Police fly to W.Virginia to question Edmunds
Searchers returning to Draper area after dogs pick up scent
Posted on 06/22/2002 12:20:16 PM PDT by stlnative
Saturday, June 22, 2002
Police fly to W.Virginia to question Edmunds
Searchers returning to Draper area after dogs pick up scent
By Brady Snyder
Deseret News staff writer
A Salt Lake police detective and an FBI agent were en route Friday night to West Virginia to interview Bret Michael Edmunds — a man they hope can give them clues in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart.
Boarding a Delta Air Lines jet at 5:08 p.m. the pair were set to arrive in West Virginia sometime after midnight Eastern time. There they hope Edmunds will unlock the mystery surrounding Smart's kidnapping. The 14-year-old girl was taken at gunpoint from her parent's million-dollar Federal Heights home in the wee hours of June 5. More than two weeks later police have yet to name any suspects.
Maren Laurence, 10, plays the harp Friday at the Arts Festival trying to raise money for the Elizabeth Smart Search Fund.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News
Meanwhile, in the continuing search for Elizabeth, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's search and rescue team was alerted late Friday by volunteer searchers whose dogs indicated on three dirt piles in construction sites on Traverse Ridge above Draper. Deputies cordoned off the area and planned to send their dog into the area early Saturday, deputy Peggy Faulkner said. "It's one more clue we have to follow up on."
Faulkner said deputies were concerned about contaminating possible evidence in the area in the darkness and the search could wait until morning.
In the Edmunds case, FBI special agent Dan Roberts said he didn't believe the man had obtained legal counsel Friday. Investigators have repeatedly said that Edmunds is not a suspect in the kidnapping. However, he is named in two felony warrants from Utah, has violated conditions of his probation and is the subject of a federal warrant for fleeing prosecution. None of the warrants are related to the Smart abduction.
Harpist Maren Laurence catches a poster before it blows away from a Main Street kiosk on Friday at the Utah Arts Festival.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News
Under that backdrop, Sgt. Fred Louis said police don't know if Edmunds will be forthcoming with information.
"It would really help us out if he talks to us," Louis said.
For 11 days Edmunds — a 26-year-old transient who lives out of his green Saturn — had eluded police, who released his photograph to media outlets last week.
Police theorize that Edmunds might have been in the area when the kidnapping occurred, since a neighborhood milkman noticed a car in the area that could have been Edmunds' Saturn. The milkman said part of the license plate on the car he viewed matched the Saturn's plate.
Edmunds was also spotted at a June 9 candlelight vigil for Elizabeth Smart, fueling investigators' desire to discover what, if anything, he might know about the abduction.
West Virginia state police troopers R. Elswick, left, and Dean Olack photograph a green Saturn sedan with Washington state license plates outside of City Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va. The car is believed to have been driven by Bret Edmunds, who is at City Hospital, being treated for a drug overdose and liver failure.
Ron Agnir, Associated Press
"He's a question mark, and we want to put a period on that question mark," Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said.
Salt Lake police attempted to arrest Edmunds at the vigil, but he fled in his Saturn and police declined to enter a high-speed pursuit.
On Thursday, investigators received the break they needed when a seriously ill Edmunds checked himself into the Martinsburg City Hospital at 5:15 a.m. under the name Todd Richards.
Hospital staffers on Friday became suspicious and telephoned Edmunds' mother in Sterling, Sanpete County, since her number was listed as an emergency contact. The mother then contacted authorities, Salt Lake Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
Knowing the location of the 26-year-old was a relief for his family members, who haven't heard from the transient in more than six months after he skipped town, violating his probation.
City Hospital
Ron Agnir, Associated Press
"Of course they were relieved. They were concerned for his welfare," Sanpete County sheriff's deputy John Cox said.
Dave Sacks, spokesman for the U.S. marshals in Washington, D.C., said Edmunds had overdosed and was in need of emergency care when he entered the West Virginia hospital. He remained in the Intensive Care Unit Friday night in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Teresa McCabe said. He was under watch by U.S. Marshals and the FBI, she said.
Sacks also said police in West Virginia had impounded Edmunds' Saturn, which was found in the hospital parking lot.
Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah, said prosecutors, in cooperation with the FBI, were seeking a search warrant for the car.
The sole known witness to Elizabeth's kidnapping is 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart, who slept in the same bed as her older sister and was left behind by the abductor. The girl, who feigned sleep during the incident, has described the kidnapper as a man who is between 5-feet-8-inches and 5-feet-10-inches tall, with dark hair on his arms and the back of his hands, and who was dressed nicely with a Polo brand shirt, tan pants, dark shoes, a light-colored jacket and a golf or English driving-style hat similar in color to the jacket.
Across the state Friday, several grocery stores pulled editions of the National Enquirer that reported — using unnamed sources — on the Smart family and what may have been found during searches of family computers and residences.
Albertson's stores won't sell the edition at any location statewide. At Smith's Food and Drug stores the edition was extracted from racks and could only be purchased by request.
Albertson's spokeswoman Jeannette Duwe said the company's decision is similar to one made last month when the company yanked the Enquirer from Colorado stores after learning the editions contained bloody photographs of the Columbine High School massacre.
The Smart family said the tabloid report doesn't merit comment.
I suspect that to be faulty PR stategy. The three named Smart men ought step to the cameras and either confirm or deny the truth of the tabloid report. Issuing "no comment" or sending out their women to deny the stories for them will only worsen the situation.
| Edmunds Found at Hospital |
Saturday, June 22, 2002 |
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE On the same day that a nationwide hunt for the fugitive Bret Michael Edmunds ended with his discovery in a West Virginia hospital, Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said his department is refocusing its investigation into the reported abduction of Elizabeth Smart. Police continued to emphasize Edmunds is not a suspect in the 14-year-old girl's June 5 disappearance. Edmunds, a 26-year-old drifter, had checked himself into City Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va., under a false name early Thursday. Hospital workers contacted his family in Utah, who notified the police. Police refused to specify what they hope to learn from the man who may have been in the Smarts' neighborhood two nights before Elizabeth apparently was abducted from her bedroom by an armed intruder. Dinse also said that while police have not ruled out family members, friends and neighbors in connection with the crime, possible family involvement was looking less likely. "We have had a very open discourse with the family since the kidnapping and we have not drawn any nexus to the family and the crime," Dinse said. He said police and the FBI are now looking at three "viable" motives for the kidnapping. The main theories: The kidnapper was a sexual predator; the abduction occurred during a botched burglary attempt; or the kidnapper is holding Elizabeth for ransom. "If you look at the direction we are going in this investigation," he said, "those are probably the most likely theories." Dinse did not speculate how Edmunds may or may not fit into those theories. "He is a question mark and we want to put a period on that question mark," Dinse said. "We are anxious to look at him in all aspects of this investigation to see if he is a suspect." Edmunds reportedly was suffering from a drug overdose and possible liver failure when he checked himself into the hospital. After he was placed in intensive care, a hospital staffer reached his family in Sterling by calling a number on an "In Case of Emergency Contact" card in Edmunds' wallet. A member of Edmunds' family alerted Sanpete County sheriff's deputy John Cox, who called the hospital and confirmed the patient matched Edmunds' description. Federal marshals took custody of Edmunds just after noon Mountain Time on Friday. Police released Edmunds' photo nationwide nine days ago, saying he was wanted as a potential witness. He already was being sought on two unrelated warrants. The federal marshals in West Virginia located Edmunds' car in the hospital parking lot before taking him into custody in the intensive-care unit, said Dave Turk, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service. Edmunds was drifting in and out of consciousness Friday, Dinse said. Two investigators involved in the Smart case were being sent to the West Virginia town of 14,100 to be ready to interview Edmunds as soon as his health allows. Investigators were preparing to search Edmunds' green Saturn sedan after obtaining a warrant and towing the vehicle to a secure location, said Dan Roberts, FBI special agent in Salt Lake City. Two days before Elizabeth's disappearance, a milk deliverer saw a suspicious car in the Smarts' neighborhood and wrote down a license plate number. Although it turned out to be invalid, police say they traced it to Edmunds. The milkman, Charlie Miller, said he saw Edmunds' car around 7 a.m. moving up and down the Smarts' street. Police later said Edmunds attended a June 9 vigil for Elizabeth at Liberty Park, but he managed to evade officers. Based on interviews with the only witness to Elizabeth's disappearance -- her 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine -- police have described the suspect as 30 to 40 years old, between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10 with dark hair and hair on his arms and back of his hands. Edmunds is 6-foot-2 and weighs 235 pounds. Dinse called it "a little unusual" that Edmunds, who reportedly had been living in his car, managed to travel unnoticed from Utah to West Virginia. A federal warrant charging Edmunds with flight to avoid prosecution, filed June 14, allows federal marshals to bring Edmunds back to Utah without extradition proceedings. He already was charged with an alleged assault on a West Valley City police officer in early May. University of Utah police have had Edmunds' driver license since they attempted to arrest him April 20 on Tomahawk Drive, which runs behind the nearby Smart home in the Federal Heights neighborhood. Edmunds evaded arrest by fleeing as police conducted a background check. Although ransom remains a possible motive for the kidnapping, Dinse noted that, with more than two weeks passing since Elizabeth disappeared, there have been only two demands. In the first, an e-mail forwarded to investigators from "America's Most Wanted" demanded that $50,000 be dropped off at the "Morman" temple by June 17. And on Thursday, an inmate at the San Diego County Jail called the Salt Lake City Police Department, the FBI and The Salt Lake Tribune demanding $300,000 by the end of the week or the "girl would be killed." FBI Special Agent Kevin Eaton said a San Diego FBI agent was headed to the jail Friday to find out who made the threatening phone calls. "We're going to indict this guy," he said. At a news conference Friday, former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson, who is heading the family's search for Elizabeth, said he now has a search contact in each of the state's 29 counties. Wilson said he expected nearly 10,000 volunteers to search this weekend and he asked residents in nearby states to join in. Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, renewed his appeal to the kidnapper to release his daughter. "I am pleading with whoever has her that I would do anything to have her back in my arms," he said. kcantera@sltrib.com, mvigh@sltrib.com _________ Tribune reporters Matt Canham and Linda Fantin contributed to this story |
| Some Supermarkets Pull Copies of Enquirer |
Saturday, June 22, 2002 |
Several Salt Lake City supermarkets struggled Friday with whether to display and sell this week's National Enquirer, which features a lurid story about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Albertson's corporate office e-mailed Salt Lake City-area stores and directed them to pull the Enquirers and stack them in a back room until they could be picked up. Smith's Food and Drug store managers were told to move the Enquirer from the check-out stands to behind customer service counters, said spokeswoman Marsh Gilford. "We have made the decision to move this particular issue out of concern for the trauma to the community and sensitivity to the family," Gilford said. "We will be happy to make it available for people who want to purchase it." Dave Davis, spokesman for Associated Retail Stores, which owns 16 Dan's Foods and Macy's markets on the Wasatch Front, pulled the Enquirer completely from its Foothill Boulevard store. "That was the closest store to Federal Heights," the neighborhood where the Smart family lives, he said. At other Dan's and Macy's stores, the Enquirer will be available at checkout stands, but turned around so the cover is hidden. "We are not making a judgment on whether it [the Enquirer story] is correct or incorrect," Davis said. "But because people at the check stand don't have a choice about what they see on the racks, we feel somewhat of an obligation to not force upon people things they would rather not read. But if its something they want it, they can buy it." Salt Lake City police chief Rick Dinse declined to discuss the Enquirer article, and members of the Smart family would not comment. |
| Harpists to Play for Elizabeth |
Saturday, June 22, 2002 |
About 40 harpists will gather tonight at 8 at Exchange Place in Salt Lake City for a free, hour-long concert. The idea, said harpist Megan Jones, is to raise money -- and hope -- in the search for Elizabeth Smart. The performers, many of whom have played with Elizabeth, have selected several classical numbers, including a solo cantina band piece that was one of Elizabeth's favorites. "All of us have felt so helpless," said Jones. "We just wanted to contribute in some way." Donations are not necessary, but appreciated, she said. Monday, a community music vigil to support the families of Elizabeth Smart and other missing children will be held from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Salt Lake City's Liberty Park. Church and community choirs, performers and soloists will appear before a community sing-a-long. |
Appreciate all you guys do to keep track of this for us!!
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