Elizabeth Smart Had Baby Girl–Family Wants Public Eye Trained On Mission Against Child Sex Trade

Elizabeth Smart, known to the world as the girl who was snatched from her parent’s home 13 years ago, is now mom to a 3-month-old baby girl named Chloe.

Her father, Ed, revealed the news during an interview with the East Idaho News, which was focused on the Smart’s mission to end child sex trafficking. He brought up her baby as a silver lining for other victims.

“Elizabeth is great… We want all of those people that have been victimized out there to be survivors. We want them to find their dreams and find that new hope in life that helps them become the best and the most they can be.”

But don’t go thinking Smart is going to parade her baby in the public eye. The media is just hearing about baby Chloe, his third grandchild, now because Elizabeth wanted the birth to be kept secret. Therefore, Smart revealed nothing about his daughter’s new bundle of joy.

Elizabeth, 27, was married in Hawaii in 2012 to Scot Matthew Gilmour, E! Online added. They met during a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission.

Though Smart’s baby girl is an encouraging footnote in her tragic and miraculous story, it appears the family would rather the world pay attention to the ongoing struggle against the child sex trade. After all, Elizabeth was the victim of a such a crime herself. Ed noted his daughter was “assaulted once, twice a day for almost every day of the nine months she was gone.”

In 2002, when she was 14, a homeless street preacher nabbed Smart at knifepoint from her home. That man, Brian David Mitchell, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, are serving a prison sentence for kidnapping and transporting the teen across state lines for sexual activity. During her captivity, she was raped and forced to venture into public wearing a disguise, which is how she was eventually recognized and freed from her captors.

Now, Ed Smart works with Operation Underground Railroad to save kids from sex trafficking all over the world. Sadly, such unthinkable crimes are common around resort areas or big sporting events. The group works with U.S. Embassies and trusted local police to enforce laws and prosecute pimps usually for the very first time.

They are also promoting a documentary on the subject, called The Abolitionists, the Salt Lake Tribune added.

Elizabeth is also the namesake of a foundation that works to find missing kids and stop trafficking. She often uses her notoriety to draw attention to the missing. Most recently, she appeared in public to encourage a volunteer search for a young Morman woman from Mexico, Elizabeth Lauguna-Salgado, 26, the New York Daily News reported in April. She was kidnapped while working for the church in Utah.

“I do believe that she’s alive and we can find her. The thing that I continually hope and pray for is that every child that is missing can have the same coverage, have the same prayers and have the same support that I had.”

[Photo Courtesy George Frey / Getty Images]