Missing Woman’s Family Awaits Results from Drone Imaging

• Mother’s Support Group Member Asks Board of Supervisors to Investigate Former Captain

BY ANNE SOBLE

Family members of Mitrice Richardson, who went missing last September, are still awaiting the results of imagery analysis from drone aircraft reconnaissance of the general area of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station and the residential location where she last was reported to have possibly been sighted.

There has been no word in seven months from the 24-year-old honors college graduate who had ostensibly close family ties. Her parents, Latice Sutton and Michael Richardson, have spearheaded numerous publicity and field search efforts to make sure their daughter does not become a missing person statistic.

The drone, a small unmanned aircraft with high resolution photographic equipment, was operated by engineers from San Diego State University who were brought in by the family. After repeated requests, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department agreed to pick up the cost of using the craft in a search effort last Thursday.

The drone was able to fly low into canyons that search teams have had difficulty accessing on foot or by helicopter. Even the most seasoned search and rescue experts acknowledge that the rugged terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains can swallow automobiles whole, and they can remain undiscovered for years until stumbled upon, usually by accident.

The drone, a project of SDSU’s Immersive Visualization Center, has been used in the past to find the remains of missing people after traditional search efforts failed. The drone was used in the high-profile searches for two missing teenagers who subsequently were found murdered in San Diego County.

Richardson, a psychology major planning to substitute teach to fund graduate work, disappeared after she was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station shortly after midnight last Sept. 17. Richardson had been arrested the night before at a Malibu restaurant for not paying an $89.51 dinner bill. Restaurant staff told police she was acting strangely. She reportedly was speaking gibberish.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has organized several searches for the missing woman. However, the parents say the authorities waited too long before the first of these searches  took place.

OTHER ACTION

A key member of Latice Sutton’s support team, a psychologist with whom Mitrice Richardson interned while in college, Dr. Ronda Hampton, has begun a battle with the authorities on another front.

In a strongly worded letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Hampton says Tom Martin, the former captain of the Lost Hills Station, “is a liar” and has done “nothing short of interfering with an active investigation of a missing person, and this is unacceptable.”

Hampton made these allegations after viewing a videotape of the missing woman that Martin first denied existed. As a result, she asks, “When will Captain Martin be held accountable for his lies?”

She said the tape also shows that a deputy “left the facility two minutes after Mitrice was released,”  and she indicated he should be questioned about this.