Edmunds OKs car search
Police are likely to make his comments available soon
By Pat Reavy
Deseret News staff writer
MARTINSBURG, W. Va. — While investigators Saturday were keeping quiet on much of what Bret Michael Edmunds may have told them about the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, they did reveal one small but possibly telling bit of information.
Edmunds gave authorities permission to vacuum his green Saturn for hair, cloth and other fibers — material investigators may need to prove whether the missing Salt Lake City teen had ever been inside the car.
"He's been pretty cooperative with his car," FBI spokesman Kevin Eaton said. "He pretty much gave them consent to search it however they wanted."
Even without permission, authorities had a warrant to search Edmunds' green Saturn for evidence of unlawful flight from prosecution. They didn't, however, have a warrant to search the car for kidnapping or abduction, Eaton said.
Sans such a warrant, investigators could not have collected evidence with a vacuum. Eaton said if authorities had found evidence of the kidnapping in Edmunds' car, they then would then have sought another warrant to vacuum the car.
But the transient's cooperation saved investigators the trouble.
Eaton couldn't say if the cooperative spirit meant that Edmunds likely wasn't involved with Smart's abduction.
"I don't know what he's told (investigators)," Eaton said.
Eaton said police would likely make Edmunds' full comments public either Sunday or Monday. He would not say what investigators found Saturday in the car.
Edmunds, 26, remained in serious condition Saturday in a Martinsburg hospital but had regained enough strength by Saturday morning to talk to investigators.
Salt Lake police detective Jason Snow and an agent from the FBI's Salt Lake office flew to Martinsburg Friday night to interview the Utah man. They arrived at the hospital at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and interviewed Edmunds at least twice plus conducted extensive interviews with physicians and other hospital staff members, said Martinsburg City Hospital marketing director Teresa McCabe.
Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, police still haven't named a suspect in the kidnapping or found Elizabeth. Law enforcement personnel, her family and countless volunteers have been searching for the 14-year-old girl since she was taken at gunpoint from her Federal Heights home in the early morning hours of June 5.
A search Saturday in the foothills above Draper was eventually called off after authorities found no evidence of Elizabeth in a construction site where three search dogs appeared to have picked up some sort of scent the night before. When the dogs returned to the area Saturday they could not detect the scent, and a grid search of the area by 14 search and rescue workers yielded no clues.
Preliminary results from the state crime lab have also failed to lead investigators in any specific direction, Salt Lake Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
At this point it's still unclear what clues Edmunds may hold that could help police solve this puzzling case. He had been sought by police since June 12 for questioning in the kidnapping.
Edmunds is being held in the Martinsburg City Hospital's intensive/critical care unit.
"He is conscious. He is alert. He is speaking," was all McCabe said she could say about Edmunds' interview.
Based on the interviews with Edmunds and his doctor, McCabe said authorities decided to keep Edmunds at the Martinsburg hospital rather than transfer him to another facility as was originally anticipated.
"He will probably remain here for the next several days, McCabe said. The decision was based mostly on Edmunds' physical condition, she said.
"(Edmunds') physician feels he can get the care he needs here," McCabe said.
That update was an improvement from earlier media reports that Edmunds was suffering from severe liver failure and had been going in and out of consciousness.
Investigators and agents from the Salt Lake Police Department, the FBI and the U.S. Marshal's Office descended on this quiet West Virginia town Friday after Edmunds checked himself into the hospital under an assumed name for a reported overdose and his true identity was discovered.
Edmunds told the hospital staff his name was Todd Richards but gave them the phone number of his mother's house in Utah. After calling the number, the staff discovered his identity, police were called and the three other patients in the hospital's ICU were moved to another area, McCabe said. The ICU is located on the hospital's sixth floor.
On Saturday half of the ICU was reopened. Edmunds was held in one half of the area with FBI agents and marshals guarding his door at all times. The other half of the ICU was reopened for other patients. The 260-bed hospital has eight beds in the ICU, and an aver age of 103 beds are used on a daily basis, McCabe said.
During the first few days of the kidnapping investigation, a milkman reported he had seen a suspicious car in the Smart family's neighborhood prior to the abduction. The first three numbers of the car's license plate, 266, were eventually linked to Edmunds' 1997 green Saturn. His car was found in the Martinsburg hospital parking lot and seized by West Virginia state police.
Saturday an FBI team from Pittsburgh began going through the car, which was stored in the garage of the Jefferson County Public Services Center. About a half-dozen agents in jumpsuits, yellow boots, rubber gloves and hairnets searched the car all day looking for any evidence that may lead them to Elizabeth.A large trailer with the words "Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pittsburgh Division, West Virginia Team" was parked near Edmunds' car as agents conducted their work.
The discovery of Edmunds has thrown this small town of about 30,000 people into the national spotlight. One hotel desk clerk said every hotel in town was booked solid with the sudden influx of law enforcement personnel and the media.
This is normally a busy time of year for tourism in Martinsburg. The city is located in the panhandle of West Virginia and is a short drive from many Civil War sites. Washington, D.C., is a 90-minute drive from the town.
McCabe said neither the hospital nor the town has ever received this kind of media attention. All the major national media and the Salt Lake media are in Martinsburg this weekend.
Contributing: Brady Snyder
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com