| 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 |
