Mitrice Richardson Update: Forensic Anthropologist to ID Remains Found in Canyon This Week

• Mother of Missing Woman Speaks Out against How Information Is Given to Families

ANGUISH—Latice Sutton, the mother of Mitrice Richardson, speaks to members of the media gathered outside the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office Tuesday night, as word is awaited on the identity of skeletal remains that were discovered in the Malibu Canyon area near where her daughter may have last been seen.                                                                                                          MSN/Charles Croft

BY ANNE SOBLE

The Los Angeles County Coroners’ Office told the Malibu Surfside News on Tuesday that there would be no official identification of skeletal remains found Monday in a remote area off Piuma Road until late Wednesday, or possibly Thursday morning, after the newspaper went to press.

From the first word of the grisly find, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tried to downplay the possibility that the remains might be those of Mitrice Richardson, who disappeared last Sept. 17, after being released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 12:30 a.m., without her cell phone, money, means of transportation, or asthma medication.

LASD media spokesperson Steve Whitmore confirmed that state park rangers discovered a human skull and some bones during a routine reconnaissance of former marijuana plantations in the area, but he used terms like “doubtful” and “very unlikely” when asked if the remains might be the Los Angeles woman missing for 11 months.

These statements were being made even as the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office reported that it was still studying the remains and would not comment.

The LASD also disseminated information on Monday that the location of the find was 20 or more miles from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, but the actual distance is closer to five to six miles.

More importantly, the entrance to the trail leading to the remote chaparral is two miles or so—less than a 10-minute drive—from the Monte Nido residence where Richardson may have been spotted resting on a back porch after dawn on the day she went missing.

This sighting appeared not to have been followed up on for several hours. When tracker dogs followed Richardson’s scent, it disappeared a short distance away from the residence, which might have meant she entered a vehicle.

The Coroner’s Office indicated that its consulting forensic anthropologist, Elizabeth Miller of Cal State LA, who has served the agency in that capacity since 1998, would make the official determination.

Dr. Miller told The News that she will “be in [Wednesday] to examine the remains” that observers have indicated may have been at the find site for a lengthy period of time.

A spokesperson for the coroner said the staff has Richardson’s dental records. If needed, they also have a sample of DNA from her mother Latice Sutton. Richardson’s biological father has steadfastly refused to provide a DNA sample, even though that is standard operating procedure in the case of missing offspring.

Sutton is sharply critical of the way relatives have been treated since the skeletal find. She said she has been repeatedly stonewalled by law enforcement personnel in her efforts to obtain information.

At a press conference in front of the Coroner’s Office downtown Tuesday night, she asked why the families of missing loved ones are not given information before it is given to the media, which is often first to inform them of details.

Sutton has been leading field searches and coordinating information campaigns since her daughter disappeared after being arrested Sept. 16 at Geoffrey’s restaurant for allegedly not paying a dinner tab. Patrons at the restaurant said she was behaving strangely, speaking gibberish and telling them she was from Mars.

Subsequent analysis of diaries found inside the jumble in her car appears to indicate that the 4.0 GPA honors college graduate and beauty pageant contestant may have been living in the vehicle for days, had not been sleeping for long stretches, and was possibly experiencing the onset of a bipolar episode.

Her mother has maintained from the start that more than enough witnesses provided testimony to warrant Richardson having been put on an involuntary medical hold by the LASD, and that her release into the remote area of the Lost Hills Station in her condition was negligence.

Sutton has asserted that tapes of telephone conversations between her and LHSS deputies reflect what can be perceived as indifference and unawareness of what was going on at the station, as well as misrepresentation. She has repeatedly raised the issue of possible LASD personnel involvement in her daughter’s disappearance.

ANOTHER FAMILY

Pam Perryman of Agoura Hills also was at the recovery site and subsequent press conference at Lost Hills on Monday, inquiring if the remains might be those of her husband, Timothy, who went missing six years ago while on a hike in the area.

Perryman kept asking the LASD and Coroner’s spokespersons if the skull has gold teeth, which would have indicated whether or not it is that of the missing man, but they not would comment, which some at the meeting perceived as callous because it was easily answerable.

“Why couldn’t they tell her that? If there were no gold teeth, they could answer that and spare this woman additional time of distress. Law enforcement doesn’t seem to care about the anguish people are put through by not being given all the information that is available,” said Ronda Hampton, Richardson’s college mentor and a member of the family support team.

Hampton told The News, “We have experienced this from the day Mitrice went missing. This is typical of the difficulty we have had in contacting, let alone getting information, from law enforcement.”

When it was learned that an anonymous informant might have leaked new information to a media organization, Hampton said it is “inexcusable that the family has to hear things like this from the press without having been contacted by authorities first.”

The LASD has maintained from the start that Richardson’s release from Lost Hills was by the book and followed all standard protocol. Spokespersons have asserted that Richardson was lucid and showed no signs of impairment that would have been grounds for having her 5150’d for medical evaluation.

LAS VEGAS

Two weeks ago, the LASD and the Los Angeles Police Department announced that they have spent about six weeks checking out what they called a “credible” alleged sighting of Richardson in Las Vegas.

A major press conference was called to publicize the sighting, which raised hopes that the missing woman might be alive, and, not incidentally, might help to absolve the LASD of the criticisms that have prompted the parents to file separate lawsuits against the LASD and Los Angeles County.

Richardson’s mother has expressed doubts about the credibility of the Las Vegas sighting from the beginning. She said she refuses to believe that her daughter would have severed all ties with her mother, her sister and her maternal great-grandmother with whom she resided.

Sutton voiced concern that the Las Vegas media blitz was “a diversionary tactic” to redirect attention and efforts away from where Mitrice Richardson was last known to have been seen”—a short distance from the area where the remains were found.