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Elizabeth Smart and Amanda Berry meet, discuss horrors they survived

Posted at 10:38 PM, Feb 28, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-01 10:16:58-05

SALT LAKE CITY -- Next month marks 14 years since Elizabeth Smart was found alive and rescued from her kidnappers. Now as a survivor she is working to help others.

“In the beginning, I made up my mind almost from day one I was going to do what it took to survive,” said Elizabeth Smart.

In 2002 Elizabeth was abducted from her bedroom in the middle of the night. Miraculously she was rescued from her captors nine months later her story reaching around the world.

“It's kind of what helped me get through what I got through,” said Amanda Berry.

A month after Elizabeth was found 17-year-old Amanda Berry was kidnapped in Ohio. Along with two other women, she was held captive in this home for more than a decade. Until finally Amanda escaped.

Their tragedies now bringing them together both say they held onto hope.

“My captors could take everything away from me they could take my life from me and in a sense they did for 9 months they could change my name the way I look everything but the one thing they couldn't take away from me was the fact that my parents would always love me,” Elizabeth said. “For me, that was enough to survive for.”

And years went by as Amanda watched the news helplessly as her family continued to search for her.

“I see them and they're still fighting and I thought I want to get back to there with them,” Amanda said.

They hope their stories of survival remind others to never stop searching.

“If we haven't found them yet doesn't that mean there's a good chance they're alive. I was alive after nine months, Amanda was alive after a decade so we can't give up,” Elizabeth said.

Amanda Berry does a daily missing persons segment in Ohio.

Elizabeth has a nonprofit organization and is working with Crime Watch Daily.

More of their interviews will air on crime watch tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock on FOX13.