Elizabeth Smart has message for NE Ohio

CLEVELAND (WJW) – Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City. Her name, the story of her abduction, and her eventual return back to family made national headlines.

Today, Smart is 36, a mother of two children, and an advocate for stronger legislation and recovery programs related to child abduction.

On Wednesday, her mission brought her to Cleveland to speak at a local conference on the importance of AMBER Alerts, a nationwide system used to help find missing and abducted children.

Before the conference, Smart spoke with reporters to share her story and a message with NE Ohio.

“I hope survivors know they are not alone. I hope they know that there are more good people in this world than bad,” said Smart. “I hope they know there are so many organizations here available to them that want to help them, whether it’s to help them escape, help them be rescued, or maybe help them in the healing process.”

Smart credits her rescue to the high publicity of her story and said as a result, she believes, people knew to look for her face and eventually the face of her abductors.

Today, she credits the AMBER Alert system for helping other cases like hers.

“Think of how much more we could do if we could reach even more people, get even more information out about these cases, how many more survivors would we see some home,” said Smart. “I think it’s amazing what we have done. I think we can do more.”

You can watch the full press conference in the video player above.