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How about this?

There might be any number of shady people ("loan sharks" or whatever) from whom Ricci may have borrowed money. Or he may have bought heroin on credit and failed to pay. Suppose Ricci borrowed/bought heroin in this way, and some sleazy character demanded the title and a set of keys to the jeep as collateral? Suppose Ricci never paid what he owed Mr. Sleaze, and Mr. Sleaze called in the loan by having someone "repossess" Ricci's jeep?

Might this explain Ricci's flat refusal to explain the jeep's absence? You wouldn't want to tell the police, "hey, I bought drugs from this guy and didn't pay him, he had kept my jeep title as security for my payment for the drugs, and I never paid him, so he repossessed my jeep." Of course the police would not rest till they got the name of the drug dealer from Ricci, so they could check out whether this story was true.

You wouldn't want to tell the police the above, b/c then you would be naming the name of a DRUG TRAFFICKER to police. The crime of narcotics trafficking can really draw a bad sentence--life in some places, even life without parole. Ricci might VERY EASILY be killed for divulging such a thing to police.

My scenario would include this: that after Mr. Sleaze, the narcotics trafficker, had "repossessed" Ricci's jeep by surreptitiously taking it off Moul's lot on May 30, Ricci somehow got the money to pay off his debt to Mr. Sleaze, and paid it, and was given his jeep back. He would then use it for whatever he used it for, and would have been able to take the jeep back to Moul's on June 8.

I really do think maybe the refusal to name a narcotics trafficker (very dangerous people) to whom he owed money, to police, may explain Ricci's failure to explain what happened to the jeep.

And to add some less believable (IMO) innuendo to that scenario, how about this:

Ricci, sitting in his cell at the prison, finally tells his lawyer (in confidence) the truth about the narcotics trafficker, explaining what really happened to the jeep. Perhaps "the walls have ears" in the little prison conference room where Ricci meets with and talks with his lawyer. Perhaps word gets back to Mr. Narcotics Trafficker (through a crooked prison guard or whatever) that Ricci has told at least one person the name of Mr. Narcotics Trafficker. While Mr. Narcotics Trafficker knows Ricci is not the kind of guy to snitch, he still feels angry/threatened, b/c for all he knows, this lawyer of Ricci's might tell the police about all this.

Ricci somehow gets access to some drug while in his cell at Salt Lake County jail, where he would have been housed directly before and after his court appearance (that last court appearance, right b/f he died.) Being an addict, he can't resist. (Yes, they can get drugs in prison/jail.) The drug is either 1) a much stronger or purer form of heroin than Ricci's system is used to, especially after being in jail, or 2) has poison or warfarin in it. Ricci's system can't take it; he develops bleeding in the brain, and dies.

Any/all persons who have dealt with this narcotics dealer, and who know Ricci dealt with him, sit up and take notice. They think to themselves, boy, I'LL never ever rat on Mr. Narcotics Trafficker--look what happened to THAT guy!!

Well I have always considered the fact that Ricci may have not had the Jeep during the time in question. Someone may have took it from Moul's without Ricci's knowledge and he did not know it was away from the shop and only learned of it after it showed back up and maybe then he learned that the Jeep was involved in Liz's kidnapping. Or Ricci actually lent it out to someone and told the person if they could get out of the shop they could borrow it...again thinking that Ricci had no idea what the person was planning to do with the Jeep and only learned about it after it was returned to Ricci.

It is possible that the Jeep has nothing to do with the kidnapping at all. Ricci may have been trying to bargain with LE about the Jeep and where it was to get some charges he was already facing dropped or a to get a lighter sentence. It possible that LE told him no deal. Maybe being told they would drop charges for crimes (non Liz related) he may have been doing during the Jeep time period in question was not good enough for Ricci as he may have not been doing anything with the Jeep.

As always I am not sold 100% on the fact that Ricci was involved in Liz's kidnapping. I am not afraid to look outside the box, even if that means taking a closer look at the family now. (No I do not think the family had anything to do with this.)

I have taken a look at public records of the Smart Family... these records are out there for anyone to retrieve or pay for to obtain. I will not fully share what I have learned as these records do not belong to me or I am not the official record holder of these records.

I will tell you this much, E & L Smart are not sitting on a bunch of money. So I do not think this kidnapping was done for a ransom or at least done as a ransom kidnapping by someone that knows Ed Smart well. The house & land they live in and on now (the 4517 sq foot home, plus land) was on the market for 1.9 million but was only valued between $600,000 & $675,000 at the end of 2001. They do own a cabin in their name that values out at about $160,000 (1222 sq foot cabin).

I am starting to question why in the world he would put the house on the market for $1,900,000.00 ??????? (you do the math on the increase between the value and asking price)

Later Folks...I am tired and will be going to bed for few hours... I was up working all night on a client's project.