Quick Wiki
- Full Name Mitrice Lavon Richardson
- Nationality American
- Birthplace California, USA
- Birth Date April 30, 1985
Mitrice Richardson | Biography
Mitrice Richardson was last seen after a few hours in the morning in a residential area of the Santa Monica Mountains called Monte Nido before she went missingRichardson was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies for not paying her $89 bill at Geoffrey's restaurant in Malibu, California. The deputies came after being called by the restaurant manager.
Mitrice Richardson was a 24-year-old African-American woman who disappeared after being released at midnight from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's custody, where she was taken for alleged misdemeanor offenses. She was found dead after missing for nearly 11 months.
Who is Mitrice Richardson?
Mitrice Lavon Richardson was born on 30 April 1985. She was raised by her mother and stepfather in Covina, California, and the suburbs east of Los Angeles. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton, in 2008.
Richardson worked as a part-time go-go dancer at nightclubs in Long Beach, California. She also interned under clinical psychologist, Ronda Hampton.
According to her aunt, Lauren Sutton, Richardson loved children, and she had passed her test to become a certified teacher.
What happened to Mitrice Richardson?
On the evening of 16 September 2009, Richardson was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies for not paying her $89 bill at Geoffrey's restaurant in Malibu, California. The deputies came after being called by the restaurant manager.
She was taken to the Malibu/Lost Hills station, and her car was also towed to a towing station that was 11 miles away on the Pacific coast. She was briefly kept in custody and then released from police custody at 12:38 a.m. on 17 September 2009, without returning her car, phone, and purse.
Richardson was last seen after a few hours in the morning in a residential area of the Santa Monica Mountains called Monte Nido before she went missing. Nearly four months later, on 9 January 2010, detectives and officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department launched a search for Richardson. More than 300 volunteers and search teams participated in the search at the Malibu Canyon area, but Richardson was not found.
On 9 August 2010, local rangers discovered Richardson's naked half-decomposed and half-skeletal remains in a remote stretch of Dark Canyon in the Malibu hills.
Cause of Death
Following the discovery of her body, deputies on the case moved Richardson's body parts without permission, as per coroner officials.
On 11 August 2010, a foreign pathologist from the Coroner conducted an autopsy on Richardson's remains. But, the board-certified forensic pathologist could not ascribe a cause of death and found no evidence of trauma before her death. Therefore, the cause of death was described as "undetermined." The pathologist also consulted with a forensic anthropologist, Clea Koff.
After knowing about the handling of the remains from Koff, Richardson's mother, Latice Sutton, submitted a request to Sheriff Lee Baca on 29 December 2010 stating she wanted her daughter's body exhumed and re-examined by the FBI.
On 12 August 2010, while announcing the identification of Richardson's remains, Baca told that he had called the FBI and the FBI agreed to do the examination. But, according to an article by the Los Angeles magazine in September 2011, the FBI had never agreed to do the examination.
In September 2019, the Coroner's office said that Richardson's cause of death remains undetermined while her family insisted she was the victim of foul play.
Later, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department ruled out Richardson's death as accidental death, despite her skull being found separated from her body and placed upside down. The Sheriff's Department suggested oak tree poisoning or rattlesnake bites as a cause of her death.
Lawsuits
Richardson's parents filed two lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, accusing the department of negligence. They ultimately reached a tentative agreement to settle the lawsuits for $900,000 in August 2011.
