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Crime Junkie

AUDIO EXTRA: A Conversation With Elizabeth Smart

January 29, 2026 • 1h 30m

Summary

⏱️ 10 min read

Overview

In this Crime Junkie special episode, host Ashley Flowers conducts an extended interview with Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 in 2002 and held captive for nine months. Elizabeth shares her harrowing experience in detail, discusses her journey of healing, and explains her advocacy work through the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which focuses on preventing crimes against children and supporting survivors, particularly from underserved communities like Native American populations.

The Night of the Kidnapping

Elizabeth describes the night of June 5th, 2002, when she was taken from her home. What started as a normal evening transformed into terror when a man's voice woke her, threatening her with a knife. She initially thought it was a dream, but the reality set in when she felt the blade against her neck. He forced her up through the mountains behind her home to a hidden campsite where his wife was waiting.

  • Elizabeth was woken by an unfamiliar man's voice saying 'I have a knife at your neck, don't make a sound, get up and come with me'
  • She initially thought it was part of a dream because men weren't allowed in her bedroom
  • A police car drove by while they were hiding in bushes, giving her brief hope before it passed
  • They ran up into the mountains until sunrise, reaching a hidden campsite with a tent
" I thought it just had to be part of my dream because who thinks that someone's going to break into their home in the middle of the night and say, I have a knife at your neck, don't make a sound, get up and come with me. Nobody thinks that or probably most people don't think that. "

The Reality of Captivity and Sexual Assault

Elizabeth recounts the devastating first day of captivity when she was forced into a marriage ceremony and raped. At only 14, she hadn't even reached puberty yet. The physical, emotional, and spiritual trauma was compounded by her religious upbringing's emphasis on purity, making her believe her family wouldn't want her anymore. She describes how this harmful messaging around virginity added unnecessary shame to an already traumatic experience.

  • Her captors performed a forced marriage ceremony and she was raped despite being only 14 and pre-pubescent
  • Religious teachings about purity made her believe her parents wouldn't want her back after being raped
  • She realized within the first day that despite everything, her parents would still love her unconditionally
  • The emphasis on virginity in religious communities adds harmful shame to assault survivors
" I remember just bleeding afterwards. Like it was awful. I remember just thinking if this is what sex is, I never want to have sex ever again. "
" I genuinely feel that if my parents knew what had happened to me that they would, they wouldn't want me. And they would just be like, well, as unfortunate as this is, you know, we had six kids. That's a lot of kids. Now we'll only have five and five kids. That's still a lot of kids. "

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