Elizabeth Smart says kidnapper Wanda Barzee, set to be released from prison, would 'sit right next to me' as she was repeatedly raped

Updated

Elizabeth Smart says kidnapper Wanda Barzee, due to be released from prison on Thursday, would encourage her husband to rape her during the time she was held captive.

"She would sit right next to me. Like, the side of her body would be touching me," Smart told "CBS This Morning" in an interview that aired Tuesday.

Smart was taken from her Salt Lake City home at knifepoint by Barzee's husband Brian David Mitchell in 2002. Only 14 at the time, she was repeatedly raped and tortured for nine months before she was rescued.

Mitchell is serving a life sentence, but Barzee is being released after officials miscalculated her sentence. She had been slated to stay in prison until 2024.

Smart was outraged by news of Barzee's release, and Utah residents have also expressed concern. Relatives do not want to have anything to do with Barzee.

"I don't know all the conditions of her release, but I have been reassured multiple times that she will be kept a very close eye on," Smart told CBS. "And as soon as she messes up, which I've been reassured that she will, she will be taken back to federal prison for the duration of the five years."

Smart tells Gayle King that she was given "a little bit of comfort" after she was abducted when Mitchell told her had a wife, but that soon changed.

"But as soon as I saw her, I did not have that hope anymore," she told CBS News.

Smart said she was raped every day by Mitchell, sometimes "multiple" times a day, and that Barzee was always close by.

"I mean, she was right there," Smart told CBS News. "So, I mean, she — there were no secrets. She knew what was going on. And, I mean, she just was the kind of woman that — she was just evil and twisted."

She recalled that the couple forced her to drink a large amount of alcohol.

"I was a 14-year-old girl, I'd never touched alcohol in my life — that I ended up throwing up and then passing out in it," she said. "And both of them just let me lie there all night. And when I woke up the next morning, I mean, my face and my hair were completely crusted to the ground. And they both laughed. She laughed. She laughed just as much as he did, if not more."

She said she is concerned for the community and for the public as much as she is for herself about Barzee's release.

"I know just how bad she really can be," Smart said.

Advertisement