SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police investigating the apparent abduction of Elizabeth Smart appealed to the public Tuesday for anyone who might have seen a convict who once worked as a handyman in the girl's home.

Richard Albert Ricci was questioned by police the day after the 14-year-old girl's June 5 disappearance and was among those re-interviewed because he did painting and yard work at the home more than a year ago.

Ricci's initial alibi "became more suspicious" when he was questioned again, Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said Monday. The chief wouldn't elaborate.

"At this point in time, he is not a charged suspect, but he is very interesting," Dinse said.

Police said Tuesday they would pass out photos of Ricci's three vehicles, including a Jeep Cherokee given to him by Elizabeth's father, Ed Smart, as payment for handyman work last year.

Police spokesman Sgt. Fred Louis said investigators want to hear from anyone who saw Ricci in one of the vehicles around the time Smart disappeared.

Ricci, who has a 29-year criminal record, has denied any involvement in the kidnapping to police, Dinse said. Authorities said he hasn't obtained an attorney yet.

Chris Thomas, who has been acting as a spokesman for the Smart family, said Ricci left the handyman job on good terms and received a 1990 Jeep Cherokee from Ed Smart as compensation for his labor.

Ricci (pronounced REES-ee) was arrested on an unrelated parole violation June 14, nine days after Elizabeth was reported taken at gunpoint from her bedroom in an affluent Salt Lake City neighborhood.

Despite having had Ricci in custody for days, police haven't been able to confirm his whereabouts on the morning of the abduction, Dinse said.

Dinse said investigators have not shown a photo of Ricci to the sole witness to the abduction -- Elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, Mary Katherine Smart. Considering the sister's description, police said they think the abductor is 30-40 years old, nicely dressed and soft-spoken. A jail mug shot of Ricci shows him wearing a thick mustache and long hair.

Ricci, 48, has a criminal history in Utah that began with a burglary conviction in 1973. He was convicted of attempted homicide for the 1983 shotgun wounding of a Salt Lake City police officer. He has been in and out of prison for the past three decades, and was most recently freed on parole in 2000.

Thomas said the Smart children were familiar with Ricci during his two-month employment at the house, and the family didn't know about his criminal history.

While suspicion of the handyman was growing, a transient sought for questioning was looking less like a potential suspect after turning himself in to a West Virginia hospital.

Police and FBI agents have interviewed Bret Michael Edmunds, whom they had sought for two weeks for questioning in the abduction. He is not considered a suspect.

He is at hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va., where he was listed in serious but stable condition Tuesday. Edmunds, 26, had checked himself in to the hospital Thursday for treatment of drug-related liver damage.