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American Morning

Neighbors Talk: Latest in Smart Search

Aired June 27, 2002 - 09:01   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're starting with that new information in the Elizabeth Smart case. Our Ed Lavandera is live in Salt Lake City, with the latest on this missing girl mystery.

Ed, good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, the -- we've been reporting yesterday that a federal grand jury is asking questions about this case talking to some of witness that police are interested in. Yesterday, that included the wife of Richard Ricci, who is -- police allege might be involved to some extent. They're trying to figure out his story at this point. But it also includes a neighbor of Ricci who lives in the trailer park community just on the southern edges of Salt Lake City.

And "The Salt Lake Tribune" reporting this morning is that what he will tell the federal grand jury is that the morning after, a couple hours after Elizabeth Smart was abducted, that he saw Richard Ricci digging a hole in his yard.

We've been told that, by his in-laws that the morning after -- or after -- in the last couple of weeks, actually -- that FBI agents have come out to the house and were digging up the tomato garden that they have in that house. But the neighbor at the time says Richard Ricci says he was trying to fix a hole on the side of the mobile home so that the cats couldn't get in and out of the area that he was trying to patch up. So that's some of the new developments.

We had a chance to see this neighbor. His name is Andy Thurber (ph). He was leaving the courthouse yesterday. Hadn't had a chance to talk to federal grand jury yet, so we suppose he's supposed to be back later on today at some point.

Now, Richard Ricci, as we've been reporting, popped up as a possible suspect, although police aren't using that word yet. They say that he's just a very important witness who's at the top of the list of the people they're looking at at this point, and they say they'll continue to question him because they don't think his story has panned out to this point.

They've been working hard to try to come up with a time line as to where Richard Ricci was in the couple of days before the abduction of Elizabeth Smart and the days afterwards. Now, this witness also comes at a time when his family says that Richard Ricci was at home asleep the morning Elizabeth Smart was abducted.

So a lot of these details, police continue to look into it and what this neighbor of his -- Richard Ricci's neighbor -- will tell a federal grand jury. Might -- more information might be developing on that story today -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And again, Ed, Ricci hasn't been charged with anything in the Elizabeth Smart case, but investigators have a bit of a break in that they can keep in custody on parole violations.

LAVANDERA: Yes, and it sounds like they'll be able to keep him in custody for quite a while. He was picked up on parole violations on June 14. So it's almost been two weeks since he's been in custody. He was on parole since September of the year 2000. But a lot of the information sounded like he had -- court documents revealed that he had broken parole violations on three different occasions. So they'll be able to hold him on that -- on those charges and those violations -- and be able to continue to question him.

KAGAN: Ed Lavandera, in Salt Lake City. Ed, thank you so much.

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