The documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart has made its Netflix debut, leaving fans with the question of what happened to the abducted youngster after she was found.
Netflix subscribers cannot get enough of its true crime specials, and its latest, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, is no different, as it looks into one particularly harrowing 24-year-old case.
In June 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken by a man from her bedroom in Utah in the middle of the night, as her younger sister Mary Katherine silently watched on in fear.
The man, who was later discovered to be Brian David Mitchell, along with his wife Wanda Barzee, kept her in a tent in the mountains where he would rape her daily, as Elizabeth later told a court.
They would preach their interpretation of the “good word”, attempting to justify their actions by stating that it was God who was telling them to commit such horrendous acts.
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Thankfully, Mary Katherine was eventually able to recall the kidnapper’s voice as Mitchell’s, a homeless street preacher who went by the name Emmanuel.
He had done some work on the Smart’s family home the year prior, which explained how he first came across his victim, Elizabeth.
While Mitchell and Barzee were convicted of their crimes, Netflix viewers are wondering what happened to Elizabeth Smart.
Where is Elizabeth Smart now?
Despite undergoing such traumatic events, Elizabeth Smart has managed to use her horrific experiences to help others. She initially attended Brigham Young University, where she studied music as a harp performance major, an instrument she played before her abduction.
Elizabeth then went on to found the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting sexual violence and exploitation through empowerment, advocacy, education, and survivor support. The foundation offers a number of programmes, including a trauma-informed “Smart Defense” training for women, girls, and children.
She has also helped to promote The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, The National AMBER Alert, and other safety legislation to help prevent abductions. Elizabeth worked with other abduction survivors and the Department of Justice to create a survivors’ guide called You’re Not Alone: The Journey From Abduction to Empowerment, encouraging children who have gone through similar experiences.
More recently, she’s released an inspiring book called Where There’s Hope, which delves into what it takes to overcome trauma. Regarding Elizabeth’s personal life, the 38-year-old was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris in 2011, where she met her husband, Matthew Gilmour.
They went on to get married the following year, before having their three children, with the family of four now residing in Wasatch County, Utah. Opening up to People in 2012 about what drew Matthew to Elizabeth, he shared: “I got to know her as she truly is. The thing that attracted me the most to her — at the beginning and now — is how confident she is, especially considering everything she has been through.”
Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart is available to watch on Netflix.