Elizabeth Ann Smart, aged 14, was kidnapped on June 5, 2002, by Brian David Mitchell from her home in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah.

She was held captive by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, and later, in San Diego County, California.

During her captivity, Smart accompanied her captors in public on various occasions dressed head-to-toe in white robes and went largely unrecognized by those she came in contact with.

Barzee was sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison in 2009 for her role in the abduction, although she was granted early release on September 19, 2018, for previously uncredited time served.

Extensive disputes over his competence to stand trial lasted several years before he was deemed mentally capable in 2010; he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 2011.

[5] On the day his divorce from Debbie was finalized, Mitchell married Wanda Elaine Barzee (b. November 6, 1945, in Salt Lake City), a then-forty-year-old divorcee with six children.

[5] The name relates to Mitchell's belief that he was the "Davidic Servant" spoken of in Avraham Gileadi's book The Literary Message of Isaiah.

[5] In the early hours of June 5, 2002, Mitchell broke into the home of Ed and Lois Smart in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, where they lived with their six children.

[25] A massive regional search effort, organized by the Laura Recovery Center, involved up to 2,000 volunteers each day, as well as dogs and planes.

[30][31] To keep Elizabeth's name in the press, her family used a variety of strategies, including making a website about her abduction and providing home videos.

[33] Mitchell forced Smart to walk four miles in her nightgown into the woods to an encampment outside of Salt Lake City, where she was met by Wanda Barzee.

[34][35] According to Smart's testimony, Barzee "eventually just proceeded to wash my feet and told me to change out of my pajamas into a robe type of garment.

"[36] Mitchell claimed to be an angel and he also told Smart that he was a Davidic King who would "emerge in seven years, be stoned by a mob, lie dead in the streets for three days and then rise up and kill the Antichrist.

[37][38] To keep Smart from escaping, she was shackled to a tree with a metal cable around her leg, which allowed her limited mobility outside of the tent she occupied, or hidden in a hole covered by boards.

[39] It was later revealed during court testimony that Mitchell repeatedly raped Smart, sometimes multiple times a day, forced her to look at pornographic magazines, and regularly threatened to kill her.

[34] Smart accompanied Mitchell and Barzee in public on numerous occasions, but her presence was either obscured or unnoticed via various methods of concealment, which often consisted of her wearing a headscarf and a face veil.

[34] To research potential places to relocate, Mitchell and Barzee visited the Salt Lake City Public Library with Smart.

There, they were noticed by a library patron due to their unusual styles of dress; each wore full-length robes with veils which concealed most of their faces.

[2] The woman was Wanda Barzee, and the girl was Elizabeth Smart—disguised in a gray wig, sunglasses, veil, and t-shirt wrapped around her head.

[60] Once she was back at home, she watched a film, read emails sent by well-wishers, played her harp, met her family's two new dogs, and slept in the same bed Mitchell had taken her from.

Up until this point the defense did not highlight breakdown in competence as a contributing factor to the deterioration of plea negotiations; they cited the lack of a coming to an agreement as being the result of the sole discretion of their client.

In February 2006, a bill went before the Utah legislature to allow prosecutors to apply for forcible medication on defendants to restore their competence to face trial.

On December 18, 2006, Mitchell was again declared unfit to stand trial in the Utah state courts after screaming at a judge during a hearing to "forsake those robes and kneel in the dust.

Welner, another witness in the case, reviewed 210 sources and 57 separate interviews including Mitchell, his wife Wanda Barzee, his family, and Elizabeth Smart.

[66] Experts for the defense including Dr. DeMier, a clinical psychologist, did not dispute these diagnoses; they maintained he had a concurrent fixed delusional disorder, believing that Mitchell was mentally ill at the time of the crime, and this greatly impaired his judgment.

[67] The insanity defense for Mitchell was rejected on December 11, 2010, when the jury found him guilty of kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in sexual activity.

In July 2006, legal commentator and television personality Nancy Grace interviewed Elizabeth Smart, purportedly to talk about pending legislation on sex-offender registration, but repeatedly asked her for information about her experience.

Elizabeth's uncle Tom Smart co-authored a book with Deseret News journalist Lee Benson, titled In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation (ISBN 978-1556526213), which criticized the investigation process by the Salt Lake City Police Department, as well as noting the media influences that led to her successful recovery.

It starred Amber Marshall as Elizabeth Smart, Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost as her parents, and Tom Everett as Brian David Mitchell.

The film starred Alana Boden as Elizabeth Smart, Skeet Ulrich as Brian David Mitchell, and Deirdre Lovejoy as Wanda Ileen Barzee.