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American Morning
Man in Custody of Police Being Questioned About Elizabeth Smart
Aired June 24, 2002 - 09:00 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning: a man in the custody of Salt Lake City police is being questioned about the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart. Detectives say the handyman worked inside the girl's home about a year ago.
Ed Lavandera in Salt Lake up early this morning to piece things on what we know now.
Ed, good morning.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
This is another twist in the story that the Smart family is having to deal with this morning, as they hope that this man, the police can obtain enough information that will hopefully return Elizabeth smart to them safely.
Now, the man in custody Richard Ricci, and we want to point out at this point that he's not a suspect in this case. He was taken into custody on June 14th for what we understand was a parole violation. We also understand that Ricci has a long criminal history dated back about 30 years. He has convictions in Idaho, Arizona and Utah. In 1983, he was convicted of attempted murder of police officer. He served 15 years for that crime. And police say that they've questioned him -- or they are questioning him in connection with the Elizabeth Smart abduction, and they say they're interested in him, because up to this point, his story just isn't panning out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF RICK DINSE, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE: We have stayed with him for a while, because it's very difficult to find something that would say in our minds that we can possibly eliminate him. He is potentially a big piece of the puzzle. Just how big, we're not sure at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Now, family spokesperson is saying that the Smart family does recognize Ricci, they had him in their house about a year ago, in March of last year, doing handyman work around the house for about two months. Ed Smart, as the spokesperson was telling us, was largely responsible for building the house, and he contracted out a lot of the work that was done on the family's house. Richard Ricci was brought in to do paint jobs, and he spent about two months in the house we understand.
They also say -- if you heard Ed Smart say over the last couple of days, he's hopeful about some of the leads that police are pursuing in this case, that this is one of those leads that they have been hopeful about. They just haven't been able to talk about it up until this point.
Now another press briefing is scheduled for later on this morning, 11:00 Mountain Time, 1:00 Eastern. Police and family members will be at that press briefing, where you can expect many questions about Richard Ricci will be asked, as we'll as more questions as to how police have been able to get information from Bret Michael Edmunds, who was found in West Virginia on Friday. So a lot of those details hopefully will be emerging later on this morning.
Bill, back to you.
HEMMER: Just came through another weekend here. Two weeks ago, we talked about the thousands of volunteers combing the area around Salt Lake City. What's happening now on the physical front in terms of a search there?
LAVANDERA: Well, family members say they had about 10,000 people searching all over the state of Utah this weekend. We were out at one of the searches in the mountains just south of Salt Lake City, Where some dogs -- some volunteer groups had come across what they thought some scent. They turned out to be nothing this weekend as well.
There's a lot of people who have been working this case, volunteering their efforts. Posters of Elizabeth Smart all over town, billboards and that sort of thing.
We can also hear now a little bit more in this development, what a spokesperson, Chris Thomas, told us a little bit ago in this latest development in regards to Richard Ricci and how the family is handling all of this.
Let's listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS THOMAS, FAMILY SPOKESMAN: The family really isn't hanging their hat on any one development. They're hopeful that maybe he knows something that will aid the authorities in bringing bring back Elizabeth, and that's their focus. They really can't get too excited about anything at this point until they have Elizabeth back in their arms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Bill, let me just point out one last thing here, the last couple of days, as we've seen Ed Smart around town. He's been much more emotional, and the spokesperson Chris Thomas also saying that a lot of this has really taken its toll on the family and their starting to feel this now that we're in the third week of the search for Elizabeth Smart.
HEMMER: One can only imagine. Thanks, Ed. Ed Lavandera in Salt Lake this morning.
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