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CNN Saturday Morning News

Police Attention Focuses on Richard Ricci

Aired June 29, 2002 - 08:15   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 Salt Lake City, there are new aspects in the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart, but unfortunately, no progress in finding the 14-year-old girl who has been missing there for more than three weeks. CNN's Ed Lavandera joins me now from Salt Lake City. Good morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra. Family and friends will continue to search this weekend as they organize search groups around the state to continue searching for Elizabeth Smart. But much of the focus has turned to the investigation as police continue to focus on 48-year-old Richard Ricci, who you've probably heard so much about this week.

But we haven't heard much from him until last night. His attorney putting out a statement from Richard Ricci, which I'd like to share with you. In it, he says: "I have cooperated fully with the FBI, police and AP&P" -- that's a reference to the Adult Parole & Probation here in Utah. "I have taken polygraph tests. I've been through 26 hours of questioning, given blood, DNA and surrendered my vehicle. The police and FBI have searched my house and shed, and have even dug up my garden, and they have found nothing.

I think the reason I'm involved is because of my past. I would not nor could not hurt a child in any way."

But despite all of this, police say he's not a suspect at this point, but he sure is getting a lot of scrutiny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Jail started becoming a familiar place for Richard Ricci by the time he was 19. In 1973, he started a 30-year on and off relationship with the prison system. The headlines from his criminal life include charges of theft, burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted murder of a police officer.

MIKE HILL, SALT LAKE CITY POLICE OFFICER: I told him to drop the shotgun he had in his hand.

LAVANDERA: Mike Hill remembers him well. In 1983, he was the officer on the other end of a shotgun Ricci was firing.

HILL: And saw him again leveling that shotgun at me, and then I went down like this and turned my face around just as the shotgun blast came across. That's how I got hit in the hand, in the shoulder, and the top of the head.

LAVANDERA: Richard Ricci's family says a criminal history doesn't mean he kidnapped a young girl. He had just married his wife Angela in February. His in-laws say he loved to cook. They say Ricci was at home sleeping next to his wife the night Elizabeth Smart disappeared.

DAVID MORSE, RICCI'S FATHER-IN-LAW: He is a good guy. Since he's been in our family, he's been a good son-in-law. And the stuff that they're accusing him of is -- I don't know when in the hell he'd ever have time to do it.

LAVANDERA: He was busy working for, among others, the Smart family, but he violated terms of his parole when he stole items from the Smarts' home. And sources also say he's connected to other burglaries in the Smarts' neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He seemed nice enough. I mean, he seemed -- I've heard mention that the Mitchells (ph) guy said he was very personable, and he could be very, very personable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Now, investigators continue to search Richard Ricci's home, his in-law's home next door, and they did a lot of that, because a few days ago, the neighbor, Richard Ricci's neighbor, his name was Andy Thurber, had shared with police investigators that the morning after Elizabeth Smart was abducted, essentially several hours after she was abducted, that he had seen Richard Ricci digging up around the area, the garden area and the ground area around his mobile home. Ricci's attorney says he was just trying to fix a hole on the side of the house so that cats wouldn't get underneath the mobile home. But a lot of evidence, a lot of circumstantial evidence that police are looking at and focusing on at this point -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ed Lavandera, with the latest from Salt Lake. Thanks, Ed.

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