The woman who helped kidnap Elizabeth Smart is living several blocks from a Salt Lake City elementary school following her release from prison in September.
Wanda Barzee, 73, and a Utah's sex-offender living near Parkview Elementary School while she’s on federal supervised release.
Barzee helped her deranged religious zealot husband Brian David Mitchell kidnapping the teen from her Salt Lake City bedroom Opens a New Window. on June 5, 2002, and took her to a campsite a few miles from her home.
smart who was 14-year-old was sexually assaulted by Mitchell in the name of religion.
Barzee was sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. She served seven years in a federal pen before going to the state prison in 2016.
Elizabeth Smart now 31, has become a child safety advocate and is married with three young children says people with a history of child abuse and sexual violence like the one who helped kidnapped her should be housed as far away from schools as possible.
Smart said every possible caution and protection should be taken to protect children from offenders, including housing them as far away as possible from schools, families and community centers.
Sex offenders in Utah are prohibited from going on school grounds, according to state rules.
