Posted on 07/26/2002 9:45:30 PM PDT by Jolly Green
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| 06/05/01 | Tuesday | Ricci steals items from the Smart home while he is employed there as a handyman. Ricci is charged in July of 2002 of 1 count of theft related to the Smart incident. |
| 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 drinking while on parole and association with other ex-cons. |
| 07/11/02 | Thursday | Formal charges are filed against Ricci (2 counts of theft & 1 count of burglary) on the theft & burglary of the Smart neighbors home which occurred in April 2001, and 1 more count of theft for stealing from the Smart home on June 6th, 2001. |
| Special thanks to Brigette for starting this timeline. | ||
Very well said. We have a lot of people in this society who don't pay attention to real facts. Take a look at the bozo above asking if their were fingerprints of Richard Allen Davis. Wasn't he convicted of the Polly Klaas murder and hasn't he been behind bars for ten years? VERY, VERY LAME.
I don't know why you have to be so rude. Whoever asked about Davis obviously doesn't follow the cases as close as the rest on the board. He asked a legitimate question and just wanted an answer. No reason to call the poster a bozo.
He also mentioned the window issue and the sketch artist issue.
Still no key leads; vigil held - Jun 9, 2002
The Associated Press
Editor"s note: This is the complete text of a story that ran in abbreviated form in the June 10 Standard-Examiner.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Relatives of a missing 14-year-old girl said Sunday they have faith Elizabeth Smart is still alive, and officials involved in the search urged property owners to check ponds, ditches, barns and wooded areas for any clues.
At the Smart family"s Mormon church ward, Bishop David C. Hamblin considered canceling Sunday"s regular service because he thought too many people would be out assisting with the search. But services were held as scheduled, and pews were nearly full.
"There"s a need to be nurtured by the spirit," Hamblin told his flock after the sacrament of white bread bits and water were passed around.
Charles Smart, the missing girl"s grandfather, told The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation that life has been very good for the Smart family - possibly too good.
"Maybe I got too complacent with life. I didn"t have enough to worry about," Smart said. "We"ve had a wake-up call."
Among the searchers, Smart said he has seen a "oneness of spirit" that heartened him. "It didn"t matter if they were members of this church or not members of this church. The love they expressed was immense," he said.
Bishop Hamblin said he was proud of ward members. He told them to prepare for a long and arduous wait for answers in Elizabeth"s disappearance. He told them to rely on "hidden reserves of strength" to sustain them. "I think we expect to go through life without any of the real hard stuff," Hamblin said.
Meanwhile, search coordinators sought to expand their effort. "We have several thousand people involved in the search, but several thousand people are not enough. We need 10 million people," said Bob Walcutt of the Laura Recovery Foundation. "Check your land, your ditches, your culverts. Look around your property and check any hiding places, your ponds, your barns," Walcutt said, appealing to property owners nationwide.
Police said they"ve still got no solid leads and again expressed frustration, a situation that hasn"t changed significantly since Elizabeth was reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint from the bedroom of her affluent Salt Lake City home early Wednesday. "We"re following lots of leads but we have nothing promising," said police Capt. Scott Atkinson.
Cynthia Smart-Owens, the girl"s aunt, said relatives think Elizabeth is alive and issued another appeal to the suspected abductor to set her free. "The solution is to hold your feelings aside and send Elizabeth back to where she feels most at home," Smart-Owens said at a morning news conference. "Let her walk alone where someone can recognize her. ... Please let her go." The girl"s father, Edward Smart, said: "I know that we are going to find her."
At dusk Sunday in Liberty Park, just south of downtown, more than 500 people gathered unseasonably cold weather - 51 degrees - for a candlelight vigil. Mayor Rocky Anderson praised them for their sense of community and asked them not to give up hope, "Thank you all," he said. "You are all truly what is best about this community."
Edward Smart, his voice wavering, said, "Each of you are my brothers and sisters and I am so grateful, so grateful. I want you to know how much I love and appreciate each of you." He offered a prayer asking that the kidnapper return the daughter. "We know she"s going to come back," said Lois Smart, the girl"s mother. "We believe in miracles."
Police Chief Rick Dinse said, "The most frustrating part is knowing this young lady ... was abducted from her home and we"re just not any closer to getting her home then we were the first day." Holly Mecklee, a West Valley City mother, said, "It"s too close to home and this is what we can do - we can pray. This is what community is all about." Diane Whyte of Salt Lake City, holding her 3-year-old granddaughter, said, "It makes you sick to think ... you can"t even go to bed at night and expect your kids to be there."
Meanwhile, an air search and rescue operation was changed Sunday into an "intelligence-gathering mission," according to Jamie Guttierrez of Angel Flight, which provides charitable air services.
There were 11 volunteer pilots who took their planes up Sunday, down from 25 the day before. They looked for any clues that might help the investigation, though the number of weekend campers in nearby mountains made it difficult to locate anything considered suspicious. "It"s becoming a very expensive proposition," Guttierrez said. "Each one of those pilots is pulling out $300 a day from his own pocket for flight costs." Search efforts also took another setback when two helicopters equipped with infrared-sensing equipment were diverted to help battle wildfires in Colorado.
The girl, described by friends and family as quiet, was taken from her home between 1 am. and 2 a.m. Wednesday. She was wearing short red satin pajamas. Police said the kidnapper allowed her to put on white canvas tennis shoes before she was taken. Police said an intruder forced open a window at the Smart"s home and woke the teenager and her 9-year-old sister.
The frightened younger girl waited two hours before alerting her parents, complying with the gunman"s threat to keep quiet or he would harm her sister, police said. The younger girl has not been able to clearly describe the man, telling police only that the kidnapper carried a small black gun and was about 5-foot-8, white, with dark hair, and dressed in a tan denim-type jacket and white baseball cap.
The younger girl has not been able to clearly describe the man?
I thought they said she gave SUCH A GOOD DESCRIPTION,that they didn't need a sketch artist???
I'm still curious about this jeep deal. If Ricci was fired, how and when did he pay off the jeep? According to Ed Smart, the title to the jeep wasn't transferred to Ricci until September or October of 2001, several months after Ricci was allegedly fired. Why would Ed Smart allow a THIEF to possess and use a vehicle for several months while it was still titled in his name? As I understand it, Ed Smart was exposing himself to a huge liability risk during those several months......surely a businessman like Ed Smart was aware of this risk. Who, if anyone, was carrying insurance on the jeep during those months? At what point was Ricci's debt on the jeep considered "paid in full"?
This issue was bandied about on this forum some weeks ago......I don't think anyone ever came up with a reasonable explanation. I still find it bothersome.
I am very courious why THIS ARTICLE has been taken off all web sites?
I am asking for help in finding this article. Anyone able to help out? Curious why it was removed from all the searcing I have done. thanks.
The Salt Lake Tribune -- Tortured Lois Smart, Coping Courageously ...
Tortured Lois Smart, Coping Courageously Day After Day, Tuesday, June 25, 2002.
BY HOLLY MULLEN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Nearly three weeks after her daughter ...
THIS IS WHAT I get on all sites. WHY?
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Tortured Lois Smart, Coping Courageously Day After Day
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
BY HOLLY MULLEN
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Nearly three weeks after her daughter vanished in the darkness, Lois Francom Smart found the will to move to the microphone again Monday.
Another day had dragged by without any real news. Another revolution of the Earth and still no sign of Elizabeth, her golden-haired baby snatched in the night.
As she has done many times before, Lois spoke to Elizabeth, as only a mother summoning all her power can do. She relayed a story of when Elizabeth was 9 years old. She was on horseback at the family ranch, had jumped off the horse and had lost hold of the reins. The horse dashed away. And the little girl was alone, frightened and desperate to get back to her family.
"Remember what you did, Elizabeth," Lois said. "You knelt down and prayed . . . you are a strong, strong girl."
But the strong little girl is still missing. Monday marked a substantial day in the investigation of Elizabeth's abduction, at least to those of us on the outside looking in.
In what has become his predictably guarded way of sharing information, Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse painted Richard Albert Ricci as a subject of intense scrutiny in the case.
The 48-year-old prison parolee from Kearns had worked for a few months last year as a handyman at the Smarts' home. Ricci, apparently, has an alibi for the early morning hours of June 5, the day Elizabeth disappeared. But his story has been tough to confirm. And questioning the man just leads to more questions.
Nothing is certain. Official information is flowing at a trickle, so reporters have taken to standing around the manicured grounds of Federal Heights LDS Ward, guessing at whether Dinse has a plan.
He revealed that evidence has been seized from Ricci's home and car, but refused to name the items. He said Ricci and his wife have undergone polygraph tests, but declined to reveal the results. He repeatedly cautioned that Ricci has not been named as a suspect or charged with the kidnapping, but rolled out a long rap sheet -- including felony burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted murder -- for this "witness."
Do officials, led by Dinse, have their man? Or do they, as many reporters have taken to speculating, hope to aim a laser on Ricci, keeping the case white-hot and drawing someone else out in the process?
With this latest smidgen of news in a case that defies logic and challenges our deepest trust in humanity, how does a mother move forward?
My own 14-year-old daughter sashays through this world with the same lovable, adolescent combination of innocence and confidence as Elizabeth, seemingly impervious to harm. So I ache for Lois at these media events, and I watch and listen. I look for clues in how she is coping. How, I wonder, does she grieve her baby's disappearance while simultaneously clinging to the hope that Elizabeth is alive and well. And what of everyone else she must also remember to mother? There is, let's not forget, Mary Katherine, the 9-year-old who witnessed her big sister's abduction, but out of sheer terror, kept the news from her parents for some time. In her grief and even guilt -- however misplaced -- this child needs a mother, soul-weary as she is.
And now this. A lead in the case. Not exactly solid, but the biggest bump so far, and enough to keep attention on the case. Enough, perhaps, to give Lois Smart another ounce of mother's courage and the strength to count down another 24 hours.
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