Netflix has unveiled the first teaser and release date for Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, a feature-length documentary that promises to be one of the most powerful survivor-led true-crime stories ever told. Dropping January 21, 2026, the film marks the first time Elizabeth Smart, now 38, narrates her own abduction in her own words—23 years after the nightmare that captivated America and redefined hope.
On June 5, 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth was taken at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City bedroom while her younger sister Mary Katherine pretended to sleep nearby. For nine months, she was held captive in the Utah wilderness by self-proclaimed prophet Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee, enduring rape, starvation, and psychological torment. The case became a media phenomenon—front-page headlines, nightly news updates, and a nation praying for a miracle. On March 12, 2003, that miracle arrived: Elizabeth was recognized by passersby and rescued.
Directed by Academy Award nominee Lucy Walker (Waste Land) and executive-produced by Elizabeth herself, Kidnapped blends never-before-seen home videos, police interrogation footage, and intimate present-day interviews with Elizabeth, her parents Ed and Lois, siblings, and the detectives who never gave up. The result is a portrait not just of survival, but of resilience—how a girl kept her spirit unbroken through 270 days of hell, and how she transformed unimaginable trauma into a lifelong mission to help others.
“There will be victims and survivors who watch this,” Elizabeth says in the teaser, “and I hope they realize they’re not alone, and that they don’t have to be ashamed of what happened to them. And I hope that people who watch this can gain compassion and understanding for other families going through this. I also hope it brings comfort that there are happy endings—and that even after terrible things happen, you can still have a wonderful life.”
Now a married mother of three, Harvard graduate, and founder of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, she has spent two decades advocating for missing children and sexual assault survivors. Mitchell is serving life; Barzee was released in 2018.
Early reactions to the teaser are overwhelming. #ElizabethSmart has already surpassed 1 million posts, with survivors writing: “She gave me the courage to speak” and “This is healing in real time.”
In an era of sensationalized true crime, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart stands apart—told not by outsiders, but by the woman who lived it. Stream January 21 on Netflix. Some stories don’t just shock—they save.
