lake City, Utah, community. 

But in June 2002, Wanda Barzee sat in a makeshift mountain camp in the woods and waited while her husband crept into a family home and took a 14-year-old girl from her bed at knifepoint.

When the terrified child arrived at the camp, Wanda, 56, didn’t help her escape. Instead, she helped hold her captive for nine months.

And why did she do it?

For her husband

A self-proclaimed prophet who convinced her that God had commanded him to take a child as his second wife. 

In the 1980s, Wanda married Brian David Mitchell. 

Over the years, the pair drifted away from their church and into their own world. 

Brian began calling himself Immanuel David Isaiah. 

Wanda took the name Hephzibah. 

They wandered Salt Lake City in robes, begging for money.

In November 2001, a local mother named Lois Smart met Brian, then 48, begging in the street and hired him for a day of work on her family home. 

Brian saw who lived there. 

One of them was Lois’s 14-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. 

On the night of 5 June 2002, he returned to the home and kidnapped Elizabeth, while her younger sister, Mary Katherine, lay frozen in fear after witnessing what happened. 

They took Elizabeth to the mountain camp, where Wanda was waiting.

Elizabeth was forced to live as Brian’s second wife, and for nine months Wanda helped keep the 14-year-old captive while her husband abused Elizabeth. 

Brian and Wanda also forced Elizabeth to wear long robes, a headscarf, and a face veil to hide her identity when they travelled or appeared in public.

Then, on 12 March 2003, everything changed. 

The three were walking down a street in Sandy, Utah, when people recognised the couple from media coverage. 

Police were called, and they arrested the couple. Elizabeth was reunited with her family.

Wanda and Brian were initially found unfit to stand trial. 

Eventually, in 2009, Wanda pleaded guilty to federal charges of kidnapping and enticement of a minor and was sentenced to 15 years. 

She also cooperated with prosecutors, which played a key role in convicting Brian. 

He got life.

Wanda was due to stay behind bars until 2024. 

Then in 2018, authorities announced they had miscalculated the time she had already served in federal custody. 

She was quietly released on 19 September 2018, slipping past the media waiting outside the prison. 

Elizabeth said she was surprised and disappointed, calling the decision incomprehensible.

In April 2025, Wanda made headlines again when she went to a park and fed ducks. 

As a registered sex offender, she is banned from public parks. 

Her explanation to police? She said the Lord commanded her to visit the park.

Now 80, Wanda was charged with two misdemeanours, and this latest case is still pending.

As for Elizabeth Smart, she refused to live her life in fear. 

She became a child safety advocate and has spent her life helping others.