Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread

There is not much news going on... possibly due to the holiday weekend

PING to Day 33 - I wish there was "new" news to report, but there is not.

Sorry... The lower header says day 32 - it should say day 33 for 7/7/02

I have not been posting much but I have checked in on these threads some. Here are the three possibilities I see for the investigation into the trailer park crew:

1. The trailer park kidnapped E.Smart for themselves or one of them.

2. Ricci maybe with another member of the trailer park crew as a go between sold information about the Smart house or maybe a key to the Smart house to some third party who did the kidnapping. I do not think that a serious third party, ie someone say from the infamous white slavery theory, would let the idiots in the trailer park crew go along with them to do the kidnapping. I think such a person would want to do it themselves or using some other trusted PROFESSIONALS who have not spent their entire lives locked up.

3. The trailer park crew is a dead end and the real truth lies elsewhere.

Now situation 3 would include various "run away with some boy friend/boy the family look strange to me/what is that funny religion they belong to" theories.

Now am I missing something here? Would a lack of forensic evidence in the Jeep imply situation 2? Is it beyond reasonable that one of the other trailer park cons stole Ricci's keys and Ricci was not the one that got his Jeep out of the repair shop?

3. The trailer park crew is a dead end and the real truth lies elsewhere.

The most likely scenario -- No. 3. But it doesn't necessarily mean she ran away with a boyfriend. Someone still could have taken her to be with her and is now scared into a corner.

All the trailer park characters in this saga will likely get their just desserts, but I doubt kidnapping is among their crimes.

Here is an article about another kidnapping that was mentioned on yesterday's thread.

Deseret News, Thursday, June 06, 2002

Idaho kidnapping suspect dead after chase

Abducted girl, 14, manages to escape from man's house

By Teri Anderson
Idaho Falls Post Register

IDAHO FALLS — Bonneville County Sheriff Byron Stommel knew when Wednesday's police chase began that it could turn deadly. He called Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and told them to have an emergency helicopter put on standby.

After falling to his knees in joy, the father of a missing 14-year-old girl talks to her as friends and family surround him and his wife at their home east of Idaho Falls.

Randy Hayes, Associated Press

He had dealt with Keith Glenn Hescock before.

Hescock, 42, the chief suspect in the abduction of a 14-year-old girl Wednesday morning, led police on a 40-mile chase that began shortly after 4 p.m. as police waited at his home. It ended shortly after 5 p.m. on a dirt road in the Big Hole Mountains.

Hescock and a police dog were dead, and a Bonneville County sheriff's deputy was shot in the leg.

Investigators have not released information about how the chase ended and who fired the fatal bullets.

"I knew he had firearms, lots of them," Stommel said. "It was my fear this would be a shootout."

Investigators planned to search Hescock's home Thursday for evidence that may link him to the disappearance of a woman who vanished in September 2001.

Because of the timing, Stommel does not believe Hescock is linked to the Wednesday abduction of a 14-year-old Utah girl, Elizabeth Smart.

The case began Wednesday morning around 10:30 a.m. when the rural Idaho Falls girl's family reported her missing from their Highway 26 home. She had been sleeping outside the home on a trampoline with one of her sisters, who had been sound asleep, Sgt. Kevin Cox said. A family member discovered the girl missing around 5:30 a.m., but her sister was still there and was unharmed.

The girl's family searched for the girl by calling all her friends and people who had seen her the night before, he said. The family told deputies it was out of character for the girl to disappear, and they had called on a Madison County farmer to bring his helicopter to help search for her by air.

When deputies arrived, they brought search dogs and the Bonneville County Search and Rescue team to scour the nearby fields and canals.

About 3 p.m., 30 friends and family members lined up from a fence post to the family shed to search the grass for clues. It was then that the girl's mother came out of the house screaming and handed a phone to her husband. He dropped to his knees and told his daughter he loved her.

The girl was returned home 15 minutes later. Still wearing the purple pajamas and T-shirt she had last been seen in, she cried and hugged her family.

The girl told investigators she had been able to get out of Hescock's home while he went to work, Stommel said. He declined to say how the girl got out, but he said she told deputies where they could find the man's home.

"It's just amazing she was able to free herself and get out of this predicament," Stommel said. "If you had a chance to interview her, you'd be overcome with emotion about what a nice, sweet girl she is."

Deputies and a SWAT team were waiting outside Hescock's nearby home later in the afternoon north of Idaho Falls when he arrived home from work. Hescock, a tool salesman, drove away in his work truck.

Up to 10 deputies followed him at speeds of up to 78 mph through Heise, Kelly Canyon and then to Madison County. Police say Hescock drove past Kelly Canyon Ski Resort and down Forest Service Road 218, a narrow, bumpy, winding, tree-lined dirt road covered with large rocks.

The chase whipped by two area teenagers near Kelly Canyon who were on their way to go camping.

"He almost hit us when he went by," said 16-year-old Idaho Falls resident Willie Kaiser, who was driving an old pickup truck loaded with his two golden retrievers and two dirt bikes. "If I hadn't moved off the road, he would have hit me."

The road eventually leads to Argument Ridge near Red Butte, where the road ends and the Red Butte Trail begins.

"It's basically a dead end," Madison County Sheriff Roy Klingler said of the area, about 13 miles from the ski resort.

Hescock attempted to drive his truck over a berm where the road had been closed and it became "high-centered," Klingler said.

The details of what happened next have not been released. But Bonneville County Sheriff's Sgt. Todd Raymond was shot in the leg and was transported by helicopter to EIRMC. The police dog, Riki, a Belgium Malnois who had been with the sheriff's office for one year, was dead.

Raymond was in fair condition and was having bullet pieces removed from his leg. He will likely undergo surgery today, Stommel said.

Deputies will likely hold some kind of service to honor Riki, who was handled by Deputy James Schiffler, Stommel said. Riki did patrol work and detected drugs for a year and was one of three dog officers owned by the sheriff's office.

Riki may be the first police dog killed in action in Bonneville County, said Capt. Paul Wilde.

"This dog gave his life to save an officer," Stommel said. "The dog is deployed to take his weapon away. The idea is his life will come before the deputy's."

At press time, prosecutors and investigators were still interviewing the deputies involved to determine who fired their guns. They also were trying to piece together the final day of tool salesman Hescock's life.

"There's a lot of questions we still don't have answered," Stommel said.

Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr. obtained a search warrant for Hescock's home, and a forensics team from the state crime lab in Pocatello was at the house Thursday to look for evidence connected to the abduction.

Deputies also plan to look into whether Hescock is tied to the September 2001 abduction of Bonneville County resident Amber Hoopes, who is still missing, Stommel said.

The deputies involved in the pursuit could be put on leave while Tri-County Sheriff's investigators investigate the shooting, Stommel said. The sheriff did not know Wednesday night how many deputies were involved and could not say how many shots were fired.

The shooting is being investigated by Madison County deputies, but the abduction is being investigated by Bonneville County.

Hescock has a record of out-of-state felonies, but details were not available at press time.

According to the Post Register's archives, in 1997, Hescock was arrested for poaching twice in Idaho in less than a month. After being stripped of his hunting license for poaching in November, Hescock and a friend from Utah, along with their children, returned to the scene of their first offense, an area near Myers Cove in Lemhi County, and illegally shot seven elk and a deer. When Hescock was spotted by Idaho Fish and Game officers, he ran to his van and sped away. He was captured after a two-hour search that included six game wardens and a sheriff's deputy.

Hescock received a 90-day suspended jail sentence and paid $5,419 in fines.

Contributing: Matthew Evans

Original article.

Hescock and a police dog were dead

Dang, too bad about the dog.

Hi Bridgette; I think we may need alot of help today,

if there is not some real news soon, We could make hats.

How to make your own foil hat

Or we can just keep recycling the best day of post so far. Elizabeth Smart kidnapping day 31

I think we need to factor in the age and long criminal records of all of the felons living in the trailer park. All are approaching retirement age and have nothing to show for their life of crime. A BIG score would be quite appealing - expecially in a drug/beer/Coma induced stupor.

If we had only one felon in this case with a reasonable alibi, other theories might have merit. With each new felon associated with Ricci (who has a direct link to the Smarts) and a poor alibi, the probability starts to lean heavily in that direction.

I am completely agnostic about whether it is situation 1, 2, or 3, I outlined above or whether or not I missed some other possibilities I should have listed.

I agree that a big score by the trailer park crew of idiots could be the explannation. Or they might have done it for any reason. I just find it hard to believe any serious person outside the trailer park crew that planned and wanted to get away with this would let a guy like Ricci drive his get away vehicle or even know about when he was doing what.

Transcript of Larry King interview with Smart family on July 5 here.

Dang, too bad about the dog.

My thought exactly. Another thought is that I have just about had it with the ineptitude of these "SWAT teams." They have all day to lay in wait for this guy to come home totally unspecting that they're on to him, and he gets away? There's no way that this guy should have be allowed to get away to lead them on this high speed chase with the results that an officer gets shot and a good dog is killed.

Heavenly Father,

You have asked us to stand in the gap for our children, Lord. Therefore, we come before You in agreement, asking that You would place a hedge of protection around Elizabeth. Thank You for being a wall of fire around her and for giving Your angels charge over her. Thank You, Father, that even though Elizabeth is out of our sight, she is never out of Your sight nor Your watchful care. Thank You for being a fortress and refuge for Elizabeth. Father, in the Name of Jesus, we come against all the devil’s desires to hold Elizabeth hostage. We pray for her release, Father, and for the restoration of her life. We pray for Your comfort and peace to rest upon her parents as they lie awake at night. Father, Your Word says that You will work everything for good for those who love the Lord. We know Elizabeth has been taught by her family to love You, Father. We commit this child and all lost children to You as we pray for their safe return to their families. Make haste to help them, O God. We keep our eyes fixed upon Your face as we wait in faith for Your hand to move. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

No Facts? No Problem; Smart Story Endures
Sunday, July 7, 2002
BY CONNIE COYNE
READER ADVOCATE

    A month is a long time for local news media to keep a crime story alive, especially one with a single victim and few facts. Most crime stories last several days, and, if there is an arrest and a trial, coverage may go on a bit longer.
    But add to the emotional mix the pressure of correspondents for national magazines, TV cable news and tabloid newspapers arriving in town to cover a crime, and watch out for the tsunami of hungry sharks.
    If officials keep the facts to a minimum, get ready for the feeding frenzy in which rabid news people will eat their young and bite off their own arms for a fresh angle.     We saw this in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping when the Salt Lake City police tossed out the name of a man, apparently living out of his car, whom they wanted to interrogate. The man was not a suspect, police said, but cops across the country chased men in green sedans until they tracked the right one down in West Virginia, where he had hospitalized himself for a drug overdose.
    Then, once he was in police custody (although he is not a suspect in the kidnapping), police tossed out another name -- that of an ex-convict who had worked in the Smart home as a handyman. Police did not identify this man as a suspect either; they said he was at the top of the list of people who could be suspects.
    Mmmmmmm, fresh meat for the pack. TV producers, magazine and newspaper reporters and photographers took off in search of a man no one had ever heard of. They talked to the man's wife, his ex-wife, his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, his attorney, his trailer park neighbor with the missing front tooth, his car mechanic -- and anyone else who would stand still long enough to be interviewed. They could not get to the handyman because police stuck him back in state prison on a parole violation.
    Still, after all this time, there are only a few facts in this case:
    1. Elizabeth Smart has been missing from her Salt Lake City home since early morning of June 5.
    2. The exact time she went missing is unknown, although police estimate it was between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m.
    3. There may have been an entry point through a window or an open garage door; police have been vague on this.
    4. A whole bunch of people may or may not have traipsed through the crime scene before police were called or arrived. Police have given two different versions of this, one in which the neighbors were called before the police and one in which the police were called before the neighbors.
    5. There was a witness to the alleged abduction, Elizabeth's younger sister. Police say she did not see the man's face, but she saw dark hair on the back of his hands and on his arms. He was wearing, according to the younger sister, tan pants, a Polo shirt, a tan jacket and a tan golf hat.
    6. Elizabeth was wearing red silk pajamas and was allowed to put on her Ralph Lauren running shoes before she left.

    That's it. After more than four weeks.     But there are now four "non-suspects," and with them lies a tragedy in the waiting, according to the attorney for Richard Jewell, the innocent man who was offered up by a number of news organizations as the culprit in the Atlanta Olympics bombing in 1996. Jewell was named as a suspect but never charged with a crime. During the weeks he was viewed as a suspect, however, Jewell was hounded by the press.
    Lin Wood, who won several large out-of-court settlements from news organizations for Jewell, told The Hollywood Reporter last week, "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 [a suspect]."
    Television producers and newspaper editors are quick to explain they have done nothing wrong in interviewing the handyman's wife, mechanic, ex-wife, neighbors, etc. They claim to be searching for the facts. Unfortunately, they are dealing with people who are less than sophisticated about the media. At one point, the non-suspect's father-in-law appeared on television sitting in a chair in the yard outside his mobile home. He wore no shirt and continuously smoked a cigarette. It looked more like "God's Little Acre" than "Father Knows Best."
    The ethics of such coverage are tricky. Elizabeth Smart's family wants coverage to continue because they want Utahns to continue to search for their child. The media cannot continue to write stories using just the few facts they have, so there is a great temptation to bite at the scraps periodically thrown out by police. After all, this is a big story. The presence of so many people from the national media makes it so.
    Reporters and editors start to squirm when they believe that police officials are using them to pressure people who have been identified but not officially tagged as suspects. Police also could offer up such people as a distraction to reporters hungry for stories. There is a scene at the end of the "Wizard of Oz" that may well depict the point to which this investigation has come. The booming voice of the Wizard directs the Cowardly Lion, the Tinman, the Scarecrow and Dorothy to "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain; behold the great and powerful Oz."
    Are reporters being asked to do the same? Who knows.     _________

Call the Reader Advocate at (801) 257-8782. Write to Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. E-mail: reader.advocate@sltrib.com.

Video may yield clues in Smart case

FBI enhancing images of 2 cars in Shriners lot
By Derek Jensen
Deseret News staff writer

Officials at the FBI crime lab are enhancing the images of two suspicious-looking cars that were videotaped by a security camera in the Shriners Hospital parking lot the night Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her home just a few blocks away.
Investigators aren't sure what, if any, clues the enhanced images from the color videotape might yield in the month-old search for the 14-year-old girl and her abductor.
"The headlights (from the cars) just kind of wash things out," Salt Lake Police Sgt. Fred Louis said. "There's a lot of lights, that's the problem."
FBI officials in Salt Lake were expecting the results Tuesday.
Authorities are trying to enhance a one-minute portion of the three-minute tape, then take still photographs of the images, FBI special agent Kevin Eaton said.
"We're not going to get a license plate or anything like that," Eaton said. "I'm not sure how much help it's going to be, and then again I'm not sure if these two cars have anything to do with the kidnapping."
Investigators have interviewed Fred Trujillo, assistant director of security for Shriners Hospital, who saw both cars several times, Eaton said.
In a June interview, Trujillo told the Deseret News he saw two cars pull into the Shriners Hospital parking lot the same morning Elizabeth was kidnapped. The Smart home is half a mile north of the hospital in the affluent Federal Heights neighborhood. Trujillo described the driver of one of the cars as a white male in his 30s with short but thick dark hair and wide sideburns. The man was not wearing a hat but had on an off-white or cream-colored shirt or jacket, Trujillo said.
That description is vaguely similar to the description Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, gave of the kidnapper. Mary Katherine said the abductor was wearing a tan Scottish-style golf cap, tan pants, tan jacket and a Polo shirt.
"There were several coincidences that occurred that night," Trujillo said in June.
After reviewing the tape without any enhancement in June, police said it did not "lead us in any direction."
"We'll just have to wait and see when it comes back if they can make any better description" of the two cars, Louis said.
Investigators have also interviewed at least three associates of Richard Ricci, an ex-convict who worked as a handyman at the Smart home. Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse has said Ricci is at the top of their list of potential suspects.
"That's a big focus of what we're doing — Ricci and his associates," Eaton said. "We have other avenues we're pursuing, but I won't say what those are."
Since his arrest June 14 on an unrelated parole violation, Ricci has admitted to stealing items from the Smart home but maintained he had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Police have searched Ricci's Kearns trailer home twice, given him two polygraph tests and confiscated a machete-like knife and tan Scottish-style golf cap from his father-in-law's trailer.
"It's wearing on him for sure," Ricci's attorney, David Smith, said Saturday of the intense focus police are putting on his client.
Police are also trying to determine how Ricci put 500 to 1,000 extra miles on his Jeep Cherokee between May 30 and June 8. Investigators say it's still unclear if Ricci took the Jeep out of state.
"We've got some theories but nothing we want to talk about," Eaton said.
As investigators continue to scrutinize Ricci and his associates, volunteer searchers went out again Saturday to look for Elizabeth in Butterfield Canyon, Spanish Fork Canyon, Farmington Canyon and Upper Corner Canyon near Draper.
The Smart family continues to believe Elizabeth is still alive. Friday marked one month since her disappearance.
"It's just amazing to see how strong and resilient they've been," family spokesman Chris Thomas said. "They still are very hopeful."

Alleged kidnapper is suspect in two more cases

	Day 31	Day 23
	Day 30	Day 22
	Day 29	Day 21
	Day 28	Day 20
	Day 26/27	Day 19
	Day 25	Day 18
Day 32	Day 24	Day 17