Joint Law Enforcement Effort Searches for Mitrice Richardson in the Las Vegas Area

NEWS UPDATE

During a press conference at the Metro Command Center of the Las Vegas Police Department at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Captain Kevin McClure of the Los Angeles Police Department Homicide Division, reiterated information reported in the Malibu Surfside News earlier this week about what is being called an "unconfirmed" sighting of Mitrice Richardson in Las Vegas that triggered a monthlong search for the missing woman.
The investigation following the first major break in the eleven-month case led to extensive legwork and interviews of several hundred people in the Las Vegas area, as many as 70 of whom reportedly think they may have seen the woman who disappeared last Sept. 17, following an incident in the Malibu area that led to her being booked at the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station.
Captain Dave Smith of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Homicide Division acknowledged that the investigation is "like looking for a needle in a haystack [and] that's why we need more eyes from the public" to assist with the ongoing search. Anyone with information is asked to call the Las Vegas CrimeStoppers line: 702-385-5555 or any of the law enforcement agencies directly.
Richardson was addressed directly and asked to "please" make contact with her family or any of the law enforcement agencies so that her well-being can be assured.
Chief William McSweeney, who oversees LASD Detective Divisions, including Homicide, said that more than 70 people believing they have seen her "based on a photograph and some passage of time" could not be taken lightly.
McSweeney added, "[Having] exhausted leads, [LASD] decided it was time to ask for the public's assistance." The tenor of the press conference was that officials think they "are on the right track."
                                                       —Anne Soble

• Woman Who Disappeared 11 Months Ago Is the Subject of a Major Deployment of Resources

BY ANNE SOBLE

As the saga of the honors college graduate and beauty pageant competitor who disappeared after being released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station starts its eleventh month, a new and dramatic turn of events has sent some family members of Mitrice Richardson and others monitoring the mysterious case reeling.

Law enforcement officials have not gone public with all of the details yet, but family members have told the Malibu Surfside News that a multi-agency investigation—including the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles City Police Department and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department—with over a dozen detectives and related forensic personnel has been under way in Las Vegas for almost a month, following a June sighting of Richardson that is said to be the first important break in the case.

Lt. Michael Rosson, the LASD’s lead homicide detective on the case told The News Tuesday that it is too soon to definitively say the woman sighted in Las Vegas is Richardson “but the investigation leads us to believe that it could be, and we are going to deploy resources to prove or disprove it.”

A call for assistance from the public to help locate Richardson is expected to be issued in Las Vegas on Thursday that will address the alleged sighting and the major investigation that already includes interviews of several hundred people in that city, including individuals in security and other fields that might have had contact with the woman believed to be Richardson.

A plea will be directed at Richardson herself to contact local authorities and assure them that she is well and acting under her own volition. She will be assured that she is not in any legal trouble and will not be detained.

This is the second reported sighting of Richardson in Las Vegas. Her father, Michael Richardson, reported a sighting of her there in January, but there wasn’t as much detail to follow up as with the recent event.

The woman’s family and the media were requested not to make the probe details public before now, in order to allow an unimpeded investigation and prevent any action that might prompt the person they seek to incur harm or flee the area.

Richardson, African-American and a slightly built five-foot, five-inches, was released just after midnight on Sept. 17, 2009, after being booked at Lost Hills following a citizen arrest in Malibu by Geoffrey’s restaurant personnel for alleged inability to pay an $89 dinner tab, although she had credit cards and several thousand dollars in a bank account.

This might have been evident from the contents of a purse that was left in her locked car, which the restaurant had towed from its small parking lot to a local impound yard. She was released alone without money, her cell phone or a means of transportation.

Apart from a possible sighting in a Monte Nido backyard just after dawn that same morning, some distance from the station, to which she might have been driven, the 25-year-old woman has neither been seen, nor contacted her family, nor accessed her bank funds or used credit cards.

The June sighting was learned about first by family members of the missing woman who immediately shared the details with the LASD and the LAPD, the law enforcement agencies cooperating on the search effort under the latter’s lead.

Richardson’s aunt, Lauren Sutton, told The News she received a call from the father of the man—then a teenager—who had taken Richardson to her tenth-grade winter formal. He has not seen Richardson since she was 15, according to her family, but Greg Amerson is reportedly adamant that he saw the missing woman in Las Vegas in June.

Amerson reportedly told family members that he was in the lounge of the Rio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, an older resort on Flamingo Road, a short distance from the Las Vegas Strip.

Although there appear to be time variations in versions of the story that have been told, Amerson said he was in the lounge of the Brazilian-themed casino, when he noticed a woman sitting at the bar and talking to people. The woman was wearing a white dress and heels. Sutton was told that he thought the woman might have been soliciting.

Sutton said that Amerson told his father that he walked over to her and reportedly said, “Hello, Mitrice.” He said the woman looked surprised, and then hurriedly left the location without saying anything.

Amerson did not notify the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department or anyone else that evening because he didn’t know Richardson was still technically missing. He told his family about the incident several days later, and it was another few days before the father called Sutton.

So much time had elapsed since the alleged sighting that the film in the casino’s security cameras had been erased—this is done every six days—and possible corroboration of whether the woman in question was Richardson was no longer available.

The aunt immediately  got hold of Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, who contacted Lt. Rosson, Sutton’s main contact at the LASD in recent weeks. He jump-started the dispatch of personnel to Las Vegas that at one time comprised 10–12 detectives following up on the lead, including Rosson. 

The specifics of the announcement expected later this week are being kept under wraps. As of Tuesday afternoon, Richardson’s mother was awaiting more information about the public statement slated to be issued in Las Vegas. The final details of the announcement were expected to be finalized on Wednesday.

When there was the report of a Las Vegas sighting by the father in January, it was indicated that Richardson knows people in Las Vegas. In addition, she had visited there in August, a month before the Geoffrey’s incident, but her mother adamantly says, “In my gut, I do not believe Mitrice is in Las Vegas.”

Sutton said she told that to Lt. Rosson, and he asked her why she doesn’t want to believe her daughter is there. She said she told him that she cannot believe that her daughter could have spent over ten months without contacting members of her family, especially her maternal great-grandmother with whom she resided, unless she was ill or under some form of duress.

PRELUDE

Several days before last September’s Malibu incident, Richardson had been sending family and friends puzzling text messages that rambled on about nature and the universe, and on Sept. 16, she said to watch the TV news.

No one appears to know why Richardson was in Malibu on Sept.16, went to Geoffrey’s, where staff said she was behaving bizarrely, speaking gibberish and acting as if she was substance impaired. No one has explained why, if she was acting strangely in the restaurant parking lot, she was able to go inside the restaurant and order dinner at a table with diners she didn’t know.

Medical experts reviewing documents and diary entries found in her car have since indicated that she may have been experiencing the onset of a bipolar episode and the law enforcement agencies have labeled her a “critically” missing person because of possible mental illness. But law enforcement representatives say that, until there is an official medical examination, this is not a confirmed diagnosis.

Latice Sutton has high praise for the manpower and expense involved in the Las Vegas investigation of her daughter’s possible sighting. She said everyone appreciates the effort that has been expended. She expressed the hope that it will continue for future leads if the woman turns out not to be Richardson.

Among other leads that have recently attracted the family’s attention is a report from a man who noticed a woman fitting Richardson’s description, in the Los Angeles area. The woman reportedly was talking loudly to herself, repeating comments such as “see how pretty she is,” and “isn’t she beautiful,” as she walked along the street.

DUAL LITIGATION

Both of Richardson’s parents have now filed separate lawsuits against Los Angeles County, the sheriff’s department, and a number of named and unnamed LASD personnel.

The two lawsuits seek unspecified monetary damages, and charge the LASD with negligence in the release of someone who they contend should have been 5150’d—detained for observation under medical supervision.

Attorneys for both parties indicate litigation is perceived as necessary to gain access to official documents and LASD personnel testimony. The LASD has steadfastly maintained that it adhered to all established protocol in handling Richardson’s release and declines further statements until the matter reaches the courtroom, if that indeed is going to be the case.

Richardson’s parents, who never married, dissolved their relationship when their daughter was young and, according to court records, engaged in paternity, child support and custody disputes.

BACKSTORY

In Mitrice Richardson’s March 28, 2009, participant application for “America’s Next Top Model” program, the beauty pageant competitor and self-described go-go dancer in a gay nightclub was asked to describe her relationship with her parents.

Of her mother, she said. “I love, love, love my mother. I appreciate her so much…she did an amazing job raising me…and I want to make her proud. Telling my mother I am lesbian was the hardest thing I had to do and, although she doesn’t agree with my lifestyle, she still loves me and doesn’t treat me any differently.”

Of her father, Michael Richardson, she said, “I’m used to him not being around,” but she added, “It’s amazing how much genes play [a part] in a person’s personality, because I have never lived with him, but we are the exact same.”

To the question “who is your hero?” she responded, “My mother is my hero because she pops out of the bushes like a superhero when I need her most.”

The mother and father have conducted separate and sometimes mutually critical media campaigns to keep their daughter’s name in the public spotlight.

Recent separate interviews with the parents reflect increased acrimony, with the father publicly stating that he is the closest of kin to his daughter, despite not having raised her.

Some of the law enforcement personnel on the case who can be contacted by the public include: Detectives Chuck Knolls or Steven Eguchi with LAPD at 213-486-6900; and Detectives Dan McElderry or Ken Perry with LASD at 323-890-5500.

TENTH GRADE--Mitrice Richardson's mother, Latice Sutton, shared a photograph of her daughter, then 15, and Greg Amerson that was taken at the high school winter formal they attended ten years ago.