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SALT LAKE CITY – A woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart is living several blocks 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. 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...

A woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap Elizabeth Smart as a teenager in 2002 from her Salt Lake City bedroom and hold her captive will be freed from prison in a surprise move announced Tuesday by state authorities. Wanda Barzee, 72, will be released Sept. 19 after the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole determined it had miscalculated the time she previously served in federal custody, board spokesman Greg Johnson said in a news release. She will be under federal supervision for five years. Barzee pleaded guilty to kidnapping Smart and helping keep her captive for nine...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal judge has ordered a woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping Elizabeth Smart to spend 15 years in prison, with credit for about seven years she's already served. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said Friday Wanda Barzee will serve the sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Secret Meetings The night Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom by mad messiah Brian David Mitchell was NOT the first time she'd been alone with him! Shockingly the then 14 year old had met the raving self- proclaimed prophet six times before, says sources. At least four of those times, the tenderhearted teen--who was raised in a religious home where charity to the less fortunate was encouraged--secretly sneaked off to see the 49-year old Mitchell in a bid to help him, say insiders. The first time Elizabeth met Mitchell and Wanda was in November 2001, when...

"Divine Revelation" Unlikely to Influence Court BY Stephen Hunt Wednesday March 19, 2003 THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee may believe God ordered them to kidnap Elizabeth Smart, but legal experts say divine revelation will be little help to them in the courtroom. "Being egged on by another is not a defense," said Assistant Utah Attorney General Michael Wims. "It is not a defense that God urged them to do it." Mitchell, 49, and Barzee, 57, were charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated kidnapping and five other felonies in connection with the June...

Self-proclaimed prophet Brian Mitchell and his wife were charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary Tuesday in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. Mitchell, a drifter whose writings promoting polygamy had raised questions about whether Elizabeth was sexually abused during her nine-month ordeal, has told his attorney that he considers the 15-year-old girl his wife and wants her to be renamed "Remnant Who Will Return." Attorney Larry Long said Mitchell - whom he referred to as "the perpetrator" - considers the girl's nine-month disappearance a "call from God," not a kidnapping.