Mitrice Richardson (c. 1985- ), a 24-year-old secretary from South Los Angeles, has been missing for two weeks.
- Height; 5 foot 5 (1.65 m)
- Weight: 135 lbs (59 kg)
- Tattoos: on the back of her neck and lower abdomen
- Wearing: a black top and blue jeans
- Last seen: at 1:25 am on Thursday September 17th 2009 leaving the Malibu/Lost Hills police station in Calabasas, California.
- Reward: $10,000.
If you see her call the Los Angeles police. But please call her mother or father too because the police have been bad at following up on this:
- Her mother, Latice Sutton, at (909) 282-9134
- Her father, Michael Richardson, at (310) 283-4717
Unlike most missing black women, Richardson has made the news nationwide: both NBC and CNN have carried the story. But apart from her race she is like most of their missing persons: young, female, middle-class and pretty.
Her mother says she is manic-depressive (bipolar) and that on the night she disappeared she was in the manic stage, meaning she was not quite in her right mind. Signs of that:
- That afternoon she sent “erratic” text messages to her friends;
- She went to a very nice restaurant (Geoffrey’s Malibu) looking like the second picture (the police photo from that night), having her 1990 Honda Civic parked by a valet;
- According to workers at the restaurant she said she was from Mars and was there to avenge the death of Michael Jackson. She started talking in a made-up language (but that was after she was caught short on money and could not pay the $89.21 bill);
- She walked out into the night from the police station (after being arrested for failing to pay her bill) with no money, no car, no mobile phone and not even her ID. No buses run there in the middle of the night and the nearest shops were 20 minutes away on foot. (They kept her car because they found some marijuana in it.)
Her mother called the police station and said she would pick her up. She was led to believe they would hold her overnight till the morning. They did not (they later lied and said they did not have room). They did not even tell Richardson that her mother was coming.
Her father on seeing the police photo:
She looked like a demon had come inside her. That was not my daughter. It ran chills up my spine. I’ve never seen my daughter look like that.
And in that state they let her walk out into the night with nothing.
Five hours after she left a man called and said a woman was sleeping on his porch. She fit the description. The police took three hours to show up. By then the woman was gone.
The police have searched for her, but they have not followed up on all leads: at least one woman who reported seeing her was not called back.
Some of the roads nearby are very dangerous for walking as they go through canyon country – the kind that twist and turn and have a huge drop on one side.
Postscript: Her skeletal remains were found in Malibu Canyon on August 9th 2010, nearly a year after she disappeared. More at CNN.
See also:
- Mitrice Richardson’s MySpace page – last updated by her on September 16th
- Missing White Woman Syndrome
- Romona Moore
- The Rocky Mount Killer
- Virginia Dotson
- The police
- The black middle-class
Thank you for posting this! I truly believe the police department has something to do with this. If you search articles, you will find that the police’s story is constantly changing. I honestly believe someone at the police department is responsible for this. There is evidence that she may have never even left the police station.
“First, they tell the father that she would be released at 4:30 a.m., when they had gotten her out at 1:00 a.m. Her mother drives to the station, arriving there at 2:00 a.m., and finds that they had released her an hour before. Plus, Mitrice had tried to call the sheriff’s deputies twice from other locations since her release, but they haven’t investigated and traced those calls. What in hell?
Mitrice supposedly signed release papers? Compare the signature to her everyday, coherent signature. No, the deputies’ actions on that fateful night do not add up. Something is wrong here. Very wrong.” (quoted from thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com)
This story troubles me so much. This could have been anyone’s daughter or friend, it could have been me! I am really scared to know that the very people who are here to protect and serve are the ones who could do the most harm to you.
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ugh, how many times are the police going to be allowed to screw up and commit hateful selfish horrible acts against humanity before everyone in this country wake up and realize these creatures are not the police they are more like the gestapo from Nazi Germany…..
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Wow, I was not aware of this story.
I’ve known people who suffered from bipolar disorder and I can tell you that it’s no joke.
Hopefully, she returns home safely.
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What I don’t understand as I am not conversant with the laws in regards to mental illness in this state are; given descriptions as to her behaviour and mental state, why didn’t the police either take her to a hospital or keep her there until her mother picked her up? It isn’t a leap in logic to assume that someone exhibiting signs such as speaking in a made up language and making bizarre statements such as being from Mars has some form of mental illness. Also, judging from her mugshot and her disheveled appearance, that is the conclusion one would draw when taken in its’ totality(added to description of speech, behaviour etc).
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Malibu a haven for ‘rich’ people. How could the police station have no room? Is it that busy? Usually when someone is booked in, an inventory is taken of whatever belongings they have on them. They also sign for their property once the inventory is taken which indicates that they are in agreement with whatever has been inventoried. This would include clothing , cash, jewelry etc. Upon release, they would be given their belongings and again have to sign for them to indicate that they are in agreement that they have been given the property they came in with. They would not be released until they go through this process. You are not just ‘let out’ without the belongings you came in with. Should you refuse your belongings you would have to sign a waiver to that effect. This reeks of either incompetence or a cover up. The proverbial feces is going to hit the fan on this one as nothing adds up. Something is wrong in the land of Goshen as it were!
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wait she went to the restaurant dressed up as a cat
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Haha. No, that picture is probably from some Halloween party. She went as she is in the police photo, the second of the three pictures in the post.
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Herneith:
The police said this about her leaving the station: “She exhibited no signs of mental illness or intoxication. She was fine. She’s an adult.”
They can prove she was not drunk: she passed a sobriety test. But that she “exhibited no signs of mental illness” does not make sense.
Also note that there should be videotape of her at the police station, but the police say the security camera was not working. That is suspicious.
The restaurant also has videotape of her from their own security camera.
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Arianna:
What I read was that she made two telephone calls from the station, before she left, but that the police were unwilling or unable to trace those calls. Neither call was to her family.
But, yes, I did read that the police keep changing their story, which tells me that they are hiding something.
There is way more to this story than I could put in a 500-word post.
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My take on this:
The police in my experience have very little regard for black life, so I am not giving them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
The fact that they let her leave the station in her state shows that they did not care if she lived or died. Now that she is missing they are being called on it and are lying through their teeth.
If it turns out to be as bad as I suspect, then I hope they get sued up to their eyeballs and that everyone who signed off on her leaving the station gets fired.
I pray she makes it home safe, but every day that passes makes it that much less likely.
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Herneith:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Malibu a haven for ‘rich’ people. How could the police station have no room? Is it that busy?
Malibu is wealthy, but it’s also predominantly a long stretch of beach.. so people come from many parts of the LA area to party in Malibu so it is possible that the jail was full. That does excuse the Malibu police department’s apparent mishandling of this case.
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To Abagond:
The fact that they let her leave the station in her state shows that they did not care if she lived or died.
A similar incident happened in Chicago i 2006 to a young woman suffering from bipolar syndrome, the end was tragic:
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/sep/05/nation/na-plummet5
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@abagond:
This smacks of a cover up. If one is mentally ill, and tested for intoxication, of course the test will come out negative. The fact that she was given an intoxication test tells me that she must have been acting strange in order for the police to do this.
A friend of mine has a friend who is bi-polar. From the description of her behaviour and, as her mother said, she was in a manic stage for it is similar to what my friend has described in regards to her friends illness. Depending on the severity of the illness, part of the symptoms are delusions and babbling (speaking in a ‘made up language) as the people at the restaurant described. My friend’s friend has exhibited these kinds of behaviours. Also, I wonder if she was on medications of any sort? Unfortunately, many stop taking their medications due to side effects. With this being said, sometimes it takes a great deal of time to get the right combinations of medication that makes such sufferers comfortable and their illness manageable. Even so, they get to the point where they feel that they don’t need the medication anymore as they are ‘now better’ causing them to fall into their illness again.
Anyway I’m veering off topic. My point is, is that the police should have recognized that she was mentally ill upon first contact with her based upon the descriptions from the restaurant workers.
They found a small amount of marijuana in her car and saw fit to impound it thus going through the proper channels to do so. However, they let her go out into the night with no means of transportation after her mother said that she would come and pick her up. Is there no policy or procedure in place at least ensure that the person has transportation of some sort? Here in Toronto when they pick someone up who appears to be mentally ill, they take them to the hospital if they are threatening harm to themself or others. Saying you are there to avenge “Michael Jackson” can be construed as such. Otherwise, they try to contact family members to pick them up and will keep them there at the station they do. If unable to contact a family member, they may call in a social agency.
I’m sorry but something is definitely wrong here. If it were some rich white kid they would have least waited for the parent(s) to pick them up. The fact that they let her leave without cash, a cellphone in a basically isolated area in her state, confirms what you said, they have little or no regard for black life. Did she not have any possessions on except the clothes on her back? If so this would be another clue as to her mental state. The people at the restaurant stated that she was acting bizarrely. You cannot tell me that the police didn’t notice this also. Do they not train the police there in dealing with the mentally ill such as how to recognize symptoms (hers were blatant)?
All in all a horrific situation for her parents and other family members, they must be frantic. My heart goes out to them! I hope they sue the police up the wazoo! I hope this brings attention to the plight of the mentally ill and changes in the procedures when dealing with them so as to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child or relative and to ensure the affected person’s safety.
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Uncle Milton:
Good link. What a tragedy!
More about the case here on Stormfront;
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=322353
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In support of the idea they raped and killed her is that they never gave her back her driver’s license. Why?
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That is very shocking. What a blatant disregard for her safety. I also am very suspicious.
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Thats so sad. She really is beautiful and could easily be taken advantage of because of her bipolar disorder. I really dislike the police in most cases.Hopefully this post will help find her.
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To Abagond:
Uncle Milton: Good link. What a tragedy!
More about the case here on Stormfront;
I remember it hitting the wires a few years ago and I distinctly remembered the part about Christina Eilman suffering from Bipolar Syndrome (an illness I became acutely aware of when a friend of committed suicide while talking to her boyfriend..)
Ms. Richardson’s problems with the illness and the police response reminded me of Eilman case.
FWIW Mitrice Richardson’s Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/m_tease
As for learning more about the Eilman case.. the article I linked was sufficient for me… I am not interested in the commentary at Stormfront.. nor do I wish to read anything more about my kind controlling the banks, US Government, or whatever malfeasance those goons seem to assign to Jews.
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Wow. Wah, wah, wah. Poor, poor black people once again using the race card. Yawn, you’re boring.
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Be gone, troll.
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I sad to say that Mitrice is dead and her body was found, here is the story
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/12/california.remains.found/?hpt=Sbin#fbid=nDsHyDNzieo&wom=false
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Aiyo:
That is terrible news but thanks for telling me.
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Aw, that’s so sad. I hope the SOB responsible is brought to justice. R.I.P Mitrice. 😦
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What a terrible and sad story. I hope justice is served and her parents get the answers they deserve.
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This hurts my spirit to find out that she was killed like this. I hope this doesn’t offend you for advertising on your comments, but I wrote a blog about her too when I found out. Not only does her murder bother me, but the racist/dismissive attitudes that led to her murder are being perpetuated like this. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me but it still does bother me to know that this woman could have been any of our loved ones and for the police department to have treated her like this and cover up her death gets to me so much. I couldn’t even sleep last night. I don’t even know her at all but it gets to me. I hope justice is served quickly!
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This is so sad..don’t watch this clip if you get upset easily. Mitrice’s heartbroken mother breaks down the other night on “Issues.”: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2010/08/13/jvm.latice.richardson.intv.cnn
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Cant believe the bigot police didnt hit that b4 they
Murderex he black … I bet they tore her up. Police or piga
R ‘never guilty.
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Arianna, and you should be scared of the people who are supposedly here to “protect and serve”. I got stories that has happened to myself and friends ann courtesy of the Police. Naturally Im not angel and Im NOT speaking on instances that I am responsible for and rightfully should of been in trouble with the law for something that I did, Im speaking on OTHER shit that just shouldnt of happened.
Now while its true not ALL Law Enforcement Officials (cops,detectives,etc) are bad, to be on the safe side, I just ASSUME that they are and simply cannot trust them no longer. Nope. Cant. Its too big of a risk due to what I have experienced and witnessed first hand. Is it fair to the good ones, maybe not, but oh well, they will be just fine. Again, its just too too big of a risk. Some of the things that I have experienced/know and witnessed are those that belong in a book of FICTION yet its all true. Its unfuckingbelievable.
Watch out……Seriously.
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I watched the episode from Disappeared, and although I disagree with letting her leave alone that night, I don’t think the cops are as horrible as everyone is making them out to be. I sincerely do not think they were trying to cover their asses as though they murdered her. I do think they screwed up by letting her leave, and they don’t want to admit it, but that’s all. I don’t believe it’s a matter of race, as there are numerous incidents like this occurring over time to people of all races; playing the race card is in itself racist, and unfounded. Honestly, it sounds like she struggled with manic depression, which could account for the totally bonkers messages she was posting, going without sleep for extended periods, and other bizarre behavior. The fact she was found naked, for me, does not necessarily equate foul play; she had been talking a lot about astrology and mother nature and if she was heavily into new age (which she no doubt had a distorted view of) going skyclad is not terribly surprising. It’s possible she could have died naturally, and such is the reason her death is undetermined as there is no apparent damage to the remains, clothing, or any clues in the surrounding area where she was found. It is entirely possible to die naturally at a young age, however sometimes it is difficult to determine the cause depending on the condition of the remains.
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Yes, I feel the police department should be sue. I was always angry about this case. The police department let this mentally ill young woman go and didn’t try to get her to a mental health care facility. It’s so obvious this young woman was ill. Then she ends up dead. I hope her family sues the police department. It ‘s a fact black lives are insignificant in this country.
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