TRUE CRIMEKidnapping Survivor Elizabeth Smart Says She's 'Grateful' She Was Taken By a Stranger Instead of a Parent or Family Member
Elizabeth Smart commented on Abdul Aziz Khan being found.
Kidnapping survivor and activist Elizabeth Smart is "grateful" she wasn't taken by a family member after 14-year-old kidnap victim Abdul Aziz Khan was taken by his mother.
Khan was recently found in Colorado, after going missing in Atlanta, GA, seven years ago. He was abducted by his mom, who had lost custody of him to her husband.
Abdul Aziz Khan was reportedly kidnapped in 2017 out of Atlanta, Georgia, by his non-custodial mother.
In an interview on NewsNation with guest host Brian Entin, Smart was asked for her initial thoughts on Khan's story.
"The truth is, we don’t know what he went through. And as a survivor myself, I can say, like, I’m grateful that I was kidnapped by a stranger," Smart told Entin. "I’m grateful that I was raped and abused by a stranger, because I can’t imagine how deep that betrayal would feel if it was by a parent or a family member, someone who’s supposed to love me and protect me and kind of be that shield for me in the world... we cannot give up on any missing person."
Smart also stressed, "We can’t judge what he’s been through or brush it off as not being that bad just because it was his (alleged) mother who kidnapped him."
Elizabeth Smart was 14 years old when she was kidnapped.
In late February, deputies were called to a home in Highlands Ranch, about 20 miles south of Denver, Colo., to investigate a reported burglary in progress.
According to the deputies who arrived at the home, they found two children in a vehicle parked in the driveway. The two suspects, a man and woman, told deputies they were associated with the realtor. However, the sheriff’s office said their story began to fall apart as they took four hours to identify the couple.
The woman was identified as 40-year-old Rabia Khalid, who had an active warrant for kidnapping her child. The man was identified as 42-year-old Elliot Blake Bourgeois.
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Elizabeth Smart became an activist for kidnapped victims.
Smart was 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002. She was found nine months after her abduction.
Over two decades later, Smart is married and a mother of three, and she has found peace and purpose in helping others as an advocate for victims.
Elizabeth Smart appeared on NewsNation.
Later in the interview, Entin asked Smart about the lingering trauma related to parental abduction.
"It is the most common form of abduction, and actually, as I have met with survivors over the years, I have had so many of them come to me and say, ‘People think because I was kidnapped by my parent or by my mom or by my dad or by a family member that it wasn’t that bad. But it was terrible,’" she told the guest host. "So, for us to sit here and look at Aziz’s case right now, we should by no means say, like, ‘Oh, well, whatever he went through isn’t that bad because he was with his mom.’"
"I know in my case my parents wanted to support me. They wanted to help me in any way that they could, but they didn’t know what I had been through," Smart explained. "I personally did not want to speak about what I had been through. And so, I mean, sometimes it was kind of like, well, what can we do for you? How do we help you? And where Aziz has been gone for so long, it’s almost going to be like, probably meeting a new person for the first time, and, I mean, seven years, like half a lifetime. That’s a lot of time to make up for."
