Elizabeth Smart--New Suspect, New Thread

Larry King Live; KUTV; Salt Lake Tribune; etc. ^ | December 23, 24, 25, 2002 | Various

[Palladin]

KING: All right, let's talk about the Elizabeth Smart case, which the media has kind of left now. What is your best read on that tragedy in Utah?

WALSH: I spent yesterday by coincidence with Ed and Lois Smart. I had them on "The John Walsh Show" to kind of give an update to the case. You know, Ricci, the guy that was the main suspect, died in prison of an aneurysm. He's the guy that was the handyman at the house that put 1,000 miles on his pickup truck during the two days that she was missing. He was a burglar. He also had a rap sheet, which a lot of the media doesn't understand. He spent 10 years in jail. He tried to blow the head off of a cop with a shotgun. This is a real bad guy.

I hope that he didn't take the secret of Elizabeth Smart to the grave with him. I talked to Ed and Lois yesterday. I said, don't give up hope. Justice delayed isn't justice denied.

What's killing them is the fact of the not knowing. I think they're prepared for the worst. Most parents of missing children are prepared for the worst. But their young daughter has now said that she believes that Ricci wasn't the guy in there that night, that it may have been another guy that did some work on their roof, an itinerant guy that worked at a homeless shelter, and he may be a suspect in this. And I don't want to give away a lot of breaking information here, but "America's Most Wanted" is going to take a look at the Smart case, because I know one thing, we have been able to solve crimes after 10 years.

So I gave the Smarts, you know, the best encouragement I could and said, look, don't give up hope. We'll relook at the case. It is normal for the media tension to die down, and to try to have a good holiday. This is going to be the first Christmas without this beautiful girl, and the Smarts have five other beautiful children. So they're trying to hold that family together.

I said, you know, do the best you can with your five children. Don't give up hope, and, you know what, we'll take another look at this case and try to keep it alive.

[stlnative]

Ricci type criminal
I missed the type in your sentence. I thought you meant Ricci soley, but yes people break into homes with the house full of sleeping people, it is part of the thrill for them.

[varina davis]

I agree it was not a burglary. No sane person would attempt a burglary with a house full of people when it would be so much easier when the house was empty. Ricci was not likely the perpetrator, but perhaps learned of it after the fact and kept quiet. It still could be that good old "trusted member of the community" -- though that's not a popular theory on this thread.

[Bella]

The window was not far from the ground and the door was not used continually because the house was wired with sensors that still beep quietly when doors are opened and closed, even if the system is not on.

Plus the fact, that if the perp entered via the window which he didn't, there would have been marks on the side of the house which there wasn't.

[Jolly Green]

Another thing I learned was that the back door leading into the woods was found unlocked after the abduction, which implies that the abductor exited through this door and that he was familiar with the house surroundings, which does not necessarily imply that the kidnapper was from the neighborhood, only that he had studied the entry point into the house as well as the exit door and escape.

This tends to support the theory that I raised a few months ago after two tours of the neighborhood. I don't recall the street names, but there is a flat spot just off a dead end street that is almost due East and slightly South of the Smart home. It would have been an ideal spot to stash a car /Jeep, drop down the hill and climb back up the hill on the Smart side - roughly 200 yards.

I posted links to satellite images at the time.

[Jolly Green]

similar to MO where he loaned friends his vehicle to rob the food shelter then got caught with the stolen food

A superb point that can't be made often enough. This "proxy" business is precisely Ricci's MO.

[Jolly Green]

The Smarts TRUSTED the people who worked for them!! No, they didn't, or Ricci would not have been fired by Ed.

Dummy up Lakey!!! Is it concieveable to you that there is a timeline involved i.e. at one point in time (initially) they trusted Ricci. At a later point in time - after things started disappearing - they didn't trust Ricci. You're making a fool of yourself.

[Jolly Green]

I still find it hard to believe that a Ricci type criminal would ever think he could make a haul with the whole family right there....

You are totally ignoring the simple fact that it is precisely Ricci's MO.

[Utah Girl]

Absolutely it was Ricci's MO. Going into a house with people and stealing stuff, getting a thrill from doing so. We don't understand it because we are law abiding citizens. I have a friend who is a policeman, and has also worked as security guards in warehouses such as Costco and Sam's Club. He said you wouldn't believe the stuff people steal, I told him I would be afraid of looking suspicious and getting caught. He said that was because I didn't have a criminal mind. (Nice to see you.:)

[Utah Girl]

I went to bed after my last comment on the thread, so didn't see your comments. I agree with you, I think this was a burglary gone bad. I do believe Ricci was involved in the planning, and provided a key, and that his Cherokee had something to do with Elizabeth's disappearance. I think Ricci was an accessory to the plot, and that is why he kept quiet.

[FR_addict]

I can't understand anyone giving day laborers keys to the house. I recently had a lot of work done to my house, and enjoyed talking with the workmen quite a bit, but there is no way I would give any of them a key to my house and they were not day laborers. (Actually, I don't think I had heard about Ed giving keys to day laborers before this interview.)

I'm sure someone will say that Ed was just the trusting type, but if he was so trusting, why did he install a burglar alarm in the first place? He had already been robbed and if he had given keys out to day laborers, you would think, at the least, he would have changed the locks and used the alarm.

Things just don't add up. Perhaps Ricci was involved, but I don't really think it makes sense - for the simple fact that he was not the one in the house. Evidently, neither the police nor the Smarts believe that MK was describing Ricci whom she knew. I just think from his other crimes as a cat burglar that if anyone was going to enter the house, it would be Ricci who was familar with the house.

I did feel a lot of empathy for the Smart kids during the 48 hours interview, but another question that came up is why wasn't MK allowed to say what she saw? Instead her mother told the story. We never heard it from MK. If the reason is not to jeopardize the case against the perp, then the mother should not be repeating what MK told her either.

When they release Ed's call to the police with Ed's phone records and I hear him tell the police that a man with a gun took Elizabeth, then I may change my mind. Until then I will continue to believe that Ed knows more than he is saying.

[Sherlock]

The Smarts TRUSTED the people who worked for them!! No, they didn't, or Ricci would not have been fired by Ed.

lakey, have you been asleep or something? Wake up and listen. They said on the show the Smarts gave the workers keys to their home! Don't you think they trusted them when THEY GAVE THEM KEYS TO THEIR HOME?!?!?!

[Sherlock]

From this latter, plus his approximate height, it should not be difficult to estimate the weight.

I recall the estimated weight being 170 pounds. If it's the same guy Moul saw across the street he also said he was athletic. If it's the same guy the milkman saw a few days before the kidnapping, he also described him as slender and much shorter when he said there was no way it was Edmunds that he saw.

[Sherlock]

This tends to support the theory that I raised a few months ago after two tours of the neighborhood.

I thought about you when they showed this part, JG, sounds like you were right on!

[Sherlock]

I think this was a burglary gone bad.

If you think this, do you think he took Elizabeth because she recognized him? If so, this would seem to indicate to me he must have killed her. If she didn't recognize him, I would think he would have just left her when he drove off in his car. To kill her in this case would be particularly hard core.

I tend to believe she was taken by someone who intended to kidnap her but had the identical MO to Ricci and wanted to see what else he could get while he was in there, thus peaking in the brothers' bedroom when he was taking Elizabeth out of the house. Which means to me he was a low life loser, what of any possible value would anyone expect to find in young boys bedrooms, let alone be of enough value to take that kind of risk while holding a gun on the boys' sister while he was looking in there?

[Sherlock]

...and I hear him tell the police that a man with a gun took Elizabeth...

What I heard happened is they first called JG who is a psychic and he conjured up that Ricci had used a small, black 9MM handgun in a crime in the recent past and he told Ed to tell police MK said the kidnapper had a small black handgun.

[Sherlock]

Another tidbit from 48 Hours was the new information from Moul that Ricci told him he had been out driving in the mountains when he returned the muddy Jeep on Jun 8. Wonder why he wouldn't want to tell police where he had been in the mountains or even admit he had had the Jeep, let alone tell them what he did with the seat covers, the two full garbage bags, and the post hole digger he took out of it, and who the fellow was that picked him up across the street in the blue SUV, who by the way just happened to match the description of Elizabeth's kidnapper.

Other than, of course, to cover his own guilty, cowardly behind while he continued to terrorize the Smart family, and the rest of America for that matter, rather than admitting what he knew about poor Liz. And this piece of garbage is so popular with so many of you posters, it's beyond me you can look at yourselves in the mirror. I hope you took a good look at each of the photographs of this coward and his drug addicted wife they displayed on the program last night.

[lakey]

It is precisely the timeline I have questioned, Adam Henry!

What are you, a frustrated wannabe cop, going around snooping, "casing" the Smarts' neighborhood, playing Sherlock?

Talk about dumb!

[lakey]

I'll be back in a while with what I could make out from my video tape on Moul's work order on the Jeep. Evidently, the police didn't take it as evidence!

[Sherlock]

lakey, take it easy on poor JG.