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CNN Live Today

Police Remain Frustrated In Case Of Elizabeth Smart Abduction

Aired June 24, 2002 - 14:01   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Police have questioned a handyman and a drifter in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart. Have they come up with leads, or hit more dead ends?

With the latest on the investigation, our Ed Lavandera joins us from Salt Lake City. A lot happening today -- Ed.

LAVANDERA: Quite a few development to keep track of here.

First of all. let's start off with Richard Ricci, a man who was arrested on June 14 for parole violations. He had been on parole since September of the year 2000. He's a man with a long criminal history here in Utah. We've dug up some of the paperwork on him, showing that he's been in and out of jail since 1973. He's spent time in jail for aggravated assault, burglary, including the attempted murder of a police officer in 1983, which he served 15 years in prison for.

He also broke out of a state prison in Utah in 1982; spent two weeks on the run.

Now, police got turned on to him because he is one of the many people who had access to the Smart family's home as the -- in the course of the last year, as Ed Smart was building this house, a lot of contractors and different types of people has access to the house. That's how they got his name. And when they did the background search on Ricci, sources tell CNN that's why they decided to pick him up on the parole violation. With that kind of a criminal background, they were interested in speaking with him.

The police chief here in Salt Lake City says that Ricci is at the top of the list of the five or six strong leads that they have at this point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LIKE CITY POLICE: As a result of that additional investigation, we have been looking at Mr. Ricci very close. We believe he is very important witness in this case. I want to emphasize he is, at this point in time, not a charged suspect. But we -- he is very interesting. And there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding his action between May 31 and June 8 of this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LAVANDERA: Now, Ricci is 50 years old. If you remember, the original description of the suspect said that he was between 30 and 40 years old. A little bit of a discrepancy there. But the police chief also saying that for the most part he believes that Ricci fits the description of the suspect that they've been putting out into the public over the course of the last couple of weeks.

Now we had a chance this morning to catch up with a gentleman who was Robert Ricci's boss. He worked at a plant nursery here at Salt Lake City.

Lee Mitchell tells us that he was very surprised to hear of this of this news and that Ricci is now being questioned about any possible connection to the Elizabeth Smart case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE MITCHELL, RICCI'S BOSS: I thought he was a very good worker. He had done an excellent job. We had him do a few deliveries for us, and actually he went out and planted a few things for us. And so, you know, he knew his material. He knew how to do things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Mitchell went on to say that he was a very good worker, did a lot of good work for him over the course of the last couple of months.

Now, family members, the Smart family, say that they do recognize Ricci, that he had access to the house and was able to do some odd-end jobs here, the painting the house during the construction process of the Smart's home here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

And so they do picture him, and they say that when they were when speaking last week, that this was one of the strong leads that, when Ed Smart came out and said that he was hopeful about the kind of work the police were doing. They said that this was one of the leads that they were hopeful about, and this is exactly one of the cases they were referring to.

But with all of these new developments in this case, the Smart family says that it's starting to take its toll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA SMART-OWENS, ELIZABETH'S AUNT: We, as a family, spent our first time together, as a family, as the Smart family, last night, Without Elizabeth. And we said we're all here, and we said we're not taking a picture until that little girl comes back. So, we're waiting for Elizabeth. We want her back home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Now, as the police continue to question Robert Ricci, there's still a lot of other work that's being done. There's forensic testing of evidence in the car -- his car, Ricci's car, that is being done, as well as they're following up on the stories and the leads that Bret Michael Edmunds had passed along to police over the weekend, and they continue to wrap up that part of the investigation.

But it seems like police say that they're no closer to pinpointing Bret Michael Edmunds as a possible suspect in this case, so all of that still remains out there as well.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Ed Lavandera from Salt Lake, thank you.

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