Smart Case, July 26, 2002

07/26/02 | Jolly Green

[Jolly Green]

Time Line
05/30/02	Thursday	~ Ricci returns to pick up his Jeep at the auto repair shop before the shop has a chance to fully fix it He tells the repairman that it needed for an emergency.
06/04/02	Tuesday	~ Ricci is at work from about 9am to 5:30pm ~ Ricci claims he spends the evening with friends
06/05/02	Wednesday	~ 1:05am - 2 cars are spotted on the SLC Shriner's Hospital Parking Lot by a hospital security guard, two blocks from the Smart residence ~ 1:30am (approx) - Elizabeth is kidnapped from her home ~ 1:30am - Ricci claims to be in bed asleep with his with wife. ~ Ricci is scheduled to be off work all day today. ~ 7:21am - Rachel/Amber alert is issued and national media is involved. ~ 8:30am - Ricci and his neighbor talk about the kidnapping of Elizabeth, Ricci seems to know too much information about it. ~ Sometime during this day Ricci is visited by police in regards to Elizabeth's kidnapping as reported by Angela Ricci (Richard A. Ricci's Wife which is an ex-convict herself) ~ Ricci is seen by his neighbor digging a hole by his (Ricci's) trailer early in the morning. (heard the neighbor say this on TV)
06/06/02	Thursday	~ Ricci is scheduled to work from 9am to 5:30pm today, but instead works from 10:30am to 7:00pm ~ Police talk to Ricci this day about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. (The media is reporting this, so it could be wrong)
06/08/02	Saturday	~ Ricci returns the Jeep to the repair shop to get it fixed. The Jeep is muddy and the repair shop owner sees Ricci remove seat covers from the back of the jeep and place them into a plastic garbage bag that already contains other stuff in it. Also the repair shop owner said a muddy post hole digger was in the back of the Jeep, Ricci removes this also. Ricci has a man waiting across the street to give him a ride. Ricci takes the plastic bag and contents along with the post hole digger with him. Also there is 500 to 1000 extra miles on the Jeep since Ricci picked it up on May 30th, 2002.
06/14/02	Friday	~ Ricci is taken into custody for a parole violation, this being the 2001 robbery of the Smart Home in which he admitted to.
Special thanks to Brigette for starting this timeline.

[Neenah]

KEY WORD: Basement

[Neenah]

Thanks for this post, spore-gasm !!

This now clears up earlier conversation today on this and Palladin's thread about Boylan/SLCPD, in reference to Smaart getting her, or SLCPD getting her. VERY INTERESTING !!!!!!

I am going to have to go back and check what Boylan said to Couric about being called in by THE SMARTS.!! I have to re-check first before I comment on THAT.

[Neenah]

Earlier Tuesday Ed Smart told The Associated Press that "we did have her come in, and we feel there's going to be a tremendous benefit out of what she's done. We've put everything in the police's hands." This is all I could find in a post after the Couric/Boylan transcript, posted by spore_gasm.

Mr Smart does not define "we". I would have to do more research to re-read what was posted after that, but I vaugely remember us taking about the Smarts calling her in.

Makes sense if the PD called her in as originally planned by them.....and TOM SMART , spokesman at that time..REFUSED to have her in.

[freedox]

Thanks.....I see you and I found the same quote. Your reading of it is the same as mine......"we" could have a number of meanings.

[Neenah]

Miss freedox...I think we are clones ! haha...I read these posts, and comment as I read..I just posted, using THIS SAME QUOTE as I see you just did !! haha..so at least there are two of us thinking the same thing.

Just thought I would tell you that.

[Neenah]

It sounded like he is saying the family brought her in and when she finished, the family placed averything in the police hands

Another CLONE !!

[anatolfz]

Here's a theory designed to account for some of the weirdness in this case; those who have good knowledge of the timeline and details can see how it plays. (And I hope no one thinks I'm being flippant in what follows. I do hope the child is found unharmed soon).

The Smart girl goes missing from her home. Her parents naturally want her back at any cost, no matter what the circumstances. The police look into the matter and say: "Of course! If it's an abduction we will spare no effort, we will mobilize every resource and work around the clock". But she is 14 yrs old and at first glance it seems she left the house quietly after a conversation with someone. Not a small child snatched from the roadside. So they proceed as if it is an abduction, but as they keep coming up empty for clues indicating an abduction, the impression grows on them that the girl is a runaway - in which case they will do what they can to locate her and put out the alert to other agencies, but frankly they're not in the business of hunting down rebellious teens and dragging them back to their parents. If no crime has been committed, they can't justify spending too much time on it.

The parents, however, want her back regardless of whether it's an abduction or a runaway. There are both emotional and social reasons for this. This might explain why the mother has dropped out of the public eye and the father pursues the matter: if they are now convinced the daughter has run off then perhaps the mother feels nothing more can be done, but the father feels it will be the kiss of death for them socially to have their daughter run off with some trailer park boy.

Ricci: They seem to have spent enough time examining this man and his activities to be able to say what his involvement is; it seems to be nothing. But maybe they think he knows something useful, or knows of somebody who might know something, like the bare identity of the man who has disappeared with ES: "Yeah, there was a young guy like that hanging around here, but I haven't seen him since", etc. Naturally the police keep buzzing around him. That's all they've got.

Sketches, description: If any of this matched Ricci, and if MK could identify him, then he would be charged. So why not flash the sketch everywhere? This could be explained by the uncertainty over abduction/runaway. Maybe the police are pretty sure she left voluntarily; they're not sure how she feels about it now, and they're certainly not sure how the man would react to being the object of a nationwide manhunt.

So I think they're quietly digging and digging, holding their cards to their chest, letting Smart do all the talking (and keeping him in the dark too, for now).

Does this account for what we've seen?

[twigs]

Diagram the sentence.

Well, I could. But I would be much more interested in your response to what I was saying.

[Neenah]

I remember thinking all those times when the police spokesman said that a close associate or neighbor of the family might be involved that the emphasis seemed to be on neighbor.

I was agreeing with what you said, and to prove it, said to diagram YOUR sentence !! LOL....I thought what you said was really good.

[freedox]

Based on everything I know about the case, I think your theory is highly plausible. Thanks for posting it.

[FR_addict]

I forgot about the screen being cut from the inside. That's never been explained. I think the police are sitting back waiting for the person to trip himself up.

[Sherlock]

I don't think we know that LE wasn't aware that Boylan was coming in, do we?

No, but I think it's pretty obvious they didn't want her.

[Sherlock]

Why would this be, though? Why would law enforcement be in an adversarial relationship with the victim's own father? Do you have a theory for this?

Maybe because they fear how he would react and are afraid he won't go along with the plan they feel they need to follow in the case. I.E. Ed might want the guy arrested and LE has implicated they probably will not arrest the abductor until Elizabeth or her body are located.

[freedox]

"Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse confirmed Thursday that investigators had asked for Jeanne Boylan's assistance, but refused to give any specifics about what role she played in the investigation of the June 5 kidnapping. "Certainly having her here working with the police department has been helpful," Dinse said of the FBI sketch artist, who produced famous composite sketches of the Unabomber and the Oklahoma City bomber."

What in these statements makes it "pretty obvious" to you that LE didn't want Boylan involved?