Elizabeth Smart: Detective Could Have Saved Me

The Utah woman who was kidnapped when she was 14 said a detective questioned her while she was captive.

Smart was held hostage for nine months by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, who hid Smart in plain sight in Salt Lake City but forced her to wear a veil. At her second day of testimony at Mitchell’s trial yesterday, Smart, now 23, told how close she came to being rescued when a detective approached her at a library and asked to see behind her veil. Mitchell told the detective she couldn’t take off the veil for religious reasons, and the policeman backed off. The religious views of Utah, where plural marriages to young women are not uncommon, provided cover for Mitchell’s crimes. His lawyer doesn’t dispute allegations against him, but says he is not mentally fit for trial.