The 24-year-old woman disappeared Sept. 17 after being released from the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station. Her parents have filed negligence claims against L.A. County.
In the six months since Mitrice Richardson vanished in rugged Malibu Canyon, detectives have tracked reported sightings of her. Searchers have combed a total of 40 square miles looking for any sign of her — alive or dead.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) called for the FBI’s involvement, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas asked the Sheriff’s Department to review the policies that led to the release of the Cal State Fullerton graduate from the custody of the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station shortly after midnight Sept. 17, 2009, without her car, purse or cellphone.
But none of that has assuaged her frustrated parents, who on Tuesday — the day before the six-month mark of their daughter’s disappearance — stood in front of the county’s Hall of Administration and criticized what they see as authorities moving slowly on the search and politicians ignoring them.
Richardson, 24, was arrested at Geoffrey’s, a Malibu restaurant, for not paying an $89 dinner bill. Patrons and staffers said that she had acted bizarrely that night. Since her disappearance, detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department have discovered evidence that she had been suffering from a severe bipolar disorder. Deputies who arrived to arrest her described her as “coherent and rational,” said L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca in a letter to the Board of Supervisors…Read Full Story