Taken – With Elizabeth Smart

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: You turn your head for a second and your child is missing. No matter where you live, it can happen to anyone at any time. TAKEN with Elizabeth Smart takes a heart-stopping look at parents who have found themselves in the terrifying position of searching for a missing child.  Told through candid interviews with family members, eyewitnesses and police investigators, and illustrated with dramatic recreations and news footage, each episode of TAKEN is a journey though the terror and heart-ache of families in a desperate search for their child.

Each episode tells the stories of two enthralling cases.  One is a solved case, while the other one is unsolved and open.  Both stories are told in great depth, alternating between the point of view of the frantic family and the lead investigator on the case.  To create greater tension, the stories are interwoven, so viewers will not know which story is solved and which one is still an active unsolved case until the very end. At the end of the show, the solved case will be concluded with an update on the family and child.  And the open case ends with a “call to action” – hopefully resulting in new leads and/or found children.

This episode of TAKEN with Elizabeth Smart shares Jim Pitzen’s emotional journey following the disappearance of his six year old son Timothy from an Aurora, Illinois elementary school. It also follows the story of the Maier family, whose 4 year old daughter, Alisa, is snatched from the family’s front yard in Louisiana, Missouri while she’s playing outside with her brother.

Our partnership with Elizabeth Smart, whose story of terrifying abduction ultimately had a happy end, and her commitment to the search for missing children, provides credibility and hot-button-relevance to our series. Her organization, the Elizabeth Smart Foundation aims to prevent and stop predatory crimes against children by empowering them through education and understanding of choices and options. The Foundation also supports law enforcement in the rescuing of victims.