Utah police in W. Virginia questioning drifter
MARTINSBURG, West Virginia (CNN) --A drifter wanted for questioning in the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart began talking to Utah investigators Saturday from a West Virginia hospital ward.
Bret Michael Edmunds, 26, was captured Friday after checking himself into Martinsburg's City Hospital for an apparent drug overdose, the U.S. Marshals Service said. He remained in serious condition Saturday.
"He is conscious, he is alert and he is speaking," hospital spokeswoman Teresa McCabe said.
Salt Lake City police arrived Saturday and joined the FBI in interviewing Edmunds, doctors and hospital staff. His physicians recommended that he remain at the hospital rather than be transferred to another facility, McCabe said.
Police described Edmunds as a "wanted fugitive," but insisted he still is not a suspect in the June 5 kidnapping in Salt Lake City, more than 1,800 miles away.
Authorities said they looked in Edmunds' green Saturn and opened the trunk but found no sign of Elizabeth.
Edmunds first came under scrutiny in the kidnapping case after neighbors and a milkman reported seeing him near the Smarts' sprawling 6,600-square-foot home a day or two before Elizabeth's abduction.
Edmunds -- 6 feet 2 inches and 235 pounds -- also was seen almost two weeks ago at a vigil for Elizabeth in Salt Lake City. Police approached him, but he fled in his vehicle.
Marshals were asked Wednesday to look for him because he is wanted on federal charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He is also wanted on local charges that include assaulting a police officer.
Authorities had issued an all-points bulletin for his vehicle with Utah license plate 266XJH. When the vehicle was found, it had Washington license plate 350KPH.
'He was in pretty bad shape'
Edmunds gave the bogus name of Todd Richards when he checked into the hospital around 5:15 a.m. Thursday, but he gave his mother's contact information in Salt Lake City, said Geoff Shank, a senior inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service.
He said a family member told the hospital who the man was, and marshals got a tip from a source at the same time.
"That's when we dispatched our deputies," he said.
The deputies arrived at the hospital around 2 p.m. Friday and found his green Saturn in the hospital parking lot, then went to his room and positively identified him with a photo, Shank said.
Edmunds, described by police as a heroin addict, had suffered a drug overdose that made his liver stop functioning, said Shank. "He was in pretty bad shape from a medical standpoint."
The FBI office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which covers West Virginia, said three agents from its Martinsburg field office were at the hospital, keeping watch and providing security. It confirmed that its agents arrested him in his hospital room.
Other patients in the ICU were relocated out of the ward and the area was secured immediately when he was positively identified.
"The intensive care unit is totally locked down at this moment, and will remain that way as long as Mr. Edmunds is a patient here," McCabe said.
Ted Wilson, a neighbor and friend of the Smarts and the former mayor of Salt Lake City, said the family was "cautiously optimistic" after hearing news of Edmunds' capture.
"I think it is a shot in the arm to us. We need something, and this is something," he said. However, he added, "We will not dance in the street until Elizabeth dances with us."
Wilson also said that even though Edmunds hasn't been labeled a suspect in the girl's disappearance, "There's something fishy about this gentleman, and we need to find out what that is."
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