Netflix’s new documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart revisits one of the most followed and high-profile child abduction cases of our lifetime.
The docuseries, released Wednesday, chronicles the harrowing ordeal Elizabeth Smart endured after she was abducted at only 14 years old from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002.
Brian David Mitchell, a street preacher whom her family had hired for odd jobs at their home, kidnapped Smart and sexually abused her for months while holding her captive in the mountains of Utah. Her younger sister, the only witness to the abduction, immediately alerted their parents, triggering a massive nationwide search.
Smart was rescued nine months later and has since rebuilt her life. She remains close with her family and went on to become an author and an advocate for other survivors who have endured similar ordeals. Smart also built a family of her own. She married Matthew Gilmour, a Scottish native, in Hawaii in 2012. The two met while doing missionary work in France and have three children: Chloé, James and Olivia, CNN reported.
Here’s everything viewers need to know about Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, and how she survived her ordeal and built a great life centered on healing, advocacy and hope.
What happened to Elizabeth Smart?
Smart was a typical 14-year-old girl living in Salt Lake City with her two parents, four brothers and younger sister. She loved simple things like spending time with her family and friends. But on the night of June 5, 2002, her life, and the lives of those she loved, were forever changed.
Mitchell, who went by the name “Immanuel,” kidnapped her at knifepoint inside the bedroom she shared with her younger sister, Mary Katherine, who was 9 at the time. In the documentary and in the book, In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation, Mary Katherine said Mitchell threatened to kill her if she told their parents, per Today.com.
He brought Smart to the mountains where he and his wife, Wanda Barzee, lived at the time. According to the documentary, Mitchell began sexually abusing Smart on that day and every day for the nine months she was missing. Authorities launched a nationwide search for Smart and began interviewing the men closest to her and others the family had contact with. The police eventually ruled everyone out, and it wasn’t until weeks after Smart’s abduction that they were able to identify her captor.
How did investigators identify Mitchell as the suspect?
On the night of her sister’s kidnapping, Mary Katherine said she had remembered Mitchell’s voice but could not identify who he was. When police released a sketch on America’s Most Wanted, a man contacted the brother of Smart’s father, Ed Smart, and confirmed that the man authorities were searching for was his brother-in-law, who was Mitchell, per CNN and Today.com.
Smart described her heartbreaking experience after her kidnapping: “I remember feeling like my doom was approaching,” Smart said in the documentary, per Today.com. “He said, ‘I hereby seal you to me as my wife before God and his angels as my witnesses.'”
She screamed once, and Mitchell threatened to kill her if she screamed again. After that, he raped her and continued to do so each day until she was free. Smart also described feeling worthless after the horrifying things Mitchell had done to her.
“I felt a lot of shame, and I felt like I was filthy. I felt like if my family knew what happened to me, would they still want me back?” she said. “Maybe it would be better if nobody ever found me.”
Smart said there were times when she wanted to escape or cry out for help but that Mitchell was very controlling and loved the power, and she said he would punish her in various ways.
“The thought of crying out did cross my mind, but I was 14, (and) I had been extremely abused for months,” she explained. “When I disobeyed, I was raped. I did have food withheld from me. So when I made my bid for freedom, I wanted it to be a sure thing.”
How was Smart rescued?
Smart had several opportunities to be rescued. When Mitchell and Barzee would often take her with them on excursions into town in Salt Lake City, they would wear long, white robes with a white cloth covering their faces. At one point, the couple and Smart were at a Salt Lake City library looking at maps when a homicide detective approached them about Smart.
When he asked to see her face, Mitchell denied the request, stating that it was against their religion, and the detective walked away, Today.com reported. The trio was also spotted at a nightclub wearing the same ensembles, and a third instance occurred when Smart heard someone calling her name in the woods, and Mitchell threatened to kill her if she responded. After traveling near San Diego, Smart convinced Mitchell to move back to Utah, and they settled in Sandy, Utah. On March 12, 2003, a passerby recognized Mitchell and Barzee’s photo from America’s Most Wanted and contacted authorities.
When police stopped the couple, Smart was reluctant to reveal her identity after months of abuse. However, when she confirmed that she was the girl everyone had been searching for, she was finally free after spending nearly 300 days in captivity.
Mitchell was convicted in 2010 and is serving a life sentence without parole. Meanwhile, Barzee pleaded guilty in 2009 and was released in 2018, having received credit for time served. Barzee was arrested again in 2025 for allegedly violating sex offender registration requirements, Netflix’s Tudum reported.
What is Smart doing now?
Smart said she emphasizes the importance of living in the present and not being reduced to her trauma, noting that motherhood has shaped her approach to safety, communication and advocacy.
Drawing on her own experience, Smart prioritizes open conversations with her children about safety and protecting them as much as possible. She also serves as an advocate for survivors, providing them with resources and a safe space to share their own stories.
“Stories are so powerful. It’s why I agreed to do this [film],” Smart said in an interview with Netflix and Tudum’s Skip Intro podcast. “Documentaries are how we learn, and they hit me in the heart and stay with me so much longer than [statistics] do. I want to give survivors a place to share their stories as a community. We also have our survivor fund to try to help pay for medical costs, first and last month’s rent, airplane tickets, or scholarships. Our fund isn’t huge, but we try and do as much as we can to help survivors fill in the gaps.”
Now 38, Smart hopes to encourage viewers who have endured their own nightmares and who may question whether healing is possible.
“I hope that people who watch this documentary can see that even after terrible things happen, it is still possible to have a wonderful life,” she said.