Elizabeth Smart

I get the opportunity to do some amazing things with my job. I've been through the temple (before it was dedicated) with Elder Ballard, I've flown on an F-16 refueling mission, I've interviewed Marie Osmond, Quentin L. Cook, and countless other amazing people. But earlier this week, I got the chance to something that for me at least overshadows those previous experiences.

Rewind to June 5, 2002.

I was in California, on vacation with my family. I remember watching the news in Los Angeles, and the anchors talking about a kidnapping in Salt Lake City. Although I was interested, I didn't pay much attention at the time, because I assumed she would be found by the time my family returned to Utah in a few days. Nope. When we got back to Utah, Elizabeth Smart was all over the news, and I was captivated by the story.

If you lived in Utah at the time, you know what I'm talking about. Her "missing" posters were everywhere: on car windows, on billboards throughout the state, and featured in countless storefront displays. To me, as a 13-year-old, it seemed as if the state was coming together to help find Elizabeth. Call it childlike optimism, but I was sure she was still alive. How could she not be found with everybody searching for her?

During the first few months she was gone, I felt so connected to the story. She's LDS like I am, we were in the same grade, and we come from similar backgrounds. In my mind, I realized that it could have just as easily have been me that was kidnapped. I religiously watched the news each night, to get the latest details, and my journal entries from that summer contain the latest details in the investigation, and my reaction to what was going on.

But as the case stretched on into the fall, I remember seeing her story slowly fading from the front page of the newspaper and lead story of the newscasts. For me, as was the same for many people, life kept going. I was a busy 9th grader, who had a very demanding social life (insert eye roll). Even though I never thought Elizabeth was dead, finding her was not on my priority list, or even on my radar. I thought that if searchers had failed, then she probably wasn't ever going to come home. I moved on.

Then, after school on March 12, 2003, Brittany Herdman, Jessie George and I were getting off the school bus. I remember Brittany's sister Kelsey running out of their house, and she told us that Elizabeth had been found. We practically mowed her over to get to the TV. For the rest of the night, I was glued to the news (Channel 2 for anybody who cares). I couldn't believe that after 9 months, she really was back with her family.

In the nearly 8 years since her return, I've vigorously followed the trials of her "alleged" (yes this is my personal blog so I can say "alleged" with tongue-in-cheek quotation marks) kidnappers.

Okay, that brings me back to the point of this post. On Wednesday, I got the opportunity to hear Elizabeth testify against Brian David Mitchell. I had read the transcripts of the first two days of her testimony, and from those, I knew some of the horrific details about what happened to her during those 9 months. When the chance presented itself for me to go to court, I wasn't sure if I wanted to. Yes, I had been following her story since day one, but could I really handle going, hearing her testify?

When I walked into the courthouse, I was surrounded by reporters I'd grown up reading and watching. Though I haven't felt like a little kid playing pretend when I'm at work for a few years now, being in the media room during the trial did make me feel a little bit like an imposter. Those reporters had actually covered her story, whereas I had just followed it from my living room. That was an odd moment.

When Elizabeth took the stand, I wasn't sure what to expect. In the transcripts, the reporter didn't put things like "insert crying" or "pause for crying" so I didn't think she cried on the stand, but I wasn't sure how strong she would actually be. The morning started with prosecutor Felice Viti continuing to question Elizabeth. Though the things he asked her weren't as difficult or graphic as they had been in days one and two of her testimony, she still had to talk about some really rough things.

I listened in amazement as Elizabeth testified. Instead the normal "victim" portrayed on TV crime shows, she showed true strength. You could literally hear conviction and purpose in her voice. At one point the prosector asked Elizabeth what she thought about Brian David Mitchell being a hypocrite. Up to that point, her answers had been mostly "yes" or "no" with brief explanations when necessary. However, to the question about Mitchell's hypocrisy, Elizabeth gave, in my opinion, one of the most compelling speeches I've ever heard.


Viti: During your nine months of observations of the defendant did you have an opinion as to whether he was hypocritical?

Smart: Yes.

Viti: And what was your opinion?

Smart: That he was very hypocritical.

Viti: What do you base that on?

Smart: Well nine months of living with him and seeing him proclaim that he was God’s servant and he had been called to do God’s work and everything that he did to me and to my family is something I know God would never tell someone to do. God would never tell someone to kidnap a young girl from her family’s home in the middle of the night from her bed that she shared with her sister, from her sister’s side and give her no free agency and continue to rape her and sexually abuse her and give her no free agency to choose what she did. I know that God loves each of his children and that we have our free agency and that’s why we are here. It is for us to choose what we do in our lives, and I never had that free agency in those nine months I was with him. I know he was not called of God because God would never do something like that.


In the media room, when she was saying that, you could hear all the reporters struggling to transcribe word for word what she said. After she finished answering, you heard a couple reporters say "whoa." It was just so powerful.

Obviously I have no idea, nor can I even begin to comprehend the hell she went through during her quote "nine months of hell" as she described in in court. At the time she was found, as a 14 year old, I was so quick to say what I would do in her circumstance. I wouldn't have let him take me, I would've tried to run, of course I would testify... etc. How childish I was! Hearing the absolutely despicable story of what happened to her during her captivity, I can't even imagine how she survived physically, but more important mentally.

Another poignant quote during the trial came during day one of her testimony, when she talked about making a conscious decision to survive and make it through. As a 21 year old (and hopefully wiser) person than I was at age 14, I can now see how truly remarkable she is. To be able to summon that kind of strength and fortitude at such a young age is truly nothing short of amazing.

Her willingness to testify with such heartbreakingly candid details in court is also inspiring. From such horrendous circumstances, she's made a complete turnaround. To me, it seems she's made a 180 degree turn from the unspeakable life she was forced to live with Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee to the life she's chose to live now, as an LDS missionary.

Elizabeth's story truly is one of survival. I hate to use the term "hero," but I can't think of any other term adequate to describe how I feel about the example she is to other victims of sexual abuse, and to people in general who hear her story. To be involved with it as a member of the media is perhaps one of the most humbling and awe-inspiring experiences of my career so far.