Elizabeth Smart Case - Ricci Dies in Hospital

FoxNews | 8/30/02

[stlnative]

Richard Ricci Dies in Hospital

AP
Richard Ricci

Friday, August 30, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY — Richard Albert Ricci, the top potential suspect in the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart, died at a hospital Friday.

Ricci, 48, had been hospitalized for three days after suffering from a brain hemorrhage and collapsing in his jail cell, doctors said.

Earlier Friday, doctors had said Ricci had an irreversible injury to the brain stem after the hemorrhage Tuesday night.

The former handyman for the Smart family was not charged in the disappearance and denied involvement. He was in prison for a parole violation.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse this week reaffirmed that Ricci remained at the top of the list of potential suspects in Elizabeth's abduction. However, investigators were no closer to finding the missing 14-year-old than they were June 5, when a gunman took her from the bedroom she was sharing with her younger sister.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[sandude]

Are you speaking of me as varina's pen pal? I'm not gone for good. Vegetables are taking up my time - like freezing & drying Jolly Green Giant zucchini by the ton, and a new unpatented, unproved variety of Sherlock tomatoes.

What?!!? Nothing for me?

[varina davis]

I'm convinced that Mary Katherine picked Ricci's voice out of an audio lineup sometime after the 1st of August.

Sandude, you can be "convinced" all you like, but there is no way you KNOW that to be true. He was jailed long before Aug. 1, in any case.

[cherry]

I am so sorry for your loss...that must have been and probably still is, a nightmare...

look, Ricci had very little chance...he was over the 4 minute window of opportunity when they started the cpr as far as I can detect from the news....in ordinary circumstances, they may not even have done surgery...but with this high profile case, if they didn't do surgery, then what would the whispers be...

I think this is a good decision on the part of the family....there is no bad decision if you make it with love for that person....

I do think that a person could be given blood thinners that might lead to hemorraging....

who knows for sure what happened....

isn't it sad that after all this time, we still don't have any answers..

one more thing...Dinse had better stop insinuating that Ricci was a suspect unless he can prove it unconditionally....sounds to me like what they have is very circumstantial.....

[lakey]

:) You're the green beans - grown in sand, dude. For better drainage.

[sandude]

but there is no way you KNOW that to be true.

That is correct, I don't KNOW for sure. It does fit in with all that we know happened between the 1st of August and the 14th of August. We will find out one day I'm sure of that. At some point the family and LE will let us know whose voice Mary Katherine did recognize.

[varina davis]

one more thing...Dinse had better stop insinuating that Ricci was a suspect unless he can prove it unconditionally....sounds to me like what they have is very circumstantial.....

I absolutely agree! Seems to me a lot of people in very high places in Utah have a lot of explaining to do.

[Bella]

sounds to me like what they have is very circumstantial.....

Absolutely..they didn't have anything connecting Ricci to this case..so, back to door # 1.

[sandude]

they didn't have anything connecting Ricci to this case..

We can't be sure of that. I think that most of what they had was circumstantial but nobody outside of the investigators knows for sure. If I'm right about MK's recognition of Ricci's voice that might fall into the category of direct evidence. The problem with that is this. A good defense lawyer would argue that MK picked his voice because it was familiar to her. She had heard it in the past when Richard worked in the Smart home. I think that LE really needed to find Elizabeth's body. There may be some very good clues at her burial site to tie Richard and the Jeep to the crime.

[Utah Girl]

And what high people in high places would those be?

[Sherlock]

We all need to remember that LE had absolutely NO evidence or witnesses to associate Ricci with Elizabeth's disappearance.

1) Mohl said he brought his Jeep in on May 30 for a variety of repairs. After he fixed the fuel pump & got it running again a woman identifying herself as Mrs. Ricci called and said Ricci would be picking it up. Ricci came in and said he needed it for an emergency and took it. He returned it on Jun 8 covered with mud & pine needles, all the windows rolled down, bugs on the windshield, newspaper on the floor, sweating profusely, wearing a machette at his waist, wouldn't talk to Mohl who he usually joked with, and walked off with a post hole digger, seat covers, and trash bags of newspapers and whatever else from the Jeep. He met someone he had been looking nervously over his shoulder to see across the street and left with him. He refused to admit he ever had the Jeep, said none of the above ever happened, and thus there was no man across the street.

2) Between May 30 when he took the Jeep back from Mohl and Jun 8 when he returned it he put 500-1000 miles on it yet it was never parked at his trailer park.

3) Neighbor Thurber, a friend of Angela, said he was drinking at 8:30 AM the morning of the abduction and had undergone a complete personality change from what he had known him to be. He was pounding 2'x4's on his neighbors trailer with some weak excuse about keeping his cat out. He went into a story Thurber called bizare about how beautiful Elizabeth was and how she used to follow him around the house and help him out. He said in the car taking him to & from the movie Ricci, who usually carried the conversation, said virtually nothing. Thurber said he never would have imagined it possible for Ricci to do something like this but because of his personality change and the facts surrounding that day he thinks Ricci was involved in it. Thurber also said he knows Angela was somatosed the night of the abduction and that Angela went around and made sure no one in the neighborhood saw Rick leave so she would know there would be no one to counter her testimony that she knew Rick was with her all night.

[Sherlock]

lakey, you haven't seen me for 2 days and this is the way you welcome me back?

[lakey]

I wish you'd stop saying "find her body." There's no proof.

[varina davis]

And what high people in high places would those be?

Perhaps the police chief, detectives, whoever is in charge of health concerns at the prison....and maybe anyone who might be allowing the case to drag on and on.

[sandude]

I wish you'd stop saying "find her body." There's no proof.

I'm sorry. It hurts me everytime I type it but I'm a realist. I'll try to refrain. It is possible that she is still alive but even the Smarts are losing their hope.

[Utah Girl]

Oh, OK. And why would the SLPD and the detectives and everyone else want this case to drag on and on? Rick Dinse's career is made if he nails a perp in the abduction, as are the detectives who are working on the case.

[lakey]

Oh, I've "seen" you, little one.

[Sherlock]

I'm beginning to wonder if the Smart brothers didn't steer LE to Ricci from the beginning,

The truth is, it's too bad Ed didn't steer LE to him immediately and LE didn't followup on the whereabouts of the Jeep before Jun 8 and Elizabeth may very will have been rescued early and home with her parents tonight. This ugly reality doesn't compute in the short circuitry of varina's mind. I pity her parents raising and trying to make sense out of her.

[varina davis]

And what high people in high places would those be?

Utah Girl, I didn't say "high people," just "high places."

[Utah Girl]

Oh, sorry. You still haven't answered my question why?

[varina davis]

Rick Dinse's career is made if he nails a perp in the abduction, as are the detectives who are working on the case.

I'd love to answer this one, but I really don't want to go there right now.