Smart was missing for nine months before being reunited with her family.

Where is Elizabeth Smart now? Inside the life of Netflix’s *Kidnapped *subject decades after her abduction

Smart was missing for nine months before being reunited with her family.

By Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe

Allison DeGrushe is a timely SEO writer at **. She has been working at * *since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Distractify.

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January 21, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

Elizabeth Smart in 'Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart'. Credit:

- Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted from her Utah home in June 2002.

- She spent nine months in captivity before being found in March 2003.

- Smart and her family are opening up about the incident in a new Netflix documentary, *Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart*.

Elizabeth Smart's 2002 abduction from her home in Utah resulted in one of the most publicized missing-person cases in U.S. history. For nine months, the 14-year-old endured abuse and starvation before being found the following year and returned safely to her family.

Now, Netflix is revisiting the incident with *Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, *a documentary that, per an official synopsis, tells the story "in Elizabeth’s own words and through exclusive interviews with her family, investigators, and those closest to the case."

Along with insight into her captivity, it also "spotlights Elizabeth’s journey of healing and her ongoing mission to inspire and protect others."

Here's a look back at what happened to Smart, how she was rescued, and where she is now.

What happened to Elizabeth Smart?

A photograph of a young Elizabeth Smart.

Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom in Utah on June 5, 2002. In the documentary, she recalls waking up to a man, later identified as Brian David Mitchell, standing over her and saying, "I have a knife at your neck. Don't make a sound. Get up and come with me." He then led her out of the house, through the backyard, and to a campground in the Utah mountains. Feeling "terrified," Smart asked him if he planned to rape and kill her, and he said not yet.

After a long walk, they reached a campsite, where Smart met Mitchell's wife, Wanda Barzee, who went by Hephzibah. She washed Smart's feet and ordered her to change out of her pajamas and into a long robe. Barzee warned that if she refused, then Mitchell, who called himself Emmanuel, would "rip the clothes off of you." Mitchell then entered the tent and sexually assaulted Smart, beginning a pattern of abuse that would continue throughout her captivity.

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Smart, having grown up in a religious household, had been taught that sex before marriage was wrong, but she'd never learned the difference between consensual sex and rape. As such, she recalls feeling "filthy" and filled with "a lot of shame."

"I thought, if my family knew what had happened to me, would they still want me back?" she says. "Maybe it would be better if nobody ever found me."

Mitchell, Smart testified in a Salt Lake City court in 2009, saw himself as a "prophet." She added, "He said he was the voice of God on Earth and that he would reign over God's children until Jesus came."

In the documentary, she describes her nine months in captivity as humiliating and dehumanizing. Mitchell kept Elizabeth chained up. When he'd take her to get water, "he would hold the cable and basically walk me like a dog," Smart says, adding, "I was forced to drink beer after beer until I finally threw up, and he had just left me there face down in my own vomit."

How was Elizabeth Smart rescued?

A photograph of a young Mary Katherine Smart, Ed Smart, and Elizabeth Smart.

In October 2002, Smart's 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, mentioned to their parents, Ed and Lois, that she thought a man named Immanuel might be responsible for Elizabeth's kidnapping. The family had met him the year before when he was panhandling in downtown Salt Lake City, per the *New York Times*. Lois had spoken with him and given him Ed's business card, and Mitchell had later performed yard work at their home.

In February 2003, a sketch of the suspect was released to the public. This sparked renewed interest in the case. Shortly after, a family member of Mitchell's reached out to police, suspecting Immanuel was actually Mitchell.

By then, Mitchell, Barzee, and Smart were no longer in Utah. They had moved camp to California after a close brush with law enforcement at a library. Eventually, Smart convinced them to return to Utah.

Ed Smart, Elizabeth Smart, and Mary Katherine Smart in 'Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart'.

On March 12, 2003, they were spotted in Sandy, Utah, by someone who had learned of Smart's abduction on *America's Most Wanted*. Police were initially cautious, as they'd received dozens of false leads, but officers still drove to the scene. **

Authorities pulled Smart to the side and spoke privately with her. She then confirmed she was Elizabeth Smart. "It was one of the happiest days," Smart recently told PEOPLE. "I knew that my family was the reason I wanted to survive."

"It was the kind of reunion you would expect," said Rick Dinse, the Salt Lake City police chief, at a press conference. "It was emotional, exciting and thrilling for everybody. Her parents were in tears. I saw her in tears."

In the documentary, Smart says she "felt a lot of shame and embarrassment" over what happened, even though she knew deep down it wasn't her fault.

Smart's brutal treatment left emotional scars. "I felt like it would be better to be dead than to continue living being a rape victim, being a rape survivor. I felt in that moment if there had been an easy way out, I probably would have taken it," she said in a 2017 conversation with fellow survivor Daisy Coleman.

With time, support, and healing, Smart's outlook slowly began to shift. "I began to realize I'm stronger than I thought I was," she says in *Kidnapped*. "I've developed a better relationship with myself. My inner voice has changed from, 'You should've done this,' or, 'You could've done that,' to, 'You'll make it through this. You can finish this. You're strong. Keep going. You can survive anything that comes your way.'"

Where is Elizabeth Smart now?

Elizabeth Smart smiles with her husband, Matthew Gilmour, and their kids in June 2025 in Scotland.

Elizabeth Smart/ Instagram

In 2012, Smart married Scotland native Matthew Gilmour, whom she met in Paris on a Mormon mission trip. The two eventually settled in Park City, Utah, where they're raising their three kids: Chloé, James, and Olivia.

Smart went on to narrate and produce the 2017 Lifetime film *I Am Elizabeth Smart*. She's also written two books, *My Story* (2013)* *and *When There's Hope *(2018).

She also started the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which aims to "drive social change in the fight against sexual violence." She also launched the Smart Defense program, designed to help women and girls build confidence and self-protection skills. She previously told Gayle King the idea for the program came after she was touched inappropriately on a flight in 2019.

Elizabeth Smart and Craig Robinson on 'The Masked Dancer'. Michael Becker/ FOX

In 2021, Smart surprised a lot of people by appearing on *The Masked Dancer*. She was revealed as Ms. Moth in the third episode.

Smart spoke with * *after her elimination, admitting she agreed to do the show in honor of her grandmother, who died around the same time the producers reached out and asked her to join the cast.

"Sitting at her funeral, I just remember sitting there thinking about her life, and she did a lot of really serious things, but she also had a lot of fun," Smart explained. "And just thinking about my life, I feel like I've lived a pretty serious life. … I just thought, you know what, why not? Life is already hard enough."

She added, "I think it's also good to have fun. And I think it's also good to do something outside of your comfort zone, or at least it is for me. So, I guess for me more than anyone else, I just wanted to do something fun. It's okay to have fun."

Where can I watch Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart?

*Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart* is now streaming on Netflix.

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