All the chances police had to rescue Elizabeth Smart much earlier, but they failed her

Netflix has just released Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, which tells the story of her petrifying kidnap, and subsequent rescue. Elizabeth was 14 when Brian David Mitchell threatened her at knifepoint and then abducted her from her bedroom. She was then held captive for nine months, before being rescued.

Elizabeth was kidnapped from her Utah home on June 5th, 2002. She was discovered in 2003. Brian Mitchell is 72 now, and serving a life sentence in prison. He was no chance of parole.

Elizabeth featured in the documentary about her case, and it told stories of a couple of times she was sighted by police, but they didn’t save her. It turns out authorities had multiple opportunities to rescue Elizabeth Smart in the nine months she was missing, but they weren’t taken.

Police flew helicopters above the compound Elizabeth Smart was being held captive in

via Netflix

Just days into her ordeal, Elizabeth Smart had reason to believe her rescue was coming. She detailed more in her memoir, and said that she heard a search party whilst being held in a compound in the woods.

Elizabeth heard a party calling out her name, and was sure one of the voices belonged to her uncle, but she was too terrified to reply. Then, a few days later, she heard a helicopter flying over the top of the compound. She said she was sure they had seen the tent, but the search party moved on.

The library sighting of Elizabeth

via Netflix

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In the documentary, we are told of the time an officer saw Elizabeth in a library. The officer approached Elizabeth, who was wearing a veil, and asked Brian Mitchell to show her face. He refused, and said it was against their religion. The officer moved on.

This happened in August, just two months into what would go on to be a nine month kidnapping. In her memoir, Elizabeth explained her captors had grown in confidence, so began taking her out more. They went to the library as Mitchell wanted to research new places to live. They were sat at a table, when the officer asked for Elizabeth to be identified “repeatedly” but Mitchell declined.

During her court testimony, Elizabeth spoke about this moment further. “I was mad at myself, that I didn’t say anything,” she said. “I felt terrible that the detective hadn’t pushed harder and had just walked away. He said he was looking for Elizabeth Smart.”

Wanda Eileen Barzee, Mitchell’s wife, had squeezed Elizabeth’s leg, to signal her to stay quiet. Mitchell had stood between Elizabeth and the detective. “He said that it was not allowed in our religion and that only my husband would ever see my face,” Elizabeth explained.

“He asked if he could be a part of our religion for a day, just so he could see my face, just so he could go back [to the police station] and say, ‘no it wasn’t Elizabeth Smart’.”

Police have ‘regrets’ over the Elizabeth Smart case

via Netflix

Police spent ages interrogating local criminal Richard Ricci – who had nothing to do with Elizabeth’s disappearance. Despite having a sketchy past, Ricci had nothing to do with what had happened to Elizabeth, and was falsely accused. He passed away in prison, following his interrogations.

Public relations manager Chris Thomas worked with the Smart family at the time, and said law enforcements wasted crucial time being fixated on the wrong person. He told KUTV 2 News in 2023 that he thought it was “very disturbing that [police] really couldn’t get beyond” thinking Ricci was responsible, and said police “pushed that publicly”.

An officer who worked on the case has now said he has regrets over how it was dealt with. One of the lead investigators, Corey Lyman previously told CBS News: “At the time, I thought I was making the best choice, but now in hindsight I wasn’t. And so, absolutely, I have regrets. I wish I could do it over. I kind of go through this emotional, ‘Could this have been over so much sooner?'”

Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse also admitted they spent too long focusing on the wrong suspect, and should have released the Emmanuel sketch sooner. He said at the time: “Hindsight is 20-20 vision. If we had to go back over it again, I think every one of [our investigators] would say, ‘I wish we had gone public with that [sketch] earlier’.”

A simple typo prevented police finding Brian David Mitchell

via Netflix

Corey Lyman spoke further with ABC News about the errors in the case, and admitted a typo delayed things. The clerical error may have prevented police from finding Elizabeth, Mitchell and Barzee earlier. When Mitchell was arrested in Salt Lake City on shoplifting charges, he allegedly told police his name was Emmanuel and Lueal, but police spelled the name incorrectly. Emmanuel was spelled “Immanuel.”

Mitchell skipped his court appearance, and when law enforcement later learned about Emmanuel, his name did not pop up in the police database.

“Putting ‘I’ on the front instead of ‘E’… it didn’t show up,” Lyman explained. “Detectives would have picked him up on probably that first or second day [after first learning about him].”

Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news and drops, like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.