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    Inside Elizabeth Smart’s Surprising Private World

    soreceryBy No Comments16 Mins Read

    Watch: Elizabeth Smart Reveals She Is Now a Bodybuilder With Jaw-Dropping Competition Photo

    As if Elizabeth Smart wasn’t already the picture of strength.

    The 2002 kidnapping survivor has remained in the public eye as a tireless child safety advocate and supporter of trauma victims. And despite dropping cross-country in high school after finishing last in her first meet, the 38-year-old has since run several marathons and traversed countless kilometers training.

    Wanting to lose weight after having her first baby in 2015, she “started running with a jogging stroller,” Smart recalled on a March 2024 episode of the Ali on the Run Show. “And then I had another baby, so I got an even bigger jogging stroller.”

    She signed up for her first marathon while pregnant with her third child in 2018, and ran it six months after giving birth.

    But while she only surprised herself by logging all those steps, Smart rightly predicted that her latest show of physical fortitude would be a real shock.

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    Elizabeth Smart Reveals She Is Now a Bodybuilder With Jaw-Dropping Competition Photo

    The mom to Chloe, 11, James, 9, and Olivia, 7, with husband Matthew Gilmour revealed on April 21 that she not only has taken up bodybuilding, but already has four competitions under her belt, including a win in the Novice class of the Fit Model division at the 2026 NPC Wasatch Warrior.

    And that’s an endeavor that requires competitors to bare a lot, or at least much more of one’s body than Smart—who competed as Elizabeth Gilmour—was ever used to showing in public.

    Robyn Maher/Instagram

    “Had you asked me if I would ever compete in a bodybuilding show a couple of years ago I would have said, ‘absolutely not! Never in 100 years!'” she captioned a photo of her tanned self onstage, in a bikini. Admittedly “afraid” to post anything sooner, she explained that she was “worried that I would be judged, not taken seriously, somehow perceived as less than or now unworthy to continue work as an advocate for all survivors.”

    But Smart—who previously called appearing on The Masked Dancer in 2021 “the most terrifying thing I’ve ever voluntarily done”—remembered that she contained multitudes.

    “I am interested in many things,” she explained, “and as I get older I realize more and more how important it is to make the most of today, we don’t know what tomorrow brings. And I don’t want to reach the end of my life and look back and feel regret for only living a half-life, not going after all the things I want to do and try.”

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    True Crime: Kidnapping Survivors

    And not least, Smart added, “I am so proud of my body, and I want to celebrate it.”

    That is no small assertion coming from the Salt Lake City native, who was 14 when she spent nine months in captivity at the hands of Brian David Mitchell—who’s now serving a life sentence in federal prison for kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity—and initially felt guilty and ashamed after she was rescued.

    FOX via Getty Images

    “When I came back,” she said in the recent Netflix documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, “I was scared of men. I was scared of a lot of things.”

    Ultimately, telling her story—and letting other victims know “they don’t need to feel the shame and embarrassment that I know they feel”—proved essential to her healing process. 

    In the meantime, she returned to high school—at that unpromising first track meet, she recalled on Ali on the Run, “everyone on the team came back to run with me the last quarter of a mile”—and majored in harp performance at Brigham Young University.

    Elizabeth Smart/Instagram

    She met Gilmour in 2009 while on her Mormon mission in Paris and they married in 2012.

    While their Utah-based family loves being outdoors, be it sunny or snowy, Smart has credited her Scottish spouse with turning the temperature down when her concern for their kids’ safety threatens to boil over.

    “He’s always been there for me,” Smart told E! News in 2024. “He’s always respected if I’ve said no, or ‘I’m not OK with this.’ He’s also been the counterbalance when I’m like, ‘No one can step a foot outside!'”

    Elizabeth Smart/Instagram

    Because her work can take its toll, “I definitely try to listen to what my emotions are telling me and what my body is telling me,” the Detours author shared in 2022. “And my husband is very good at noticing when I’m reaching my limits.”

    Then, “once this boundary is hit,” Smart added, “I’m going to go get a massage, and as a family we’re going to go out to dinner and ice cream and watch movies all night.”

    And she runs—outdoors or, when it’s dark outside, on a treadmill in the basement.

    “It helps me feel better about myself,” she said on Ali on the Run. Plus, Smart is a practitioner of doing hard things to make other aspects of life feel easier.

    “It doesn’t need to be something that’s so, so hard,” she advised. “Doing a run, there’s all the benefits that you’d get normally, but also reminding yourself, you’re strong. You went miles—or half a mile, or however long—you did something hard already. You can do anything.”

    Read on for more about Smart’s 2002 kidnapping and what she really powered through:

    Alex Wong/Getty Images

    Investigators Looked Closely at Elizabeth Smart’s FamilyAfter Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her family’s Salt Lake City home on June 5, 2002, police had to consider the possibility of a domestic incident.”They looked like a happy, normal family,” police captain Cory Lyman, a lead investigator on the case, said in the 2026 Netflix documentary Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart. “But statistically, more often than not, the perpetrator of this type of crime is a parent or a family member. So we started looking very hard at them.”They conducted “in-depth interviews,” he recalled, and investigators seized 12 computers from the sprawling Smart family.Noting that the alarm wasn’t on and he didn’t see scuff marks where a chair was propped outside under an open kitchen window, Lyman remembered thinking “maybe this wasn’t the point of entry, maybe it was a staged one. Somebody cut the screen after the fact and maybe didn’t come and go through the window.”Police said they found nothing suspicious on the family’s devices or in their emails, father Ed Smart passed a polygraph test, and ultimately all of Elizabeth’s relatives were cleared.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Elizabeth Smart’s Dad Was Committed to a Psychiatric Ward After Her Abduction”To have your daughter go missing is horrendous,” Ed said in Kidnapped. “And then to be a possible suspect, I was beyond words.”When his then-wife Lois Smart—with whom he shares six children—told him that the police thought he was hiding something, Ed continued, “I was overwhelmed to the point that I was shaking, and I couldn’t stop shaking.”Ed recalled his father telling him, “‘If you don’t calm down, I’m going to commit you.’ He took me over to the hospital and put me in the psychiatric ward. And I cried that whole night.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    How Elizabeth Smart’s Uncle Tom Smart Became a Distraction in the CaseEd’s brother Tom Smart was one of the public faces of the investigation early on, frequently speaking to the media and demanding action from the cops.After it was reported that his polygraph results were inconclusive, coupled with his “really jittery” behavior, brother Dave Smart recalled in Kidnapped, people started asking if Tom was hiding something.Looking back at an interview in which he seemingly expressed sympathy for whomever had taken Elizabeth, saying “we understand everyone has issues,” and called the case “a wonderful story in a lot of ways, because it’s about, foremost, a beautiful little angelic girl,” Tom acknowledged in the Netflix doc that he didn’t come off great.”Anybody who watches that interview will think, ‘Tom Smart is a crazy son of a b–ch, and maybe he did do it,'” he said. “We came out of that interview and my wife turns to me and says, ‘You f–ked the family.'”At the time, Tom explained, he was exhausted and didn’t care how he sounded.”Finding Elizabeth was the only important thing,” he said. “We were never waiting for them to tell us we were cleared. I mean, who gives a s–t? We knew we were clear.”

    Mauricio Menjivar/Getty Images

    Police Found a Girl’s Remains During the Search for Elizabeth SmartAt one point, remains of a female victim were found and Lyman had to alert Ed and Lois that there was a possibility they belonged to Elizabeth.”A girl’s body, burnt beyond description, so she could not be recognized,” Ed said, remembering the call. “I tried to shield myself from the raw emotion till it was confirmed.”While the body turned out to be “another poor victim,” Lyman said, “it hurt to watch [the Smarts] suffer.”Ed recalled, “I felt such a relief, but your mind was just constantly going, ‘Where is she? What’s happening to her?'”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Elizabeth Smart’s Sister Mary Katherine Was Isolated While Assisting the InvestigationMary Katherine Smart was sharing a bedroom with Elizabeth when her sister was kidnapped and, as the only witness to the crime, the 9-year-old was interviewed repeatedly by authorities.And because they wanted her memories to remain uninfluenced by outside information, she was closed off from what was consuming her family at the time.”I was on my own lonely island, if you will, wanting to know, trying to sneak and hear tidbits of things that happened, but people shutting me out,” Mary Katherine said in the Netflix doc. “I tried to remember who it was who’d taken Elizabeth. I knew I’d heard the voice, I just couldn’t remember where I’d heard it from. I wanted to help in any way that I could…They even tried to hypnotize me at one point. But there was pressure from everyone…It was a lot for a 9-year-old.” 

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Police Thought They’d Never Find Elizabeth Smart After Suspect Died in CustodyRichard Ricci, a contractor who’d done some work at the Smart home, was arrested for an unrelated parole violation on June 14, 2002.After police found some of Lois’ jewelry in Ricci’s possession, he was charged with burglary and became the prime suspect in Elizabeth’s abduction.As seen in police interview footage, Ricci denied knowing anything about the kidnapping. Yet he also refused to explain how he’d put several hundred miles on his Jeep within a day of her being taken.Meanwhile, after seeing him on the news, Mary Katherine maintained that the man who’d been in their bedroom that night was not Ricci.Then,  on July 24, 2002, an attempted break-in was reported at the home of Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle. Police found a hole in the window screen and two chairs outside their 18-year-old daughter’s room.Still, police thought they were close to cracking the case. “Desperate” for answers, Lyman recalled in the doc, they offered Ricci immunity if he could help find Elizabeth—on condition that he wasn’t guilty of kidnapping or homicide. But Ricci suffered a brain aneurysm in jail and died on Aug. 27, 2002.”I was sick to my stomach,” Lyman said. “Our most likely suspect died. Everything he knew was gone with him. And it left us at a dead end that was very difficult. As law enforcement, you do set an emotional wall, and that wall started to erode for me.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Mary Katherine Smart Recalled the Exact Moment She Figured Out Who Kidnapped ElizabethFrightened to go to sleep after her sister was kidnapped, Mary Katherine would wait for her father to tuck her in at night. “One particular night, four months after she was taken,” Mary Katherine said in the doc, “I was flipping through the [book of] Guinness World Records, and for some random reason, in that moment, the name popped into my head.”She suddenly remembered the name Emmanuel—which was what drifter and self-anointed prophet Brian David Mitchell called himself while doing odd jobs around town, including for the Smart family.

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Elizabeth Smart Heard a Search Party Looking for HerMitchell abducted Elizabeth at knife point and brought her to an encampment in the mountains, where he lived with his wife Wanda Barzee. For awhile, hundreds of people searched for Elizabeth every day, scouring the terrain near her family’s home. And one day, they came close to finding her.”I remember faintly hearing my name,” Elizabeth said in Kidnapped. “It was faint but I could still hear it. Emmanuel took me inside the tent, pulled out his knife [and said] ‘If anyone comes into this camp, this is the knife I’m going to use to kill them, and it’ll be your fault.'””I only heard my name called a few times, and then it faded away,” she continued, “and I didn’t hear it again.”

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Elizabeth Smart’s Worst Memories From Her Kidnapping OrdealElizabeth said she was sexually assaulted countless times, as well as psychologically abused, by Mitchell while in captivity.”Being raped was horrific,” she said in Kidnapped, “but sometimes I also had to wonder if maybe listening to him wasn’t worse. He talked nonstop about how special he was, about how difficult these things that in any other circumstance would be wrong to do, and he didn’t want to do it, but he had to because God commanded him to.”In September 2002, Mitchell and Barzee brought Elizabeth to Lakeside, in San Diego County, and were talking about going all the way to New York or Boston.”I just remember sitting there listening, thinking if we go to any other big city, I don’t think I’ll ever be found,” Elizabeth recalled. She felt she had to speak up or all was lost, so she told Mitchell that she felt they were supposed to go back to Salt Lake City. Elizabeth said she was sure that, if Mitchell asked God, “he would confirm to you whether that was the right path and you truly are his prophet.””He turned to me and was like, ‘Oh, well, God is finally starting to work with you,'” Elizabeth recalled. “‘Now that you recognize your own nothingness, we are supposed to return to Salt Lake.'”

    Smart Family/Salt Lake City PD/Getty Images

    Police Clashed With the Smart Family Over the Investigation Into EmmanuelWhile the Smart family thought Mary Katherine’s recollection about Emmanuel was the ultimate breakthrough, police were skeptical. “Her memory came under some disbelief on the part of investigators,” now-retired Salt Lake City Police Detective Cordon Parks said in the Netflix doc. “It was based on voice identification, which is evidence, but not considered great evidence.”Lyman concurred at the time, recalling, “I was not convinced. Emmanuel had not appeared on any of the lists of people we were investigating.”And law enforcement instructed the Smarts to not circulate a sketch of Emmanuel. “Our perception was,” Lyman explained, “if we went public with it, we could scare the perpetrator away. We knew a name, had a sketch.”But the Smarts held their own press conference and shared the information they had. That led to a tip about his real name from Mitchell’s own family, who provided more photos to circulate.And when Mitchell got off a bus in Sandy, Utah, with Elizabeth and Barzee, he was recognized upon arrival on March 12, 2003.”Thank goodness her family went contrary to the recommendations of the police department in terms of releasing a sketch,” Lyman said.

    Danny Chan La/Getty Images

    Why Elizabeth Smart Didn’t Reveal Who She Was at First When She Was RescuedSandy City Police Sgt. Victor Quezada heard the dispatch about a sighting of Mitchell in his patrol car and then saw the man in question with two women, one of them noticeably younger than the other.”I was hesitant to believe it would turn out to be true,” he said in the doc.”He was so persistent,” Elizabeth said, describing how the cop kept asking her if she wanted to go home. “But my captors were just right there. I was terrified. I needed the safest answer I could possibly give.”Quezada said he finally told the girl, “For the sake of this nation and for your family, just tell me you’re Elizabeth. And she looked at me and said, ‘Thou sayeth.’ I’d never heard those words in my life. I said, ‘I’ll take that as a yes.'”Even when she was reunited with her dad at the police station, Elizabeth remembered not speaking right away.”It took me a minute to respond,” she said, “because I thought I was in trouble. But finally my dad was there and he was going to protect me, and no matter what happened, he wasn’t going to abandon me.”

    Ravell Call-Pool/Getty Images

    Where Is Brian David Mitchell Now?Mitchell pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but on Dec. 11, 2010, a jury found him guilty of kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines for sexual activity.He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In October 2025, the now-72-year-old was transferred from U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute to Federal Correctional Institution-Lewisburg, a medium-security facility in Pennsylvania, after being attacked several times behind bars, according to Indiana Public Media.Barzee, 79, pleaded guilty in 2009 to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in federal court, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping in state court. She was sentenced to 15 concurrent years in state and federal prison.”I am so sorry, Elizabeth, for all the pain and suffering I have caused you and your family,” she said in court upon entering her plea. “It is my hope that you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me.”Despite objections from the Smart family, Barzee was released in September 2018.She was arrested in May 2025 after visiting public parks in Utah and charged with two counts of entering a protected area as a sex offender. In the meantime, per People, she was released on judicial orders and required to check in weekly with Salt Lake City Police. 

    Courtesy of Netflix

    Where Is Elizabeth Smart Now?Elizabeth, an accomplished harp player, earned her bachelor’s degree in music from Brigham Young University.While on her Mormon mission in Paris, she met her future husband Matthew Gilmour, who’s originally from Scotland. They married on Feb. 18, 2012, in Hawaii and share three children.”As time passed,” Elizabeth said in Kidnapped, “I began speaking publicly about what happened. I just felt like it needs to serve a purpose, it needs to bring some good in the world.”In addition to public speaking, she has authored several books and produced films about her own and other kidnapping victims’ experiences.”I have good days, I have bad days,” she reflected. “But I developed a better relationship with myself. My inner voice has changed from, ‘You should’ve done this’ or ‘You could’ve done that,’ to ‘You’ll make it through this, you can finish this, you’re strong, keep going.'”

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