Abduction Investigators Question Sex Offender
Jul 8, 2002 6:33 pm US/Mountain
(KUTV) Investigators in the Elizabeth Smart case are keeping tabs on another ex-convict. He is a neighbor of Richard Ricci, the man who still seems to be at the center of the investigation.
Pete Romero did prison time for having sex with a 14-year-old girl, armed robbery and assaulting a police officer. He lives a couple of doors from Ricci.
Romero said he is sorry for his crimes, and insists he had nothing to do with the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. "My heart goes out to that family, and that little girl. No child should have to go through something like that," Romero said.
As of Monday Romero has been ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet to track his whereabouts. He's also under a new curfew.
Romero has been interviewed several times by investigators and has taken a polygraph. He said given his criminal history, he understands investigators questioning him, but said he can’t understand police tactics when they talked to his neighbors.
"Just what the neighbors told me. They questioned them, asking if they knew I was a rapist, and what I was convicted for, that I was a very dangerous person, just trying to scare them, using scare tactics," Romero said.
Meantime, a man has been identified who helped tow Richard Ricci's white jeep to a West Valley auto repair shop. 2-news has been told the man hired Ricci for building or renovating homes.
Detectives may be looking for him now. Police are very interested in tracking the whereabouts of Ricci’s Cherokee which was given to him by Elizabeth’s father, Ed Smart, for work at his home.
Police said the Cherokee was put in the shop at the end of May. A man reportedly help tow the Jeep to the shop at that time. The Cherokee reportedly was later removed and then returned three days after the Smart abduction. A mechanic said the jeep was brought back caked with mud and with about a thousand additional miles on the odometer.
The mechanic said he saw Ricci walk across the street and meet another man. The mechanic did not get a good look at the second man. Police want to know if it is the same man who helped Ricci tow the truck to the shop the first time in late May.
Police still have not named Ricci as a suspect, and his wife insists Ricci was at home the night Smart was kidnapped. Ricci’s wife has already testified before a federal grand jury looking into the Smart abduction.
In all police are now questioning four ex-convicts in the case and a fifth man who may have been with Ricci when he returned the SUV to the repair shop.