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CNN Live At Daybreak

Search for 11-Year-Old Carlie Brucia

Aired February 05, 2004 - 05:05   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the search for 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. This is day four of her disappearance. Florida police do have a suspect in custody, but he is not cooperating.
Let's head live to Sarasota now and April Mertz of CNN affiliate Bay News 9.

Good morning.

What can you tell us?

APRIL MERTZ, BAY NEWS 9 CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, finally a break in this case came yesterday afternoon, when Sarasota police announced that they have arrested 37-year-old Joseph P. Smith. They do believe that he is the man who abducted 11-year-old Carlie Brucia right in this car wash you see behind me in Sarasota. However, this break does not mean that it's yet led us to Carlie Brucia. We're still looking for her.

Now, there is a 9:00 a.m. press conference this morning. Everyone's kind of holding their breath, hoping that some kind of information will come out.

We should mention that forensic teams spent most of the night at the house that Smith was staying here in Sarasota, and that's not far from here. What they came out with and what evidence they may have against him, we're still not sure of.

We should also mention Smith is a father of three young girls, again, living in the Sarasota area, arrested several times before in the past and serving time. Some of those charges include misdemeanor domestic violence in 1994 and several heroin charges back in 1999, again, where he actually served time.

Now, police said yesterday they have strong evidence that they believe Smith is, in fact, the perpetrator, not mentioning what that evidence is. We're hoping, again, to get some more of that but they're now looking for people's help. They're looking -- they have impounded his 1992 Buick Century wagon, now asking anyone in the area if they've seen that wagon. And for now Smith remains in a Sarasota jail without bond and obviously as soon as we get some more information, we'll be sure to give you that -- back to you.

COSTELLO: You know, something's not clear to me. Where exactly what he when he was arrested? MERTZ: He was actually in that house here in Sarasota, again, not far from here. That's where they picked him up. However, he was actually brought in on unrelated charges, violation of parole. That's how he was arrested. Now they're charging him with this abduction, as well.

COSTELLO: And right now there's no indication that that videotape, that surveillance videotape led to his arrest, as far as police were able to identify him from that?

MERTZ: Not at this point. Again, he was arrested on unrelated charges. Then I think they took a look at him when he was in there. He kind of matched the description so they're kind of putting two and two together, and, again, looking for more evidence that we're not sure of exactly what they have.

COSTELLO: You know, I always wonder about the uniform that this man in the surveillance tape is wearing. Do we know where this guy works, the suspect works?

MERTZ: They're not saying that. All they've told is that he did -- they did enhance that picture and saw a small letter name on his mechanic type jacket. That name could be Joe, but that's just speculation. But that's really all they've been able to tell us at this point.

COSTELLO: As far as the girl herself, is there any indication that she knew him or he knew her family?

MERTZ: You know, a lot of people have been asking that question. It's up for interpretation. When you look at that video, it kind of looks like she pulls away, but then she walks away with him. So, you know, at this point, we don't know if she knew him or if he was a complete stranger. Again, we're hoping to get some of these details later today.

COSTELLO: And when her family initially reported her missing, did police determine her a runaway or was she just coming home from somewhere?

MERTZ: They initially just issued a missing alert, not an amber alert. They did think that she was missing. She was walking home from her house, did not arrive. They expected her home earlier and obviously that's when they called police. But they didn't have the criteria to actually file an amber alert at that time.

COSTELLO: All right, April Mertz of CNN affiliate Bay News 9, reporting live from Sarasota, Florida this morning.

We appreciate it.

In the next hour we will have a live report from CNN's John Zarrella. He's also in Sarasota.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Aired February 5, 2004 - 05:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the search for 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. This is day four of her disappearance. Florida police do have a suspect in custody, but he is not cooperating.
Let's head live to Sarasota now and April Mertz of CNN affiliate Bay News 9.

Good morning.

What can you tell us?

APRIL MERTZ, BAY NEWS 9 CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, finally a break in this case came yesterday afternoon, when Sarasota police announced that they have arrested 37-year-old Joseph P. Smith. They do believe that he is the man who abducted 11-year-old Carlie Brucia right in this car wash you see behind me in Sarasota. However, this break does not mean that it's yet led us to Carlie Brucia. We're still looking for her.

Now, there is a 9:00 a.m. press conference this morning. Everyone's kind of holding their breath, hoping that some kind of information will come out.

We should mention that forensic teams spent most of the night at the house that Smith was staying here in Sarasota, and that's not far from here. What they came out with and what evidence they may have against him, we're still not sure of.

We should also mention Smith is a father of three young girls, again, living in the Sarasota area, arrested several times before in the past and serving time. Some of those charges include misdemeanor domestic violence in 1994 and several heroin charges back in 1999, again, where he actually served time.

Now, police said yesterday they have strong evidence that they believe Smith is, in fact, the perpetrator, not mentioning what that evidence is. We're hoping, again, to get some more of that but they're now looking for people's help. They're looking -- they have impounded his 1992 Buick Century wagon, now asking anyone in the area if they've seen that wagon. And for now Smith remains in a Sarasota jail without bond and obviously as soon as we get some more information, we'll be sure to give you that -- back to you.

COSTELLO: You know, something's not clear to me. Where exactly what he when he was arrested? MERTZ: He was actually in that house here in Sarasota, again, not far from here. That's where they picked him up. However, he was actually brought in on unrelated charges, violation of parole. That's how he was arrested. Now they're charging him with this abduction, as well.

COSTELLO: And right now there's no indication that that videotape, that surveillance videotape led to his arrest, as far as police were able to identify him from that?

MERTZ: Not at this point. Again, he was arrested on unrelated charges. Then I think they took a look at him when he was in there. He kind of matched the description so they're kind of putting two and two together, and, again, looking for more evidence that we're not sure of exactly what they have.

COSTELLO: You know, I always wonder about the uniform that this man in the surveillance tape is wearing. Do we know where this guy works, the suspect works?

MERTZ: They're not saying that. All they've told is that he did -- they did enhance that picture and saw a small letter name on his mechanic type jacket. That name could be Joe, but that's just speculation. But that's really all they've been able to tell us at this point.

COSTELLO: As far as the girl herself, is there any indication that she knew him or he knew her family?

MERTZ: You know, a lot of people have been asking that question. It's up for interpretation. When you look at that video, it kind of looks like she pulls away, but then she walks away with him. So, you know, at this point, we don't know if she knew him or if he was a complete stranger. Again, we're hoping to get some of these details later today.

COSTELLO: And when her family initially reported her missing, did police determine her a runaway or was she just coming home from somewhere?

MERTZ: They initially just issued a missing alert, not an amber alert. They did think that she was missing. She was walking home from her house, did not arrive. They expected her home earlier and obviously that's when they called police. But they didn't have the criteria to actually file an amber alert at that time.

COSTELLO: All right, April Mertz of CNN affiliate Bay News 9, reporting live from Sarasota, Florida this morning.

We appreciate it.

In the next hour we will have a live report from CNN's John Zarrella. He's also in Sarasota.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com