Elizabeth Smart's “Mormon” Kidnapping | Ep. 2109
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 175 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A new Netflix documentary on the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee (all Mormons) has been released. To what extent was this kidnapping influenced by Joseph Smith and/or Mormonism? Join John, Samantha, Alyssa, and Taylor as they explore the Mormon connections to Elizbeth Smart's kidnapping.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories Podcast. I'm your host, |
| 0:03.4 | John DeLinn. It's February 4th, 2026. And for the first time in Mormon Stories history, |
| 0:09.7 | we have an episode dedicated to the abduction, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. |
| 0:15.9 | It's a story that hit the international news circuit in 2002. And Elizabeth Smart has been in and out of the |
| 0:24.4 | news for about as long as Mormon stories has been in existence. You know, she was kidnapped at |
| 0:30.4 | age 14 in Salt Lake City as a young Mormon girl by a Mormon couple. And it's very much a Mormon story, but we've never covered it. |
| 0:40.9 | So because Netflix has a brand new documentary out called Kidnapped, |
| 0:45.4 | we decided that we were going to cover it. |
| 0:47.4 | And the angle that we're going to cover it is how Mormon is the Elizabeth Smart story. |
| 0:52.2 | In other words, her kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzzi, |
| 0:58.1 | her kidnappers, I should say, were they believers in Mormonism? Were they influenced by Mormonism? |
| 1:04.1 | Were they influenced by Joseph Smith? Was it a polygamy deal? Was he, you know, channeling Joseph Smith prophet vibes? You know, to what extent |
| 1:13.6 | was the Elizabeth Smart story, a Mormon story? That's going to be what we're going to be talking |
| 1:20.3 | about today. Before we jump in, I want to thank everyone for joining us and ask if everyone |
| 1:26.1 | wouldn't mind subscribing to this channel. We're only |
| 1:29.3 | 3,000 away from hitting the 300,000 subscriber mark on YouTube. So if everyone who watches |
| 1:36.3 | and listens to this will just subscribe on YouTube and or on Spotify, we can break that 300,000 |
| 1:43.3 | barrier, which really will that 300,000 barrier, |
| 1:47.2 | which really will be helpful, I think, in getting more guests. |
| 1:50.5 | To get really, really good high-profile guests, |
| 1:54.8 | the more subscribers you have, the more interested they are in subscribing. |
| 1:56.1 | So please subscribe. |
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