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Mitchell's mother got protective order

Elizabeth Smart was found with Brian David Mitchell, 49, a drifter and self-described prophet who calls himself
Elizabeth Smart was found with Brian David Mitchell, 49, a drifter and self-described prophet who calls himself "Emmanuel."

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- About a month before Elizabeth Smart went missing from her home, the mother of the primary suspect in her disappearance filed a motion accusing her son and the woman believed to be his wife of threatening to destroy her, her family and her home.

The couple -- Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ilene Barzee -- are behind bars, suspected of kidnapping Elizabeth, who was reportedly snatched from her home at knifepoint June 5, 2002, and remained missing until Wednesday.

Weeks before Elizabeth's disappearance, Mitchell's mother, Irene Sidwell Mitchell, sought a protective order against the two, both of whom were living in her home.

She told authorities that on April 18, her son and his wife wanted to talk to her about a 27-page manifesto that Mitchell wrote. When she said she didn't have time to discuss it, the mother said, "They started yelling angry words at me.

"You will be destroyed. Your family will be destroyed. Your home will be destroyed," she quoted her son as saying, according to the protective order.

Yelling, "Let me go, let me go," she struggled with the two, and police were summoned.

District Court Judge William B. Bohling granted protective orders May 2 against Brian David Mitchell and his wife. The order said the two are "restrained from attempting, committing or threatening to commit abuse or domestic violence against petitioner."

It also prohibited the couple from "directly/indirectly contacting, harassing, telephoning or otherwise communicating" with Mitchell's mother.

When authorities went to serve the order, they couldn't find the couple, who had begun living on the streets.

Less than two months after Elizabeth Smart disappeared, her 18-year-old cousin might have been the target of a kidnapping attempt.

Law enforcement officers found that Jessica Wright's bedroom window screen had been cut and a chair left beneath it after noises awoke the family and they called authorities, according to a sheriff's report dated July 24.

Elizabeth Smart's father, Ed Smart, has said his daughter's window screen was cut from the outside the night she was abducted. A chair was found under the home's kitchen window.

Mitchell was jailed in San Diego

Mitchell spent six days in a San Diego County jail in February under the alias Michael Jensen, law enforcement officers confirmed Thursday after matching his fingerprints to the man they arrested February 12.

San Diego County Sheriff's Capt. Glenn Revell said the man was charged with burglary of a church in the eastern part of the county. He was held in San Diego until February 18, the captain said, and was released after pleading guilty to a vandalism charge.

Sheriff's department spokesman Chris Saunders said his office was not aware that Mitchell was sought in Smart's disappearance because Utah authorities did not notify other law enforcement agencies that he was a suspect until March 1.

A Utah law enforcement official said Mitchell's criminal record is scant: charges of DUI, driving without a license and possessing a controlled dangerous substance, all from 1973.

Mitchell was known as a panhandling transient who considered himself a prophet, according to media reports.

"He'd dress up like Moses or like Jesus, and he felt it was his calling in life to collect money from people and give them a chance to serve," Salt Lake City Deseret News columnist Lee Benson told CNN.

Mitchell, 49, was "a fairly famous transient down in Salt Lake" who often referred to himself as "Emmanuel," said Tom Smart, Elizabeth's uncle.

In interviews with Salt Lake City television stations, Louree Gayler, who identified herself as Mitchell's stepdaughter, described Mitchell as a "bizarre" man who would often camp in the mountains.

"He thinks he's higher than God," Gayler said.

She said she was the daughter of Barzee, who was traveling with Mitchell and was taken into custody with him when police found Elizabeth. Gayler said she ran away from the couple when she was 14 and claimed that Mitchell had made unwanted advances, including kissing and rubbing her.

New image, new lead

Tom Smart said Mitchell shucked the robes, shaved his beard and appeared as a "clean-cut" panhandler in the fall of 2001, when Lois Smart, Elizabeth's mother, encountered him.

"Lois gave him $5 and asked him if he wanted to come up and do some work. She was impressed by him," the uncle said.

"He came up and did some work on the house for five hours. And then we never heard about it again until Mary Katherine walked in months after the disappearance and said ... 'I think I might know who it is."

Elizabeth's younger sister, Mary Katherine, said she saw an intruder in the bedroom the night her sister disappeared. In a statement released February 3, the Smart family said Mary Katherine told her parents in October that she thought the man was "Emmanuel."

The family notified Salt Lake City police, but some critics said authorities were slow to track down Mitchell.

"The police department's interest in Emmanuel, or lack thereof, became an issue for several reasons," Benson wrote in a column Monday.

"First, the department did not participate in the early February press conference when Ed Smart and his wife, Lois, revealed Emmanuel's description to the public. Second, the police had failed to find the homeless man, or identify his true identity, during October, November, December and January, when they privately knew of his existence," Benson wrote.

"And third, after the family's press conference resulted in a positive ID of Emmanuel as 49-year-old Utah native Brian David Mitchell, Sgt. Don Bell of SLPD downplayed Mitchell's potential as a suspect, and the department again left it to the Smart family to take the lead in publicizing Mitchell's identity and photographs."

But, Benson wrote, Lt. Jim Jensen, who headed the department's task force on the Smart case, said law enforcement agencies across the country knew of the search for Mitchell.


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