Mitrice Richardson Part 2

0:00The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. 48 hours before the trail goes cold. From A&E and Crime House, this is the official podcast from the famous True Crime series, The First 48. I'm Carter Roy. Every Thursday, I revisit a landmark homicide investigation in depth with long-form storytelling built for your ears. Listen to and follow The First 48 on Apple Podcasts. Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello everyone and welcome, episode 482 of The True Crime All the Time, Months All Podcasts.

1:19I'm Mike Ferguson and with me is always his partner in True Crime, Mike Gibson. Give me how are you? I'm doing okay, man, in you. I'm doing great. Having a good week, we just had an extra day off, right? I did. For the holiday, we had a big family gathering. It was nice. Had a lot of people get together. That's good. Eat some good food. Yeah. Had some good food. Okay. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout-outs. We had Rose Pearl. Thanks, Pearl. Curious Shibul jumped out at our highest level. Oh, Carol, you're awesome. Kathy Welch. Thanks, Kathy. Sharon Nardi. Yeah, Sharon. Laurie Steward. Oh, hi, Laurie. Maya O'Connell. Good ol' Maya. Susan Sobasinski. Oh, Sobasinski. I can't say anything but that. I can't say her first name. Yeah, you actually did say that one correctly. I say every first time this whole night. I am out of the gate, correct? 99.2% of the time. And last but not least, Austin Hurd. What up, Austin? And then if we go back into the vault, this week we selected Jerry Jensen.

2:22GJ, what's up? So we appreciate all the support, the new support, the continued support. We have an episode out right now on True Crime all the time. We're talking about university student Eric Plunkett who was beaten and strangled the death inside his dorm. Weeks after starting his freshman year. And then just a few months later, another student was stabbed to death in his dorm, sparking fear among the students that a killer was hiding among them. It's a very interesting, fascinating story really, really, really was. All right, buddy. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime all the time on Saul? I am ready. We're on to the second and last part of the death of my tree's Richardson. In part one, we covered the life in circumstances leading up to her disappearance, the events that transpired on the night of her arrest and the initial search efforts. And part two, we'll talk about the discovery of my tree's body nearly a year later.

3:27She was found several miles from where she was last seen in Malibu Canyon. Her cause of death is classified as undetermined, but her family believed she was murdered. So as the weeks passed, the Sheriff's Department and the LAPD followed up on leads that went nowhere. Four searches of Malibu Canyon led nowhere. And these four searches covered a total of 40 square miles, but they still found nothing. As members of the family, you've got to be disappointed. Yeah, I think so. You know, a lot of emotions, right, disappointment being won. And I'm sure frustration, anger, there's a bunch of them that would crop up. My tree's family tried to acquire the gel cell video from the night of her arrest, but Captain Thomas Martin told them it didn't exist. The Malibu Surfside News quoted Martin as saying, there is no video or tape of any cons.

4:29It seems strange. It does because we're not talking about the 1960s here, right? Yeah. This is a time in which they had video in places like that. On January 6, 2010, Latee's, my tree's aunt Lauren and two friends sat down with Captain Martin and Sheriff Lee Baca at headquarters. Martin admitted there was a video and it was in his desk drawer. Okay. Doesn't make you look great when you lie and then later admit that there was a video. And for some reason, you have it in your desk drawer. See, for me, that's a problem. You're a ranking member of law enforcement, integrity, honesty. That's all pretty important. It all matters, yeah. And you've already admitted that you broke that. LA Magazine noted that by the end of the month, Martin was promoted to commander and transferred

5:31to Monterey Park. Shocking that people would do things that you shouldn't do get promoted. See that? Not different. And shifted, right? Somewhere out. Yeah. It's almost like they're hidden, but they're also given a promotion at the same time. It was three months before my tree's family was allowed to view the footage, which the department attributed to technical difficulty. Latee said that in the footage, my tree's appeared agitated and distressed, but the video had been edited, leading them to wonder what was cut out. One moment my tree's was holding a piece of paper, and the next moment the paper was crumbled on the floor. Yeah, I mean, it was in law enforcement's custody for quite a while before being turned over. I'm sure they edited something out. Well, normally when you see strange cuts like that, it kind of denotes editing. And I now do our Thursday episodes on video on YouTube.

6:37And there are times when I have to edit them. Sometimes you're yawning. Sometimes you're, you got your arms flailing a Kimbo. And the next thing you know, they're down at your side. Well, that's because I had to edit something out. Pretty much everything I say. Latee's told LA Magazine, why won't they show us how that piece of paper got that way? And they withhold information. It causes suspicion. Did they cut important footage? It's going to absolutely do that. You see something like that. You're saying, well, the only reason you would have done that is because it doesn't look good for you and you don't want us to see it. Why else would you do it? Yeah, it leads to the question as well, right? So if you cut out this, whatever this was, you know, what else are we not seeing? You don't even, there's no way to know what was cut or how much was cut. The LASD refused to clarify why they had not provided the unedited version of the footage

7:39per LA magazine. The LSD also declined to elaborate on what about two minutes after my trees was seen exiting the station, a deputy went out and adjacent door. Latee's told LA Magazine it was shocking for the first time. We learned that someone from LASD might have seen or even talked to my trees outside the station. We thought it was vital that someone look into it. Michael Richard Senegree saying, of course, it makes me suspicious. The guy leaves the building right after my daughter and they don't tell us anything about him. He could have abducted her, offered her a ride to the impound lot, left her for dead and come back for her. Maybe he didn't see her. The point is, why have they been hiding him? The department would not name the deputy. Why is that? Well, I'm assuming they don't want him to be inundated with reporters maybe or something like that. I mean, yeah, right.

8:40There's going to be a lot of suspicion. When you first say there's no video, then there is a video, but the video is edited. Now this guy could have just been coincidentally leaving sometime after my tree's left. It could have nothing to do with her murder. Why not say that? Say they, oh, we interviewed him. We talked to him. And he doesn't recall seeing her that night after when he left her and allowed them, you know, or allowed them to have a conversation with him. A confidential source did provide LA Magazine with the name of the deputy in the video, who was transferred less than six months after my tree's family viewed the footage. A reporter called the deputy who said, unfortunately, for you, dude, I wasn't there and hung up on the next call. He insisted he couldn't remember if he was at the station. The night my tree was arrested and then implied he was on site saying the night this nonsense

9:41happened. I was one of the guys that kept away from this, minding my own business. Okay. There's a lot in that, isn't there? Well, yeah. I mean, he's contradicting himself a number of times, which again, it's like the video. There might be something there. There might not be, but it's hard to argue that it doesn't look good. It doesn't make you look good. When you first say I wasn't there, then you say I can't remember if I was there. Then you say I was there and I was one of the guys who kept away from this. Well, what is this? What did you keep away from? No internal affairs investigation of my tree's arrest and release was ordered. Also in January 2010, the Sheriff's Office conducted a massive search involving 240 people, 60 on horseback, as well as ATVs, bikes, dogs, and helicopters. That does seem like a pretty massive search.

10:42It does. But I wonder if a part of that is because this is getting attention, right? It's being thrust into the spotlight. And you think they need to do something to make themselves look better. Yeah. Because right now they're not looking great. No, not at all. By this time, the media coverage had widened the ripped between my tree's parents. The teeth believed my tree's was dead while Michael still had hope. That month, Michael believed he saw his daughter in Las Vegas. He was riding in the back of a friend's car near the Vegas strip. He thought he saw my tree's on the street as a sex worker. He jumped out of the car, but lost sight of the woman before he could get to her. He spoke to the LA Times about the January siding saying, I'm running over to get where she is. I'm almost getting hit by cars. She was standing in the middle of two palm trees and a restaurant parking lot.

11:45And then she's gone. I'm like, where was that girl in his interview with the Times? Michael said the police followed up on his report, but found nothing. He told LA magazine in 2011 that law enforcement brushed off his report, but he was certain he'd seen my trees. Maybe he's also going to look very similar to her. Yeah. To believe that it was her. Yeah, I don't think that would be that far fast, right? You're looking everywhere for your loved one. How hard would it be to see someone who looks very similar and think that's her? Because you're looking for her. You want to find her. The siding made perfect sense to him because my trees had been in Vegas a few weeks before she disappeared. And he knew about her playboy gig. He wondered if perhaps someone recruited her or possibly picked her up from jail. In late June, 2010, my tree says high school friend, Greg Amerson thought he saw her at a

12:47casino in Las Vegas. Amerson shared the siding with my tree says Aunt Lauren said he approached my trees from behind. He called her name and she turned around, but didn't recognize him at first. Then she appeared to recognize him and walked off quickly. That's kind of strange. So maybe she just thought, why is this guy calling me by this name and thought he's a little weird and just kind of jotted away? Yeah. I mean, there's what somebody is actually thinking when they give you the look and they turn around and leave versus how you're playing it in your head. So was that really her or was it somebody he thought was her who was like, I don't know who my tree says I'm getting away from you. Right. We don't know. Amerson took a few days to pass the information on to relatives this time. The police took the alleged siding seriously.

13:50Sheriff's investigator sought surveillance tapes from the casino. They had been taped over. I know the frustration to setting in on this one. Yeah. Unfortunately, I've talked about it before, right? Working in businesses where they had surveillance tapes. And now when I was doing it, it was about 10 years prior to this, but we did have that system where, you know, it was about a week. There was like a tape for every day. And once you got to the next week, that was going to be taped over. When the story came out later that summer, the Las Vegas police received 70 more siding. And LA Sheriff's investigators traveled to Vegas for a press conference. On July 29, 2010, the Sheriff's Department pleaded for my trees to come forward and let everyone know she was okay. They reassured her she was not the subject of a criminal investigation and would not be arrested. I mean, that's a lot of potential sightings.

14:52Yeah. 70. That's quite a few. Now, is that because she was in Vegas? She was alive and people were seeing her or people thought they were seeing her. I don't know. Yeah. You know, I go back to this guy who was her good friend from high school. I feel like of my good friends in high school, I would have recognized them. I would have been able to tell you with 100% certainty if I saw them up close. Yeah. Now, if it was in acquaintance that, you know, I barely knew and this was 10 years later, I don't know that I would have been able to. But a good friend, yeah. It just kind of goes back to her dad too, right? I mean, if you saw your daughter or somebody you thought was your daughter, would you know the difference? Would you say that's for sure my daughter? Yeah. I think the difference with his siding is he wasn't a car.

15:55He obviously had to have been a little bit further away. Yeah. I mean, this guy, her high school friend is saying he walked right up to her and she turned around. So maybe that's why they took that siding a little more seriously because of how close he was. I don't know. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. A dad should be able to, without a doubt, know whether or not it's his daughter. I just don't know how far away he was. So before this big press conference on July 9th, the Office of Independent Review or OIR issued a confidential report on my treason's case. When someone levels a complaint against the LASD, it's often handled by the OIR, a group of private contractor attorneys who report to the county board of supervisors. The report was issued to the board, but it was leaked later that year in the report. The OIR declared that my treason's questionable behavior included going to a restaurant, ordering

17:01a meal, parking valet, and leaving without a means to pay. But the report did not acknowledge arresting officer deputy Armando Lerero's a LASD remark about my treason's statements. The OIR determined Malibu lost Hill's deputies did not endanger my treason by releasing her incited the sheriff's manual, which states, misdemeanor prisoners shall be released in the field whenever it is reasonable and safe to do so. Is it safe to do so in the middle of the night with no transportation? If you're an adult, I don't know what's what's not safe about it. If it's air you don't have knowledge about middle of the night, you don't have transportation can't get transportation. I don't know, is it really that safe? Yeah, I don't know. When you get in the area of reasonable, that's where things get tricky.

18:02Sure. And that's why they word stuff like that. Well, what's reasonable to you might not be reasonable to me or what's reasonable to me might not be reasonable someone else. It depends how you define the word it is. The OIR document claimed that deputy bomb gardener who spoke to my treason's mother on the morning she went missing, explained the procedures for filing a missing person report. The report did not mention Lieutenant Scott choose email from September 20 or the jail cell video that sat in Captain Thomas Martin's desk drawer. The OIR report concluded that the deputy scene leaving the building after my trees could not have abducted her because he was on official business with this partner and my trees was seen several hours later in the Montenito community. However, the report only accounted for a few minutes of the deputy and his partners

19:06whereabouts on the day my trees went missing. So I mean, I think you have to break down this OIR report. I thought it was a little strange that it omitted some things that I thought were kind of really relevant. Yeah, I did too. You know, the video being in this captain's desk drawer. How is that not important enough to put in because that seemed like a, I wouldn't even call it a big mistake. I mean, that was deliberate. Yeah, that was intentional. It should have been one of the key points in the report, I think. Yeah, you would think so. I know I don't know what you make of it, but yeah, you would think it would factor in for sure. And then to leave out certain statements made by the deputy, the sheriff. I mean, why? Why don't you want that in there? I don't know. It's almost like your cherry picking which statements you're going to use and which you're going to exclude. And you also have to talk about this deputy, right?

20:07You're saying that he couldn't have been involved in abducting her, but then the only account for a few minutes of his whereabouts. So how can you make that statement, which is pretty definitive based on that? Yeah, I don't think he can. You know, it's amazing that this podcast has turned into my business, but in the beginning, that was a very scary proposition. And I think it's scary for a lot of people. One thing that really helped me out was Shopify. We've been using Shopify for many years now. For all of our podcasts, merchandise, it simplified the process tremendously. To be honest with you, I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and Shopify took away all the worries of that aspect. It's easy to use. We have AI tools that help you along the way. And Shopify has the easiest checkout on the market.

21:08If you're ready to hear the of your first sale today, head over to Shopify.com slash unsolved to start your free trial today. That's right. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash unsolved. That's Shopify.com slash unsolved. You know, trying to figure out how to get the right mental health treatment can be extremely overwhelmed. Tuckiatry helps you move from that I know I need help face to actually having a psychiatrist who listens and a clear personalized treatment plant. Tuckiatry is a 100% online psychiatric practice that provides comprehensive evaluations, diagnoses, and ongoing medication management for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression and more. Unlike therapy only platforms, Tuckiatry is psychiatry. You're seeing a medical provider who can diagnose mental health conditions and prescribe medication when it's appropriate.

22:10Getting started takes just a few minutes. All you have to do is complete a short online assessment and then you can get matched with clinicians who fit your needs and schedule your first visit in days. Not month. Head to tuckiatry.com slash unsolved to complete the short assessment and get matched with an in network psychiatrist in just a few minutes. That's T-A-L-K-I-A-T-R-Y.com slash unsolved to get matched in minutes. Tuckiatry.com slash unsolved. On August 9, 2010, park rangers found human remains in dark canyon on the 818 side of the Santa Monica Mountains. Park rangers were inspecting a former marijuana farm in the area a year earlier the LA County Sheriff's Department flew over dark canyon and spotted marijuana plants. The farms were raided after the fly-off, but by then the growers were gone. Thousands of plants were uprooted.

23:10You know, just growing that marijuana out in the middle of nowhere. I know. And it doesn't get seen by a helicopter or a plane. You know, I remember watching, I don't know if it was on discovery or a show like that where these deputies out in California, you would follow them and they would find these fields up in like northern California and they would go in and they'd find them and they make a phone call and they'd call helicopters coming over and they're cleaning it out, burning it down. Somebody lost a lot of money. Oh, yeah. You know, and something like that. But, you know, knowing whoever was doing it, they probably just planted somewhere else and take their chances. I think they plant in multiple fields knowing that at least one of them is probably going to be found. Yeah, there's going to be some breakage as we would say in the department store business breakage. Maraubanian is less than eight miles from the 101 freeway, but it's a rugged remote

24:16area consisting of private and federal land. The rangers patrolling dark canyon on August 9th. We're ensuring the marijuana farm was no longer an operation. There was some equipment lying around in garden hoses, but no marijuana. They headed downstream of dark creek, passed a series of boulders and made a detour through a wide clearing, about 60 feet up a slope from the creek bed. They found a skull and underneath the Briander, a semi decomposed nude body, the men radio dispatch, which alerted the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff Station. The body was identified as my tree's Richardson who had been missing at that point for almost a year. And trees was found less than eight miles from the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff Station, and within two miles of where she was last seen. And I think, you know, those are interesting distances, right?

25:17Eight miles from the police station, not that far. I think probably a two minute drive. Yeah, especially when some people think, okay, that deputy followed her out. We don't know if he did or didn't, but two miles of where she was last seen. And, you know, again, not too far from the 101 Freeway, which is a big freeway in California because they've heard of it. So it must be pretty big. Now, they used it on a lot of TV shows. I know it's a big freeway. But then when you kind of break down the way that they got to this area, it seemed like it wasn't just somewhere that you would find right off the freeway, right? This was, you know, 60 feet up, a slope from the creek bed. You had to wind through some places. I don't know if this is a place you're just stumbling upon. Well, for her to be found in the location she's at, to me, it sounds like somebody had to know about that location, somebody local.

26:21Yeah, I kind of have that feeling as well. It doesn't mean, and I say this, but it doesn't mean that people can't stumble upon an area that's out of the way. But these areas do tend to make one believe that it's someone who knows it's there, which means they're probably local. According to LA Magazine, DeBreeander covered most of my tree's body. Some of her hair was on her skull. More of it was scattered nearby with an earring and pieces of something metallic tangled in it. According to the coroner's report, a Malibu Lost Hills deputy arrived at the scene by 1.30 pm. There was plenty of daylight left for the corner to arrive, take photos and collect evidence. State penal code dictates that law enforcement should notify the corner as soon as they learn about human remains. But the corner reported that the Sheriff's Department didn't alert them until 2.58

27:25pm, 90 minutes after the deputy arrived. This is not going to sit well with the family. Well, I don't know that it's going to sit well with a lot of people. It shouldn't sit well with law enforcement itself. If you have an actual penal code which dictates the corner is to be notified immediately, 90 minutes is therefore out of regulation. So you would think law enforcement themselves would be upset by this. But I think to your point, yeah, the family's going to be a little upset about it, but isn't it also going to kind of just pile on to the distrust? Oh, it's going to pile on to the video that wasn't there, but then really was there. All of that stuff. Wouldn't you ask yourself, what's the reason for the delay? Were you trying to survey the area to see if there's something there that maybe you don't

28:28want somebody to find? Wouldn't it be different? It was if it was a different jurisdiction, but this is the same jurisdiction with which they've had some distrust over the year. Just before 5 pm, the corner's team was sent from the hillside above the king to the Malibu Lost Hill station. They were told a helicopter would retrieve them. They waited an hour and 40 minutes. The sheriff's department said the helicopter was called to search for a missing hiker with the sunsetting that team assumed they would have to return in the morning around 8 pm. According to the corners report, the LASD collected the remains and airlifted the team back to the station against the direction of the assistant chief. They didn't follow a protocol. No, it sure doesn't seem like it. The corner's team was kept on standby for almost 4 hours. The sheriff's personnel had access to the remains for 6 hours before removing them from

29:30the scene allegedly without approval. In 2010, the assistant chief corner publicly rebuked deputies for removing the remains without approval. I don't know if this is true Gibbs, but I've heard this in places where once there's a thought to be a murder, once human remains are found, the corner is kind of like in charge. Like they're the boss in some ways. That would make sense. I know in some places the corner is the only person who can arrest the sheriff. Really? I think I've heard that before. Or I just pulled that out of my ass. One of the two. You have known to pull things out of your ass. So my doctor keeps telling everybody. Tell it, Tubby. But I do think this is a big part of my tree's case. Because a lot of people pointed this and some of the other things that we have talked about

30:30and say, what is going on here? Who is running this show and why are things being done seemingly at every turn, again, against what you would think would be the policy or is known to be the policy? And I can understand why the family might feel like there's something up with the sheriff's department, maybe some type of cover up. Well, you know, to me, this is the kind of stuff that causes distrust with law enforcement. The corner was given the photos taken by the park rangers in Dark Canyon. The source told LA magazine that my tree's right leg, which was caked in soil, was found two yards from her body on the mound of dry vines. Her femur had been removed from the soft tissue as if it had been pulled from the top of the thigh. There was nothing but a narrow duct where the bone should have been. Additionally, her leg showed no signs of being eaten by animals.

31:34On August 12, the sheriff confirmed the remains found in Dark Canyon were those of my tree's Richardson. Sheriff Lee Baca said in a press conference, we have no indication of a homicide at this point. I don't believe the remains are capable of telling us a story. Sheriff's officials said there were no signs of foul play and they did not believe my trees fell to her death. According to the LA Times, investigators believe that after my tree's left the yard of the residents in the Montey, Nito area of Malibu, she somehow made her way into Malibu Canyon. Investigators believe she was spotted two more times once walking down Malibu Canyon road at about 7.30 a.m. and a few hours later on Puma Road, east of Malibu Canyon, her remains were found two and a half miles from the last sight. A spokesperson for the corner estimated she had been there at least six months or possibly

32:37the entire time she had been missing. That would make sense to me. She was killed or if she succumbed to the elements, if you want to go that route, the fact that her body is found just two and a half miles from where she was last seen kind of makes it seem as though she was probably put there at the time she died, whether that was of a natural causes or not. That makes sense to me. It lines with kind of what the corner is saying. In October 2010, my treason's mother, the sheriff and others met with Lieutenant Michael Rossin, who supervised investigators on the sheriff's department's behalf. Rossin explained that deputies were given permission from a corner staffer, not the assistant chief corner to move my treason's skull and assess what was underneath.

33:40Rossin said that when deputies moved the skull, the whole skeleton remains intact came up with the skull. However, according to LA Magazine, this does not match the source's description of the crime scene photos. According to the source, my treason's skull was fully detached and resting upside down without the mandible on the upper torso. Five of the neckbones were not found that day. That would be kind of hard to say that the remains came up when they moved the skull. If the skull was not attached in the first place, it'd be extremely difficult. Nay impossible. Lieutenant Rossin and other cited the possibility of anaphylactic shock from poison oak as a potential cause of death. They suggested that she wandered into dark canyon and died from a rattlesnake bite.

34:40I mean, you don't know. So you just throw on theories at the wind. Could have been poison oak. Could have been a rattlesnake bite. They don't have any way to test for it, so they don't know. But they're not saying that somebody could have murdered her. Or maybe they did and we didn't hear that possibility in the reporting. Okay, is it possible that she got bit by a rattlesnake? I guess. Right? They have venomous snakes in California. Yeah. It's one of my fears being bitten, dying at the hands of a little or big slithering snake, I hate snakes. That's why you said slithering. Slithering. You'd be a huff and puff if you were an Harry Potter. First of all, it's huff-ful puff, not huff and puff. I don't know what generic Harry Potter you were watching. Couldn't afford the real one. But Ross and also theorized that animals removed my tree's clothes.

35:43Only her jeans, belt and bra were recovered. According to LA magazine, the jeans and bra were found five to six hundred feet down the canyon and the creek. The belt was found another hundred feet downstream hanging on vines. My tree's two t-shirts, underwear, socks and sneakers were gone. And I get it, right? This lieutenant Rossin, he's offering up a number of different theories. And like you said, there's really not much they can do at this point other than theorize. But if you're going to theorize possible non-homocidal deaths, right? To poison though, to rattlesnake, things like that, then you also have to explain why her clothing is off and missing. That's true. And animals is a good way to do that. Yeah, I don't know how else you would. Because you're going to have a lot of people think that the fact that she wasn't found

36:47with underwear, t-shirts, some of the things she was known to be wearing and that her jeans and bra and belt were downstream is because she was disrobed, possibly assaulted and then murdered. Captain Smith said in the October 2010 meeting that rushing water might be responsible for removing the clothing. Ellie magazine notes that in this scenario, the water would have had to rise 60 feet above the top of the creek bed to push my tree's body in the opposite direction of the current to deposit her where she was found kind of seems impossible. Yeah, it does. As Latise said, since when does water unbuckle belts, unzip jeans and unhook bra and how would water have taken off her t-shirts? Now water can be very powerful.

37:48It can be, but could it have risen 60 feet above the top of the creek bed? That I don't know about. I would think they would probably go back and look at some records to see if that was the case. Yeah, I think they could go back and recreate or look at everything and see how high the water was. The family also questioned why my tree's body was partially mummified and not fully decomposed. The conditions in the area were not adequate for natural mummification. Natural mummification is usually the result of immediate and prolonged post-mortem exposure to sub-freezing or extremely dry environments. United Nations forensic anthropologists Clea Cough, a native of Los Angeles, consulted on my tree's case with her LA-based nonprofit Missing Persons Identification Resource Center. She was also present at this October 2010 meeting.

38:50Cough told LA Magazine that it was absurd to suggest that the condition of my tree's body was due to animals. Cough also noted that no one had explained why my tree's left arm was tightly flexed as if she was saying the pledge of allegiance. This could not have been created by environmental conditions where her body was found. To co-op, the position could indicate the limb had been held in place by some kind of wrapping in a different environment while mummification said it. Basically saying the hand in that position was restrained somehow and then when the mummification said it and it was just locked like that. Yeah, I think that's what she's saying. But it couldn't have happened naturally in that environment. True crime all the time, unsolved, is sponsored by R.I.M. sure all of you are hearing a lot about GLP ones and you probably think they cost a fortune and that keeps a lot of people

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40:56Go to row.co slash safety. Insurance isn't one size fits all. And shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit. That's why drivers have enjoyed progressives name your price tool for years. With the name your price tool you tell them what you want to pay and they show you options that fit your budget. Enough hunting for discounts, trying to calculate rates and tinkering with coverages. Maybe you're picking out your very first policy or maybe you're just looking for something that works better for you and your family. Either way they make it simple to see your options. No guesswork, no surprises. Ready to see how easy and fun shopping for car insurance can be visit progressive.com and give the name your price tool a try. Take the stress out of shopping and find coverage that fits your life on your terms. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. LA magazine also noted multiple potential issues with the investigation. For example, the hair on my tree's head was not compared to the hair scattered on the

42:00ground to see if it was a match. The metallic fragments and earring in the detached hair, which my tree wasn't wearing at the time for arrest. We're not sent to a lab. Egg casings on her body weren't tested to determine when the flies hatch or whether they were consistent with the environment. The car accident leaves were not tested for blood. A craniotomy was not performed to look for evidence of trauma. Pubic hair was found on the remains but was not combed for suspect hairs, foreign fibers or tested for semen. The articles of clothing near the scene were also not tested. And for several weeks, the corner didn't even know where the clothing was. Really a cough found the clothing wadded up in my tree's body back. Well, I mean, this just sounds like a pretty botched investigation. It sounds shoddy, right? It does. It doesn't sound professional.

43:03Now did some of this have to do with this perceived power struggle? It remains, you know, being moved before the corner could get there. The corner not getting in there when they should have seemingly due to no fault of their own. It almost sounded like someone was trying to keep them away or from getting there. Now, I don't know that to be the case, but it does kind of seem that way. I can certainly understand the frustration of the family. Yeah, because if you're the family, you don't care what the reasons of it. They're right. You don't care what difficulties they had or what they had to go through. All you care about is that certain things that people say should have been done weren't done. And then you're wondering, well, how does that affect the investigation? Is it going to make it harder for them to solve this crime? And obviously it is, right?

44:06Less information. Less evidence is never a good thing. No. I feel like they're just really trying to push the narrative that she wandered into this location on her own and died from natural causes. Or from an animal bite or poison oak. But not foul play. Well, yeah, and again, I don't know how they can know all of that with certainty. I think they're offering up some theories on what happened, but you're right. It does seem like most of the theories center around like non homicide related deaths, but maybe collecting all that stuff, testing it appropriately. Maybe that could have helped back up what they were saying. Maybe. Maybe it went down another path too. Yeah. What I will say is I don't know how it hurts at getting it to true. Exactly. But it seemed to me that the corner was upset about it as anyone.

45:09Like he definitely felt like they were stonewalling him. That's that's the impression I got. LA magazine also noted that the corner had not recovered my tree says hi, which could help determine whether she was strangled. In November, 2010, letee sat and went to dark canyon with my treason sister and law, a friend and Cleo call to set up a memorial for my trees. During that trip, they found one of her finger bones in the dirt. Letee's told LA Times if I can go up there and find a finger bone while I'm up there memorializing her, then a thorough job was not done. She's right. It would be hard to argue against that statement. On December 29, 2010, letee's met with Sheriff Baca to request that my tree's his body be exhumed and reexamined. Baca told the attendees at the meeting that he was disappointed in the corner's lack of sensitivity about this evidence.

46:11He also said that he had always felt my tree's death should have been treated as a possible homicide from the beginning. He said he would post a reward on the county's official website. But more than seven months later, nothing had been posted. Sounds like he was just providing some lip service. Yeah. If you don't follow through with what you said, then what else can people think about it? In February 2011, authorities searched Malibu Canyon for the second time and Gibbs, they found a rib, finger and wrist bone. It really does bring into question. What kind of search they did when her remains were found? I mean, it sounds like a half-assed job. Because not only are they finding more when they go back, her mom finds a bone. She's not a trained expert. So that means anybody walking by could have found that and somehow they didn't.

47:15I'm not sure how you explain that. It just really does seem like they weren't very thorough. The T sold to LA Times today, we were able to find some more of my daughters' remains. So we can put them with the rest of her remains. More importantly, I hope that they see the importance of going back and doing all the tests that I requested, the proper testing. Now authorities still don't know. My traces cause of death. Spokesman Steve Whitmore noted that the coroner's office had long wanted to search the area again to make sure they found everything. In 2010, my traces parents filed a negligent and wrongful death suit. In May 2011, Latee filed another lawsuit against Los Angeles County asking for unspecified damages alleging negligence and intentional and negligent inflection of emotional distress. The suit alleged that deputies improperly removed the remains from the site.

48:17My traces parents each received $450,000 from the county as part of a settlement. In that amount, I mean, it's almost a half a million dollars each, but they don't have their daughter. They don't have the answers. But I think a lot of times, these are, they're not about the money for the family as much as they are about getting someone to say that these people were wrong. Calmability? They're voting them accountable, but you're right. They're not going to get their daughter back, but they wouldn't have anyway, right? No matter how the police handled this, she was never coming back alive. From the time they found the body. Now we can debate how things were handled beforehand and whether that would have changed the outcome. On July 13, 2011, my traces body was exhumed and reexamined by the LASD's crime life in February 2017, the LA Times reported that the California Attorney General's investigation

49:22failed to uncover evidence that would merit criminal charges against sheriff's deputies for their handling of my traces, disappearance and death. The Office of Former California Attorney General Kamala Harris declined to review the case in 2015 saying there was no reasonable inference that deputies broke the law. They did some things wrong. I don't know if they're criminal, but they're definitely wrong. The video, the crime scene or not the crime scene, but where the body was found. Yeah. The kind of back and forth with the corner and removing the remains and I'm with you. Right? There's no doubt a lot of things were handled probably in a way they shouldn't have been, but were they criminal? Did they break the law? That's, there's a big difference between those two things. Months later in February 2016, the Attorney General's Office agreed to review the matter.

50:22At the request of my treason's father, Michael Richardson, the Attorney General's Office sent Michael a letter dated December 31, 2016 that briefly outlined why there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution for destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. Michael told the LA Times that he was disappointed by the findings and angered that the statute of limitations for concealment and evidence tampering had expired. So even if they found that there was sufficient evidence, if the statute of limitations has expired, I don't know what they could have done anyway. It was like probably nothing. In the review, the Attorney General's Office looked at whether officials withheld video taken of my trees at the sheriff's station and whether the removal of her remains from the site before the corner's office arrived violated the law.

51:23The letter acknowledged that Captain Tom Martin, former station commander, did not immediately give the tape to family, but the video was preserved and eventually disclosed. Preserved. Does that include edited it? While they concluded that there was no indication the tape had been altered or tampered with, they also said other detectives were aware of the tape. So there was no apparent criminal aid to hide the video. The investigation found that the station phone log showed my trees made four calls to her grandmother, but AT&T phone records did not reflect those calls. The letter stated, although the calls could have been made, those calls were either not picked up or not made at all. Well, if the phone just rings and rings, you don't have an answering machine, you don't have voicemail. This is a landline, let's say. No one ever picks it up. Is there going to be a record on that side?

52:25I would say no. Yeah, I agree with you. Or if someone doesn't want their grandmother to come get them or even talk to them, could they act like they're dialing a number and act like no one answered or even act like they're having a conversation? Yeah. And just write on the phone log that they called. Yeah, they could. The review also concluded that the sheriff's office did remove my trees as remains before the coroner's office arrived, but it was highly disputed whether they had permission to do so. Wouldn't they either have permission or not have permission? I don't know. It's highly disputed. Again, you have to figure there's always some CY in these reports because how much do we really want to blame ourselves? Because in doing so, we just open up even more liability.

53:25Right. I'm not saying that's what they did, but it happens. It does happen. In November, 2024, the reward increased to $25,000. Sadly, my tree's mother, Latisse, passed away on September 12, 2025. She was only 57 years old. In 2011, Latisse told LA Magazine. She was haunted by guilt for not rushing to the sheriff's station once she learned my trees was arrested. She suffered from debilitating anxiety and depression. But she was told by a deputy on the phone. You don't need to worry about coming up. You can come in the morning. Yeah. She'll be here. Yeah. And that was a lie. Well, it turned out to not be true. It turned out not to be true. Yes. Was it a lie? I don't know. It's highly disputed. It's disputed. In my mind right now. Early on, Latisse publicly said she thought deputies were involved in her daughter's disappearance.

54:28Although she was convinced, my tree was murdered. She was not certain who killed her. Latisse said, my tree's is not a hiker. My daughter is a city girl. She didn't wander into that canyon. I believe she was suffering from mental illness. And somebody took advantage of that. I believe she was possibly raped, definitely killed and eventually dumped. To date, my tree's Richardson's cause of death is still classified as under term. And her case remains open. Please ask anyone with information on the case to call the LA police department at 213-486-6900 or the sheriff's department at 323-890-5500. Also gives us as we wrap this one up. This is a sad but very fascinating case. I think there's very few cases that we've done where you can point to the number of potential

55:33and I'll say potential mistakes made by law enforcement. There's a large number of them. There was involving this case. Now I get it when there's a review board, the water is going to get muddy. Whether or not they should have removed the remains that's highly disputed. There's a bunch of other things that anybody would say, well, that's not right. But is it criminal? You know, that part I don't know. I will say it's easy to see though why the family would be pretty distrusting of law enforcement in this case because it does seem like there was quite a bit bungled. I got a call like a Sam. This using the word lightly bungled. I mean, things were not done the correct way. The department, if they would just have handled things the correct way around the videotape

56:33and around the scene where the body was found. I think all those questions might have just went away. But if you're the family, do you believe these were mistakes or were they intentionally done? Well, and that goes to the heart of this case for me. And it's the question of what really happened to my trees. Now we don't know the answer, but we know a lot of the theories that have been thrown out there. It the family has suggested that someone in law enforcement or law enforcement plural had something to do with my trees is that I'm not really sure what they would have had to gain from that. I don't know that anybody's ever really offered up something that would say, well, they would have done it because of X. We also have the, you know, she was wondering, she succumbed to the elements. She got bit by a snake.

57:34You have all these different theories that don't involve homicide. But if you go back to homicide, what about homicide, but leave the police out of it. Some might see her walking. Maybe they offer a ride. I think, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't offer up scenarios in that vein as well. I do kind of lean towards what Lateeese was saying about, you know, when you look at her clothes and you look at all of that in the state of it, does it seem more likely that she was sexually assaulted and murdered? And I would say, yeah, I kind of lean that way. Is it possible that she got bit by something and decided she was hot? She had to take off her clothes? Yeah, I mean, weird things like that happen to people. There's always possibilities. Yeah, there's a possibility of a lot of different things. But, you know, I don't know how we're ever going to learn the truth though.

58:38I don't know if we will. And I think some of that does go back to how everything was handled by law enforcement. Yeah. But that's it for our episode on the disappearance and death of my tree's Richardson. We had a voicemail gibb. You want to check that out? It's here. Hey, guys. It's Jada from Canada. Long time no see now. I just was wondering, I can't seem to find it some sure you have never done it. But have you thought about ever doing the Keith Reinhardt mystery? So I had been feeling not well and was in the hospital. I was watching episode of or episode of unsolved mysteries just because they have them prime all of them. But they had that episode. And I don't remember hearing that mystery before. But it's about a guy who he's thinking about moving his family. And he opens up an antique store in this little town.

59:38And then when he's there, he finds out that the previous guy who rented that little storefront had met missing. And so he decides to investigate. And at the same time, turns out he's also a writer. And he's trying to come up with an idea of our mystery novels. He starts a mystery novel, based on what he learned from this local missing man who had only went missing a year before. This is mystery about him. And then he ends up going missing. So I don't know. It's such an incredible, super, super crazy story. But I thought, if you really cool if you guys could cover it. I don't know. But anyway, maybe I just gave all those stories out. But yeah, I don't know. It might be good for them to try. I'd like to see your take on it. Anyway, yeah, I love you guys. Of course, I'm a team of Mike. I love you both. But yeah, hopefully you guys are doing well and enjoying your summer and taking your own time, Tickin. All right. Thanks for the voicemail. That does sound like a fascinating case. It really does.

1:00:39We've got to look into it. All right, buddy. That is it. For another episode of True Crime, all the time unsolved. So for Mike. And Gabby. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking. Hello, and welcome to Pluto, foe. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. We're all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch anchor man, the legend of Ron Burgundy.

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