By:Hector Flores
Joseph Brucia Jr., of Bellmore, returned home this week from Sarasota, Fla., to mourn the death of his kidnapped 11-year-old daughter Carlie, whose body was found by police behind a church last Friday. She had been missing for five agonizing days.
During a Monday-morning news conference in Sarasota this week, Brucia defended the performance of Florida police and deflected comments that officials waited too long after his daughter was kidnapped to issue an Amber Alert.
"I think they acted responsibly," Brucia said. "I think if [the Amber Alert] is used too often, it will become ineffectual and people won't hold it in high regard."
His comments were in response to reports that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was concerned that it took 24 hours to sound an Amber Alert after Brucia's daughter was kidnapped.
Brucia also asked that his daughter's memorial fund, the Brucia Family Fund, be renamed the Carlie Brucia Rescue Fund.
Before he was escorted away, Brucia announced that he would return home to Bellmore to be with family members, many of whom live in Wantagh.
Carlie was described as a happy teenager who loved actress Jennifer Lopez and hanging out with friends at the mall. She was born in Nassau County, but moved to Sarasota with her mother, Susan Schorpen, when Brucia divorced Schorpen in 1993. In Florida, Schorpen married Steven Kansler, but since then Carlie had spent a few weeks in the summers and winters visiting Brucia and his parents on Long Island.
Carlie's grandmother, Andrea Brucia, told the Herald, "We are heartbroken for our son and granddaughter, and right now we are trying to find ways of preventing this from ever happening again."
Brucia's tragic story unfolded on Sunday, Feb. 1, when Carlie was on her way to meet her stepfather, Kansler, after spending some time with her friends. Before she could meet him, however, she was approached by a tattooed man wearing a mechanic's uniform who grabbed her by the arm and led her away. The abduction was captured by a surveillance camera in front of a car wash a half-mile from her house.
Police arrested the alleged murderer Joseph P. Smith, 37, on Tuesday, Feb. 3, on a parole violation, and he was later identified as the alleged kidnapper by one of his roommates, who recognized him from the surveillance video.
Police found Carlie's DNA in Smith's car, but Smith refused to tell authorities where the body was. He did, however, confide to a cellmate the whereabouts of Carlie's body. The cellmate then told police, and by last Friday morning, the Sarasota Sheriff's Department had found Carlie's body in thick underbrush near the parking lot of a church.
Smith, who is originally from Brooklyn, had been arrested 13 times in Florida for, among other offenses, kidnapping and false imprisonment (for which he was acquitted), aggravated battery, and carrying a concealed weapon.
He has also been charged with drug fraud, cocaine use and heroin possession, for which he spent 17 months in prison. He is also reported to have struck a woman in the face with a motorcycle helmet.
Smith, the father of three daughters, is currently undergoing divorce proceedings.
If convicted of Carlie's murder, Smith could face the death penalty. Charlie Crist, Florida's attorney general, told "The Today Show's" Katie Couric that the Florida Legislature is considering drafting a new law that would automatically send a violent offender back to jail if he or she violates parole.
