Father of Slain Escondido Teen to Assist in Next Volunteer Search for Clues to the Whereabouts of Mitrice Richardson

• Strong Parallels Appear Evident in Every Family’s Search for a Missing Child of Any Age

BY ANNE SOBLE

Mitrice Richardson isn’t going to be another unsolved missing person statistic, and no other member of a family who disappears will be allowed to fade into oblivion, if Maurice Dubois and his advocacy effort—More Kids Organization—can play a part in how these cases are treated.

Dubois says the families of missing persons can experience comparable frustration when dealing with public agencies that may have limited resources and  personnel who can appear to be unresponsive and indifferent.

Extensive searches by law enforcement, search and rescue teams and aerial drone units took place in the area where his 14-year-old daughter Amber Dubois disappeared, but produced no results.

After more than a year, Dubois did not learn that his daughter had died until the man who would be convicted of her murder and that of another teenager led authorities to her shallow grave.

Dubois is assisting Mitrice Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, and her committed support group of family and friends in their non-stop efforts to find the woman who disappeared over eight months ago.

He attended the family’s private celebration on the date of Richardson’s 25th birthday—Friday, April 30—when the honors college graduate about to begin teaching and graduate school was remembered lovingly by those who gathered in her memory.

Dubois is helping to plan the next major search effort—a volunteer field search in the Malibu Canyon/Monte Nido area where Richardson might have wandered, or been taken, the morning of Sept. 17, 2009, after she was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.

Richardson was released from the isolated facility at about 12:30 a.m., alone, on foot, without her purse or cell phone, after having been transported there the previous evening for booking at the request of Geoffrey’s restaurant because she did not pay an $89.51 dinner check.

Restaurant personnel had described her behavior as “crazy” and said she was speaking gibberish.

When deputies searched Richardson’s car parked in the restaurant lot, its interior was in shambles, filled with clothing and other belongings, and it showed signs of having been lived in, which would subsequently be described by medical experts as indicative of bipolar disorder and acute mental anxiety and exhaustion.

When deputies found a negligible trace of marijuana in the car, they added that as a second misdemeanor count.

Both offenses could have been ticketed and the woman allowed to leave on her own. But deputies put Richardson in a black-and-white, leaving her purse and cell phone in the car, which the restaurant subsequently had towed from the lot.

Having been through related issues with other law enforcement agencies, Dubois says, “There are many holes in investigative patterns.” He knows he might have never learned his daughter’s fate, if the man who murdered her had not killed again and, to avoid the death penalty, agreed to lead authorities to where she was buried.

He says he shares the concern of Richardson’s family that the state of her car, her physical appearance and unstable behavior should have led someone to question whether she was “not in her own recognizance” when she was released from Lost Hills.

Dubois adds that “something is wrong here” with agency efforts to find a person who has been missing this long. This is in large part because he views the most critical factor in a missing person case as “timeliness...immediate response is critical.”

It is on this issue that Richardson’s family has been especially critical of what they describe as “Lost Hills Station’s sluggish response to the case” from the beginning.

They point to audiotapes of telephone calls to Lost Hills from Sutton, during which deputies appear to dismiss the mother’s concerns for her daughter’s well-being, give her misinformation about procedures and seem unaware of what is going on at the station.

JUNE SEARCH

The family has put out a call for volunteer hikers, mountain cyclists, equestrians and others to help scour the rugged terrain in areas surrounding the sheriff’s station on the weekend of June 5 and 6.

Dubois says the upcoming search effort will focus on the heaviest chaparral stands that have not burned in many years.

He says those who would like to take part must be over 18, have a valid ID to register as a volunteer, and be dressed for backcountry terrain, wearing jeans, long-sleeved shirts, and high boots.

He adds that if any local businesses want to contribute bottled water or other supplies for the two-day effort, it would be appreciated. 

Volunteers can sign up by telephone at 323-777-0453, or send an email to mitricefund@gmail.com. The search times for Saturday, June 5, and Sunday, June 6, have been changed to 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. to factor in the weather. The base station is slated to be Juan Bautista de Anza Park at the intersection of Lost Hills Road and Las Virgenes Road.

DOJ ACTION

Latice Sutton met with Congressmember Maxine Waters last Saturday, May 22, to discuss the status of the representative’s efforts to involve the U.S. Department of Justice in the missing person investigation.

Sutton says Waters told her that U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer also wants to add her support to the effort to open a federal investigation.

Waters is awaiting a response to a letter she wrote to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting their involvement.

Waters has stated she is concerned that Richardson’s civil rights have been violated. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, she wrote, “I believe that the Justice Department is the best-equipped agency to handle this investigation.”

VIDEO REQUESTS

Members of the family continue to ask Lost Hills whether there is any other additional video of Mitrice Richardson in the station lobby or other areas.

They indicate that an email from LASD Lieut. Mike Rosson stated he has “found there were no other areas of the station recorded by cameras. The station lobby does have some real-time cameras, however, they are not recorded.” 

He added, “There was no other video available to investigators from surrounding businesses near the Lost Hills Station, nor Geoffrey’s restaurant.”

However, since family members say they were mislead about the existence of the booking cage video of Richardson that subsequently turned up in the former Lost Hills Station captain’s desk, they plan to continue “asking and asking” so there is no doubt about the seriousness of their inquiry.

The mother and her support group members were permitted to view that videotape, but media are being told that they cannot look at it because of “the prospect of litigation” against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department by members of the family.

Additional information about the case is available on the mother’s website at www.findmitrice.info and by contacting Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031. Information about Maurice Dubois’ organization is available at www.morekids.org

 NEWS BULLETIN

An informant called the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station Tuesday about skeletal remains found in the area of Piuma Road and Cold Canyon. Two LASD vehicles monitored the site until the County Coroner's Office arrived to take the bones in for testing.

Lost Hills Captain Joe Stephen told the Malibu Surfside News that photos taken of the find that were emailed to the LASD’s homicide division have elicited a preliminary response that the remains “look like animal bones.”