'I was broken beyond repair'
Elizabeth, now 25, was taken from her bedroom by religious fanatic Brian David Mitchell in 2002 and taken to a makeshift camp up the mountainside near her home where she was abused, plied with drugs and alcohol, and chained to a tree for the coming months.
In a recent TV interview, Elizabeth described the moment she was taken by Mitchell and met by his accomplice wife, Wanda Barzee, who performed a makeshift wedding ceremony between the two.
Elizabeth recalled: 'He raped me right there on the floor of the tent and then when he was finished I was left alone feeling absolutely broken absolutely shattered. I was broken beyond repair.’
When asked how she would describe the months she spent in Mitchell’s captivity, she answered: 'boredom, hunger and rape.'
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‘A 14-year-old girl, ripped from my family, from the life I knew, from my friends, from the people I loved- being raped every day, not knowing when I'd be able to eat next, not knowing when I'd be able to drink next, and being chained to a tree'
She came close to being rescued numerous times over the course of her nine-month ordeal.
On one occasion, the trio had left camp to go to Salt Lake City library and look at maps of California to see where they should move.
A woman thought she recognized Elizabeth – who had been made to wear a headscarf - and called police.
But Mitchell was able to convince officers that the girl was his daughter who wore the headscarf due to their religion.
Elizabeth said the reason she didn't scream out was because Barzee had a 'vice-like' grip on her leg throughout the interaction, up to the minute that the officer left.
When she was finally found, the trio had travelled back to Utah where they stopped in a local Walmart.
At the store, Elizabeth saw a wall of missing persons posters but did not see her own, making her think: 'did they forget me? Did they give up on me?'
But someone in the store called police and said that she thought she saw the man whose picture she had seen on the news in connection to the Elizabeth Smart disappearance.
The officer asked Elizabeth who she was when he arrived at the store, but, like the time in the library, she was too afraid to answer.
'I was scared- what if the policeman didn't believe me? What if they released me back to Mitchell and Barzee?' she said.
However, the officer took the trio to the police station and Elizabeth’s father arrived to find her.
'I didn't feel human. I don't think there's anything worse you can do to a child'
'I was so happy when I saw him and he came running over and grabbed me in his arms. I knew that nobody would be able to hurt me ever again,' she said.
Smart has spoken about her experiences a number of times, including at her captors' trials where she helped sentence Mitchell to life in prison and Barzee will be behind bars for 15 years.
‘I mean, here I was, a 14-year-old girl, ripped from my family, from the life I knew, from my friends, from the people I loved- being raped every day, not knowing when I'd be able to eat next, not knowing when I'd be able to drink next, and being chained to a tree,' she said.
'I didn't feel human.'
'I don't think there's anything worse you can do to a child.'
Elizabeth graduated from a Utah university and last year married Matthew Gilmour, a fellow Mormon.
Earlier this year, she offered advice to the three women who escaped from a house in Cleveland Ohio, after being held captive by Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver.
She said: ‘This man has taken so much of your life. There aren't words to describe how wicked he is. But the best punishment you could ever give him is to be happy.
‘Because by dwelling on the past, and holding on to pain and the hurt you've had to go through, that's only allowing him to steal more of your life away from you, and he doesn't deserve to do that.’
Her book, My Story, is due to be released next week.