Why did Elizabeth Smart choose not to tell her parents about the kidnapping, rape and abuse?
Elizabeth Smart made headlines after she was abducted on June 5, 2002. She was kidnapped from her bedroom late one summer night in 2002 and it wasn't nine months after, that she was rescued from her ordeal. The 33-year-old has now, revealed some even more gruesome details about her abduction. She has revealed that during her nine-month captivity where she was tied up and raped daily, saying, "I was embarrassed and ashamed."
In June 2002, Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint at the age of 14 by Brian David Mitchell from her house in the Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah. She was captured by Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee before she was discovered in Sandy, a place 29 km away from her house. It was reported that she was repeatedly raped during the course. Smart was not only kidnapped and raped but she also became a part of a bizarre wedding tradition that was conducted on her by Barzee.
Barzee ordered her to strip before the wedding procession. Remembering the incident during an interview with NBC, Smart recalled, "I was begging and crying and just so scared. I remember thinking, I know what comes after a wedding. And that cannot happen to me. That cannot happen." She described her hardships by adding, "I remember him (Brian David Mitchell) forcing me onto the ground, (and) fighting the whole way. And then 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."
In 2010 Wanda was sentenced to 15 years in prison and in the plea deal was given credit for the seven years she already served. She was released from prison in September 2018 and now lives in the same town as Smart, despite Smart's requests to the parole board not to set her free.
Recalling the event, she has devoted her life to advocacy against child abduction and sexual violence. "The truth is I never sat them all down and had a "tell all" experience with them. Honestly when I got home I didn't want anyone to know what had happened, I was embarrassed and ashamed," she said on opening to up to her parents Ed and Lois Smart in a candid Instagram post. 'I was brought to an advocacy center where I had to disclose much of what happened to two professionals and they in turn relayed much of what happened to my parents. But I don't think my parents ever heard in detail what happened from my own lips until my court appearance almost a decade later,' she added. After returning to her parents Smart barely spoke about the abduction and was focused on getting her life back on track and starting fresh. At the same time, her parents never forced her to talk about it. “When she wants to talk about it, she will,” they said. “It’s not something we pursue.”
While it is hard to forget her ordeal, her family is glad that Smart is now safe and is happily married and has her own family.