In the time since Elizabeth Smart, then 14, was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002, her story has remained largely unfathomable — which is to say that most of us can’t imagine enduring her horrific ordeal. However, the upcoming lifetime movie I Am Elizabeth Smart will soon shed some light on what Smart survived.
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A new trailer shared by People hints at the true horror Smart suffered at the hands of her abductor, Brian David Mitchell, after he led her away from her home at knifepoint. Her abuse, which was both physical and sexual, stretched for the duration of her nine-month captivity.
Smart’s story, though, has a happy ending. She was rescued in March 2003 and is a living testament to the strength of the human spirit.
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Mitchell now serves a life sentence, and Smart has put him firmly in her past. She is now a mother of two and a successful author and TV news correspondent, as well as an activist against abuse and an advocate for other victims.
“When I had my little girl, it felt like my heart was relocated in my throat,” she told The Today Show in December. “Every second of my day was, ‘Is she breathing? Is she OK? What does she need?’ Now, as a parent, going out and talking to other parents, talking to other survivors and hearing their story, I can’t help but think of my own parents and what they went through.”
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Of the film, which is set to premiere Nov. 18 on Lifetime, Smart said, “It is the best worst movie I’ve ever seen. It was so well done and accurate. I’m very proud of it.”
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