Police fly to W.Virginia to question Edmunds
Searchers returning to Draper area after dogs pick up scent
Posted on 06/22/2002 12:20:16 PM PDT by stlnative
Saturday, June 22, 2002
Police fly to W.Virginia to question Edmunds
Searchers returning to Draper area after dogs pick up scent
By Brady Snyder
Deseret News staff writer
A Salt Lake police detective and an FBI agent were en route Friday night to West Virginia to interview Bret Michael Edmunds — a man they hope can give them clues in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart.
Boarding a Delta Air Lines jet at 5:08 p.m. the pair were set to arrive in West Virginia sometime after midnight Eastern time. There they hope Edmunds will unlock the mystery surrounding Smart's kidnapping. The 14-year-old girl was taken at gunpoint from her parent's million-dollar Federal Heights home in the wee hours of June 5. More than two weeks later police have yet to name any suspects.
Maren Laurence, 10, plays the harp Friday at the Arts Festival trying to raise money for the Elizabeth Smart Search Fund.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News
Meanwhile, in the continuing search for Elizabeth, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's search and rescue team was alerted late Friday by volunteer searchers whose dogs indicated on three dirt piles in construction sites on Traverse Ridge above Draper. Deputies cordoned off the area and planned to send their dog into the area early Saturday, deputy Peggy Faulkner said. "It's one more clue we have to follow up on."
Faulkner said deputies were concerned about contaminating possible evidence in the area in the darkness and the search could wait until morning.
In the Edmunds case, FBI special agent Dan Roberts said he didn't believe the man had obtained legal counsel Friday. Investigators have repeatedly said that Edmunds is not a suspect in the kidnapping. However, he is named in two felony warrants from Utah, has violated conditions of his probation and is the subject of a federal warrant for fleeing prosecution. None of the warrants are related to the Smart abduction.
Harpist Maren Laurence catches a poster before it blows away from a Main Street kiosk on Friday at the Utah Arts Festival.
Laura Seitz, Deseret News
Under that backdrop, Sgt. Fred Louis said police don't know if Edmunds will be forthcoming with information.
"It would really help us out if he talks to us," Louis said.
For 11 days Edmunds — a 26-year-old transient who lives out of his green Saturn — had eluded police, who released his photograph to media outlets last week.
Police theorize that Edmunds might have been in the area when the kidnapping occurred, since a neighborhood milkman noticed a car in the area that could have been Edmunds' Saturn. The milkman said part of the license plate on the car he viewed matched the Saturn's plate.
Edmunds was also spotted at a June 9 candlelight vigil for Elizabeth Smart, fueling investigators' desire to discover what, if anything, he might know about the abduction.
West Virginia state police troopers R. Elswick, left, and Dean Olack photograph a green Saturn sedan with Washington state license plates outside of City Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va. The car is believed to have been driven by Bret Edmunds, who is at City Hospital, being treated for a drug overdose and liver failure.
Ron Agnir, Associated Press
"He's a question mark, and we want to put a period on that question mark," Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said.
Salt Lake police attempted to arrest Edmunds at the vigil, but he fled in his Saturn and police declined to enter a high-speed pursuit.
On Thursday, investigators received the break they needed when a seriously ill Edmunds checked himself into the Martinsburg City Hospital at 5:15 a.m. under the name Todd Richards.
Hospital staffers on Friday became suspicious and telephoned Edmunds' mother in Sterling, Sanpete County, since her number was listed as an emergency contact. The mother then contacted authorities, Salt Lake Police Capt. Scott Atkinson said.
Knowing the location of the 26-year-old was a relief for his family members, who haven't heard from the transient in more than six months after he skipped town, violating his probation.
City Hospital
Ron Agnir, Associated Press
"Of course they were relieved. They were concerned for his welfare," Sanpete County sheriff's deputy John Cox said.
Dave Sacks, spokesman for the U.S. marshals in Washington, D.C., said Edmunds had overdosed and was in need of emergency care when he entered the West Virginia hospital. He remained in the Intensive Care Unit Friday night in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Teresa McCabe said. He was under watch by U.S. Marshals and the FBI, she said.
Sacks also said police in West Virginia had impounded Edmunds' Saturn, which was found in the hospital parking lot.
Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah, said prosecutors, in cooperation with the FBI, were seeking a search warrant for the car.
The sole known witness to Elizabeth's kidnapping is 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart, who slept in the same bed as her older sister and was left behind by the abductor. The girl, who feigned sleep during the incident, has described the kidnapper as a man who is between 5-feet-8-inches and 5-feet-10-inches tall, with dark hair on his arms and the back of his hands, and who was dressed nicely with a Polo brand shirt, tan pants, dark shoes, a light-colored jacket and a golf or English driving-style hat similar in color to the jacket.
Across the state Friday, several grocery stores pulled editions of the National Enquirer that reported — using unnamed sources — on the Smart family and what may have been found during searches of family computers and residences.
Albertson's stores won't sell the edition at any location statewide. At Smith's Food and Drug stores the edition was extracted from racks and could only be purchased by request.
Albertson's spokeswoman Jeannette Duwe said the company's decision is similar to one made last month when the company yanked the Enquirer from Colorado stores after learning the editions contained bloody photographs of the Columbine High School massacre.
The Smart family said the tabloid report doesn't merit comment.
MVV
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