Serial Killers
Valentine's Special: "A Couple of Kidnappers" - Wanda Barzee and Brian David Mitchell
Mon, 10 Feb 2025
For Valentine’s Day we’re going back into the archives to bring you some of the most infamous couples in true crime history. All Wanda Barzee wanted in life was for someone to take care of her, and in return she promised complete devotion. So when her paramour, self-styled prophet Brian David Mitchell, demanded she help him find a child bride, Wanda aided and abetted the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the warning for listeners?
Due to the graphic nature of these crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of animal abuse, child abuse, child sexual assault, insensitive language, and discussions of kidnapping. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. They say that you only find love once you stop looking for it.
Chapter 2: Who is Wanda Barzee and what led her to a life of crime?
This was painfully true for the subject of today's episode, Wanda Barzee, who had a habit of looking in the wrong places to begin with. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and welcome back to Criminal Couples. Today's installment comes from female criminals. When Wanda met David Brian Mitchell, she thought she'd finally found her white knight. But it was a match made in despair.
Chapter 3: What were Wanda's childhood experiences?
Wanda Barzee grew up in a full household. She was the middle child of three sisters. Janice, Wanda, and baby Evelyn were close. The girls stayed up most nights talking about their dreams of the future. Wanda's goal never changed. She wanted a man to love and protect her. It was all she cared about. While all three girls were well-liked, Wanda seemed, naturally, to garner extra attention.
She was the quietest, the primmest, and the most proper of the three Barzee sisters. Plus, she was a devout Mormon, the most religious in her family. But from an early age, perhaps five or so, Wanda's sisters noticed in her a disquieting intensity. Her thoughts always raced to anxious worry, which made her a tough companion.
To quiet the noise in her head, her mother suggested she take up piano, but even that became pathological. She practiced maniacally, night and day. At times, her mother had to drag her away, kicking and screaming, so her sisters could practice too. By 1952, seven-year-old Wanda's anxiety increased.
She grew even more bashful as she aged and clung to her mother's leg for far longer than any child should. Even her little sister sensed that Wanda was, at heart, a follower. While little Evelyn could be pretty self-sufficient, Wanda trailed her mother, forever angling for warmth and attention. She just wasn't a fan of being left alone.
perhaps because bad things happened to her when her mom and sisters weren't around. Wanda was allegedly molested by her father, Marvin, when she was just a girl. Notable psychiatrist Dr. Noel C. Gardner confirmed after reading Wanda's private diary that Barzee had emotional problems related to abuse in her childhood, so she had lots of emotional concerns.
Researchers have long tried to parse out the effects of childhood sexual abuse. It's become clearer lately that such trauma may negatively disrupt brain development and function. That kind of child abuse may also predict lifelong psychopathology. Before we continue with Wanda's psychology, I'm not a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist, but I have done a lot of research for the show.
According to the article Brain and Mind Integration, Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors, the psychological trauma of childhood sexual abuse usually results in deleterious mental and health effects such as depression and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorders, and recall impairments.
In some cases, abused children dissociate by digging deep into an imaginary life with unseen friends. The younger the child, the more intricate their imagined life may become. In fact, the youngest children who dissociate may not only set up a handful of imaginary relationships, but they might also throw themselves into unprovoked tantrums that come seemingly from nowhere.
"'Wanda displayed what could be seen as dissociation "'with her vast collection of baby dolls. "'To Wanda, her toy babies were as real to her as her sisters. "'She cared for them as intensely as she practiced piano. "'A diligent doll mom, she swaddled them up in blankets "'and stroked their little stuffed heads.
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Chapter 4: How did Wanda's relationship with Talmadge Thompson affect her?
She took odd jobs doing hair or teaching piano, but clients hated coming to her chaotic house, so she had trouble holding on to work too. When she lost a client, Talmadge refused her the same benefit of the doubt she gave him. Instead, he beat Wanda and the children or whipped them with leather belts. And while, at least initially, Wanda didn't hit her kids, she did let the abuse happen.
And when her children came to her for comfort, she distracted herself to avoid vulnerability. She met her kids' tears with apathy. If they accused Wanda of not being there for them, she responded by grabbing a knife and threatening to kill herself. She'd ask what they would do if she were gone, really gone, forever. Wanda's early threats were just precursors to future abuses.
Her kids would soon be forced to survive much, much worse. In 1964, 19-year-old Wanda Barzee married childish ne'er-do-well Talmadge Thompson. But once the honeymoon glow expired, Talmadge beat Wanda and her kids without remorse. But Wanda never once made an attempt to halt the battering or defend her children.
In time, the years of abuse took their toll and Wanda became an abuser in her own right. When her oldest kids reached eight or nine years old, she threatened them regularly. She said that if they were dead, the family would be okay, maybe even better off. Sometimes she locked the pantry for days on end. Then she'd choose just the right moment to make a piping hot meal for herself.
She'd call the kids to the dining room and indulge in front of her starving children, moaning in delight. As her kids got older, Wanda escalated to physical abuse. She hit them or pulled their hair, but the psychological torments were the ones that left lasting marks.
As one of Wanda's daughters put it when interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, "...the physical wounds could always heal, but the scars of emotional abuse remained." Perhaps even worse was Wanda's neglect. The Thompson kids had no knowledge of right and wrong. In school, they acted out. Her boys even vandalized the neighborhood church.
But instead of meting out healthy discipline, she threatened suicide, hid from her children, or fell despondent. By 1983, 38-year-old Wanda wanted out of her life. It seems she came to the conclusion that since she hated her life so much, it was time to draft an exit plan and leave. Wanda's youngest daughter, Lu-Rei, was about to turn eight.
Around her birthday, her mother insisted she get baptized. Wanda stitched a new dress for Lu-Rei, styled her hair, and promised to let her ride in the front passenger seat to the ceremony. In the weeks leading up to the baptism, Wanda seemed almost happy. But when Luray's day finally arrived, Wanda was in a state. All the kids could feel it.
Their mom was teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Still, despite not wanting to go to church at all, the Thompson kids piled into her car. On the family's arrival, Wanda dropped the kids off at the entrance. She told them she'd be in after she found a parking spot. She watched her six children walk into the building. Behind her a line of cars honked to encourage her to move on.
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Chapter 5: What were the signs of Wanda's psychological struggles?
Wanda never picked up the phone. After months of hiding out, she finally found the guts to face her children and husband. But it was too late. Wanda's family had given up on her. The kids pulled away, ultimately refusing to see her. They knew they couldn't rely on her to be a real mom. Talmadge ignored her too. In 1984, a year later, he filed for divorce. The children stayed with him.
Ashamed and angry, Wanda retreated deep into herself. Her dissociative behaviors flared up. Wanda knew she'd never repair the damage she'd done to her kids, so she stopped reaching out. She tried to make a fresh start instead. To that end, Wanda saw a doctor who prescribed psychotropic drugs, but she hated the idea of chemically altering her mind and simply refused to take them.
To her, pills weren't the answer. God was. Devout as ever, she sought help through a group therapy program within the Mormon church. Even there, Wanda had trouble making friends. Still, she worked on picking up the pieces of her broken life. She secured a tiny apartment and volunteered as a church organist. She took typing courses and found a temp job, too.
Though she was starting from scratch at 40 years old, Wanda was optimistic. But her positive outlook may have been the result of something else, meeting a handsome new man at group therapy. Brian David Mitchell was a thin man with gray eyes. Eight years Wanda's junior, 32-year-old Mitchell was a recovering LSD and heroin addict. Despite this, Wanda and Mitchell had quite a bit in common.
They were both the black sheep of their families and both trying to get over troubled marriages. Like Wanda, Mitchell was timid in his demeanor and found it difficult to make friends. They were both artistic. Mitchell designed jewelry and Wanda played the organ and could sew. And they shared a commitment to the Mormon church.
But more than anything, Wanda and Mitchell connected because they were nursing shattered egos. Add that to their broken confidences and how much they feared being alone, and you had a match made in despair. Unlike her previous husband, Mitchell was a leader. Despite this, he was soft-spoken. He appeared steady, kind, too wonderful to be true.
Perhaps if Wanda hadn't been so smitten, she'd have noticed his flaws. To others, Mitchell was a hopeless addict, sexually twisted and narcissistic. But she was blind to any red flag. The courtship was rocket-quick, and in 1985, Mitchell proposed. On November 29, 1985, the very same day Mitchell's divorce from his previous wife was made official, he and Wanda married.
But almost immediately, Wanda noticed a change in her groom's personality. While he never hit her, Mitchell's timidity gave way to bouts of screaming. Temper tantrums were now common. Wanda kept these rages to herself. She wanted others to think she'd found the perfect mate this time, but at home she felt alone again.
So in the fall of 1986, 41-year-old Wanda reached out to her children and asked them to live with her. Only the three youngest, Derek, Mark, and Lou Ray, gave her the time of day. They still lived with their father while the older kids were out on their own. Life under Talmadge's roof was still hard for the children, even in Wanda's absence.
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Chapter 6: How did Wanda meet Brian David Mitchell?
Sometimes they panhandled for loose change or food, but they never earned enough. Eventually, the camper was repossessed. By the end of 1995, 50-year-old Wanda and 42-year-old Mitchell were truly homeless. They shacked up at shelters or camped along roadsides. In 1997, the couple hitchhiked home to Salt Lake City. They wandered downtown looking for shelter, but couldn't find anything.
So they called the only person they could think to take them in, someone they hadn't seen in three years, Wanda's mother, Dora. It didn't take long for Dora to realize that her brilliant daughter was long gone. The Wanda she knew and loved had been replaced by a lost soul. There was nothing in her eyes. No love, no want. Her dissociative behaviors had taken over.
To Dora, there was only one part of her baby girl she recognized anymore. The follower. Wanda had experienced multiple complex traumas throughout her life. The sexual abuse by her father as a young girl, the physical abuse by her first husband, the emotional loss of her children. It all began to add up and eclipse or reveal the truest parts of her.
For Wanda, checking out seemed the only way to escape the emotions set off by her distressing past. She was happy to be a follower to Mitchell. She filled the role of disciple to a self-styled prophet.
According to a study by Italy's Del Ponte Hospital and the University of Insubria, although dissociative symptoms are a defense mechanism against stress associated with traumatic events, they also may arise as a way to diminish the emotional responses triggered by traumatic memories, even after a long period from the traumatic event.
Thus, thoughts are disconnected from emotions, and some behaviors can become automatic. Wanda disconnected her thoughts from her emotions almost entirely. The result? An emptiness that caused her to disappear behind robotic behaviors. Dora tried to warn her daughter that Mitchell had gone off the rails, but Wanda couldn't see it.
Instead, she worked to convince her mother that Mitchell was a man of God, with her best interests at heart. But Dora didn't buy it. She and Wanda spent the days doing chores and making clothes, but argued non-stop about Mitchell. All the while, he was hatching a plan. He told Dora that he and Wanda would only stay a few more days.
They had to isolate themselves so they could focus on building their new religion. Mitchell confessed he'd begun writing a new faith's holy book. He'd secured a teepee and wanted to take Wanda to live in the Wasatch Mountains, north of Salt Lake. When Dora voiced her dissent about his plans, Mitchell flew into a fury. Seeding, he demanded Wanda grab the few things she owned.
Again, she did as she was told. On their way out, Mitchell slammed the door so hard it shook the house. That was the last time Wanda saw a close family member for years. Through 1998 and 1999, Wanda was entirely at the mercy of Mitchell, following wherever his fancy led them. They lived on the streets of Salt Lake City or hid in the hills.
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Chapter 7: What events led to the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart?
Before we continue with Wanda's psychology, I'm not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but I have done a lot of research for this show. According to her article, Terror, Love, and Brainwashing, social psychologist and cult expert Dr. Alexandra Stain said, People run to a safe haven when they're afraid.
If the brainwasher has been successful, the recruit, now having had fear instilled by the brainwasher, runs to the only safe haven available, the brainwasher himself. This creates a trauma bond that is difficult to break so long as the person remains isolated from alternate safe havens. The person goes into a freeze mode and is unable to think clearly,
This explains why perfectly intelligent people can find themselves unable to rationally view a brainwasher. The lack of alternate information and true havens undermine a follower's cognitive processes on matters regarding the brainwasher. Wanda Barzee didn't seem to have a will of her own anymore. Mitchell's prophetic delusions became Wanda's safe haven, her reality.
So when he insisted she help him kidnap Elizabeth Smart, Wanda complied. It's unclear why they waited so long to put their plan in motion, but about a year and a half after he worked for the Smarts, on June 5, 2002, 49-year-old Mitchell was ready to do the deed. He left 56-year-old Wanda to prepare the camp while he retrieved his new bride.
It took hours to make it down the mountain, but once he found himself outside the Smarts' home, it didn't take long for him to discover a way in. Earlier that evening, Lois Smart had burned dinner. To clear the smoke, she opened a narrow window off the patio, but she neglected to close it before going to bed. The cracked window presented an open invitation to Mitchell.
He used his pocket knife to cut the screen and slipped into the house. Once inside, he tread carefully so as not to wake the sleeping Smarts. He kept thinking, if God wanted him to take the girl, he would allow it. With the exception of the light creaks of the floorboards under his feet, the house remained silent. He crept upstairs. In the darkness, he slithered down the hall undetected.
Slowly, he turned the door handle to the child's room, the heat of adrenaline coursing through his veins. Though the room was dim, his eyes landed on her body. He inched over and, for a moment, hovered above Elizabeth, who slept soundly next to her little sister. Mitchell almost hated to wake the child. Still, he placed the steel blade against her neck. She woke startled.
Before she could make a sound, Mitchell leaned in and whispered for the girl to stay silent and get out of bed, or he'd kill her and her whole family. Suddenly trapped in a nightmare, Elizabeth kept quiet to stay alive. The kidnapper pushed her toward the door, and she knew better than to fight back for fear he'd hurt the little sister she left sleeping in her bed.
Mitchell moved his hostage down the stairs, and when he noticed a lineup of the family's shoes, he demanded Elizabeth grab a pair. Then he pushed her out into the frigid night air. Mitchell guided his hostage into the foothills behind the home as her family slept. The night was wet and cold.
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Chapter 8: How did Wanda's life change after meeting Mitchell?
He expected Wanda's sympathy, but she was all out. She hated him for getting meals in jail while she had to forage tree nuts. She railed on him for getting to sleep in a real bed and take showers while she and the girl were left for dead. Wanda had enough. For days, she'd worried that something had happened to him. Instead, he was just relaxing in jail, living the sweet life.
Irate, she reached for Mitchell's serrated knife and pressed it against her own neck. Death would be better than one more minute with him. But Mitchell was nonplussed. She doubled down. She was going to do it, going to kill herself right then and there. Still, Mitchell offered no discernible reaction. Wanda stormed off through the brush.
She was gone for at least a full day, and when she returned, she was different. Fire filled Wanda's eyes. Slowly, she moved to grab the book of Immanuel David Isaiah. With her hand on their scripture, her eyes went dead. Then she methodically ripped out every scribbled page. She let the sheets of calligraphy blow away in the wind as she tore, shredded, and destroyed.
At first, Mitchell just laughed. He didn't need the written word. The doctrine was locked in his mind. But when Wanda's outburst came to an end, she explained she'd been with Satan's hosts all night. Mitchell's ears perked up. Now she was strong and knew what her next course had to be. She had to leave San Diego. As if rehearsed, Elizabeth chimed in with support.
She said it was time to hitchhike home. Surprisingly, Mitchell agreed. The trio hitchhiked back to Utah, clad in old street clothes and cheap wigs. They weren't recognized or even questioned. By March 12, 2003, they were only about 20 miles from home. But their hitchhiking luck ran out. They couldn't find a ride for the last leg. They'd have to take a bus instead.
Worried that someone might recognize Elizabeth, Mitchell made her wear a gray-haired wig. The bus was packed. Forced to stand, Wanda surveyed the other passengers. She knew she and her crew stood out. They were in too close a proximity to maintain anonymity. The other passengers were clean, well-dressed. They were in dingy rags. Then Wanda noticed a man staring at Elizabeth. Her heart raced.
She nudged Mitchell. When he made contact with the man, the guy asked, "'Who are you?' Mitchell ignored the stranger, but the man followed up with, "'Where you headed?' Again, Mitchell kept his head down, but then the guy said, "'Why is she wearing a gray wig?' Mitchell curtly responded that it was a religious practice and pulled the stop cord. He and Wanda quickly edged Elizabeth off the bus.
When they were in the clear, Mitchell grabbed her. Shaking her, he said, "'Once I get you back to camp, you will never leave. I will not put myself in danger again. I am too important to the world.'" Just then, police sirens blipped. As the captor berated his hostage on the street, a cop car pulled up beside them. Wanda cursed and pulled Elizabeth along the sidewalk, but it was too late.
An officer approached. The trio walked fast, heads down, but then another police car arrived, and another one. Mitchell ignored them as they called out, Sir, we need to talk to you. Please stop. We need to see your ID. Finally, the officers pulled Elizabeth from Wanda's grip. One kindly asked, What's your name? The officers' eyes assured Elizabeth she was safe.
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