Smart Kidnap Suspect Files for Divorce

Associated Press/December 19, 2004

Salt Lake City -- The woman accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart with her husband so the man could keep the girl as a second wife has filed for divorce, according to court documents.

Wanda Barzee, 59, has been at the Utah State Hospital since the beginning of the year after a judge ruled she was mentally incompetent to stand trial. She filed for divorce on Nov. 23 in Provo.

Barzee and her husband, Brian David Mitchell, are charged with kidnapping the then-14-year-old Smart from her bedroom in 2002. The girl was allegedly taken into the foothills near her home, sexually assaulted and kept as Mitchell's second wife.

The couple has been in custody since Elizabeth was found with them along a suburban street in March 2003.

Barzee has twice been deemed incompetent to stand trial, but she is undergoing treatment. A doctor from the state hospital treating Barzee has said she has ongoing "revelations" tied to the religious beliefs she shared with Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet.

Mitchell, 51, is scheduled to attend a competency hearing next month that was ordered after he burst into song at a Dec. 3 hearing.