They're now starting a homocide investigation. So sad considering most of us never knew she was missing. Ladies of our hue will never get the pub that the Chandra Levy's do
Search for Mitrice Richardson Now a Homicide Investigation
KTLA News
3:55 AM PST, December 15, 2009
LOS ANGELES -- L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca has ordered a homicide investigation into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson, despite having no evidence that she is dead.
Baca's decision allows a three-person sheriff's homicide team to join the LAPD's search for the 24-year-old who mysteriously vanished after walking out of the Lost Hills sheriff's station nearly three months ago.
"He has declared it a homicide investigation. That does not mean the sheriff believes Ms. Richardson is dead. But by opening up a homicide investigation, it does allow the Sheriff's Department to put some of our top investigators on the case," said Steve Whitmore, a department spokesman.
The mystery began on September 16 when the Cal State Fullerton graduate went to Geoffrey's restaurant in Malibu.
She ordered a drink and a steak dinner. And, when the $89 bill came, she said she had no money.
She told restaurant employees that she was from Mars and spoke to them in a made-up language.
Her odd behavior and failure to pay for a steak and a drink prompted restaurant staff to call deputies.
Sheriff's also found a small amount of marijuana in her car, and the Cal State Fullerton graduate, who passed a sobriety test, was booked at the sheriff's station for failing to pay her bill.
She was released about 1:25 a.m., according to the sheriff's department.
Her 1990 Honda Civic was impounded, and she walked away from the station with no purse or cell phone.
The missing woman's mother said she believes her daughter was in a "manic state of mind" because she was sending "erratic" text messages to family and friends the afternoon of Sept. 16.
The Sheriff's Department has come under fire for not holding her for a psychological evaluation.
Several weeks after she disappeared, some residents of South Los Angeles claimed to have seen Richardson.
A homeowner on Cold Canyon Road reported a woman resting in her yard about 6:30 a.m., but when deputies arrived, the woman was gone.
Mitrice Richardson is African American with brown hair and hazel-brown eyes. She is about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and about 125 pounds and has tattoos on her lower abdomen and on the back of her neck. She was last seen wearing a brown Bob Marley T-shirt and blue jeans.
Police are asking anyone with information about her whereabouts to call Los Angeles detectives at 213-486-6900.
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to her.
Copyright © 2009, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles
