FBI will examine Mitrice Richardson's remains

The remains of Mitrice Richardson will be exhumed by the FBI in hopes for more info. Last year, her body was found in the Malibu Canyon area.

Here's more:

The remains of Mitrice Richardson, the woman who disappeared after being released from the Lost Hills/Malibu sheriff’s station and was found dead nearly a year later, will be exhumed and sent to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., for further examination, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

Clothing that was found near her remains — and assumed to be hers — as well as a hank of hair discovered near her will also be sent for investigation.


“I am responding to the family’s wishes,” Baca said in a phone interview.


He said he called the FBI’s assistant director here in L.A. in late December to request the agency’s involvement.


“But I also think it doesn’t hurt having the FBI say, ‘We’ve examined this and find the following,’" Baca said. "I think the needs of the family should be my first priority.”


The Sheriff’s Department has been dogged by criticism ever since Richardson disappeared after walking out of the Lost Hills sheriff’s station in Calabasas shortly after midnight on Sept. 17, 2009. She had been arrested for not paying a dinner bill at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu. Her car had been impounded that night and in it were her cellphone and purse.


Her skeletal remains were found last August in a remote area of the rugged Malibu Canyon area just south of the station.


The department, which faces two negligence lawsuits in this matter, was found to have correctly followed its policy that early morning.


“Certainly you have to think twice about everything you do in this business we’re in,” said Baca, who has met several times with Richardson’s family members since she went missing. “The most important thing is that Mitrice was offered the opportunity to stay [at the station] until it was a safer period of time for her to leave. I don’t know if there’s a policy that can stop a free person from leaving a jail facility which she had a right to do as an adult.”

Mitrice was an out lesbian, and loved by family and friends. I hope they find the answers for the family's sake.

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