This article references rape and sexual assault.
The 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart remains one of America's most infamous missing-persons cases. Then, just 14 years old, Elizabeth was taken from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, at knifepoint as her younger sister watched on, pretending to be asleep. Nine months later, Elizabeth's captors were found, and Elizabeth was returned to her family.
Now, almost 25 years later, Elizabeth is reclaiming her story with Netflix's new documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart.
“After I was rescued, when I first got home, I did not want to talk about what happened with anyone,” she said to Tudum. “And when the trial finally happened, I remember sitting up on the stand, giving these answers, and feeling like there was no context around them. I remember thinking that if all of this was going to be out there anyway, I wanted it to have some meaning, and for it to serve a purpose. I wanted to have some ownership over my story. That helped me decide to share it."
What happened to Elizabeth Smart?
Elizabeth Smart was 14 when a man broke into her family home and abducted her at knifepoint. Her younger sister, 9-year-old Mary Katherine, pretended to be asleep and told her parents of Elizabeth's abduction early the next morning. Although Mary Katherine thought she recognised the man's voice, it was months before she realised she knew the man as “Emmanuel,” a preacher who had previously done work on the Smart family home.
The man who had called himself “Emmanuel” was in fact Brian David Mitchell. He and his wife Wanda Barzee held Elizabeth first in a camp near Salt Lake City and later in a camp near San Diego. During her captivity, Smart claims she was chained up and subjected to daily sexual abuse by Mitchell, often facilitated by Barzee. Mitchell also performed a “ceremony” claiming he had married her.
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“I don’t know how many lessons I had on ‘don’t have sex before marriage,’” Elizabeth says in the documentary. “But no one had discussed with me the difference between consensual sex [and] intimacy versus rape. I felt a lot of shame, and I felt like I was filthy. I thought, ‘If my family knew what had happened to me, would they still want me back? Maybe it would be better if nobody ever found me.’”
Mary Katherine's realisation that the man she heard in their bedroom was “Emmanuel” led the police in a new direction in their search for Elizabeth. After police sketches were released on TV, Mitchell's relatives identified him as the man they were looking for.
In March 2003, Mitchell, Barzee and Elizabeth were seen in public in Sandy, Utah. Elizabeth was disguised with a grey wig, sunglasses, a veil and a head covering. Although Elizabeth initially said her name was “Augustine Marshall,” police arrested Mitchell and Barzee and recovered Elizabeth, who was returned to her family.
Where are her kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, now?
After Elizabeth was recovered, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were charged with aggravated kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault.
Mitchell's trial was delayed on several occasions after he was ruled incompetent to stand in court. After a jury indicted Mitchell and Barzee in 2008, Mitchell was found guilty of interstate kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in 2010 and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
“A sentence of life in prison for Brian David Mitchell is an appropriate, just, and long overdue result for this community, the Smart family, and most importantly, Elizabeth. Mitchell’s heinous criminal conduct and the evidence of his propensity to re-offend warrant nothing less,” Carlie Christensen, the US Attorney for Utah, said in a statement.
He was transferred to a high-security federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. In 2023, he was transferred to another high-security facility, the United States Penitentiary (USP) in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In 2025, Mitchell was reportedly moved again following several attacks from fellow prisoners while in custody.
He is now reportedly housed at the Federal Correctional Institution-Lewisburg, located in Central Pennsylvania.
Barzee, meanwhile, filed for divorce from Mitchell in November 2004. She accepted a plea deal in 2009 and received a 15-year prison sentence in 2010.
Although she was scheduled for release in 2024, she was released in 2018. Her release came with terms that included federal supervision for five years, being registered as a sex offender and being banned from contacting any member of the Smart family.
Elizabeth made a statement at the time of Barzee’s release. “I would urge the powers that be and anyone who works under them to really strongly reconsider this situation, to look at all the facts, look at her mental status, and see if they really and honestly truly feel that she is no longer a threat,” she said, per ABC News.
Barzee was arrested in May 2025 after allegedly going to two parks in Salt Lake City, which violated the terms of her sex offender registration.
She does not appear in Netflix's new documentary.
How Elizabeth Smart has advocated for survivors
Elizabeth has gone on to work as an advocate for survivors of child abduction and sexual violence following her abduction through her work with the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. The foundation has worked to push for stronger safety legislation in America to prevent future abductions. She has also given several TED Talks and numerous interviews as part of her advocacy work.
Elizabeth has written three books: My Story, Where There's Hope: healing, Moving Forward and Never Giving Up and her recent memoir Detours: Hope & Growth After Life's Hardest Turns.
“Stories are so powerful. It’s why I agreed to do this [film],” she told Tudum of her reasons behind retelling her story in the new documentary. “Documentaries are how we learn, and they hit me in the heart and stay with me so much longer than [statistics] do. I want to give survivors a place to share their stories as a community. We also have our survivor fund, to try to help pay for medical costs, first and last month’s rent, airplane tickets, or scholarships. Our fund isn’t huge, but we try and do as much as we can to help survivors fill in the gaps.”
Now a mother of three, Elizabeth is focused on raising her children to understand the importance of sexual consent.
“It’s led to a lot of safety conversations and using the correct body part names and not associating guilt or shame with them,” she said. “Making sure they understand that I will support them if they have to stand up for themselves, that it’s not wrong to fight back if someone is being inappropriate with them, and that I’ll back them up even if they get in trouble. If they protect themselves, I will always back them up."
For more information about reporting and recovering from rape and sexual abuse, you can contact Rape Crisis on 0808 500 2222.
If you have been sexually assaulted, you can find your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre here. You can also find support at your local GP, voluntary organisations such as Rape Crisis, Women's Aid, and Victim Support, and you can report it to the police (if you choose) here.
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