Elizabeth Smart

to be so close.

Again, it's almost like the helicopters and calling your name so close yet so far.

I mean, you're...

It was like, once again, a tornado of emotion because like part of me, it did seem like I was so close to being rescued.

But by that point, I mean, I had been told so many times how they would kill me.

They'd kill my family.

And up until that point, they had really seemed invincible.

I mean, every time they threatened me with something, they always followed through with it.

Like there was no reason in my mind

why they would not follow through with what they had threatened me before.

And so it was almost just like that fear and those threats felt paralyzing to me.

And I remember Wanda Barzee, her hand just clamping down on my leg.

as this homicide detective was questioning my, my captors.

And it was just, it was just like that physical reminder was almost like being kidnapped all over again and reminded me what my captors were capable of and what they, what they would do, the lengths that they would go to, to make sure that I wasn't rescued, to make sure that I, um,

stayed in their control.

And they were very, very, they were very good manipulators.

I mean, like, so Wanda Barzee, she didn't, she didn't say anything because I had been told that I was not allowed to speak out in public.

And so to make it seem like it was part of our religion, Brian Mitchell also told Wanda Barzee that she could not speak out in public.

And of course, she supported that because ultimately he told her what she wanted to hear.

And he told her how special she was.