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CNN Live At Daybreak
Elizabeth Smart is Home
Aired March 13, 2003 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There are many smiling faces in Salt Lake City this morning. Elizabeth Smart is home after being abducted last June. The teenager was found in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Smart was abducted gunpoint from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home back on June 5th. Her 9-year-old sister was the only witness to the kidnapping. Elizabeth was 14 when she was kidnapped. She turned 15 in November. Handyman Richard Ricci was the first possible suspect identified by police, but he denied any involvement and was never charged. He died in prison in August from a brain hemorrhage.
A break in the case came last October, when Elizabeth's sister recalled that the abductor appeared to resemble a drifter called Emanuel, a man later identified as Brian David Mitchell. Today, though, a miracle. That's how the family of Elizabeth Smart describes their daughter's safe return.
CNN's Eric Horng takes us back to the search, the find and the family reunion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED SMART, ELIZABETH'S FATHER: They took me to this room and when they opened the door and she was there, I just, I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. And she was just sitting there on the sofa and I just went up and grabbed her and just was so happy.
ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alive and well, 15- year-old Elizabeth Smart was found close to her own home in the nearby suburb of Sandy. Police say around one o'clock this afternoon, two sets of witnesses spotted the girl shrouded in disguise.
ANITA DICKERSON, WITNESS: She was just walking, you know, with the other two people. She wasn't really, I thought it was an older lady with a scarf and sunglasses.
HORNG: Witnesses say Elizabeth was walking by a poster with her picture on it. Police say she was alongside this man, 49-year-old Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Eileen Barzee, described by some as Mitchell's wife.
CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LAKE POLICE: We knew, we were looking for him and we did put it out as soon as we had a good drawing.
HORNG: Although Mitchell did handiwork for the Smart family back in November 2001, it wasn't until this fall that the only eyewitness, Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, made the connection. A drifter, Mitchell is known on the street simply as Emanuel, who describes himself as a prophet of god.
In Smart's hometown of Salt Lake, clusters of yellow and blue balloons flutter in the wind, once symbols of hope, today signs of relief and joy.
Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee are behind bars. They have yet to be formally charged. But prosecutors are promising that those responsible for this crime will "be vigorously prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Eric Horng, CNN, Salt Lake City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Let's talk a little bit more about the suspect now. Here's what we know about him. Brian David Mitchell calls himself Emanuel. He is a self-described prophet who was said to have walked around Salt Lake City in white robes. Mitchell's stepdaughter says her stepfather was in a drug rehab center when he met her mother, Wanda Eileen Barzee. Mitchell is 49 years old and he is a native of Utah. Mitchell's stepdaughter describes her stepfather as a bizarre man. She also had some positive words for Elizabeth Smart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUREE GAYLER, SUSPECT'S STEPDAUGHTER: I know what it's like to be there. I'm sorry for what you've went through in the past eight months. At least it was only eight months. At least you're back home with your family and you can, you can be OK now.
He never molested me, but I think he was unfair. He condition see four of his other children and I knew he ran from that situation. But the way he touched me sometimes, the way he came in and kissed me and caressed me, certain things like that that have happened, I don't know, just weird.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But Gayler got away. She says she ran away from her mother and her stepfather when she was 14 years old.
Now, the suspects are said to have hidden Elizabeth Smart in the mountains immediately following her disappearance. They later took her to San Diego, Atlanta and recently back to the Salt Lake City area. A man says the teenager and her alleged abductors stayed in his basement apartment just one block away from the police station in Salt Lake City. That happened just last October.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL TROTTA, WORKED WITH SUSPECT: When I asked for the young girl's name while she was staying at my house, Emanuel got kind of nervous and scared interrupted me. He was like, "Don't say your name. Don't say your name." Just, it was like, "Daniel, just call her my joy," you know, so. Or it was something like that. It was something like my joy in her, like my love in her. QUESTION: But she did wear a mask?
TROTTA: Yes, the whole time. And her and her, Wanda.
QUESTION: Did she have a hat on or a wig?
TROTTA: It was not a wig. It was like, just like a little cloth, you know, thing that you tied around your hair.
QUESTION: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
TROTTA: Yes, and the mask.
QUESTION: Did she seem scared, like she wanted away from them?
TROTTA: No, they, no. They sang hymns in my house, which was kind of weird, too.
QUESTION: Can you tell me about the sleeping arrangements? Where did Elizabeth sleep and where did they sleep?
TROTTA: Sometimes on the floor, sometimes on my mattress. I just have this little mattress on the ground and some, I remember the mother and the daughter slept on the mattress once and the men were low on the floor. And then like, I don't know, vice versa.
QUESTION: Did you...
TROTTA: And that seemed really abnormal.
They're not really into a certain religion. They would just talk about spiritual sorts of things. But he likes Jesus and Christianity a lot. But not in the traditional sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Daniel Trotta says he went to police months later, after recognizing Mitchell on the television show "America's Most Wanted" and that's when he realized the girl was probably Elizabeth Smart.
CNN's Rusty Dornin is on top of the latest developments in the Elizabeth Smart case and she will join us live about an hour from now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 13, 2003 - 05:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There are many smiling faces in Salt Lake City this morning. Elizabeth Smart is home after being abducted last June. The teenager was found in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Smart was abducted gunpoint from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home back on June 5th. Her 9-year-old sister was the only witness to the kidnapping. Elizabeth was 14 when she was kidnapped. She turned 15 in November. Handyman Richard Ricci was the first possible suspect identified by police, but he denied any involvement and was never charged. He died in prison in August from a brain hemorrhage.
A break in the case came last October, when Elizabeth's sister recalled that the abductor appeared to resemble a drifter called Emanuel, a man later identified as Brian David Mitchell. Today, though, a miracle. That's how the family of Elizabeth Smart describes their daughter's safe return.
CNN's Eric Horng takes us back to the search, the find and the family reunion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED SMART, ELIZABETH'S FATHER: They took me to this room and when they opened the door and she was there, I just, I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. And she was just sitting there on the sofa and I just went up and grabbed her and just was so happy.
ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alive and well, 15- year-old Elizabeth Smart was found close to her own home in the nearby suburb of Sandy. Police say around one o'clock this afternoon, two sets of witnesses spotted the girl shrouded in disguise.
ANITA DICKERSON, WITNESS: She was just walking, you know, with the other two people. She wasn't really, I thought it was an older lady with a scarf and sunglasses.
HORNG: Witnesses say Elizabeth was walking by a poster with her picture on it. Police say she was alongside this man, 49-year-old Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Eileen Barzee, described by some as Mitchell's wife.
CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LAKE POLICE: We knew, we were looking for him and we did put it out as soon as we had a good drawing.
HORNG: Although Mitchell did handiwork for the Smart family back in November 2001, it wasn't until this fall that the only eyewitness, Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, made the connection. A drifter, Mitchell is known on the street simply as Emanuel, who describes himself as a prophet of god.
In Smart's hometown of Salt Lake, clusters of yellow and blue balloons flutter in the wind, once symbols of hope, today signs of relief and joy.
Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee are behind bars. They have yet to be formally charged. But prosecutors are promising that those responsible for this crime will "be vigorously prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Eric Horng, CNN, Salt Lake City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Let's talk a little bit more about the suspect now. Here's what we know about him. Brian David Mitchell calls himself Emanuel. He is a self-described prophet who was said to have walked around Salt Lake City in white robes. Mitchell's stepdaughter says her stepfather was in a drug rehab center when he met her mother, Wanda Eileen Barzee. Mitchell is 49 years old and he is a native of Utah. Mitchell's stepdaughter describes her stepfather as a bizarre man. She also had some positive words for Elizabeth Smart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOUREE GAYLER, SUSPECT'S STEPDAUGHTER: I know what it's like to be there. I'm sorry for what you've went through in the past eight months. At least it was only eight months. At least you're back home with your family and you can, you can be OK now.
He never molested me, but I think he was unfair. He condition see four of his other children and I knew he ran from that situation. But the way he touched me sometimes, the way he came in and kissed me and caressed me, certain things like that that have happened, I don't know, just weird.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But Gayler got away. She says she ran away from her mother and her stepfather when she was 14 years old.
Now, the suspects are said to have hidden Elizabeth Smart in the mountains immediately following her disappearance. They later took her to San Diego, Atlanta and recently back to the Salt Lake City area. A man says the teenager and her alleged abductors stayed in his basement apartment just one block away from the police station in Salt Lake City. That happened just last October.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL TROTTA, WORKED WITH SUSPECT: When I asked for the young girl's name while she was staying at my house, Emanuel got kind of nervous and scared interrupted me. He was like, "Don't say your name. Don't say your name." Just, it was like, "Daniel, just call her my joy," you know, so. Or it was something like that. It was something like my joy in her, like my love in her. QUESTION: But she did wear a mask?
TROTTA: Yes, the whole time. And her and her, Wanda.
QUESTION: Did she have a hat on or a wig?
TROTTA: It was not a wig. It was like, just like a little cloth, you know, thing that you tied around your hair.
QUESTION: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
TROTTA: Yes, and the mask.
QUESTION: Did she seem scared, like she wanted away from them?
TROTTA: No, they, no. They sang hymns in my house, which was kind of weird, too.
QUESTION: Can you tell me about the sleeping arrangements? Where did Elizabeth sleep and where did they sleep?
TROTTA: Sometimes on the floor, sometimes on my mattress. I just have this little mattress on the ground and some, I remember the mother and the daughter slept on the mattress once and the men were low on the floor. And then like, I don't know, vice versa.
QUESTION: Did you...
TROTTA: And that seemed really abnormal.
They're not really into a certain religion. They would just talk about spiritual sorts of things. But he likes Jesus and Christianity a lot. But not in the traditional sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Daniel Trotta says he went to police months later, after recognizing Mitchell on the television show "America's Most Wanted" and that's when he realized the girl was probably Elizabeth Smart.
CNN's Rusty Dornin is on top of the latest developments in the Elizabeth Smart case and she will join us live about an hour from now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
