Elizabeth Smart on 20 years since kidnapping: "I felt destroyed" — Transcript

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1. 0:00sunday is going to mark 20 years since
2. 0:02elizabeth smart was kidnapped from her
3. 0:03bedroom at knifepoint in salt lake city
4. 0:06she was 14 at the time and survived nine
5. 0:08months in captivity
6. 0:10since then she has worked to help other
7. 0:12survivors of abuse she started the
8. 0:14elizabeth smart foundation which joined
9. 0:16forces with the malou foundation earlier
10. 0:18this year in april they hosted a summit
11. 0:21in salt lake city to fight child
12. 0:22exploitation and sex trafficking we
13. 0:25spoke with smart there in an exclusive
14. 0:27interview and she reflected on her
15. 0:29experience 20 years ago we have to warn
16. 0:32you here that some of the details are
17. 0:34disturbing
18. 0:36it was the beginning of the worst nine
19. 0:38months of my life
20. 0:40this morning a desperate search for a
21. 0:42kidnapped 14 year old utah girl in june
22. 0:46of 2002 the lives of elizabeth smart and
23. 0:49her family were changed forever
24. 0:52elizabeth one of six children was
25. 0:54sleeping in the same room as her
26. 0:55nine-year-old sister when a man broke
27. 0:58into the house and took her away here
28. 0:59you are 14 years old
29. 1:02supposedly in the safest place on earth
30. 1:04in your home in your bed
31. 1:06and you wake up and there's a man there
32. 1:08with a knife to your throat
33. 1:09and he takes you out of the home what
34. 1:11did you think was going to happen what
35. 1:13did you think this was
36. 1:15at first i don't even remember having
37. 1:19like thoughts of what it was in my mind
38. 1:21i mean i
39. 1:22like it was just complete shock
40. 1:25smart describes the horrific nine-month
41. 1:27ordeal that would follow
42. 1:29it took a terrible turn for you that
43. 1:32very first night yes well and i mean
44. 1:35after that my thoughts did go to he's
45. 1:37going to rape and kill me
46. 1:38and i even asked him that you asked him
47. 1:41i asked him um because as we got farther
48. 1:43up into the mountains i mean he took me
49. 1:45off any trail that we had been on
50. 1:47and um
51. 1:49i
52. 1:49i turned to him and i was like if you
53. 1:51are going to rape and kill me could you
54. 1:52do do it here because it was important
55. 1:54to me that my parents know what had
56. 1:56happened to me that they know that i
57. 1:59this wasn't my choice that they know
58. 2:00that i didn't run away and i wanted them
59. 2:02to find my body
60. 2:04and um so when i said that i mean i
61. 2:07remember him looking at me and smiling
62. 2:08and saying no i'm not going to do that
63. 2:10to you yet
64. 2:11yet yeah said that yeah
65. 2:13and that very very first night that's
66. 2:15exactly what i mean within the first
67. 2:17hour of being kidnapped and you said it
68. 2:19didn't stop with that one night no i
69. 2:22mean i was raped every day it got to the
70. 2:24point where i stopped thinking that i
71. 2:27had hit rock bottom because every time i
72. 2:30thought that he would come up with
73. 2:32something new
74. 2:34to make the situation situation worse i
75. 2:36mean for example the first day um he got
76. 2:39me up into this hidden camp um you know
77. 2:41he raped me
78. 2:43he chained me up
79. 2:45um i thought this is the worst nothing
80. 2:48could be worse than this
81. 2:50well the next day came
82. 2:52and he started laughing at me and then
83. 2:54he forced me to go naked all day while i
84. 2:57was still
85. 2:58chained up and
86. 3:00he
87. 3:01then thought it was even funnier to make
88. 3:03me watch him
89. 3:05have sex with his wife and be like this
90. 3:07is what you need to do you need to know
91. 3:09how a man and a woman how a married
92. 3:11couple have sex so you can do this to me
93. 3:14and if you don't you know you have to
94. 3:15stay naked
95. 3:17and you won't get anything to eat and
96. 3:19you won't get anything to drink and you
97. 3:21won't be able to sleep until you watch
98. 3:22this and until you fulfill me afterwards
99. 3:25so once he finished having sex with her
100. 3:27in front of me then he expected me to
101. 3:29perform in the same way
102. 3:31smart who was raised in a conservative
103. 3:33christian community says the trauma
104. 3:35didn't only affect her physically but
105. 3:38emotionally and spiritually too
106. 3:40i felt destroyed
107. 3:42what was your method on how you were
108. 3:44going to survive what did you do to
109. 3:46survive
110. 3:47i i mean the most important decision i
111. 3:49made
112. 3:50happened that first day that i was
113. 3:52kidnapped
114. 3:53i decided i was going to do
115. 3:55whatever it took it didn't matter what
116. 3:57it was i'd do whatever it took to
117. 3:59survive and in that thought process that
118. 4:02was followed up by if i don't want them
119. 4:04to kill me then
120. 4:06i should probably be as nice as i can
121. 4:10i should probably do everything that
122. 4:12they tell me because maybe if they do
123. 4:14that they'll like me and if they like me
124. 4:17surely it'll be harder to kill me you
125. 4:19know the phrase it's always used is
126. 4:21sometimes trauma survivors have
127. 4:23stockholm syndrome they've either
128. 4:27go along with their captors they're in
129. 4:29love with their captors
130. 4:31they they're brainwashed what do you say
131. 4:33to that i think that's a huge
132. 4:35misunderstanding i mean
133. 4:38how does a person if you really think
134. 4:41about it fall in love
135. 4:43with someone who is
136. 4:46mean with someone who is cruel you don't
137. 4:50most people have heard of fight or
138. 4:51flight
139. 4:52freeze is becoming more accepted but
140. 4:54many people have not heard of appease
141. 4:57yet and appease is it's not something
142. 5:00you maybe necessarily consciously think
143. 5:02about it's something that
144. 5:04you just automatically do and it's doing
145. 5:08what you have to do to survive
146. 5:11a startling end to the case of a utah
147. 5:13girl snatched from her home we're here
148. 5:15to announce officially that we have
149. 5:18found elizabeth smart it was such a
150. 5:20glorious day elizabeth when the news
151. 5:22broke that you were found and you were
152. 5:24found alive the prayers of the world
153. 5:27have brought elizabeth home
154. 5:29police were tipped off by eyewitnesses
155. 5:32who spotted smart and her captors near a
156. 5:34walmart in utah's salt lake valley a
157. 5:36police car pulled up and initially i
158. 5:38just thought it was like stopping a car
159. 5:40or doing something else
160. 5:42but then another one pulled up and
161. 5:44another one pulled up 48 hours
162. 5:46interviewed the police officers who
163. 5:48approached her she says
164. 5:50i think i know who you think i am but
165. 5:53i'm not that person
166. 5:55and we asked well who do you think we
167. 5:57think you are
168. 5:58and she says
169. 5:59that elizabeth's smart girl
170. 6:01and i'm not her he says one last time
171. 6:03let's let's put this to rest let's for a
172. 6:06peace of mind for yourself and your
173. 6:08family
174. 6:09tell me you're elizabeth smart she
175. 6:11stated
176. 6:14thou if thou sayest thou say it i
177. 6:17initially responded with thou sayest
178. 6:20because my captors thou sayest thou
179. 6:22sayest
180. 6:23um they were
181. 6:26still within earshot thou says means if
182. 6:29you say so you say so you're still
183. 6:31following what they told you so
184. 6:34in my mind it was admitting who i was
185. 6:37and even confirming it was scary i mean
186. 6:38i lived in a state of fear and terror
187. 6:40for nine months i was scared doing
188. 6:42anything and you said i i admitted i was
189. 6:45elizabeth smart and i actually remember
190. 6:50thinking that i made a mistake i mean
191. 6:52they put my hands behind my back and
192. 6:54handcuffed me
193. 6:55and put me in the back of the car
194. 6:58you were here i didn't know that yeah i
195. 6:59was handcuffed and i thought why did i
196. 7:01say that i guess i said the wrong thing
197. 7:03why would they handcuff me they must
198. 7:05think i'm lying or i've done something
199. 7:08wrong and
200. 7:09i mean
201. 7:10in their defense
202. 7:12i
203. 7:12i honestly don't think
204. 7:15that anyone had ever been in that
205. 7:17situation before
206. 7:19i don't think there was a best practices
207. 7:22back then i don't think anyone thought i
208. 7:24was going to come back alive
209. 7:26and smart says to this day her parents
210. 7:29have not asked her details about her
211. 7:31time in captivity
212. 7:33never
213. 7:35never in
214. 7:36the you know the 20 years
215. 7:39since i was kidnapped have they ever sat
216. 7:42there and been like
217. 7:44tell me what happened
218. 7:46as an adult and a parent myself
219. 7:50and an advocate and a survivor
220. 7:53i look back and actually i feel
221. 7:56a deep gratitude
222. 7:58that they did not
223. 8:00pressure me into telling them anything
224. 8:03today elizabeth smart is focused on
225. 8:05educating the public about sexual
226. 8:07assault and exploitation and spending
227. 8:09time with her family she has been
228. 8:11married for 10 years and has three
229. 8:14children
230. 8:15despite everything would you say life is
231. 8:17good for elizabeth smart yes
232. 8:19i would say life is beautiful for
233. 8:22elizabeth smart there's my life's not
234. 8:24perfect no i mean my life's a hot mess a
235. 8:26lot of the time
236. 8:28um you know my family is not perfect um
237. 8:30but
238. 8:31i i am happy because even beyond all of
239. 8:36our imperfections all of our
240. 8:38hot messes um i am surrounded by people
241. 8:43who i love more than anything in the
242. 8:45world and who i know love me
243. 8:49yeah she's deeply loved you know the
244. 8:51couple that kidnapped her wanda barzi
245. 8:53the wife spent more than 15 years in
246. 8:55prison before she was released in 2018.
247. 8:58her husband that's brian david mitchell
248. 9:00remains in prison serving a life
249. 9:01sentence i just marvel at her guys her
250. 9:04composer that she can talk coherently
251. 9:07about it that she's poised because you
252. 9:09know there are more details of the case
253. 9:10that you know you can't share on
254. 9:11television but what she went through to
255. 9:14be able to come out on the other side
256. 9:15evil is so profound the evil is so
257. 9:17profound so is our understanding of the
258. 9:19world after going through something like
259. 9:20that no and when she said that her
260. 9:22parents never asked her anything i was a
261. 9:23little surprised at that because i'm
262. 9:24thinking i would at least ask and if if
263. 9:28my daughter said i don't want to talk
264. 9:29about it i would i would back away but
265. 9:31she said no and she's glad they handled
266. 9:33it that way right they allowed her to
267. 9:35talk about it when she was ready to talk
268. 9:37about and her mother told her when she
269. 9:38came back and this is what helped her he
270. 9:40took nine months of your life don't let
271. 9:42him take another day from you he took
272. 9:44nine months don't let him take another
273. 9:46day and i was curious about her falling
274. 9:48in love and finding intimacy and she
275. 9:50said i could do that gail because it was
276. 9:52my choice
277. 9:53there's a difference i know the
278. 9:54difference between rape and i know the
279. 9:56difference between true love and i could
280. 9:58fall in love with the man that she has
281. 10:00married because it was my choice yeah
282. 10:03she's she's remarkable after dealing
283. 10:04with so much trauma i'm glad she's
284. 10:05speaking about it me too kidnappings
285. 10:07happen all of the time she will help
286. 10:09many people yeah