I Am Elizabeth Smart: When did Elizabeth Smart go missing? Everything to know

I Am Elizabeth Smart is a Lifetime original television movie. It has been adapted from a real life story: Elizabeth Smart's 9-month abduction in 2002. The movie has been told from her perspective and narrated by Smart herself. The TV film premiered on Lifetime in 2017, exactly 15 years after she was kidnapped and kept in a hilly encampment. Smart had to suffer different kinds of abuse and was forced to perform religious rituals by her captors.

The official logline of I Am Elizabeth Smart, gives a glimpse into Smart's story:

"In June 2002, Elizabeth Ann Smart was a 14-year-old girl when she was abducted from her Salt Lake City home by religious fanatic Brian David Mitchell. He brought her to a hilly encampment where, with his twisted accomplice Wanda Barzee, he held Elizabeth captive."

Directed by Sarah Walker, the film's teleplay is by Tory Walker. The Critics Choice-nominated I Am Elizabeth Smart casts Geek Girl actress Alana Boden in the titular role and Law & Order star Skeet Ulrich as her captor, Brian Mitchell. Elizabeth Smart serves as the on-screen narrator and off-screen producer of the film.

---

When did Elizabeth Smart go missing in I Am Elizabeth Smart?

I Am Elizabeth Smart dramatizes the 2002 abduction, which became a hot topic and attracted national attention. Elizabeth was only a 14-year-old teenager living in Salt Lake City, Utah, when on the night of June 5, 2002, a guy entered her bedroom, unnoticed, and dragged her out of bed while keeping her at knifepoint.

The man, later identified as Brian David Mitchell, dragged her into the woods and took her to a hilly encampment several miles from Salt Lake City, where she was chained to a tree, only to be found several months later.

There, Elizabeth suffered immense physical and sexual abuse from the captor, who was a self-declared prophet and had told Elizabeth that he was about to take her as his wife. He then forced her to get ready for their supposed "marriage ceremony."

I Am Elizabeth Smart portrays what the teenager had endured at the hands of her abductor and his accomplice, Mitchell's first wife, Wanda Barzee. In one of the scenes, Boden's Elizabeth is seen shrieking and pleading as Mitchell r**es her, before the camera pans away and cuts to the real-life Elizabeth Smart. She looks at the camera and asks, "Did you want it to stop? So did I."

However, her abuse would continue for nine more months.

---

How did Elizabeth Smart escape?

As shown in the movie, often during her captivity, Elizabeth, would disguise herself in a wig, scarf, and glasses, to go into town with Mitchell and Barzee to buy essentials. She had tried to escape many times, but when people would see her with Mitchell, they would assume that she is either his daughter or his wife, and so, she was never rescued.

The trio, at one point, were spotted by a retired police officer who thought that there was something off about them. When the matter was reported to the police, the scared Elizabeth had initially denied her real identity, telling the police that her name was Augustine, the one that Mitchell had given her.

However, she later took off her disguise and revealed her real identity to the police, which led to her rescue on March 12, 2003.

---

Were Elizabeth Smart's kidnappers punished?

It was several years before Elizabeth Smart's captors were punished for their crimes. In 2010, Barzee received a 15-year sentence, and finally in 2011, Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison.

However, Barzee was granted freedom early and was released from prison in 2018 under the conditions that she goes to a mental health treatment program and does not try to contact the Smart family.

---

Watch the true story of Elizabeth Smart's abduction in I Am Elizabeth Smart, now streaming on Lifetime Movie Club via Apple TV or Prime Video.