There was something about the man's beard, long and graying.
"He had flowers in his hair," said Alvin Dickerson, who was driving north on State Street with his wife Anita just before 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Rudy and Nancy Montoya of West Jordan had just passed Kinko's Copies near 10200 S. State in Sandy when they saw the man, two women trudging dutifully next to him, bedrolls under their arms, their dirty white robes obscuring their heads and faces.
Just as the Dickersons had, the Montoyas wondered:
Could the scruffy man be Emmanuel, the itinerant street preacher wanted for questioning in the disappearance of now-15-year-old Elizabeth Smart?
The couples called 911 almost simultaneously.
Within minutes, Elizabeth Smart's ordeal had come to an end — 280 days and 11 hours after she was snatched from her Federal Heights bedroom as her bewildered little sister watched.
Late Wednesday, Brian David Mitchell, 49, a self-proclaimed prophet to the homeless, and his wife, Wanda Ilene Barzee, 57, were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated kidnapping. State and federal prosecutors were reviewing the case Thursday for criminal charges.
Elizabeth returned home Wednesday night for the first time since June 5, reuniting with her overjoyed family and prompting celebrations in her neighborhood that were echoed throughout Utah and a relieved nation.
"It's nothing short of a miracle," said her elated father, Ed Smart.
As the weeks slipped into months, faith that Elizabeth would be found alive flickered with the knowledge that kidnap victims held even beyond a few days are rarely found alive.
"We knew that statistically it could be nothing less than a miracle," said Tom Smart, Elizabeth's uncle and a family spokesman throughout the ordeal. "But we've always believed in miracles."
"Thank God. Thank God," he added, breaking into tears of joy.
The fanatic
Emmanuel was a street preacher often dressed in biblical robes. With an untamed beard and carrying a staff, he alternately preached and panhandled.
He ministered to the downtown homeless, perceiving himself a prophet to the destitute.
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