Brian David Mitchell’s descent began 49 years ago at his birth.
Mitchell was born the son of religious fanatics in Salt Lake City.
As a high school student, Mitchell was jailed for exposing himself
to a 4-year-old girl. Throughout his teen years he experimented
with drug use and was hospitalized for overdosing on LSD. He
married his pregnant girlfriend when he was 18, about the time that
he became a religious fanatic himself.
Mitchell assumed the name Immanuel David Isaiah after he
divorced his first wife and quit the Church of Latter Day Saints,
which later excommunicated him. Amazingly, he found another wife,
Debbie Mitchell, who had a young daughter. During their marriage,
Brian molested his stepdaughter from the time she was 8 to the time
she was 12. Mitchell routinely beat Debbie, and she also bore him
two daughters.
Debbie and Brian were divorced after five years and he descended
deeper. At this point, Mitchell thought of himself as a messenger
of God, if not God himself. Mitchell found a third wife soon after
his second divorce. Wanda Barzee had two sons when she married
Mitchell. Mitchell would often take the boys hunting. One
afternoon, Mitchell casually mentioned to Derrick, one of his
stepsons, that he had shot their dog in the head. Needless to say,
the boys moved out of the house soon after turning 18.
Having no relationship with and taking no responsibility for any
of his children, Mitchell became homeless and lived with Barzee on
the streets of Salt Lake City. Mitchell believed he routinely saw
angels and spoke with prophets while roaming the city with his
wife.
Mitchell wrote a 27-page manifesto entitled “The Book of
Immanuel David Isaiah” which illustrated the true derangement of
his religious fanaticism. The manifesto strongly advocated
polygamy. At some point in Mitchell’s wandering, he devised a plan
to collect for himself seven wives. Mitchell and Barzee panhandled
for most of their money but were occasionally hired to do odd jobs
for concerned individuals. This is how Mitchell came to know Ed and
Lois Smart.
On the night of June 5, officials allege that Mitchell abducted
the Smarts’ 14-year-old Elizabeth at knifepoint from her bedroom.
Her 9-year-old sister was watching.
Officials further allege that Mitchell claimed Smart as his wife
and unsuccessfully attempted to abduct her 18-year-old cousin. When
she was discovered by police on March 12, she had been so mentally
tormented that she insisted her name was Augustine and that she was
not “that Elizabeth Smart girl who ran away.”
Mitchell now awaits trial in a Utah prison. The maximum sentence
he faces if convicted is life in prison. I can only hope that in
the remainder of his life, he feels just a fraction of the
incredible amount of pain and suffering he inflicted on so many
people.
Josh Foreman is a junior communication major.