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.

[Neenah]

ROFLMBO !! You're better than me !!

[Palladin]

Picture of Mitchell is here:

http://www2.amw.com/site/thisweek/M/MitchellBrianDavid/mitchellindex.html

[scaredkat]

Thanks for notifing me of this information.

It makes you wonder about LE or at least I do, why does it take them so long to ask for help in identifing someone. They always seem to wait until they are long gone. I know they think they can find these people on their own but really they haven't done a good job since June. Well, maybe they have in at least pointing fingers. (Edmunds did it, no Ricci did it, no Emmanuel did it. Is this all they have in tring to find out what really happened? They need help why don't they swallow their pride and get real help.)

I also know that when they were looking for Edmunds it became like a witch hunt for citizens and LE, but he seem to get all the way across the country without being seen. So who really knows what the answer is in finding them except I really don't trust anyone that is linked to this case except for MC that is.

I do also find it interesting that Edmunds would end up in a city were another young girl was missing and later on when they thought Elizabeth was seen and found her it was this other girl that had been missing from the city Edmunds had gone to. It's either a small world or Edmunds knows somethings and still really hasn't said what he knows. I find it really interesting that not one news media person every tried to talk to Edmunds and do an interview with him. You think at that time or when they brought him back to Utah someone would have done that for ratings at least.

Here is a question from me-I would like to know what happened to the investigation of a blue suv that really is a blue kingcab truck with a matching shell. That was seen at the time of the disappearance also afterwards, And the owner of the truck works/ed for a city in the Salt lake valley?

Also someone said Brigett is really a code name for a private investigator (male) working on the case. I don't know if they are one in the same but could be. If so that would answer how Brigett knows things as well. I do know back when I came on this forum brigette stated she had files and pulled personal files on this case. So when I stated about the cabin that Smarts owned but didn't know the exact address she had it. I would tend to believe what was written from Brigette.

The people that testified at the Grand Jury was stated at the time but what was said in the Grand Jury was behind close doors and noone will know until there is a trail.
I know Moul did testify as well as Pete Romero, that neighbor of Ricci's (sorry I don't know his name right now)and Angela Ricci. Also I do believe Ed and Lois were questioned. At this time I want to restate what I know about Moul, he owns the repair shop however; he was not the mechanic that worked on Ricci's cars. I know this for a fact and believed he was questioned as well on this Grand Jury.

[scaredkat]

I meant this to be addressed to all sorry.

[Palladin]

Hi, scaredkat. I don't think Brigette is a PI. I think she is just an ordinary case-follower like the rest of us.

[RecentConvert]

"Hi, scaredkat. I don't think Brigette is a PI. I think she is just an ordinary case-follower like the rest of us."

it would have been nice if she were a real IP involved with the case and posting here. She could have filled us in on some private info.

Hi scaredkat, nice to meet you.

[Palladin]

brigette kept us well-informed during the first two months of the case. She started her own forum, which is no longer active, but it has a good archive of early articles and good portraits of case personalities. You can find it here:

http://pub37.ezboard.com/belizabethsmartcaseforum

Maybe brigette will see the ping up above and stop in to say hello.

[lakey]

Thurman is the last name of Ricci's neighbor. Toothless one.

[lakey]

Thanks for the photo link. The actual man doesn't much resemble the sketch, though the width between the eyes and length of the nose are somewhat similar.

What would you say is the reasoning behind Ed, himself, giving this composite when he will not allow Boylan's (Mary Katherine's) sketch to be published?

[Palladin]

Ed's reasoning? To throw us all off and drive us crazy. And to do the same to the cops.

[lakey]

He isn't succeeding.

[freedox]

"Hi, scaredkat. I don't think Brigette is a PI. I think she is just an ordinary case-follower like the rest of us."

There may be two Brigettes. Very early in the case, the name Brigette was brought up during one of the Smart family press conferences. Specifically, a reporter asked the family about the possible involvement of a woman named Brigette. As I recall, it was Cynthia Smart Owens who fielded the question, and she denied knowledge of anyone named Brigette. As far as I know, the press didn't pursue the matter (at least not publicly.) The "Brigette" issue was batted about on one of our early threads.....I believe someone posted that there was a woman by that name who was somehow involved in the juvenile court system in Salt Lake City.

I'm pulling all of this up from memory, so someone might want to go back to the early threads to check the facts.....just thought I would give you a heads up that the name has indeed been brought up in the context of the investigation.

(BTW, good to see you, Palladin!)

[Palladin]

Thanks. I didn't know that. You mean I scared off the Smarts' very own PI???

[scaredkat]

Just seen Ed on the news. What is up with Ed? Why did he dye his hair gray, didn't he like being a red head. It looks like Emmanuel has red hair too.

I still think Ed is up to something(what?, who knows), but I really don't trust him when he speaks on the news.

[lakey]

The news you saw, what did Ed say?

His hair could have turned gray. Actually, I thought he was blonde.

[scaredkat]

Ed on the news was really weird because he had this chuckling laugh about looking for this roofer guy. It was very strange and left a bad taste in your mouth and made your skin crawl. All I could think of is - something is very evil here, (again, what I can't put my finger on it).

[lakey]

Laughter doesn't seem appropriate under these circumstances. Of course, some people do laugh when talking about very serious things - a nervousness that comes out in a completely different way than viewers/listeners expect. I've heard former combat vets do it, policemen, too.

I just don't know, kat. But thanks for your post.

[Sherlock]

Smart Family, Investigators Looking for Homeless Handyman

http://kutv.com/siteSearch/local_story_049121203.html

Feb 18, 2003 5:10 pm US/Mountain

Investigators have identified a homeless panhandler sought by Elizabeth Smart's family after their younger daughter told them he resembled the man who abducted her older sister.

Investigators say the man known to the Smart family only as ``Emmanuel'' is Brian David Mitchell. He was publicly identified Saturday on the television program ``America's Most Wanted'' .

The Smart family became interested in Mitchell in mid-October when Elizabeth's younger sister, the sole witness in her disappearance, told her parents she thought Emmanuel could have been the one who stole Elizabeth.

``America's Most Wanted'' aired a segment on the man and posted on the show's Web site a sketch and photograph provided by the FBI and Salt Lake City police.

Mitchell's sister had called law enforcement with the identity after the Smart family held a news conference Feb. 3 to circulate the sketch.

The photograph on the program was of Mitchell with a long beard. The sketch shows the man as clean-cut. The man's stepson since has provided investigators an older photo of a clean-shaven Mitchell, who goes by the name David Emmanuel Isaiah.

He reportedly spends time preaching to the homeless.

Another family member who asked not to be identified told The Associated Press that the Mitchells, who have no car and no income other than what they get begging, had been seen as recently as two weeks ago in Salt Lake City.

Elizabeth's mother, Lois Smart, said at the Feb. 3 briefing that she met Emmanuel in downtown Salt Lake City when he asked her for money. She gave him $5 and hired him to help her husband repair their home's roof in November 2001. He worked at the home raking leaves and helping out for about five hours.

Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, said Tuesday that when he saw the beardless photos of Mitchell, he was ``90 percent sure he's the fellow who helped us on the roof that day.''

Police have been looking for the man since October, checking homeless shelters where he was well-known, Salt Lake Police Detective Dwayne Baird said Tuesday.

They haven't found him, and while he remains ``a person of interest,'' he's not the focus of the kidnapping investigation.

``He's one of dozens of people who worked on the house,'' Baird said, adding that police haven't even confirmed Emmanuel and Brian David Mitchell are one and the same.

Elizabeth, then 14, disappeared in the early hours of June 5. Mary Katherine, then 9, said a gunman wearing light-colored clothes and a white or tan hat stole her sister from the bed the two girls were sharing.

Police have documented and followed up over 16,000 leads from the public, 600 of them from psychics.

The Smart family says the fact that Mary Katherine volunteered the information about Emmanuel means it needs to be taken seriously.

``I couldn't imagine how Mary Katherine could have remembered this person,'' Ed Smart said. ``She doesn't know that it was him. ... It was a possible, it wasn't a definite.''

Smart said Mary Katherine said Emmanuel's hair seemed similar to that of the man she saw take Elizabeth.

The child told police the man was wearing a hat that police first said was a baseball cap, then a flat-brimmed golf or English driving hat. In July, police confiscated a golf hat from the father-in-law of Richard Ricci, who police named as their ``top potential suspect.'' Ricci died in October of a spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage he suffered while in prison on a parole violation.

Mitchell frequently has been seen wearing white pants, a robe-like tunic and a brimless white hat that looks like a puffy turban or baker's toque. One of the photos provided to law enforcement shows him in such a hat.


Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press

[Sherlock]

Elizabeth was found with the drifter in Sandy, UT and is home with her parents. Can you believe it?

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/elizabeth_smart030312.html

S A L T L A K E C I T Y, March 12 — Elizabeth Smart was found alive today, nine months after she was kidnapped at gunpoint from her bedroom in her Salt Lake City home, police said.

"She's been found alive," Charles Smart, Elizabeth's grandfather, told ABCNEWS Radio. "My son Ed has his daughter in his hands."

Elizabeth, 15, was found in Sandy, Utah — just about 15 miles from her home — with a drifter who had once worked for her family as a handyman and another female, police said.

"Miracles do exist," said Tom Smart, the girl's uncle.

The drifter, Brian David Mitchell, was in custody and had been transferred to the Salt Lake City Police Department, Sandy police said.

Authorities had been searching for Mitchell, 45, whom they wanted to question. At about 1 p.m., police in Sandy received calls from two women who said they believed they had spotted Mitchell, also known as Emmanuel.

Officers went to the area and "located a male and two females at the side of the road. Sandy officers questioned the three and determined one of them was possibly Elizabeth Smart," Sandy police said in a statement. All three were taken to the Sandy police station and "upon further investigation, positive identification was made on Elizabeth Smart."

Sandy police Lt. Kevin Thacker said the female found with Elizabeth and Mitchell apparently was an acquaintance of the drifter, but he did not have further information on her identity.

Police said Mitchell and Elizabeth had apparently spent some time out of state and only recently returned to Utah. Sandy, the city where they were found, is south of Salt Lake City.

Elizabeth had been transferred to the Salt Lake City Police Department, where she was being examined by a doctor and reunited with her parents, Ed and Lois Smart. Police planned to hold a news conference at 5 p.m. local time.

Kidnapped From Her Own Bedroom

Elizabeth, then 14, was kidnapped early June 5 by a gunman who apparently entered the the Smart house by cutting a window screen near the back door. She was taken from the bedroom she shared with her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katharine, who pretended to be asleep. The younger girl told authorities she heard the gunman threaten to hurt Elizabeth if the teen didn't keep quiet.

Brian David Mitchell, aka Emmanuel, once worked as a handyman for the Smart family. (ABCNEWS.com)

Her kidnapping was one in a series of high-profile child abductions in the last year horrified the nation. Two California girls taken in separate incidents, Samantha Runnion and Danielle van Dam, were later found slain.

In front of the Smart home, there were still blue ribbons tied along the trees to signal the family's continued hopes of finding Elizabeth.

Last month, the Smarts had announced a new reward for information in the case and asked the public for help in their search for "Emmanuel." They released a sketch of the man, saying Mary Katharine had come to them recently to say "Emmanuel" bore some resemblance to Elizabeth's kidnapper.

The family reportedly felt police had not devoted enough attention to finding Mitchell.

Police at one time had focused on Richard Albert Ricci, another handyman who once worked in the Smart household. Ricci was considered a top potential suspect in the kidnapping, but he died Aug. 30 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while in jail on a parole violation. He had denied any involvement in the kidnapping, and his wife had publicly supported him.

Investigators said they believe Ricci was involved but may not have acted alone.

Ricci's wife, Angela, was elated to hear about Elizabeth's recovery. She said that vindicated her husband.

"I jumped up and cried, said 'Yes!' " she told ABCNEWS affiliate KTVX. "I'm grateful that she's alive and I'll always stand by him and always will."

[lakey]

You pinged me! Better go back & read your #50 on this thread.

See Sherl, the thing is, by making Ricci the culprit, it distracted from finding the real demon. Ricci never had an M.O. of pedophile. Emmanuel, according to his ex-wife & 4 stepdaughters, did.

But I know you are as happy as I that Elizabeth has been found alive and well.