Week 15: No Response Yet on Request that FBI Get Involved in Search for Mitrice Richardson Who Disappeared in Mid-September

• Petition to Have Federal Government Join Current Missing Person Investigation Team Nears 5000 Signatures

BY ANNE SOBLE

It’s not overstatement to describe Washington, DC as a ghost town between late December and the first week of the new year, so it is not too surprising that there is no formal reply yet to the request by Representative Maxine Waters that the FBI become involved in the case of the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who reportedly departed from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station before dawn on Sept. 17 and has been missing for 15 weeks.
Representative Waters has asked the FBI to initiate an investigation into the disappearance of the young black woman, Mitrice Richardson, and the circumstances of her Malibu arrest and subsequent booking and release from Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department custody.
In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller two weeks ago, Waters said, “Based on reports I have read, there are questions as to whether the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station acted properly in releasing this young woman during the predawn hours without money or transportation, all while she was suffering from what the Los Angeles Police Department’s doctors have concluded to be bipolar disorder.” The LAPD is the lead agency in the search because Richardson is a Los Angeles resident.
Waters, a Democrat, represents the 35th Congressional District, which includes the South Los Angeles area where Richardson lives with her great-grandmother. Richardson, who was preparing to begin substitute teaching and planned to work on a doctorate in clinical psychology, mysteriously vanished after walking out of the Lost Hills Station, located 40 miles from her home, alone, inadequately attired for cold weather, and without money, cell phone or means of transportation at 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 17.
Richardson had been booked on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest several hours earlier by personnel at Geoffrey’s restaurant for not paying an $89.51 dinner tab. Her speech and behavior were described as strange by people in the restaurant, but when she was taken to Lost Hills, sheriff’s personnel there determined that she was lucid and there were no grounds to detain her.
However, last month, journal entries found in the woman’s car, which was impounded at time of her arrest—a questionable procedure in its own right—were interpreted by professionals as indicative of extreme fatigue (up to a week of possible sleep deprivation) and other signs of mental stress.
Waters, a member of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, which is responsible for oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, added extra clout to her message when she said she is “concerned about the failure of the FBI Los Angeles Regional Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mitrice’s disappearance.”
Waters added that “the FBI has the responsibility to pursue cases implicating federal criminal or civil rights statutes [and] I believe the circumstances and facts of this case warrant bureau involvement.”
She reiterates the request “that the FBI open an investigation into Mitrice’s disappearance and the circumstances surrounding her arrest, detention and release from the custody of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.”
FEDERAL PETITION
Bolstering Waters’ request for FBI intervention are the efforts of an online activist group whose concerns include social, economic and criminal justice. Change.org has collected 4277 signatures toward a goal of 5000 signatures on a petition urging state and federal elected and appointed officials to initiate a federal investigation of the Richardson case.
In addition to the effort to “help find Richardson,” the group wants “to ensure that this does not happen to additional persons.” The petition is at the group’s website: www.change.org
JANUARY SEARCH
LAPD Detective Charles Knolls indicated that law enforcement agencies are “planning a search for additional clues in January” in the Malibu/Lost Hills area. He said, “We’re coordinating the search with the Lost Hills Search and Rescue teams and their volunteer resources. The exact date has not been set.”
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as an “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
For more information about the case and search activities, check the website at www.findmitrice.info or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Charles Knolls or Steven Eguchi at their new office telephone number 213-486-6900.

Member of Congress Asks FBI Director for Help in Search for Mitrice Richardson Who Disappeared after Release from Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Sept

• Representative Maxine Waters Questions LASD Procedures Regarding 24-Year-Old College Honors Graduate

BY ANNE SOBLE

Responding to what she describes as an inundation of constituent communications asking for her support, Congressmember Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) has asked the FBI to look into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson and the circumstances of her Malibu arrest and subsequent booking and release from Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
Waters represents the South Los Angeles area where Richardson lives with her great-grandmother, Mildred Hughes, 92, the matriarch of a strong, close-knit family that has been devastated by not having heard from the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate for the last 14 weeks.
Richardson, who was preparing to begin substitute teaching and planned to work on a doctorate in clinical psychology, mysteriously vanished after reportedly walking out of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, located 40 miles from her home, alone, without a jacket, money, her cell phone or a means of transportation at 12:25 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17.
Richardson had been booked on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest by staffers at Geoffrey’s restaurant for not paying her $89.51 dinner tab several hours earlier. Her speech and behavior were described as strange by people in the restaurant who expressed concern for her safety, but when she was taken to Lost Hills, sheriff’s personnel pronounced her lucid and competent to be released.
Journals and other writings found in the woman’s vehicle, which was impounded at time of her arrest, indicate troubling mental issues.
In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller last week, Representative Waters said, “Based on reports I have read, there are questions as to whether the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station acted properly in releasing this young woman during the predawn hours without money or transportation, all while she was suffering from what the Los Angeles Police Department’s doctors have concluded to be bipolar disorder.”
Waters represents the 35th Congressional District, and serves on the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, which is responsible for oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Adding in that context, “I am also concerned about the failure of the FBI Los Angeles Regional Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mitrice’s disappearance.”
Waters noted that “the FBI has the responsibility to pursue cases implicating federal criminal or civil rights statutes [and] I believe the circumstances and facts of this case warrant bureau involvement.
“Therefore, it is with great urgency that I respectfully request that the FBI open an investigation into Mitrice’s disappearance and the circumstances surrounding her arrest, detention and release from the custody of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.”
JANUARY SEARCH
When Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca upgraded the Richardson investigation to a homicide case to increase resources last week, it raised concerns—even among her family—that it could mean that the woman is now believed to be dead.
LASD protestations that there is no evidence to indicate this have not allayed concerns. That the Los Angeles Police Department is planning another major search in the Malibu/Lost Hills area is also fueling somber thoughts.
Some family members ask whether the LAPD, the lead agency on the case because Richardson is a Los Angeles resident, is conducting—in emergency parlance—a recovery exercise versus a rescue one.
However, LAPD Detective Charles Knolls said, “We’re planning a search for additional clues in January.” He said, “We’re coordinating the search with the Lost Hills Search and Rescue teams and their volunteer resources. The exact date has not been set.”
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as an “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
For more information about the case and search activities, check the website at www.findmitrice.info or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Charles Knolls or Steven Eguchi at their new office telephone number 213-486-6900.

Sheriff Upgrades Mitrice Richardson Case to Homicide Investigation as Agency Spokesperson Stresses that the Move Doesn’t Mean Missing Woman Is Dead

• Mother Criticizes Not Being Told of Sheriff’s Action in Advance and Interprets It to Mean that Her Daughter Is No Longer Alive

BY ANNE SOBLE

On Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca ordered the sheriff’s department to upgrade its efforts in the investigation into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson to a homicide case, at the same time that department spokespersons stress that they do not believe that the young woman who has been missing for 13 weeks is dead.
Steve Whitmore, the chief media representative for the LASD, told the Malibu Surfside News that “it cannot be emphasized enough that this move is all about expanding resources, not any supposition that Richardson is dead.”
He said Baca’s action authorizes a three-member sheriff’s homicide team to concurrently work with the Los Angeles Police Department’s own homicide division team in the search for the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who mysteriously vanished after reportedly walking out of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, located 40 miles from her home, without a jacket, money, cell phone or means of transportation at 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 17.
Richardson had been booked on two field citable misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest by staffers at Geoffrey’s restaurant for allegedly not paying her $89.51 dinner tab. Sheriff’s deputies who searched her car added a second allegation of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Bizarre speech and behavior was attributed to her by people in the restaurant, but in subsequent contact with LASD personnel, Richardson was described as lucid and personable.
Whitmore said Baca took the action on Monday after having met last week with the woman’s father Michael Richardson. Mitrice Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, who raised her daughter and with whose grandmother the missing woman resided while working full-time and preparing to go to graduate school, was not invited to the meeting. The missing woman’s parents, who were not married and who separated when she was a child, have been directing parallel search efforts, with the mother focusing more intently on field searches.
In a prepared statement received by the Malibu Surfside News just before press time Tuesday night, Sutton said, “I find it most unfortunate that I had to learn that the sheriff’s department was opening up a homicide investigation from a newspaper report.”
Sutton asked that her written comments be used in entirety because she says she is “deeply perplexed about the handling of my daughter’s investigation, with the most perplexing issue being that all of the investigators involved are now turning their attention to the fact that there was a mental crisis. I told them that from day one.”
It was the mother and the woman’s college academic mentor, psychologist Ronda Hampton, who stressed the possibility of sudden mental illness from the beginning, even as other family members downplayed it and the sheriff department’s assessment of her coherence when she was being booked at Lost Hills was accepted as prima facie evidence of lack of mental distress.
Mitrice Richardson’s journals and other writings that were subsequently found in her impounded vehicle have since been examined by mental health professionals, and officials now think it is possible that she might have been living in her car for up to a week before the Geoffrey’s incident and lapsing in and out of bipolar illness.
Learning of the change in official attitude about Richardson’s mental state, Sutton said, “I can’t help but question the fact that if the authorities were not so dismissive of my pleas to do a foot search to find her because she’s in a mental crisis, that would have made the difference between life and death.
“Further, I am absolutely appalled that neither the LASD, nor the LAPD, would not contact me to tell me the new scope of their investigation, especially considering the fact that I filed the missing person case, not to mention that’s my baby. One would think ‘I’ would be privy to such information before releasing it to anyone, let alone the general public. In addition, how insulting to me, and the public that Sheriff Lee Baca and the LASD serve, to make such a flip statement that ‘he has declared it a homicide investigation, but that does not mean the sheriff believes Ms. Richardson is dead.’ Of course they believe she’s dead. Surely the LASD does not have such excess funds to spend on an investigation that has no merit or evidence just for the ‘heck-of-it?’”
Sutton noted that she met with the lead Los Angeles Police Department detectives on the case last Monday and they did not mention any pending LASD action.
At that time, Sutton said she provided a DNA sample for possible identification use as requested by the LAPD. The father has also been asked to provide a DNA sample. His only public comment on the request is located on his separate website where he has written, “Haven’t we learned anything from Mark Fuhrman?”
Meanwhile, Sutton continues to ask why “the FBI hasn’t been invited to assist in the search for my baby, like in the case of the Virginia woman who went missing after a concert?”
Sutton said, “I cannot express how devastated I am, and the magnitude of the loss I feel. As I reflect upon all the love, joy, and brightness my baby exuded, the milestones my baby reached, and what she was on track to accomplish, to know that because of the absence of ‘prudence, and safety,’ I am left to grieve for my baby in the most unimaginable, unsettling way. I am left with a hole in my heart, spirit, and soul that cannot be repaired, or healed.”
When asked why the mother was not included in the meeting with Sheriff Baca, Whitmore said the father was the person who had asked for the meeting and no other family members took part. He said the new LASD investigators will be contacting Sutton.
For more information about the case and ongoing field searches, contact the family website at www.findmitrice.info, Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Steven Eguchi or Chuck Knolls at their new office telephone number 213-486-6900.

Week 12: Mitrice Richardson’s Family Turns to Member of Congress for Assistance

• LAPD Reports No Progress in Its Search for Missing 24-Year-Old Woman

BY ANNE SOBLE

According to this week’s update from the Los Angeles Police Department detectives in charge of the missing person investigation of the young woman arrested in Malibu on Sept. 16 who has not been seen or heard from for 12 weeks, “She is still missing and her whereabouts are still unknown.”
Detective Steven Eguchi told the Malibu Surfside News, the increasingly high profile case “is still actively being investigated where we follow up on every clue or sighting we receive.”
Among current actions by the LAPD are requests that both parents of Mitrice Richardson provide DNA sampling to the Department of Justice. Eguchi said, “This is standard operating procedure. It is not out of the ordinary” in cases involving missing progeny.
The LAPD still indicates it does not think the Richardson case specifics warrant bringing in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist with the search.
Because the $10,000 reward posted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will expire on Dec. 28, Eguchi said, “I just requested that the reward be renewed and continue until there is a final outcome on this case.”
He asked The News to “please keep this in print as much as possible, in hopes of generating information that could assist us in locating Mitrice Richardson.”
The LAPD’s Robbery and Homicide Division is the lead investigative agency on the case because the employed Cal State Fullerton honors graduate lived in Los Angeles with her 92-year-old great-grandmother.
Meanwhile, the missing woman’s family is focusing its attention on Richardson’s Congressional representative, Congressmember Maxine Waters, and asking that Waters help initiate federal involvement in the case.
Emails sent to Waters’ communications director are still pending, but office staff indicate that the representative has received requests for assistance with the case that began with Richardson’s arrest in Malibu and her pre-dawn release from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on foot, without money or a cell phone, 40 miles from her home.
The family continues to try to keep Richardson’s name before the public, telling the now familiar story of her booking on two misdemeanor charges by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and its questionable release procedures on cable TV shows and in magazines and newspapers.
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
Information related to the case can be communicated to the family website at www.findmitrice. info, Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Steven Eguchi or Chuck Knolls at 213-485-2531.

Week 11: Still No Word on Whereabouts of Mitrice Richardson

• Family Seeks Federal Investigation into 24-Year-Old’s Disappearance

BY ANNE SOBLE

The days are solemnly noted by her family as another page on the calendar has turned since Mitrice Richardson disappeared following her pre-dawn release from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 17, the day after the 24-year-old was booked on two misdemeanor counts—an unpaid dinner tab of $89.51 and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Richardson was not dressed for cold nighttime temperatures. She had no money; the sheriff’s department kept her cell phone; and her car had been impounded. She reportedly was traveling on foot in the dark and desolate industrial area bordering on wilderness parklands.
That an honors college graduate from a close-knit family has not been heard from in 77 days, has not accessed her substantial bank account funds or used her credit cards, does not presume foul play, according to both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, the lead agency in the search because Richardson resided in Los Angeles with her great-grandmother.
The family wants the FBI called in, but the LAPD says there is insufficient cause for federal involvement. The online activist group—www. change.org—is gathering signatures on a petition urging state and federal officials to initiate a federal investigation.
The mounting cost of the family conducting its own field searches and private information dissemination campaign has prompted the setup of the Mitrice L. Richardson fund at the family’s original website (www.findmitrice.info).
The website says “contributions will be used to cover various costs such as printing and production of materials, search initiatives and advertisements associated in the search for Mitrice.”
Donations can be made to the Mitrice L. Richardson Fund (253455337191) at any U.S. bank, or checks sent to: Mitrice L. Richardson Fund; 23441 Golden Springs Dr. #115; Diamond Bar, Ca 917666. Credit card instructions are on the website.
Information related to the case should be relayed to www.findmitrice.info, Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Steve Eguchi or Chuck Knolls at 213-485-2531.