True Crime
"I wanted to have some ownership over my story," Smart said of Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, arriving on Netflix in January
Elizabeth Smart was 14 years old when kidnappers grabbed her from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 and abused her for nine months — now, at age 38, she’s revisiting that nightmare and the media frenzy around it in a new Netflix documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, due Jan. 21. “I wanted to have some ownership over my story,” she said in a statement. “After I was rescued, when I first got home, I did not want to talk about what happened with anyone.”
Testifying at kidnapper Brian David Mitchell’s trial years later changed her perspective. “I remember …
True Crime
"I wanted to have some ownership over my story," Smart said of Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, arriving on Netflix in January
Elizabeth Smart was 14 years old when kidnappers grabbed her from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 and abused her for nine months — now, at age 38, she’s revisiting that nightmare and the media frenzy around it in a new Netflix documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, due Jan. 21. “I wanted to have some ownership over my story,” she said in a statement. “After I was rescued, when I first got home, I did not want to talk about what happened with anyone.”
Testifying at kidnapper Brian David Mitchell’s trial years later changed her perspective. “I remember sitting up on the stand, giving these answers, and feeling like there was no context around them,” she said. “I remember thinking that if all of this was going to be out there anyway, I wanted it to have some meaning, and for it to serve a purpose.”
Mitchell is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping. His wife, Wanda Barzee, who assisted in the abduction, was sentenced to 15 years and released in 2018. In May, Barzee was arrested after visiting two Salt Lake City parks, a violation of her sex offender status. She told police she was “commanded to by the Lord” — a claim Smart said was “very familiar” and “probably the most concerning thing, because that’s how they justified kidnapping me.”
A trailer for the 91-minute film was released today. The movie pairs Smart’s own account with interviews from family members and investigators, along with archival footage, some previously unseen.
Smart’s case has been the subject of multiple TV projects. A TV movie based on a book by her parents aired on CBS shortly after her rescue in 2003, and in 2017 Lifetime produced I Am Elizabeth Smart, a dramatization starring Alana Boden and Skeet Ulrich, with Smart as executive producer and on-screen narrator. A companion two-part documentary, Elizabeth Smart: Autobiography, aired on A&E the same year.
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Smart, who has spent the years since her rescue as an advocate for survivors of abduction and sexual violence, said she made the new documentary with other victims in mind. “I hope they realize they’re not alone, and that they don’t have to be ashamed of what happened to them,” she said. “And I hope that people who watch this can gain compassion and understanding for other families who are going through this.”
She added: “I also hope it brings comfort that there are happy endings — and that even after terrible things happen, you can still have a wonderful life.”