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SALT LAKE CITY — Wanda Barzee has been moved to a federal halfway house, according to the Utah Sex and Kidnap Offender Registry.
The woman who helped kidnap and assault Elizabeth Smart in 2002 had been in a South Salt Lake motel off 3300 South since being released from the Utah State Prison a week ago. But according to the Sex and Kidnap Offender Registry, her address is now listed as being at the federal Bureau of Prisons' Salt Lake City Center on 2100 South.
The center is considered a residential re-entry center, also known as a halfway house. According to the Bureau of Prisons website, the centers "provide a safe, structured, supervised environment, as well as employment counseling, job placement, financial management assistance, and other programs and services. RRCs help inmates gradually rebuild their ties to the community and facilitate supervising ex-offenders' activities during this readjustment phase."
Barzee, 72, was released from the Utah State Prison last Wednesday after serving her entire 15-year sentence. She and her then-husband Brian David Mitchell were accused of kidnapping Smart from her Salt Lake home and holding her captive for nine months.
Barzee pleaded guilty in federal court in 2009 to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor, and then guilty and mentally ill in state court in 2010 for the attempted kidnapping of Smart's cousin. She was sentenced to 1 to 15 years in both federal and state prisons.
But while her release date was originally calculated to be in 2024, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole later determined that the two sentences were to run concurrently, and that Barzee was to be credited for time served for the many years she was in the Utah State Hospital. Thus, when she was officially sentenced in 2010, her term was already half over.
Smart publicly decried the decision, saying she believed Barzee still posed a threat.
Upon her release from state prison, Barzee was placed on five years supervised release as part of her federal sentence. Some of the conditions of her release include having no contact with Smart of her family, staying a certain distance away from Smart, not going outside her residence each night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and actively participate in a mental health treatment.
