ALISA MAIER KIDNAPPER DEAD

I truly hope and pray that this guy found redemption in some way known only to God Himself and made it to heaven because I wouldn't wish hell on anyone. That being said, good riddance. Little kids all over Eastern Missouri will sleep safer tonight.

"Police say they are confident that the sex offender who shot himself to death Wednesday is the man who kidnapped, then released, 4-year-old Alisa Maier.

And investigators were led to that sex offender, Paul S. Smith, after a Wal-Mart store released video of him buying new clothing for Alisa. They knew it was Wal-Mart clothing based on the tags inside the new clothes she had on when he dropped her off alive at a Fenton strip mall.

Those new details emerged Thursday morning at a press conference led by St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch in Clayton.

"We are confident, at this point, that he is the suspect," Fitch told reporters. After executing search warrants on Smith's cell phone records, his car and home, Fitch said: "We have recovered evidence to lead us to believe that he is the one who abducted Alisa."

Smith, 38, died at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Charles from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He shot himself with a small-caliber handgun as police approached him outside his Hawk Point, Mo., home to question him in the kidnapping. He was considered a "person of interest" at that point."
STL Today