Elizabeth Smart

Elizabeth Ann Smart was just fourteen years old when she was abducted at knifepoint from her bedroom in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 5, 2002. Brian David Mitchell, a self-styled street preacher who had previously done handyman work for the Smart family, held her captive for nine months alongside his wife Wanda Barzee. During her captivity, Smart endured sexual assault, starvation, and psychological manipulation before being rescued on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah. ^[1]

Rather than allowing her ordeal to define her, Smart channeled her experience into a lifetime of advocacy. She attended Brigham Young University, served a mission in Paris, and in 2011 founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which promotes child safety education through programs like Smart Defense, a self-defense initiative for women and girls now available at nearly all Utah public universities. ^[2] She also served as a contributor for ABC News beginning in 2011, covering missing persons cases, and later hosted the Lifetime documentary series Beyond the Headlines. ^[3]

Smart has authored four books: Bringing Elizabeth Home (2003, co-written with her father), My Story (2013), Where There's Hope (2018), and Detours: Hope & Growth After Life's Hardest Turns (2025). In 2006, she testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. Her Netflix documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart premiered in January 2026. ^[4]

Smart married Matthew Gilmour on February 18, 2012, in Hawaii after meeting during missionary assignments in Paris. They have three children: Chloe, James, and Olivia. She has spoken publicly about her healing journey, telling interviewers, "Nobody can take away your value," and encouraging survivors to reclaim their lives. ^[5]