Missing Girl Dad To Ex-Con: Come Clean

A day after a former handyman who once worked in the home of Elizabeth Smart was charged with theft and burglary, the girl's father begged the man "to clear himself with police."

Ed Smart used the family's daily news conference on Friday to ask Richard Ricci, 48, to be forthcoming with police if he knows anything about the abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth.

"If he has any feeling, I would ask him to come forward, to clear himself. The police have said they would clear him right off the list of suspects if he would answer the questions," Smart said.

Elizabeth was apparently kidnapped from her bedroom at gunpoint in the early morning of June 5. Her younger sister, 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart, was the only witness.

"I don't want to believe that Richard was involved," Smart said.

However, Smart said Ricci had lied to him twice about taking items from his home. Smart's tone on Friday was markedly different from previous news conferences. He appeared angry about Ricci's apparent lies and his refusal to answer some police questions about where his car was on the day the girl was taken.

"Finding he did take these items ... can't help but make me feel that there is a possibility that Richard is involved," Smart said.

Ricci was charged Thursday with one count of theft for allegedly stealing $3,500 worth of items from the Smarts' home on June 6, 2001. A search of Ricci's home on June 19, turned up jewelry, a perfume bottle and a wine glass filled with sea shells that belonged to the Smarts.

He was also charged with allegedly taking items from a second home in the Smarts' wealthy neighborhood in April 2001. Jewelry and about $300 in cash were taken during the night burglary from a bedroom as a resident slept in the same room.

Ricci, who worked as a handyman in both homes, admitted to the crimes, authorities said. The burglary charges are not related to Elizabeth's abduction.

Because police consider Ricci a career criminal, he faces up to life in prison for these charges. Ricci will not be allowed bail, said Salt Lake District Attorney David Yocom.

Investigators have said Ricci is at the top of their list of potential suspects in Elizabeth's abduction. Ricci is in prison on unrelated parole violations.

"Show the kindness, go the extra mile that I felt that I had gone with him," Smart said. "Our family has gone through hell and I would like an end to this."

Police have found no trace of Elizabeth, an eighth-grade graduate and accomplished harp player, since the early morning hours of June 5, when a man oddly attired in an English driving cap entered her bedroom carrying a handgun and ordered her out of the house wearing only her red satin pajamas and sneakers.

The abduction was witnessed by Smart's terrified 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine, who shared a queen-size bed with the teen and pretended to sleep through the abduction and has provided authorities with their only clues to his identity.

A $250,000 reward stands for Smart's safe return, but authorities say they have no clue to her whereabouts and cannot name a suspect.

"We've cast a wide net in this case," Salt Lake City police detective Jay Rhodes said. "Anybody could be responsible, we're not eliminating anybody."