Elizabeth Smart, America’s most famous kidnapping survivor, is now an advocate for child safety.
Even so, she was reluctant to host her new Lifetime special “Smart Justice: The Jayme Closs Case.”
“I was hesitant about doing her story,” says Smart, who was 14 when she was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City in 2002 and held captive for nine months until she was rescued.
“I had been in [Jayme’s] situation and I never wanted it to come out as exploitative,” says Smart, now 31. “I wanted to be respectful and protective of her family. I told Lifetime, ‘If I was to consider doing this, I would in no way want to go into her story because if she ever decides to share it, that is completely up to her. That’s not what it is at all.’ ”
(Members of the Closs family cooperated with the show’s producers but were advised by the Department of Justice to decline interviews, according to Lifetime.)
Premiering Saturday at 8 p.m., the special follows Smart as she discusses the facts surrounding the case of Closs, who was 13 when she was abducted last October from her home in Wisconsin. Her kidnapper, Jake Patterson, killed her parents and held Jayme captive for 88 days until she managed to escape.
The case is mostly contextualized as Smart and six fellow survivors discuss their own experiences — and how they moved on after escaping or being rescued.
Smart’s peers on the special have experiences ranging from being held for nine years (Gina DeJesus) to being held for one night and escaping a serial killer (Kara Robinson). Others include Sarah Maynard, Katie Beers, Denise Huskins and Alicia Kozakiewicz.
“It was about what lies on the road ahead,” Smart says. “We do talk about the investigation but we stay away from speculation of what could have happened to [Jayme].
“I feel personally empowered by it,” she says. “For the first time ever, I sat on the sofa with six other kidnapping survivors and we talked about the struggles that we’ve had in our own lives after we were rescued . . . I feel like if any survivor were to watch this, they could walk away feeling empowered, feeling uplifted, like they’re not alone.”
Some of her fellow survivors were people Smart had known for years. Others were women whose stories she followed but hadn’t met until now. “I’ve known Alicia Kozakiewicz for years, we worked together with the Department of Justice in putting together a survivor’s guide,” she says.
Smart emphasizes that she wants this special to help guide people on making the jump from victim to survivor. “Once a case has resolution as far as finding the survivor, you take for granted, ‘They’ve been found, everything is good now,’ ” she says. “But so many people who have been through traumatic events . . . can’t make that jump to survivor. For a victim, even if the trauma may have ended, it’s still actively traumatizing them. A survivor — yes you have bad days, but you’ve made that decision to reclaim your life and no matter what the struggle is, you keep moving forward.”
Smart goes to see Jayme and her aunt and uncle (who are now raising her), but the actual visit was not filmed. “All the meetings I have with survivors I keep confidential,” she says. “I’m always happy to talk, to listen. I’m a phone call away. They have my number.”