Elizabeth Smart thread, August 31-September 7, 2002

[IamHD]

My prayers go out to the Ricci family during this time. RR was sent up the river and used as a scape-goat. No evidence, whatsoever, linking him to the disappearance of Elizabeth.

May he rest in peace.

[freedox]

In reading back through yesterday's posts, I have noticed a disturbing trend that I think needs to be remedied. A number of posters have presented new information that they have reportedly read or heard somewhere, but they either "can't find", "don't remember" or "don't want to go look up" the source. Folks, I KNOW how frustrating it is to remember something clearly, and yet be unable to recall the source. However, unless new information is sourced, it becomes nothing more than heresay that is ripe for misconstrual and/or misinterpretation.

Please don't think that I am doubting anyone's word on here.......by now, I feel I know most of you well enough to know that if you SAY you read something, you probably did. However, without a direct quote to work from, we are all at a disadvantage in discussing (i.e., slicing, dicing, chopping and mincing) an issue.

[sandude]

She certainly does and will.

Who do you think she'll go after?

[sandude]

However, without a direct quote to work from, we are all at a disadvantage in discussing (i.e., slicing, dicing, chopping and mincing) an issue.

I agree with you with some reservation. If someone states that they remember reading a quote and is challenged to source it then by all means the originator would need to research and provide that information or come back and indicate that they couldn't find it. If the originator asks for someone's help to source it and receives that help then fine.

Sometimes providing a source is a waste of time. An example yesterday would be the confusion over what type of seat covers were in the back seat of the Jeep. It never was actually cleared up one way or the other but in my mind it really didn't matter a whole lot. This is because the removal of those covers is circumstantial at best. The actual type of cover is not important because Ricci could have removed them for any number of reasons.

If I am the offender then let me know what specifically you are referring to. I do tend to use my memory of what's been written to make my points.

[freedox]

Nahhhh, sandude, it wasn't you. I agree that there are old issues where we are all pretty much familiar with the sources and capable of looking them up on our own. What I was referring to were posts on things that have allegedly been reported since Ricci's death......new information that has yet to be sourced anywhere. Some of the points were relatively minor, but I still think it's a dangerous precident to be set.

[varina davis]

If Ricci had high plood pressure, he should have been taking it in prison to avoid a stroke, which is likely what happened.

Correct, FR_addict, you don't stop taking it just because it goes down occasionally. Also, it shouldn't be too hard to verify the time card.

[Neenah]

However, without a direct quote to work from, we are all at a disadvantage in discussing (i.e., slicing, dicing, chopping and mincing) an issue.

If I am not mistaken, I saw this advertised by Ron Popiel, selling for $19.95, but if you acted on it in the next 5 minutes, you could get the Ginsu Knife set free.

[Neenah]

If I am the offender then let me know what specifically you are referring to. I do tend to use my memory of what's been written to make my points.

sandude, "you have to unravel every riddle" LOL!!

[TXLady]

Hi Neenah, are you anywhere near the bad tornado area, Ladysmith, I believe the news ticker said? It said the downtown area was pretty much destroyed. I didn't know they had tornados in your state. We lived in a Chicago suburb for a couple of years and never had any tornado alerts that I can remember.

[TXLady]

However, without a direct quote to work from, we are all at a disadvantage in discussing (i.e., slicing, dicing, chopping and mincing) an issue

That is a great description of what we do around here! LOL

Clinton folks never parsed like the goings on here!

[freedox]

LOL!!! Miss Neenah, you are HOT today!!!

[Utah Girl]

The Smart family released a sketch Tuesday morning of a suspicious man spotted digging what appeared to be a grave in Fairview Canyon near Manti shortly after Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping.

Artist's sketch of suspect seen digging a hole.

Three or four days after Elizabeth's June 5 kidnapping, two hikers who were looking for a campsite spotted the man digging a rectangular hole near some overhanging bushes in Fairview Canyon near Manti.

When the hikers asked what he was doing, the man said he was digging a pit to roast a pig. The hikers left but considered the situation suspicious because the location was so close to the bushes. When they returned, the man was gone. They called law enforcement officials, who searched the area and found nothing. Between 50 and 60 volunteers also searched the area on Saturday.

The man was believed to have been driving an older-model blue SUV, said Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart.

The sketch was drawn by one of the hikers, Smart said.

"We don't know the significance of it," Smart said Tuesday at the family's press conference. "It's highly suspicious, and we're anxious to try and find this person."

The Smarts also reiterated their plea for any information about the person seen leaving Neth's Auto Repair June 8 with Richard Ricci, the former Smart handyman who topped a police list of potential suspects. Ricci died from a massive brain hemorrhage last week. The Smarts are offering a $3,000 reward to anyone who can identify the man or the person who tried to break into the home of a Smart relative on July 24.

[Utah Girl]

Ricci's Widow Tells Of 'Wonderful Man' No One Else Knew

Angela Ricci, at her Kearns home, says her husband, Richard, was "heartbroken" by the police investigation of him. (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune)

   Two weeks before he died, Richard Albert Ricci penned a letter from his prison cell, thanking his new wife for standing behind him even as police were calling him the top "potential" suspect in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart.

"When I met you, I had no idea how much my life was going to change," Ricci wrote on Aug. 17. "But then how could I have known?"

The love letter -- written in verse form in neat penmanship -- represents the man that no one knew "other than myself and his family," said his wife, Angela, who wed the ex-convict in Mesquite, Nev., last Valentine's Day.

She said Monday that her husband nursed her back to health after a devastating car wreck last year. "It's sad that nobody knows him as I do. . . . He was a wonderful man," she said.

Police investigating the June 5 kidnapping of the Salt Lake City girl had placed Richard Ricci at the top of the list of potential suspects, before his death Friday from a massive brain hemorrhage. He had been at the Utah State Prison since June for alleged parole violations.

Ricci, who worked as a handyman in the Smarts' home last year, insisted on his innocence until the day he died, and police were unable to find any physical evidence to charge him with the crime. Still, police say they are confident they can solve the puzzling case.

Angela Ricci said from the porch of her trailer park home Monday that her husband had no role in the unsolved kidnapping and was being targeted by police because of his criminal history, which dates back nearly three decades.

"He's an ex-convict with a record," Angela Ricci shrugged. "Because of that I didn't think he got a fair shake." She said she hopes police will not simply pin the crime on her deceased husband, who she insists was home sleeping when 14-year-old Elizabeth was snatched from her Federal Heights bedroom.

Angela Ricci said her husband was "heartbroken" because in investigating him, police were looking for the wrong man. "He just didn't tell [investigators] what they wanted to hear, that he was guilty, because he is innocent."

She said her husband had great respect for Elizabeth's father, Ed, but did not not really know any of his children. "All he said about them was that he heard them playing the harp and that was cool."

While the decision Friday night to take her husband off life support was difficult, Angela Ricci said, it was the right thing to do. Her husband's deteriorating medical condition was a "complete shock," she said. "But I feel at peace with the decision."

A funeral in Richard Ricci's honor will be held Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Peel Funeral Home in Magna. His body has already been cremated at his request, said family spokeswoman Nancy Pomeroy.

[Neenah]

Hi Neenah, are you anywhere near the bad tornado area, Ladysmith

Hi TXlady...no we aren't. That is further north, but most of the state was under tornado warnings all evening until 10. Heavy storms. Tornados that didn't touch down. Heavy wind and hail.

The damage to Ladysmith was awful. thanks for asking!

[Neenah]

"We don't know the significance of it," Smart said Tuesday at the family's press conference. "It's highly suspicious, and we're anxious to try and find this person."

With respect for you posting this UG, I think Mr. Smart is loosing it. Why is this highly suspicious? The man was digging a hole to roast a pig, and the hole was near bushes, so they thought it was odd, and reported it? Was the reward out then?

I am not making fun of Mr. Smart, but Mr. Smart is not smart to do something like this in a press conference and release it, in my opinion. He has had so many of these that I am sure the media is beginning to knock their head against a wall. I want to see Mr. Smart as a strong father, smart, in grief, but also acting like a coherent man. He is running amok and I am getting embarrassed for him.

If they searched the area, and found nothing in June, why on earth is he giving this sketch to the press in Sept. ? It makes me crazy! To justify this is such a question mark it is not worth laughing at.

Angela is about to be on Larry King.,now we have another suspicious thing from Ed Smart...why? This happened in June for pete sake ! It almost seems like he doesn't want the spotlight to go in a different direction. This is so sad. The police don't seem to stop him either. I wonder why?

[Utah Girl]

Again, I will cut the Smarts a lot of slack. They've lost a daughter, and now it has become obvious that they are dropping nuggets of information out there to keep interest. And as long as the press keeps coming to the press conferences, the Smarts will keep on doing them. As for the SLPD stopping them, Ed Smart is not breaking the law, and the area in question was searched last weekend. What I am interested in is if the sketch was given to the searchers. I don't think the SLPD has cause to stop Ed Smart from doing what he is doing.

[FR_addict]

Who did the sketch? and when did they do the sketch? If it was a police sketch, I would think the police would release the sketch not the Smart family. This just doesn't make sense to be releasing it now.

Are the police and the Smarts working together or not?

[cookiedough]

Technically, anything which appears in a newspaper or other media is hearsay.

[cookiedough]

Unless you are interested in this case -- in which event, you will receive a free machete and cap.

[cookiedough]

I think Mr. Smart is desperate, that's all, and grasping at straws. More desperate these days since Ricci died and his hope of getting a confession out of him is gone too.

Angela has always been protected by the spousal privilege -- she cannot be compelled in a court of law to testify against her husband, vis-a-vis anything he may have told her.

Blue SUV -- blue van (at Moul's).

Hole big enough to roast a pig is a hole big enough to bury a girl.