Families fall under suspicion it happened to her parents, too.ĭo whatever they want you to do - polygraph, DNA tests - Smart advises them. Through her advocacy work now, when families with missing children ask her what to do, her first advice is to cooperate with the police. “It is tragic because that is the norm,” she said. Imagine family members having to choose a side. Imagine being hurt by a family member, who had spent time in your house, or whose picture appeared in family albums. She finally got out the words, whispered: “I am Elizabeth.” Someone had recognized Mitchell and Barzee from an 'America's Most Wanted' episode and called police. What she couldn’t know then was that her parents had never given up searching for her, continuing to bombard news outlets with updates and clips of home movies. Her captors called her Esther or Shearjashub. No one had called her Elizabeth in nine months. “Because if you are, your family has missed you so much since you were gone! They want you back. Could she really be about to go home, to see her family? She was sunburned, bloated from malnutrition, and too dehydrated to cry. “What is your name?” he had asked gently.Įlizabeth’s heart had raced. An officer pulled Elizabeth away from her captors. The officers jumped out and surrounded the small group.Įlizabeth froze, torn between wanting to believe she was rescued and terrified of Mitchell and Barzee, still within arms’ reach. They had only walked two blocks from the store when one police car and another and yet another pulled up. Have people stopped looking for me already? she wondered. “No one remembers or cares about you anymore,” he had hissed in her ear.Įlizabeth’s picture wasn’t up there. She scanned it for her own face, even as Mitchell dug his fingers into her shoulder and pulled her away. In the store, Elizabeth had stopped at a bulletin board where pictures of missing children were posted. On March 12, 2003, Elizabeth’s captors had taken her into a Walmart store to steal hiking boots and other supplies before returning to the encampment.

Elizabeth smart picture when found