Attempted kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart’s cousin

Mitchell’s attempted kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart’s cousin was an unsuccessful effort to reach another girl while Elizabeth was still missing. The scene left physical clues to the intruder’s method, but investigators did not recognize their significance at the time, extending the period in which Mitchell could remain a suspect outside their focus.

The Attempted Entry

On July 24, Mitchell targeted a fifteen-year-old cousin of Elizabeth. He placed a chair beneath an open window and used a knife to cut through its screen, repeating a method he had used before. As he prepared to climb inside, he knocked framed pictures onto the floor. The noise woke the household, and he fled before entering the home or taking the girl.

The attempt ended without a kidnapping, but it produced a clear sequence of clues: a chair left beneath the window and a screen cut to make an opening. The incident also showed that the person responsible for Elizabeth’s abduction might still be seeking access to other girls.

The Missed Clues

At the time, police were convinced that Richard Ricci was the prime suspect. His alibi appeared questionable, and his criminal record extended back thirty years. Against that investigative focus, the chair and sliced screen at the cousin’s home were not treated as signs that Elizabeth’s abductor might be someone else, still at large and attempting another kidnapping.

Ricci died in jail on August 27 from a brain hemorrhage, but police continued to regard him as the culprit. The attempted entry therefore mattered beyond its immediate failure: its physical evidence pointed toward an unresolved threat, while the investigation remained attached to a suspect who was no longer alive.

A Delayed Identification

Late one night in October, Mary Katherine, Elizabeth’s younger sister and the only outside witness to the abduction, told her father, Ed Smart, that she thought she knew who had taken Elizabeth. She identified the small, bearded man who had helped repair the family’s roof and had called himself Immanuel. Her recollection connected the unknown abductor to a person who had already been around the Smart home.

Because Mary Katherine had waited four months to identify him, detectives gave the disclosure little weight. They worked with the Smart family to make three composite sketches from hazy memories of the man’s work around the house in November 2001. The family considered the final rendering a reasonable likeness and wanted to release it publicly. Police refused, saying it was not accurate enough and could generate false leads; they still believed Ricci was responsible.

Significance

The cousin’s interrupted attack and Mary Katherine’s later identification form a chain of missed opportunities. The attempted entry supplied a concrete warning that the presumed abductor might be free, while the family’s later recognition offered a possible identity. Yet the clues arrived amid an investigation already committed to Ricci, and neither the physical evidence nor the belated identification immediately shifted that belief.