Netflix's Kidnapped revisits Elizabeth Smart's 2002 abduction and recovery

Netflix's new 90-minute true-crime documentary Kidnapped retells the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, who was taken from her bedroom at knifepoint in 2002 at age 14 and held for nine months. The film shows the Smart family's Mormon community putting up posters and joining an extensive police search, and includes footage of her father, Ed, breaking down at press conferences.

Police and Elizabeth's sister Mary Katherine describe working from fragments of information the nine-year-old provided as their only leads. The family later publicised the name and a sketch of Brian David Mitchell themselves; he had used the name Immanuel David Isaiah, and had been seen masked and in long white robes.

An officer had questioned Mitchell and his companion but backed off when Mitchell said it was against their beliefs for a woman to speak to him. Elizabeth, now 38 and an activist for survivors' rights, speaks frankly about the daily rapes, the shame she experienced because of her religious upbringing, and the moment she woke shackled after passing out.

The review notes the film places responsibility on Mitchell and his accomplice Wanda Barzee, and records that Mitchell was found guilty in 2011 and sentenced to life without parole after delays over his fitness to stand trial; Elizabeth says, "I felt the process was rigged against me." The reviewer calls the film swift and efficient and says its main message is the disavowal of shame, which they find uplifting.

Key Topics

Culture, Elizabeth Smart, Brian David Mitchell, Wanda Barzee, Netflix, Kidnapped