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CNN Live Today

Police Seek Help to Determine Ricci's Whereabouts on June 5

Aired June 25, 2002 - 14:08   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: In Utah, police are seeking the public's help in determining the whereabouts of a jailed handyman the evening 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is following that story from Salt Lake City -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, what police are trying to do in Salt Lake City is try to reconstruct the whereabouts of where Richard Ricci, the 48-year-old man who was arrested on June 14, 11 days ago, on parole violation.

Now, what they're looking for is three cars that he might have access to driving. One of them is a 1990 four-door white Jeep Cherokee. The other is a 1992 four-door tan Ford Taurus. The other is a 1995 four-door white Oldsmobile Cutlass. Police are putting out these flyers around town, hoping that people will recognize the cars and perhaps try to be able to help them put together a timeline as to what Richard Ricci was doing between May 31 and June 8 of this year.

Now, the Taurus and the Oldsmobile have been returned to Ricci's family. The Jeep Cherokee, we understand, is still being looked at. Police were looking at it in terms of taking forensic evidence samples from it, things that they can look into.

A police spokesperson saying that there is something missing from the Jeep Cherokee, we were told just a little while ago, but they wouldn't specify exactly what that is, so that is a question that's kind of looming out there.

Ricci was connected to the Smart family because he was hired by the family to do some handyman work around the house while the family was doing construction work to the house last year. He was doing some paint jobs as we understand.

Now, the Jeep Cherokee was given to Richard Ricci by Ed Smart for some work that he had done on the house. That was the form of payment that he accepted. Now the family says that they are not -- they remember him and he had some sort of relationships, after having spent so much time in the house with the kids, being friendly and that sort of thing, but they had no idea of Richard Ricci's criminal background, a 30-year background here in Utah that includes aggravated assault, a burglary and an attempted murder of a police officer. But Ed Smart saying today that he had no idea that Richard Ricci had that kind of background.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED SMART, FATHER OF ELIZABETH SMART: Richard was referred to me by another contractor who hadn't used him, but he seemed to be fairly competent. And I had him come over. I had absolutely no knowledge of his background whatsoever. I never would have ever hired him had I know that.

And, you know, that is -- whether that's my naivete or whatever, I just never, ever wound have exposed my family to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Police say Richard Ricci is not a suspect yet at this point, but he is at the top of the list of all the people they're looking at at the house. And we also understand that Ricci was one of six people doing work on the house at one point last year, and at one point the Smart family fired everyone because apparently some things turned up missing inside the house.

Ricci was hired again back, and that's why he got the Jeep Cherokee. He was hired back a few months later to do some more work for the Smart family.

Now, Ricci's family lives in a trailer park community just on the southern edges of Salt Lake City, Utah and CNN's Jeanne Meserve was able to catch up with his in-laws and they say that Richard Ricci is a good man who was at home with his wife in the early morning hours that Elizabeth Smart was abducted on June 5, and that they think that police are chasing the wrong guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROXIE MORSE, RICCI'S MOTHER-IN-LAW: He's home every night after work, getting dinner.

DAVID MORSE, RICCI'S FATHER-IN-LAW: I'd seen him go by earlier, from the front of the house, and I didn't sleep with him, but in order for him to do what he done, he'd sure have to hurry a lot, because he was here the next morning.

And he come over about 8:00 it was when he said, have you seen the news. And I said, well, yeah. And he said, well, I used to work for that guy. That's who I bought my Jeep from, he said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Now, police also say that Richard Ricci hasn't confessed to anything, but they continue to ask him questions. They are uncertain about his alibi and the story that he's been giving police over the last 11 days since he's been returned to police custody. He's in a jail just on the southern edges of here, Salt Lake City, as well. So police continue to look at him and they're trying to piece together, as we've mentioned, this timeline of what he was doing between May 31 and June 8 of this year, and they're hoping that by people looking at these cars that are on this flier that they're handing out, there, that they might be able to provide some information to police as they try to piece together that important timeline, which apparently they consider very important at this point -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you.

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