July 1, 2026
397: The Disappearance of Mitrice Richardson
A mysterious disappearance leads to more questions than answers in 2009 Malibu.
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WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_01]: A Malibu mystery, I'm Jason Horton, I'm Rebecca Leib, and this is Ghost Town.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, we have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill and you think she may, she sounds really crazy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She may be on drugs or something, um, you're wondering if someone who's come by and like a rap.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What you just heard was a 911 call from staff at Jafri's restaurant in Malibu, California, a key haunting piece in one of Malibu's most confounding and heartbreaking criminal cases.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I've always hesitated to cover this case on Ghost Town because there's already so much on and out there, multiple podcasts, TV series, articles, places that go way more in-depth and have more resources than we ever could, and yet recent information drew me to revisiting it and sharing it with you too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So without further ado, the mysterious case of Matrice Richardson.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Born on April 30, 1985, Matrice Levant Richardson had a quiet childhood in Covina, California, which is about an hour or so away from downtown Los Angeles.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While her parents who had met in high school broke up when she was five years old, Matrice's parents, and stepfather, and grandmother were extremely involved in her life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: With the support she had around her,
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[SPEAKER_00]: After she graduated from South Hills High School, Matrice attended Cal State University in Fullerton, California.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She chose Fullerton because it was close to her grandmother, another woman who again played a huge part in raising her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice also excelled in college, with a 4.0 GPA in 2008 she graduated with a bachelor's in psychology with honors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice planned on getting her master's degree, but out of college she worked a couple of odd jobs
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[SPEAKER_00]: And her jobs were admittedly eclectic.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She worked at a shipping company, competed as a beauty pageant contestant, worked as an intern for a forensic psychologist, and was also a part-time dancer at an LGBTQ strip club.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I should also mention Matrice was openly queer and while working at the shipping company, met a woman named Tessa Moon, growing close the Jubyana relationship.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, two years later, amongst all of these jobs, and all of these plans, Tesla moved to the Bay Area.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice, only 24, didn't deal well with the transition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was after this event that friends and family began reporting that Matrice was acting strangely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She isolated herself and posted strange things on social media.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She also began acting off via text.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For example, this haunting exchange for her mother, Latice Sutton, which was reported on by LA Magazine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Latice Sutton in the message says, quote, You have to tell me what's going on with you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You've been somewhat elusive and philosophical, tell me what's up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Have you found yourself in a state of sadness?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you crying without reason or understanding?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm concerned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Help me understand what's going on with you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you feeling lost?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Helpless?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Alone?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Rejected?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice replied, I'm writing a book my journal because you told me I can be anything I wanted.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You told me I was Miss America.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You told me I was America's next-time model.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now do you know what I want to be when I grow up?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Mother Nature, because Miss America is a fake-ass joke along with everything else we see, so I'm trying to find my way to Michelle Obama to see if she will talk to Mr. Obama about creating my position within the White House.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her mother responds to that message with Call Me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice responds, quote,
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[SPEAKER_00]: On the evening of September 16, 2009, a trace entered the parking lot of Jafri's restaurant in Malibu, California.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Being a young, very attractive, charming woman at a Malibu hotspot, of course it was no surprise when a group of young diners asked her to join their table.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice told her dinner guests that she was from Mars and reportedly began speaking in gibberish.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Things went from pretty strange to downright uncomfortable when Matrice couldn't pay her $89 tab for a co-based steak and an ocean breeze cocktail.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After she unsuccessfully tried to have her grandmother pay the bill over the phone, the restaurant called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
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[SPEAKER_00]: The officers who came to the scene purportedly administered a field sobriety test and determined that she was not intoxicated and not under the influence of any substance.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But then the police searched Matrice's Honda Civic where they found less than an ounce of marijuana.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At that point, Matrice was arrested on suspicion of defrauding an in-keeper and possession of marijuana.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And she was taken into custody at the Malibu Sheriff's Station.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to the officers who arrived at the scene, Matrice's phone, purse, and money were in her car when it was towed to a tow yard on the Pacific coast highway.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, Matrice herself was detained and booked at the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff station approximately 10 miles up Malibu Canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice called her mom from the station who told the police that she was concerned for her daughter's mental health.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite promises from the station personnel that she would not be released until later that morning, it was already pretty late at night, Matrice was actually released shortly after 1 a.m. without her wallet, without her phone and without any of her belongings.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice lived more than 30 miles away from that location.
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[SPEAKER_00]: but she declined.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As you might imagine, this decision would come into question later.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The decision on Matrice's part to leave, and the decision on the part of the police, the officers that were there, to let her go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Steve Whitmore spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Matrice Richardson was released from jail because, quote,
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[SPEAKER_00]: At 530 AM, Latest Sutton called the Sheriff's Department again asking where her daughter was as she had not heard from her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Police then told her that they actually had released Matrice earlier that morning to the absolute frustration of Latest Sutton.
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[SPEAKER_00]: An hour later, former KTLA news anchor Bill Smith called LA County Sheriff's Office from his home in Montenegro about six miles away.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He told police that he spotted a young woman in his backyard, and when he opened his window and asked if she was okay, she told Smith that she was quote resting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice, or the woman that fit that description, left shortly after Smith called PD.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then, after she left the police station, after that brief sighting in Montenegro, Matrice was simply gone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 48 hours later, yes, two days later, police came by Smith's home and searched his yard in the adjacent area.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They did find shoe prints which told a story that Matrice had started walking, and then suddenly running towards the dark creek and dark canyon area, which the police did not subsequently search.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Los Angeles Police Department took over the case from the Sheriff's Department, and it was believed that Matisse Richardson walked for hours after her lease from the Malibu station was seen in Smith's backyard, and then left to go elsewhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As to her mental state, well, that was one big question mark.
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[SPEAKER_00]: quote, she wasn't diagnosed with any mental illnesses, said Tessa Moon, Richardson's girlfriend of many years, she wasn't getting any medication.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yet her mother, Latise Sutton, showed concern for her daughter's state of mind to the police, and again, in text exchanges, to no avail.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing that Latise Sutton told press that worried her about this whole situation
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[SPEAKER_00]: so her walking six miles away from the police station possibly more, that wouldn't have been something that she invited into her life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That wouldn't be something that she eagerly agreed to do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Did the police take note?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Latis Sutton was not sure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually Sutton would describe the experience of her daughter's disappearance to people magazine as quote,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Richardson, Matisse's father, was also intensely critical of police and questioned them at every turn.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Who let his daughter go without any ID or communication systems so far from home?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Understandably, Michael Richardson was outraged.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While news coverage on the case wasn't what Richardson and Sutton had hoped, the community banded together and organized, especially the LA LGBTQ Plus community.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, I'm highly grateful to the gay and lesbian community Richardson said, they've been working with me calling me coming up with ideas.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At the beginning, I had a meditation over it and said, at why aren't we reaching out to her people?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want anyone to feel like we had something to hide, or we were embarrassed about her sexuality.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But eventually, and thankfully this story did gain some traction, fueled by your parents' outspokeness, urgency and persistence, and with the help of the LGBTQ Plus community, Matrice appeared on the cover of People Magazine in November 2009.
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[SPEAKER_00]: quote, everybody was attracted to her, and says in the piece, she's a very open individual who loves life and fun.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She's very goal-oriented, she wanted to do big things.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We were texting that afternoon of September 16th she continued, we were on the same page about getting our careers started, and just trying to better ourselves.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was excited for me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was the last time I heard from her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This highly visible coverage would snowball into more and greater search efforts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 9, 2010, four months after Matrice Richardson was reported missing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department conducted one of the largest skill searches in the history of the department.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Over 300 volunteers trained in search and rescue operations and searched the area of Malibu Canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing was found in this search, unfortunately, but it did inspire another search that occurred on June 5th and 6th 2010 of the Montenegro area of Malibu Canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Over a hundred volunteers participated in that search of the area.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This time, the Matrice herself was not found.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Searchers did find what perhaps was considered to be a clue.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Racially and sexually offensive graffiti on the walls of a culvert in the canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The graffiti was freshly painted, and paint cans, brushes, and other potential evidence were left at the scene.
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[SPEAKER_00]: During the next month, the LA County Sheriff's Department frequently spoke to the media to reaffirm and reaffirm that Matrice Richardson had been fine when they let her go from the police department.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It seems suspicious to me that the LA County Sheriff's Department had to keep telling the public that a person that they let go from the police department was fine when they let her go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was an adult.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was in her right mind.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yet we're getting different stories from the mother of the victim.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting different stories from the people around her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There are these two different factions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's the police department as certain what they did was right and correct as police departments often do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have friends and family who are saying 24-year-old matrice Richardson should not have left the police department that night in any way shape or form was she okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In this vein, Patrice Sutton kept calling bullshit on the LA County Sheriff's Department and she herself began a month's long fight to get the footage of that night at the department for her own use and understanding.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The first time she asked for it, she was told that there was no video, but four months of fighting with the police station, she was suddenly told that there was actually a video but, quote, due to technical difficulties, it would be another three months before they'd receive it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Seven months later, the family finally received a heavily edited video, which was incredibly telling as to Metrice's mental state.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, what happened to her at that night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: More after this break.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I didn't see the whole of the police footage in this case, just an edited clip that was available online.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So again, I'm speaking from other resources, other research that I was doing, and I haven't laid eyes on this video footage myself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So take that and take this with a grain of salt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The video that I did see showed matrice being released and an officer following behind her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Still, others say that they saw an extended version of this video where Matrice was more agitated, that when she was released, she was, you know, felt off, and even before that, in her cell, she was pulling on the cell bars and pulling on her hair.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I didn't see that version of the video, so I can't comment on it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But this other version is being discussed online, and that's what people are saying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her remains were found in dark canyon by parkrangers, only eight miles away from the lost hill station, and only two miles away from where she had been last seen in Bill Smith's backyard.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her remains were naked and mummified, and her clothes were strewn around the site, though again none were found on her body.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There was an earring stuck in her hair, but according to reports she was not wearing this earring when she disappeared.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her femur had been removed from her right leg, and five neck bones were never recovered.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When Matrice Richardson's body was found, detectives on the case actually removed it against the order of the coroner.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When questioned by neighbors, residents reportedly heard screams in that area, residents reportedly
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's also perhaps not worthy that the place that Metrice Richardson's body was found is next to a ranch known for producing pornography.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also something to note that there was no type of animal involvement in her death or decay when Metrice's body was found.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also, when questioned by neighbors, residents reportedly heard screams in that area several nights after Matrice Richards had disappeared.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, her death was deemed to not be a homicide, with detectives concluding that there was no foul play.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After you've taken all of that information in and it doesn't seem to add up, don't worry you're not alone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The public also was increasingly suspicious.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't understand what happened to Matrice, but beyond that, they didn't understand why the police treated her as they did, that they should have done more to protect her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In that vein, Matrice Richardson's parents filed several lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for releasing her from jail, even though they claimed she was experiencing severe bipolar disorder at the time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And in 2011,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, her parents who actually sued separately were awarded $450,000 each.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice Richardson's family also asked the California Attorney General's Office to review the Sheriff's Office handling of the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In November 2015, after reviewing more than 500 pages of documents sent with a request, the then California Attorney General Kamal Harris found no evidence that the Sheriff's Office
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, in January 2016, the California Attorney General's Office revised itself and announced it was beginning a criminal investigation of the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But in 2017, the California Attorney General's Office concluded that there was actually insufficient evidence to support criminal prosecution of anyone involved in the handling of the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: a lot while simultaneously telling me nothing, and then the case went cold, but not without theorists online, rumenating on all the confusing and of course contradicting facts about the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nikki Burbaki said on Reddit, given all the details, I think it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to suggest matrice was suffering from some kind of neurological disorder, not so much psychological.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There have been instances of certain forms of encephalitis, both primary and secondary, creating severe psychological disturbances.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps Matrice developed inflammation over the course of a couple days, beginnings of unusual behavior attributed to depression by loved ones that gradually progressed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her body, dehydrated from walking around a canyon all night,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Experiencing, processing errors from information, possible hallucinations from psychosis, all could explain how and where she was later found, and explains the unexplainable behavior.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Redditor Pagonia said, I live very close to that area when all this happened, and I follow this case pretty closely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Based on everything I've read, it seemed pretty clear that she was having some sort of mental breakdown, but not something so obvious as to cause her to be involuntarily held.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The walk to where she was eventually found isn't really all that far, and almost all down hill along the main road, back towards the PCH in Malibu, where she may have just assumed her car was still waiting at Jaffrey's, awesome restaurant, BTW.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Said Ducadoan read it, I'm kind of surprised that no one brings up schizophrenia when discussing this case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She's at the right age, and I feel like the symptoms fit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know just something I always think about with her case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Those cops really failed her
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[SPEAKER_00]: said Candice Danielle, I'm going to say your death is the result of complete negligence, lack of training, and probably some shady business going down.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's clear her mental state was compromised and the police should have called in a 5150.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, ifs ands are butts about that one.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Next, her mother called in and they said they wouldn't be releasing her because if they planned to release her,
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[SPEAKER_00]: She would have went down there right at that moment to pick her up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They said they wouldn't release her until the morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Someone reported her being in his backyard, cops never investigated that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I firmly believe that if they acted right away, Matrice would have been alive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some other shady things, cops lied about the footage at the jail, saying there was no footage and later releasing edited footage.
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[SPEAKER_00]: cops remove the body from the crime scene without the coroner first examining it, which we all know is completely illegal and against protocol.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I could go on and on, but the bottom line is LASD is a huge reason as to why Matrice isn't with us today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now fast forward to 2023 when the true crime podcast lost hills featured some information of interest on the case, information that refutes the conclusions of the initial investigation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As it turns out, investigators did suspect foul play in Matrice's death, and at one point maybe even had a person of interest.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, we had that feeling of just circling ourselves over and over again, and circling the work other people had done, and feeling like this is a really important story, but we can't add anything important to it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The podcast hosts Dana Goodier said, and then we learned the name of the person of interest, and it changed everything.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That person, never arrested or named publicly, was a Monteneto resident and 1973 graduate of a Gorahe, named Rick Forzberg, who died in 2019.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Good year believes Forzberg, who had a criminal record, history of substance abuse and violence against women, encountered matrice while walking and killed the young woman.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now he was brought in by PD and passed a polygraph test during the initial investigation, so people moved on.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, if you've been listening closely, we understand that the PD probably made some mistakes, you know, to put it very, very, very, very, very lightly in this case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, good year and her team brought the information shared through her podcast to investigators, hoping the Sheriff's Department would reopen the case, and give the memory of Metrice Richardson and her distraught family the closure that they surely deserve.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I have no word if the LA County Sheriff's Department is actually taking into consideration the information shared in the podcast, but I'm hoping that they do, and that finally, this case can get the investigative energy around it,
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[SPEAKER_01]: A Malibu mystery, I'm Jason Horton, I'm Rebecca Leib, and this is Ghost Town.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Um, we have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill and you think she may, she sounds really crazy.
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[SPEAKER_01]: She may be on drugs or something, um, you're wondering if someone who's come by and like a rap.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What you just heard was a 911 call from staff at Jafri's restaurant in Malibu, California, a key haunting piece in one of Malibu's most confounding and heartbreaking criminal cases.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I've always hesitated to cover this case on Ghost Town because there's already so much on and out there, multiple podcasts, TV series, articles, places that go way more in-depth and have more resources than we ever could, and yet recent information drew me to revisiting it and sharing it with you too.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So without further ado, the mysterious case of Matrice Richardson.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Born on April 30, 1985, Matrice Levant Richardson had a quiet childhood in Covina, California, which is about an hour or so away from downtown Los Angeles.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While her parents who had met in high school broke up when she was five years old, Matrice's parents, and stepfather, and grandmother were extremely involved in her life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: With the support she had around her,
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[SPEAKER_00]: After she graduated from South Hills High School, Matrice attended Cal State University in Fullerton, California.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She chose Fullerton because it was close to her grandmother, another woman who again played a huge part in raising her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice also excelled in college, with a 4.0 GPA in 2008 she graduated with a bachelor's in psychology with honors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice planned on getting her master's degree, but out of college she worked a couple of odd jobs
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[SPEAKER_00]: And her jobs were admittedly eclectic.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She worked at a shipping company, competed as a beauty pageant contestant, worked as an intern for a forensic psychologist, and was also a part-time dancer at an LGBTQ strip club.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I should also mention Matrice was openly queer and while working at the shipping company, met a woman named Tessa Moon, growing close the Jubyana relationship.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, two years later, amongst all of these jobs, and all of these plans, Tesla moved to the Bay Area.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice, only 24, didn't deal well with the transition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was after this event that friends and family began reporting that Matrice was acting strangely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She isolated herself and posted strange things on social media.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She also began acting off via text.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For example, this haunting exchange for her mother, Latice Sutton, which was reported on by LA Magazine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Latice Sutton in the message says, quote, You have to tell me what's going on with you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You've been somewhat elusive and philosophical, tell me what's up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Have you found yourself in a state of sadness?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you crying without reason or understanding?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm concerned.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Help me understand what's going on with you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you feeling lost?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Helpless?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Alone?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Rejected?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice replied, I'm writing a book my journal because you told me I can be anything I wanted.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You told me I was Miss America.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You told me I was America's next-time model.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now do you know what I want to be when I grow up?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Mother Nature, because Miss America is a fake-ass joke along with everything else we see, so I'm trying to find my way to Michelle Obama to see if she will talk to Mr. Obama about creating my position within the White House.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her mother responds to that message with Call Me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice responds, quote,
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[SPEAKER_00]: On the evening of September 16, 2009, a trace entered the parking lot of Jafri's restaurant in Malibu, California.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Being a young, very attractive, charming woman at a Malibu hotspot, of course it was no surprise when a group of young diners asked her to join their table.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice told her dinner guests that she was from Mars and reportedly began speaking in gibberish.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Things went from pretty strange to downright uncomfortable when Matrice couldn't pay her $89 tab for a co-based steak and an ocean breeze cocktail.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After she unsuccessfully tried to have her grandmother pay the bill over the phone, the restaurant called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
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[SPEAKER_00]: The officers who came to the scene purportedly administered a field sobriety test and determined that she was not intoxicated and not under the influence of any substance.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But then the police searched Matrice's Honda Civic where they found less than an ounce of marijuana.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At that point, Matrice was arrested on suspicion of defrauding an in-keeper and possession of marijuana.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And she was taken into custody at the Malibu Sheriff's Station.
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[SPEAKER_00]: According to the officers who arrived at the scene, Matrice's phone, purse, and money were in her car when it was towed to a tow yard on the Pacific coast highway.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, Matrice herself was detained and booked at the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff station approximately 10 miles up Malibu Canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice called her mom from the station who told the police that she was concerned for her daughter's mental health.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite promises from the station personnel that she would not be released until later that morning, it was already pretty late at night, Matrice was actually released shortly after 1 a.m. without her wallet, without her phone and without any of her belongings.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice lived more than 30 miles away from that location.
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[SPEAKER_00]: but she declined.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As you might imagine, this decision would come into question later.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The decision on Matrice's part to leave, and the decision on the part of the police, the officers that were there, to let her go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Steve Whitmore spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Matrice Richardson was released from jail because, quote,
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[SPEAKER_00]: At 530 AM, Latest Sutton called the Sheriff's Department again asking where her daughter was as she had not heard from her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Police then told her that they actually had released Matrice earlier that morning to the absolute frustration of Latest Sutton.
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[SPEAKER_00]: An hour later, former KTLA news anchor Bill Smith called LA County Sheriff's Office from his home in Montenegro about six miles away.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He told police that he spotted a young woman in his backyard, and when he opened his window and asked if she was okay, she told Smith that she was quote resting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice, or the woman that fit that description, left shortly after Smith called PD.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then, after she left the police station, after that brief sighting in Montenegro, Matrice was simply gone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 48 hours later, yes, two days later, police came by Smith's home and searched his yard in the adjacent area.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They did find shoe prints which told a story that Matrice had started walking, and then suddenly running towards the dark creek and dark canyon area, which the police did not subsequently search.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Los Angeles Police Department took over the case from the Sheriff's Department, and it was believed that Matisse Richardson walked for hours after her lease from the Malibu station was seen in Smith's backyard, and then left to go elsewhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As to her mental state, well, that was one big question mark.
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[SPEAKER_00]: quote, she wasn't diagnosed with any mental illnesses, said Tessa Moon, Richardson's girlfriend of many years, she wasn't getting any medication.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yet her mother, Latise Sutton, showed concern for her daughter's state of mind to the police, and again, in text exchanges, to no avail.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing that Latise Sutton told press that worried her about this whole situation
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[SPEAKER_00]: so her walking six miles away from the police station possibly more, that wouldn't have been something that she invited into her life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That wouldn't be something that she eagerly agreed to do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Did the police take note?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Latis Sutton was not sure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually Sutton would describe the experience of her daughter's disappearance to people magazine as quote,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Richardson, Matisse's father, was also intensely critical of police and questioned them at every turn.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Who let his daughter go without any ID or communication systems so far from home?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Understandably, Michael Richardson was outraged.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While news coverage on the case wasn't what Richardson and Sutton had hoped, the community banded together and organized, especially the LA LGBTQ Plus community.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, I'm highly grateful to the gay and lesbian community Richardson said, they've been working with me calling me coming up with ideas.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At the beginning, I had a meditation over it and said, at why aren't we reaching out to her people?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want anyone to feel like we had something to hide, or we were embarrassed about her sexuality.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But eventually, and thankfully this story did gain some traction, fueled by your parents' outspokeness, urgency and persistence, and with the help of the LGBTQ Plus community, Matrice appeared on the cover of People Magazine in November 2009.
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[SPEAKER_00]: quote, everybody was attracted to her, and says in the piece, she's a very open individual who loves life and fun.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She's very goal-oriented, she wanted to do big things.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We were texting that afternoon of September 16th she continued, we were on the same page about getting our careers started, and just trying to better ourselves.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was excited for me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was the last time I heard from her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This highly visible coverage would snowball into more and greater search efforts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On January 9, 2010, four months after Matrice Richardson was reported missing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department conducted one of the largest skill searches in the history of the department.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Over 300 volunteers trained in search and rescue operations and searched the area of Malibu Canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing was found in this search, unfortunately, but it did inspire another search that occurred on June 5th and 6th 2010 of the Montenegro area of Malibu Canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Over a hundred volunteers participated in that search of the area.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This time, the Matrice herself was not found.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Searchers did find what perhaps was considered to be a clue.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Racially and sexually offensive graffiti on the walls of a culvert in the canyon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The graffiti was freshly painted, and paint cans, brushes, and other potential evidence were left at the scene.
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[SPEAKER_00]: During the next month, the LA County Sheriff's Department frequently spoke to the media to reaffirm and reaffirm that Matrice Richardson had been fine when they let her go from the police department.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It seems suspicious to me that the LA County Sheriff's Department had to keep telling the public that a person that they let go from the police department was fine when they let her go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was an adult.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was in her right mind.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yet we're getting different stories from the mother of the victim.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting different stories from the people around her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There are these two different factions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's the police department as certain what they did was right and correct as police departments often do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have friends and family who are saying 24-year-old matrice Richardson should not have left the police department that night in any way shape or form was she okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In this vein, Patrice Sutton kept calling bullshit on the LA County Sheriff's Department and she herself began a month's long fight to get the footage of that night at the department for her own use and understanding.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The first time she asked for it, she was told that there was no video, but four months of fighting with the police station, she was suddenly told that there was actually a video but, quote, due to technical difficulties, it would be another three months before they'd receive it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Seven months later, the family finally received a heavily edited video, which was incredibly telling as to Metrice's mental state.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, what happened to her at that night.
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[SPEAKER_00]: More after this break.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I didn't see the whole of the police footage in this case, just an edited clip that was available online.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So again, I'm speaking from other resources, other research that I was doing, and I haven't laid eyes on this video footage myself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So take that and take this with a grain of salt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The video that I did see showed matrice being released and an officer following behind her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Still, others say that they saw an extended version of this video where Matrice was more agitated, that when she was released, she was, you know, felt off, and even before that, in her cell, she was pulling on the cell bars and pulling on her hair.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I didn't see that version of the video, so I can't comment on it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But this other version is being discussed online, and that's what people are saying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her remains were found in dark canyon by parkrangers, only eight miles away from the lost hill station, and only two miles away from where she had been last seen in Bill Smith's backyard.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her remains were naked and mummified, and her clothes were strewn around the site, though again none were found on her body.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There was an earring stuck in her hair, but according to reports she was not wearing this earring when she disappeared.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her femur had been removed from her right leg, and five neck bones were never recovered.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When Matrice Richardson's body was found, detectives on the case actually removed it against the order of the coroner.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When questioned by neighbors, residents reportedly heard screams in that area, residents reportedly
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's also perhaps not worthy that the place that Metrice Richardson's body was found is next to a ranch known for producing pornography.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also something to note that there was no type of animal involvement in her death or decay when Metrice's body was found.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also, when questioned by neighbors, residents reportedly heard screams in that area several nights after Matrice Richards had disappeared.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, her death was deemed to not be a homicide, with detectives concluding that there was no foul play.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After you've taken all of that information in and it doesn't seem to add up, don't worry you're not alone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The public also was increasingly suspicious.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't understand what happened to Matrice, but beyond that, they didn't understand why the police treated her as they did, that they should have done more to protect her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In that vein, Matrice Richardson's parents filed several lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for releasing her from jail, even though they claimed she was experiencing severe bipolar disorder at the time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And in 2011,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, her parents who actually sued separately were awarded $450,000 each.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Matrice Richardson's family also asked the California Attorney General's Office to review the Sheriff's Office handling of the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In November 2015, after reviewing more than 500 pages of documents sent with a request, the then California Attorney General Kamal Harris found no evidence that the Sheriff's Office
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[SPEAKER_00]: However, in January 2016, the California Attorney General's Office revised itself and announced it was beginning a criminal investigation of the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But in 2017, the California Attorney General's Office concluded that there was actually insufficient evidence to support criminal prosecution of anyone involved in the handling of the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: a lot while simultaneously telling me nothing, and then the case went cold, but not without theorists online, rumenating on all the confusing and of course contradicting facts about the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nikki Burbaki said on Reddit, given all the details, I think it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to suggest matrice was suffering from some kind of neurological disorder, not so much psychological.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There have been instances of certain forms of encephalitis, both primary and secondary, creating severe psychological disturbances.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps Matrice developed inflammation over the course of a couple days, beginnings of unusual behavior attributed to depression by loved ones that gradually progressed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her body, dehydrated from walking around a canyon all night,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Experiencing, processing errors from information, possible hallucinations from psychosis, all could explain how and where she was later found, and explains the unexplainable behavior.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Redditor Pagonia said, I live very close to that area when all this happened, and I follow this case pretty closely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Based on everything I've read, it seemed pretty clear that she was having some sort of mental breakdown, but not something so obvious as to cause her to be involuntarily held.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The walk to where she was eventually found isn't really all that far, and almost all down hill along the main road, back towards the PCH in Malibu, where she may have just assumed her car was still waiting at Jaffrey's, awesome restaurant, BTW.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Said Ducadoan read it, I'm kind of surprised that no one brings up schizophrenia when discussing this case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She's at the right age, and I feel like the symptoms fit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know just something I always think about with her case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Those cops really failed her
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[SPEAKER_00]: said Candice Danielle, I'm going to say your death is the result of complete negligence, lack of training, and probably some shady business going down.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's clear her mental state was compromised and the police should have called in a 5150.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No, ifs ands are butts about that one.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Next, her mother called in and they said they wouldn't be releasing her because if they planned to release her,
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[SPEAKER_00]: She would have went down there right at that moment to pick her up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They said they wouldn't release her until the morning.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Someone reported her being in his backyard, cops never investigated that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I firmly believe that if they acted right away, Matrice would have been alive.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Some other shady things, cops lied about the footage at the jail, saying there was no footage and later releasing edited footage.
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[SPEAKER_00]: cops remove the body from the crime scene without the coroner first examining it, which we all know is completely illegal and against protocol.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I could go on and on, but the bottom line is LASD is a huge reason as to why Matrice isn't with us today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now fast forward to 2023 when the true crime podcast lost hills featured some information of interest on the case, information that refutes the conclusions of the initial investigation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As it turns out, investigators did suspect foul play in Matrice's death, and at one point maybe even had a person of interest.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, we had that feeling of just circling ourselves over and over again, and circling the work other people had done, and feeling like this is a really important story, but we can't add anything important to it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The podcast hosts Dana Goodier said, and then we learned the name of the person of interest, and it changed everything.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That person, never arrested or named publicly, was a Monteneto resident and 1973 graduate of a Gorahe, named Rick Forzberg, who died in 2019.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Good year believes Forzberg, who had a criminal record, history of substance abuse and violence against women, encountered matrice while walking and killed the young woman.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now he was brought in by PD and passed a polygraph test during the initial investigation, so people moved on.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But of course, if you've been listening closely, we understand that the PD probably made some mistakes, you know, to put it very, very, very, very, very lightly in this case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, good year and her team brought the information shared through her podcast to investigators, hoping the Sheriff's Department would reopen the case, and give the memory of Metrice Richardson and her distraught family the closure that they surely deserve.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I have no word if the LA County Sheriff's Department is actually taking into consideration the information shared in the podcast, but I'm hoping that they do, and that finally, this case can get the investigative energy around it,
