Elizabeth Smart is now a child safety activist and speaker. (FOX via Getty Images)
The three-week event series, hosted by FOX News Channel Emmy Award-winning anchor Harris Faulker, centers on finding missing people and reuniting them with their families. It features a panel of crime experts who analyze current missing person cases.
"I love the title because this is focused on the missing," Smart explained. "I feel there’s every reason to hope and believe that each of these cases can be solved.
Elizabeth Smart's aunt, Cynthia Smart-Owens, wears a picture of her niece during a news conference June 18, 2002, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Mauricio Menjivar/Getty Images)
"Each of these stories that we cover deserves so much attention," Smart added. "And if we get enough attention to these stories, these individuals, we can bring them home. … These stories don’t have to end tragically. These stories can have happy endings. And we need the public’s help because someone knows something, someone has seen something. And the show calls on the power of the public."
It was "America’s Most Wanted," which aired an episode about Smart’s 2002 abduction, that led to her being recognized by a couple, who spotted her walking with her captors.
"America's Most Wanted" has aired just over 1,100 episodes and helped capture 1,198 fugitives. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
"My parents never gave up, even though there were plenty of people telling them, ‘She’s probably dead,'" said Smart. "[It was] John who stepped forward and brought this sketch [of my kidnapper] forward, really pushing it out on a national platform."
In 1981, Adam Walsh was abducted from a Florida department store and murdered. He was 6 years old. (AP)
Walsh has been fueled by personal tragedy. In 1981, his son, Adam Walsh, was abducted from a department store in Florida. Two weeks after the 6-year-old’s disappearance, his severed head was found in a canal.
Along with his wife, Walsh pushed successfully for the passage of national legislation to make efforts to find missing children more effective. He was also instrumental in the founding of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
WATCH: ABDUCTION SURVIVOR ELIZABETH SMART OFFERS SAFETY TIPS TO YOUNG WOMEN
A couple recognized Elizabeth Smart from an episode of "America's Most Wanted." (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
During her ordeal, Smart insisted she never gave up hope that one day she would be found.
"Coming back and being with my family was everything I dreamed of while I was being held kidnapped," she said. "All I wanted was to make it home, feel love again, feel safe again. I wanted to gain the courage, as cliché as it sounds, to follow my dreams. These weren’t extravagant dreams. I wanted to go to high school, get my driver’s license, go to prom, go on a first date, go to college, get married, have a family."
