Elizabeth Smart engaged
A woman kidnapped at knifepoint at age 14 and held captive for nine months is getting married.
A spokesman for 24-year-old Elizabeth Smart says she got engaged last weekend and will likely marry in the summer.
No details about the groom-to-be were disclosed. The spokesman says Smart plans to keep her personal life private.
Smart’s father (Ed Smart) tells The Associated Press his future son-in-law is a ‘fine young man.’ Ed Smart says he’s pleased for his daughter and hopes she has a happy life.
Onetime itinerant street preacher Brian David Mitchell was convicted in 2010 of Smart’s 2002 kidnapping and sexual assault. He’s serving a life prison sentence.
Elizabeth Smart.
Break out the Martinelli’s.
Elizabeth Smart (whose kidnapping and survival story has captivated the state and nation) is engaged to be married.
And the nuptials of Utah’s semi-celebrity are likely to be the sparkling cider toast — and talk — of the town.
The 24-year-old Smart (a senior at BYU) plans to marry in the summer after becoming engaged last weekend, Chris Thomas of Intrepid Communications confirmed Friday.
Thomas declined to identify Smart’s fiance or provide details about how the two met, but wedding registries online at Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn list a July 1 wedding date for an Elizabeth Smart and Matthew Gilmour in Utah.
Gilmour is from Scotland. The two apparently met while Smart was serving an LDS mission in France last year.
Those clamoring for information on whether the blushing bride-to-be will wear her hair up or down, choose lilies or roses for her reception, and if she will say yes to a dress designed by Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier or local designer Maggie Sottero may be disappointed.
Smart plans to keep her wedding plans close to the vest – Thomas said.
A summer wedding is planned – said Chris Thomas of the Salt Lake public relations firm Intrepid Group. Thomas would neither identify Smart’s fiance nor confirm how the couple met. The pair became engaged this past weekend.
Sources, however, have identified him as Matthew Gilmour of Scotland.
Smart (24) is “happy and excited for this next chapter in her life” – Thomas said. “She has planned to be very public in her child advocacy work but wants to keep the details of her personal life private.”
Elizabeth Smart’s father (Ed Smart) said he and his wife, Lois, are “just very happy for Elizabeth. He seems like a fine young man.”
Smart would not release additional details at the request of his daughter. “She feels he’s the one so we are very happy for her,” Ed Smart said Friday.
Smart rose to international prominence after she was kidnapped at knife point from her parents’ home in June 2002 by Brian David Mitchell. Smart, then 14, was held by her captors for nine months, enduring repeated sexual abuse. Smart was rescued when she, Mitchell and Mitchell’s wife (Wanda Barzee) were spotted in Sandy in March of 2003.
Smart testified against Mitchell, who was convicted of kidnapping and rape in U.S. District Court in 2010. He is serving a life sentence. Barzee is serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison for her role in the crimes.
Many people who watched Smart testify against Mitchell at trial and during sentencing commented on her poise and confidence on the witness stand.
Smart has said on a number of occasions that she has been guided by the advice of her mother, who told her the day after her rescue that Mitchell may have taken nine months of her life from her, but she must not allow him to take one more minute.
Smart has advised other victims “not to let it hold them back.”
Since her rescue, Smart has served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France, formed a foundation to advocate on behalf of children and has worked as commentator for ABC News.