CRISIS MANAGEMENT GURU CHRIS THOMAS ON THE CASE THAT CHANGED – AND DEFINED – HIS LIFE AND CAREER
C hris Thomas was 29 when he was thrust into the biggest case of his life – the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. The 14 year old was snatched at knifepoint from the bedroom of her home in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 5 June 2002, by drifter Brian David Mitchell, and kept captive by Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee for over nine months. Chris heard about the case and volunteered his PR services to the Smart family for free, initially working behind the scenes, before becoming the family’s spokesperson. After that, Chris, now 50, became a crisis communicator, working with companies as well as families in times of turmoil through his company Intrepid. Two decades on from Elizabeth’s rescue, he has written a book about his experiences on the case. We find out more…
This year marked the 20th anniversary of Elizabeth’s rescue. How did that feel?
It’s surreal. I never thought this would be something we’d be talking about 20 years on.
How did you get involved?
I grew up in the culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we’re taught from a very young age to serve. It’s part of our DNA. Plus, I think I was destined to work on this case – Elizabeth’s cousin started an internship with my firm a couple of weeks before the kidnapping, her uncle was a business partner’s friend, while another business partner grew up in Elizabeth’s neighbourhood. We were initially very optimistic that she would be found alive after a couple of days. A few weeks later, when the rest of my agency went back to the office, I continued to work with the Smarts on a nine-and-a-half-month sabbatical.
As the first big case of your career, what was the most important lesson you took from it?
I learnt a lot from it, professionally and personally. Communications can be incredibly powerful, as this case demonstrated. Elizabeth said, “Had my family not been as savvy with working with the media, I’m not sure that I would be home. I could still be out there.” And I think she was right. At the time, I was a newlywed and it was so difficult on my wife and I. The experience made us so much stronger in the long run, but it was a real challenge.
You started coordinating the search before becoming the family’s spokesperson. How was that?
The search was massive. Over 10,000 people came out to search for her, six thousand more than the previous record in modern history. There were a lot of people involved initially, so my effort was like a journalist, trying to tell the Smarts’ story from many angles to inspire o
