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CNN Live Today

Police Questioning Worker Who Did Painting For Smart Family

Aired June 24, 2002 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, the handyman. Salt Lake City police are questioning a worker today who did painting and other chores for the Smart family last year. They want to know whether he had anything to do with 14-year-old Elizabeth's disappearance on June 5.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has been keeping watch on this story in Salt Lake City today. He checks in live this hour once again -- hello, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

A lot of questions are developing as this new detail to this Elizabeth Smart investigation continues to move forward. We understand that 50-year-old Richard Ricci was taken into custody by Salt Lake police on June 14, so he been in custody for about ten days.

Now that these details are starting to emerge, police say and records show -- we have CNN's Jeanne Meserve and producer Mike Oliver (ph), who have been digging up Richard Ricci's past here in Salt Lake City. And he has been in and out of the juvenile system since 1973. He has got a history of aggravated assault, burglary, attempted homicide of police officer in 1983, which he served 15 years in prison for. We also understand that he escaped from a state prison in 1982. He spent two weeks on the run before being captured. So a lot of these details about him are starting to emerge.

Police say that he is not a suspect at this point, but since they have been talking to him, a source tells CNN that they first discovered that he had worked in the house, had spent two months working in the house. And because of that, they went and followed up, checked up on his background, and because of background, they found that he had violated -- he has been on parole since September of 2000. And they discovered a parole violation that they could pick him up on, and that's what they did ten days ago.

So they have been questioning him in relation to this Elizabeth Smart investigation. And every indication we are getting from police so far is they are not convinced that his story is panning out. So they have a lot of suspicion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LAKE POLICE: It's obviously something that we are looking at with a lot of scrutiny. I mean, it's important, we think an important part of this investigation, and we are devoting a considerable amount of our resources to looking at Mr. Ricci. But if, in fact, he is not the suspect, we want to prove that also. So I mean, you know, we are working in both directions here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Now, if you remember, the suspect description that police gave out last week that described the suspect as between the ages of 30-40, Ricci is 50 years old, and the only shot we have seen of him is the mug shot. It's just the facial shots. We are working on more of a description of that.

So one other presser (ph) expected this morning. Family and police out here expected to answer more questions about this -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks, Ed -- Ed Lavandera in Salt Lake City.

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