Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread

An additional reward was announced Wednesday in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case.

Salt Lake police and the FBI are offering $25,000 for information that will lead them to the location of Elizabeth or to those responsible for her abduction. The money is separate from a previously announced $250,000 reward the family has offered for the "safe return" of Elizabeth.

Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson made the announcement during the Smarts' daily news conference Wednesday. He said the new reward money is for information whether Elizabeth is alive or dead.

Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, said the new reward doesn't mean police or the family have given up hope that the girl still lives.

"We hope this will bring forward people that might not otherwise step forward," he said. "I don't believe in any way, shape or form that she is dead. I still believe she's alive."

Meanwhile, while he still has not officially been declared a suspect in the kidnapping, the investigation of Richard Albert Ricci heated up again Tuesday.

FBI agents served a search warrant at Ricci's trailer home Tuesday morning, leaving with bags of undisclosed evidence that was collected from his trailer and his shed. Ricci had consented to all searches in the past, but this one was apparently unannounced.

Neither Ricci nor his wife, Angela Ricci, was home. (Note to Deseret News reporter: Ricci is in jail, which is why he wasn't at home.)

In addition to searching Ricci's trailer, law enforcers have been busy tracking down and interviewing some of his known associates. One law enforcement source said the FBI's top priority now is to find the mysterious driver who allegedly gave Ricci a ride after he dropped off his car at Neth's Auto Repair on June 8.

Douglas Rex Young was arrested Sunday on a federal warrant for violating parole. The former bank robber was transported Monday to the Salt Lake County Jail by U.S. marshals.

Mike Wingert, senior criminal investigator for the U.S. Marshal's Office in Salt Lake City, said Young had not checked in with his parole officer for several months, a violation of his parole. Late last week, the office also received word that Salt Lake police wanted to talk to him, Wingert said.

Young was arrested while trying to visit an inmate at the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. Security guards did a routine background check at the door and arrested him.

Wingert said it was his understanding that Young and Ricci met in the correctional system and may have worked in the same Federal Heights neighborhood as the Smart home, though Young did not actually work at the Smart house. Like Ricci, Young is a handyman and he and Ricci have maintained contact since being released, Wingert said.

Meanwhile, Bret Michael Edmunds, the man who sparked a nationwide manhunt after his name was one of the first to be released by police, announced Tuesday he would not fight extradition to Utah. Edmunds is in a West Virginia jail after being released from the Martinsburg City Hospital last week.

Edmunds is expected to be back in Utah in about a week.

Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom four weeks ago Wednesday. So far, no suspects have been named in the case.

Though Ricci has issued a statement denying any involvement, investigators are questioning his alibi for the morning of the kidnapping, June 5. Ricci claims he was in bed.

Investigators are also questioning where Ricci's Jeep was between May 30 and June 8. Ricci picked up his vehicle from Neth's Auto Shop May 30 and returned it June 8 with up to 1,000 new miles on the odometer, according to mechanic Neth Moul.

Ricci put two seat covers in a bag and carried that and a post hole digger across the street where a man was waiting to give him a ride, Moul said.

Analysis: Media walks fine line with Smart story

Wed Jul 3, 1:45 AM ET
Andrew Grossman

NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- In 1996, Richard Jewell went from hero to villain to obscurity after the bombing at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Print and broadcast outlets had named the security guard the prime suspect in the case, but authorities never charged him with a crime.

Jewell attorney L. Lin Wood Jr. won several out-of-court settlements in the case, including a reported $500,000 from NBC. Now, Wood and some media experts are warning that history could repeat itself in the form of Richard Ricci and the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Wood -- who has no connection to Ricci -- said the media's handling of the police investigation of the 48-year-old handyman could lead to the same type of litigation as the Jewell matter if Ricci is ultimately not charged with the crime.

"The media has not altered from its historical conduct by being more than willing to come up with a guilty verdict before they have a charge against (Ricci)," said Wood.

Wood also represents John and Patsy Ramsey, who have themselves faced intense media scrutiny since the 1996 murder of their 6-year-old daughter JonBenet. Neither has been charged in the crime.

Despite being exonerated, Jewell will forever be "tainted goods," Wood said. He added that Ricci's criminal background -- he's been in and out of the prison system for 30 years -- is irrelevant to the Smart inquiry.

Last week, numerous media outlets, citing unnamed police sources, indicated that Ricci is the primary suspect in the case in which the 14-year-old Utah girl has been missing for about a month. But television networks went further by casting doubt on his alibi that he was with his wife Angela at the time of the abduction and practically accusing his wife and attorney David K. Smith of lying during interviews that some critics likened to interrogations.

Media honchos insist they have done nothing wrong; they say they have simply reported the facts as presented to them by authorities. Further, they said, once Angela Ricci and Smith went on television, they were fair game to be interviewed closely on the facts. As one top network news executive said, "Truth is everything. What we have reported is true."

Wood, however, suggested the wife and lawyer were being exploited. "These people are not media savvy," he said.

Critics point to parallels with the Jewell case in noting that the media have relied on anonymous sources to suggest Ricci should be charged with the crime. Congressional lawmakers roundly attacked the FBI for leaking leads to the media during the Jewell inquiry.

"What is the standard for naming people not charged for a crime? On what basis do we say we're going to name someone?," asked former news director Al Tompkins, now of the media watchdog the Poynter Institute.

Media critics point to incidents like an interview last Friday on Greta Van Susteren's show on Fox News Channel where she asked Ricci attorney Smith to discuss the seat covers on the Jeep Cherokee that supposedly belonged to Ricci. When the lawyer begged off, saying it was "not appropriate" due to the ongoing investigation, Van Susteren attacked him for not responding.

On Monday, CNN reporter Ed Lavandera quoted unnamed police sources as saying that "they're just not confident with the kinds of information (Angela Ricci's) giving them." And CNN's law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks strongly suggested on last Friday's "American Morning" program that the circumstantial evidence points strongly to Richard Ricci, while noting about Ricci's wife, "you know she has a criminal record."

Network executives insist they are being more careful this time, reporting only facts they are certain about. "When we do stories about that gentleman ... we say he has not been charged, that police do not consider him a suspect," said William Shine, Fox's executive producer. "However, the cops are out there talking about him, his own family is out there talking about him."

In the end, David Doss, executive producer of ABC's "Primetime Live," which interviewed Angela Ricci on June 27, said the media had better be very careful. "As reporters for a story that's been going on for 22 days, it's up to us to present the best information that we can," he said.

link

No wonder Salt Lake is the national haven for ex-convicts, check this from an article today in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Like Ricci and Young, Remington has a violent criminal history that dates to the 1980s when he was sentenced to up to life in prison for bank robbery. A year later, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he went on a crime spree while on a home visit from the Utah State Prison, according to a story in the Jan. 19, 1986, edition of The Salt Lake Tribune.

For a Salt Lake County robbery committed during the home visit, Remington, then 28, was convicted of being a habitual criminal and given an additional sentence of 5 years to life. He served two years in prison and completed his parole March 8, 1994.

You people in Salt Lake let your convicts make home visits from the pen a year after you send them there on a life sentence? In case you don't believe this, here's the link for the article:

http://www.sltrib.com/07042002/utah/utah.htm

Mayor ups reward for Elizabeth Smart
PAUL FOY Associated Press Writer on Thursday, July 04

SALT LAKE CITY -- Hoping to flush out an informant, Mayor Rocky Anderson on Wednesday announced a second award in the Elizabeth Smart case.

Salt Lake City and the FBI are offering $25,000 and promising anonymity for information leading to the location of the 14-year-old girl, dead or alive, or information that results in the conviction of one or more people who took her.

That reward is separate from a $250,000 community reward for the safe return of the girl who was taken overnight from her bedroom at gunpoint on June 5.

The mayor's offer is designed to bring out a snitch, informant or accomplice who doesn't want to be identified, but can trade information for a code number and cash from an assigned bank.

Anderson said tips have been dropping off, but that police are aggressively pursuing "a lot of good information that has come in." Still, police haven't announced a major break, though a former Smart family handyman remains under suspicion.

"We just want anybody with any good information," Anderson said.

On Tuesday, authorities returned to Richard Ricci's mobile home a second time and confiscated several bags of stuff. They would not say what they took.

Police and FBI agents used a warrant to search Ricci's trailer and shed for about two hours, his father-in-law and next-door neighbor, Dave Morse Sr., told The Associated Press.

Ricci, 48, worked as a handyman for the Smart family a year ago. He received a 1990 Jeep Cherokee and cash under a contract he signed for painting and yard work for two or three months. He is being held on an unrelated parole violation.

Ricci has said he had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance, and that he was at home with his wife that night. Police aren't convinced, although they haven't named him a suspect.

Investigators on Tuesday interviewed Douglas Rex Young, 51, of Sunset, an "associate" of Ricci's who is being held for a purported federal parole violation, said police Sgt. Fred Louis.

Young, who is being held in the Salt Lake County Jail, was picked up Saturday while trying to visit an inmate at the state prison in Gunnison, Louis said. His connection to Ricci has drawn the attention of detectives working the Smart case, Louis said.

Young -- who briefly escaped from prison in 1993 while serving time for bank robbery -- pleaded guilty to a previous federal parole violation in 1997.

Ed Smart, the missing girl's father, said Wednesday that he did not know Young, who may have been another neighborhood handyman.

Young's father, Rex Young, said that before his arrest his son had been living with his wife and "working to provide for his family." He refused further comment.

During the family's daily news briefing on Wednesday, the girl's father begged for the return of his child.

"In no way, shape or form do I believe she is dead at this point," Ed Smart said.

The family "is hoping for the scenario of a ransom gone bad" because of the "media firestorm," leaving the possibility that Elizabeth still is being held, family spokesman Chris Thomas said Wednesday.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.

Heavenly Father,

Because You are the God of hope, we stand firm against our temptation to move ahead of You during this horrible storm in which Elizabeth is involved. You have not given Elizabeth or us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. During this time of great trial, we pray for an infusion of Your mighty power and a reaffirmation of Your unmovable love. Please halt all feelings of hopelessness. Help us to be still and know that you are God. We commit Elizabeth to You once again. Truly our souls silently wait for You, our God. You only are Elizabeth’s rock and her salvation; You are her defense. Help us to remember that You are as near to her during this turmoil as You were when she was peacefully dwelling with her family. You have not forgotten her. Regardless of what we see or don’t see here on earth, we know that You are at work in Elizabeth’s life. You are in control, Precious Lord. We will trust and not be afraid. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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