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SALT LAKE CITY — Monday's news of three women being rescued from an Ohio home after 10 years in captivity has members of a Utah family rejoicing, as well while remembering their own ordeal.
The three women who vanished a decade ago were found captive Monday in a dilapidated Cleveland house. Amanda Berry, 27, Michelle Knight, 32, and Gina DeJesus, about 23, were rescued after one of them kicked out the bottom portion of a locked screen door and used a neighbor's telephone to call 911.
One of the first people who comes to mind after a case like this is Utah's own Elizabeth Smart. She was kidnapped nearly 11 years ago, when she was just 14 years old. Her story made national headlines, especially when she was found months later, walking the streets of Sandy alongside her captors, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.
The now 24-year-old said she was driving in her car Monday when her dad called her with the news of the rescue. She was elated, she said, pointing out that it just goes to show again how important the public is in cracking these missing person's cases.
"You're naturally going to see more than the law enforcement, the detectives, or whoever is on the case," Elizabeth said Tuesday. "So, if you do hear something, or something doesn't seem quite right, do not hesitate to call (911). … take the initiative to get it checked out, because what if you save another child?"
Ed Smart said he has been aware of the Ohio families' suffering over the years and that he understands the new emotions they are all experiencing.
"I just can't help but go back to the way we felt the day Elizabeth came home," he said, fighting back tears, "and how wonderful and how whole you feel once again, and that that pain is now going."
But Ed Smart also knows something of what lies ahead, beginning with a media onslaught. "Everyone wants to know what happened, how and why," he said. "But … it's so important for (the kidnapping victim) to be able to move forward and have some privacy."
The fear the women experienced in that Cleveland house won't go away easily either, he said.
"I'm just frustrated at how the perpetrators out there will manipulate and keep these victim-survivors in their grasp by saying ‘I'm going to do this' or ‘I'm going to do that.' They need to learn to step beyond that and get the help they need," Ed Smart said.
As for Elizabeth, she said she has made a choice to be happy, to move on and not allow the awful thing that happened to her define her. She also wants the young women just released to know they can have a happy ending.
"Nothing that anybody else can do to them will ever diminish their value," she said. "Each one of us are born with value that will never leave."
Her father feels the same way. What happened to them is not their fault, Ed Smart said, so he hopes eventually they will not be remembered simply as "the women who were held captive for 10 years."
"To me, they are survivors. They've done a fantastic job to get to this point, and you just want to see them grab life and take it and move forward beyond this," Smart said.
Both Elizabeth and Ed Smart said they hope the three survivors will get the professional help they need.
Contributing: Associated Press
