Las Vegas Press Conference Leads to Media Blitz on Mitrice Richardson

• Intensive Search Continues for Woman Missing for 11 Months

BY ANNE SOBLE

During a press conference hosted by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department last Thursday, Captain Kevin McClure of the Los Angeles Police Department Homicide Division, reiterated information reported in the July 29 issue of the Malibu Surfside News about what is being called an “unconfirmed” sighting of Mitrice Richardson in Las Vegas that triggered a month-long search for the missing woman.

What is viewed as the first major break in the 11-month case led to extensive legwork and interviews of several hundred people in the Las Vegas area, as many as 100 of whom now  reportedly think they may have seen the woman who disappeared last Sept. 17, following an incident in Malibu that led to her being booked at the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station.

Greg Amerson, the son of family friends, made the possible sighting of Richardson in the casino of the Rio Hotel at 3 a.m. on a Sunday in June. He had not seen her in almost 10 years.

He said he watched the woman for a while, then went over to say hello to her and called her by name. He said she looked startled, said nothing and quickly left the casino.

Amerson said the woman who might have been Richardson was wearing a white dress and white shoes, and wore her hair in “Shirley Temple curls,” similar to the tenth-grade winter prom photo of the coupled that was provided to The News by her mother, Latice Sutton.

At the press briefing, Captain Dave Smith of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Homicide Division acknowledged that the search for Richardson  is “like looking for a needle in a haystack [and] that’s why we need more eyes from the public.” 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Las Vegas CrimeStoppers line: 702-385-5555 or any of the law enforcement agencies directly.

Chief Bill McSweeney, who oversees the LASD Detective Divisions, including Homicide, told The News this week that the more than 100 people being cited have “a high level of confidence that they have seen her.”

McSweeney, a former Lost Hills commander, repeated what he said at last week’s media event that officials think “they are on the right track,” and added that “this case requires a great deal of my attention.”

Over a dozen law enforcement agents reportedly still are combing the Las Vegas area for the missing woman. Lt. Mike Rosson, the lead LASD investigator for the case told The News on Tuesday, “We are still following clues provided by the press conference and will continue until they are corroborated or closed.”

The city of Las Vegas was awash with law enforcement personnel while the search was going on, as over 500 representatives from law enforcement agencies attended the summer conference of the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies that was being held in the same Rio Hotel where Amerson thought he might have seen Richardson.