Elizabeth Smart is speaking out about the kidnapped California woman who came forward to authorities on Monday, saying she had been kidnapped and held for the past ten years. While many people question why the as-yet unidentified woman never tried escaping her captor, Smart says there is no way to know the kind of mental stronghold the kidnapper likely had on her.
This California woman was drugged and kidnapped by her mom’s former boyfriend at the age of 15. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, he apparently told her frequently that going to authorities would result in her deportation. He managed to change both his and her names and birth dates frequently and married her under an assumed name. He fathered a child with her a couple of years ago. The alleged kidnapper, Isidro Garcia, was taken into custody and charged.
Elizabeth Smart was held captive against her will for nine months when she, too, was just a teenager. She had the following to say about this California woman and her ordeal.
“I’m praying for her,” Smart said during a recent interview. “I’m hoping the very best for her and just very, very happy to hear some good news.”
“We don’t know what these evil people are holding over them— whether it’s their families’ lives, their lives, whatever it is,” she added. “We just don’t know.”
Following her kidnapping ordeal, Elizabeth Smart faced questions about why she didn’t escape despite several opportunities to have done so.
“People just didn’t understand what I was going through, and that is true of all of these other strong women who are survivors,” Smart said, as she referenced the case of three women freed in Ohio last year after more than a decade in captivity at the hands of Ariel Castro.
It is certainly unfathomable that someone can be held against their will for a decade. It is testament to the power of the human mind which is often stronger than the human body. Our minds can hold us captive through fear, which was no doubt at the root of this woman remaining under her captive’s spell for so many years.
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