Investigator: Smart Case Was Bungled

May 2, 2003 -- As Elizabeth Smart tries to return to a normal life after nine months in captivity, the former lead investigator on her case says she might have been recovered six months sooner if not for a typo and a decision that haunts him still.

"I struggle with that," Cory Lyman, the former lead investigator in the Smart case, told ABCNEWS' Primetime Thursday.

"I go over that in my head, as does everybody else in the task force [in the investigation]," he said. "What could we have picked up on? What did we miss? What did we do wrong? What should we have thought out better? Those kind of questions."

Residents of Utah — and the entire nation — rejoiced March 12 when Elizabeth, 15, was found alive with a homeless self-styled street preacher named Brian David Mitchell — who liked to refer to himself as "Emmanuel" — and his wife, Wanda Barzee.

But Elizabeth's rescue also raised eyebrows because she was found in Sandy City, Utah, just 15 minutes away from her home in Salt Lake City. Investigators later found that her alleged captors held her at a camp site in the mountains behind the Smart home in the first two months after her abduction.

Though the Smart family has said they harbor no ill will toward police for the way they conducted the investigation, media reports speculated the case was mishandled.

In February, the Smart family, with the police's blessing, released sketches of "Emmanuel" and appealed for the public's help in finding him.

They did not know the suspect's full name at the time but said Mary Katherine Smart, Elizabeth's 10-year-old sister and the sole eyewitness to her abduction, told them the kidnapper resembled the former one-time handyman for the Smarts. That public showing of the sketch led to Mitchell's sister calling authorities with his identity and the man's stepson providing investigators with photos that ultimately led to Elizabeth's rescue.

However, Mary Katherine had told her family and Salt Lake City police about Emmanuel back in October. Salt Lake City police said the family first told them about Emmanuel on Oct. 13 and that they interviewed Mary Katherine two days later. The Smart family wanted to release a composite sketch immediately but police chose not to do so.

Today, Lyman, who resigned as the lead investigator in the case in January to become the chief of police in Ketchum, Idaho, says he has second thoughts about his decision and believes they may have been able to find Elizabeth almost six months before her rescue.

"I wish we had chosen to go public earlier," Lyman said. "We didn't think it would be so difficult to find this guy."

‘I’ Before ‘E’

Lyman said he decided not to release the sketch and publicize Emmanuel's name because he suspected that if Mitchell was the kidnapper, then Elizabeth was probably already dead, and putting his name out might force him underground, making him impossible to find.

"Logically, this guy has no resources," Lyman said. "He had no car, no home, no nothing. Logically, he doesn't have the means to carry this out as a kidnap. If he did it, then we likely had a homicide."

A clerical error also may have prevented police from finding Elizabeth, Mitchell and Barzee earlier. On Sept. 27, Mitchell was arrested in Salt Lake City on shoplifting charges. Citing court records, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported that he allegedly told police his name was Emmanuel and Lueal, but police spelled the name incorrectly. Emmanuel was spelled "Immanuel."

Mitchell skipped his court appearance, and when law enforcement later learned about Emmanuel, his name did not pop up in the police database.

"Putting 'I' on the front instead of 'E'… it didn't show up," said Lyman. "Detectives would have picked him up on probably that first or second day [after first learning about him]."

Another Missed Opportunity

In addition, after Lyman left his post in January — and a month before the rescue — authorities may have missed another opportunity to find Elizabeth. Officials at the San Diego Sheriff's Department say they arrested Mitchell on Feb. 12 for vandalizing a church and that he was in custody for six days. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was released.

At the time, officials said, Mitchell was not using the Emmanuel alias and was using another name. The San Diego authorities were unaware that Salt Lake police wanted him for questioning at the time. Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said officials did not issue a multi-state bulletin for Mitchell because he did not have a violent criminal background and they did not have enough evidence to consider him a suspect.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has created an independent panel to examine the investigation in the Elizabeth Smart case. Lyman concedes, in hindsight, that mistakes were made in the search. But he does not believe that the Smart family thinks police were not dedicated to finding Elizabeth.

"Bungled? I guess to some extent that's certainly true. We didn't solve it earlier," Lyman said. "I don't think [Elizabeth's parents] Ed and Lois ever thought we didn't try. They may have thought we were wrong, but I don't think they ever thought we didn't try or weren't committed."

In Search of Multiple Wives?

Elizabeth, then 14, was kidnapped early June 5, 2002, at knifepoint, allegedly by Mitchell, who police say entered the Smart house by cutting a window screen near the back door. She was taken from the bedroom she shared with Mary Katherine, then 9, who pretended to be asleep.

After two months of living in the campsite in the mountains behind the Smart house — within earshot of volunteers helping to search for the girl — Elizabeth, Mitchell and Barzee, police believe, then lived in a Salt Lake City apartment that is only two blocks away from a police station.

In October, they traveled to California, where police believe they moved from campsite to campsite in San Diego and Southern California. Between October and Elizabeth's recovery, police believe the trio may have traveled through California and Nevada before returning to Utah in March.

It is not clear why the trio traveled to California. But clues may be found in Mitchell's 27-page manifesto of alleged prophesy. In what he called "The Book of Emmanuel David Isaiah," he outlines his beliefs — which include polygamy. Primetime has learned that investigators believe that while in the San Diego area, Mitchell planned to abduct at least one more fair-haired girl from a religious family.

San Diego resident Virl Kemp told Primetime that he met Mitchell — who allegedly identified himself as "Pete" — at a Mormon Church. Kemp invited Mitchell to his home for lunch, gave him a Bible, and showed him a picture of his 12-year-old daughter.

"I think he had an idea that there was a young lady in the house that would be of interest to him," Kemp said. "And then to finally find out from the investigation … that he may have come back to my home and tried to break in and tried to kidnap my daughter. … Looking back on it, it seems totally plausible that this is what he was up to."

Mitchell also may have targeted Elizabeth's cousin, Jessica Wright, who bears a close resemblance to the 15-year-old. According to a report from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Department, on July 24, Wright was awakened at 3 a.m. by the sound of pictures on her desk falling to the floor and observed a thin object sticking through the closed metal blinds of her window. The object then disappeared and she fled the room.

The screen on Wright's bedroom window was cut horizontally and vertically during the night and a chair was left beneath the window, two similarities to Elizabeth's disappearance. Ed Smart has said he believes the kidnapper entered his home by cutting a window screen near the back door from the outside and climbing up on a chair.

‘What a Pleasure It Will Be’

Mitchell and Barzee have been charged with aggravated burglary and attempted aggravated kidnapping in the incident involving Wright.

They have been charged with burglary, aggravated kidnapping, and sexual assault in Elizabeth Smart's case.

With the help of Barzee, Mitchell, prosecutors say, tied Elizabeth to a tree at the campsite behind the Smart home and sexually assaulted her. If convicted on all counts, Mitchell and Barzee could face life in prison.

Far away from Salt Lake City, Lyman is overjoyed to see the Smart family reunited and says there two real heroes in this case: Elizabeth, for enduring her ordeal, and her sister Mary Katherine.

"She [Mary Katherine] is a champion," he said. "She really came through. … She very much wanted her sister back, and she did the best she could, and she ended up the hero in this deal."

And despite his second thoughts about the decisions he made during the search, Lyman said he would like to meet Elizabeth Smart someday.

"I don't think she'll have any idea what I mean when I say what a pleasure it is to meet her," Lyman said. "What a pleasure it will be."

Reported by ABCNEWS' Cynthia McFadden, Harry Phillips and LaNeice Collins.