Family urges kidnapper to free Utah girl

Elizabeth Smart

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- More than a month after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken from her bedroom at gunpoint, her father urged her kidnapper Friday to let her go.

"It's been about 30 days now, and I just want to make a plea to this perpetrator, I would ask him that he would see that for whatever reason he kept Elizabeth, It is time for her to come home," Ed Smart told reporters.

"And I would ask him to please find it in his heart, find it in his mind that it is time to let her go and to please let her come home, to where she's loved and where she feels comfortable."

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 girl was taken from her bedroom early June 5 while her parents and four brothers slept. Her younger sister witnessed the kidnapping.

"I was very hopeful that it would come to a conclusion much sooner than it has," Smart said. "But we're still here, we're still waiting for Elizabeth and we're hopeful that she will come home."

Authorities have named no suspects in the case, but they have focused on Richard Ricci, a 48-year-old handyman who once worked in the Smart's 6,600-square-foot Federal Heights home, a law enforcement source said.

"I honestly don't know if Richard was involved or not, just disappointed in finding out the things that we've found out," Smart said.

Ricci, whose criminal record goes back 30 years, is in jail on a parole violation. His attorney, David Smith, said the arrest was for drinking alcohol, a violation of his parole.

Smith said his client has cooperated with authorities, undergone 26 hours of questioning, taken a lie-detector test, consented to searches of his house and vehicles and given a blood sample.

Ricci's wife, Angela, maintains he was at home in bed with her the night Elizabeth was abducted.

More searches are planned Saturday around the Salt Lake City area, said Elizabeth's uncle, Dave Smart. He asked people to look for anything they might consider suspicious over the weekend.