Oprah Interviews Children of Elizabeth Smart Captor

(Feb. 2) – Elizabeth Smart wasn't the only child to suffer because of the actions of kidnappers Wanda Barzee and Brian David Mitchell.

Now adults, four of Barzee's six children appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Tuesday and detailed a horrific pattern of abuse they say they suffered at the hands of their mother, biological father and stepfather Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who became Barzee's second husband.

Barzee pleaded guilty to kidnapping Smart, who was 14 when authorities say she was abducted at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002. She was found nine months later in the company of Mitchell and Barzee. In hearings to determine whether Mitchell is competent to stand trial, Smart has testified that he raped her repeatedly during her captivity.

"I think the media somewhat portrayed my mother as being a victim of Brian David Mitchell, and I think one of the reasons I wanted to come on the show is to expose her for the monster she is," Barzee's daughter Andrea told Winfrey.

Among the show's revelations, the offspring described how Barzee and her first husband routinely beat them, deprived them of food for days at a time and often mentally abused them.

"She would brainwash us relentlessly," Andrea said. "We would be called up to her room, and she would sit there and drum into us, 'If you weren't a part of this family, then the family would be fine. And if you were dead, then ... ' "

Barzee would lock the pantry and not let her children eat for days, they said. Her son Derrick Thompson described taking a BB gun to hunt small animals in the brush behind their Utah home. Whatever he could kill, he'd cook over an open fire and eat. One of her daughters said she was so desperate she ate dog food.

A homemaker and an organist at their Mormon church, Barzee divorced her first husband in 1984. A year later she was married to Mitchell, but the abuse didn't end, her children said.

Rhonda McLeod, Barzee's eldest daughter, described first meeting Mitchell. "I had a bad feeling about him," McLeod told Winfrey.

LouRee Gaylor, Barzee's youngest child, described a dinner table scene when she was 14 years old. When she asked her mother what was for supper, she says Barzee responded, "Chicken," a strange smile on her face.

The next day, the girl went out to feed her pet rabbit, Peaches, but the animal's cage was empty. Where she asked where the rabbit was, Barzee replied, "You had him for dinner last night," Gaylor said.

On Nov. 17, Barzee pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. She is in a mental hospital pending sentencing, but has agreed to testify against Mitchell.

"She robbed us of our childhood," daughter Andrea said. "She robbed us of our innocence."