Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping - Daily News/Chat Thread

Have a Good Day and please say some prayers for Elizabeth and her family. They need our prayers!

Hey, the last thread wasn't too bad, was it? (Better'n the one before that!)

Correction to my post #1

Some people may consider today to actually be day 22, I count 1 day for each 24 hours that have passed since Elizabeth was kidnapped. Elizabeth was taken from her home at about 1:30am on the morning of June 5th, 2002.

Yes... it was peaceful! I hope this one stays peaceful also. Life is too short to argue over the small stuff.

There is nothing new tonight on the case, I am usually in bed in the early morning hours as I stay up late at night. I go to bed around 5am and get up anywhere between 10am and 12noon. The first thing I check is the AP Breaking News and then I watch the daily Smart/SLC media conference. So if anyone wishes to post any Elizabeth related stories that come out between 5am and say about 12noon please feel free to post them on this thread.

I have always been a night owl and I do not have any children in my home that need to be taken care of. I also work at home, when I wish to work. So I have pretty good!

Praying for Elizabeth. Hope there is good news soon.

Here is a late ping just for you...
Your now on my Elizabeth Smart ping list!

brigette, I'm curious as to why every article about Ricci says:

"Investigators have not shown a photo of Ricci to Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, who was with Elizabeth the night she disappeared."

If true, I don't understand the logic. Do you?

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To be honest, this is just the media saying this. I don't believe I have heard the police actually say this. I would say they have shown her pictures of him and probably have had him dress in light clothes and a golf/driving hat. Also you can bet that they have recorded his voice and have played it to her. It is possible that she has said she is not sure if it is him or not. If they say this to the public but they end up finding "just enough" evidence to arrest him on her kidnapping. Then we have to remember that everything the police say publicly is on public record and can and will be used in court by the defendent's lawyer. I really believe that she probably did not see him or cannot actually ID him again. This is the reason no composite was done on the perp. Also you have to understand that once they read a suspect his Miranda Rights he is under arrest and has the right to a lawyer. This is why you keep hearing the word witness, this means he might cry for a lawyer as a witness... but the cops will say... hey we are just talking to you... we have not read you your miranda rights and your not under arrest, so why do you need a lawyer unless you did do it? I would assume that the FBI or Police looked hard at Ricci to find a parole violation so that they could bring him and arrest him under something different. This gives them a chance to question him all they want without him having a lawyer around, since he has not been charged. Of course he does not have to talk, but he is talking and without a lawyer. He could say I have nothing to tell you... and you have no right to question me, since I have not been charged in this case. They are treating him with kid gloves right now and are questioning him and bargining with him. They have had him since 6/14/02 on the parole violation. The media just found out about it, and are playing to the hilt... I think the police are going along with it... it makes them look good, but in the end I think they know he is not the guy, but why not keep the story in the media if they let the media think this guy may be the one. You have a guy in custody, the police are questioning him, but Elizabeth has still not been found. If this guy did take Elizabeth and he is in custody, then she is probably dead since she was not found with him or in his home or cars. So this drives people even harder to go out and search for her remains. It is like a game... the media gets what they want (news & ratings), the police get what they want (they like they are doing their job), the Smart Family is keeping the story hot (bringing more attention to it).

Remember that Police have said that Ricci is working with them, but that his alibi cannot be fully verified and the "media" is saying that he failed at least one polygraph. Whatever parole violation they brought him in on, must be something that allows them to search his cars and home and also allows them to hold him.

He could have failed a drug test or they found something on him that is against his parole terms.

I just don't know what to think about these little girls getting snatched up in the west. Wouldn't it be horrible if it were just ONE predator, and other individuals are taking the heat for his crimes?

I'm sorry, but sometimes I don't trust our law enforcement officers or prosecutors. They WILL fabricate to make their records look good. Or ... sometimes they are just plain ole incompetent. I sure hope the ones in SLC don't rise to any of these occasions!

Ricci got out of prison on his last sentence in September 2001, he served 56 months for theft of a food pantry.

His MO is burglary and theft. No records of sex crimes in his history.

He is in custody right now over the theft of the Smart home and is also a suspect in another unrelated burglary. His alibi for the early morning hours of June 5th, 2002 is that he was at home in bed with his wife. During the evening of June 4th, 2002 his alibi is he was with friends. He was off work on June 5th, 2002. (In my opinion this is exactly why he is considered a suspect... I would assume that he has no witnesses to where he was during the day of June 5th, his step-child was probably at school or at friends and his wife was probably at work, this would explain why they are questioning his neighbors, to see if anyone saw him at home on June 5th, his day off work.)

The more facts I hear, the more I DO NOT believe it is Ricci.

Ricci is 6' and 180 pounds

Ok I am stumped and this is bugging me

Ricci's Jeep Cherokee has something missing from inside it...this is of extreme interest to the police. It is not something obvious, like carpeting as the reported on the O'Reilly Show.

What could it be?

Maybe a seatbelt that was cut and missing?
(Jeep Cherokees have 5 seat belts - 2 in front / 3 in back)

Maybe the tire changing equipment?
(this is stored under the rear seat and is a small jack with a 2 piece long skinny cranking rod and a straight lug nut/pry bar wrench, not a 4 way lug wrench)

Maybe the bottom part "butt area" of the back seat is missing?
(these are removeable, but do not have to be taken out to lower the backseat back rest so that you have more room in the back area of the Cherokee. Some people who have long legs may remove the bottom part of of the back seat because it can interfere with how far the front seats can be pushed back if your really tall. But the padding of the bottom of rear seat gives (pushes in) when you move the front buckets seats back. He really should have no reason to remove the bottom of the back seat, as I have 1991 Cherokee and a husband that is 6'2" and we were always able to get the front drivers bucket seat back far enough without any effort so that he could be comfortable driving the Jeep with the rear seat folded down without removing the bottom of the back seat, Ricci is 6 foot in height.

For those of you that do not know how these seats work. The back seat of a Cherokee is a bench seat. The butt area of the seat lifts forward. You reach into the crease where the back seat butt and back area meets and you pull it forward to the front of the Jeep, the butt part of the seat now sits vertical and takes up the foot area behind the front bucket seats. You then release the rear seat back rest at the shoulder area and pull it also towards the front of the Jeep and it will lay flat against the now vertical "butt" part of the back seat. Once this is done then you have a full open area in the back of the Jeep. If the back seat butt part was missing this to me would be considered obvious.

Is the Cherokee the vehicle that Ed Smart gave him?

From ABC 4 - KTVX SALT LAKE CITY

Body

Found In Little Cottonwood

- Posted 6-25-02 A NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN-UP PROJECT LEAD TO THE DISCOVERY OF A BODY IN A SLEEPING BAG IN LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON EARLY TUESDAY. A SPOKESPERSON FROM THE SALT LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE SAYS THE HUMAN REMAINS ARE BADLY DECOMPOSED. AUTHORITIES SAY THEY DO NOT KNOW THE PERSON'S IDENTITY OR EVEN IF IT IS A MALE OR FEMALE. INVESTIGATORS SAY THEY ARE LOOKING INTO THE CAUSE OF DEATH.

Has anyone heard anymore about this?

Yes...

Employer Calls Ricci a Model Worker

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

BY MICHAEL VIGH, LINDA FANTIN and STEPHEN HUNT
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

   As police continue to piece together the movements of parolee Richard Albert Ricci near the time of Elizabeth Smart's disappearance, his boss on Tuesday called Ricci a model employee who was prompt, knowledgeable and never missed a day of work.
    "I have no complaints whatsoever about his work," said Lee Mitchell, owner of Mitchell's Nursery, 2184 E. 3300 South.
    Ricci, 48, is on the "top of the list" of potential suspects in the 14-year-old's June 5 disappearance. 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.
    Ricci denies any involvement in the abduction. Arrested June 14 on a parole violation, Ricci was returned Monday to Utah State Prison.
    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.
    He was most recently paroled in September 2000 and worked as a handyman at the Smarts' home last year. Ricci asked Mitchell for a job in mid-May and was hired to work in the store's greenhouse.
    "He did an excellent job," Mitchell said. "He was very good with the customers, and the cashiers and fellow workers liked him very well."
    Police initially interviewed Ricci the day after the abduction, but re-interviewed him last week. On Tuesday, Ricci's wife, Angela Ricci, said she was with him on the morning that Elizabeth vanished. "He's a wonderful man; there's no way he did this," she said.
    Mitchell said Ricci worked on June 4 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The next day he had a scheduled day off, and worked June 6 from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
   Ricci did painting and yard work at the Smart residence for two months last spring. He was familiar with the children and their Federal Heights home, police and family members have said.
    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.
    Edward Smart gave Ricci a 1990 white Jeep Cherokee as payment for his services. The last time the two spoke was in September or October, when Ricci came by to pick up the Jeep's title. Smart said Ricci was not angry when the two parted, nor does he believe Ricci was out for revenge.
    "He seemed like a very nice guy," Smart said. "Sometimes he was a little bit undependable. But I never would have guessed in my wildest dreams about his background. . . . I never would have ever hired him if I had known that. Whether that's my naivete or whatever, I just never ever would have exposed my family to that."
    Investigators impounded and searched the Jeep and two other vehicles owned by Ricci: a 1992 tan Ford Taurus and a 1995 white four-door Oldsmobile Cutlass. The Jeep remains in police custody.
    On Tuesday, police released photos of the vehicles and asked for the public's help in pinning down Ricci's whereabouts from May 31 to June 8.
    The Smart family also asked people to keep their ears and eyes open to help find Elizabeth. "We don't know where she is and it's going to be that one person noticing something unusual that is going to help her -- help her get back to us," her father said.
    And he 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."
    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.