This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Wanda Eileen Barzee, convicted in the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, was processed into Utah State Prison Friday morning.
"Wanda Barzee arrived at the Utah State Prison at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Friday. She is undergoing the standard intake procedures," Department of Corrections spokesman Steve Gehrke confirmed.
The 70-year-old woman had been temporarily held in the Salt Lake County Jail after completing a federal penitentiary term earlier this week.
Barzee, who — with self-styled prophet Brian David Mitchell — held the then-14-year-old Smart captive, is now serving time for the attempted kidnapping of Smart's female cousin in July 2002, a month after Mitchell had snatched Smart from her Salt Lake City bed at knife point.
Barzee had been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in Texas in connection with Smart's abduction, after pleading guilty in federal to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor.
She was sentenced to 15 years, but as part of a plea bargain, received credit for the seven years she had already spent either at Utah State Hospital or the Salt Lake County Jail. She has a state parole hearing scheduled for June 2018, but could remain in prison until 2024.
Mitchell, 62, is serving a life term in an Arizona federal prison after being convicted by a jury in 2010 of one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of illegally transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes.
Smart was rescued after being spotted in Sandy with Mitchell and Barzee on June 5, 2002, nine months after her abduction.
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