www.bridgewater.edu Watch as Elizabeth Smart, kidnapping survivor, tells her story at Bridgewater College.
The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart occurred on June 5, 2002, when 14-year-old American girl Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. Smart was found alive nine months later on March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah, about 18 miles from her home, in the company of Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee, who were indicted for her kidnapping, but initially ruled unfit to stand trial. Barzee, in 2009, and Mitchell (then 57), in 2010, were eventually convicted. He was held in the Salt Lake County Jail following his sentencing on May 25, 2011. On August 31, he was transferred to federal prison to begin serving a life sentence for his crimes. The abduction of Elizabeth and her recovery were widely reported and were the subject of a made-for-television movie and a published book.