Mitrice Richardson Part 1
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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

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Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today, I'm discussing the case of Mitrice Richardson. In the summer of 2009, 24-year-old Mitrice was living in Los Angeles, California. She recently graduated with a degree in psychology and was searching for the perfect master's program to continue her studies and pursue her dream of becoming a psychologist. But Mitrice would never get that chance. On the night of September 16th, she went to a restaurant in Malibu, where she began exhibiting some strange behavior. While

While some people thought maybe Mitrice was drunk or on some type of drug, it became apparent that she was actually struggling with her mental health. Mitrice didn't pay her bill, but the workers weren't really concerned about that. They even discussed pulling their money together to help her. They were more concerned that she was obviously going through some type of crisis. So they called the police, who then made the call that she did not need to be evaluated by a mental health professional. Instead, she was arrested and taken to jail.

Her car was impounded, along with her cell phone and wallet. A few hours later, at around 12.38am, Mitrice was released without any of her belongings. No money, no phone, and no car. Six hours later, she was spotted about five miles away, in a stranger's backyard. This was the last confirmed sighting of Mitrice. Almost a year later, in August 2010, Mitrice's remains were located.

Since then, the cause of her death has become a major topic of debate for her loved ones, the city, and across true crime. Almost immediately, investigators said no foul play was involved in Mitrice's death. But many people, even certain members of law enforcement, have voiced their concerns that the evidence suggests otherwise. This is the case of Mitrice Richardson.

Mitrice was born on April 30th, 1985, to parents Latice and Michael Richardson. Her parents did eventually split up, and she pretty much grew up with her mom and stepfather. From a young age, Mitrice was known for her ability to make people laugh. One of Latice's favorite memories is when Mitrice walked across the stage at her kindergarten graduation. After getting her diploma, she faced the crowd and started doing the running man dance.

Matrice's love of dance continued as she got older. In middle school, she was a cheerleader. In high school, she took multiple dance classes. But she was also focused on her studies. She wanted to be the first person in her family to go to college. And she made that happen.

After graduating from high school, Mitrice enrolled at Cal State Fullerton. She studied psychology and had plans of becoming a psychologist. As a part of her program, Mitrice took an internship with psychologist Dr. Rhonda Hampton, who was kind enough to speak with me for this episode. I have a private practice, psychology practice in Diamond Bar, California. So what happened was Mitrice was a student at Cal State University Fullerton, and she

One day I got a message from my office manager who said, you know, this young college student, she's looking for a placement. So at Cal State Fullerton, they have to do what's called a field placement in their senior year.

Those who are majoring in psychology. And so my trees had actually gotten a field placement, but it fell through. So she desperately needed one. And I think she had to have it pretty quickly because if she didn't, she wouldn't be able to graduate on time.

So my office manager happens to be my sister, the most compassionate person in the world. And she's, you know, convincing me, you got to take her on, you got to do this. I had no interest in taking on an intern at all. I had a very, very busy practice. I had a daughter, you know, just in early elementary school at the time, and I was just busy.

But my sister has a way of like, you know, controlling things and making it happen. So I finally, you know, I reluctantly agreed and I just remember, okay, fine, I'll do it. And so, um, I think it was maybe a week or two later that, um,

You know, my trees was it was to be her first day at the office. So and my sister happened to not be there on that day. So that was a big problem. So I, you know, I come walking in the office and I'm like, listen, I have a client that's due here in five minutes. Sit at this desk, answer the phone. Eventually the office manager is going to be here and she'll kind of get you warmed up.

So I go into my office, I see my first client, um, um,

My sister, my office manager was kind of helping my trees with some things and then she had to go out and do some errands. But when I came out of the door, I hear my trees on the phone saying, well, you're going to have to talk to Dr. Hampton about that because I'm not sure that that's something that she wants to handle in the way that you want to handle it. Something along those lines. And I thought, whoa, okay, wait a minute. She might just fit in on this office. And so...

So when she hung up, you know, she hung up the phone and I said, wow, what was that? And she was so sweet. She was so sweet. She was like, I'm not really sure. I think it may have been an attorney, but they were trying to get me to say something that you were going to do. And I wasn't sure how to handle it. And she handled it brilliantly. So we hit, that was it. You know, we, we hit it off. Like that was the moment that I was like, I fell in love with this girl. So yeah.

uh, we just got really, you know, she was just, um, she was like a sponge, you know, uh,

for information about the field. And yeah, she was lovely to work with. She was spunky. It's interesting because she, I'm, you know, I can be very, you know, assertive slash aggressive. And, but she had a way of being that way, but when it was necessary, you know what I mean? So in that moment, when she was on the phone, she definitely needed to handle, handle it that way. But otherwise she was not, he would never, she was just very sweet, very, you know,

kind and compassionate, very soft-spoken. In 2008, Mitrice graduated with honors from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in psychology. She had plans to work on a master's degree, but first she needed to pick a program. While she was figuring out her next move, Mitrice moved in with her great-grandmother Mildred in LA and got a job with a shipping company.

In the spring of 2009, Mitrice started a part-time gig as a go-go dancer. This was a job Mitrice had a real passion for. Now, in addition to working two jobs and having an internship, Mitrice was also working on building up her modeling portfolio. In August, she even attended a party at the Playboy Mansion as a guest model. From the outside looking in, things seemed to be going really well for Mitrice.

But, according to those who were close to her, Matrice's behavior started to change around this time. She began avoiding talking on the phone, and started posting confusing messages on MySpace at all hours of the day. One post read, quote, Have you ever woke up at 7am crying on a Sunday? Cause now that you see the light, you see all the people lost in the dark? Welcome to my reality.

Matrice sent similar confusing messages to her mother. Latisse responded with a message that read in part, quote, You've been somewhat elusive and philosophical. Tell me what's up.

And Mitrice wrote back, quote, "'I'm writing a book because you told me I can be anything I wanted. You told me I was Miss America. You told me I was America's next top model. Now do you know what I want to be when I grow up? Miss Mother Nature. Because Miss America is a fake-ass joke, along with everything else we see. So I'm trying to find my way to Michelle Obama to see if she'll talk to Mr. Obama about creating my position within the White House.'"

Letiz read this text and was immediately concerned. She asked Maitrese to call her, but she didn't. Instead, Maitrese texted, quote, I feel joy, mommy. Not everyone has to die to live. I heard in the Bible, Jesus dies so we can live forever. Now I have to prove the unlogic. Maitrese sent a few more confusing texts to Letiz throughout the night.

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On the morning of September 16th, Mitrice went to work at the shipping company. A co-worker would later tell LA Magazine that Mitrice was in an unusually bubbly mood, but after doing some work, Mitrice went to lunch and never came back. The co-worker said she had no idea where she went.

But we do have some idea of Mitrice's steps. In the late afternoon, she stopped by her great-grandmother's house. When she left, she didn't say where she was going. But we do know that from here, she went to her Aunt Lauren's house in Englewood.

In the early evening, Lauren got home and found a bunch of business cards for Mitrice's go-go dancing gig. She said that they were plastered all over the porch. Lauren also noticed something on her husband's windshield. Mitrice had left a note with random drawings and phrases, including I, trademark Uncle Johnny slash Jimmy, and Black Women Scorned. The letter was signed, Who is Queen Now, Mississippi?

After leaving her aunts in Englewood, Maitrese drove 30 miles west to Malibu, an area she was not familiar with. She ended up stopping at an Oceanside restaurant called Joffrey's. And here's what happened. Maitrese stopped at valet parking, but the attendant was busy parking other cars. When the valet attendant was ready to help Maitrese, he found that she wasn't in her own car. She was in his car, going through his CD collection. The

The attendant asked Mitrice why she was there. She replied, it's subliminal. Then she muttered something about avenging the death of Michael Jackson.

Mitrice handed her keys to the valet attendant, then went into the restaurant. After she was seated, Mitrice ordered a Kobe steak and a drink, but before her food arrived, she went over to a table of seven people and sat down with them. She started talking about astrological signs, but she wasn't making much sense. A staff member checked in on the table to make sure everything was okay.

They said Mitrice was acting strangely, but that it was okay. When Mitrice's steak arrived, she went back to her table. After finishing about half her steak and most of her drink, she went back to the table of seven. There, she continued saying confusing things.

Now, eventually the table of seven left, and Mitrice went to leave as well, but she was stopped by the manager who asked how she was going to pay her bill. This was just under $90. Mitrice said she couldn't pay, she had no money. While the manager was speaking to Mitrice, she stared at the numbers on the computer screen. Then she told the manager number eight was a world of numbers.

The manager said he didn't understand her and tried to bring her attention back to the bill. Matrice then said that the guests from the table of seven were going to pay her bill, but the manager told her that they already left. This is when Matrice finally said, I'm busted, what are we going to do? The manager asked if she had any family she could call, and she just replied that she was from Mars and that she was going to have sex with him.

The manager also asked Matrice to empty her pockets, to show that she didn't have any money. So, she started going through her pockets and pulled out a joint. At this point, the manager says he's going to call the police. He then grabbed the joint, crumpled it up, and threw it away. At around 8.30pm, the bartender called the police and told the dispatcher, quote, "...we have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill. She sounds really crazy. She may be on drugs or something."

Around 20 minutes later, three deputies showed up. They asked the manager if he wants to press charges. If he did, Mitrice would go to jail for not paying her bill. Now, the manager later told LA Magazine that he and the other staff members thought about paying Mitrice's bill so that she wouldn't get arrested. But in the end, he decided to press charges. He said he felt like it wasn't safe for Mitrice to be left on her own. He didn't think she should be driving a car.

At that time, he thought having her arrested would keep her safe. While the manager spoke with deputies, Mitrice was with the hostess, talking about how she had watched a soap opera at work earlier that day. Mitrice said that when a certain actress showed up on screen, she received a message from God and had to leave work.

She then drove to Malibu, and the hostess also asked Maitrese if she had any family who could help her. But Maitrese said, quote, "'I do not have any parents. The only family I have is my great-grandmother.'"

Now, Mitrice did give the hostess her great-grandmother Mildred's number. She spoke to Mildred and explained the situation, but Mildred said she was 91 years old and she couldn't drive to Malibu. She was given the option to pay Mitrice's bill over the phone, but she'd have to sign the receipt via fax. Mildred said she didn't have a fax machine. She was willing to pay the bill, she just didn't have a way of signing the receipt.

So then, a deputy gets on the phone and tells her that her great-granddaughter was going to be arrested.

Now, as soon as Mildred got off the phone, she called Maitrese's mother, Latice. Minutes later, Latice calls the restaurant and speaks with the manager. Latice then told the manager that Maitrese had been spending time with people she did not approve of, and that Maitrese needed to learn a lesson and be taken to jail. They did end up making an arrangement. The manager said that they could settle the bill the next day. If the bill was paid, he would withdraw the charge.

Now, around this same time, one of the deputies, Frank Brower, then spoke to Mitrice. He asked her what happened, and she said she didn't have any money to pay for her meal. Brower then asked if she knew where she was, and Mitrice responded, Malibu. He did follow up with some other questions, which revealed the following information. Mitrice stopped at Joffrey's because she, quote, "...liked all the lights, and it seemed like a wonderful place."

Mitrice also said that she consumed just one alcoholic drink, but she felt fine. She wasn't taking any medication for any existing conditions. He also noted that Mitrice had not been placed under a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. Brower noted in his report that Mitrice, quote, "...seemed a little embarrassed about the entire incident, but was very cooperative and polite."

Because the restaurant staff thought Mitrice could be on drugs or was possibly drunk, Brower was instructed to give Mitrice a field sobriety test. He found that her eyes were clear and focused, and her pupils were a normal size. She also had an average pulse at around 76 beats per minute.

Brower specifically noted in his report that he did not believe Mitrice was under the influence of any alcoholic beverages or narcotics, saying she, quote, appeared to be entirely aware of her surroundings and did not seem confused. Next, Deputy Armando Loriaro spoke to Mitrice and asked what was going on. She said she met some friends at the restaurant. She was expecting them to pay because she didn't have her wallet.

L'Oreal also asked Matrice if she could call someone to pay the bill for her, but she said no. L'Oreal then asked if he could look in Matrice's car to find her wallet, and Matrice says yes.

Now, they found that the passenger area was really cluttered, with like shoes, clothes, CDs, and four empty prescription containers. There was also some marijuana. At this time, it was still illegal in California, so the deputies asked whose it was, and Mitrice admitted that it was hers. They did find more in the car. In the trunk, they found partially finished bottles of alcohol, as well as full gallons of vodka.

When they were done searching, the deputies did find Mitrice's driver's license, but they didn't report finding her phone, money, or wallet. At around 9pm, Mitrice's car was impounded, and she was placed under arrest. She was then transported to the Malibu-slash-Lost Hills Sheriff's Station, and charged with defrauding an innkeeper and possession of marijuana under an ounce. Both misdemeanors.

Now, while Mitrice was being transported, Latisse called the sheriff's department to see when Mitrice would be released from jail. The deputy explained that she could come pick up Mitrice after she was booked in. But, according to law enforcement, Latisse said that she didn't want to wake her 10-year-old daughter and take her to the police station in the middle of the night. Here, she reiterated that it might be good for Mitrice to stay there until morning, so she can think about her choices.

Latisse told the deputy, "...I think the only way I'll come and get her tonight is if you guys are going to release her tonight. She's not from that area, and I would hate to wake up to a morning report. Girl lost somewhere with her head chopped off, which, when you know what happens next, is just so chilling." The deputy reassured her that Mitrice would be safe at the station until morning. The deputy also said he would call Latisse when Mitrice arrived at the station.

but that call never came. According to the LA Times, the deputy didn't inform the watch commander about the call. At around 10.05pm, Mitrice arrived at the Lost Hills station. During the process, she filled out a bunch of documents and was also allowed to use the phone. Then, at around 11.45pm, the station jailer informed Mitrice that she had cleared a warrants check, and she was free to go.

They asked if someone was going to pick her up. Mitrice said that she couldn't reach anyone. According to law enforcement, the jailer told Mitrice that she could stay at the station until daylight, or until someone could pick her up.

It seems like initially, Matrice did agree to stay at the jail, but she later changed her mind and said she wanted to leave. Now, this jailer did try a second time to convince Matrice to stay at the jail, but she made a comment about trying to catch up with some friends and said that she'd rather leave the station.

Mitrice then signed a promise to appear in court on the two misdemeanor charges, and at approximately 12.15am, Mitrice was escorted to the lobby at the front of the station. She was told she could wait for her ride there. She could also use the payphone to make collect calls. After this, the jailer told dispatch that Mitrice refused to remain in the jail, so she was released.

The jailer also specifically said that because it was cold outside and she did not have a jacket, Mitrice would probably stay in the station lobby. But she didn't. At 12.38am, Mitrice got up and walked out the door. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Ibotta. Are you planning your dream vacation but dreading the cost?

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So, Matrice leaves just before 1am. Five hours later, at 5.35am, Latice called back and asked when Matrice would be released, but she was told Matrice was no longer there. She left hours ago. Latice was surprised to hear this. She thought Matrice would be kept until morning. She also knew that Matrice's car had been towed. If she wasn't at the station, then where was she?

Minutes after Latice got off the phone with the jailer, she called the station again, this time speaking to a deputy. She asked how many hours she needed to wait to report a missing person. The deputy basically said 24 hours, unless there were some mitigating factors. Something that just wasn't quite right. Latice starts crying and says Mitrice does not know this area. She'd never even been to Malibu before.

But the deputy stands firm and tells Latisse to wait to report her missing. If Matrice didn't show up, she could call the jail again.

Now, at this point, Latice is sobbing. She explained that she thought Mitrice was highly depressed and in a depressive state. And the deputy basically says, give me a few hours. I'll make sure Mitrice isn't sleeping in the lobby. You can call back then. And if Mitrice hasn't made contact with anyone, then maybe we could do something for you.

I mean, obviously, there's just no sense of urgency. But luckily, there was already a sighting of my trees very quickly after this.

Around an hour later at 6.30am, law enforcement received a call from a retired KTLA news anchor named Bill Smith. He lived about five miles south of the station, and he wanted to report that about five minutes prior to his call, he found an unknown woman on his back porch. After getting a description, they were certain it was Mitrice.

Bill explained that he opened his window and asked the woman if she was okay. She responded, I'm just resting. Bill then moved to another window to get a better look, but she was already gone. Deputies went to Bill's house, but Mitrice was long gone.

According to the local Malibu, there were two other sightings of a woman matching Mitrice's description that day. One witness said they saw a woman walking on Malibu Canyon Road at 7.30am. Another witness said they saw a woman walking on Paiuma Road at 1.30pm. Now, neither of these sightings have been confirmed by authorities, but they were very close to Bill's home in a pretty affluent area.

At about 9.30am, the Lost Hills on-duty watch commander called Latisse. Latisse reiterated that Mitrice was missing and wandering around in an unfamiliar area. She again said that Mitrice was depressed, she was not acting normal, and was delusional. It's very clear that Latisse is trying to instill any type of urgency.

The commander also asked Latisse whether Mitrice was on any medication or suffering from a crisis. She said that Mitrice may have been using drugs or drinking the day prior, and mentioned that she'd been sending unusual text messages and sleeping a lot. At the end of their conversation, the commander told Latisse that the station would send out photos of Mitrice and tell officers to be on the lookout.

Latice said that she would be in the station that day to file a missing persons report. This happened at around 6 p.m., but because Matrice was technically a City of Los Angeles resident, it was decided that her case would be transferred to the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit. The Lost Hills Department continued helping, but LAPD was the official lead on the case.

After Latice left the police department, she called Matrice's mentor and friend, Dr. Rhonda Hampton, and told her what was going on. Matrice went missing on a Thursday. And I have to tell you, I specifically remember where I was when her mother called me. Her mother had called me, her mother called me on Friday, right? But it was a very busy day for me, so I was never able to get back home.

to, to, to phone her mother. And I was going to do it once I got home. But as I was leaving my office, it was about seven o'clock, somewhere around seven o'clock in the evening. Um, I was wearing a black and white striped dress. I remember exactly what, where I was when the phone call came. Cause I pulled over to the side of the road thinking, let me just get this phone. Cause she's already called me twice. I pick up the phone and she starts telling me

that my trees had gone missing, that she had been arrested the night before. She's walking me through the whole story and that she can't find her. She wanted to know if my trees had came to my office. So my trees would do this thing where she would, she would come to my office and she would like, um, so if I wasn't there and she would like kiss the, um, kind of gross now that I think about it, but she would, she would kiss the, um,

the glass, the door, the door was glass. So she would kiss the glass like her signature to let me know that she was there, right? So she hadn't, she had not, I hadn't seen her. So I told her mom, you know, that we had spoken like maybe the week before, but I hadn't seen her. She hadn't been by the office. So then her mom asked me if I would call the detective in the case. And I did not want to do that because I'm not,

a person who's involved with law enforcement. I didn't necessarily have any ill feelings about law enforcement, but it's just intimidating for me. So I didn't want to, but you know, what are you going to do? You know? So I, you know, I, I said, okay, I, okay, I'll call them. And I called a detective Christian Merrill was the detective on the case. But when I called, they said she was not there that she had gone away for the weekend and she'd be back on Monday. And,

And I said, well, but this person is missing. So who's taking over? Who covers the missing person cases on the weekend? And they said, nobody covers them. She'll be back on Monday. I'll put a note on her desk. And I just thought that was the oddest thing.

But I was also very naive. I didn't know that to be any different. So I said, okay, well, thank you. I called Latisse back and said, hey, this is what they told me. And then she said, well, okay, would you be willing to call the cell phone number? Because the detective also left a cell phone number. I said, okay, I'll call the cell phone number. I called the cell phone number and the detective said,

I had informed her that I'd already called the station and she said, that's odd. I don't know why they said I wasn't there. I'm still here.

And I said, okay. So she explained to me how the, um, you know, in order to do a missing persons case, um, a search that funds have to be released to do this. And since she was in LAPD, um, they didn't really, they didn't have jurisdiction over where my trees had gone missing. And so it would be the Malibu search and rescue. So LASD would have had to handle the actual search and they needed to release the funds to be able to do that because somebody had to pay for it. Um,

Which I didn't really understand since I did know that they had search and rescue teams that were volunteers. So whatever. So she said, you're going to have to give me a compelling reason to search for her. And so I said, well, if somebody's in a restaurant saying they're from Mars, that's not compelling enough. I mean, she clearly was suffering a mental health issue. That wasn't, that's not enough.

So she asked me a little bit about my Teresa's background, you know, story, how I knew her. She asked about, um,

if I had ever noticed odd behavior before. And so I would, and I said, yes. And I kind of shared, you know, about my concern that, you know, from times when she was at the office, some of her behaviors. And so then she got off the phone and then she called me back and then she started asking me other questions about my Teresa's sexuality. And if I knew about that and if her mom knew about that, all kinds of questions about, you know,

That kind of information, I didn't really understand what that was about. And then, so I just shared with her, my trees was an, you know, out and open lesbian. That was not a secret to anybody as far as I knew. And I didn't think her mother had a problem with it. Like, it was...

I didn't understand that line of questioning. So then she got off the phone again. And then she called. So it was about an hour and a half back and forth phone calls between myself and the detectives. And finally, she said that they agreed to do a two-day search. And they were going to start the next day, which would have been Saturday, which

And I was like, oh my Lord, that's like so much time. She's already gone missing at, you know, a little after midnight on Thursday. And now it's, you're waiting until Saturday to do it. So she, she, that's the best that they can do. And so she said that, you know, we could come out and pass out flyers, but that they requested that we not go to the scene of, of where she was like, that we not go to the station. They, they asked that we stay in Malibu to distribute flyers and,

Now, I was naive and so, you know, I'm, you know, you know, I'm just going to comply with whatever they say because I didn't know any better.

In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.

Hear the story on Where's Dear. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Finally, on September 19th, two days after Mitrice was reported missing, law enforcement conducted a search for her. Dr. Hampton opened up to me about this experience, and how she found herself suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

So what happened was, and my husband tells me this, is that I was apparently either on the phone or on my computer trying to reach out to different news outlets.

And, you know, sending them messages that my trees had gone missing that, you know, the area where she had gone missing and I, you know, I thought that her story needed to be, I don't even know what I was thinking but you know like I've seen stories where people go missing and then people, you know, the family says, my kids missing. We need help, that kind of thing so that's probably what I was thinking.

So somewhere around four o'clock in the morning, I called my, a good friend of mine. I had never been to Malibu, by the way, living in California my entire life, right? So I called my good friend and I said, hey, have you ever been to Malibu? Because my trees was missing and she knew my trees. And so she goes, yeah.

Yeah, of course. I've been to Malibu and I was like, well, this is what's going on. I told the story and she goes, okay, well, come and get me. We're going to go out there and, you know, we'll get some flyers together and we'll, you know, we'll at least pass out flyers. And the odd thing is, is she told me, hey, Rhonda, make sure you bring a suit. I never, it was really weird that she said that. And she still to this day doesn't know why she told me that.

But so we came and we had, you know, like our sneakers on and our jeans and everything. And then on our way out to Malibu, I start getting phone calls to from news stations. Right. And I and I was so glad I bought a suit because I look like I look like a mess. Like, you know, so so I put my little suit jacket on and I did my little interview and, you know, we're just looking for her. And the guy one of the guys who was a camera operator, he goes, why are you looking here?

And I said, well, they told us this is where we can pass out flyers. And he goes, this is not where she was last seen. He gave me this phone number and he goes, if you want more media to get involved, you need to call this phone number and let them know what's going on. And I said, thank you. And then he kind of taught me how to, this all feels like such a game. He taught me how to be like composed in front of the camera.

He just taught me what things to focus on. And he told me about what a sound bite was. And I was really grateful. I'm really grateful. And you know what? I teach him. I tell people that the things that he tells me, I tell people that when their kids go missing, it's like, we'll try to get some media attention, but this is what you have to do. So sad. And I am, I, and I, and I'm glad. I mean, I don't know. I'm so glad.

That we, that it was that cameraman at that time. Because I just didn't know anything. I didn't know anything. I'd never been in front of a camera. And so after he told us where to go, it was me and my friend. We, and Latisse was somewhere else. Maybe like at the commons, like maybe in like Calabasas. So what it was is they were trying to keep us out of the canyon.

Even though she was last seen in the canyon and they knew it. And they didn't want us anywhere near that area. What they told us was that, well, we don't, we want you to, you know, pass up fires in the Calabasas area and in the Malibu area. Because if we find her, you know, they were kind of indicating that maybe she had jumped over a cliff and killed herself. And they didn't want us to discover that. And the cameraman, he was never, he was just very clear that I needed to go.

to where she was last seen. And so then we drove up the canyon. I was just, I remember making that, you go down Pacific Coast Highway and then making a right up through the canyon. It was, I was like, it's so vast. It's like, how on earth are you going to drive somebody from Pacific Coast Highway through this canyon and let them go? And you know, they don't have a phone, a car, keys, anything.

I was just in shock as we were driving up that Canyon. And then actually I went to the station and I was like, this is the middle of nowhere. How on earth did they think she would get back to her car? Um, and then, um, by then they had, um,

had the media, they were in control of the media. They mean the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, you know, they had their spokesperson there. They were already calling her, you know, a runaway, you know, she was probably running away from her parents and they had the whole narrative because she was, you know, LGBTQ that that's why, you know, she was running away. And I mean, they had their whole, she was a prostitute. There were all these stories that, you know,

They really got to control the narrative because they had access to the media. They had, they'd done it before. They knew what they were doing. And, you know, we didn't know what we were doing. They called off the search though. The search only lasted from like 10 o'clock that morning to about four o'clock in the afternoon. And although it was supposed to be a two day search, it was only one day. So somewhere around four o'clock, my friend got the phone call from the detective saying that they're going to end the search and

And she asked why. And the detective said, I don't know. I don't know why they're ending it. That detective was from LAPD. So the search was in control of LASD. And there was never a second day search. That was just it.

This is where I have to end part one of my Teresa's case. Next time, we'll get into additional searches, finding my Teresa's remains, the many lawsuits filed in this case, police corruption, the media, where the case stands today, how you can help, and so much more. We're just getting started.

As a reminder, 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson was released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Malibu-slash-Lost Hills Station at 1238 AM on September 17th, 2009. Six hours later, Mitrice was seen five miles south, in the backyard of a Cold Canyon Road home. This is the last confirmed sighting we have of Mitrice.

On August 9th, 2010, the majority of Mitrice's remains were discovered in a creek in Dark Canyon, an area a few miles away from where she was last seen. Mitrice's case is still open. Anyone with information is asked to call the LAPD at 213-486-6900. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research assistance by Haley Gray, with editing assistance by Keith Murray. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show on your podcast player. It helps us and helps more people find these cases in need of justice.

Welcome to the secret after show. Um, the air conditioning is on, as you can hear. It was a hot one today, you guys. It was really bad. Um, but the dogs are in. Who do I got? Who do I got? Oh, just kidding. They all left and abandoned me. The dogs are not in. I lied to you. I am alone in this office slash recording studio slash spare bedroom.

So let's get into the case. Of course, this is part one of a two-part series. I had to split it up. But my first thing, just going in chronological order, and I'll get into more

in part two. But my first like random gripe slash question is the hang up on signing this damn receipt, you guys. Now for context, if you guys have joined me here in this after show moment or seen me on lives or whatever, we all know that I worked a lot of jobs to make ends meet. And I was a server. I worked at TJ Friday and I worked in retail around this time.

I will say like zero out of 10 recommend TJ Friday. But the point is we would take orders over the phone all the time. And in that little signature line where, of course, you want this signature, you just write phone order. And that's something I was instructed to do in pretty much every job I was at.

It was also something I instructed my employees to do once I became a manager. Now, I do understand the reason that you want a signature on this line, right? Because it can be disputed by someone if they don't sign. They can call their bank, say, hey, I never signed for that or whatever. There's a million ways, honestly, to dispute a credit card charge.

But so while I do get like, oh, my voice is going out, you guys, how you have to be overall really cautious about this. Like there are instances where you can do it. I will tell you specifically when I worked at Pottery Barn Kids, we sold so much over the phone. It was unreal, unreal. And never once did I have a customer come back in to sign that receipt. Um,

You just wrote phone order on it and hope that they didn't contest the charge. And I'm talking about orders for nurseries, right? That were thousands and thousands of dollars. So I guess what I'm trying to say is this bill is under $90. Why couldn't they just have her sign it over the phone to get rid of that charge?

And I'm torn, right? Because we know that the staff and the manager have since come out and talked about how they really, you know, wanted to call the police to get my tree some help. So I wonder, I mean, I guess I have to imagine that that was part of the reason why.

I will also say, and this didn't make the episode because it was such a great interview with Dr. Hampton. We talked about so much, and this probably won't make the episode. I do plan on putting up a lot of her interview over on Patreon if you are interested. It's only $5 for all the content over there. But essentially, Dr. Hampton went into detail about how she went down and spoke to the Joffrey staff and

and how they just genuinely felt bad for my trees. You know, I did mention it in the episode, but they were willing to pull their money together so that she didn't get arrested. It's just, it's really sad. And in that interview, I did ask her too, you know, her professional opinion of,

If I'm someone like this sitting in a restaurant and I see someone acting like my trees, what can I do? If I am someone working in a store and we see somebody acting like my trees, what can we do to help her? And she made it very clear that as someone who loved my trees and someone who was an expert in this field,

There was nothing else that people could have done. She says that, you know, the staff basically did all they could. It seemed like the people that she was eating with were really fantastic and did what they could. And it's just a really, really unfortunate event.

Now, I do hate splitting it up into two parts on you. I really like to make things one part as often as I can. To be honest, because listenership drops off, unfortunately, whenever you have a two-parter, you likely don't have people that return to listen to the second part if they didn't like part one.

So I hope that it was intriguing enough to catch your attention. It is just such a big case that deserves to have some misinformation corrected, as always, and just has a lot of details. And this is a

is an episode that's been in the works for about, I'm trying to math, that's never a good idea, about six months. I interviewed Dr. Hampton months and months ago, and me and Haley, my researcher slash writer, who is absolutely amazing, we've been hard at work trying to nail this down and get every detail correct, because my trace deserves it. And whatever happened here,

just doesn't make sense. And I think we try to add as many details. Oh my, you guys hear my voice? It's not me. I'm not trying to do it. Every time when I'm done recording, my voice is like, you absolutely have to stop. Like, this is the wrong profession for you. So I apologize for my voice going out. I am trying. But yeah, what I was trying to say before my voice gave out on me was that in cases like this, where it's really confusing, to be honest, and

We just, we try to add as many details as possible to try to make things a little bit more clear, to try to really dig for those answers. So in short, this episode has been a very long time coming. I hope you will come back for part two because it only gets unfortunately worse and weirder from here.

Now let's talk about what I'm reading and what I'm watching. And as I warned you last week, I may not have something for every single week. And that is one of these, uh, wow, this week is one of those weeks. So I wanted to throw it back to you and ask you, what are you reading? What are you watching? Um, leave me a comment on social media and tell me. I would love recommendations. And I'll see you in the next one.

Um, now to be totally honest, I am reading something, but I quickly discovered, um, that if I tell you, I'm going to give away the schedule for the podcast. So I can't do that. Um, but rest assured, once I am done reading the book, once these episodes come out, I will tell you all about it. But in the meantime, uh, give me your recommendations. I would love to know. Especially, I need a new documentary on Netflix. Um, like I said last week, I watched, um,

Heard versus Depp. But that's really been about it. In the meantime, I know I'm like really late to this train now. I would love to recommend Barbie if you haven't seen it. I saw it twice in the theaters. And I'm not going to go on a big huge rant about it. But I will say that whether you're looking for

Just a funny laugh. Ryan Gosling is freaking hilarious in that movie. And of course, if you're looking for something deeper, something deeper about, you know, being a woman and what that entails, that also is included in the movie. So I thought it was fantastic. I thought it was great. I went with adults. I went with kids. And everybody had a good time. And it made me cry each time, which is...

Not difficult to do. Not difficult to do. But still, if you are on the fence about Barbie, if you can find it streaming somewhere now, I don't know. 10 out of 10 recommend.

Now let's get to our segment of hope. Now, this was actually sent to me by Miss Brooke. Oh my God, Mrs. Brooke Haynes, who you might recognize that name as from last week's episode about Gina Burris. So Brooke helped research and write that episode. And if you've been with me for a long time, you guys probably know who Brooke is. And she's a

Brooke helped with Alyssa's media campaign for years. She started when she was actually in high school. I've known Brooke for a long time now. At that time, she was an aspiring journalism student.

She was ready to go to college to study journalism and be a journalist, and now she is. She has since graduated. She has landed herself an amazing job as a news producer at a local news station there, and she is gracious enough to help with the podcast. One, it's really cool. I mean, Brooke has helped with some things in the past and more to come for sure.

But now that she is a full-blown journalist, it's really cool to have her on staff. And not just because it's Brooke. Having a professional journalist on this show has been...

a goal of mine for a very long time. And I like having a mishmash of people, to be honest. The number one thing I look for in researchers, writers, anyone who helps me with this show is people that care. Like, I posted about this the other day on my On the Voices for Justice Instagram when I was shouting out Hailey Gray because...

I truly believe that most people can learn how to research and write for a true crime podcast. I mean, I was an English major, so I feel like

Every week, it's kind of like writing a research paper, if you will. So that has been very applicable for me. But like I said, I think anybody can kind of learn that part. Of course, it does take time. It takes skill. It takes a lot of time. But the biggest thing for me is, does this person actually care? Because in my mind, not just my mind, in my practical experience...

being very picky about who I let help with this podcast, I have learned that that is huge. Somebody who cares will go above and beyond. Somebody who cares will take the extra time to make sure a fact is correct. Someone who cares will take time to make sure that what we put together will hopefully evoke a response out of you guys. You know, we're not just here to tell these stories, right?

We're not just here to talk about how terrible crime is and how sad everything is. You know, when I onboard people, I let them know that the number one goal of this show is to get people to care enough to take action.

My voice is escaping me. Forgive me. And by that, I mean participate in our calls to action, right? That doesn't always mean donating. That doesn't always mean going and volunteering somewhere or signing a petition. At the very least, that means just sharing these stories.

about, it's about leaving these episodes and feeling like, wow, I just listened to 30, 45 minutes, an hour, however long it's been talking about these episodes. What can I do to help? You know, I want you guys to leave these episodes feeling very compelled to help. And I think you can only do that by bringing people on staff who actually care.

And that was a really long way of saying, um, Brooke is one of those people. And the other day she texted me and was like, oh my gosh, did you hear about this case solve? Um, I hadn't, but it's local to me. So Brooke's so funny. She's like, what do you mean you haven't heard of it? Um,

Which is fair. Brooke is young and in the news and knows everything about everything. So you guys know how this goes. I'm going to read from cbsnews.com. This was published August 28th, 2023, just a few days before this episode is scheduled to come out.

And the headline says, So, again...

Terrible things we're always talking about, but in the segment of hope, what we focus on is the solve. We focus on how people have fought for something like 36 years, and there's still hope. So let me read you a little bit more. It says, "...a young college student who was brutally killed on a Prescott hiking trail decades ago was the victim of a serial predator who took his own life years later," authorities said Friday."

I was trying to find the author of this article. They are not on here, so I apologize. The article goes on to say, Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes announced at a news conference that DNA evidence indicates Brian Scott Bennett was the man responsible for 23-year-old Catherine Kathy Sposito's 1987 death.

In November 2022, authorities had the body of Bennett, who killed himself in 1994, exhumed. It wasn't until March that investigators confirmed DNA on a wrench used in the slaying belonged to him. Now, it goes on to say that by releasing this information, they hoped to see if there were more victims.

And it looks like there was just new advanced DNA technology, and they just went back and retested and finally closed this case as well as some others. So again, these are terrible stories, but there is hope. There's a reason I do this podcast. There's a reason I try to spread awareness and...

While it doesn't seem like this case was cracked by a tip or anything like that, I do think that it's no secret that cases that have a higher media, I guess a larger media profile, tend to get more resources.

So again, please share these cases. You never know which one is going to go viral in the media and result in getting more resources that could result in something like this. Something like going back and spending money to retest evidence and closing this case. Now, this article doesn't say anything about her family, but I hope that it brought some peace or at the very least answers to someone.

Now, I'm going to make a little adjustment to my closing. And this was inspired by your feedback and I think also because I felt like I was almost discouraging people by saying- so I- when I say thank you for tolerating me, I think it's a funny little joke. I think I am silly and kind of annoying sometimes in these aftershows because I just speak off the cuff.

And I feel like I'm in a forever rant back here. But I get so much feedback on that. And I get it every time I do it. That you guys aren't tolerating me. That you love me back. And that is so, so sweet. And I never want to discourage someone from speaking their mind. And make it feel like...

People are tolerating them also instead of enjoying them, which you guys tell me for whatever reason you enjoy my rants over here. So I am discontinuing officially that outro. And instead, I will tell you thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.