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.

[per loin]

Sounds to me as though the family was trying to make sure that they could control what got out to the public, and what was kept secret. One has to wonder what those secrets were, that it was better to hamper the search for their daughter than to reveal them.

[Sherlock]

...didn't the initial reports on this clearly state that the Smarts had hired Boylan? The first three paragraphs of this article are focussed on claims that it was the POLICE who brought her in.

I have a thought. I think the police, who didn't want Boylan, can't deny it was the right thing to do so now realize they have to rewrite history and claim they brought her in to avoid the appearance of incompetence or coverup. They didn't want her producing and giving the Smart family this information they likely already knew so now they have to look like they were behind it and weren't previously aware of the information produced. I'm sure Ed Smart knows better and really wonders what's up with them now.

[Neenah]

Thank you ever so much for posting this !!!!!!

It is very helpful to re-read it now going into the 8th week!!

O'REILLY: Right, that was on CNN last night. He also said a very bizarre thing, and I want to get your opinion on this. This is a quote he said to CNN, let's put it up on the screen. "I believe strongly that the kidnapper is not a bad person at all, and our family has felt strongly for a while, and there has been a comfort here for a while."

Sounds like this is not an UNKNOWN person at all..maybe a boyfriend? Maybe they were aware of a crush?

This is Tom Smart, the uncle, again. "This is just somebody who actually likes Elizabeth. We don't know, we have issues, we've been ripped apart by our polygraph. I don't know who has done what with my brother."

What??? Who has done what with my brother???

It's like the Ramsey case, in the sense that there's crazy stuff coming out of the family. Am I wrong?

KLAAS: Over that very specific thing, yes, sir. Edward Smart seemed to desperately</u want to speak to Jeanie Boylan. And when we attempted to put the two of them together, Tom intervened and told Jeanie that she wasn't wanted, that's correct.

There is somthing very strange going on here. What on earth could they have to loose ?

[Sherlock]

...but I had no recollection of it and asked her last night (on this thread) why she and others thought the cops weren't in on it.

This 'myth' was propagated by the fact that the SLCPD/LE never said anything about being involved in bringing her in. Ed Smart clearly said the family brought her in. I think he obviously notified LE he was going to do it and they didn't give him enough resistance to stop it.

[Sherlock]

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

Substituting "family" for "we" in both places that's the way I read it.

I'll do some research on this later but I concur with this exactly. We didn't get this idea from FR, we got it from everything we've read and heard in the media on the subject. It is the police blinders that have led some to another conclusion.

[freedox]

"Ed Smart clearly said the family brought her in."

Thanks, Sherlock, that's what we've been looking for. Please provide the specific quote and the source.

[Neenah]

Seems to me that this means that the SLCPD and FBI called Boylan and Smart had to comply (or chose to)...

but Mr. Smart sounded like THEY INVITED HER..."they"= The family.

Why??

He could have said in that interviw posted by Palladin, that the PD and FBI called her in. Why didn't he?

[Sherlock]

...(i.e., the mysterious letter, the disappearing e-mail, and now Boylan's work.) It just seems very strange to me.

Yeah, it sounds like Ed Smart doesn't trust LE in this any more than I do.

[freedox]

"Yeah, it sounds like Ed Smart doesn't trust LE in this any more than I do."

Maybe he doesn't trust them. On the other hand, maybe he just doesn't like the direction that the official investigation has taken.

[Neenah]

I'm sure Ed Smart knows better and really wonders what's up with them now.

Ahhhhh, Tom Smart shut the door in Boylan's face no matter WHO had invited her.

[Jolly Green]

Does this account for what we've seen?

No. It doesn't account for MK actually seeing the perp threatening ES and the family, and consistently providing good information to the police. It would seem childs play to crack a bogus nine year olds story in eight weeks.

It doesn't account for the SLCPD repeatedly saying Ricci was the lead suspect in the case.

It doesn't explain Ricci's alibi (or lack of same) for which he won't fully account, even when granted immunity.

It doesn't explain why the family would go to this great length for a mere runaway and why the SLCPD/FBI would allow them to do so.

It doesn't explain the 100+ SLCPD/FBI agents assigned to the case.

It seems obvious that exposure of such a scheme, would be FAR more detrimental to the Smarts than a mere runaway.

[Sherlock]

My theory is the 5' 8" fellow with dark hair kidnapped Elizabeth. I think he is a low life acquantance of Ricci, possibly one of the usual suspects in Ricci's criminal activities. I think it was probably Ricci that met him at Shriners before the abduction, possibly to give him a key to the Smart house for a payment. Ricci may have helped with the getaway. I think Ricci had some kind of evidence he was trying to hide under the neighbors trailer on the morning of Jun 5 but he took it somewhere else after taking the neighbor to the movies. I think Ricci helped the kidnapper do whatever was done with the Jeep involving the machetti, post hole digger, and a lot of mud on Jun 7-8. I believe LE probably knows who the kidnapper is and has not told Ed Smart.

[stlnative]

I think Ricci was suspected when the theft occurred, but he talked his way back in with Ed Smart and Ricci probably pointed his finger at some other worker. Then when Ricci was in jail he confessed and that is when it was verified that he was the thief. What I don't understand is the neighbor home was worked on first by Ricci it was also robbed. Then someone gave Ed Smart, Ricci name... was it the neighbor that referred Ricci to Ed Smart. Did the neighbor ever suspect Ricci robbed his home?

BTW... They have a missing 6 year old in St. Louis (my EX-home town), The location is about 60 north of me where she came up missing. It is be considered an abduction. There is another thread about it started.

[Jolly Green]

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

Not according to the SL Trib news article posted on this thread earlier today.

[Jolly Green]

The contention of the "family" was that Marc Klaas was associated with Fox News Channel and they did not want to, by working with Boylan, appear to associate themselves with Fox. Well, why not?

That's not quite correct. Apparently the fear was that by virtue of the Klaas contract with Fox, that made him a reporter who could quite naturally be expected to leak information that the SLCPD/FBI didn't want leaked.

In hindsight, it would seem that it was unfortunate that Klaas was associated with Boylan in this instance or Boylan might have been brought in earlier.

[Sherlock]

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

1) She came in last weekend and Dinse just made this statement yesterday. A change of strategy I suspect.

2) Elizabeth was kidnapped 52 days ago and this is the first sign SLCPD was interested in Boylan. I think if they wanted Boylan they would have brought her in a long time ago and they wouldn't have brought her in under the cover of Ed Smart bringing her in.

[Sherlock]

I think the family was hoping it was just someone with an emotional attachment for Elizabeth who would keep her alive instead of a sexual predator who would probably kill her within hours of the abduction.

I still think the best theory of why Boylan wasn't brought in early is LE did not want a sketch released and the Smart family deferred to their judgement in the matter. LE never released a sketch from any source of the kidnapper.

[Jolly Green]

I don't know who has done what with my brother."

What??? Who has done what with my brother???

I would like to see the video tape of this exchange. It would not be at all surprising for Tom to have been cut off mid-sentence. He quite likely was trying to say "brother's daughter". It happens all the time. Look at the O'Reilly/Klaas interviews. O'Reilly interupted him over and over.

It's also interesting to note that this occurred during the period when Ed had his breakdown and was hospitalized. They were trying to contact him at the hospital? That would seem to indicate why Tom played a more dominant role during that period and the family was not available.

[Sherlock]

Not according to the SL Trib news article posted on this thread earlier today.

I think that's about when they decided they wanted her, yesterday. I think they adapted to the events. I think Ed Smart was what brought her in. I'm certainly not moved by some Johnny come lately story out of the SLCPD nearly a week later.