Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 20

06/25/02 - Tuesday | Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 20

[stlnative]

Please keep adding 6/25/02 dated Elizabeth Smart updates to this thread...
Remember to keep checking back to this thread today for today's
developing news on the Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping.

Some people may consider today to be actually day 20, I count 1 day for each
24 hours that have passed since Elizabeth was kidnapped.

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People on my Elizabeth Smart Ping List will only receive ONE ping
daily from me at the beginning of the thread. This single ping will help you find the daily Elizabeth Smart Thread faster
when you check your own "My Comment's" FR feature. If something large breaks in the case during
the day I will send out a new ping to everyone on my Ping List. Something breaking... is if they find
Elizabeth or actually arrest someone for kidnapping her. It is up to you to visit the thread several times daily
as I and others will continue to add the latest breaking news reports as they are released throughout the day.

Links

Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 19
Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 18
Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 17
Elizabeth Smart Website
Smart Residence Real Estate Listing
Brigette's Scanned Copy of House Layout from Newsweek Magazine
(Please do not link to the picture on my server space, if you wish to use it...
copy and paste it to your own hard drive and move it to your own server space)

A note to the people who read this thread because they hope and pray that Elizabeth will be returned to her family and who wish to stay up to date with the facts in the case. Please do not let yourself get sucked into a heavy discussion or argument from someone who wishes to come in to this thread and makes a post that will disrupt this thread. The best thing to do it not to bring attention to these post or reply to them.

[Dante3]

The other day Rev. Al Shaprton was upset that so much media attention has been placed on the Smart case and almost none on that of a missing black girl -- I believe from Detroit. Her stepfather said he walked her to school which was directly across the street. She has not been seen since.

Cathrine Crier made arrangements with the parents to appear on her show to give the case national attention. The cameras were in place in front of the parents' home. Quess what? The parents refused to show up.

[Vinomori]

bump

[baseballfanjm]

Wasn't he on parole and violated it? From what I've read here, he's dangerous. Amazing that guys like this can be let off so easily. My question is, why does attempted murder have such a smaller penalty than murder? Isn't the intent the same? If you don't give the same sentance, it shouldn't be so small as fifteen years with parole.

[SarahW]

That story doesn't have anything in particular in common with the smart case except for the missing girl.

The logical suspect is the violent offender stepdad, and the case too garden-variety tragic to engage the public imagination.

[SarahW]

BTW, I am totally in Illbay's corner. He happens to be right.

[mystery-ak]

news conference at 12pm central

[cherry]

I remember reading of a sexual predator that had worked in the area and who had missed his parole officer meetings. the police were looking for him...don't know if this is the same guy or not

[HarryDunne]

Has anyone posted this article yet?: Police Investigate Three Cars in Kidnapped Girl Probe. It's "breaking news" on Fox.

[SarahW]

I'm sure he was one of the first they wanted to talk to.

[stlnative]

Thanks Harry...

Police Investigate Three Cars in Kidnapped Girl Probe

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

SALT LAKE CITY  — Police investigating the abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart are asking the public for information regarding three vehicles that a handyman who used to work for the girl's parents may have been driving.

The cops told Fox News that Richard Albert Ricci, 48, who has failed a lie-detector test in the case and has confessed to burglarizing the missing girl's home last year, may have had access to the three cars.

The cars were described as:

• an older, white Jeep Cherokee;
• a champagne-colored Ford Taurus;
• a white sedan, probably an older Oldsmobile.

"Mr. Ricci has risen to the top of our list to be looking at," Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said Monday.

"At this point in time, he is not a charged suspect, but he is very interesting."

The handyman worked for six months in Elizabeth's home in an affluent neighborhood of Salt Lake City before he was fired by the girl's father, Ed Smart, who suspected Ricci had burglarized the home.

Police said Ricci, who has a 29-year criminal record, has an extensive knowledge of the home and has confessed to the burglary.

Ricci has been in custody since June 14, when he was arrested on an unrelated parole violation. Elizabeth was taken at gunpoint from her bedroom nine days earlier.

Despite having had Ricci in custody for 11 days, police haven't been able to pin down his whereabouts on the morning of Elizabeth's abduction, Dinse said.

"We have questions about his actions between May 31 and June 8," Dinse said.

Ricci has been living in the Salt Lake City suburb of Kearns. He has a long criminal history in Utah, beginning with a burglary conviction in 1973. He was been in and out of prison for the past three decades, and was most recently freed on parole in 2000.

Ricci's convictions also include aggravated robbery, attempted homicide and a prison escape.

Chris Thomas, who has been acting as a spokesman for the girl's family, said Ricci last worked in the Smarts' Federal Heights home more than a year ago, painting and doing handy work.

Dinse said he believed Ricci had contact with the Smart children while he was working on the house.

He said Ricci's house and car have been searched, and that he has voluntarily talked to police. Investigators have also spoken with Ricci's wife, Dinse said.

Police have not shown Ricci's photograph to the sole witness of the abduction, Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister Mary Katherine Smart, who told police the man who took her sister was between 30 to 40 years old, nicely dressed and soft spoken.

Authorities said there was no known relationship between Ricci and Bret Michael Edmunds, the 26-year-old drifter sought for two weeks for questioning in the abduction investigation.

FBI agents told Fox News on Monday that they had interviewed Edmunds and that he now has "nothing to do" with the case.

Fox News' Alicia Acuna and the Associated Press contributed to this report

[TheBigB]

I don't know if there's been any ranson demands, either. Like I said before, I still am not sure why, if money was the only object, that the Smarts were the target. Unless a) there was some reason the kidnappers thought they could make the Smarts pay for sure (i.e. blackmail of some sort besides Elizabeth), or b) the kidnapper had easy access to the home, which in this case could mean Ricci.

[stlnative]

Ok... Now the cops are looking for 3 cars. Maybe this was a ransom kidnapping and it went bad before they could demand a ransom. The daily conference is coming up in about 7 minutes or so.

[cherry]

It is a shame and perhaps disgraceful that we give so little attention to the abuse thrust on our young people.

I wish every missing child would receive the attention that Elizabeth is getting.

but its human nature to follow certain stories closer than others.

personally, I follow a lot of stories throughout the year.

but this story has captivated me because it is true, Elizabeth looks like an angel and she seems to be the perfect dtr...this in a time when Madonna, Brittany, and j-lo apparently are pop idols (ugh)...

Besides, finding one child, and punishing whoever harmed her is actually wonderful for all of our children...it removes someone dangerous off the streets....it shows the public that we mean business...

I actually wonder if we should have a special crimes unit of the FBI to deal with all child abductions and murders...seems to many cases go unsolved

[r9etb]

Like I said before, I still am not sure why, if money was the only object, that the Smarts were the target.

They would be the target if the bad guys had some other animosity toward the Smarts, and a need for money on top of that.

But again, I think you're giving the bad guys more credit for brains than they deserve. They're probably not intelligent -- which, unfortunately, does not count as points in favor of Elizabeth's well-being.

[TheBigB]

3 cars...hmmm. Were they all supposedly in the area the day of the disappearance? What's the PC saying?

[stlnative]

Reports are that Ricci received a 1990 Jeep Cherokee as payment for work on the Smart home. I wonder if it is white?

BTW I own a 1991 Jeep Cherokee (RED) and they had just started calling them Cherokee's then (the title calls it a Wagoneer and the title is clean on it as I am the 2nd owner of it...but the side of the Jeep says Cherokee and it does not have the panels on the side of it) Did 1990 Jeep Cherokees have the panel sides to them still?

[TheBigB]

"They would be the target if the bad guys had some other animosity toward the Smarts"

That's where the speculation comes from (and I stress, speculation...nothing to back it up, just throwing out ideas for discussion)that there's more to this than meets the eye. I could be completely wrong.