Mitrice Richardson Part 1

25:24That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash justice to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dot com slash justice.

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26:27She left hours ago. Latisse was surprised to hear this. She thought Mytrice would be kept until morning. She also knew that Mytrice's car had been towed. If she wasn't at the station, then where was she? Minutes after Latisse 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 Latisse starts crying And says Maitrice 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 Maitrice didn't show up, she could call the jail again Now, at this point, Latisse is sobbing.

27:19She explained that she thought Maitrice was highly depressed, and in a depressive state. And the deputy basically says, give me a few hours, I'll make sure Maitrice isn't sleeping in the lobby. You can call back then. And if Maitrice 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 Mitrice 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 5 miles south of the station, and he wanted to report that about 5 minutes prior to his call, he found an unknown woman on his back porch.

28:05After 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 Maitrese was long gone. According to the local Malibu, there were two other sightings of a woman matching Maitrese'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 Maitrice was missing And wandering around in an unfamiliar area She again said that Maitrice was depressed she was not acting normal and was delusional.

29:08It'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 Latisse said that she would be in the station that day to file a missing persons report This happened at around 6pm But because Mitrice 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.

30:02After Latisse left the police department, she called Mitrice's mentor and friend, Dr. Rhonda Hampton, and told her what was going on. Mitrice 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 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. I was wearing a black and white striped dress.

30:46I remember exactly where I was when the phone call came because I pulled over to the side of the road thinking, let me just get this phone because 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 come to my office and she would like, so if I wasn't there and she would like kiss the, kind of gross now that I think about it, but she would, she would kiss the, the glass, the door, the door was glass.

31:27So she would kiss the glass, like, 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, you know, I said, OK, OK, I'll call them.

32:09and I called 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 I said, well, but this person is missing. So who's taking, 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.

32:43And then she said, well, okay, well, 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, 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, you know, in order to do a missing persons case, a search that funds have to be released to do this. And since she was in LAPD, they didn't really, they didn't have jurisdiction over where my trees had gone missing.

33:24And 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, 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 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 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 um so then um she got off the phone and then she called me back and then she started asking me other questions about my Teresa's sexuality.

34:29And 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 that with what that was about. And then so I just shared with her, my Teresa was, and, 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 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.

35:08And they were going to start the next day, which would have been Saturday. 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 you're waiting until Saturday to do it. So 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 where she was like that we not go to the station. They asked that we stay in Malibu to distribute flyers. Now, I was not even. 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.

35:48Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax, and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-CONTACTS. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-CONTACTS.COM today to save on your first order. 1-800-CONTACTS. Meet the computer you can talk to. With Copilot on Windows, working, creating, and collaborating is as easy as talking. Got writer's block?

36:27Share your screen with Copilot Vision to help spark inspiration. And use Copilot Voice to have a conversation and brainstorm ideas. Or maybe you need some tech help. With Copilot Vision, Copilot sees what you see. Let Copilot talk you through step-by-step guidance so you can master new apps, games, and skills faster. Try now at windows.com slash copilot. Finally, on September 19th, two days after Maitrese 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 kid's missing.

37:34We 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, um, my trees was missing and she, and she knew my trees. And so, um, she goes, yeah, but of course I've been to Malibu. And I was like, well, this is what's going on. I told the story and, um, she goes, okay, well come and get me. We'll, 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.

38:13And then 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.

38:49He 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. Um, and, and I said, thank you. And then he kind of taught me how to...

39:16It just all feels like such a game. He taught me how to... He taught me how to... be like... like composed in front of the camera.

39:36he just taught me what things to focus on and he told me about um what a sound bite was and I was really grateful I'm really grateful and you know what I teach 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. It had never been in front of a camera.

40:31and um so after he told us where to go it was me and my friend we um 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 want you to pass up fires in the Calabasas area and in the Malibu area because if we find her, 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 just very clear that I needed to go to where she was last seen.

41:24And 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. 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?

42:13And then by then they 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.

42:56And, 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 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.

43:37This is where I have to end part one of Mitrice's case. Next time, we'll get into additional searches, finding Mitrice'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 Mytris Richardson was released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Malibu-Lost Hills Station at 1238 a.m. on September 17, 2009. Six hours later, Mytris was seen five miles south, in the backyard of a cold Canyon Road home. This is the last confirmed sighting we have of Mytris.

44:24On 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 in your podcast player.

45:14It helps us and helps more people find these cases in need of justice.

45:26Thank you.

46:18Welcome to the secret after show. So the air conditioning is on, as you can hear. It was a hot one today, you guys. It was really bad. 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 um but my first thing just going in chronological order and i'll get into more in part two um but my first like random gripe slash question is the hang-up on signing this damn receipt, you guys.

47:07Now, 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. 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.

47:46Now, 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 um how you have to be overall really cautious about this like there 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 you just wrote phone order on it and hope that they didn't contest the charge.

48:32And 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 trees 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.

49:13Hampton. 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 how they just genuinely felt bad for my trees. You know I did mention it in the episode but they 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 Mytris, what can I do?

50:01If I'm someone working in a store and we see somebody acting like Mytris, what can we do to help her? And she made it very clear that as someone who, you know, loved Mytris 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.

50:51So 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 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 Mitrice deserves it. And whatever happened here just doesn't make sense. And I think we try to add as many details.

51:37Oh 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.

52:26Now 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, 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? Leave me a comment on social media and tell me. I would love recommendations. Now, to be totally honest, I am reading something, but I quickly discovered that if I tell you, I'm going to give away the schedule for the podcast, so I can't do that. But rest assured, once I am done reading the book, once these episodes come out, I will tell you all about it.

53:08But in the meantime, give me your recommendations. I would love to know. Especially, I need a new documentary on Netflix. Like I said last week, I watched Heard vs. 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.

53:53So 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. 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.

54:37Brooke 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.

55:20And 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 mismatch 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. I posted about this the other day on the Voices for Justice Instagram when I was shouting out Haley 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.

56:07So 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, and 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've 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.

56:52You know, we're not just here to tell these stories. 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.

57:38What 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 um you guys know how this goes, I'm going to read from cbsnews.com.

58:18This was published August 28, 2023, just a few days before this episode is scheduled to come out. And the headline says, suspect identified 36 years after college student Kathy Sposito brutally killed on Arizona hiking trail. 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.

59:09I 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 Cathy 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.

59:52And 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, And 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.

1:00:41Something 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 it. 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.

1:01:26But 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.