Ricci

Richard Ricci was a handyman who was questioned by police over the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart.

Netflix has just released its latest true crime documentary, Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart, which sees Elizabeth recall the harrowing events of her kidnapping more than two decades on.

Elizabeth was abducted from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the early hours of the morning on June 5, 2002. Her sister, Mary Katherine, watched in shock as Elizabeth was taken at knifepoint.

In the immediate aftermath, Elizabeth’s own family were investigated but nothing suspicious was found. Nine months after her disappearance, her kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee, were finally caught and arrested.

While Mitchell was holding Elizabeth captive, another man was questioned by police – Richard Ricci. Ricci once worked in the Smart home as a handyman and had a criminal record unrelated to Elizabeth’s abduction.

He denied any involvement in the Smart case. During the investigation, Ricci was being held at the Utah State Prison in Draper for a parole violation unrelated to the case when he was found unconscious.

In August 2002, he died at the age of 48 after undergoing six hours of emergency surgery to correct a spontaneous brain haemorrhage. He had been complaining of a headache whilst in prison.

He was taken to the prison infirmary, then airlifted to hospital in Salt Lake City by helicopter. There was no indication of foul play according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department.

A couple of months before his death, Ricci’s wife Angela spoke to ABC News’ Good Morning America, telling viewers her husband had been “devastated” at the news of Elizabeth’s disappearance.

She had said: “He put his face in his hands. He knows that pain and he just felt that for Mr Smart. He knew the kids, he worked in the home, he spoke with them. He was devastated.”

Elizabeth’s father, Edward Smart, said he had not been aware of Ricci’s criminal record and Ricci had been referred to him by another contractor.

As for the convicted kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being found guilty of kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines for sexual activity.

He had been serving his sentence at the US Penitentiary in Indiana, but in October 2025 it was reported he had been moved. Mitchell, who is now 72 years old, was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution-Lewisburg in Pennsylvania.

In 2012 Elizabeth married Matthew Gilmour, a Scottish native whom she met while on a mission trip to Paris. She told Skip Intro: “Because he didn’t know anything [about] my past, he wasn’t afraid to tell me what he really thought.

“I appreciate that I’m not my past [with him]. I am just who I am right now, right here in the moment.” They have three children and still live in Utah.

Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart is on Netflix