Blogging from A to Z: Today's Letter...M for Mitrice Richardson...

In case you are unaware or, perhaps, have forgotten about this young woman, Mitrice Richardson is still missing. She has been missing since last September, after disappearing from the Malibu police station. I did a blog post about this a while back and you can read it here. Recently, a few things have occurred regarding this case; allegedly, there is a videotape of Richardson at the police station. This is "surprising" because the original claim by the police was that no videotape existed *side-eye*. According to the Malibu Surfside News, Richardson's mother, Latice Sutton, and a small group of others, were allowed to view this "non-existent" videotape. After the viewing, Sutton says, per Malibu Surfside News:

the video “supports [my] theory that [sheriff’s] officers could very likely be involved in my daughter’s disappearance.”

You can read the article here, but the gist is that the claims of the Malibu police station do not match up with what the videotape shows. Richardson looks agitated and is pulling at her hair, and rocking from side to side. This is a different picture than what the police painted originally. They said that they saw no signs of distress and that she seemed fine. They claimed this even after witnesses at the restaurant where she was arrested, said that she seemed to be under some sort of mental distress. Another cause for concern, is that the videotape allegedly shows an officer following Richardson out of the police department after she was released. So what happened after that? Did this officer see which direction she took? Did he speak to her? Did he offer to take her home? What happened? So far no answers. The family wants those who were at the station that night to be investigated and I can understand that completely, if for no other reason than the shady business regarding the "non-existent" videotape.

Another search occurred on March 28, this time in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. Apparently, there have been "sightings" in that area, so a group volunteered to search the area. It made sense to search this area; according to Chip Croft, who was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times:

With numerous homeless shelters, single-room occupancy hotels and social service centers, skid row is a place where someone like Richardson, who is thought to have had no money and may have been suffering from emotional problems, might end up...

In my earlier blog post, a commenter, arlee, brought up the idea of questioning the homeless community. Since many homeless people tend to have mental health issues, searching the Skid Row area for missing persons was a smart move. If it had been done sooner, maybe there would have been better results. The family of Richardson is also interested in questioning a man who was recently arrested for the sexual assault of a Malibu woman. Apparently this man, Christian Marcus Verdin, was living in the homeless community around the time that Richardson disappeared. Most recently, a drone aircraft was used to search the area surrounding the police station. According to the Malibu Surfside News, this drone was able to search areas that were unreachable by the search teams. The family is currently waiting for the results of this particular search.

Mitrice Richardson is out there, somewhere; my hope is that Mitrice is found, alive, and reunited with her family. I truly with the media would get on top of this case and put pressure on the police department to produce results. The shadiness of the videotape situation should cause concern  and be worthy of some media coverage. What the hell happened the night that Mitrice Richardson left that Malibu police station?

Are they just now beginning to suspect foul play in the Mitrice Richardson case?

According to the L.A. Times, the sheriff's department has decided to start a homicide investigation for Mitrice Richardson. In case you are not familiar with this story, Mitrice was at a restaurant and unable to pay for her meal. Apparently, Mitrice was talking and behaving oddly; people at the restaurant thought she may have had some mental issues. Her grandmother was called and she offered to pay for the bill, but didn't have access to a fax machine. The couldn't accept her card payment over the phone. So, the police were called and she was arrested. The police department claims she showed no signs of drunkenness or mental issues, so they released her.

This young woman disappeared after being released from the Malibu police department in mid-September. The police claim that they had no reason to hold her at the station because she did not show any signs of being drunk or being mentally incapacitated. Now it turns out she may have had some sort of breakdown, so how is it that the police saw no reason to hold her, at least until a family member could come to the station and take her home? Mind you, she had no car (it was miles away, at the restaurant where everything started), no money, and no cell phone. Instead of dropping her off at home or simply taking her back to her car, the police department let her walk off into the night. Now she's missing. The sheriff says that they do not believe she is dead, but by starting a homicide investigation, more resources can be used to find her.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to use more resources months ago? Leads that could have been discovered back in October may be long gone! I hope that is not the case, but I'm upset at the fact that her strange disappearance did not seem to warrant a massive media blitz. I know, the story was featured on CNN Headline news, but I haven't seen or heard much else about her disappearance since October. I pray they find Mitrice and that she is able to go home to her family.