Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found. Before we get started, I just wanted to say that
episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind.
Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast.
Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Well hello everyone, this is Deb. And this is Beth. Welcome to episode number 16 of Dying
to be Found. We're very glad that you are here today. And Beth and I try to cover stories that
you can relate to. If you have a story you would like to hear, please email us at DyingToBeFound
at gmail.com or visit our website at DyingToBeFound.com. Hey, before we get started, Beth,
how are you today? I'm doing really well. I was up early. I got up at four without an alarm and I did
my laundry and it was great. Hey, I have day one of vacation and wouldn't you know it, today's the
day I woke up without the alarm. And I was like, really? Any other day of the week, I am hitting
that snooze. Yeah, but you get so much done and when you're up so early, that's why I like to get
up early like that. I just find I have so much more hours in my day to get things done. I learned a
long time ago that my REMs kick in somewhere after 4 a.m. So my rule is if I wake up at four or later,
I'm gonna stay up. You know, I'm a procrastinator. I'll get out of bed at the very last second. Oh,
not me. As soon as my alarm goes up, my feet are on the floor. Well, you know, I have never liked to
get up in the morning ever in my life. I know that. Because my REMs kick in after 4 a.m. and I only
learned that about 10 years ago. Well, maybe you should go to bed earlier. It doesn't matter. My
REMs kick in after 4 a.m. Oh, anyway, anything else going on? Yes, I'd like to give a big shout
out to you. Happy birthday. Oh, thank you so much. Did my card make it to you yet? Yes, Beth. Oh my
gosh, you all. I need to post this on social media. Beth, I'm gonna say you're a local renowned
artist in your area because she does the most intricate work on her cards. And they are so good.
I actually have picture frames around the house with her beautiful work. And this latest card
that she sent me, holy cow, definitely going in its own frame. Thank you so much, Beth. You're
welcome. I love you. I love you. And you're so sweet. And it is beautiful. So I'll post a picture
of it. All right. Okay, so we are going to pick up where we left off with Elizabeth Smart in part one.
And she is that 14 year old girl from Salt Lake City, Utah, who was abducted from her own bed
in the middle of the night by a man named Emmanuel back in June of 2002. So I want to just give a
really brief recap of part one. I would highly recommend that listeners, if you have not listened
to part one, please go back and listen to that because we're going to take three different
vantage points here. At the end of part one, we talked about the night that Elizabeth disappeared
and her family's ordeal with her abduction, plus how the community and police responded. So
if you've not listened to episode 16, part one, we highly recommend that you do so because
we're really trying to provide you with the family's account of events that took place over
a nine month period following Elizabeth's abduction and being taken from her home.
While her parents were asleep just down the hall, I had mentioned during the last episode that
police told Ed Smart, Elizabeth's dad, not to go public with his own investigation of Elizabeth's
disappearance. I love that he didn't listen to them, Beth. We talked about that before,
and sometimes you just got to do what you got to do, right? For sure, for sure.
Well, Ed, his wife Lois and his two brothers, Tom and David, felt that the police were really
not doing enough to bring Elizabeth home. So again, they did their own thing and they began
digging into their own investigation, which is pretty cool. It is. We're finding a lot of this
happening in our podcasts where the people are doing their own investigations. And I think that's
just right on folks. I love that. I like to call them renegades for sure. You'll probably hear this.
I don't know if you'll hear it today, but you'll certainly hear it from me. Anytime you all hear
that somebody's being a renegade, it is because they are just going above and beyond, which is
very admirable because a little bit later we'll see that it doesn't always happen. But in the
meantime, Ed and Lois had set up a headquarters that dedicated somewhere around 2000 volunteers
to help in the search with their daughter, Elizabeth. And Ed had made a sketch of who he
believed was the person that who had took her based on what his daughter, Mary Catherine had said.
Mary Catherine had come to him to say that she thought she knew who had taken Elizabeth and his
name was Emmanuel. Emmanuel was a homeless street preacher who had done some work around the smarts
home just a couple months earlier. So this is where our story is going to begin today. And I want to
give you a really clear picture of who Emmanuel is and how he was eventually captured in broad
daylight alongside of Elizabeth Smart. Beth, all I'm going to say is that you're going to be amazed
with how the community came together on this one. Oh, that's really good. I love to hear where
communities get together. I'm going to fast forward about four months to when Elizabeth's
sister Mary Catherine went to her dad to tell him that it was Emmanuel who had taken her sister
in the night. So according to my calculations, this would be somewhere around October or November of
2002. Remember that Elizabeth was taken in June of 2002. Ed knew exactly who Mary Catherine was
talking about. So back in November, we're going to go back just a little bit because again, I need to
kind of set this up. This is everything that you heard in part one, but we're going to back it up
a little bit because in November of 2001, somewhere around Thanksgiving here in America, obviously,
because Canada is different. Well, Lois Smart had taken her six children downtown into Salt Lake
City to do some shopping. And this is when she had crossed paths with a street preacher that went by
the name of Emmanuel. Lois had gone home, talked to her husband, Ed, about this homeless man, and he
was basically looking for work. So Ed ended up hiring Emmanuel to come fix the roof on the Smart's
home. But Emmanuel only came for one day. And while he was there, he encountered Elizabeth and Mary
Catherine very briefly as they had gotten home from school that day. I have a thought. Yeah, maybe he
didn't want to stay very long because he knew what he wanted to do as soon as he saw the girls. That
way people wouldn't remember him. Yeah, you are right. I totally agree with that. And we will find
down the road that you are exactly right straight from his mouth. Now, February of 2003, eight months
into the abduction, the family began their own investigation of Emmanuel noting that he was known
to travel around the country as a preacher. Ed had created that sketch of Emmanuel based on his
recollection of what the man looked like when he was panhandling in Salt Lake City back in November
when Lois took the kids shopping and when he came to work at the Smart's home. So Beth, I have a
question. Yes? This time period between the time that Lois took her kids downtown to the time that
Ed made the sketch was somewhere around 10 months. How good is your memory over a 10 month period?
Mine personally isn't very good. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I guess it would depend on the situation.
And remember too, we had talked about at least 60 contractors being at the house. So for Ed to
remember who Emmanuel was amongst those 60 contractors, that's amazing. Yes, it is.
Now, Ed's sketch was in my opinion, pretty spot on because if you're going out to the internet,
you can see a pencil sketch of a clean shaven man and there's a lot of detail. So Ed's a pretty good
artist and yeah, he drew a really good resemblance of who he thought that he was looking for. So he
did a really good job based on his own recollections in that 10th month period, but there was just one
problem. Uh oh. Yep. Well, Ed's sketch was that of a clean shaven man and there's nothing wrong with
that because Emmanuel was clean shaven when he came to work on their house. But what was really
going on in this period of time is that everyone should have been on the lookout for not a clean
shaven man, but somebody that had more of a long scruffy beard. I don't know, Beth, is there
in popularity, like right now, very long, very, very long scruffy beards are popular today? Are
they popular in Canada? Not around my area. I haven't seen it. Facial hair on a man is very
common now, very common, but I don't see it long like you probably have. Yeah. I want you to think
of Moses. Oh yes. That's how long people wear their beards and Emmanuel was also doing the same thing
back in 2002. He had a long scruffy beard and so people were not looking for that. They were looking
for a clean shaven man just like Ed's sketch. I want to preface here. Don't forget that the police
had told Ed not to publicize this sketch in the news media because they really didn't want Emmanuel
to be scared off. I'm going to pick up on this in just a moment, but basically the policeman's
thoughts were if this is put out on a news conference, then Emmanuel is going to see this and he's going
to bolt. Good point. All right. So let's go into the history of this man that everybody seems to
know as Emmanuel. He was born on October 18th of 1953 and was given the name Brian David Mitchell.
Brian was born into a very strict Mormon family and was frequently punished as a young boy. You
hear that a lot. I know that we've had that in several of our episodes, Beth, that these boys are
unfortunately abused. Yes. Now I'm going to call him by the name of Brian just for a little bit
and then hopefully we'll get back to the name Emmanuel. But I just want everybody to be clear
that Brian and Emmanuel are the same person. Brian was found at an extremely young age to be
very interested in sexual activities after he found a book on anatomy in the house. This was
because his father began teaching Brian about being independent. Beth, I couldn't understand
the connection between teaching Brian independence and sexual activities at a young age.
Yeah, I'm of the same mindset. I don't understand the connection. Yeah. Well, he was known to take
Brian out into the various areas of Salt Lake City. Just dropped him off, young kid, not really sure
how old he was, but I can't imagine being dropped off anywhere and finding my own way home. That's
what he did. Holy cow. Sorry, this is my opinion, but that is not the way to teach a young child
independence. No. You know how I learned it? How? Do you know how dad used to always say,
you will stand on your own two feet? Oh my gosh. So much so that when I was in very hard labor
for my daughter, they didn't give epidurals or any gas back in the day on Prince Edward Island.
So my husband would say, stand on your own two feet. That's what your dad would say. And that's
what got me through. Oh, really? Yes. And I use that even to this day. I do too. And I tell other
people that too. When I have an opportunity to be a mentor to somebody, I always tell them that I was
taught to stand on my own two feet. Yeah. I'm very independent because of it. And I do appreciate
that. Didn't appreciate it back then, but I sure do now. I know. It's a shame we don't understand
what our parents are trying to teach us when we're young until we're this age. Exactly. Okay.
Getting back to the story, Brian's dad, Sheryl Mitchell said that Brian had been playing house
with neighborhood girls at a very young age and later began preying on these girls when he was in
high school. One of these girls was Wanda Barzee, who will come up later during this story, actually
in just a couple minutes. So yeah, one of these girls was Wanda. And by the age of 13, Brian was
already getting into drugs and alcohol. He was considered the black sheep of his family and
things didn't really change much after that. Brian simply tried to fit in as he moved into adulthood.
I kind of get that too, because I think in my younger years, I would probably consider myself
to be the black sheep of the family, just because I had a little spirit and different ideas on how
life should go. Would you agree? Yes, I do. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. Well, by age 16,
Brian was arrested for exposing himself to a child. Ooh. Yep. And sent to a juvenile facility.
He eventually married at the age of 19 to a woman named Karen and produced two children
from this short-term marriage. He eventually divorced Karen and fled to New Hampshire with
both of his children and joined a Hare Krishna commune. He eventually returned to Salt Lake City,
Utah around two years later and married his second wife named Debbie. Brian and Debbie had two more
children and they too ended up getting a divorce. So let's talk about Wanda Barzee for just a moment,
because I think it's really important to bring her up. She and Brian's paths do cross again.
I will just give you just a really brief background. She had grown up to marry and ended up having six
of her own children. But after 20 years of marriage, Wanda ended up getting a divorce from her husband
and decided that she needed to go into counseling. And this is where she met Brian Mitchell. Brian
and Wanda eventually ended up getting married, believe it or not, on the same day that his divorce
was finalized from Debbie and Brian moved in with Wanda and her children from her first marriage.
Brian was said to be a sadist towards his stepdaughter. And I'm going to give you a
little scenario here. His stepdaughter had a pet rabbit. Oh, that's cute. I know, right? I've had
pet rabbits and they were really sweet, soft and cuddly. Now one night she had asked what they were
having for supper. And Brian had mentioned something like chicken. Well, the next day she had noticed
that her rabbit was missing. And guess what, Beth? What? She found out that they had had that rabbit
for dinner. Oh, that is absolutely horrible. Yes. He is a sadist for sure. That's just a small example
of how he treated his stepkids. Oh, brutal. Now I want to give a little side note here because
I don't know if you've, are you familiar with the author, John Krocauer? No. He wrote the books
Into Thin Air. I've heard that book. Oh, really good book. I think years ago, I really started
going into non-fictions and this was the book that really took me into that. Really? It's almost like
I can't even read fiction anymore because I don't know, I'm a self-professed nerd. So I'm absorbing
all this information. And so that was a, I highly recommend if you've not read that one, you should
read that one. Into Thin Air. He also wrote the book Into the Wild. Have you heard of that one?
I don't think so. That one is about a guy who went hiking and he got lost and ended up living in a
bus for quite a long period of time. Oh my gosh. Yes. I heard of that. Well, he wrote another one
called Under the Banner Sun and this is about the Mormon religions and also the fundamentalists.
Do you know the difference between them? No, not at all. Okay. I don't really know a ton. I'm not
claiming to be an expert here, but this is also an amazing book. It kind of goes along the story.
You would completely understand his mindset of his belief systems. Now, I don't know if he's a
fundamentalist Mormon or not, but I would compare him to that. They're the ones that believe in
plural marriages. Okay. So I kind of wanted to mention this because in my opinion, as I was doing
my research, the best way to describe Emmanuel is pretty much living as a fundamentalist. I do want
to say that that is not acknowledged with the Church of Latter-day Saints. So question. Yeah.
The Church of Latter-day Saints I've heard of. That's the Mormons. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
And there's a high population of Mormons that live in Salt Lake City, Utah area because that is where
the church was founded. Oh, interesting. Yeah. If you have a chance, you should go read that book
Under the Banner Sun. It's really, really good. I'll write that down now. Yeah. So when Brian and
Wanda first got married, they were very active in the Mormon church, but they began following,
I'm going to say fundamentalist teachings that were not part of the Mormon teachings. Brian and
Wanda's religious beliefs, in fact, were becoming extreme. And Brian began claiming that he was a
prophet of God. Now that gets dangerous when they start to think about that. Yes. You know, I never
even thought about that, but you are right. There is a higher level of danger in that mindset for
sure. An example is the Jonesville killings. Yes. Yes. And I'm also thinking David Koresh.
Do you know him? No, I don't. Okay. Well, good because we're going to talk about that one later.
Okay. Brian and Wanda began receiving revelations from angels of the Lord where they were told to
leave Salt Lake City and learn survivalist skills. Beth, you and I spent enough time out in the woods
with dad camping to know that there are certain things that you need to do to survive in the woods.
Oh yes. We're very well versed in that. Can I just add that when dad and I went on a road trip,
he never paid for hotels or motels. We literally took a tent, pitched it in a ditch,
and there we slept for the night. Yep. That's interesting. I don't remember you ever going
on trips with him. I did back in 1981. Okay. He had taken me up to Moosonee, Ontario,
quite a long time ago. And I'm sure that you got a postcard from Norman Lake. Do you remember that?
No, I don't. Dad and I made a postcard to send back to you and Kathy, and it was on a piece of
birch bark off of a tree. So my eccentricity comes honestly. Yeah. It's inherited.
Yeah. All right. So Brian and Wanda were told to learn some survivalist skills,
and they eventually left town and returned to Salt Lake City three years later. And this is when
Brian started going by the name of Emmanuel. At some point in time, Wanda also went by Hethsaba.
I also heard the name Olata, but for the purpose of my ability to pronunciate names here, I'm going
to continue to call her Wanda. Yes, that's a good idea. Yeah. This is around the time that the pair
began panhandling and preaching on the streets of downtown Salt Lake City. The couple began dressing
in white robes and Emmanuel began growing out his beard to reflect the image of Jesus Christ.
Emmanuel eventually ran into Lois Smart and her six children, then put in that one day's work at
their home, working on the roof. It was on this day that Emmanuel had made the decision to abduct
Elizabeth. What? Yep. He caught sight of her while they were out shopping. And he looked at her and
said, that's the girl I'm going to abduct. Oh my gosh. And that's when he took her in the middle
of the night on June 5th of 2002. So he had his eyes set on her from the very split second that
he saw her. And you know, I have already mentioned that he only saw her briefly. So his intent of
going to her house that day to work on the roof was to scope things out. So on the night that he
took Elizabeth, Emmanuel forced her out of her home where they had made their way into the woods
where Emmanuel and Wanda maintained a camp. Remember they were called to become survivalists
so they were well versed in taking on the land and living in the elements. Very interesting. I do
remember that part of the story now about their little camp. On July 24th of 2002, this would be
somewhere around seven weeks after the abduction, Olivia Macy, who was Elizabeth's cousin, said that
she woke up to hear her dad talking to the police. She heard him say something about a cut screen and
someone trying to break into the house. And I want to let you know here that he also mentioned to the
police while he was talking that they were related to Elizabeth Smart. Coincidence? Not. Exactly.
First of all, I'm going to say I agree because the exact MO occurred just like the night that
Elizabeth disappeared. Chairs were stacked at the bottom of the window and the screen was cut.
However, Beth, police brushed this off as a copycat and continued to pursue that Richard
Reese angle that we discussed in part one. However, the Smarts did take this as a sign
that Elizabeth was still alive. That's exciting for them. Yeah, there's just that little glimmer
of hope. Yes. Let's talk about some sightings that began happening somewhere in August of 2002.
This was about eight weeks after the abduction. Emmanuel planned to leave Salt Lake City with
Wanda and Elizabeth. On August 27th of 2002, the trio was sighted at a public library in Salt Lake
City where they were researching plans to go to Southern California. Someone from the public library
ended up calling the police to say that they thought Elizabeth Smart was there. A homicide
detective approached Emmanuel, Wanda, and Elizabeth inside the library and started asking questions.
He never said who he was looking for, but he did request to see the girl's face. Now, Wanda had
placed her hand on Elizabeth's lap as if to say, don't say a word. Can you imagine? I can just imagine
her squeezing the knee. Well, due to the threats that Elizabeth had constantly received regarding
her family, Elizabeth did not say anything. Oh, that would be pretty horrific for Elizabeth.
Emmanuel, on the other hand, was very convincing and said that only he was allowed to look at his
daughters and his wife's face according to their religion. Emmanuel refused to let either of these
women lift up their veils because of their religion. And of course, the detective couldn't rebuke that,
right? Right. Yeah. So without any evidence and seeing who the girl might be, there was not a ton
that he could do. So he ended up leaving and so did the trio. They got out of dodge pretty quickly
after that. And I will say briefly that Elizabeth had said that this was the moment that she had
wished she spoke up because it would have saved her about six months of captivity. Well, and a lot
of damage can be done in just six months. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. If you are under somebody's
authority for that long, especially at her age too, age 14, that's still impressionable. And you know,
she's got to be worried. Yes. The trio made their way to Lakeside, California, which is Southern
California. It's approximately 750 miles away from Salt Lake City. Unusual appearances on how people
dress were really not uncommon in this area. You know, people living in California, locals called
the trio the worshipers. Passersby would ask why the women were veiled and Emmanuel answered that
they covered themselves up to protect them from the sins of the world. Wow. That's a good excuse,
eh? Yeah, it would be a good excuse. Absolutely. He's quick on his feet. Police, however, were
eventually called because the trio were actually known to be aggressive pen handlers. You know,
they'll come up to people and if you didn't have money to give, I guess they got a little aggressive.
And of course the police did question them. And at this point in time, Emmanuel identified himself
as David while his wife was Allada. I had mentioned earlier that Wanda had gone by those two names
and Elizabeth said her name was Esther. She had stated later that she was told that she could
choose a new name. So she chose Esther from the Old Testament. Well, when the police ran these names,
nothing came up. So of course, what are they going to do? They're going to let him go.
Now the trio continued to live as survivalists, but would only engage with the town folk anytime
they needed food or money. So we're going to talk about September of 2002, about six months after
the abduction. Again, they end up going back to Salt Lake City. Beth, I don't understand why
Emmanuel would keep making his way back to Salt Lake City. He had to have known people were looking
for him or maybe he was oblivious. He didn't see them or did he see the news? I don't know how he
would have seen the news. Yeah, it doesn't really make sense, does it? No. Well, I had mentioned in
part one that a biker in the Sparts neighborhood saw the trio coming out of the woods, one man and
two women who were dressed in robes and the women had their faces covered. Emmanuel and these two
women were sighted around Salt Lake City multiple times, some saying that one of the two women seemed
to be much younger. I'm assuming, Beth, that although the trio seemed rather odd in both the
way they dressed and their behavior, I'm going to think, Beth, that many of the onlookers assumed
that the younger of the trio was the couple's daughter. And it makes sense. Yeah, exactly. I
mean, I wouldn't give it a second thought. In today's world, there's such diversity that I
don't really give it a second thought on how many piercings, how many tattoos, how people are dressed,
what colors their hair. I really don't give it a second thought. So when you're in that situation
and you're just onlooking, you're not going to give it much more than, okay, well, that's an
interesting outfit they have on today, right? Right. At one point, Emmanuel, Wanda, and Elizabeth
entered a party and other guests just assumed that they showed up in costumes. Emmanuel stated when
he walked in that he just needed to feel the spirit of the house. So, okay, that's interesting. Well,
guests who saw Elizabeth believed that she was somewhere between 18 and 21 because she was a
tall girl for her age. They thought that Elizabeth was somewhere around 5'7", which didn't look like
a small 14-year-old person that they saw on the news. I agree. I put Elizabeth's picture out on
social media and she looks like a typical 14-year-old girl. I can't imagine that she would be 5'7".
No, she looked quite young. Now, Emmanuel was very charismatic with the party guests and the two
women followed him around. I don't know if you've seen those pictures, Beth, out there on the
internet about the party. Have you seen those at all? No, I don't recall that at all. Yep, there
was a ton of people at this party and those pictures were straight on. Looking at Elizabeth,
you could see that her with her veil on her face, she was just basically following Emmanuel around
the party. Wow. Two guests actually asked her if she needed help. She just ignored them and walked
away. I don't really know where her mindset is on the opportunity here, but I'm not here to judge.
I want to get into that in the next episode and we will find exactly what she was thinking at
that time. In the meantime, I'm going to tell you too real quick. John Walsh has been coming up in
some of our episodes. He weighed in here. Well, he was saying, you can't judge anybody on what
they are going through, especially if they're in a situation like this. So people can easily say,
why didn't you run? Why didn't you tell somebody? Nobody can tell Elizabeth what is going on in
her own head. She's traumatized and she's been threatened. I'm going to get back to that in the
next episode, but I just kind of wanted to say that. All right. I'm going to get back to Ed Smart
here on February 3rd of 2003. At this point in time, Ed and his family were actively looking for
this street preacher named Emmanuel. I had mentioned that the Smarts were pretty perturbed
with the police's demeanor towards Elizabeth's abductor because remember Beth, they had pegged
Richard Resee and seemed to only zone in on him exclusively. So in his quest to find Elizabeth,
Ed stated that he actually spoke directly to Emmanuel when he was on the streets, Beth,
when he had the scruffy beard and he did not realize who he was talking to because his memory
was that clean shaven man. Wow. And when he was talking with Emmanuel, he told Ed that he was
traveling the country to preach the gospel. So close. Big difference between the months that
had gone by. John Walsh never believed that Richard Resee played any part in Elizabeth's
kidnapping. Ed at one point in time reached out to John to say that the police were dead set on
Resee being the person involved in Elizabeth's abduction. And they suggested that the Smarts
should have a memorial service for Elizabeth at this point. Oh, that's sad. Isn't it? That's giving
up a little early. Mm-hmm. Lois even asked John if it was time to close the case. John said,
if you believe Elizabeth is alive, you simply have to give me something so I can put it on
America's Most Wanted. And that gave them a little bit of hope. Oh, that's good.
Based on Mary Catherine's ID of the abductor, John had gone on to Larry King Live and gave the public
a ton of information on the homeless man that had helped the Smarts repair their roof. Part of this
information was Mary Catherine's ID of the abductor and the man who had come to work on their roof 14
months earlier in November of 2001. Beth. Good for you, Mary Catherine. Nine years old.
Geez, that's so young. I know. And boy, what a memory she had. Ed took a sketch of Emmanuel
that he had drawn to the news media, which made an impact on Beth, believe it or not,
Emmanuel's sister. Really? Wow. Remember the sketch that Ed had taken to the news media?
Well, believe it or not, this actually made an impact on none other Beth than Emmanuel's sister.
Wow, that's really interesting. Yeah. Well, Emmanuel's brother-in-law originally saw this
sketch in the newspaper. So he told his wife, which would have been Emmanuel's sister, he basically
said, you need to come look at something. When she did, she noticed that the article was about a
street preacher who would occasionally perform handiwork in people's homes. Emmanuel's sister
said that she realized between the description of the abductor and Ed's sketch of the clean shaven
man, that this had to be her brother, Brian Mitchell. That would be freaky. Okay, Beth,
again, I was a little spirited in my younger years, but never, I don't think that I've ever
done anything to the point of you seeing me on the news. That's all I have to say. Woo, woo, good for
you. All right. She made an anonymous call to the police to say that Brian Mitchell was the man that
they were looking for. I'm going to talk about Tom Smart for just a moment. That's Ed's brother.
He was a major part of this investigation by looking for information to kind of fill in the
gaps between what the police were doing and what the own family's investigation had found. He found
that Emmanuel had a campsite up in the mountains in Salt Lake City. Tom discovered the cafe that
Emmanuel, Wanda, and Elizabeth frequented when they were out of the woods going about town. He
had interviewed workers at the cafe and found that one of the two women wearing the veils could
possibly be Elizabeth, just based on her age. Wanted posters began going up, even though the sketch
was a little bit misleading to the public because of the difference between clean shaven and scruffy
beard. Well, we are getting to heads here, Beth. I feel like this is the moment because on March 12th,
2003, this is day 278, the trio again started traveling the country by bus, but this time
Elizabeth was wearing a gray wig and sunglasses. She told people if they had asked that she had
just had eye surgery. That was her excuse for being dressed the way she was. Well, guess what?
One of the passengers on the bus wasn't going for her story and he really began pressing Elizabeth.
So that kind of prompted Emmanuel to get the ladies off the bus very quickly. So yeah, they
exited the bus and another eyewitness saw the trio walking around town with one of the three wearing
a disguise. Okay. It's kind of odd to see a very young girl in a gray wig. Leeds started coming in
very heavily, Beth. It is like the buzz of the day. The hotlines are firing up. People are calling 9-1-1.
Beth, my voice, I am like really getting choked up here. Leeds started coming in heavily that day,
saying that the trio was seen at a super salad buffet restaurant. Police were called and Brian
Mitchell, AKA, Emmanuel identified himself as Peter Marshall and the two women that he was with were
Juliet and Augustine Marshall. So he's just coming up with these different names on the fly. Well,
guess what? This time the police really weren't taking his word for it. They quickly separated
Emmanuel, Wanda, and Elizabeth from each other so that they could try to get more information from
the younger girl. Elizabeth denied multiple times that she was not the girl that the people were
looking for. One of the police officers literally put a flyer up to her face side by side and again,
just didn't take her word for it. He looked at her and just said, this is you, Elizabeth. Well,
after a few more times, Elizabeth didn't break down emotionally. She just stopped denying it and
uttered the words, thou sayeth. Now, the police officer kind of misunderstood because that was
not the language that he was used to listening to. But when he asked her to repeat herself, Elizabeth
again said, thou sayeth, all while clearly showing concern with what was happening to her captors.
Wow. Boy, she's really brainwashed. Yeah. Well, I will tell you this, Beth. Interesting. You're
going to have to wait till part three on this one. You will know exactly why she was showing
concern towards her captors at that moment. And it's not what you think. Oh, I can't wait to hear
part three. All right. Now the TRIO was immediately transported to the police station. Good. Good. Ed
was called in, although the police did not initially tell him why. Beth, oh my gosh. Once he got there,
he and Elizabeth were reunited. Lovely. Can you imagine the moment after nine months of being gone,
being reunited with your child, Beth? That would be so awesome. A beautiful thing. You know,
we've got goosebumps, both you and I. This is probably one of the most magical, beautiful moments
that I've ever reported. Even though our podcast is relatively new here, I'm saying this has got to
be one of the highlights of talking about what we talk about. Now, Ed states that Elizabeth's
demeanor was different, of course, after nine months of being brainwashed. Yeah. Her demeanor
would certainly be a little bit different, but once he began talking to her, Beth, his baby girl
came back to him in a rush. Oh my, that's so touching. Yeah. So touching that I actually
have tears and yeah, we're going to stop here. This is the end of part two. Oh. Yeah. We're going
to take a listen on Elizabeth's perspectives of everything, because part one, we basically got the
perspectives and the encounters that the family had to deal with. And part two, we learned a little
bit more about Emmanuel. Well, in part three, we're going to hear from Elizabeth. So there we have
it. That's our story of Elizabeth Smart, part two. So Deb, do you have a teachable moment for us this
week? I do have a teachable moment, Beth. I really put some thought into this because I really feel
it's important. Do you by chance know what the bystander's effect is? No, I don't. Bystander's
effect is basically if you're out in public and you see something happening, you're going to think
to yourself, I'm not calling 911. Somebody else will do it. Wow. That hits home with me. I recently
heard some awful fighting going on in my apartment building and I was on my way to work
and I could still hear it out at the car and I was very worried about that poor woman. I thought
somebody's bound to call 911. I drove off to work and I'm only a seven minute drive. So I called 911
when I got in asking if there was anybody that called in and there wasn't. So I did tell her
what I heard. She actually scolded me. Wow. Got an actual scold for not calling in. The 911 operator
scolded you? Yes. What did they say? And you didn't call in? I won't make that mistake again. Wow.
Yeah. Go with your gut. So it was going on for quite some time that morning? Yes. Yeah. So
bystander's effect is if you guys see anything going on that just doesn't look right, do not
hesitate because you might be the one that needs to call 911 because everybody else is thinking that
you are going to do it. So there you go. There's your teachable moment. Exactly. Anything else?
And that's a wrap. That is a wrap. We want to thank you for listening to our episode today.
And before we go, we'd love for you to leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Beth and
I are trying to deliver the stories that you can relate to. So if you like our show, please consider
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Found and we will talk to you next Thursday. Great. Bye. Bye.