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SEQUESTERED Podcast
Mitrice Richardson: Unsolved Death (Malibu, CA) | Part Three
00:25:48
In the final chapter of Mitrice Richardson’s story, we return to the canyon where her remains were found and examine the questions that still haunt this case fifteen years later. From new leads that surfaced in 2024, to troubling revelations about...
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T Mobile.
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If you're just joining us, this is part three of the Mitrice Richardson case. We encourage you to go back and listen to parts one and two before continuing so that you'll have the full picture of Mitrice's story and the strange turns her case has already taken. In Part two, we followed the discovery of Mitrice's remains in the Malibu canyon less than two miles from the station where she was released. We heard about the disturbing murals, the family's shock at finding one of her finger bones left behind, and the troubling decision to move her remains before the coroner ever arrived. Through it all, her cause of death remained undetermined, and for her family, that word was torture, proof the evidence had been mishandled and that the truth was still out of reach. In the years since Mitrice's death and disappearance, the official version hasn't changed. She was released just after midnight and she never came home. For the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, it remains an unsolved tragedy, but not a crime. That explanation has never been enough. And now maybe there's something new. A name, A past, a possible encounter. Someone who may have crossed paths with Mitrice in the hours after she left the station. Someone whose story could change how we understand her. Her final night. My name is Sarah Reed and this is sequestered. Season 2 Case 6 the disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson, Part 3 In 2024, a podcast called Lost Hills Dark Canyon was released and reignited attention on Mitrice's case. The podcast, produced by Pushkin Industries and and hosted by the New Yorker journalist Dana Goodyear, brought focus to a man living in the Montenido community at the time of Mitrice's disappearance. His name was Rick Forsberg. When Mitrice went missing, Forsberg was living in a makeshift fort in the woods near Dark Canyon, less than a mile from where Mitrice was last seen. According to Goodyear's reporting Neighbors remembered Forsberg. One even alleged he picked Mitrice up on his motorcycle the night she vanished. The podcast also described a suitcase of women's undergarments found in his camp. It was turned over to the sheriff's department, but detectives declined to test the items inside the suitcase. By the time they arrived, the site was no longer intact anyway. Others had already gone through the encampment, taking belongings and moving things around. So any chance of treating the camp as a clean crime scene was really out of the question by that point. For some, this raised the possibility that crucial evidence had been lost. But in an interview hosted by Cece Woods, Dr. Rhonda Hampton, and Rick Forsberg's sister Pam offered a very different perspective. During our research, we found several conversations between cece woods and Dr. Rhonda Hampton discussing this case. We'll share parts of what we learned from those conversations, but I wanted to let you know we've posted the videos on our website, sequesteredpod.com if you want to watch them in full. You can also read woods full investigative series at the local malibu.com. here's Dr. Hampton at the very start of that conversation.
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I do want to be perfectly transparent in that I have no idea what happened to Mitrice. I don't know if a civilian abducted and raped her, if a law enforcement officer. I really have no idea. And I think that most of us who are actively involved in seeking justice, Bart Maitrice, when we're honest about it, we don't know what happened. So I will say that I do not believe that she hiked up to that canyon, took off her clothes, laid down, and died of anaphylax shock. Short of that, you know, the verdict's still out.
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Hampton explained that years ago, Forsberg's name came across her radar. She appealed to law enforcement to investigate. And though at first detectives dismissed him as just a homeless man, pressure from a deputy and from people in the community eventually forced them to act. Deputies set up surveillance around where Forsberg lived. They interviewed him and the person he stayed with and gave him at least two lie detector tests. Here's Dr. Hampton again.
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I do want to acknowledge that many years ago, Rick Forsberg's name did come across my radar. And at the time, I appealed to law enforcement to please investigate this person because his name is coming up as potentially being aware of something that may have happened to my trace. It actually took a deputy to kind of force that issue and compel law enforcement to actually conduct a lie detector test on Rick, which he passed. Both of them but so eventually he was cleared because of that. Now, early, I've known Dana since 2010. I have shared every single theory that I've had. Anything that's come across, my, you know, my emails, any suggestion of who may have known something, and Rick Forsberg's name was one of those names. Quite frankly, I don't have a problem with people doing podcasts and sharing my Teresa story. I just want the story to be right. And I'm forgiving of tiny inaccuracies. That's perfectly fine. But when you get podcasters to lead their following to believe that one particular theory is true, then that becomes problematic. And that is my issue with Dana Goodyear and her podcast, that she has done everything that she can to point the finger at Rick Forsberg and been manipulative along the way. And her audience now has concluded that that is the end of the story, that Rick Forsberg killed Mitrice, and that the family just needs to sit back and just accept it. I do not accept that. I would put that on the list of possible theories, if you will, if we're considering everything. But there's no way in hell that I would stand here and say Rick.
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Forsberg killed Mitrice Richardson for Hampton. That makes him someone whose name at least belongs on the list of possibilities, but not someone you can point to as a final answer. In Mitrice's case, Forsberg's sister Pam echoed that.
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Well, first of all, I would never want to paint an angelic picture of who my brother was, because we all know he has a history. Had a history with drugs, with alcohol, with women, and so on and so forth. You know, like I said, he wasn't an angel, but I do not believe that he was ever capable of murder. Never.
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As it turns out, Rick Forsberg passed away in 2019. His sister Pam said in the interview that she was blindsided by the Lost Hills podcast, and listening to the series left her in, quote, emotional shock. For her, the suitcase described in the podcast was circumstantial at best, with no clear evidence tying it directly to her brother. Dr. Hampton also pointed to something else, a timeline detail that many feel was overlooked.
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Rick Warsburg became important to me when I saw that video for a couple of reasons, one of which, when my Treece first went missing in 2009, I got several phone calls and emails from individuals who said my Treece was at that Bill Smith home closer to 4:30 in the morning. And after some time, that 4:30 in the morning changed to more like 6:30, and everybody kind of forgot that originally we were told that it was 4:30 in the morning. But when she interviewed him and he said something along the lines that my trees was at that front porch closer to the 4:30 in the morning, that resonated with me. And that is one of the reasons why I definitely reached out to the law enforcement again because the community had said, many members from the community had said 4:30 in the morning and they also said at the front door of Bill Smith's house and they also said that she was making comments that the house belonged to her and she was trying to get into that house. And so, so that when he says that when he, when he, you know, come down from his encampment and heard this scuffle at, you know, the front door, that made sense to me. That was consistent. I shared that with Dana. That time frame difference between 4:30 and 6 may not make a difference to her, but it should make the difference to somebody who's investigating that case. Because now Rick Forsberg has eyes, at least reportedly has eyes on my trees at 4:30 in the morning. At the same time, other people in the community are saying that they heard her voice at the front porch.
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That discrepancy, whether Maitreys was seen around 4:30 in the morning or closer to 6:30 30 in the morning could be significant. Hampton believes it should have been investigated more seriously. Pam also underscored the results of her brother's polygraphs. She recalled that the examiner was actually blown away, saying her brother had scored a plus 10, something she insisted nobody gets both. Hampton and Pam agreed that Forsberg was not the clear cut suspect some wanted him to be. They pointed out that unreliable voices were elevated in the Lost Hills podcast. While other troubling leads like allegations against a park ranger, went unexamined. Their conclusion was Mitrice's case remains open and no single theory should be treated as the answer. Next, the investigation shifts to the very people who were supposed to protect the evidence. Sequestered is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy.
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Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
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Honestly, Will, I didn't plan any trips, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new Family Freedom offer.
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E
That's not the itinerary we're following.
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Well, I'm departing from ATT and embarking on a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
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Bon voyage.
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Or cancel contact T Mobile.
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If you want to understand why so many people question how Mitrice's case was handled, you would have to look at the people who were there when her remains were found. On August 9, 2010, when park rangers stumbled upon skeletal remains deep in Dark Canyon, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ordered detectives on scene not to move the body. That order came directly from Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter. But according to the Malibu Daily News, that's not what happened. Within hours, Detective Dan McEldery and Detective Kevin Acevedo had moved Mitrice's naked, partially mummified remains against those explicit instructions, a move that violated California law and shattered the very protocols that were put in place to preserve evidence. For Dr. Rhonda Hampton, who's been advocating for Mitrice since the day she vanished, it was a decision that changed everything. In a formal complaint, Hampton wrote that.
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The removal, quote, so severely compromised a potential crime scene that the coroner was unable to perform critical analysis at the site.
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Photos weren't properly taken, samples weren't collected, and the cause and manner of death have been marked as inconclusive.
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Very strange actions. On the day Mitrice's remains were found, and given the condition of her remains that they were partially mummified, it's like, why would he take the chance of removing her remains the way they did? You know, if there was nothing to cover up, then by all means wait for the corners to get there. And. And just like now, you got yourself a real serious case on your hands, right? But to do it the way they.
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So you would think, you would think so he you. This is at this time a very high profile case, right? You're one of the homicide detectives involved in this case. You have naked skeletal remains in a remote area not too far from where she Was last seen, and now you have potentially, you know, her remains. I'm thinking as a homicide detective now, this is your job. This is what you do. This is what you do. Well, this is so why. He should have been happy at that.
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Point that he had something other than a missing persons case. Not that that was the. But that's his job. Like, that's what he wants. He wants a situation like this. Okay, you got a situation like this. What. Give.
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Why you're trying to mess it up.
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Okay.
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Jesus. And he has the opportunity. He or they. I mean, we're talking about him right now. So, you know, you have the opportunity to do your job, to do your job well, to rectify some of the chaos that has been going on in this case from the very beginning. You have the opportunity to do that, and you choose not to. Not to. You choose to remove her body. Placing her body in the body bag, placing her clothing that was not on her, that it was downstream a bit, placing her clothing inside the body bag. And not only that, there was hair that was kind of throughout the little creek bed. Taking that hair, which you can't verify that it was hers at that point because it wasn't on her head, and putting that in the body bag, Zipping that body bag up and sending it off.
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Something is so wrong with all of that.
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And this wasn't just hindsight. Back In November of 2010, Ed Winter himself told the Los Angeles Times he was, quote, very clear that deputies were not to remove the remains and that he could not recall another case where law enforcement ignored coroner authorization. He warned that state law may have been violated. Winter said he was shocked to learn the skeleton had been taken to a sheriff's station within minutes of his directive. Sheriff's homicide Captain Dave Smith defended the decision, saying poor radio reception had prevented Winter's orders from reaching the team in the canyon and that animals might have disturbed the remains if they were left overnight. But According to a KCAL news report from November 7, 2010, deputies later struggled to relocate the site, and additional bones weren't recovered until two weeks later. In July 2011, Mitrice's body was exhumed so additional bones could finally be placed in her casket. Around that time, her mother, Latice Sutton, filed a second lawsuit against Los Angeles County. According to nbcla, the suit laid out the coroner's ignored directives, the improper removal of her daughter's remains, and even the shocking discovery her family had already made. When sheriff Lee Baca walked them back to the recovery site for Latice Those details weren't new, but by putting them on record, she was making something clear. Not only had the remains been mishandled, but but the family may have been misled about what really happened in that canyon. Hampton's complain didn't stop there. She pointed to new court findings in an entirely different case, one that had nothing to do with Mitrice, but everything to do with the detective who moved her remains. In November 2023, a man named Miguel Solorio was exonerated after spending more than two decades in prison for. For a murder he didn't commit. As the Malibu Times reported In April of 2024, journalist Judy Abel uncovered that Salorio's wrongful conviction hinged in part on false testimony given by Detective McEldery. The prosecution never corrected it, the defense never challenged it, and Salorio lost 23 years of his life because of it. Dr. Hampton says that discovery, along with a prior complaint from another man, Miguel Gutierrez, who also accused McEldery of misconduct, should make every case he touched worth a second look, including Mitrice's. In her words, quote, it should not.
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Be the case that Detective McEldery gets to walk away free and clear. While the department is aware of his actions, there should be great concern for any case that he has investigated during his tenure with the lasd.
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These weren't just procedural missteps. They were wounds that never healed from Mitrice's parents, each one deepening the sense that their daughter's life and her death had not been treated with dignity. At a civil rights town hall in Los Angeles, months after her remains were recovered, Mitrice's father, Michael Richardson, stood before the community and voiced the pain, the outrage, and the unanswered questions that hung haunted his family. Here's that coverage from NBC la.
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Last September, park rangers found Mitrice Richardson's remains in Malibu Canyon 11 months after she disappeared following a misdemeanor arrest and released from jail. In Malibu tonight, a concerned crowd filled a civil rights meeting about her unresolved death investigation. Front and center was Mitrice's father. If I have to stand out there and beat a snare drum and expose my unphysique body to get attention to this case, that's what I'm going to do. This man's daughter is sitting in a grave because somebody in the police department did not do their job. And so LA County Sheriff Lee Baca explained why his deputies released the possibly bipolar Richardson without a car or cell phone after midnight almost a year ago. There was no indication, from the reports that we've reviewed that she was inebriated or performing as an individual that needed some additional assistance psychologically. Even the removal of Richardson's remains is drawing scrutiny now. Bottom line, Mitrice Richardson, who could have been anyone's daughter here tonight, has not been forgotten. When we talk about we laid Mitrice to rest, I hate to say this, my daughter is not resting.
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The room is restless. The anger is palpable. This wasn't just about Mitrice. It was about trust in a system that was supposed to protect. And for Michael Richardson, it was about a father demanding the truth for his daughter. And that pattern wasn't lost on Dr. Rhonda Hampton. In 2015, she took her fight higher, submitting a formal complaint to then California Attorney General Kamala Harris asking her office to investigate potential misconduct by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department. Over 500 pages of evidence were submitted. Witness statements, missing records, police violations. Six weeks later, Harris office responded no action would be taken. The letter read, the records you provided.
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Do not create a reasonable inference that.
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The actions of the LASD violated the law.
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Hampton was stunned. How could 500 pages be reviewed that quickly? Was this a real investigation or just political damage control? For some context? At the time, Harris had endorsed she Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who was leading the department during the period in question. And as she was Preparing for her U.S. senate run, Public scrutiny started mounting. Local news outlets began asking questions. Community backlash grew. And suddenly her office reversed course. Kamala Harris agreed to reopen the case. But nearly a year later, after Harris won her Senate seat, her office quietly closed the case again. It was the same conclusion. No wrongdoing, no accountability. To some, it felt like betrayal. To others, it was confirmation that the system would protect itself no matter who was in power. Stay with us. When we return, we'll go back to the canyon and to the questions that that have never gone away.
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E
Let's map out this week's amazing destinations and travel tips.
- [23:55]
F
Honestly, Will, I didn't plan any trips, but I did switch to T Mobile with their new Family Freedom offer.
- [24:03]
E
That's not the itinerary we're following.
- [24:06]
F
Well, I'm departing from AT&T and embarking on a new journey with T Mobile. They paid off my family's four phones up to $3200 and gave us four new phones on the house.
- [24:19]
E
Bon voyage.
- [24:21]
A
Introducing Family Freedom. Our lowest cost will switch our biggest family savings all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com familyfreedom up to $800.
- [24:35]
B
Per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone 16128 gigabyte $829.99 elig iPhone 11 pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel.
- [24:46]
A
Contact T Mobile.
- [24:53]
C
In November 2024, nearly 15 years after Mitrice Richardson vanished, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors increased the reward for information to $25,000, hoping to draw out someone still holding a piece of the truth. For Latice Sutton and Michael Richardson, the dollar amount doesn't matter. It's still all about truth and accountability. Mitrice vanished after being released in the middle of the night without her phone, wallet or car. Eleven months later, her remains were found in a remote canyon in an area where locals reported hearing screams. The official cause of death was inconclusive. No foul play was determined and no charges were ever filed. But those decisions, from her release to the movement of her body, were made by people in positions of power, people like Detective Dan McEldery. And when one of those people is later found to have lied in a separate murder trial, sending an innocent man to prison for decades, it shakes the foundation of the entire case. For Dr. Rhonda Hampton, the fight has always been about more than my trace. It's about every missing person of color whose case doesn't make headlines. To ask a family to accept, quote, no, foul play isn't right. Fifteen years later, these questions remain. Why was my Treece released in the dead of night? Why was her body moved against the coroner's orders? Why were leads allowed to go cold? And what else has never been revealed? Until those questions are answered, Mitrice Richardson's case will remain more than an unsolved mystery. It will remain a test of who is worth protecting and who is left to disappear. If you have any information in the Mitrice Richardson case, please contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. Or you can reach out to Dr. Rhonda Hampton directly at drrondahamptonahoo.com we'll put her information in the show notes for you. Thank you for joining us for season two of Sequestered. This season has been about the families who keep asking questions, the advocates who refuse to give up, and the victims whose voices still matter. Mitrice Richardson deserves answers and so do so many others. If her story or the stories of Teneta Carlisle, Brandy Hall, Tara Calico, Suzanne Morphew, or Zeb Quinn moved you please share this season with with someone because the more people who know their names, the harder it becomes for those stories to be forgotten. We have some exciting new things ahead, so make sure you're subscribed and please take a moment to leave a review for this season. You can also visit our website to see photos and videos connected to each case@sequesteredpod.com I'm Sarah Reed. Thanks for listening, Sam.