Handyman's neighbors questioned

Richard Albert Ricci

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Police and FBI agents Tuesday said they had learned "items of interest" from the neighbors of Richard Albert Ricci, a handyman being investigated in connection with the disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart.

The agents said their findings came during conversations with Ricci's neighbors at the Shadow Ridge Mobile Home Park, just south of Salt Lake City. The FBI said it intends to interview residents of all the estimated 200 trailers in the park.

Investigators told CNN they did not find a gun during a search of Ricci's trailer home and car.

Earlier, police asked for the public's help in establishing a timeline for the whereabouts of Ricci, whose criminal record includes convictions for burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted murder.

Ricci, 50, who is in Salt Lake County Jail on unrelated charges, told police he had nothing to do with Smart's disappearance June 5.

Detective Dwayne Baird said the information police were seeking could "clear up some questions in this investigation."

Police released pictures of three vehicles that Ricci was known to drive and asked anyone who saw him in them between May 31 and June 8 to call 801-799-3000.

The vehicles include a 1990 white, four-door Jeep Cherokee that Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, gave Ricci as partial payment for work done. Another is a 1992 tan, four-door Ford Taurus and the third is a 1995 white, four-door Oldsmobile Cutlass.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports on investigation of Richard Ricci (June 25) Play video   MORE STORIES Milwaukee girl missing for seven weeks    EXTRA INFORMATION Images of Elizabeth Smart  • Missing children facts     Suspect description White male 30 to 40 years old 5 feet 8 inches tall to 5 feet 10 Medium build Dark hair Dark hair on arms and backs of hands Source: Salt Lake City police Elizabeth Smart information Web site: ElizabethSmart.com Tip lines: 800-932-0190 or 801-799-3000

The Jeep is in police custody and the other two vehicles already have been checked out and returned to Ricci's family.

Ed Smart said Tuesday he would not have hired Ricci if he had known of the man's 30-year criminal record.

"I had no knowledge of his background whatsoever," Smart said. "I never, ever would have hired him had I known that."

Smart said Ricci "seemed nice enough" and left his employ on good terms, even though police said he and some other workers were fired after some undisclosed personal property disappeared from the Smarts' home.

Ricci later was rehired to do more work at the house in Salt Lake City's upscale Federal Heights neighborhood.

Ricci generally fits the description of the suspect, said Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse. "He is not a charged suspect, but he is very interesting," Dinse said.

Investigators in the case first interviewed Ricci June 6, the day after the girl disappeared. Ricci told authorities he was with his wife at the time the girl was taken at gunpoint from the bedroom she shared with her sister in the family's house, police said.

"Subsequent to those interviews, some of the things that he had previously told us during our first initial contact with him ... required us to look deeper into his alibi," Dinse said.

During his work last year as a handyman for the family, Ricci spent a considerable amount of time in the house and was familiar with it, Dinse said. He last worked for the family in September, the chief said.

Police also are looking at him in connection with other crimes in the area, Dinse said.

According to an anonymous source, Ricci had been on parole since September 2000 when officials arrested him June 14 for violating the terms of his parole -- using or possessing alcohol and failing to complete a state-ordered treatment program.

"He's the best guy in the world," said Roxie Morse, his mother-in-law. Ricci cuts her lawn and regularly prepares his in-laws dinner, she said. "I couldn't ask for a better son-in-law."

-- CNN Correspondent Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.