What Happened to Mitrice Richardson?

Mitrice Richardson was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff department in Malibu, California, in the middle of the night without her phone, money, or transportation on September 17, 2009.  She had been arrested hours earlier after behaving strangely at an upscale restaurant. She was unable to pay her dinner bill and the restaurant staff were concerned that she was mentally unstable or intoxicated.

Once in police custody, Mitrice’s mother was contacted and she was assured that they would be keeping Mitrice overnight.  Her mother could pick her up in the morning. But, by morning, Mitrice had been released.  Her whereabouts were unknown.

No one knew why Mitrice had driven about 40 miles from her home to the oceanside Malibu neighborhood.  She had made some strange Facebook posts and had demonstrated some unusual behavior that day.  When she was released after midnight, she was in an area she didn’t know, without any way to contact her family. Her car had been impounded and she was unable to retrieve it.

Mitrice’s family believed that she could have been having a mental health crisis, so her release was both negligent and dangerous. And, as time passed and Mitrice was not found, her family began to feel ignored and deceived by the Sheriff’s office and the LAPD.

Join us at the quiet end today for the story of a disoriented, young African-American woman who was left to fend for herself, in the dead of night, in the rugged terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains, and was never seen or heard from again.

What happened to Mitrice Richardson? The gaps and omissions in the Sheriff’s department’s handling of her case, as well as her family’s discoveries, welcome further investigation into the events of her disappearance.