SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Richard Ricci, who was considered the only suspect in the unsolved disappearance of Elizabeth Smart, was in critical condition Wednesday after undergoing emergency brain surgery.
The former handyman collapsed Tuesday night in his Salt Lake City jail cell where he was jailed on a bank robbery charge. Smart disappeared from her Salt Lake City home nearly three months ago.
Ricci was unconscious and on life-support Wednesday evening after undergoing emergency surgery to relieve swelling caused by bleeding inside his skull.
Whether he survives or not, police won't be able to bargain with Ricci or pressure him for some time for information about the missing girl who has not been seen since the wee hours of June 5 when she was forced out of her home in her pajamas by a still-unknown man with a gun.
"That would be a big impact on the case and our ability to locate Elizabeth, if he is indeed connected to the disappearance," Police Chief Rick Dunse said when asked by reporters about the consequences of Ricci's incapacitation or even death.
Ricci was in jail on a bank robbery charge, but his ties to Elizabeth's family made him a person of interest to the authorities investigating the baffling case. Ricci has a long criminal history, but he also worked as handyman for the Smart family in the summer of 2000. He allegedly burglarized the Smart home during that period.
Ricci has denied any involvement in the 14-year-old girl's disappearance and police have not named him as a suspect. Nevertheless, he remains the target of scrutiny from law enforcement, the media and the Smart family.
"This is the most bizarre thing I could have ever imagined," Edward Smart, the missing girl's father, told reporters.
Doctors at University Hospital said that Ricci's condition during the overnight hours would be critical in determining whether or not he survived and to what extent he would recover. Ricci was found unconscious Tuesday night in his cell at the Utah State Prison. He had summoned guards with an alarm button and told them over an intercom his head hurt and he was having trouble breathing. There was no indication Ricci had been attacked or attempted suicide.
