SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Police said Tuesday a "trusted person in the neighborhood" may be the man who snatched 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart from her home at gunpoint. In hopes someone might recognize him, they released a more detailed description.
Capt. Scott Atkinson said they were looking for a white male, 30 to 40 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a medium build and dark hair.
The night of the abduction, police said the suspect carried a small dark handgun and wore a Polo brand shirt, tan pants, dark shoes and tan cap. He had dark hair on his arms and the back of hands, they said, and was described as calm but "concerned others would awake."
He would not specify the second location. Police had already said Mary Catherine saw the man in the girls' shared bedroom.
"We believe that this person may be a trusted person in the neighborhood or in the community. [It] might be someone ... that had reason to be here, that had reason to come across the family, all those kind of things we still believe," Atkinson said.
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This article is from Jun 19, about 5 days after they arrested Ricci and about 5 days before they announced him to the public.. I think the telling words are "that had reason to be there, that had reason to come across the family." I take in this they were referring to Ricci, that he had reason to be there and had run across the family by working for them. I admit this is by no means clear.
I tend to think if it wasn't Ricci that went in the house it was the strange fellow in the white Honda seen a few nights before by the milkman. If he had an obsession with Elizabeth that would explain why he was lurking in the neighborhood. The getaway driver in Ricci's bank robbery drove a white Honda. The security man at Shriner's Hospital said the man behaving strangely in the parking lot had short dark hair and was driving a silver Honda.
The license plate on the Honda seen by the milkman later showed up on Edmunds car. The number was not on file with the DMV, they were phony plates. Newhouse said she saw Edmunds with Ricci on Sunday before the kidnapping. So this sighting ties Ricci to Edmunds and the phony plates tie the guy in the white Honda to Edmunds which ties all 3 together. Since this was a phony license plate number they may have had 2 sets of them, one on the Honda and one on Edmunds car, or they may have moved to Edmunds car sometime after the kidnapping. Edmunds license plate number was photographed by a neighbor at least a week after the abduction. When police saw it was the same number as the phony plate on the Honda given by the milkman, the police were obviously very interested in talking to Edmunds. They said later when they got Edmunds he had cooperated and they implied they had gotten information from him. Edmunds may well have been an addict friend of these guys and known more than we realized.