Posted on 07/16/2002 2:10:50 PM PDT by Palladin
Edited on 07/16/2002 4:40:41 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Police still seeking van seen in Nebraska
Officers there have made no connection to the Smart case
By Derek Jensen
Deseret News staff writer
Police were still looking Tuesday for a van spotted Thursday at a Lincoln, Neb., gas station with a girl inside matching Elizabeth Smart's description.
No additional sightings of the van have been reported since it was spotted last week, Lincoln Police Sgt. Larry Barksdale said Tuesday morning.
The 14-year-old blond teen has been missing almost six weeks since she was taken by gunpoint from her bedroom early June 5.
"We haven't made a connection with Elizabeth Smart at all," Barksdale said Tuesday morning. "This was a check-welfare call for us. We get a dozen of those a week or more. I think it's got enhanced to connect it to Elizabeth Smart."
As the Deseret News reported Saturday, a convenience store clerk, her manager and a customer inside the Texaco Food Mart in Lincoln spotted a 12- to 14-year-old girl with blond hair. Three men, who appeared to be in their 20s, were in the van with her.
Cashier Andrea Kolarik told the Deseret News Friday the girl was crying and looked "scared and exhausted."
Lincoln police responded to the incident as a check-welfare call and have faxed their case file to Salt Lake police, Barksdale said. The van appears to have been spotted in Colorado before it was in Lincoln, but police say they have no information the vehicle was ever in Utah, Barksdale said.
The vehicle is described as light blue and gray Chevy Astro van with Pennsylvania license plate ECJ1368. Police have learned the identity of the van's registered owner in Pennsylvania but still aren't sure if that person was one of the three men seen driving the van, Barksdale said.
Meanwhile, police in Utah continue to scrutinize former Smart handyman Richard Ricci, interviewing his associates and trying to determine where the 48-year-old's Jeep Cherokee was between May 30 and June 8 and why it logged 500 to 1,000 extra miles during that time.
"We're making a lot of progress on that," FBI special agent Kevin Eaton said, declining to elaborate or say if the Jeep left Utah during that time. "I'd just say we're getting more information on where the Jeep was."
Ricci remains at the Utah State Prison and was charged last week with stealing items from the Smart residence and burglarizing another home in the Federal Heights area.
Great post! There are those here, however, who believe in an underlying conspiracy which would have to include the family, the neighbors, the SLCPD and the FBI. Those same people never let facts, logic or common sense get in their way.
Having said that, there is a new daily thread with a slight bit of news here: Click Here
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