Capt. Cory Lyman was at a family gathering when he received the call on his cell phone the night of Aug. 27.
Richard Ricci, the top potential suspect in the mysterious kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, had suffered a brain hemorrhage and wasn't expected to live.
Lyman, who heads up the Elizabeth Smart Task Force, hung up in utter disbelief. Investigators had planned for a lot of contingencies in this bizarre case, but Ricci's sudden death wasn't one of them.
"I just thought, 'What else can go wrong?' " Lyman recalled. "This case has been fraught with unusual occurrences."
It's been almost five months since Elizabeth was taken at gunpoint from the bedroom of her family's Federal Heights house. After a trip to Disneyland earlier this week, Elizabeth's family marked her 15th birthday today in private, away from the glare of the media spotlight that has turned the blue-eyed, blond-haired teenager's kidnapping into a household tragedy for the whole country.
Despite some 16,000 pursuable leads in the case, police have not yet found Elizabeth or her kidnapper. Meanwhile, family and friends of Elizabeth have done their best to maintain hope, despite the grim statistics that would seem to indicate Elizabeth may never return.
Case didn't die
Investigators have a list of possible suspects that fluctuates between three and five different people, Lyman said. Other than Ricci, police still refuse to say who else is on their short list.
Some law enforcement sources have privately speculated that Ricci's death effectively ended their investigation, but Lyman insists detectives are still moving forward.
"No, the case did not die with Ricci," Lyman said. "It certainly set back some of the theories of the case. Mr. Ricci had information, either culpable or exculpable that only he knew."
Theories of how and why the girl was taken are still varied among the members of the Elizabeth Smart Task Force, made up of three full-time detectives from Salt Lake police and two full-time investigators from the FBI.
"There's a lot of opinions within the investigation, which is good," Lyman said. "We've got people there that believe strongly different things, and from my perspective, that's extremely healthy."
To date, however, investigators still give the most credence to three theories: Elizabeth was kidnapped for ransom, she was abducted after interrupting a burglary or she was taken by a sexual predator.
"The reason those three are still open, we haven't found information to disprove any of them," Lyman said.
Ed and Lois Smart say they believe those three scenarios are all possibilities. They're also certain the kidnapper knew the layout of their house. But ultimately, the Smarts are still haunted by one central question in this puzzling case.
"We still don't know the 'why' issue," Ed Smart said. "Why would anyone take her? What for?"
While Lyman admitted investigators have not received any legitimate ransom requests, investigators still believe it may have been the original intent of the kidnapper. "Realize that a kidnapping for ransom can be bungled," Lyman said. "That could have been the intent. We don't know."
While Ricci denied any involvement in Elizabeth's kidnapping, court documents show he did admit to stealing jewelry, a perfume bottle and wine glass filled with sea shells from the Smart house.
And in a case investigators say is eerily similar to the Smart kidnapping, court documents show Ricci also admitted to breaking into another house in the Smart neighborhood last April and stealing jewelry and $100 cash. Ricci had also worked in that house doing some remodeling work. The burglary occurred in the early morning hours, similar to the time Elizabeth was kidnapped. Ricci crept into a bedroom where a house guest was sleeping, court documents show.
The woman awoke as Ricci was in her bedroom, but believing the darkened profile belonged to a member of the family, she told him he could turn the light on. The intruder responded with only a cough, and the woman rolled back over and went to sleep, court documents state.
When the charges were first filed, Salt Lake Police Chief Rick Dinse said investigators were interested in how the thefts showed a "pattern of conduct" that "considerably raised our interest."
Lois Smart called the similarities between Ricci's previous crimes and Elizabeth's kidnapping "highly suspicious."
"If we knew who it was, that would be wonderful, but we don't know who it was," Ed Smart said. "But Richard is the closest thing to knowing."
Despite his confessions to both burglaries, police remain skeptical of the 48-year-old ex-con's claims of innocence regarding the kidnapping. Investigators still doubt Ricci's alibi — that he was home in bed with his wife, Angela Ricci — the night Elizabeth disappeared.
Police, however, refuse to elaborate what evidence they have to discredit that alibi.
"Our conclusion is, no, he wasn't home in bed with her that night," Lyman said.
Through a spokeswoman, Ricci's wife this week maintained her husband's innocence and denied he died without divulging any kidnapping clues to police.
"She hopes that Elizabeth is found alive and well," Ricci spokeswoman Nancy Pomeroy said. "She doesn't believe that Richard took anything to the grave with him, and she believes in his innocence."
Still waiting
Lois Smart admits her stomach still leaps each time her telephone rings.
"Every time the phone rings you really hope it could be in regards to Elizabeth being found and that they're bringing her home," she said.
Such a phone call has never come. Instead the Smarts are left to raise their remaining five children while still keeping their hope Elizabeth is found alive.
A trip this past week to Disneyland helped in part of that process. The trip was meant in part to "celebrate her life," Lois Smart said.
"That was a favorite place of Elizabeth's," her mother said. "We want to remember the happy, good times that we had with her."
On Tuesday a tearful Ed Smart told a group of reporters how he and his wife had been looking through pictures and home videos of Elizabeth's past birthdays.
This time last year, Elizabeth and 23 of her girlfriends gathered in the recently completed rec room at the Smart house for her 14th birthday party. The group of teenage girls watched videos, ate, played games, talked and, as most girls that age do when they're together, laughed.
"We heard them a lot," Lois said. "This was probably the biggest party that she'd had."
Friends and family who spent time with Elizabeth saw her warm, playful side that often remained hidden under a shy, quiet exterior.
"She would kind of be a little shy at first, but when she softens up, she's the cutest, brightest little girl you'll ever meet," Elizabeth's 16-year-old friend and fellow harpist Kate Langeland said.
Anna Boyer, 15, recalled a time when the group went out for dessert and Elizabeth started a food fight.
"She was actually really funny," Boyer said. "She was hilarious."
Though Elizabeth was shy, 13-year-old Natalie Richards is even more so and said Elizabeth always went out of her way to talk to her.
"She always told me how great I played, even when I didn't," said Richards, remembering a competition where the two played the same song and Elizabeth had "a much better day than I did."
The conversation was the last time Natalie talked to Elizabeth, who was abducted about a week later.
This time last year found Elizabeth preparing for an annual concert in the Capitol rotunda organized by her harp teacher, ShruDeLi Ownbey.
Instead of participating, Elizabeth is now the focus of this year's concert.
Her harp is on the invitations for the Nov. 16 event, her picture inside the program and ribbons in Elizabeth's favorite shade of blue will adorn the more than 100 harps that will gather to honor the lost teen.
"Whenever I have something with the harp, I always have Elizabeth in the back of my mind," Kate Langeland, 16, said at a recent weekend rehearsal for the concert. "It kind of gives me the extra 'oomph' to do better."
Others still arrive at competitions and rehearsals expecting to see Elizabeth visiting quietly with her friends.
"I find myself looking for her sometimes," Boyer said.
Tips galore
While there may be a shortage of strong leads in the investigation, there has been no shortage of theories. Salt Lake City Police Capt. Scott Atkinson estimated his office has traveled approximately 10,000 miles through multiple states following various leads. As of Oct. 28, Atkinson estimated his officers had spent more than 4,250 man hours investigating the kidnapping.
Some of the theories focus on Richard Ricci and whether he acted alone, with somebody else or was even involved at all.
Some theories police have heard seem too far-fetched to be true, including one that Elizabeth was being held by a polygamist cult in Canada.
In September, a Las Vegas television station created a buzz when reporters heard a theory that Elizabeth was pregnant and living in southern Arizona.
Some observers have even speculated the Smart family was involved in the kidnapping.
While refusing to exclude anyone as a potential suspect, Lyman did say that "none of the family members sit there prominently" among investigators' list of three to five potential suspects.
"We looked at the family extremely hard early on," Lyman added, "and so while we do continue to look, there's been nothing that's changed our focus recently."
Family members have cooperated with police throughout the investigation, Lyman said.
"From day one they have fully cooperated with every request law enforcement has made," Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas said. "They continue to do that and are willing to do anything that is asked of them in this investigation. In many other high-profile cases people haven't been as forthcoming. They have nothing to hide and their primary concern is getting Elizabeth back."
Trying for balance
Life at the Smart home these days remains a difficult balance between keeping up the search for their missing daughter and making sure their remaining five children aren't neglected. Ed Smart has also invested time and energy into pushing for a national Amber Alert system. He's passionate about getting the bill passed and protecting other children, yet doesn't want Elizabeth's kidnapping to consume the rest of his family's lives.
"I want so much for my children not to be scarred by this event," Smart said. "I want them to have normal lives and enjoy it. I don't want them to be seeing psychologists and having issues."
But with Elizabeth still missing, it's hard to truly move on.
"I want to find closure in the worst possible way, but I don't want to cripple my children for life," he said. "It's hard to get a balance of life again."
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com