Elizabeth Smart called her sister Mary Katherine her hero as she recounts her horrifying abduction in the new Netflix documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart.
Smart was only 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in the US state of Utah. After more than two decades, she recounted the disturbing details of her kidnapping in a new Netflix documentary, reported The Washington Times.
The documentary, which was directed by Benedict Sanderson, was released on Wednesday, January 21.
Recalling her abduction by Benedict Sanderson on the night of June 5, 2002, Smart said that Mitchell warned her, “I have a knife at your neck. Don’t make a sound. Get up and come with me.”
The 14-year-old Smart remained captive for nine months by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, in a tent in the Utah mountains, where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and tortured.
The 38-year-old recalled, “I remember feeling like my doom was approaching. I was crying. I was scared. These are his exact words, he said, 'I hereby seal you to me as my wife before God and his angels as my witnesses.'"
When she screamed “no”, he warned her if she yelled again, he would kill her and “duct tape your mouth shut.” He then rapped her and claimed that God has commanded him to kidnap seven young girl his next targets are her sister and cousin.
After Smart’s abduction, her sister Mary Katherine overcame her shock and informed her parents.
Katherine was the one who identified Mitchell, as she remembered the voice of a man who broke into their house and kidnapped her sister.
Praising Katherine, who was also interviewed in the Netflix documentary, Smart told Today, “She’s my hero. She saved me. Had she not remembered who had kidnapped me, who’s to say that I would be here today? The police all had their suspects, and my captor I don’t even think was on their radar at all. So, she is my hero.”
Smart was rescued on March 12, 2003, after a couple of bystanders recognised Mitchell and Barzee from an episode of America’s Most Wanted.
Mitchell is serving a life sentence after being convicted of raping and kidnapping 14-year-old Smart.
His wife, Barzee, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and was released in 2018. However, she was arrested again last year after she violated her sex offender status and visited two Salt Lake City parks.
