Elizabeth Smart is revealing the onslaught of emotions she felt after she was rescued from her kidnapper following nine months of captivity and sexual assault.
More than two decades ago, Smart, now 38, was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Brian David Mitchell when she was only 14 years old. With the help of Mitchell’s wife, Wanda Barzee, she was held in captivity for nearly a year and repeatedly forced to experience horrific physical, sexual and psychological abuse.
The horror ended in March 2003 when Smart was rescued. Now, ahead of the premiere of her new Netflix documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, she is sharing that she struggled with “shame around” what happened to her.
“I didn’t see or hear anyone else talking about it at the time,” she told People in an interview published on Sunday, January 18. “I didn’t know anyone who had something similar happen to them, and I ended up feeling very alone and very isolated.”
Smart said she felt compelled to share her story after she met an “overwhelming number” of victims who experienced similar feelings of shame as they processed their own trauma.
She continued, “I want survivors to know it’s not their fault. They don’t need to be embarrassed and they don’t need to carry this burden. They shouldn’t carry it at all, but if they are going to carry it, they’re not alone.”
Smart’s captors did eventually face justice. After being declared “mentally unfit” to stand trial for a number of years, Mitchell was convicted of interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in December 2011. He is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison. His accomplice, Barzee, received a 15-year sentence for her role in the kidnapping and prolonged abuse. She was released in 2018.
“I thought, ‘If I’m going to do this, I want to do it right,’” Smart told the outlet of her decision to dive back into her past and participate in the documentary. “I want people who have never experienced that to kind of get a taste of what it’s really like, that depth of fear, and why you might be forced to do things that you would never do. So I was trying to really help explain that level of fear and just that pure survival mode you are in, which was really important to me.”
In the end, one of Smart’s wishes is that watching the hard-hitting documentary will cause people to question how they think about the topics of sexual assault and other forms of abuse.
“There are just so many victims in need of support, in need of services, in need of so many things … When I see survivors succeeding in life, I am just so happy and proud for them because I understand the battles that they’ve fought,” she concluded.
Catch Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart on Netflix on Wednesday, January 21.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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