Smart Case, August 1, 2002

08/01/02 | Jolly Green

[Jolly Green]

Time Line
04/01/01	Sunday	Ricci burglarizes a Smart neighbor's home taking various items.
06/05/01	Tuesday	Ricci steals items from the Smart home while he is employed there as a handyman. Ricci is charged in July of 2002 of 1 count of theft related to the Smart incident.
05/30/02	Thursday	~ Ricci returns to pick up his Jeep at the auto repair shop before the shop has a chance to fully fix it He tells the repairman that it needed for an emergency.
06/04/02	Tuesday	~ Ricci is at work from about 9am to 5:30pm ~ Ricci claims he spends the evening with friends
06/05/02	Wednesday	~ 1:05am - 2 cars are spotted on the SLC Shriner's Hospital Parking Lot by a hospital security guard, two blocks from the Smart residence ~ 1:30am (approx) - Elizabeth is kidnapped from her home ~ 1:30am - Ricci claims to be in bed asleep with his with wife. ~ Ricci is scheduled to be off work all day today. ~ 7:21am - Rachel/Amber alert is issued and national media is involved. ~ 8:30am - Ricci and his neighbor talk about the kidnapping of Elizabeth, Ricci seems to know too much information about it. ~ Sometime during this day Ricci is visited by police in regards to Elizabeth's kidnapping as reported by Angela Ricci (Richard A. Ricci's Wife which is an ex-convict herself) ~ Ricci is seen by his neighbor digging a hole by his (Ricci's) trailer early in the morning. (heard the neighbor say this on TV)
06/06/02	Thursday	~ Ricci is scheduled to work from 9am to 5:30pm today, but instead works from 10:30am to 7:00pm ~ Police talk to Ricci this day about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. (The media is reporting this, so it could be wrong)
06/08/02	Saturday	~ Ricci returns the Jeep to the repair shop to get it fixed. The Jeep is muddy and the repair shop owner sees Ricci remove seat covers from the back of the jeep and place them into a plastic garbage bag that already contains other stuff in it. Also the repair shop owner said a muddy post hole digger was in the back of the Jeep, Ricci removes this also. Ricci has a man waiting across the street to give him a ride. Ricci takes the plastic bag and contents along with the post hole digger with him. Also there is 500 to 1000 extra miles on the Jeep since Ricci picked it up on May 30th, 2002.
06/14/02	Friday	~ Ricci is taken into custody for a parole violation, this being drinking while on parole and association with other ex-cons.
07/11/02	Thursday	Formal charges are filed against Ricci (2 counts of theft & 1 count of burglary) on the theft & burglary of the Smart neighbors home which occurred in April 2001, and 1 more count of theft for stealing from the Smart home on June 6th, 2001.
Special thanks to Brigette for starting this timeline.

[Neenah]

Mary Catherine -- I believe is her name -- knew Ricci and since last week, Lois said that Mary Catherine saw the abductor and recognized his voice, the question that somebody has to ask this little girl is -- was that individual Richard Ricci because if it wasn't Richard Ricci, there's a kidnapper out there. This is an easily answered question.

End.

If this is the case, then Mary Katherine could tell them it was or wasn't Ricci. I have a hard time believing a nine year old could remember the voice of a worker at the home a year ago when she was eight.

HOW MUCH TIME DID HE SPEND WITH THE KIDS WHILE HE WAS WORKING, that would have impacted her so much,that she remembered??I have to wonder if it wasn't a voice that she heard many times since a year ago, that it was fresh in her mind. And wouldn't this totally EXCLUDE some pals of Recci?..

Remember, the Mother said she DID recognise the voice.

This is strange.

There is no sketch released.

[r9etb]

The guy next to Ricci looks about the same height. David Smith must be huge man or Ricci is shorter than I thought.

It's mostly just the camera angle:

Note that the camera appears to be at table level, and that Smith is much closer to the camera than are the other two.

[Bella]

In the short interview on LKL live, Ed has said "you know" 30 times.

1st time--3 times
2nd " -- 0
3rd " -- 2 times
4th " -- 0
5th " -- 3 times
6th " -- 2 times
7th " -- 2 times
8th " -- 1 time
9th " -- 4 times
10th " -- 3 times
11th " -- 3 times
12th " -- 4 times
13th " -- 0
14th " -- 3 times
15th " -- 0

[MiloMarch]

Bella, I'll bet if it was YOUR child who had been kidnapped and probably murdered, Ed Smart wouldn't be so shallow as to make public criticisms of your speaking abilities.

[Sherlock]

shallow

It's not shallowness, it's basic ignorance. Ed Smarts' speaking function matches Bella's grasp of basic logic.

[jo6pac]

I don't know that Remington was the kidnapper but I won't be surprised if it was.

I would be astounded since he's been in prison since last year.

[Sherlock]

I would be astounded since he's been in prison since last year.

Well, obviously if he's been in jail since last year he didn't do it. Maybe they let him out for a while by mistake? The point is, there are only a small group of usual suspects around Ricci and we've seen pictures of all of them except Remington, and until we see he doesn't match the description I don't eliminate him.

[jo6pac]

Utah doesn't let bank robbers out on furlough after 7 months.

[FR_addict]

We've got a machete. It came in handy for clearing land.
We also have a post hole digger from the time we built a fence 10 years ago. And a few shovels. These are normal items for people that work outside. Nowadays, I'm doing good to mow the lawn.

[Sherlock]

Whatever you call yourself, if I ever murder someone I hope I get you on the jury. You'd be a jewell.

[FR_addict]

I'm too short and have a female voice. Come to think of it my husband is short and has some tan pants, hmmmm

girls have been rescued!!!

[FR_addict]

Annoucing on Fox. Girls taken today are safe. Suspect arrested.

[Sherlock]

>To date there has been nothing in any of the vehicles to connect him with the disappearance. Nothing.

No, he carried all the remaining evidence off with him and hasn't told police what he did with it.

>What is the compulsion to return a vehicle that has been used in the commission of a crime back to the location that the police will SURELY discover? Makes no sense. Ricci had other vehicles. He could have hidden this one. He could have had someone else do the remaining repairs. Why take it back to Moul?

It wasn't a smart plan but it was his plan, setting up the cover of taking the Jeep in the shop, taking it out and parking it away from his trailor for some use associated with the crime, then to take it back to Mouls' and claim he never took it, his keys were stolen in April and they must have taken it from Moul. Not very smart but ex-cons generally aren't very smart.

>The cops had already interviewed him on June 5. Do you think they were going to say, "We'll be back on the 8th, so if you have any evidence, you'd better ditch it before we come back"???? Wow, imagine - a guy who works in a garden center has dirt on him. Verrry suspicious.

The cops interviewed Ricci on Jun 6 and appear to have made a major error in either not asking where the Jeep was that Ed Smart had sold him or not following up on whatever Ricci told them about the Jeep. This was one of the two major mistakes of the case. I don't know why he decided his best strategy was to return the Jeep to Moul's but that's what he decided and he won't talk about what he used it for.

>If the mechanic's story is true, all we know is the Jeep was picked up by Ricci on 5/31 and returned on 6/8. A man who acknowledges his eyesight is poor says he saw seat covers/Indian blanket and couple of bags of something were removed and taken in plain sight across the street. A guy the mechanic can't identify is standing there. Ricci is in a bad mood. There's dirt and pine needles on the Jeep. Did I miss anything?

Yes, Ricci won't admit he had the Jeep, let alone discuss what he did with it and the post hole digger and the machetti in some muddy area on Jun 8. Nor will he tell them where the muddy area is.

[Sherlock]

Utah let Young go on a 'home vacation' back in the mid-80's after spending less than a year in jail. He was rearrested when he went on a burglary spree while home on vacation. He was out of jail 2-3 years after that.