Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted at knifepoint from her bed in Salt Lake City. Picture / Supplied
Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted at knifepoint from her bed in Salt Lake City. Picture / Supplied
Warning: Distressing Content
A young girl who was abducted from her bed in the dead of the night by a paedophile has detailed how her captor used religion to hide her in plain sight for months.
American Elizabeth Smart, then 14, was kidnapped from her bedroom at knifepoint in Utah’s Salt Lake City, as she slept beside her nine-year-old sister in 2002.
Former street pastor Brian David Mitchell held the young girl for nine months at a camp in the woods with his wife Wanda Barzee, where he repeatedly raped her.
The pair shackled her to a tree for long periods of time, but also took her out into town by hiding her face under a white veil and disguising her in long white robes.
Her haunting abduction made headlines around the world as Elizabeth seemingly vanished into thin air until she was eventually found about 25km from her home.
Police had been tipped off by drivers who had seen her walking down a road with her captor.
Elizabeth, dressed and veiled in white, and walking with her captors, on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. Photo / File
Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 after being convicted of aggravated kidnapping and illegally transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes – while Barzee was released from prison in 2018 after her 15-year sentence for her role in the crime was cut short, NBC News reported.
Now Elizabeth, who has been tirelessly advocating for child safety and abuse victims in the years since her ordeal, has shared new details about how religion helped Mitchell and Barzee deceive officials in order to keep her captive longer.
Recalling one particular incident in a new book, Unexpected: The Backstory of Finding Elizabeth Smart and Growing Up in the Culture of an American Religion, Elizabeth said she believed she could have been rescued earlier if Mitchell hadn’t pulled the wool over a police officer’s eyes.
Police had approached her abductors in the local library and asked why the young girl they had with them was wearing a veil to hide her identity, ABC Newsreports.
Mitchell told the officer he and his wife were “ministers of Christ” and were protecting their daughter for her eventual marriage.
The move successfully hid Mitchell’s sinister crime, with Elizabeth stating he “just wanted to rape little girls”.
“Over the years he had found that the best way to manipulate people was through religion. If someone says, ‘That’s against my faith’ ... you really gonna push them?” she told the publication.
“My captors definitely capitalised on that.”
After her rescue, Elizabeth was unable to talk about what happened to her, only talking about the details of the horrific abuse in court.
Former pastor Brian David Mitchell is currently serving a life sentence for aggravated kidnapping and illegally transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes. Photo / Getty
But in 2013 she broke her silence in her memoir “My Story”, recalling a bizarre wedding ritual Mitchell forced on her the night of the abduction.
“I remember him forcing me onto the ground, fighting the whole way, and he raped me right there on the floor of the tent,” she told Meredith Viera in an exclusive interview at the time.
“When he was finished he stood up, and I was left alone feeling absolutely broken, absolutely shattered. I was broken beyond repair.
“I was going to be thrown away. I remember lying there and just thinking of the children whom I’d seen on the news who only their bodies had been found.
“I remember thinking ‘Wow’, they are the lucky ones, they will never have to feel this pain ever again.”
Elizabeth Smart's parents Lois and Ed Smart acknowledge the crowd during a celebration at Liberty Park March 14, 2003 in Salt Lake City, Utah after their daughter was found alive on March 12, nine months after being abducted by Brian David Mitchell. Photo / Getty
Despite Elizabeth’s family’s frantic efforts to find her, there were frustratingly no leads.
However, Mitchell began to let his guard down and Elizabeth earned her captors’ trust.
Mitchell and Barzee would take Elizabeth out in her disguise. In one brazen incident Mitchell even took her to a rave, where her odd appearance drew attention, but not enough of a stir to alert police.
The stolen child was eventually recognised after a sketch of her abductor was shared on “America’s Most Wanted” thanks to Elizabeth’s sister, Mary Katherine, who’d seen Mitchell on the night of the kidnapping.
Elizabeth Smart pictured in 2011 outside of federal court after the sentencing of her kidnapper Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell was sentenced to life. Photo / Getty Images
Elizabeth, who is now 35, is a married mother of three and the co-founder of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which advocates for sexual assault victims.
After her initial rescue, Elizabeth said that all she wanted to do was “run away” from the experience, but over the years she realised her trauma could be used to make a difference.
As well as releasing several books in the two decades since her abduction, she was also the executive producer and narrator on a Lifetime movie called I Am Elizabeth Smart.
“I will say that it’s the best and worst movie I’ve ever seen,” Elizabeth said on a panel for A+E Networks at the Television Critics Association press tour in 2017.
“It was so well done. It was accurate, but at the same time, part of me will be happy if I never have to see it again. I’m very proud of it, but I hate it at the same time.”
