Smart Case, July 29, 2002

07/29/02 | Jolly Green

[Jolly Green]

Time Line
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.

[Iwo Jima]

Hey, guys, this has been fun. I think I'll call it a day, although I may check in for my messages later on. See everyone tomorrow.

[FR_addict]

I thought they were talking about two incidents involving the Smarts. I guess they are talking about the burglary at the neighbors.

[Silver25]

This is my first post. Please forgive me if I do something wrong and let me know how to fix it. I have been viewing the threads on this case since the beginning. One thing keeps nagging me about this case. I went to Anywho.com and typed in the Smart's address and received a listing of all the neighbors and their addresses. There was one name, that when typed into Google, came up with a poster and/or art business. Some of the art offered is Ann Geddes (sp?) which are young angelic toddlers posed in what a normal person would think is sweet. There is also some suggestive art offered. It seems it is a worldwide business. I'm just curious if it is the neighbor of Smart and if anyone else knows anything about it?

[Bella]

There is also some suggestive art offered. It seems it is a worldwide business. I'm just curious if it is the neighbor of Smart and if anyone else knows anything about it?

Would be interesting if this is a neighbor who was unavailable for questioning and fingerprinting.

[Utah Girl]

Anne Geddes is an Australian photographer who photographs babies and toddlers in very imaginative poses. I don't know how her name ended up as a neighbor of the Smarts. BTW, welcome to FR!

Here is one of Anne Geddes' photographs.

[Sherlock]

Greta and Angela Ricci
VAN SUSTEREN: Angela, has your home been searched?
RICCI: Yes, it has.
VAN SUSTEREN: When was that done?
RICCI: There's been several times.
VAN SUSTEREN: When was the first time?
RICCI: Probably, I believe it was the day of the 5th.
VAN SUSTEREN: The 5th of June?
RICCI: Yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: And that was the day...
RICCI: Or -- excuse me. Excuse me. The evening. That evening.
VAN SUSTEREN: Why do you think that your -- you -- do you live in a mobile home? Is that right?
RICCI: Yes, we do.
VAN SUSTEREN: Why do you think as early as the 5th of June, which would probably be about 12 to 18 hours after Elizabeth disappeared -- why was your mobile home searched?
RICCI: Because Richard is on parole. He did work for Mr. Smart, and he had
also boughten (ph) a vehicle from him.
VAN SUSTEREN: Was anything removed in that first search?
RICCI: I can't comment on that.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is there any reason why you can't comment on it?
RICCI: I believe it would hurt the investigation. I don't feel like I should.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did the police talk to your husband on June 5th?
RICCI: Yeah.
VAN SUSTEREN: What did he tell them?
RICCI: That he was home with me, the same thing I just said, and that we woke up together, and that he'd been there and just basically the same thing. They let him come home after that interview.
VAN SUSTEREN: David, can you tell us what was taken from the home in the search? Are you able to tell us?
SMITH: I'm sorry, Greta, I'm not really able to comment on that, either. It's really part of the ongoing investigation, and I don't think it's something we should comment on just now.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,56396,00.html

As you read here they searched Ricci's trailer from the git go. One of the first times I heard Ricci mentioned they said they found a polo shirt and some pair of pants in his closet, I can't remember. I'm sure they checked the clothes in his closed on the first search. They went to arrest him on June 14 at the Nursery. He wasn't there and they interviewed everyone that worked there. If Ricci often wore a tan golf hat I'm sure the fellow workers and others interviewed by police told them about it along with descriptions of other clothing he wore. I'm sure they interviewed everyone they could find that knew Ricci in this time frame.

Four days later, on June 18, the description of the kidnapper changed. No longer the white baseball hat seen by the milkman, on the security video, by MK, & by the searcher, now a tan golf hat. The police have never accused Ricci of being the kidnapper, only an accomplice and they're looking at associates of his. If they don't think he's the kidnapper why would they say the kidnapper was wearing his hat? Don't you see the bluff and smoke game the police are playing, blurring things here. Do you think Ricci was the kidnapper? I don't think the police think that.

[Jolly Green]

Great post!

By the way, I posted this for you last night. What do you think?

A preliminary search on the cap indicates that the police reported that it was a tan golf cap in a UPI story on 06/15. The Feds didn't confiscate a cap at the FIL until 06/28 according to the SL Tribune. Why do you claim that the police changed the story AFTER they found the cap at the Ricci's father-in-laws? Granted this wasn't an exhaustive search, but I wonder what you have on this.

[Vinomori]

I don't consider a theory that this crime was committed by someone other than a lowlife, petty criminal as being "prurient." I think whoever took Elizabeth probably had sex/rape on his mind. If you want to dismiss that as being "prurient," I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from.

The theories on this thread that attempt to implicate the Smarts or high-up neighbors are the ones that are the least rational. They are also the ones that seem to have the posters salivating in anticipation of embarrassing a formerly happy family, or revealing that they're gay, or some other form of schadenfreude. The theories posted here that conclude that Ricci's gang was responsible just happen to be the theories based on rational fact-gathering and inference. That's all I am saying. So my conclusion (which is just a guess on my part) was that the theories involving the prominent family are more "fun" to spin.

[Neenah]

Store locations for Anne Geddes..scroll down to Utah

[Neenah]

Anne Geddes is a beautiful artist in photography. It is hard to get a large enough picture to post. I found this poinent one.

Sample of Anne Geddes work

[Sherlock]

>A preliminary search on the cap indicates that the police reported that it was a tan golf cap in a UPI story on 06/15.

Like I said, they arrested him on 6-14 and had talked to the people he worked with and everyone else they knew that knew him and if he wore a tan golf hat regularly, like Newhouse said, they would have known that by 6-15. If that hat is his, not his father in laws', it would have his DNA on it. If the kidnapper in fact wore a tan golf hat that would indicate Ricci is the kidnapper. Like I asked before, do you think Ricci is the kidnapper? I don't think the police think so.

If there are some big boys involved in this as has been discussed I would guess it's the SLC mafia. Maybe the police don't want to mess with them.

[Soccer-Dad777]

It is more likely that he would be chapped if his accomplice killed ES while he was gone.
That would go a long way in explaining his attitude, wouldn't it? His nose sure seemed out of joint.

[Sherlock]

>...it was a tan golf cap in a UPI story on 06/15.

The searches of his trailer and investigation of Ricci that resulted in his arrest on 6/14 and the subsequent redefinition of the suspect's description on 6/15 are certainly related. They could have known from interviews with coworkers he wore a tan golf hat. Do you think this makes Ricci the kidnapper?

[Sherlock]

>tan golf cap in a UPI story on 06/15

The thing that makes me suspicious of the relationship of the arrest of Ricci and changing the kidnapper description at the same time is that LE kept Ricci from the public for over a week before announcing who he was and that they were holding him and considered him a potential suspect. By waiting this period of time it distanced the perceived time of Ricci coming into consideration and the redefinition of the kidnapper description when in fact they were simultaneous.

[Soccer-Dad777]

That would lead me to conclude that he used the jeep to meet his accomplices somewhere. He would also need a drop point for his other car, etc. It is also possible that they considered her expendable.
That's an extremely interesting theory.

[Jolly Green]

If there are some big boys involved in this as has been discussed I would guess it's the SLC mafia. Maybe the police don't want to mess with them.

There is no SLC mafia. There is no Mr. Big either. Don't get sucked into a far-fetched theory with out even a shred of evidence. The theorist won't even defend his own theory. What does that tell you?

Looks to me like you have been pretty much right all along i.e. not Remmington, but the 5th man.

[varina davis]

Makes me wonder why Ricci would have newspapers on the floor of the Jeep and would bother to remove the seat covers, etc.

Is is possible (just to air an alternate theory), that if Ricci is not the alleged abductor, he still may have realized his vehicle contained items that might seem incriminating and thought it best to remove them.

Believe me, I don't think this guy is anyone to stand up for, but a child kidnapping MO just doesn't fit his criminal history.

[Soccer-Dad777]

The ringleader is a Mr. Big. Someone who knew enough about the family to know that Ricci could and would lend a hand in what he wanted to do...
Yup. Ricci may have "provided" (translation: SOLD) the key to the Smart's home, along with inside info on the house layout, family wealth, etc.