Hair samples collected in missing girl case

Richard Ricci

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Hair samples were taken Friday from the father-in-law of former Smart family handyman Richard Ricci, and dirt from a Jeep Cherokee owned by Ricci will also be tested, authorities said.

The evidence was collected as authorities continued to scrutinize Ricci's alibi for the time when 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home. Ricci, who's spent 29 years in and out of prison on burglary, attempted homicide, armed robbery and other convictions, is incarcerated in Salt Lake City on a parole violation.

Police have not named him as a suspect in Elizabeth's disappearance.

Roxie Morse, Ricci's mother-in-law, said her husband David voluntarily gave the hair sample to the FBI. The request for the sample came a day after the FBI took a tan golf-style hat from the Morse home, which is next door to Ricci home. The hat appears to match the description provided by Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister Mary Katherine of the one worn by the man who abducted Elizabeth on June 5.

David Morse told CNN the hat belongs to him and was hanging in his kitchen. He said he does not believe Ricci ever wore it.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Ed Lavandera profiles Richard Ricci, the man Salt Lake City police are investigating in connection with the abduction of Elizabeth Smart (June 28) Play video   EXTRA INFORMATION Images of Elizabeth Smart  • Missing children facts    Web site: ElizabethSmart.com Tip lines: 800-932-0190 or 801-799-3000

"He didn't hardly ever wear a hat around here," said Morse, who reiterated his support of Ricci's insistence that he wasn't involved in the girl's disappearance.

Authorities also removed tan pants and a white polo shirt from Ricci's home, law enforcement officials said. The clothing seems to match the description Mary Katherine gave of the abductor's clothes, according to police.

The FBI also took a machete from a shed behind the Morses' trailer, law enforcement officials said. Morse said he used the large knife to trim tree limbs, and authorities have made no connection between the machete and the case.

Dirt from Jeep to be tested

Dirt from Ricci's Jeep Cherokee may help investigators determine where the vehicle was around the time Elizabeth was taken. A law enforcement official said investigators plan to test debris from the wheel wells of the Jeep, which Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, gave to Ricci as partial payment for carpentry work he did more than a year ago.

Ricci took the Cherokee to an auto repair shop last month, but retrieved it on May 30 before repairs were completed, an official said.

On June 8, Ricci returned the vehicle covered in dirt, according to shop owner Neth Moul. Based on odometer readings, it had been driven about 1,000 miles during the previous nine days, Moul said.

David Morse says that police seized a tan hat, identical to this one except for its color, from his mobile home Thursday.

Moul said Ricci was a regular customer who typically joked around, but seemed to be in a bad mood that day.

"I was trying to play a joke with him -- I saw his car and said, 'What, you just come back from the mountain and play in some weeds?' but he did not respond," said Moul. "He didn't even look me straight in the face."

Before returning the car, Moul said Ricci parked it across the street from the shop and removed covers from the rear seats. Ricci threw the covers into a large plastic bag, removed a post-hole digger from the Cherokee's hatchback and apparently disposed of the items, Moul said.

The FBI questioned Moul and later impounded Ricci's Jeep from his shop, according to Moul.

Neighbors said they didn't see the car at Ricci's home between May 31 and June 8, an investigator told CNN. Elizabeth Smart was abducted at gunpoint from her Salt Lake City home on June 5.

Father-in-law skeptical

Ricci's father-in-law, David Morse, said the Jeep never had seat covers and he was skeptical about other details.

"There's something wrong there, because if he was supposed to put 1,000 miles on it, I don't know when the hell he had the time to do it," Morse said.

Ricci's father-in-law, David Morse, at home. "I don't know when the hell he had the time to do it," he says of the assertion that Ricci had put 1,000 miles on his car in about nine days.

Ricci, 48, was jailed for parole violations nine days after Elizabeth's abduction and has admitted he stole items from the Smart home last year, authorities said. Ricci has also admitted burglarizing other homes in the family's Federal Heights neighborhood, a law enforcement official said.

A recent search of Ricci's trailer by authorities turned up clothes from the Smart family, but none of those belonged to the missing girl, a law enforcement official said.

Ricci's wife, Angela, was questioned by a federal grand jury in the case Wednesday. She served 95 days on a 1992 forgery conviction. Law enforcement sources tell CNN Angela Ricci will return to the federal grand jury next week.