At a Glance
- Elizabeth Smart was abducted at 14 and raped up to four times a day for nine months
- New Netflix documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart streams January 21
- Smart, her family, and investigators recount the 2002 Salt Lake City kidnapping
- Why it matters: Survivor hopes raw testimony helps others feel less alone
Elizabeth Smart revisits the brutal nine months she spent in captivity in a new Netflix documentary, detailing daily rapes, being tethered to a tree, and the shame she carried after her 2002 abduction.
The Kidnapping
On June 5, 2002, shortly after 1 a.m., a 14-year-old Smart awoke to Brian David Mitchell, 48, looming over her bed with a knife. Mitchell, calling himself Immanuel, forced her from her Salt Lake City home and marched her into the foothills where his wife, Wanda Barzee, 56, waited in a tent.
Barzee ordered Smart to strip and change into a robe, warning that Mitchell would “rip the clothes off of you” if she refused.
First Assault
Mitchell entered the tent and declared he would make Smart his wife. When she screamed “No!” he threatened to kill her, then raped her.
> “I was sobbing. I begged him to stop. I remember it just being so painful,” Smart says. Blood ran down her thighs before she passed out.
Smart, raised in a conservative faith, had only recently learned what sex was. Church teachings equated premarital sex with becoming a “chewed-up piece of gum,” intensifying her trauma.
> “Being that chewed-up piece of gum, being ruined beyond repair, feeling like I’d lost all my worth,” she recalls thinking.
Daily Horrors
For nine months, Smart says Mitchell raped her up to four times daily. Additional abuses included:
- Being walked like a dog with a cable around her neck
- Tethered to a tree for long stretches
- Kept in a dark hole and chained for hours
Despite wearing a veil in public, witnesses failed to recognize her as the missing teen on nationwide posters.
Path to Rescue
Smart was recovered in March 2003. Mitchell was convicted of kidnapping in 2010 and sentenced to life. Barzee was released in 2018 and rearrested in May 2025 for allegedly violating sex-offender restrictions by visiting Utah parks.
Documentary Goals
Now 38, Smart has written bestsellers, founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, and become a prominent advocate. The documentary features:
- Her father, Ed Smart, 70
- Sister Mary Katherine Smart, 33
- Investigators and witnesses
> “I want other survivors to know they’re not alone, that actually there’s so many of us,” Smart tells News Of Los Angeles.
She hopes the multi-perspective account helps viewers grasp the lasting impact of sexual violence and counters stigma survivors face.
Key Takeaways
- Smart’s raw testimony details repeated rapes and psychological torture
- Documentary underscores how shame compounds trauma
- Survivor-turned-advocate uses platform to support others
