Transcript of MURDERED: Mitrice Richardson

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It's the evening of Wednesday, September 16th, 2009. A clear, cool day in Southern California. Settled in the heart of Malibu, off the Pacific Coast Highway, the staff of the award-winning Fine Dining Restaurant, Geoffrey's, Malibu, are preparing for the chaos of their normal weekend crowd. Amidst the commotion, sitting in his car, a valet sees a young woman. He approaches and asks her what she's doing. It's subliminal, she says. He's confused. Then she says she's going to avenge the death of Michael Jackson. As she begins to walk away, she pauses and asks him if someone named Vanessa was there. The name didn't sound familiar to him. Keep an eye out for a girl with tattooed arms, she responds, then walks through the front door. As strange as this encounter was, this woman would later be identified as Mitrice Richardson, and this would soon become the focus of one of LA's most controversial unsolved missing persons cases.

From Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, I'm Payne Lindsay.

And I'm Maggie Freeling.

You're listening to Up and Vanished Weekly.

Hey, all. Welcome back to the show. I'm Maggie Freeling. Today, I have a case that has stuck with me since I heard about it. I have not been able to get her off my mind, so I want to make sure we talk about Maitrise Richardson. Maitrise's death has gained national attention over the last 15 years, not only because it's still unsolved, but because of how her case has been handled by authorities. Maitrise was released from a remote police station in the dead of night, and still to this day, little is known about what happened after they led her out of the station in the middle of the night and she started to walk down the road. Authorities have since received a lot of criticism, and her family has been advocating for reform in law enforcement practices. Lots to discuss in this case. It is a heavy one. So joining me to talk about Mytherese's case is Silesia Stanton, a writer, producer at Tenderfoot. Hey, Silesia, thank you for joining me.

Of course, I'm super excited to be chatting with you today.

Silesia, I know that you work on a few different Tenderfoot shows. You hosted the Up and Vanished Sister series, The Vanishing Point, and you're the creator of Truer Crime. So I'm curious, how did you get into podcasting in the first place?

For me, getting into podcasting was super untraditional. I'd actually been a wedding and portrait photographer. When the pandemic hit, obviously, there wasn't a lot of events happening. And then, sadly, in the early summer of 2020, George Floyd was murdered in my city. And when that happened, obviously, that sparked this racial reckoning globally, but it was really intense in my community. And so I had started posting on Instagram, and I found that a lot of those posts were really resonating with people. And so seemingly unrelated, later that summer, I had started working with this financial advisor And then I found out that just a few months later in December that he was actually defrauding all of his investor clients. So he stole my entire life savings. So all of these things were colliding. I was defrauded, going through the criminal legal process, really had built this platform around justice and racial equity. Obviously, there was something that was compelling to me about the stories, but so often they weren't examining issues of race or gender or sexuality and how all those things play into why crime happens and who is most commonly victimized. So I created my show, which is called Truer Crime, and just got to work immediately, put out the first season in spring of 2021.

But talking about true crime stories means you can talk about all these really sticky important issues in society. So I wanted to merge those two things, and that's how I ended up here.

So do you remember the first time you heard about Mitrice's case?

I mean, honestly, I can't think of the first time, but I do feel like this felt a little bit like a case that was talked about in an instance where it was like, Okay, well, let's cover maybe a Black woman because there's this pressure to do that. I didn't necessarily always feel like there was really deep dives into it. So I was really excited that we would get a chance to chat about it today because I think that it's a really important story for her and her family and them seeking answers, but then also just the parallels that can be drawn to other folks just like Maitrise.

So let's dive in. I think to get a good understanding of what happened, we have to look at the sequence of events that unfolded on the evening of September 16th at Joffrey's restaurant. So here's Payne with more about that.

From the time Matrice arrived at Geoffrey's, around 7: 00 PM, people at the restaurant say that things went down a strange path. After her interaction outside with the valet, Matrice entered the restaurant. She was seated and ordered a cocktail and a steak. But moments later, she approached a nearby table, invited herself to sit down, and tried to strike up conversation. Her odd behavior continued as she began talking about astrological signs. Nights and an upcoming trip to Hawaii. She even told the group she'd contact them once she got to Hawaii. The awkward interaction went on for a while as mytree stripped back and forth between her own table and the party of strangers. But the tone shifted when the wait staff handed Matrice the bill. At first, she said the group would be covering her meal, but then she changed her story. Witnesses remember her saying, I'm busted. What What are we going to do? Before staring off into space. Then out of nowhere, she said that she was from Mars, and she could pay in sex, and then pulled out a joint. The whole thing felt like a strange dream. Mytrice told the hostess that she had been watching a soap opera at work when God instructed her to take the afternoon off.

It was becoming clear that something wasn't right. The question on everyone's mind was how to handle a woman who can't pay for her bill and is now making a scene. The staff did what they could to try and diffuse the situation. They attempted to contact Mitrice's great grandmother, hoping she may be able to help. She offered to pay the bill, but the manager wouldn't let her process the payment over the phone. All the workers discussed finding a way to cover her tab, but really, they were more concerned about her well-being. Around 8: 00 PM, the restaurant contacted authorities and explained the situation. Here's part of that 911 call.

Lossell Share Station, Deputy Shaliff. I can help you.

Hi, I'm calling from Joffreys Restaurant in Malibu.

We have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill, and she sounds really crazy. She may be on drugs or something. We are wondering if someone can come by and pick her up.

Around 9: 00 PM, deputies arrived and performed a field sobriety test. They questioned Mitrice about the incident, and she told officers she'd come to the restaurant because she was, quote, drawn by the lights. When they searched her car, they found marijuana and alcohol. They then arrested her for defrauding an innkeeper in possession of marijuana. They also impounded her car, which had all of her personal belongings in it. After being taken into custody, Matrice's mother, Latice, contacted police. She lived in an hour away and was trying to determine if she needed to make plans to come and get Matrice that evening. The officer assured her that everything was fine, and they'd be keeping Matrice in custody throughout the night. So Latrice, Matrice's mother, arranged to pick her up the following morning. Here's part of Latice's call to authorities.

I am calling. I'm a little frazzled right now. I understand my daughter is being brought into the station, my Thrice Richard's son. I'm her mother. You guys want to book her and then release her on her own, recognite, tonight because it's dark, she doesn't have a car, and I don't want her wandering out. I'm totally just taken aback because this is so out of character for her. You'll see when she comes in, she's well-spoken. If it's going to be held in custody for some type of arraignment tomorrow, then I will wait until tomorrow. She's not from that area, and I would hate to wake up to a morning report I'm lost somewhere with her head chopped off. I guess I would have to come and get her.

In the station here, she will be separated, so nobody's going to be with her. So at least that's the plus thing, so you don't have to worry about her safety.

Oh, yeah. No, I feel safe with her being in custody. It's being released, but I'm worried about it. It's crazy out here.

Around 10: 00 PM, Matrice arrived at the Lost Hills Sheriff Station in Malibu. After being processed and moved to a holding cell, she tried to contact her great grandmother, who she had been living with. She tried calling a total of four times, but never reached her. But just a few hours later, something unexpected happened. Despite what authorities had told her mother, officers told Mitrice that they didn't have enough to hold her, and subsequently, she was being released. They explained she didn't have enough marijuana to charge her with a crime. She had no previous and they felt she wasn't a danger to anyone. And so at 12: 40 AM, Mitrice was released from police custody. It was the middle of the night, and the station was in a remote part of Malibu. Not only that, but Mitrice's car was still in impound, miles away, along with her phone, wallet, and all of her personal items. Authorities would chalk this up as just another ordinary release, but their decision to release her without proper help would soon come under fire.

So right out the gate, there are so many things we could talk about, but I think it seems clear that we need to talk about what was going on with Maitrese at the time. There have been so many reports from people at the restaurant about her acting unusual. What do you think was going on with Maitrese at the time?

Yeah, I think it's really interesting because in Maitrese's case, there's something here that's not quite right in terms of her behavior. Maybe she was having some mental health struggles that were perhaps unmedicated or unmanaged, and that's what we're seeing play out with this odd behavior and the things that she's saying to folks.

Do you think that behavior was dismissed by the police? What do you think about their treatment of her and taking her to the police station instead of a hospital?

When the police were filling out their report about her state at the time, the police officer who ended up doing her sobriety field test essentially writes that he didn't see anything unusual about her behavior, that she seemed cognizant and able to take directions, which seems really odd to me because of what the restaurant workers are reporting her behavior was like before they had arrived, right? The fact that she was saying just random sentences that aren't connected together, that she was dining with random folks that she didn't know, even just her initial arrival at the restaurant when she's talking to the valet. To me, there is a layer of dismissiveness. That could be because they are categorizing her as somebody whose behavior would be a little bit odd, and therefore, maybe it's not out of the norm that she's acting a little strangely. So to me, it just feels really discordant. It's hard to believe that her behavior could have changed so drastically from how she was acting at the restaurant to all of a sudden now the police have arrived, she's completely completely cognizant, able to communicate effectively.

One of the things that really stands out to me is when you hear Latice on the phone with the officers, she makes a point of qualifying. When she comes in, you'll see she's well-spoken. That just stands out to me. Why does her being well-spoken have anything to do with this situation?

This goes back to Black folks have to navigate the world differently. We've talked a lot in society, culturally, about the conversation that Black parents are having with their Black kids about how to interact in a situation where you're pulled over or you have to interact with an officer. So I think what you're seeing there with her mom saying that is just an attempt to protect her daughter and the perception that she knows that a police officer might have.

Thank you for saying that more human part, because that's really what I felt. If she wasn't well-spoken, does that give us an okay to not treat her well? So one of the things Latice, I've seen her in interviews, reflects on is her actually saying on the phone to the officer she was speaking with when they were transporting Matrice was that she feels safer with her in custody then out.

Yeah, I think it's interesting, especially paired with the earlier comments that she's well-spoken. You're constantly living in this state of two realities where you might understand there are systemic issues with policing. You do have to take extra precaution of being really docile if you're having an interaction with police, if you're a Black person or Indigenous person, Latinx person. And yet in this conversation, she believes that's the safest place for her daughter to be. And I think that just points back to this idea that our systems might have issues, and they're also all we have. So it's like we have to rely on them when we have to believe that they're going to work properly because we, of course, don't want to believe that we're just screwed, that we have no way for us to remain safe. So I think that's what you're seeing here with this comment is I want to believe, and a belief, ultimately, that police will also still keep her daughter safe, even if she knows that her daughter is maybe not as well off as another young woman who might have been in her same situation, but maybe would have been white.

I know that a lot of the restaurant workers, specifically the hostess at the time who made the call, she has recently said that in retrospect, they thought that the police would take her to a hospital, and that's all they wanted. They didn't want her arrested. They weren't looking to harm her. They wanted to get her help. So there's this whole question about why did they release her? After speaking to her mother and saying, We don't release anyone until the morning. She'll be fine here. And then her mother makes that horrible, haunting comment, I don't want to wake up in the morning to report of a girl lost somewhere with her head chopped off. What do you make of all this? Was this, again, incompetence, or do you think there's something else going on?

I know exactly what officer is having a conversation with her mom versus the officer that makes a decision to let her go versus the officer who does the field sobriety test. I don't know.

So I want to pause you there because it's actually like there's a ton of them, and this is the problem. There seems to be a breakdown in the communication. It seems like there are deputies that came in for the later shift saying they weren't told by the original deputies. One of them is Yoab Shalev. He's one of the main guys you on the phone with her being like, She's not going to be released. It seems like he did not tell the officers coming in that the mother was calling. And then Armando Lerrero, he was the one at the end of his shift, and he made no mention of her strange behavior in an incident report. And he said that no one at Joffreys told him she had a mental disorder, quote, that's not my word. But that's a lie. Because he told his superior he booked her because she was acting ditzy at the restaurant. Don't go anywhere. We'll get back to our case after a quick break.

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Now, back to the conversation. I guess one of the main questions that even I haven't been able to answer in my research is, why Why did they release her and not hold her? They originally arrested her for trying to skip out on her dinner tab. She was charged with defrauding an innkeeper and possession of marijuana. She's charged with crimes. They did not have to drop those charges. When you're arrested in the United States, there's a 24-hour holding period. You have 24 hours to gather enough evidence to charge somebody. So what do you think about why they released her?

I think it links back to communication and different people being involved in this because everybody is going to have a little bit of a different frame of mind on this issue. So if you switch out and you have a new officer who's there who's in charge of this decision of keep or not to keep this person, they could be like, Oh, well, I don't even think we should have taken her in the first place. And so let's just let her go because she seems fine and whatever. So I think it could be as simple as that. And yeah, if you think about it, if this person who made the decision to let her go read the incident report where the officer literally said, and I quote, My observation did not lead me to believe she was under the influence of any alcoholic beverage or narcotics. She seemed to be entirely aware of her surroundings and did not seem confused. Perhaps somebody is like, All right, well, I'm not really sure why we brought her in the first place, let's let her go, and then we don't have to worry about this becoming a mess later on.

Sure. There's a disconnect between the decision to arrest her and the idea that she was acting completely rationally. Then that, I think, only aids in the miscommunication down the line once you involved more people.

So once Matrice left the police station, we don't know many details about where she went or what happened, but authorities were able to get some critical information that would help piece the puzzle together. Here's Payne with the details.

With no car, Mitrice was forced to leave the Los Hills Sheriff station on foot. And with no cell phone, she was unable to call anyone for help. It's believed she may have headed towards the nearby town of Montanito, a small community about six miles from the Lost Hills Sheriff's station. Around 6: 30 AM, authorities received a phone call from a local resident. He said he had been looking out his window and saw a shadowy figure in his backyard. Here's what the collar said.

Sheriff, there's Ruffles. Can I help you? Yeah, hi. We just heard a strange woman walking through the backyard here. It's a fairly large property. She was sitting on the right in the back of the house here. But the gates were closed, so we don't know where this woman came from. What's she look like? White, black, or ? You know, a tall, slim, black woman with Afro hair. She since got up and left? She's since gone. Yeah, she's been gone about five minutes now. And what direction was she last seen headed? Never saw her. Once she left, she just disappeared.

This would eventually become the last confirmed sighting of Mitrice before she disappeared. After 24 hours, with no contact from Mytrice, her mother, Latice, filed a missing persons report.

Rothschild, Station, Palm Garden.

Yes, hi. My name is Latice that night. I called not too long ago regarding my daughter, Mytrice, which is to how long before a missing person's report can be filed? Is it 24 or 48 hours?

That's normal. Well, it depends on the circumstances, but I didn't take your call, so I'm not familiar with it. Did she just not return home after going out?

She was arrested last night. This is the first time she's been arrested. She's in an unknown area. She's without a vehicle. Nobody can find her.

Where was this at? Where was she Who was there for us for that?

Your facility. Her name is Mitrice Richardson.

Do you know if she's here now or was she released?

They said she was released.

What time was she released?

Shortly after 12: 00 AM.

Yeah. Normally, I wouldn't recommend doing one that soon.

Right. What is the time frame?

I guess probably 24 hours would be reasonable. I mean, if there would be some mitigating factors where you would suspect maybe something not right.

She doesn't know the area. She's never been in your area.

Do you think she possibly could have gotten a bus home?

No.

Listen, my child has never rid in a bus. No, she would not know how to ride a bus.

I would probably wait till early this morning, and if she doesn't turn up, you can certainly call. I don't suspect anything bad happened.

I believe that she is highly depressed, and she's in a depressed state.

I mean, there's a lot of options and a lot of possibilities, and I don't think all of them would be something dire, but I can certainly understand your fears, being your daughter and all that. Why don't you give us a call back in a couple of hours, if she hasn't shown up or made contact with you, then maybe we can do something for you, okay?

The strange sighting in Montanito, would become ground zero for the initial police investigation. A search of the area turned up footprints, which appeared to start at a normal pace, but then quickened to a running pattern. Authorities would later confirm the prints belong to Mitrice, but the trail eventually stopped, revealing no further information. As their search continued, they would focus their efforts on Mitrice's car, which had been held in the impound lot, and what they discovered would confirm her family's worst fears and become a growing point of contention for authorities.

So let's talk about the police investigation because I think this is really critical to understanding Matrice's state of mind in the hours leading up to her disappearance. When authorities searched her car, they found tons of personal items. And what they also found was that she had enough money to cover the unpaid bill at Joffreys. They found her diaries, which her father seemed to be alarmed about. He said that she seemed off in her writings that are rambling, chaotic, and it appeared to them that she had been up for days.

Obviously, this is just further proof now. In retrospect, where we can say certainly there was a mental health crisis on. I mean, I don't know anyone who would have the money to pay and would rather be arrested than pay. So clearly this wasn't an instance of her choosing to make that decision. It's just upsetting because this is somebody who very clearly needed help. This could have been a point in her life that she was really grateful for. Maybe she would have gotten the mental health resources that she needed and that could have helped her in her life moving forward. I do lean on probably incompetence in that there's not a chain of communication that's effective here, which is really upsetting for a family member who is relying on those chains of communication to be effective, and especially for something so crucial as whether or not you're going to let somebody's daughter who is having a mental health crisis. If you are arrested and brought to jail to be held for any length of time, that's a very traumatizing or upsetting experience for anyone. Even if she had been completely in her right mind, she's probably not going to be feeling great when she is being let out or coming out and needs the support of family and friends or her support system to help her through and get her the resources that she's going to need in the next steps that she's going to need.

And I'm thinking about her Mom. She does this calculation of I could go get her now, but it's far away.

It's 40 miles away from where she was living. That is far.

Exactly. And she has her younger daughter who is at home that she has to care for as well. And she is just making the decision of, Okay, well, you know what? It's going to be easier if I go down there in the morning. I will come and get her if I need to, because the worst case scenario would be them leaving her out to have nobody, which obviously is what happened, but makes that calculation based on these facts that she was given. So, yeah, it's very disturbing and scary because it degrades the trust that we can have in law enforcement that the information we're getting is correct and that it's going to be followed through because these are situations with really high stakes. So it is important that it's accurate.

So there was also a lot of questions about protocol and things that they should have done legally. During the investigation, the family, my Thrice's family, asked for videotapes from the jail, and they were told these tapes didn't exist for years. They actually did exist, and the cops had them the whole time. And what it shows is her in a holding cell, and she's agitated, and she's pushing and pulling on the cell bars, and she's clearly upset. Why would the police want to withhold this video, and what do you make of her behavior?

Yeah. I mean, obviously, the behavior is a continuation of what we've been talking about in terms of this is somebody who needed help and resources from a trained professional. But in terms of them keeping that information or those tapes from her family and loved ones, I'm sure they at some point reviewed those tapes and felt that it would be in their best interest not to make those tapes public because that obviously puts a huge light on that police Department and those officers and their choices. And I think a lot of times you'll see that police departments will do what they need to do to protect their own. And So I feel like that was an attempt to try to see if they could get away with it, keep it from coming to light.

So one of the things that I think was really interesting was it's not up to the police to decide if she should be taken for a mental health evaluation or not. And I know that the chief or one of the police spokesperson has said recently in recent interviews that she wouldn't have qualified for a 5150 hold, which is what it's called when you're held in a hospital for a mental health evaluation for 24 or 2 hours. But that's not up to them to make that decision. That's up to a mental health evaluator to make that decision.

I'm curious, what was the reasoning or why did they say that?

Yeah. So for a 5150 hold, you have to be a danger to yourself or others, gravely disabled, which it doesn't seem like she was. I mean, she wasn't being violent. No one said she was. No one felt endangered by her. And so I guess in their head, they thought, Oh, the hospital is not going to take her, so we'll just take her. But to me, that's so crazy. That's not up to you.

I definitely feel like there's a level of throwing your hands up, passing the buck. Like, whose responsibility is it if it's not yours? I think that as a police officer, you have this oath to protect and serve. So Regardless of if there's a specific law or policy that perfectly fits your situation that allows you to assist people, I do feel like you would think it would be within the purview of an officer to at least do what they can do to help that person end up in the best, safest hands possible. In this situation, ultimately, if they tried to have a mental health practitioner evaluate her, worst case scenario, they actually find that there's nothing wrong with her, let her go at that point, but at least then there would be some due diligence. So it's definitely super concerning to me. I think anyone would hope that in the case that themselves or their loved ones was in a situation where they weren't acting rationally, that the folks in society, like police officers who are there to help out, are actually able to help out.

Absolutely. And I think when the police get a phone call like this, dispatch someone who's trained in mental health. I think fundamentally, that's a lot of what we're talking about here. So while we may not know the full story of what was happening with Mitrice that night, it's hard to deny that there were red flags that authorities didn't pick up on or that they ignored. But for nearly a year, there was no update on Mitrease's case, and police were unable to find her, but things were about to take a major turn.

We were told that they were going to leave her remains there until the morning because it was getting dark.

But then when we saw the helicopter hovering, and then we saw what looked like the girney basket being hoisted up into the helicopter, then we knew that Matrice was being moved.

More on this case after a quick break. You're listening to Up and Vanish Weekly. Hey, listeners, if you have tip or theories about a case you want to share or a case of interest you'd like to recommend to us, then we want to hear from you. Email us, cases@tenderfoot. Tv, DM us on Instagram @uavweekly, or give us a call at 770-545-6411. Now, here's John with this week's critical missing case.

Yeah, Maggie. So sometime in the early morning hours on New Year's Day, 19-year-old Isabella Jean Marmalejo disappeared from her North Indiana Avenue residence, which is in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The last day to contact was the night before, December 31st, 2024, when her family says that she went to bed. Then early the next morning, she couldn't be found. Isabella is of white and Hispanic ethnicity with a height of 6'1, weighing approximately 250 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes, and she wears black wireframe glasses. Isabella has a tattoo of the Harry Potter sorting hat on her left forearm. So So, listeners, if you or anyone you know has any information about Isabella's whereabouts, please contact the Dell City Police Department at 405-677-2443. And you can reference case number 25-00 006.

Okay, let's get back to the show.

On Monday, August ninth, 2010, Park Rangers for the State of California Virginia, set out to search a remote area of Malibu Canyon. They believe the location was an old farm that may have had ties to a Mexican drug cartel. Their protocol was to destroy any marijuana plants they found, including and cut irrigation lines that watered them. As the rangers combed the area, the group walked into a clearing near a creek bed, and suddenly a ranger stops. There, beneath the leaves and dirt, he saw something. Bending down to get a closer look, he moved away the debris and shouted to the group. It looked like a human skull. The rangers immediately called the LA County Sheriff's office, who had jurisdiction. When officers arrived, the crew escorted them to the creek bed, and in a short time, they had excavated the area, finding a skull and an unclothed, partially decomposed body. The remains were partially mummified, but they seemed to be of a female. As unsettling as this discovery was, the scene would quickly turn more eerie. As the search continued, they found that the skull and spinal cord were detached from the rest of the remains.

A few yards away, they found a leg with the femur removed. Making things even more ominous, they discovered the remains were unclothed. As they continued their search, they found a belt, bra, and jeans scattered hundreds of feet down the ravine. The location was approximately 2. 5 miles from Montanito and 8 miles from the Los Hills Sheriff station in Malibu. Eventually, the remains were airlifted out of the clearing and sent for identification. A short time later, the remains would be confirmed as Mitreis Richardson's. But this revelation didn't offer her loved one's any solace. In fact, this latest discovery would only reinforce their frustrations around how authorities handled Maitrese's case and the desperate need for change.

When you hear about how this story ends, your heart can't help but go out to my Therese's family and loved ones. Such a tragic end to a completely, literally avoidable situation that to me, screams of police incompetence and misconduct. So when her remains were found, the coroner is supposed to be on scene before the remains are removed, but they did not wait for the coroner. They didn't secure the site so testing or analysis could be done. The way I've heard it explained is they scooped up her body and sent it away. So there's no crime scene analysis done there. What does that say to you, just the way her remains were treated?

Yeah, I mean, this is just really upsetting because It's like, again, this is even after death. It's as if Mitrice was treated as if she wasn't a human being deserving of answers and care and respect and all of that. And so it's obviously she's no longer alive, but every Everybody deserves to be treated with dignity. And I think that especially considering she has a family who is in loved other loved ones who are just so involved in this case and fighting for answers. It's just so disrespectful that just basically procedure couldn't have been followed. I have a hard time believing that if this had been a different, more high profile white victim, that the utmost care to follow procedure would have been taken.

I personally am horrified. I don't even think there's a word that I can use to explain the egregious mishandling of this case. When they did a second autopsy and they exhumed her, they found her clothing still there. Why wasn't that in evidence for testing? They never tested her clothing. And the only explanation I can find for that is that they did not regard her life as worthy. Again, I just don't have words for that. Not doing DNA testing, not collecting. The clothes are there. You didn't even have to go and find them. They were in the back. Yeah. Why were they still with her body?

I'm right there with you. I feel like... I mean, this is just the bare minimum required to do your job properly. You know what I mean? In some of the earlier missteps that we have discussed, it's okay, well, maybe there's not this really clear procedure and protocol for you to follow, but In this instance, when we're talking about the handling of the body, it's like they had steps to follow. They just didn't follow them, which also is concerning because it's like, well, if that's what you're used to doing, how often has something similar happened with these same officers or departments and all of that. It's also odd because in this case where we're talking about the corner being on the scene before a remains can be removed, that's not even more work for you. You just have to wait for them to arrive and then the body can be removed. But it's like just complete a lack of care for anyone other than what your immediate priorities might have been, which might have been just getting out of there, getting this finished up or wrapped up. So it's super, super alarming.

So not long after Maitrese's found her family family files a lawsuit against Los Angeles County, and the county agrees to pay $900,000 to her family in a wrongful death settlement. Then a different suit in 2016, the California Attorney General reopens a criminal investigation into the Sheriff's Department. They didn't say why they opened a criminal investigation, but they concluded there was insufficient evidence to support criminal prosecutions. Are you surprised at the outcome of the criminal investigation? Investigation?

I think that insofar as the initial investigation was mishandled or handled poorly, for example, not following protocol, the coroner getting a chance to go to the scene and move her body and all of that, it doesn't surprise me that a subsequent investigation would yield very little. There are two ways this could go. It's like either they're hiding something, right? There is actually enough evidence for them to support some criminal prosecution Or, and this is maybe the way I lead, if you don't handle the initial investigation correctly, you are destroying your chances at any evidence that you might have had and the appropriate documentation that you would need to have some solid leads to go after. I think in this case, it's like they never had a strong suspect who might have been involved initially. Like, okay, well, is this a murder? Is this a kidnapping? Is this just somebody who wandered off? So it's so much harder to build leads later on.

So one of the most One of the frustrating things with Mytherese's case is that it's been hard to nail down real theories. And since the authorities did not test her remains or the site where her remains were found, it's been impossible to identify any real suspects. Let's talk about some of those leading theories. The cause and manner of death are listed as undetermined. There's no signs of accidental injury. She's found partially mummified. Some of the leading theories are a mental health crisis. That she is having such a bad breakdown from all of the reasons we talked about, potentially suffering from bipolar disorder. She might have been awake for five nights, which only exasperates that. Some people think that she wanders out into the woods, sprawling wilderness, canyons, hills, and succumb to the elements, potentially an animal attack, potentially an allergic reaction. And so she went into some anaphylactic shock and died. These are literal things that have been floated.

The idea of her succumbing to the elements is definitely possible or even probable, considering she didn't have any money or anything like that to make sure that she could eat and get water and all of those things. I think it's definitely interesting that her clothes are found in a separate spot, particularly that because it makes you wonder, Okay, well, if she did die, and then maybe animals had gotten to her remains, and perhaps that's why different parts of her remains are found in different places. We believe that likely she was experiencing a mental health crisis. I'm not saying that this is likely, but maybe there could have even been something happening to her brain, like an actual condition that could have maybe been potentially life-threatening, and that was causing a change in behavior. So all that to say the idea that she could have succumbed to the element, I don't think is unlikely at all. It's more that, why is it that her clothes are found separate from her body and altogether?

Right. So some people say when you go into hypothermia, you get really hot, so you take off your clothes. So some people thought maybe she took off her own clothes, just laid down and died out there. And the elements, I think what really points away from that and also points away from an animal attack. The animals could explain predation, why her remains might be scattered. But it doesn't seem, from what we know, that her death can be explained by an animal attack. And the thing pointing away, too, from her succumbing to elements is that, very specifically, her arm is tight to her body and flexed, and she's mummified. In order to get like that, her arm would have to be stuck on her body at the time of death, like, tightly pressed against her, almost like she was wrapped in something to keep the flexing like that. So a lot of people go to say, well, the fact that she's mummified and the fact that she's flexed, she just didn't die openly. She was held somewhere. So that brings us to foul play. She is 40 miles from home. She pretty clearly would have had to start walking down this road when she's released in the dark there's nothing there.

It seems very likely someone could have picked her up. What do you make of a third party?

Yeah, I mean, I tend to feel like there maybe was likely a third party who was involved just because of everything that you just talking about. I feel like there's just a lot of unanswered questions. Some of what they found of her remains to be easier to explain if there was a third party. Obviously, insofar as the crime scene wasn't handled properly afterwards, it makes finding that person pretty difficult. But I think that this is somebody who was out, isolated, alone. It was night. That does make her the perfect person to be victimized, unfortunately. And Obviously, that is incredibly rare that a stranger would victimize you while you're out walking around. But I think in this instance, the conditions were right where she definitely could have been the victim of an attack.

Well, When the family got the police video, they saw Deputy Ismael Rodriguez leaving about two minutes behind my Therese at the station. The family was told that there were no deputies at the station at that time when she in custody. Clearly, that wasn't true. But when she left, there is a deputy following her. He does not have an accounting of his activities during that night or the morning. He was transferred from the Lost Hill station shortly after, And that's really all we know. Just to clarify, it's Captain Tom Martin who eventually said, Oh, we've had this video the whole time, and that video shows a deputy leaving the station after he had also said there was no deputies at the station. So it just seems like it's just weird. Again, it's like, Is this all incompetence? Or what is going on? Why did you hide this video? This is part of the video that the family got. Why was this hidden? And I think that's just, whether it's nefarious or not, I think that's just suspicious.

Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I think ultimately, if he's just leaving a few minutes after, to me, that's not necessarily enough for me to feel like he has any involvement. Although I feel like if this is something that the public is questioning, then obviously it would be great if they would make some statement with more information about why he was cleared and what his whereabouts were after that point. So I don't think it's enough for me to feel like, Oh, yeah, this guy probably was involved. But I do think that the police work for the public. And if there are these open questions, it's like, in fact, actually, if there's people speculating that he might have involvement And I think it's to his own benefit that there's more information released about why he's been cleared.

Our discussion continues after a quick break.

Hey, It's John from the Up and Vanished team. If you're enjoying this episode, then you should check out the Tenderfoot Original series, To Live and Die in LA. In 2018, aspiring actress Adeya Shabani vanished from her Hollywood apartment. Best-selling author author, Rolling Stone writer, and investigative journalist, Neil Strauss, was asked to help her family get answers. The result was season one of the award-winning podcast. For season two, the team looked into the disappearance of a college student named Elaine York, who disappeared from Neil's Malibu, California neighborhood. Eventually, Elaine's abandoned car was found just two minutes away from Joffrey's restaurant, where Mytherese Richardson was arrested. All of these disappearances share one stark warning. Don't go missing in LA. Listen to both seasons of To Live and Die in LA, wherever you get your podcasts, or binge ad-free exclusively on Tenderfoot Plus. Now, back to the show.

So in terms of persons of interest, I have found this very interesting. So the Lost Hills podcast, they're one of the first that I have found that has done a real deep dive into my trees and have done their own boots on the ground investigating. They found this very interesting suspect, and I want to tell you about him and hear your thoughts. Yeah. He's dead now, so we're going to name him. His name is Richard Wayne Forsberg, and actually, he was a suspect from the beginning. He was questioned and he passed a polygraph test, so it seems like police didn't follow much into him after that. But he has a long history of domestic violence, strangling his partners, his wives, girlfriends. He has substance abuse issues. He was actually growing weed and living out there where she was found at the time. And he admitted, when police first questioned him, to picking up Mytrice Richardson on his motorcycle that night. Oh, wow. What do you think about him? Knowing he was someone from the beginning?

Well, yeah. I mean, that's really interesting. And looking into this case, I hadn't seen anything about this person except for one article that references this podcast. So it's just interesting to hear what you're sharing now. But I'm wondering, why aren't more people now picking up this story? Because the fact that somebody has admitted to picking her up on a motorcycle that night, was it?

Yeah.

I mean, That's wild to me. If you would just read everything online, look up all the articles online, you would just be led to believe that was it. Nobody else claimed to have seen her after the one person had seen a woman that matched her description, that she was gone after that So I am definitely interested in knowing more about that. Did the police... Why did they not investigate further? How did they write off this picking her up on the motorcycle piece?

I mean, he was clear he took a polygraph, and that was the end of it. And I think that's so much of the problem with this case is that no one took the time to investigate it, to do more than just surface-level reporting, pulling from whatever local affiliates reported at the time. It's just incredible to me that there's a man with all of the red flags that was a suspect from the beginning that says he picked her up. I wonder, with this surprise you as well that he has been found with bags of women's panties. I hate that word panties, but that's how disturbing this all is that I said panties. Yeah. Her socks and underwear were never found.

This is really wild to me. I feel like, how could it not be him? This person admitted to picking her up. Like, what? It's odd, too, that those happen to be the items of clothing that are missing, that we've never been able to find. But he has this history. And it would be interesting to me that you would write it off based off of a polygraph, considering that polygraphs aren't even admissible in court. They're not actually a solid piece of evidence. But I don't know. I feel like sometimes police officers are just polling for somebody to say implicate themselves in a certain way. And it's just wild that somebody would implicate themselves by saying they're probably the last person to see her alive. And that is just a dead end at that point.

I think one other thing is that they never found her hyoid bone, so it's always been a question of whether she was strangled or not. But I think that's one of the main theories is that she was strangled. It's because we can't find that bone and the rest of her body didn't seem to show any blunt force trauma, stuff like that. The theory has always been she's been strangled, and this specific person of interest has a history of strangling, specifically, strangling his partners. So I just find it glaring, now that we have this information. He died 10 years after she went missing. That is infuriating, too, if this is someone that did do something to her. So remember when they were searching for her, they were searching for illegal weed farms. It's unclear whether that was his illegal weed farm or not. Oh. But he was known to be growing out there. So I'm wondering if that was the connection, that if he was the person of interest, that they were looking for his weed, and then they find her. For me, he definitely seems to stand out as someone who could have had means and motive.

Silesia, thank you for joining me today. It has been incredible. You are brilliant and It's fun to talk to you, and you're just an expert, specifically on cases like Maitrese's. So if people want to hear more of what you do, where can people find you?

Definitely can check out my show, Truer Crime, on all the podcast players, and you can find us on social media at Truer Crime Pod on Instagram and X, or you can find me at Silesia Stanton on TikTok and Instagram. And then I also host The Vanishing Point. Or if you want to just keep up with me more weekly, I have a Substack newsletter called Since SincerelyCelecia, which you can find at sincerelycelecia. Substack. Com.

For 15 years, there have been no real answers about Mitrice's disappearance and death, and her case has gotten relatively little coverage compared to others from that same time. It's led many to feel like her case has not been taken seriously by the media or authorities. Even today, we don't know what happened to Mitrice once she left the station, and it's infuriating to think that the events that led up to her death could have been completely avoided. When I decided to cover my Theresa's story, I reached out to the LA County Sheriff's office with a simple question. I asked for clarity about their policy, whether they even have one, on providing rides to citizens released from their custody. Here was part of their response.

On For the 15th anniversary of Mytrice Richardson's death, the Sheriff's Department's pursuit of justice remains steadfast, with homicide detectives diligently continuing their investigation into every lead and piece of information that emerges. The Department remains committed to bringing closure to the family and friends of Mitrice and ensuring that every avenue is explored in the quest for justice.

They never answered my very simple question, and It's simple questions like this that countless people still have today, including Mitrice's family. Those who knew Mitrice say her behavior right before she disappeared was uncharacteristic, potentially early warning signs that pointed to a mental health issue. Had the situation been handled differently, this story may have had a different ending. In a 2021 interview with ABC7, Maitrise's mom, Latice, and dad, Michael, shared their thoughts.

What has been so difficult for me to live with is knowing that she died alone without family around her in her last moment.

People say, Man, you got to move on. You never move on, but you carry on. The one thing I thought was perfect to me in life had to be taken from me.

While many only know Maitrise based on what they read in headlines or see in media coverage, her family continues to fight to keep Maitrise's memory alive. The young woman they knew and loved.

I just want everyone to remember how vibrant and beautiful Maitrise was. She wanted to be someone to make a difference in life.

You can find additional information about Maitrise Richardson at justiceformaitrice on Instagram. Finally, if you have any information about the death of Maitrise Richardson, please contact Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Division at 323-890-518. Com. 5500. Los Angeles County is offering a $25,000 reward for any information that will help solve Mytrace's case. You all, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Up and Up and Vanished Weekly. Be sure to tune in next Friday as we dig into another new case. Until next time.

Up and Vanished Weekly is a production of Tinderfoot TV in association with Odyssey. Your host are Maggie Freeling and myself, Payne Lindsay. The show is written by Maggie Freeling, myself and John Street. Executive Executive producers are Donald Albright and myself. Lead producer is John Street. Additional production by Meredith Steadman and Mike Rooney. Research for the series by Jamie Albright, Silesia Stanton, and Caroline Tallmage. Edit and Mix by Dylan Harrington and Sean Nerny. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplin. Artwork by Byron McCoy. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media & Marketing, and The Nord Group. For more podcasts like Up and Vanished Weekly, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app, or visit us at tenderfoot. Tv. Thanks for listening.