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TW: Sexual Violence, Extreme Violence, Abuse.
More than two decades have passed since Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City at just 14.
Although she was eventually found and reunited with her devastated parents after a harrowing nine month ordeal at the hands of a predatory couple, returning home didn’t mean her trauma disappeared overnight.
The 38-year-old has become a powerful advocate for survivors of sexual assault and is sharing her story in Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, streaming from January 21 on Netflix.
The film blends archival footage and never-before-seen material with interviews with Elizabeth, her family members, investigators and those closest to the case.
“After I was rescued, I was very embarrassed by what had happened to me,” she told People while promoting the program.
“Even though my head totally knew it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t make my heart feel the same way. I felt I’d be judged for it. I ended up feeling very alone and isolated.”
What happened to Elizabeth Smart?
Elizabeth had been an ordinary teenager growing up in a Mormon household when, on June 5, 2002, she was taken in the middle of the night at knifepoint from the bed she shared with her 9 year old sister, Mary Katherine.
Her captors were self proclaimed prophet Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee.
During her confinement in various remote encampments, Elizabeth endured unimaginable abuse.
She was shackled to a tree with a metal cable, forced into a dark pit.
She was repeatedly raped up to four times a day—after Mitchell declared they were “married.”
He threatened to murder her family if she resisted him.
“I was sobbing,” she recalled of her first sexual assault. Elizabeth added: “I begged him to stop. I remember it just being so painful.”
Mitchell would walk her “like a dog,” she said, while Barzee, driven by jealousy, encouraged him to further humiliate her.
Elizabeth was alternately starved or fed scraps of garbage.
The couple occasionally took her out in public, disguising her in head to toe white robes they claimed were religious garments.
What happened to Elizabeth Smart’s kidnappers?
It was these outings that ultimately led to her rescue. On March 12, 2003, a passerby who recognised Smart from America’s Most Wanted alerted police.
“It was one of my happiest days,” she said. “I knew that my family was the reason I wanted to survive.”
Mitchell was convicted of kidnapping in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison.
Barzee received a 15 year sentence and was released in 2018. She was arrested again in May 2025 for violating sex offender restrictions.
What is Elizabeth Smart’s life like after her kidnapping?
Back home, Elizabeth’s parents, Ed, 70, and Lois, 68, tried to reclaim the milestones she’d missed.
They threw her a 15th birthday party, and she returned to school the following year.
She later graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Music.
In 2011, she founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, using her high-profile platform to support survivors and fight sexual violence.
With her early shame behind her, she is determined to ensure no victim feels alone again.
“There will be victims and survivors who watch this, and I hope they realize they’re not alone, and that they don’t have to be ashamed of what happened to them,” Elizabeth told Tudum of her decision to be involved in the making of the Netflix documentary.
“And I hope that people who watch this can gain compassion and understanding for other families who are going through this.”
Elizabeth also leaned heavily into her faith, which likely helped her recover from her terrifying ordeal. And it was while serving as a Mormon missionary in Paris in 2009 that she met Matthew Gilmour.
The couple wed in February 2012. They welcomed their first child in 2015 and she is now a proud mother-of-three.
“I also hope it brings comfort that there are happy endings — and that even after terrible things happen, you can still have a wonderful life.”
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