Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 23

06/28/02 - Friday | Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread - Day 23

[Types_with_Fist]

I also think this was meant to be a ransom kidnapping that went bad quickly

You are probably right on with this. Ricci's wife is also an ex-con. It's beginning to look as though she was in it with him and, perhaps, her own father and at least one other man. Pretty soon Mrs. Ricci will have a seperate lawyer to save her own hide. That's when things will begin to fall into place.

[stlnative]

The handyman being investigated in the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart has admitted burglarizing the Smart home while working there as a carpenter last year, a state official said Wednesday.

He he stole some expensive light fixtures, an expensive basin facet, wind chimes, and some cologne from the Smarts' and he just admitted this when they started questioning him about Elizabeth kidnapping. As soon as he admitted it they hauled him back to jail.

[JudyB1938]

Amen! I hope people are finally starting to get that message. Nothing like a couple of shots as a final deterrant toward an intruder. :0)

[stlnative]

I know they have downplayed Ricci hole digging or covering (the police)at the neighbors mobile home, But I bet he buried something there and decided to go back and get it later in the morning before it was discovered and before the police showed up.

[TheDon]

No doubt the police know alot more than they are letting out into the media.

[TheDon]

"You DON'T attempt to kill someone unless you INTEND on killing them."

It is scary to read some who are trying to humanize Ricci. He is no choir boy. He attempted to kill a police officer. He is capable of anything.

[kcvl]

BECAUSE IT would be difficult to avoid detection in the Smarts’ quiet neighborhood, the kidnapper would have needed tremendous audacity. He or she would also have required the agility to squeeze through the tall, thin kitchen window that the Smarts suspect the kidnapper used top enter their home.

So when investigators began to learn about 48-year-old Richard Albert Ricci, a handyman who did odd jobs for the Smarts more than a year ago, warning bells started ringing. Ricci is a convicted felon with a 29-year criminal record. He’s currently being held in state prison on a parole violation. “He’s a cat burglar,” one law-enforcement source told NEWSWEEK. “His M.O. is going in at night when people are sleeping.”

Police theorize that Ricci would have been comfortable with the Smarts’ home and neighborhood. And police have also said they have questions about Ricci’s alibi. “The circumstantial stuff is pretty substantial,” a police source told NEWSWEEK. “He knew the house better than Ed Smart [Elizabeth’s father] himself.”

“The minute we had forensic evidence, he would be charged,” one source said. “That’s the thing we continue to look for. It’s that slow, tedious phase.” Adds another law-enforcement source: “There aren’t those ties right now.”

Criminal charges may not be imminent. Since Ricci has such a long rap sheet, sources say his parole violation could keep him in jail for an extended period. “We have a lot of time to assemble our case,” one law-enforcement source told NEWSWEEK. “He’ll be there forever.”

[TheDon]

There are many potential accomplices. What a scary family.

[TheDon]

I had the same thought.

[kcvl]

Ricci has a long criminal history in Utah, beginning with a burglary conviction in 1973. He was been in and out of prison for the past three decades and was most recently freed on parole in 2000.

Ricci’s convictions also include aggravated robbery, attempted homicide and a prison escape.

Ricci had taken June 5 off from his job at a local nursery and spent the morning with his wife preparing for his stepson’s baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But he said that the Riccis missed the baptism because they went to the wrong chapel by mistake. Police called the alibi “questionable” and were seeking the public’s help in trying to retrace the handyman’s movements.

Dinse also said that Elizabeth’s 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, had been shown a picture of Ricci, although he would not say whether it was the police who showed it to her. He did not say whether she had recognized Ricci.

[stlnative]

I am not sure... I think tonight that Dave Smart said they may move out farther on the searches. He was Ashleigh Banfield's Show. But she could be just about anywhere and that is alot of area to cover.

[kcvl]

Suspicious hat has link to Smart case suspect


AP
Ricci

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The father-in-law of a man questioned in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart said Thursday that the FBI took from his home a knife and a golf hat. Dave Morse Sr.'s son-in-law, Richard Ricci, worked at the Smart home as a handyman more than a year ago. He is now in custody on an unrelated parole violation and has not been charged in the Smart case. Morse, 68, said one of his Scottish-style golf hats was taken from his home. Police have said the girl's sister told them the man who took 14-year-old Elizabeth from their bedroom June 5 wore a tan-colored Scottish-style golf hat.

"I think they're grasping at straws," Morse said Thursday. "There's always a chance, but I don't think he did it."

Morse said both hats had remained in his home and were never loaned to Ricci.

The FBI also took a machete-like knife with a foot-long blade from his shed. Morse said he uses the knife to knock limbs off trees. He said it was always locked in the shed, and Ricci didn't have a key.

Police wouldn't comment on the report; neither would the Smart family or Ricci's lawyer, David Smith.

"So many comments by the police are suggesting they are focusing in on him directly. I'm convinced they're trying to focus on him as their primary suspect," Smith said.

Also Thursday, a federal grand jury met for a second day to question people who may have knowledge of the girl's disappearance.

One witness, Neth Moul, a mechanic, told The Associated Press that Ricci brought his 1990 Jeep Cherokee into his shop on May 30. When Ricci returned the Jeep to the shop June 8 for more work, Moul said he noticed that about 1,000 more miles were on the car's odometer.

Moul said Ricci never came back to pick up the Jeep. The FBI and Salt Lake City police later came and took it.

Moul said he wasn't sure when authorities took the car, but thought it was about a week ago.

On Tuesday, police had handed out fliers with pictures of three vehicles Ricci has driven, including the Cherokee. Ed Smart, Elizabeth's father, gave Ricci the car in exchange for some handyman work last year.

Ricci has spent 29 years in and out of prison on burglary, attempted homicide, armed robbery and other convictions.

Ricci's wife has said her husband was asleep in bed on the night Elizabeth was kidnapped. Investigators have said they aren't satisfied with his alibi.

[stlnative]

Moul said Ricci never came back to pick up the Jeep. The FBI and Salt Lake City police later came and took it.

Now this is strange... Moul said tonight that he always kept good records, as Ricci had complained at one time that Moul took too long to repair his Jeep sometime in the past. So Moul had always written down the date of when Ricci would bring in the Jeep and he implied that would make sure that Ricci would get his Jeep back in average repair time. So Ricci brings back the Jeep on June 8th, but does not call or come back for it? I know he was in custody on the 14th, but 4 full business days had passed before he was in custody, I am sure it was probably repaired by then and Ricci didn't call to complain or to find out what the delay on the repair was?

[kcvl]

"I have no complaints whatsoever about his work," said Lee Mitchell, owner of Mitchell's Nursery, 2184 E. 3300 South.

Police say they cannot verify his alibi for that night -- that he was home with his wife -- and they are not sure where he was between May 31 and June 8.

Mitchell said Ricci worked most of the days between May 31 and June 8 on a schedule of five days on, two days off. He said he met Ricci 12 years ago, when the nursery owner taught a "Green Thumb" class to prison inmates. Ricci was serving a sentence for shooting a police officer with a sawed-off shotgun during a pharmacy break-in and the separate robbery of a fast food restaurant.

Ricci was fired after he and several workers fell under suspicion for stealing from the Smarts, police said. But no charges were ever filed, said Salt Lake City police Sgt. Fred Louis.

Ricci, who was first imprisoned at the age of 19 for a burglary conviction, was most recently paroled in September 2000, after failing four previous paroles. Deciding to release him again, Utah Board of Pardons records show, was a close call.

As parole board chairman Michael Sibbett told Ricci during a January 1999 hearing: "This board is wondering if we should ever give you another parole.

"We're in the risk business, and we give people chances," Sibbett added. "But there comes a time when you wonder how many chances you want to throw out."

Sibbett said Ricci had "spit in the eye of the community" when he stole more than $2,500 worth of donated items from a Richfield food bank in 1995. Ricci also refused to cooperate with police who investigated. "It's one more indication of your lifelong antisocial criminal background," Sibbett said.

Ricci responded that his latest return to prison had been "a reality check . . . I know you could keep me for the rest of my life. I don't want to die here."

Ricci blamed his problems on drugs, acknowledging he has "an addictive personality."

Within months Ricci used drugs again while part of a prison fire-fighting crew. "I fell off my sobriety," Ricci told the board during a November 1999 hearing. "If you play, you pay. I'm here to pay."

The board added 2 more months to his sentence.


The Smart family had this tearful plea for Ricci: "Richard, please let her go if you've got her. I don't know if he does or not, but I would just ask and pray that he would."

[kcvl]

Narrowing the Search
Police Investigating Smart Kidnapping
Look at Handyman’s Jeep

June 28 — The mileage on a vehicle owned by an ex-convict — and clothing found in the potential suspect's father-in-law's home — may hold the key to the disappearance of Utah teen, Elizabeth Smart, ABCNEWS has learned.

Items Found in Father-in-Law's Shack

However, Moul denies having the Jeep and said he remembered seeing Ricci bring it back two days after Elizabeth's abduction and hurriedly removing several items — including its seat covers and two bags.

When told about the mechanic's allegations, Angela Ricci maintained that she was sure her husband did not have the Jeep on the night in question.

"I'm sure it wasn't … it wasn't there," she said.

In addition, investigators searched Ricci's father-in-law's storage shack earlier this week and found the following items: a machete, white polo sweatshirt, some light-colored pants and a tan hat — clothing that fits the description of the alleged abductor provided by the only witness to the kidnapping, Mary Katherine, Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister. Sources told ABCNEWS that Ricci was seen carrying a machete when he dropped off the Jeep.

When asked about his past burglaries and theft, Angela Ricci told ABCNEWS: "He's not someone that acts so impulsively that he'd grab a child and run. … He would say to himself, 'Well, OK. On this hand I have breaking and entering and on this hand, I take the kid. Let's see, which is more prison time? The kid. I think I'll take the breaking and entering.' "

Andy Thurber, Ricci's neighbor, told The Salt Lake Tribune that Ricci was digging a hole on the side of his trailer the morning after Smart disappeared.

According to the newspaper, Thurber poked his head out the door of his trailer and asked Ricci "what the hell" he was doing.

"And he said, 'Oh, I'm fixing that hole so [my] cats can't get in,' " Thurber told The Salt Lake Tribune. "I don't know what in the hell he was thinking."

[stlnative]

Ahhh.... The Jeep was dropped off on May 28th by Ricci for repair, Ricci came back in on the May 30th before the repair was completed and took the Jeep due to an "emergency". Then Ricci brought the Jeep back on June 8th so that the mechanic could finish the repair work. Ricci never came back for the Jeep and was in custody on June 14th. The police or FBI later came to the repair shop to take the Jeep.

[Robert Drobot]

Your post # 11 about the release of this con from prison is the bullseye to this whole evil mess. Shame on the parole board. May Elizabeth's face haunt them for the rest of their lives.

[kcvl]

Dave Morse, 68, told CBS News that police took a knife from Morse's tool shed, as well as a hat similar to the one that was believed to have been worn by the man who took Elizabeth Smart from her bedroom on June 5.

[JudyB1938]

I'm almost at the point to where I believe there should be no such thing as "parole". The recidivism rate is just too high for comfort.

[kcvl]

June 27, 2002
Thursday brought intriguing new developments in the Elizabeth Smart case-- information that Richard Ricci's white Jeep may have taken a long, off-road trip at the time the girl was abducted.

And, there are reports that police found a machete, and a hat that matches the one police believe the kidnapper wore.

snip...

News Specialist Stacey Butler reports one person called to testify before the federal grand jury worked on Richard Ricci's white Jeep Cherokee.

A receipt from a West Valley auto repair shop shows work done on a broken fuel pump and a tune up. The owner of the shop says Ricci brought the car in three days after Elizabeth disappeared.

The shop owner says the Jeep was extremely dirty and missing seat covers.

He said Ricci was acting suspiciously, looking toward a man across the street waiting for him in a car.

The auto shop owner was called to testify before the grand jury.

In another potentially large development, CNN reported that Ricci's father-in-law said police recovered a machete, and a hat similar to the one Elizabeth's sister said the abductor was wearing.

Meanwhile Thursday, for the first time, police viewed frame-by-frame the security video tape of two cars seen in the parking lot at Shriner's Hospital taken just an hour before Elizabeth dispappeared.

They say it's too soon to know if either car is a match to Ricci's.

They are interested in one frame of the tape that may show a close up of a license plate.

Fred Trujillo, a security guard at Shriner's Hospital, says, "As I was zooming in, he had moved his vehicle right into the camera angle, and then moved again very quickly. So for a few seconds you can see the outline of the license plate."

Police are sending the shot of the license plate to be enhanced at FBI headquarters in Virginia.