SARASOTA POLICE/FBI/ FORENSIC TEAM AT HOUSE NEAR CARLIE BRUCIA'S HOME NOW

WFLA CHANNEL 8 TV | 2-4-04 | BOOTSTICK

[BOOTSTICK]

FDLE, FBI AT HOUSE 3452 20TH PARKWAY,SARASOTA, FL WHERE SMITH ARRESTED.UPDATE AT 9:AM THURSDAY. CARLIE BRUCIA SETPFATHER SAID TO HAVE BROKEN DOWN, AT SCENE...DEVELOPING

[nicmarlo]

I stand by my choice.

Okay....yours may be the "preferable" way...but, perhaps mine will be the "actual" way? (this is awful to say, but if he's done this, he deserves it).

[small_l_libertarian]

...Well, you guys did take care of one of my neighbors...

You're welcome. :-)

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Teach her to kick ass.

[djf]

There's a couple others here that could use it. One is Mitchel Rupe, the pig-sloth sob who got a liver transplant gratis from the State of Washington. His death penalty was overturned when he argued before the Supreme Court that hanging, which would probably lead to his decapitation because he's a fat pig, was cruel and inhuman.

I remember the day it happened, hearing on the radio about a bank robbery in Olympia. Fellow comes in to take his wife, a bank teller, to lunch. Finds her behind the counter with a bullet hole in her head. She dies in his arms.

Now, Rupe will get everything he ever needs for the rest of his life for free.

Something just don't seem right here.

[bonfire]

Please keep us informed. Everyone in bed here so no tv.

[cherry]

that is one reason I won't automatically be a organ donor.....I don't believe in alcoholics who haven't quit or drug abusers or felons to be getting new organs so they can get sick again....

If someone would assure me that my organs or my families would go to deserving people, then I would be in favor of it....

[small_l_libertarian]

djf:

That's truly horrible. That story has totally scrambled my brain. I am just horrified by your story. That's the saddest thing I have heard in a very long while.

[merry10]

There is a Kevin Cooper scheduled to die here next Tuesday. The socialists are having rallies for him to prevent the execution, but Gov. Arnold refuses clemency and will not review the case (after 18 years). This man stabbed an entire family and friend of a family, and left one witness. He asked for DNA results, found out they showed he was the killer, and now says they're flawed.

[Vicki]

I have always told my kids do scream, fight and cause a scene because that is the last thing they want or expect you to do.

I would rather be shot in a public parking lot and found then be to be buried in a desert and found a year later. All the while your family agonizes over your disappearance.

[small_l_libertarian]

Good grief. I really don't know what to say to stories like yours and djf's. It's so sad whenever justice takes a back seat to political correctness (or political expediency).

I'm so sad for all of you who have to face, literally, a lifetime of waiting for justice to be served.

I know that Florida is also heading down that path. It's going to happen eventually, just based on the fact that out-of-staters are continually moving here and forcing their ideas and opinions on the rest of us.

But I want everyone to understand - we have not yet reached that point. If this Joseph Smith really is the bad guy, he will die for it. Guaranteed. At least as far as the death penalty is concerned, we don't screw around (not yet, anyway).

I really hope that Carlie is okay, but, realistically, that's probably not the case. This guy will get his due.

[BushMeister]

Absolutely right. Never let someone take you somewhere under their power. That leads to a "secondary crime scene", where you will fare far worse than where you met the perp:

Secondary

[MVV]

I agree with you. BUT, where was the mother/father? Would you let your beautiful 11 yr. old daughter walk home alone? I have four, young sons and would NEVER allow them to! Parents need to take more responsiblity for their children's wearabouts.

My heart breaks for this family! I am praying right now that this doesn't turn out to be another Danielle Van Dam or Samantha Runyoun, two dear souls I pray for daily.

[MVV]

I agree. I just said today to my almost 10 yr. old son, when he came home from school and disturbed about this case, to never talk to strangers and to run for your life, I told him, "I know you can run fast". I don't care if my sons are blue in the face, I keep telling them and telling them! We live in a sick, sick world!

[SuziQ]

His name was Bundy.

We were living in Tallahassee when he murdered those sorority girls. It was a tense time around town until he was picked up.

[bonfire]

" Would you let your beautiful 11 yr. old daughter walk home alone? I have four, young sons and would NEVER allow them to! Parents need to take more responsiblity for their children's wearabouts."

I don't even let my beautiful TEENAGE daughter walk alone....ANYWHERE, EVER!

[snowstorm12]

I have one of these personal alarms. They are super LOUD 130 decibals, sorta like smoke alarms. Some have little chains you can hang on your purse and hidden buttons so the perp won't know how to disable it. Other come with flashing emergency lights. Some you can hook on a hotel room door or any window or door in your house as an intruder alarm. They only cost around $8 and it's better to have it than not to have it.
I have mace but I need to get a smaller one that fits in the palm or keychain like this one. Mine is a large one that isn't easy to carry.

Even if the perp is still able to grab you he will have trouble driving the car and getting away with you and you have a better chance slipping away because he is disoriented and you have more time. On MTV's "jackass" they tried out different safety devices on a guy as a stupid stunt and he said out of the differnt stuns guns he thought the mace or whatever it was the worst.
You just need enough to get away while screaming bloody murder during the entire attack. Some people need to practice attacks and practice screaming bloody murder because when attacked or assaulted they will freeze.
It says the perp has a long rap sheet anybody know if has any other arrest besides drugs?

[txzman]

SARASOTA -- Authorities searched a north Sarasota home near the residence of a suspect apprehended in the disappearance of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, who was kidnapped while walking home from a friend's house.

The home is surrounded by crime scene tape. Two forensics vans are there. Some of Carlie's relatives were there earlier tonight.

However, the girl's whereabouts were not immediately known.

Joseph P. Smith, 37, was arrested Tuesday on a probation violation charge. Authorities continued to investigate him after his arrest, and determined he was likely the suspect in Carlie's disappearance.

Sarasota County sheriff's investigators released few details tonight during a news conference in which they named Smith as the prime suspect. Another news conference is planned for 9 a.m. Thursday.

Smith's car, a Buick Century station wagon, was being combed by sheriff's investigators in a search for clues in the disappearance of Carlie, who has been missing since Sunday.

Smith has been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993, according to state records. He was arrested May 7, 1997 by Manatee County officials on kidnapping and false imprisonment charges, but was acquitted a year later, records show.

[texasflower]

This story is the one that NASA helped ID with space technology. Some sort of imaging stuff. (I am really scientic aren't I?)

They have never used it before for crime investigations. I think that they were able to go in close enough and clearly enough to read the name patch on the shirt.

Is there someone here who cam tell me what this technology is called and maybe how it works?

Also, the Sheriff's department did not act on this for quite a while from what I head, so they did not put out an amber alert.

[hellinahandcart]

Excellent article. You should post the whole thing. Maybe as its own thread, even.

Because the idea of not cooperating with the armed criminal may not occur to you unless you already have this knowledge in your mind somewhere.

I know that when a man pulled out a gun in the store where I used to work, demanding that I open the cash register, I turned into a statue (which is why I have a problem with people who say the girl didn't look scared; I'm sure I didn't have a dramatic expression on my face either). I literally had trouble getting my fingers to work and my only thought was that I had to hurry and get the register open, before some customer came through the door and startled the guy enough to make him start shooting at us.
He was very twitchy. It may have been an act, but there was no way I could know that.

Fortunately all he wanted was the money in the register, and I was happy enough to give him that. $600 of the corporation's money wasn't worth making a stand for (neither is $600 of your own money, for that matter). But if he'd ordered me to lock the door and go into the back with him, out of sight, or to leave with him, I hope I would have resisted. I just dont know for sure that I would have, back then.

And I was 32 years old when that happened. I don't expect more smarts from an 11-year-old than I do from myself...

[NautiNurse]

Would you let your beautiful 11 yr. old daughter walk home alone?

Carlie's parents did not let her walk home alone. Carlie told the mother of the girlfriend that she had permission to walk home. Someone called Carlie's mother, who immediately dispatched her husband to pick up Carlie. He could not find her enroute, and the search began.

A press conference is scheduled for 9:00am.