"Are they less worthy?" Is there any lesser hole left now that they are gone? They are not. They are someone."

Elizabeth Smart is a teenager who went through some of the most difficult experiences she can remember, but she knows that she is one lucky person.

Red Table Talk's 33-year old kidnapping survivor spoke out Wednesday to discuss the similarities between her case and Gabby Petito’s... and the lack coverage for the thousands of missing people of color.

The show's opening featured posters of four people: Deirdre Reid, 41, from South Carolina; Sidney Palmer, 26, from Texas; Savannah Guerrero (16), also from Texas; and Genesis Ramos (17) from Illinois. All were either Black or Latina. The theme would be continued by a ticker at the bottom of each screen.

This was followed by footage of Gabby's father Joseph speaking at a press conference. He made the noble plea to the media to share the attention on his daughter's matter with the many others who have silently disappeared.

Jada Pinkett Smith, a wonder woman, admitted that she doesn't know if she would have lost one of her children that way. It really touched me when I saw it.

Jada joined Adrienne and her mom Adrienne at Red Table (Willow was away touring with her band). Elizabeth Smart was one of very few people who went missing for several months before she returned alive.

The case was similar to Gabby's in media attention. At 14 years old, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee kidnapped Gabby from her Salt Lake City bedroom.

She was repeatedly raped, tied up, and threatened with the death until she was finally rescued by a police officer, who saw her walking along with her captors nine months later.

Smart was asked how she felt today after Gabby's death. Smart responded: "I was alive, I came home. Unfortunately, her story has not ended in the same way.

It's heartbreaking to know what it was like to be on the other side and possibly what might have happened and what may have caused her last moments.

She recalled her horrific experience and said that she always wanted to be rescued. It's not clear to me that I have always believed in hope. It was not easy times.

"My parents said that the worst thing about having me go was not knowing. It was not knowing if my body was still alive, out there, or dead.

She stated that she asked her captor the night he kidnapped her and took her up into the mountains. If he did, "could you please do it fairly near my house." It was important to her that her parents found my body and knew that I wasn't running away.

She said that "Gabby, and all the other females deserve to be found so their stories have an end as well."

Gammy broke down in tears at the thought of a 14 year old asking her abductor this question.

Smart admitted even that she considered herself lucky and blessed to be a victim. This was not because she survived but because the perpetrators weren't family.

"How many victims are there and how many survivors is not known?" She asked, and pointed out that her only hope of healing after her ordeal was to have a family to lean on. Not every victim has this.

Smart would become a well-known child safety activist. Jada praised her for using her platform "toamplify the voices of people from marginalized communities who might sometimes not get the same amount press as you got, Gabby got", a situation Smart is acutely aware of.

Smart complained that he thought of so many people -- so many -- whose stories never see the light of the day... and he'd never heard of them. Are they less worthy than them? Is there a bigger hole because they are gone? They are not. They are someone."

Elizabeth reflected on the other traumas that she had experienced in the aftermath of her ordeal. She started by denying therapy. This stemmed from her first encounter with two psychiatrists who were assigned to her statement. They were both middle-aged men and the same religion as her captor. They offered her a choice between a stuffed toy, while asking for details about the rape.

She found out that they had only collected the information she needed to be her proxy in court. However, her experience led to her being unable to talk to therapists for many years.

She said that she still receives accusations on social media about details of the case. For example, why did she not scream when she disappeared or why she didn’t identify herself to the rescuer.

She said, "I don’t regret not screaming." "I don’t regret doing the things he told me, because I’m still alive. He was certainly capable of taking my sister or me and killing me.

Why didn't she alert the police when she could? "Because I was raped 9 months ago and no one could protect me. Because he raped and chained me up for nine months and didn't leave me with anyone to protect me. I didn’t know these officers and I wasn’t sure what they could do. I didn't know how they could protect me."

"But, I knew that my captor stood so close to me, he was physically touching. My other captor was also very close to me, touching my body. Theywere able to kill me. They threatened me with this every day. So I didn’t immediately scream. My goal was survival. I didn't know if I would say something. I knew that if I did as they instructed, there was a chance that I would survive.

She also recalls being confronted by her captors later on in court, for a parole hearing.

Brian Mitchell is currently serving life in federal prison without parole. His wife, however, was released after she served the maximum sentence of 15 year. She had been convicted and helped prosecute her husband.

Smart admitted that her release was disappointing, but she also said that it helped her appreciate victims who receive zero justice.

She said, "There are perpetrators that walk every day without a trace." "At least I got something... how are many others?"

Later, Laura Coates (former federal prosecutor and CNN anchor) joined the table to dispel the myth that perpetrators can't be prosecuted if the victim isn't willing to press charges.

Coates and Gabby Petito reminisced about the famous bodycam footage from the Moab police station of Brian Laundrie & Gabby Petito.

"The problem is that, just as with the Gabby Petito cases, sometimes people, once law enforcement becomes involved, suddenly think about the consequences. They think to themselves, "I love this person and I know what could occur." Or 'I hit him first'."

She added, "I always say: Unapologetically Report." "People carry a lot of shame."

The episode ended with another heartbreaking story about Daniel Robinson, a 24-year-old geologist who mysteriously disappeared after he left his Buckeye, Arizona job on June 23.

His father drove from South Carolina, Arizona to find him the next day and has been there eversince.

Daniel's Jeep was discovered in the desert nearly a month later. His wallet, keys, phone, and clothes were still on the scene. There was no blood, the seatbelt was engaged, the airbags deployed and the seatbelt was activated. There was no trace that Daniel had been there.

His mother told the panel that she went to her son's apartment to collect his hairs and put them in ziplock bags "because at the very least I knew it was part of him...that's all I had."

According to his father, he had been receiving little assistance from police and was now using private investigators, drones, aircraft, and even cadaver dog help in the search.

After hearing their story, Coates stated that it was "so difficult to hear." "What his father said at end -- 'I wish you to know he has contributed towards society' -- speaks almost immediately to what many families, especially families of color, must endure. It talks about how to get people value the investigation they made to find their child. It's not subtle. This is what stereotyping looks.

Jada agreed, "It just doesn't add up."

Smart concluded, "I don’t believe there’s anyone in all the million times that your episodes are watched that could claim that any of these families is less worthy to have their case pursued and any other person -- me included -- is less worthy to return home."

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Title: Elizabeth Smart Tells RTT Attention on Her and Gabby Petito's Cases Isn't Fair to Thousands Still Missing
Sourced From: toofab.com/2021/10/13/elizabeth-smart-gabby-petito-red-table-talk/
Published Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2021 20:17:27 +0000

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