Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart has marked the 20th anniversary of her rescue from abusive abductors who held her captive for nine months, marking the milestone moment in an emotional Instagram post.
The now 35-year-old child safety advocate was taken at knifepoint at the age of 14 from her bedroom she shared with her sister in Salt Lake City in June 2002.
The search for the teen captured the nation’s interest and she was eventually found nine months later in March 2003.
In a heart-rending social media post, Elizabeth marked the anniversary of her rescue, saying: ’20 years ago when I was kidnapped I didn’t know if I would survive, each day was a question right up until I was rescued.’
Elizabeth Smith with her mother, Lois (second right), at the Salt Lake City Police Department after she was found alive in 2003
Elizabeth, now 35, is a mother of three. She’s pictured with her children and husband Matthew Gilmour who she married in 2012
The mother-of-three, who married husband Matthew Gilmour in 2012, also revealed how she spent the day.
‘Yesterday was my 20 year rescue anniversary. I was able to celebrate by relaxing at home and spending time with my little family,’ she wrote on Monday.
‘Thank you so much for all the kind messages I received, the many prayers I’ve been the recipient of over the years, and all the love I’ve been shown. I’ll never be able to express my full gratitude enough.
‘It is fair to say I could have never imagined my life turning out the way it has.’
Elizabeth continued: ‘Once I was rescued it was a rollercoaster of emotion and honestly felt like we were all stepping into the unknown.
‘And now 20 years later looking back although it was difficult and often overwhelming I’m so grateful for my experiences and the path it has lead me down, meeting my husband, having children, learning a whole new level of empathy and compassion, meeting the most amazing and dedicated individuals, and being able to devote my life to a cause that I feel so passionate about and feeling like I’m contributing to the betterment of humanity is more than I could ask for.’
The 35-year-old has spent more than a decade being a powerful advocate for survivors of sexual assault after founding the Elizabeth Smart Foundation in 2011.
Previously Elizabeth opened up about the agonizing moment she was almost rescued from her abusive captors during a run-in with police – months before she was eventually freed – before the near-rescue was ripped from under her when her captors managed to fool cops by masquerading as ‘ministers of Christ’.
She recalled how a police officer had come up to her kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, at a library just a few months after her abduction – and questioned them about the teen, who was wearing a veil to mask her identity.
The mother-of-three also revealed how she spent the day: ‘I was able to celebrate by relaxing at home and spending time with my little family’
The teen is pictured with her parents at the White House in April 2003
Elizabeth pictured her family in 2004 at their Salt Lake City home after she was rescued
Mitchell told the officer he and his wife were ‘ministers of Christ,’ and the veil was used to shield their daughter for her future marriage.
During the exchange, Barzee grabbed onto Elizabeth’s leg in a warning to keep quiet.
This was the moment that Elizabeth figured out how the couple was using religion to hide their horrific actions from the public while Mitchell ‘just wanted to rape little girls,’ she said.
The missing persons poster when she was abducted in 2002
‘Over the years he had found that the best way to manipulate people was through religion,’ the sexual assault victims advocate told ABC News.
‘If someone says, “That’s against my faith”… [are] you really gonna push them?
‘My captors definitely capitalized on that.’
Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, but Barzee was given just 15 years.
In a new book, her ‘big brother’ and former family spokesperson, Chris Thomas, described seeing Elizabeth for the first time after she was rescued.
‘She has puffy, sunburned cheeks, tightly braided blonde pigtails, and is wearing a gray blouse that looks like it was sewn from bedsheets,’ he wrote in Unexpected: The Backstory Of Finding Elizabeth Smart And Growing Up In The Culture Of An American Religion.
‘A frayed rope serves as a belt, holding up her dirty, heavily worn, oversized jeans.’
In a candid 2021 interview on Red Table Talk, Elizabeth shared harrowing details of her experience with host Jada Pinkett Smith and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
She spent nine months, from June 2002 to March 2003, in captivity, with her kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, raping her repeatedly
One of the photos Elizabeth shared in her anniversary post. She’s pictured with her parents, Lois and Ed
Mitchell (left) was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, but Wanda Barzee (right) was given just 15 years
‘My parents always said the worst part of having me gone was not knowing if I was alive and out there or if I was dead,’ Elizabeth said.
‘And actually, when I was being taken up into the mountains, that first night that I was kidnapped, I asked him if he was gonna rape and kill me, and if he was gonna do that, could he please do it fairly close to my house, because it was important to me that my parents find my body and know that I hadn’t run away.’
Mitchell didn’t kill her, but he and his wife did take her away from home, chaining her down in a makeshift campsite nearby before moving her to Lakeside, California.
She spent nine months, from June 2002 to March 2003, in captivity, with Mitchell performing a ‘marriage’ ceremony with her and raped her repeatedly.
Elizabeth said on Red Table Talk that while she spent those nine months wishing someone would find her, there were times she lost hope she’d ever make it home.
‘I always wanted to be rescued. I don’t know that I always had hope. There were some pretty dark times for sure,’ she said.
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