Sarasota, Fla.
A Florida girl whose abduction was caught on videotape by a security camera was found dead last week in a church parking lot. Carlie Brucia, 11, had been walking home from a friend’s house on Feb. 1. The camera, behind Evie’s Car Wash, in Sarasota, showed a man wearing a mechanic’s shirt approach her, then lead her away. The tape was broadcast repeatedly on national television for days, as police frantically searched for the popular sixth grader. A man who saw the images pointed police to Joseph P. Smith, 37, an auto mechanic with several previous convictions but little jail time. Police arrested Smith on a probation violation, then charged him with kidnapping and murder after the body was discovered. “I really find the decisions made by some of these judges very questionable,” said Joe Brucia, Carlie’s father.
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