Where Is Elizabeth Smart Now, 23 Years After Her Abduction? Inside Her Life Today as a Mom and Advocate By Stephanie Kaloi and Christopher Rudolph

Elizabeth Smart made national news when Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee kidnapped her in June 2002.

During the nine-month-long ordeal, the then-14-year-old was subjected to daily rapes and endured physical abuse and starvation. She was reunited with her family in March 2003, after she was found by authorities while walking the streets of Utah.

“After I was rescued, I was very embarrassed by what had happened to me,” Smart told PEOPLE in January 2026, while discussing the new Netflix documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart. “Even though my head totally knew it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t make my heart feel the same way.”

Since her rescue, though, Smart has built a legacy for herself as a survivor and advocate for others. She is also a married mother of three children. Still, the horror she went through is never far from her mind, even many years later.

“I have great days. I have not good days. I’ve got three kids that I love and drive me crazy,” she told PEOPLE in June 2024 with a laugh. “No, they’re the best part of life.”

Smart also considers the day of her rescue, March 12, a “happy day.” She added, “March 12th is to me a reminder that miracles happen and that there are many good things to be grateful for. And it’s a bright moment in the dull month of March.”

Here’s a look at Elizabeth Smart’s life over two decades since her kidnapping.

Who is Elizabeth Smart?

In June 2002, 14-year-old Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City by Mitchell and Barzee. Her sister, Mary Katherine, was the only witness to her abduction. The case drew national attention.

Following her return home, Smart became involved in activism, advocating for the AMBER Alert System and supporting recovery programs.

Smart founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation in 2011. The organization works toward an end to sexual assault and victimization. Her kidnapping has inspired several made-for-TV movies, and she published her memoir in 2013.

When was Elizabeth Smart kidnapped?

Smart was kidnapped on June 5, 2002, from her home in Utah, though Mitchell and Barzee eventually took her to California. She later told ABC News that the night of her kidnapping was bizarre.

“It couldn’t actually be real,” she explained.

Smart added that Mitchell said he would kill her family if she attempted to escape.

Smart’s captors subjected her to rape daily, something that drove her to the point of contemplating suicide. In an 2017 interview with fellow survivor Daisy Coleman, she explained, “For me, because I grew up in a very conservative Christian neighborhood, the first time I was raped I remember feeling devastated.”

“I felt like it would be better to be dead than to continue living being a rape victim, being a rape survivor,” she added. “I felt in that moment if there had been an easy way out, I probably would have taken it.”

She was eventually found only miles from her home in Sandy, Utah, on March 12, 2003.

How was Elizabeth Smart found?

Smart was eventually found only miles from her home in Sandy, Utah, on March 12, 2003.

Authorities were notified about her whereabouts when a couple saw Mitchell walking down the street in Sandy with two women.

Though Smart was forced to wear a veil over her face, the pedestrians recognized Mitchell from a composite sketch shared on America’s Most Wanted.

“We think we found a homeless girl that might be Elizabeth,” Smart’s father Ed recalled the police telling him in his 2003 book.

He wrote, “She looked like a homeless girl … I wasn’t certain at first that it was her. I went over and put my arms around her and just started bawling. I held her back, looked her in the eyes, and said, ‘Is it really you, Elizabeth?’ “

Where is Elizabeth Smart now?

After she returned home, Smart started high school the next fall and later graduated from Brigham Young University.

Smart is now a married mom of three. She and her husband, Matthew Gilmour, first met in Paris, where she was reportedly a missionary for the Church of Latter-Day Saints in 2009. Gilmour later said that as a native of Scotland, he didn’t know who Smart was when they met.

He told PEOPLE in 2012, “The thing that attracted me the most to her — at the beginning and now — is how confident she is, especially considering everything she has been through.” Gilmour proposed in 2012.

The couple moved to Park City, Utah, after their wedding and have since welcomed three children: daughters Chloe and Olivia, and son James.

“My children have brought so much happiness and joy. To me, they’re the very definition of love,” she told PEOPLE shortly after welcoming her son.

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After her kidnapping, Smart produced the Lifetime movie I Am Elizabeth Smart about the ordeal. She has also published a second book, Where There’s Hope, about what happened to her.

Smart has also remained vocal about the punishment for her captors. While Mitchell is currently serving a life sentence in prison, a judge ruled in 2018 that Barzee could be released from prison.

“To my knowledge she has neither complied with medication or treatment and as someone who has experienced first hand just how depraved she truly is, I believe her to be a threat and a danger not just to myself but to the community, any vulnerable person,” Smart said of the ruling at the time.

In May 2025, Barzee was arrested for visiting two Salt Lake City parks in the month of April. One week after the arrest, Smart broke her silence on Instagram, saying in a video, “Wanda Barzee was recently arrested for entering a public park in Salt Lake City, a place where she’s legally barred from going because she’s a registered sex offender. Her justification was that she was commanded by the Lord, which unfortunately, is very familiar to me and is probably the most concerning thing, because that’s how they justified kidnapping me.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.