Elizabeth Smart looks back at her dramatic rescue | Nightline

thank you captivated a nation Whoever has her please let her go well this is every parent's nightmare 14 year old Elizabeth Smart ripped from her bedroom in the middle of the night missing for nine months until a remarkable turn of events it is a miracle Elizabeth Smart has been found alive 20 years after that dramatic Rescue Elizabeth Smart has turned her trauma into Triumph a powerful activist who lives a refreshingly normal life a wife a mom refusing to let her present be defined by her past to those who may not know your story what would you tell them I'm a Survivor of a kidnapping and was held hostage for nine months but that I have never allowed that to stand in my way of trying to make the world a better place for having me in it than not but also at heart like I am just I'm just me I'm a mom I have three kids and I hate laundry and don't we all hate like good food and I like being at home it was at her family's home in June 2002 an affluent neighborhood in Salt Lake City where she slept in a room she shared with her younger sister Mary Catherine I remember was hearing a voice it was a man's voice saying I have a knife at your neck don't make a sound get up and come with me just nothing in my life had prepared me for an experience like that I mean the thought that someone could penetrate my home my safe place just seemed impossible she says she remembers being taken by her captors Brian Mitchell and his wife Wanda barzi into the mountains high above Salt Lake City not far from her home where Mitchell had once worked as a day laborer for nine months smart was held captive and tortured the abuse at times she says unbearable I did get to a point where I was like well if he is really going to rape and kill me like I need it to happen close to my house so that so that my parents know what happened to me so that you know like they they don't just think I ran away so when there were close brushes with Rescuers who were shouting your name in earshot you couldn't speak I mean there wasn't a day that went by that he wasn't telling me that he would kill me if that he would kill my family if I didn't do what he wanted me to do there was a lot of sexual assault and where I'd grown up and a loving environment it was also very conservative environment and there was a lot of emphasis always put on you know staying pure physically yes I was in a lot of pain but I mean there was like this mental and emotional and spiritual aspect as well that just I mean it was crushing it was suffocating it really made me question if would I be better dead than alive I've interviewed sexual assault survivors who say it's it has an impact on their intimacy and on the way they approach intimacy I wonder if it's had an impact on your life in that way if we could help better educate on the difference between you know what rape is versus what you know wholehearted consensual Sexes then then I think I think that for me makes all the difference it might be the same physical act but I mean the emotion behind it is couldn't be any more different her family never giving up hope pleading through the media for Elizabeth's return every chance they got Chris Thomas was the family spokesperson there were 70 to 80 cameras showing up I was working 20 plus hour days I logged somewhere around 10 000 phone calls Thomas writing about the Relentless media frenzy in his forthcoming book unexpected what explains the media fascination with Elizabeth's story this was a case unlike Annie that had ever been seen a child being abducted from their own room in in an influent suburb in conservative Salt Lake City I mean that just doesn't happen months after the abduction Elizabeth's sister managed to provide key details about the suspect but Thomas says he couldn't release the sketch or the new Clues over several months the police did not want that coming out and so at that point the national media completely panned the story locally they buried that story and really America's Most Wanted was the only one who who gave it real Credence now we've got breaking news on the Elizabeth Smart abduction case the program aired the sketch and asked for help just a few days after the sketch was shown on America's Most Wanted in March 2023 eyewitnesses spotted Brian Mitchell walking down a street in Sandy Utah they called police we were walking up State Street in Salt Lake City and I remember a police car pulling up he was just like you know there's this girl and she's been missing now for a very long time and her family has never stopped searching for her like they love her more than anything and so at that point I was like oh my gosh she knows and the officer's like he's like I'm sorry you need to say the words and I mean he had to ask me a few times before I finally said that yes I was Elizabeth Smart finally after nine long months the nightmare was over Chris remembers breaking the news to Elizabeth's dad Ed smart we called Ed and he was out in the parking lot pacing he said I'm too afraid to go inside and we said Elizabeth's in there she's alive she's waiting for you and the phone line went dead what was that like when your father walked in that room it really was the first time that I felt safe in nine months and that I knew that no matter what lay ahead it was going to be okay because my dad was there he was not going to let anyone else hurt me both of Elizabeth captors were sentenced to federal prison on kidnapping charges Elizabeth testified at Mitchell's trial he's currently serving a life sentence barzi was sentenced to 15 years and has since been released in the 20 years since her rescue she's become an activist launching the Elizabeth Smart foundation with her father you are stronger than you think you are and you have the right to defend yourselves there's one program she says she's particularly proud of smart defense which is a trauma-informed self-defense program which has just been incredible it's the combination of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Krav Maga and Muay Thai teaching people to defend themselves advice she gives to her own daughter yes you can fight to defend yourself yes you can scream yes please bite anyone who tries to touch you like please take care of yourself when you look back it's been 20 years what lessons do you think we can all learn I don't think that if you took all the media attention any other Survivor or victim has ever gone it would match the amount of attention my story got and I feel heartbroken about that because every missing child deserves to be found [Music] hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 620,156

Keywords: Elizabeth, Smart, abc, abcnews, abduction, captive, crime, missing, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-97247430, rescue, trauma, us

Id: FMTHJIDYF7M

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2023