Mitrice Richardson's body exhumed
Family’s request
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The remains of a 24-year-old woman, whose decomposing body was found in Malibu’s backcountry nearly a year after she was released from the local sheriff’s station, were exhumed today at her family’s request in an attempt to determine how she died.
Mitrice Richardson, who may have been in manic state, was arrested at a Malibu waterfront restaurant on the evening of Sept. 16, 2009, for failing to pay her bill and was released shortly after midnight from the sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills Station without her car, telephone or purse.
Despite extensive searches, her remains were not found until Aug. 9 last year, and both her parents have sued over her death.
A coroner’s official criticized sheriff’s deputies for moving Richardson’s remains before they could be examined where they were found.
Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, later found a finger bone at the site, and authorities recovered eight more bones in February.
Richardson’s parents hope that an examination of their daughter’s remains will shed some light on what happened to her.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the remains were unearthed at an Inglewood cemetery today and turned over to a private pathologist hired by the family.
Sutton and ex-husband Michael Richardson filed separate wrongful death lawsuits that were later consolidated. They allege sheriff’s deputies should not have turned their daughter loose in what should have recognized as an unhealthy mental state.
A diary recovered from the young woman’s car, which had been impounded because deputies found some marijuana in it, suggested she may have gone without sleep for as many as five days before her arrest.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Lawyers for the parents of a woman found dead in Malibu after being released by sheriff's deputies are entitled to video showing the woman's behavior inside and outside the jail and station house, a judge ruled today.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William F. Fahey ordered lawyers for the county to make the video of Mitrice Richardson available by tomorrow afternoon.
The parents of Mitrice Richardson, the missing 24-year-old who was found dead almost a year after being released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Malibu station, have reached a tentative agreement to settle their lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for $900,000.
The 11-month search for 24-year-old pageant winner, and Cal State Fullerton graduate Mitrice Richardson came to a tragic end recently, when her remains were found by park rangers who were looking for illegal marijuana plants in a Malibu ravine. She was found no more than two miles out of the range of the last major search for her.
After two years of fighting for justice and searching for answers, the parents of Mitrice Richardson, the 24-year-old woman found dead almost a year after being released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Malibu station, may be able to breathe a little easier.
A tentative agreement was reached to settle their lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for $900,000.
