Elizabeth Smart Thread, 9/9/02 to ???

[stlnative]

New thread...

[Sherlock]

I'm not so sure about that. If they didn't have the money to pay for and retrieve the Jeep, they probably would not want to draw attention to the fact that the Jeep hadn't yet been picked up by calling.

Then why did Angela call on May 30 to find out if the electronic fuel pump was fixed yet if she wasn't planning on getting it for another 2 1/2 weeks?

[varina davis]

Then why did Angela call on May 30

She didn't.

[lakey]

Sherl's said it so many times, she's come to believe it.

'nite

[Devil_Anse]

Okay. You say Angela didn't call Neth's on May 30.

Angela says she did call Neth's, at some point. Strictly as a matter of opinion, when do you think she DID call?

[Devil_Anse]

"they probably would not want to draw attention to the fact that the jeep hadn't yet been picked up by calling."

I know, I bought that story about the Riccis having left the jeep there for long periods, b/c they had to raise money to pay for it and get it out.

But now I'm not so sure. Judging from Angela's rather belittling references to Moul during her LKL interview (she mimicked his accent, twice), and by Moul's description of his own attempts to be all palsy-walsy with Rick, I don't think the Riccis were the least bit intimidated by Moul, and would have called his place any time they wanted, at the drop of a hat.

I still think there was something funny about Ricci's casual way of leaving his vehicle at the repair shop for prolonged periods. If the vehicle was that unnecessary to his daily life--and he seems to have got along very well without it--why take it in at all, until he'd raised the money to pay for the repair, and could just take it in, have a quick repair, and get it back out? The answer could be something as simple as Ricci not wanting to have a broken-down vehicle cluttering up his parking space at home, and thinking Moul was such a patsy that it would be just as well to "store" the thing there. It's just that the average American will do everything possible to have a running vehicle available to himself at all times.

[Devil_Anse]

You make a very interesting point when you say that Ricci may have harbored some very negative feelings towards the Smarts, especially Ed.

A burglar who steals items not for the purpose of fencing, but who keeps the relatively valueless items around--even if they WERE little gifts to his wife, as conjectured--just strikes me as creepy, even creepier than the average burglar. And if one believes that "Ricci was known for targeting children's rooms," and "Ricci went into the room where Lin Lee was sleeping"--as I believe--then the image is even more creepy.

[Devil_Anse]

On the older thread, you said these guys (Ricci and Edmunds?) weren't smack addicts. Smack=heroin, isn't that right? If so, I was under the impression that both Ricci and Edmunds WERE smack addicts. (I know addiction vacillates, sometimes the person is "in recovery," but the potential for relapse is a lifelong condition, isn't it?)

[Devil_Anse]

"The milkman initially described the car as an early 80's Nissan, color grey..."

Yes, the whole thing with the milkman is almost incomprehensible. Yes, the milkman himself has been suspected by some.

It is so hard to figure out, b/c here's the milkman describing this gray Japanese car, and he tells police he remembers its license tag had the numbers "266" and they run all the tags that begin with that number, but don't come up with any vehicle fitting the description that has those numbers at the beginning of the tag.

Then, the next thing we know, they are after Edmunds like gangbusters, broadcasting his picture repeatedly on national TV. Edmunds stole tags sometimes. I assume maybe he'd stolen a tag starting with "266" off some gray Nissan, and had put it on his Saturn....Nope, that doesn't work either. Because then the milkman would have said, I saw a green Saturn with the license tag starting with "266."

Oh. Okay, I've got it. The gray Nissan guy was seen in the neighborhood on June 3, and the milkman was suspicious, and took down his tag number, the number began with "266." Then shortly after that, the gray Nissan guy was the victim of a license tag theft by Bret Edmunds. Edmunds stole the gray Nissan guy's tag, and put it on his own green Saturn.

Nope. That last one doesn't work, either. Because if the gray Nissan guy had been in the neighborhood, sporting his license tag beginning with "266," and the milkman saw him and all, then when the police ran all the tags beginning with "266," they'd have come up with at least one car that fit the description, and had a tag starting with "266."

Okay, here's the solution. The guy the milkman saw the morning of June 3, the guy driving the gray Nissan with the tag that began with "266," that guy was driving his Nissan with a stolen license tag on it. The milkman got the first 3 numbers of the stolen tag. When the police ran all the tags that began with "266," they didn't come up with mystery man's gray Nissan, b/c mystery man had stolen that tag off some totally different model car, and had just slapped it on the back of his gray Nissan.

So there were two people hanging out in the Smarts' neighborhood who did things like, steal tags off other people's autos...Edmunds, and the gray Nissan driver.

Well, GEEEEEE....that simple solution was just staring me in the face all along. How could anyone miss that, it's so obvious....NOT!

[Devil_Anse]

"Did not Lois state a couple of months later that Mary Katherine recognized the voice? Now, when did Lois find this out? You don't know, and neither do I."

Well, if we then want to figure out exactly whose voice Lois was talking about, but we can't ask Lois personally, then shouldn't we maybe look to Lois' subsequent behavior to see if maybe we can guess from her actions, what she found out about the identity of the voice's owner?

Lois, to our knowledge, has not gone off in any new direction in her search for her daughter's kidnapper. Could it be possible--and I know this sounds farfetched, so bear with me--could it be possible that Lois has not gone off in a new direction, b/c the recognized voice turned out to be that of Richard Albert Ricci, who was already locked up?

You know, if you don't want to believe the above (and I get a funny feeling that you don't), how about: "Mary Katherine recognized the voice. It was familiar to her, and she'd heard it before, but she cannot think of/doesn't know the name of the person whose voice that was."

[Devil_Anse]

Ricci "did show a level of intelligence in his writing that one would not find in a lot of criminals."

Ricci could well have written that touching letter to Angela, and probably did. Do we know when he wrote it? I know Angela tearfully said that poor Rick was never allowed to see a human face for months at a time, but I believe he may have had some slight contact with someone else occasionally, guards, perhaps even other prisoners.

It is very common for one prisoner to write a letter for another prisoner. Very, very common. Many times they get together and compose correspondence for each other.

Of course, it's completely plausible that Rick wrote the letter alone. In that case, we can indeed consider it genuine, and place it into the anthology of "Mankind's Most Touching Love Letters," right on the next page up from the one that goes, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

[landerwy]

As soon as the crime is committed innocence is lost. As for as prosecuting the case the person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

[Devil_Anse]

"You still haven't answered if you're joining the search Saturday."

Doesn't it just irritate the heck out of you, Varina, when someone dances all around and doesn't directly answer a question?

How you could watch/listen to Angela Ricci without having smoke come out of your ears, is a mystery to me.

"So, you're saying Ed Smart repossessed the jeep while it was in the shop and it was used by some unknown character to carry out the alleged kidnapping?"

No.

[Devil_Anse]

"Ricci won't be a defendant, but wouldn't the prosecution have to bring up his part in the robbery?"

I guess. In my opinion, the ones who would be screaming about every possible detail of Ricci's participation in the robbery, will be Remington's and Young's defense attorneys. I'm sure they'll want to hang the whole thing on the dead guy. Incidentally, it does sound as though the deceased Ricci played a big part--running around, jumping the counter, making a pregnant woman lie on the ground with the rest of the people, and threatening to take a hostage.

Yes, I know, Lakey--lies. All lies.

Here's something to watch for, IMO: If you now see the feds DISMISS (it's called nol pros, ask cookiedough) the indictments against Remington and Young, in my opinion, that means Ricci was planning to testify against Remington and Young (in return for leniency, of course.) If those indictments are nol prossed (if the charges are dropped, so to speak), b/c Ricci is no longer available to the prosecution, doesn't that make it look like either Remington, Young, or some as-yet-unknown accomplice had Ricci bumped off?

[Sherlock]

Then why did Angela call on May 30
She didn't.

Then the other person is correct, Angela had the electronic fuel pump fixed twice, on May 30 and some prior date, and it was on the prior date there were two, three white Jeeps at Mouls?

[varina davis]

Doesn't it just irritate the heck out of you, Varina, when someone dances all around and doesn't directly answer a question?

No. It doesn't matter enough to me to be irritating. I find it sort of amusing.

[varina davis]

Then, the next thing we know, they are after Edmunds like gangbusters,

Who happens to be almost a mirror look-alike of Spencer Dixon.

[varina davis]

"Mary Katherine recognized the voice. It was familiar to her, and she'd heard it before, but she cannot think of/doesn't know the name of the person whose voice that was."

I offered that theory a long time ago -- that the perpetrator met Liz and MK while running, and MK didn't know his name, but perhaps recognized the voice.

[varina davis]

Are you a practicing lawyer or retired -- or wannabe?