Memories of a ‘Miracle’
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In the mass-media age, news stories captivate us for a moment and then vanish. We revisit those stories to bring you the next chapter.
Starting Point
June 2002: Elizabeth Smart, 14, is abducted from her home in Salt Lake City. Her father goes on TV to plead for her return, prompting a nationwide search.
Fever Pitch
Nine months later, Smart is found just 20 miles from home, disguised in a veil, wig and glasses and in the company of her captors, Wanda Barzee and Brian David Mitchell, a polygamist who claimed to be a Mormon prophet. He'd forced Smart to be his "wife."
Present Day
Now a 20-year-old sophomore at Utah's Brigham Young University, Smart is living in an apartment in Provo with friends, majoring in music and playing the harp in the university orchestra. She says she does whatever she can to help other victims of kidnapping; she recently helped write a Department of Justice Survivor Guide. "I'm doing wonderfully," Smart told NEWSWEEK. "Miracles happen." Mitchell and Barzee have repeatedly been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. They are being held in Utah.
© 2008
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