Elizabeth Smart | A Story of Survival
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- In the early morning hours of June 5th, 2002, nine-year-old Mary Catherine Smart was stirred awake by the soft mumbling of an unfamiliar voice. She opened her eyes, too scared to move, until they adjusted to the shadows. She was afraid of the dark. Her parents, Ed and Lois Smart, had promised her that there was no such thing as monsters, but Mary Catherine wasn't convinced. She was right to be skeptical,

They hadn't factored in the kind that walk among us. Mary Catherine turned to her big sister's bed and saw the silhouette of a man looming over it. Paralyzed with fear, she lay still and silent. She hoped the intruder would think she was sleeping, but he didn't even notice. The man was single-minded in his pursuit and had found what he came for, her older sister, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart.

Elizabeth was jolted awake by the cold edge of a knife pressing against her throat. She heard the low growl of a man's voice threatening to kill her and her family if she didn't keep her mouth shut. Elizabeth shivered with a mixture of terror and disgust as his rancid breath warmed her cheek. She noticed that Mary Catherine seemed fast asleep, undisturbed by the man's presence. Her relief was fleeting. The man ordered her to get out of bed and to grab a pair of shoes.

She quietly complied, fearing her little sister would be next if she didn't. Elizabeth was still processing the waking nightmare she had woken up to, unsure if she was dreaming. Her confusion vanished when he pressed the sharp point of the knife into her back. The man herded her out of her home and into the thick underbrush behind it until they disappeared from sight. To the true crime connoisseurs, this story seems to start like countless others.

It leaves us weighed down by the familiar heaviness of dread, hinting at a quick and tragic ending. However, few avid crime junkies have encountered a protagonist like Elizabeth Smart. This is a story of suffering and loneliness, but also one of tenacious survival. Part One: The Abduction of Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth Ann Smart was born on November 3rd, 1987 to Ed and Lois Smart.

She grew up in an extremely wealthy neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, as the second eldest of six children. The Smart family lived a picture-perfect life in a colossal house behind a white picket fence, and Elizabeth complimented it seamlessly. The blonde, blue-eyed poster child for the all-American girl was angelic not only in her appearance, but in her character too. Elizabeth was described as being sweet, bright, and well-behaved.

When she wasn't playing with her dolls or friends, she was playing the harp with a sophistication well beyond her years. She had a close bond with her siblings and parents, all of whom belonged to the local Mormon church. Most Mormons live by a strict set of rules. They don't drink, smoke, use drugs, or have sex before marriage. Some don't even drink caffeine. The middle schooler and her siblings were raised on these values, and she grew devout in her faith.

Elizabeth planned to carry these virtues with her into adulthood and raise her own children in the same conservative style. Even as a teenager, she felt incredibly privileged to live the churchly, affluent life she did and hoped it would last forever. Sadly, Elizabeth's idyllic childhood took a dark turn in 2002.

Elizabeth's grandfather was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in early June, and he died two months later. His funeral was held on June 3rd. On the evening of June 4th, Elizabeth was set to play the harp at an important awards ceremony for her middle school. Her parents were trying to foster a sense of normality amidst the chaos and didn't want to be late.

Lois rushed their dinner that night, burning the potatoes in the process. The house still smelled of the charred tubers when they returned home. So Lois opened a window in the kitchen to air it out. Knowing it was well past their bedtime, Elizabeth threw on her red pajamas and began reading to Mary Catherine in their shared bedroom. They were in the middle of Ella Enchanted, a fairy tale about a 14-year-old girl cursed to comply with any commands given.

and a twisted premonition of what was to come. After a few chapters, their lights were switched off and the Smart family's lives were changed forever. Several hours later, Mary Catherine lay motionless in bed. She listened to the creaking of the floorboards in their hallway fade as Elizabeth and her abductor made their way out of the house. At one point, she got out of bed to alert her parents about her sister's abduction when she heard the floorboards creak again.

Petrified that the man may be coming back for her, Mary Catherine sprinted to the safety of her bed. It took two hours of silence before the nine-year-old little girl mustered up the courage to run to her parents' room. Ed and Lois couldn't believe Mary Catherine's story. They searched their home from top to bottom, praying they would prove her wrong. It was no use.

A gaping hole had been slashed into the screen that covered one of their kitchen windows, the same one Lois had left open the night before. The mother of six dropped to her knees and let out a tortured scream that reverberated through the hearts of those unlucky enough to hear it. Elizabeth was gone just days before her middle school graduation. Part Two: The Long Walk to Captivity

Elizabeth battled the unforgiving wilderness as she was marched up the foothills behind her home. The trek was grueling. She lived in Federal Heights, a Salt Lake City neighborhood that hugged the base of the Wasatch Mountains. Its landscape was littered with dense vegetation, large boulders, and sprawling stream beds that had cracked under the scorching summer sun.

Elizabeth's captor pushed and prodded her up the steep, rugged terrain. Stray branches snagged her red silk pajamas, tearing them at every step. She considered running, but only for a moment. The man was pressing her forward with his knife, leaving little room to move without being pierced by it. Not to mention, he knew where her family lived and repeatedly threatened to kill them if she dared.

However, as they reached the peak of a hill, Elizabeth thought she might not have to. The headlights of a car suddenly illuminated their path. It was a police cruiser. She enjoyed a brief moment of euphoria before her abductor pushed her into a bush and commanded her to stay silent. He knelt beside her and prayed, "If this work is true, God, let this car pass." Sadly, it did.

The man pulled Elizabeth to her feet and they plowed on. As they climbed further up the mountain range, she was struck by a sickening thought, the kind a 14-year-old girl should never have. If this maniac took her any deeper into the wilderness before inevitably murdering her, her family might never know what happened to her. Perhaps they would think she left by choice. Elizabeth had already accepted that she would soon be killed and discarded. So she tried to take back a shred of autonomy.

If you're going to rape and kill me, please do it here. That way someone will find my body. The man smirked as he replied that he wasn't going to kill her. Eventually, they left the main trail and turned into an overgrown, secluded footpath. Elizabeth knew that any possibility of being rescued was dwindling by the second. She tried desperately to convince the man to let her go. She threatened that he wouldn't get away with it.

She told him that he didn't have to do this and promised that she wouldn't press charges. It was useless. Her captor calmly told her that he knew exactly what he was doing and what the consequences were. Not that it mattered though. The man added that he knew he wouldn't get caught. Elizabeth's disappointment was superseded by a sudden realization. She knew that eerily calm voice

More so, she knew who it belonged to, Emmanuel, a local vagrant turned religious fanatic. Seven months earlier in the fall of 2001, Elizabeth and her mother had passed him begging in downtown Salt Lake City. Lois gave him a $5 bill and the pair started a conversation. He was clean shaven at the time and eager to earn a living. The Smarts lived in a big house that always needed odd jobs done.

So Lois gave Emmanuel her husband's number. Ed hired him to work on their roof that November. Emmanuel had been a trusted member of the Salt Lake Temple and was chosen to portray Satan in their biblical reenactments, a fact that seems somewhat ironic now. However, he was excommunicated by the church for dubbing himself the prophet of God and preaching his own revelations. Emmanuel's mental state deteriorated as his prophetic visions intensified.

He wrapped himself in white robes reminiscent of Jesus and began proselytizing strangers in the street. A long, scraggly beard obscured his once friendly face, and his piercing blue eyes had a wild look about them. It was clear to Elizabeth that Emmanuel had become consumed by his divine delusions. Worse, she was now a part of them. The sun had already risen when Elizabeth and Emmanuel finally reached their destination.

bathing them in vibrant orange light. Exhausted from the rigorous climb, Elizabeth staggered towards a makeshift camp nestled amongst a grove of mountain oaks. It was being tended by a woman wearing the same long white robes as Emmanuel. He introduced her as his wife, Hephzibah. Elizabeth gazed at the woman hopefully, but was met with a cold glare and a command to get undressed. Hephzibah was no ally, she was an accomplice.

Elizabeth finally cracked and broke down into devastated sobs. Despite her innocence, she knew what was coming. She tried to refuse but caved when Hephzibah warned that Emmanuel would simply rip her clothes off. Once bare, the woman ritually washed Elizabeth's feet to cleanse her for the coming ceremony. Emmanuel announced that she would be his wife and a final heartbroken howl escaped the teenager's mouth before he threatened to shut it for good.

Elizabeth pleaded with Emmanuel, mentioning that she hadn't even gotten her period yet. He didn't care. He restrained the 14-year-old and raped her without mercy. Part 3: Searching for Elizabeth Smart The investigation into Elizabeth's abduction was already well underway by sunrise on June 5th, 2002. Ed and Lois had called the police just after 4 a.m., and officers arrived moments later.

The distraught couple had also reached out to family members for help, all of whom were at the house by 6:00 a.m. This turned out to be an honest but grave mistake. The responding officers had never handled a case of this magnitude. They were fresh on the force and were only working the graveyard shift because it was usually uneventful. That being said, it's difficult to attribute their blunders to anything other than incompetency.

The trained officers failed to seal the house off as a crime scene and didn't even log the names of those who came over. Relatives were allowed to come and go as they pleased, with no officers taking charge of the situation. Any evidence that could have aided the search for the missing little girl was lost. When senior investigators got to the scene hours later, they were astonished by their subordinates' mismanagement.

It was common knowledge amongst law enforcement that crimes like these were often committed by those close to the victim, such as family members. The investigators flew into damage control mode. The Smart family and their relatives were ushered into separate cars and rushed to the Salt Lake City Police Department for further questioning. Meanwhile, cadaver dogs were deployed back at the house to search for any remaining clues. Nothing was found.

Interrogations at the precinct went on for several hours, but everyone was eventually cleared. There was one statement that stood out though, nine-year-old Mary Catherine's description of the man who stole her sister. He was white, middle-aged, and around the same height as her brother, Charles Smart. Disturbingly, although she didn't recognize him, she knew his voice. Ed and Lois quickly grew frustrated by the slow pace of the investigation.

They felt that the police wasted precious time focusing solely on their family when a separate team could have been searching the area simultaneously. Worse still, authorities even forbid the smarts from distributing any photos of Elizabeth or alerting their community of her abduction. This was especially troubling as 65% of kidnapped children are killed within the first three hours of being taken. Time was running out and the police seemed determined to squander it.

The distraught parents held a press conference the following day, pleading for the safe return of their daughter and any information relating to her disappearance. The Salt Lake City community rushed to their aid. 2,000 volunteers combed the surrounding areas with tracker dogs, while several aircraft were deployed to search from above. Despite the investigation being initially hindered by local law enforcement, the media attention and public engagement were overwhelming.

Elizabeth's photo was all over the news, bulletin boards and telephone poles across the city. Her story made national headlines, which came as no surprise. 800,000 missing children reports were made that year, yet none received the same level of exposure. Like JonBenet Ramsey, who was murdered six years earlier. Elizabeth was a young, white female from a wealthy family who could afford to keep her story alive in the media.

the blonde, blue-eyed conventional beauty had an innocent, doll-like face that solidified her position on the front page of most newspapers for months to come. It's not to say that she didn't deserve the media coverage, but it does highlight the inequalities experienced by the missing children who don't look like her. Nevertheless, no trace of the 14-year-old girl or her abductor was found. Part four, hidden in plain sight.

Elizabeth lay curled in a ball on a dirty blanket, hugging herself tightly. She didn't feel like a whole person anymore. She felt like a dirty, broken shell of her former self that had been used and discarded. Her Mormon faith had taught her the importance of morality, but the lessons about virginity were archaic and damaging. The teen wondered if anyone would ever love her now. She even considered whether her family would want her back. However, in her darkest moment,

Elizabeth managed to find strength. Her mother's voice flooded her mind and extinguished the shame she had almost surrendered to. "There are only two opinions of you that really matter. One is God's and the other is mine. And don't you know I will always love you no matter what?" In that moment, Elizabeth realized that she was worth more than her virginity. She decided that she would be strong in the face of suffering to make sure that she got back to her family alive.

Unfortunately, there would be no shortage of opportunities to prove her resolve. Emmanuel repeatedly raped Elizabeth throughout her imprisonment, while Hephzibah encouraged him, sometimes multiple times a day. He chained her ankle to an oak tree like an animal, and she was at his mercy. Her 20 feet of leeway and the tiny tent she slept in became her entire world. The loneliness was unbearable.

Emmanuel and Hephzibah's religious ramblings were the only things that kept Elizabeth company. Emmanuel boasted about being an angel and a Davidic king. He had visions of being reincarnated, stoned by a mob, and lying dead in the streets for three days before rising up to kill the Antichrist. He explained that Elizabeth was essential to his plan and would be just one of his many wives. To fulfill her role,

Emmanuel insisted that she renounce her past life through a spiritual rebirth. The teenager was forbidden from talking about her family and forced to take a new biblical name. Elizabeth chose Esther, a beautiful Jewish heroine of the Old Testament. She was told that she had to lose herself in sin before she could ascend as the wife of a prophet. Emmanuel hastened her rite of passage, exposing the 14-year-old to his perverse ways.

He had sex with Hephzibah in front of her, forced her to drink alcohol, and made her look at porn. As a devout Mormon, Elizabeth's spirit was slowly crushed. The daily sexual and emotional abuse she was subjected to was devastating, but very nearly eclipsed by the extreme hunger and thirst she endured.

Chained and isolated, Elizabeth was uttered reliant on the meager rations Emmanuel shoplifted or found in dumpsters during his trips into Salt Lake City. There were times when he came back with nothing at all. The sicko never deprived himself, of course. His self-serving theology entitled him to the hedonistic pleasures of modern life. Emmanuel indulged his impure cravings whenever he ventured into the city, gorging himself on fast food and beer. Hephzibah soon became bitter.

She resented being left behind to starve with his captive concubine. Eventually, the woman managed to convince Emmanuel to let her and Elizabeth tag along on his journeys on one condition. They had to conceal themselves with wigs, veils, and white robes. On the trio's first trip together, Emmanuel took them to a party where he split his time between preaching to the partygoers and drinking absinthe.

clad in all white and deathly silent. Elizabeth drifted behind him like a ghost. Although her eyes were the only thing visible, their defeated stare was enough to make a few girls concerned. They tried to ask if she was okay, but Emmanuel intercepted their questions. Elizabeth's determination began to dwindle with every trip into the outside world. She was so close to freedom, but her newfound survival instincts compelled her to remain mute and obedient.

Several weeks had passed since her abduction, but her parents, the police, and thousands of community members were still tirelessly searching for her. Elizabeth's face was plastered across local billboards and news anchors recited her name nightly. Yet, no one noticed the new addition to Emmanuel's entourage as they wandered through grocery stores, bus stops, and parks.

Abused into submission, the 14-year-old stayed silent and shrouded behind her veil as they panhandled through her hometown, hidden in plain sight. The same folks who were searching for her never dared make eye contact, let alone ask questions. Even when Elizabeth silently begged for help, her pleading stares incited disdain rather than deliverance. Those who looked past the trio's appearance were quickly manipulated by Emmanuel's silver tongue.

One incident happened at the downtown library when a homicide detective approached them. Elizabeth's knees went weak with hope and uncontrollable fear. Hefzibah clamped her hand on the girl's leg like a vice, smothering any remaining courage. The detective said that police had gotten several reports from concerned citizens about Elizabeth. He asked them to remove her veil. Emmanuel calmly insisted that Esther was his daughter.

He explained that their garb was pivotal to their religion, which prohibited him from revealing her face to strangers outside of their family, especially men. Trapped between the shoulders of her crazed captors, Elizabeth was too scared to speak. Emmanuel added that if she truly was the missing smart girl, why would she just sit there in silence? His feeble answers worked and the detective left without another word. The man's indifference further fueled Emmanuel's delusions of grandeur

he now considered himself invincible. Elizabeth, on the other hand, felt invisible. Part 5: Saving Elizabeth Smart In September 2002, the trio took a Greyhound bus to San Diego, California, where they would stay for several months.

They spent their time there drifting between homeless shelters, bridges, and sprawling tent cities. Emmanuel soon grew impatient for his ascension and decided to befriend another innocent Mormon family in the hopes of rescuing a second child bride. By that, he meant kidnapping a young girl and keeping her as his sex slave. He had attempted to do the same to Elizabeth's cousin in July 2002, almost two months after her own abduction.

Thankfully, both attempts were unsuccessful. Back in Salt Lake City, the search for Elizabeth Smart had begun to slow. The investigation had initially produced hundreds of potential suspects, but all turned out to be dead ends. One man, in particular, had stood out to police. Richard Ricci, another unsavory character the Smarts had taken pity on and hired for odd jobs around their home.

He was in prison at the time on burglary charges after violating his parole for the attempted murder of a police officer. However, he died of a brain hemorrhage early on in the investigation. Any hope of finding Elizabeth seemed to die with him. Despite the lack of developments after Ricci's death, Ed and Lois Smart refused to let their daughter's case disappear from the public eye. The desperate parents paid for a website to be developed in Elizabeth's honor.

It compiled all information related to her case and publicized home videos of her as a child for the media to distribute across their channels. The Smart family kept her story alive in the news and did as many interviews as they could handle. They were steadfast in their belief that she was still out there somewhere, even though many thought otherwise. Finally, in October 2002, the lead that would ultimately save Elizabeth emerged from an unlikely source.

Mary Catherine, her now 10-year-old little sister. An epiphany had come to the preteen out of the blue. While paging through the Guinness Book of World Records, a distant memory of a homeless handyman popped into her head. Mary Catherine remembered him coming into their home once to work on their roof. She recalled that his name was Emmanuel. Most importantly, she recognized his voice. It was identical to that of the man who had kidnapped her sister.

- Ed and Lois immediately relayed Mary Catherine's realization to the detectives handling Elizabeth's case, elated to have unearthed a fresh lead. To their disappointment, the police weren't convinced. Investigators couldn't conceptualize a motive or means of escape for the homeless man. They wondered why he would wait seven months to kidnap Elizabeth and how there had been no sightings of the pair around the city. Weeks passed by, then months.

By February 2003, eight months since Elizabeth's abduction, the police had still not followed up on Mary Catherine's tip. Enraged by law enforcement's inertia, Ed and Lois publicly lambasted them and hired a sketch artist to draw Emanuel's face from their memories. They held a press conference on February 3rd to release the sketch and distributed it across media channels with the help of America's Most Wanted host, John Walsh.

The police didn't believe anything would come of it. A man contacted authorities soon after the sketch went public. He identified the man it depicted as his estranged stepfather and revealed that Emmanuel was an alias. The lunatic's true name was Brian David Mitchell. Around the same time, Emmanuel, or Brian, had another revelation.

He declared that the trio needed to embark on another journey and move somewhere further away, such as New York or Pennsylvania. Knowing that she would never be recognized so far from home, Elizabeth played into Brian's ego to sway his decision. She announced that she had a feeling God wanted them to move back to Salt Lake City and implored that Brian, God's only prophet, ask him for clarity.

Flattered by this, Brian eventually agreed and the trio made their way back home. On March 12th, 2003, nine painful months after the now 15-year-old had been stolen from her bed, her ordeal came to an end. Brian, Hefzibah, and Elizabeth had arrived in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City, and were headed for the Wasatch Mountains once again. Brian planned to hide Elizabeth there for good,

However, the media coverage brought about by her parents foiled his plot. Locals had been following her story on the news. One particularly observant citizen spotted the unusual trio and immediately reported the sighting to the police. As Brian led his veiled wives up State Street into the city, they were surrounded by three police cruisers. The now overly confident Brian remained as calm as always and tried to talk his way out of it.

He spoke on behalf of Elizabeth, masquerading as a doting father who valued her religious rights above all. The policeman very nearly fell for his lies until one officer spoke out. He noted that, if this was Elizabeth, she would be far too frightened to say so in front of her captors, and proposed that they be separated, finally on her own and safe in the back of a police car.

the teenager removed her suffocating veil and revealed who she was, Elizabeth Ann Smart. Part Six: Sweet Salvation After nine months of being held captive, raped, and forced to live on the streets, Elizabeth Smart was finally reunited with her family at the Salt Lake City Police Department. Ed and Lois held onto their daughter as they cried together, too scared to let go for fear they may lose her again.

Their community was just as overjoyed by Elizabeth's safe return. The blue balloons that had once been used as a reminder of the teenager's plight now filled the trees throughout the city in celebration of her homecoming. Elizabeth's rescue incited a nationwide media frenzy, which uncovered several details about Brian Mitchell. It came out that he was a Salt Lake City local with a history of aggression and sexual deviancy.

Brian had a turbulent childhood marred by his abusive, perverted stepfather. At just 16 years old, he exposed himself to an eight-year-old girl before asking her to touch his genitals. The troubled teen was arrested and sent to juvenile detention, marking the beginning of his descent into depravity. Brian was released at 19 years old and went on to marry 16-year-old Karen Miner.

The couple had two children together, but showed no interest in raising them, opting to drink, use drugs, and party instead. They soon got divorced, and Karen was awarded full custody of the children. Despite his failure as a father figure, Brian kidnapped them and fled to New Hampshire where they lived for two years in a Hare Krishna commune.

Eventually, he returned the children to their mother and moved back to Salt Lake City in a bid to turn his life around. Brian's brother, a staunch Mormon, had just returned from a mission and inspired him to get sober. During this time, he met and married his second wife, Debbie. She had three children of her own from a previous marriage, but the newlyweds wasted no time adding to the litter.

It didn't take long before Debbie left Brian, filing for divorce in 1984. She accused him of physically abusing her and being sexually inappropriate with their three-year-old son. One of Debbie's daughters from her previous marriage later revealed that Brian had been sexually abusing her for four years. Brian tried to work through his aggression and addiction problems once more and attended group therapy sessions held by the Mormon church.

It was there that he met Wanda Barzee, or Hefsaba, as we have known her until now. The then 40-year-old was newly divorced and had a strained relationship with her six children, who referred to her as a monster. Brian and Wanda connected over their shared faith and married on the day that his divorce from Debbie was finalized. However, Brian's faith soon became warped by delusions of his divinity.

Beguiled by his prophetic visions, Wanda abandoned her children and began living on the streets with Brian while he preached his version of the word of God. Whether Wanda truly believed in his revelations, we don't know. She certainly lapped them up willfully though. She even accepted one that demanded he take several virgin Mormon girls as wives. Soon, the supposed Messiah had a spiritual awakening and took on a new biblical identity.

He decided that Wanda would do the same, and Emmanuel and Hephzibah were born. Part 7, The Reckoning. Brian's delusions of grandeur never faltered. Even after the couple was arrested, on March 18th, 2003, Brian and Wanda were formally charged for their crimes against Elizabeth Smart. Wanda filed for divorce from Brian in December 2004, but that didn't save her from her day of reckoning.

In November 2009, she was found guilty of both state and federal crimes and was sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison for her role in the kidnapping. She was released in 2016 after being credited for time already served, but still faced a sentence in a state prison for separate charges related to the attempted abduction of Elizabeth's cousin. Wanda was moved to Utah State Prison, where she was expected to stay until 2024.

Shockingly, on September 4th, 2018, that decision was revoked. The parole board announced that she would be released for good after a legal review of her case showed that she should be credited for the time she served in the federal prison. The news came as a shock to Elizabeth, who was adamant that the woman was still a danger to society. Nevertheless, Wanda Barzee was set free.

Brian Mitchell, the true villain of this story, managed to dodge his own day of reckoning for several years. His lawyers had cunningly pursued an insanity plea, claiming that the man was clearly consumed by mental illness. After intensive psychological assessments, Brian was found to be mentally unfit to stand trial in July 2005 and December 2006. At one point, a court superseded his insanity ruling and attempted to go to trial.

It was a dismal failure. Brian milked his public reputation as a madman and hurled religious damnations across the courthouse. Astonishingly, it worked. The judge ruled that Brian clearly displayed signs of psychosis and ordered that he be placed in Utah State Hospital for pathological paranoia. Brian relished in the thought that he had outsmarted the justice system. That is, until February 2006.

A bill was passed in Utah that made it legal to forcibly medicate defendants who were otherwise deemed incompetent to face trial. Finally, eight years after Brian had kidnapped Elizabeth Smart, he was ruled fit to stand trial in March 2010. The Salt Lake City community collectively held their breath, petrified that he may elude punishment once again. Their fears were unwarranted though. Elizabeth Smart had been waiting for this moment.

Brian's trial unfolded over four long, painful weeks. Elizabeth hadn't seen her abductor since the day she was rescued in Sandy, Utah. Even so, she held her head high and bravely faced him, testifying for three days under his watchful gaze. Elizabeth stripped the man of his grandiose fantasies and laid bare his true identity, a cruel, manipulative pedophile and rapist.

On May 25th, 2011, her testimony sealed his earthly fate. Brian David Mitchell was sentenced to two life sentences without parole. He was sent to a high security federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he remains to this day.