What Happened To Kidnapping Survivor Elizabeth Smart?

This article contains references to sexual assault.

On the night of June 5, 2002, Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from the bedroom she shared with her sister, Mary Katherine. Smart later told the Associated Press that she was awoken by a man's voice, but she tried to remain still. "I heard the voice again. 'I have a knife at your neck,'" the man told her. "Don't make a sound. Come with me." Over the next nine months, as the country was gripped by the astonishing story of a girl snatched by an unknown person from her childhood home, Smart endured torment at the hands of her captor.

His name was Brian Mitchell, and his wife Wanda Barzee helped him repeatedly abuse their prisoner. Smart later testified (via NPR) that she'd been raped multiple times a day, and that Mitchell claimed that everything he was doing to her was religiously-motivated. "The Lord wants you to experience this," Mitchell told her. Though she could hear rescuers calling her name near the cabin where she was held hostage, Smart feared what would happen if she answered. "There wasn't a day that went by where he wasn't telling me that he would kill me," she told Nightline.

Thankfully, Mary Katherine had glimpsed the man as he led Smart out of their room, and months after the ordeal, "America's Most Wanted" aired a police sketch taken from her recollections. Days later, Smart was rescued on March 12, 2003, after someone who had seen the show alerted the cops to the suspects. Though Mitchell and Barzee told the police their religion prevented Smart from speaking, police didn't give up. She told Nightline, "He had to ask me a few times before I finally said that, yes, I was Elizabeth Smart."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

While Elizabeth Smart was missing, her parents Ed and Lois Smart were regular fixtures on national television. They endeavored to get the word out as best they could about their kidnapped daughter, going in front of any camera that would have them to beg the country to help bring Elizabeth home. There was even a "Law & Order" episode based on the true story. When she was rescued, Ed and Lois were of course delighted to have their daughter back.

A few months after Elizabeth returned home, Ed went on CNN to speak with Anderson Cooper about his daughter's ordeal. "She is doing miraculously," Ed said. "It just doesn't look like she's been affected by it. And you know, we just feel so thrilled to have her home and to see the usual family dynamics that used to be. It's wonderful." He said Elizabeth was hanging out with friends, helping babysit their youngest child, playing her beloved harp, and already looking toward college at some point in her future.

After Cooper pressed him, Ed admitted that the whole family had sought professional help. After all, they'd gone through something unimaginable, and they'd done it with the entire country watching; that's tough for anyone cope with. "Let me just say that we just want to thank every one for their love and their support and for the incredible help that we received," Ed concluded. "We know that it made all the difference."

While outwardly it may have seemed that Elizabeth Smart was coping wonderfully with what had happened to her, internally, she was struggling. Speaking about the first night she spent under the control of her kidnappers, Smart told NBC News that they performed some kind of marriage ceremony, after which she was raped. "When he was finished, he stood up, and I was left alone, feeling absolutely broken, absolutely shattered," she recalled. "I was broken beyond repair. I was going to be thrown away."

Smart wasn't thrown away; instead, she was rescued, and she had a long journey back to a place of stability. Part of that included embarrassment at what she'd been forced to endure; she later wrote on Instagram that she'd felt shame about having been assaulted. Eventually, though, when Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were put on trial, Smart wanted people to know what they'd done to her. "If someone judged me for what happened, in my mind I came to the conclusion that they did not matter and clearly were not worth my time," she wrote. "Since then I became more and more involved in advocacy and as I went out I realized I was not alone in being a victim of rape and sexual abuse."

Eventually, Smart's mother told her something that she told NBC News helped put her on the path to healing. "He has stolen nine months of your life that you will never get back," Lois said. "But the best punishment you could ever give him is to be happy."

After Elizabeth Smart's rescue, she began playing the harp regularly, an instrument she had studied as a child; after all, her harp featured prominently in one of the best-known photos of a young Smart circulated in the news after her kidnapping. "I felt like I could release emotions through music that maybe I couldn't articulate," she later told Port City Daily.

Smart decided to pursue the harp further; although her father had told CNN that she wanted to go to Juilliard, Smart wound up studying music at Brigham Young University, a school known for its association with Mormonism. Speaking with LDS Living, Smart said that the school fit because her faith guided her recovery. "No matter what happens, we have a Heavenly Father who is always there and will never abandon us," she said. "There is always hope."

While she was still pursuing her degree at Brigham Young, Smart signed on to a correspondent role at ABC News, looking for ways to use her notoriety to support other victims. She also founded The Elizabeth Smart Foundation as a college student, lobbying politicians to fund the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. "The Foundation is really helping to push and support the Internet Task Force as much as possible," Smart told ABC. "It's really something we just can't afford to cut."

In 2009, while she was attending Brigham Young University, Elizabeth Smart decided to answer the call of her faith and go on a Mormon mission to France. She explained her reasoning to LDS Living, telling them that she'd never intended on making such a trip. "When my younger brother got his call, I felt a twinge of jealousy," she said. "Then one day I was sitting in church, and everything was about missionary work. As soon as I started thinking about it, I knew I was supposed to go."

Though Smart didn't go into too much detail about what, exactly, she did in France, she did say that it was all worthwhile. "I loved it. I had some incredible experiences. I made some of my best friends on my mission," she sxaid. "Looking back, it was definitely the best decision I ever made."

It probably helped that Smart was able to get away from the glare of the media spotlight that had followed her ever since she was snatched from her childhood bedroom. "The French did not know who I was, but I was still recognized by American tourists," Smart recalled. She used being recognized as an opportunity to spread the Mormon word, but she was surprised by how many people weren't interested in listening. Smart mused, "It always amazed me that people could turn away so much hope."

In 2012, Elizabeth Smart's father confirmed to CNN that something joyous had happened to his daughter. "Yes, Elizabeth did get married today and we are all thrilled," Ed Smart said. His daughter had married Matthew Gilmour, a Scottish man she met while she was on her mission in France. Chris Thomas, a family spokesperson, said that she wasn't interested in talking about her wedding in Hawaii any further. "Elizabeth's desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends," he said.

That request, however, may be because CNN didn't have the exclusive; People did. Elizabeth appeared on the cover of the magazine in February of that year, showing off her gorgeous wedding dress and Hawaiian-themed bouquet. People was even on site, so they spoke with many members of the wedding party and reported on numerous details of the nuptials, including that Elizabeth told her groom, "Matthew, I love you so much. I couldn't be happier. I am so grateful that everyone is here to be with and support us on this beautiful day. I love you so much."

Kay Gilmour, Elizabeth's new mother-in-law, told People that she very much supported the wedding. "They are clearly besotted with each other," Kay said, "and it's a wonderful thing to see." They'd planned the ceremony in just a few days, so they likely learned plenty of tricks you need to pull off a destination wedding.

In 2019, Elizabeth Smart's father made headlines once more. He publicly came out as gay, announcing that he was divorcing Elizabeth's mother Lois Smart in the process. On "CBS This Morning," Ed Smart said he'd been forced to repress his attraction to men because of his Mormon faith. "I was taught that that was not acceptable, that that was something that, you were a deviant, you were a bad person if you thought those things," he said. "That was what I was brought up to believe."

When Ed spoke to Inside Edition, he revealed that he hadn't spoken to Lois in a year, since he'd confessed to her that he was gay. "Somehow, this person I've loved my whole life thinks I'm a horrible person," he said. "That really tears me."

Thankfully, Elizabeth supported her father on his coming-out journey, despite the pressure from her family and the media frenzy that resulted from his announcement. "Elizabeth said to me, 'Dad whether you're gay or not, I want you in my life,'" Ed revealed. His daughter clear knew what not to say when someone comes out to you.

Now that childhood abduction victim Elizabeth Smart is all grown up, she and husband Matthew Gilmour are the parents of three children of their own. Their oldest daughter is named Chloe, followed by a son named James and another daughter named Olivia. "My children have brought so much happiness and joy," Smart told People. "To me, they're the very definition of love ... I wake up every morning and I feel like a very lucky and blessed woman."

Understandably, Smart's kidnapping means that she tends to be nervous about the safety of her children. "I felt like when they were born, my heart just decided to take up residence in my throat. It probably definitely makes me a little bit more on the paranoid side of things," she said in a different People interview. That paranoia affects how she teaches her kids about the world. "[I] want them to be aware of the world and I want them to be aware of what can happen," she said. "I don't want them to put other people's feelings or emotions over their own safety."

To that end, Smart's children are aware of what their mother went through when she was a child. "They could tell you the overarching story of what happened, but they couldn't tell you details," Smart clarified, revealing that she's offered to tell them more whenever they want. She mused, "I guess I'll just take it day by day as it comes."

Elizabeth Smart isn't only looking out for the safety of her own children; she tries to help teach all kids how to protect themselves. When she was in college at Brigham Young University, Smart told LDS Living that she'd partnered with an organization called RAD Kids, which teaches "Resisting Aggression Defensively." She explained, "As important as education is, as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic are, it's not going to help you if you're dead. I think it's most important that children learn how to survive."

To that end, The Elizabeth Smart Foundation has launched their own self-defense program. "Smart Defense+" teaches basic self-defense tips every woman should know. She told "CBS This Morning" that she was inspired to start the class when she was sexually assaulted on an airplane in the summer of 2019, immediately reminding of her kidnapping. Instead of fighting back, she froze. "I kept saying to myself, 'You're Elizabeth Smart!'" she recalled. "'You should know what to do!'"

In 2024, Smart advocated for Utah colleges to offer her Smart Defense+ program. Speaking to the Utah Legislature's Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee (via Deseret News), Smart explained, "[Smart Defense+ is] about empowering yourself, and understanding you have the right to protect yourself. You have the right to stand your ground. You have the right to feel like you have the ability to take up space and no one else has the right to hurt you."

Ever since she realized that her notoriety could help shine a light on the important issue of child abduction and sexual abuse, Elizabeth Smart has taken many opportunities to keep reminding people of what happened to her. In 2021, that opportunity came through an unusual mechanism. That January, she competed on "The Masked Dancer," a spin-off of the hit FOX series "The Masked Singer," which has its own history of shocking reveals. Smart was unmasked as Ms. Moth, who had danced to songs like Brooks & Dunn's "Boot Scootin' Boogie." 

When she was eliminated, Smart revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she'd decided to do the show because of a recent loss. "My grandma passed away around the same time that they asked me to do this. And 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 realized that her own life had been rather serious, so she decided to let loose on national television.

Of course, Smart also used the opportunity to spread the message that she promotes with her advocacy work. "I've dedicated really a lot of my life to ... trying to help teach people how to respond kindly and compassionately towards the victims," she said, "and trying to prevent rape and sexual violence, and teaching people of the difference between enthusiastic consent and rape, because anything outside of enthusiastic consent is rape."

As part of The Elizabeth Smart Foundation, Elizabeth Smart hosts a podcast called "Smart Talks" (get it?) where she speaks with therapists, survivors, doctors, and more about mental health, sexual assault, stigma, and other topics. "Smart Talks is all about feeling empowered and becoming more educated on sexual violence and how to better support survivors," she said in a press release shared to her foundation's website as the podcast launched its third season. (At press time, there have been four seasons of Smart Talks). "I'm so grateful for the individuals and organizations that come on and talk about what they've experienced and what they're doing to make an impact. It's an honor to be part of these conversations."

Sometimes, "Smart Talks" invites celebrity guests to discuss their own experiences with sexual trauma. In September 2025, for example, they released an episode on YouTube featuring Mary Bonnet née Fitzgerald, star of Netflix's "Selling Sunset." Bonnet revealed that she'd been assaulted when she was younger, and she and Smart bonded over the fact that these kinds of wounds take a very long time to heal. Smart agreed, "You know, this happened to me twenty years ago, or, this happened to me, like, as a child, but like, I just could never get past it."

In 2018, Elizabeth Smart dealt with an uncomfortable situation. Wanda Barzee, the woman who helped David Mitchell kidnap and torture Smart, was released from prison five years early thanks to time served in a federal lockup. Smart held a press conference to denounce the news, telling reporters (via CNN) that she still viewed Barzee as a threat. "She is a woman who had six children and yet could co-conspire to kidnap a 14-year-old girl, and not only sit next to her while [I was] being raped, but encouraged her husband to continue to rape me," Smart said. Her advocacy was unsuccessful, however, and Barzee was indeed released that year.

The kidnapper was arrested again in 2025, after being found to have violated the terms of her release. She's a registered sex offender, but after Barzee visited various parks in Salt Lake City, she was sent back to prison upon telling authorities that God told her to do it ... which was also her defense for aiding in Smart's kidnapping.

When the news broke, Smart shared a video to her Instagram Story (via KSL News Utah), telling her followers that the re-arrest proved she was right and that Barzee had continued to be dangerous. "When authorities take these situations, these violations, seriously," Smart said, "it sends a very powerful message that survivor safety matters."