[stlnative]

9/1/02

Smarts seeking new leads

They believe clues may surface in wake of Ricci's death

By Pat Reavy
Deseret News staff writer

      The family of Elizabeth Smart says it still has faith the mystery surrounding Elizabeth's kidnapping will be solved. And whatever information Richard Ricci took to the grave with him will not stop the investigation.

Richard Ricci

      Cynthia Smart Owens, Elizabeth's aunt, spoke on behalf of the Smart family Saturday. Saying the case is now in God's hands, Owens said the family has great faith that someone with information will step forward now that Ricci is gone.
      "We know other people do have some of these answers," Owens said.
      Specifically, the Smarts want to know who picked up Ricci June 8 from Neth's Auto Repair after he dropped off his white Jeep Cherokee. And they want to talk to anyone with information surrounding an apparent July 24 break-in attempt at the home of Jeannie and Steve Wright. Elizabeth's mother, Lois Smart, is Jeannie's sister.
      Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, announced a $3,000 reward Friday for anyone with answers to those two questions.
      Ricci, 48, was pulled off life support Friday night at University Hospital and pronounced dead at 7:28 p.m. He never regained consciousness after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage Tuesday while in his cell at the Utah State Prison.
      Ricci's body was taken to the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office Friday night for an autopsy. Neither Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford nor Ricci family spokeswoman Nancy Pomeroy knew when the autopsy would be completed or when the results would be released.
      Pomeroy said Angela Ricci, Richard's wife, would at some point address the media regarding her husband's death. Saturday however, Angela Ricci was deeply grieving and asked that her privacy be respected, Pomeroy said.

Cynthia Smart Owens says Richard Ricci's previous crimes and Elizabeth's abduction share similarities.

Ravell Call, Deseret News

      Angela Ricci did say through her spokeswoman that despite her husband's criminal history, she wants others to know that there is a different side to him that the public didn't see.
      Through Pomeroy, Angela Ricci said her husband nursed her back to health after she was injured in a severe traffic accident two years ago. She also said her husband loved to cook and would always cook extra for visiting LDS missionaries or her parents. He was a soft-spoken person with a good sense of humor, she said.
      The Smart family issued a statement Saturday expressing their "heartfelt condolences" to Angela Ricci.
      With Ricci's passing, a number of outstanding questions surrounding his involvement in the kidnapping remain. Since his arrest on an unrelated parole violation June 14, Ricci denied having any involvement in Elizabeth Smart's abduction.
      But Owens said it's hard to ignore Ricci's past history and the striking similarities his previous crimes had to Elizabeth's kidnapping.
      Ricci was charged with theft and burglary for stealing items from the Smart's house and another house. In the second burglary, Ricci was accused in 3rd District Court of going into a bedroom where someone was sleeping and stealing items out of the room.

Elizabeth Smart

      "We don't know," Owens said when asked if the Smart family thinks Ricci was for sure involved in the abduction. "But it's so striking, the similarities."
      The Smarts' suspicions are also raised by the fact police believe Ricci lied to them about where he was the night of the kidnapping. If Ricci is innocent, why didn't he try to clear himself when he had the chance? asked Owens.
      Based on the belief Ricci did not act alone, the family remains confident the case has not hit a permanent road block.
      "There is so much evidence that suggests someone else was involved," Owens said. "There is a great deal of hope. We remain optimistic."
      While not revealing names, Owens said she knew police had a "short list" of specific people under investigation.
      Salt Lake police concurred Friday the investigation "still had breath" and Ricci was just one of a number of people being looked at. They concede however, that Ricci's death will have a big impact on the case.
      Meanwhile, between 40 and 50 people on ATVs and horses Saturday searched for signs of Elizabeth in the Fairview Canyon area in Manti after two hikers reported suspicious activity in the area.
      Ed and Lois Smart were away this weekend spending quiet time with each other, Owens said.

---

E-mail: preavy@desnews.com

[stlnative]

Potential suspect in Elizabeth Smart abduction dies
By CATHERINE BLAKE
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (Sept. 1) — Detectives investigating the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart lost their best lead when Richard Albert Ricci died, leaving them no closer to solving the crime than they were nearly three months ago.

But a Smart family member said Saturday she hopes Ricci’s death will lead anyone who has information about the man or the crime to come forward.

“There’s just so much that’s suspicious” about Ricci, said Cynthia Smart-Owens, the missing girl’s aunt. She said she thinks more than one person was involved in the kidnapping, though the sole witness, Elizabeth’s 9-year-old sister, reported seeing only one person in the bedroom where Elizabeth was taken at gunpoint June 5.

Police Capt. Scott Atkinson on Saturday refused to comment on whether he thought more than one person was involved in the adbuction.

“We’re still headed down the same road we’ve been on, only now, we don’t have the opportunity to speak to Mr. Ricci anymore,” Atkinson said. Investigators haven’t gotten any new leads since Ricci died, he said.

Doctors said Ricci, 48, had an irreversible injury to the brain stem after a hemorrhage Tuesday night. His family, including his wife, Angela, his mother, brother and sister, decided to take Ricci off the ventilator Friday evening after his condition worsened and he lost the ability to breathe on his own, said Dr. Richard J. Sperry.

Police are no closer to finding 14-year-old Elizabeth than they were when the girl was taken.

Ricci, a felon with a long prison record, once worked in the Smart home as a handyman. He had been charged with stealing items from the Smart’s house, but investigators had never been able to charge him with the kidnapping.

Though they had no proof Ricci was involved, detectives still weren’t satisfied with Ricci’s answers to their questions.

“He has told us things we don’t believe are true,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said. “We also have a lot of information about him, about his relationship to the family.”

His death will have a big impact on the investigation, Dinse said, though he’d give no details on the clues his officers have collected.

Ed Smart, the missing girl’s father, has said he never would have hired Ricci if he’d known about the man’s criminal past, which included convictions for burglary and assaulting a police officer.

“What he knows goes with him,” police Capt. Scott Atkinson said Friday night. “With Ricci gone, there will be no more opportunity to question him about things left unsaid or things he said that we didn’t believe.”

Ricci has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation. In late June, he said he had given 26 hours of police interviews, taken polygraph tests, given a blood sample and surrendered the impounded Jeep given him by Ed Smart as payment for work.

Ricci was in jail on a parole violation when he suffered the brain hemorrhage.

Doctors tried to save Ricci in a Tuesday operation to remove a blood clot in his brain and alleviate pressure on his brain stem, but the damage had already been done. There is no indication of foul play, and no suicide note was found in Ricci’s jail cell.

Police had said Ricci’s death could make it difficult to ever find Elizabeth or determine what happen to her.

Elizabeth’s family offered $3,000 rewards for information on who picked up Ricci when he left his white Jeep Cherokee at a repair shop on June 8, three days after the abduction, and information regarding a July 24 attempted break-in at the home of Elizabeth’s aunt.

Cynthia Smart-Owens, speaking to the media on Saturday, said whoever picked Ricci up from the auto shop could have information about the crime.

“That would be a good person to talk to,” she said. “Somebody had an idea of what he was doing.”

A $250,000 reward was posted in June for information leading to Elizabeth’s safe recovery. A separate $25,000 reward was offered for information leading to finding Elizabeth or contributing to the arrest and conviction of her abductor. Neither has been claimed.

The Smart family also is asking for information regarding a July 24 attempted break-in at the Cottonwood Heights home of Jeannie and Steve Wright. Lois Smart, Elizabeth’s mother, is Jeannie Wright’s sister.

The families are close and regularly spent Sundays together. Elizabeth and the Wright’s 15-year-old daughter also were close, Ed Smart said.

Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputies reported that the screen covering the 15-year-old’s window was cut and that a chair was found by the window.

The break-in also happened at the same time of night.