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CNN Live Today

Police Examine Ricci's Jeep

Aired June 28, 2002 - 11:10   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Salt Lake City Police are combing Richard Ricci's Jeep for possible clues today. They don't call the handyman a suspect yet in Elizabeth Smart's abduction, but he does remain their focus this morning.

Let's go to CNN's Jeanne Meserve, who is standing by in Salt Lake with the very latest -- Jeanne, hello there.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Catherine. Richard Ricci's in-laws and law enforcement sources tell CNN that investigators have taken from a closets in Richard Ricci's trailer a white polo shirt and tan pants. In addition, they have taken from a shed in back of the father-in-law's home a machete, and from the kitchen of the father-in-law's home, a tan golf-style hat. You will remember that the description of the abductor featured a white polo shirt, tan pants, and a tan golf-style hat. Investigators say they don't know if the machete has anything to do with this investigation.

Meanwhile, an auto mechanic says that Ricci came and retrieved his white Jeep from his shop for several days, bracketing the date of the abduction. When the Jeep came back, it was dirty. One thousand additional miles had been put on the odometer, and he saw Ricci remove some items from the vehicle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETH MOUL, MECHANIC: After he get out from his Jeep, OK, he came, you know, in the back of the Jeep. He open the hatch, OK, which is the Jeep, you know, in the back, you know. He retrieve some -- not some. I saw that he -- a seat cover. The reason, as I said, seat cover because the car came couple time before that the seat cover was on the front seat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Now, the mechanic says he saw Ricci take that seat cover, put it in a plastic bag, and then remove two plastic bags and also a post hole digger from the vehicle. He then says that Ricci met up with another man. Now, a neighbor of the Ricci's appeared on Larry King Live last night and Larry asked her what she had heard from Angela Ricci, Richard's wife, about her alibi, that Richard was at home with her the night of the abduction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Did she say anything to you, either contradicting it, or confirming it?

CARMA TOLMAN, RICCI'S NEIGHBOR: Well, she went around and asked a few people in the neighborhood if they had seen him leave late at night, and I told her I didn't pay any attention. I hadn't really, you know, known him to leave.

KING: So, in other words, she may have been asleep and he may have left?

TOLMAN: Yes, he could have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Police and the FBI obviously working in overdrive to try and draw a connection between Richard Ricci, Elizabeth Smart, and the abduction. Catherine, back to you.

CALLAWAY: All right, thank you. Jeanne Meserve in Salt Lake.

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