By Breaking Celebrity News Staff

Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart is joining ABC News as a commentator focusing on missing persons and child abduction cases.

She’s expected to appear primarily on Good Morning America and on Nightline.

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ABC spokeswoman Julie Townsend said that Smart  -- who was kidnapped, raped and held captive at the age of 14 for nine months in 2002 -- can provide viewers with a unique perspective on similiar cases.

Townsend says the deal with Smart, now 23,  has been in the works for some time.

Smart is expected to make her first TV appearance on ABC within the next few weeks.

This past May, Brian David Mitchell – the man who kidnapped Smart --  was sentenced to life without parole in federal prison.

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