Elizabeth Smart tells her story in new memoir

The disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart dominated headlines a decade ago. Now 25, Smart tells of her experiences in “My Story,� a memoir published this week by St. Martin’s.

“I want people to know that I’m happy in my life right now,� Smart told the Associated Press in an interview. “I also, even more so, want to reach out to people who might not be in a good situation. Maybe they’re in a situation that was similar to the one that I was in.�

Smart was kidnapped from her home by Brian David Mitchell, an itinerant street preacher. He and his wife, Donna Barzee, held the girl captive and denied her food and water. At a remote location, she was chained and raped.

“There was a point that I stopped crying,’’ Smart told Meredith Vieira on NBC on Friday night. “It’s not just because I didn’t feel pain any more, not because I didn’t feel sorrow. It was just to keep going. I mean, it just was to survive, to live.�

Smart is now married and finishing work on a degree at Brigham Young University. Her book was co-written by Chris Stewart, author of the “Wrath and Righteousness� religious thriller series, who is now a congressman from Utah.

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