Elizabeth Smart’s captor was already planning his next crime — abducting her teen cousin and declaring her his new “wife.”
“I remember he said to me, ‘She’s supposed to be the next wife,’” Smart, 38, told Fox News Digital. “He had a whole plan to kidnap seven young girls, and we would all be his wives. I just happened to be the first girl he kidnapped.”
“When he said that, my stomach dropped,” she recalled. “It felt like I had directed him to her. He had a whole plan for how he was going to kidnap her — on July 24, a state holiday in Utah. He thought it would be a great day because everyone would be busy with fireworks and barbecues.”
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“I felt terrible because I didn’t want anyone else to go through what I was going through.”
Smart, one of America’s most recognized child abduction survivors, is now a child safety activist who regularly speaks on behalf of missing and exploited children. The Utah native is featured in the Netflix documentary “Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart,” in which the now-married mother of three tells her story in her own words.
Smart also recently wrote a book, “Detours: Hope & Growth After Life’s Hardest Truths,” in which she explores how trauma can derail a person’s life.
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Smart learned that Brian David Mitchell was stalking her cousin’s home, circling the property. Smart “prayed constantly” for her safety. Mitchell once worked for the Smart family as a handyman and was familiar with the neighborhood.
Throughout the week, Mitchell prepared to abduct Olivia Wright, insisting it was a commandment from God, Smart said. After staking out the property and spotting an opening, he dragged a chair to the back of the house and climbed toward a window. The blinds were drawn. He pressed against them, attempting to force his way inside.
“It was actually my older cousin’s bedroom window that he tried to climb through,” said Smart.
“She had trinkets on the windowsill, and some of them had fallen off. He paused and didn’t hear anything, then pushed further, and more trinkets fell. My uncle woke up, heard the sounds and ran into the room, screaming at my cousin in complete panic and fear. That was enough to foil my captor’s attempt to kidnap her.”
On June 5, 2002, Smart, then 14, was abducted at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home by Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who called himself Immanuel David Isaiah. He dragged her to a remote, dilapidated campsite in the woods, where his wife and accomplice, Wanda Barzee — who went by Hephzibah — was waiting.
Barzee washed Smart’s feet, then tried to remove her pajamas. In the darkness, Mitchell declared, “I hereby seal you to me as my wife before God and His angels as my witnesses.” When Smart screamed, Mitchell threatened to kill her.
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“He told me God commanded them to kidnap seven young girls,” she said in the documentary. “I was the first of the seven. He said my sister would probably end up being one of his wives. Or my cousin Olivia. I was horrified.”
For nine excruciating months, Smart was tied up, raped repeatedly, kept in a dark hole and fed garbage. She was forced to look at pornography, drink alcohol until she vomited, and then made to lie in it.
One day in July, Mitchell rambled about his mother’s house when Smart blurted out that Wright lived in the same neighborhood. Smart described the teen’s yellow house and the swing in her front yard.
Talking about her loved ones brought Smart a sense of relief. Each night, she dreamed of being rescued and returned to her family’s arms. She missed Wright — her best friend — desperately, clinging to the hope that one day she might escape and see her again.
The comfort vanished. Horror followed as she realized the mistake she made.
“I was not allowed to talk about my family,” Smart explained to Fox News Digital. “I was not allowed to talk about my life before my abduction while I was in captivity. My captors were very, very strict about that.
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“They tried to strip me of everything — my name, my identity, my family. I wasn’t even allowed to talk much, because they talked so much. When I mentioned my cousin, [Mitchell] didn’t immediately stop me. It felt like a connection back to my family. It helped me to talk about them.”
“It made me feel that I wasn’t as alone as I usually felt,” Smart said. “So I talked about my cousin Olivia. Then later, he came back and said, ‘I think she’s supposed to be the next wife.’”
Mitchell’s break-in attempt failed, Smart wrote in her book. He returned alone to the campsite, believing he wasn’t ready to receive another virgin bride yet.
“I was alone, scared, and I was being hurt,” said Smart. “And I remember I felt so guilty, not just for directing him to Olivia, but also because there was a small piece of me that wanted him to be successful in kidnapping her. Because then, I wouldn’t be alone. And maybe together, we could escape. But I also felt terrible for feeling that way.”
In her book, Smart wrote that she had been plagued by guilt, convinced Mitchell would find a way to hurt Wright.
“How careless could I possibly be to bring her up in front of a monster like Mitchell?” she wrote. “If anything happened to her, how could I ever forgive myself?”
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Smart said every decision she made was to survive. If she fought back, she knew Mitchell would keep his promise — and kill her.
“My captor controlled me through fear — fear that he’d end my life, or go after my family,” she told Fox News Digital. “He wanted complete power and control over me.”
“I always wanted someone to find me,” she said. “My captors always threatened me. The threat that they would kill me was always a very real threat. The threat that he would go after my family if I disobey? To a 14-year-old child, that seems like a very real threat.
“So not only did I feel like I had to survive, but I also felt the weight of responsibility to protect my family. I just kept telling myself, ‘I have to do what they’re telling me to do, until the perfect opportunity came.’ I didn’t know exactly when that would be, but I just felt someone had to see me, swoop me away.”
“But if I looked like I was going to get away,” Smart said after a pause, “the threat against my life — and my family’s — felt too great a risk to take.”
The author said she continued to struggle with shame.
“He hadn’t even gotten close to Olivia,” she wrote. “She was safe. The weight of my gratitude could have knocked me off my feet.”
“I tried my best to ignore that other feeling, that tiny little thing from before, bubbling up again. I pushed it down and pushed it down, but eventually I had to admit it. Some broken piece of me was disappointed that he hadn’t brought Olivia back with him. That shard had wanted her there with me.”
“America’s Most Wanted” aired an episode about Smart’s abduction, leading to her being recognized by a couple who saw her walking with her captors. She was rescued on March 12, 2003.
Mitchell, now 72, was convicted in 2010 of kidnapping Smart and sentenced to life in prison. Barzee, 80, pleaded guilty to her role in the crimes and was released from prison in 2018.
“You never know how strong you are until you go through something horrific,” Smart reflected. “You can never lose hope. You can never give up on yourself. Even through the worst of our experience, there is still good ahead. And life is still worth living.”
