WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:11.039 You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking 2 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.160 killers in true crime history and the authors that have 3 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:21.839 written about them Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker VTK Every week, 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.800 another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous 5 00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:29.879 killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, 6 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:32.759 journalist and author Dan Zufanski. 7 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:40.640 Good Evening. 8 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:45.479 It's a case that has stump generations of detectives and 9 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:51.759 Internet sleuths. On September sixteenth, two thousand and nine, twenty 10 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:56.240 four year old Matrise Richardson was arrested at an Oceanside 11 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:01.079 Malibu restaurant and taken to Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff's station 12 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.920 with no money, no phone, and no ride, and in 13 00:01:05.959 --> 00:01:08.959 the midst of what was later described by law enforcement 14 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:13.799 as a severe bipolar episode. Richardson was released by the 15 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.640 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department just after midnight and disappeared 16 00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:24.799 into the night. Her whereabouts confounded authorities for nearly a 17 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:30.319 year until her skeletonized and partially mummified remains were found 18 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:36.079 on August ninth, twenty ten, up Rugged Dark Canyon, some 19 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.799 six miles away from the station. There was no sign 20 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:43.319 of trauma to Matrise's remains, and the coroner could not 21 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:49.519 determine the cause of death, but Matrese's death was undoubtedly suspicious. 22 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:54.159 Her bra belt and jeanes were found some distance from 23 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:57.799 her body. The rest of her clothing was never found, 24 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:02.680 and investigators never recovered a tiny bone called the hyoid, 25 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:08.560 which often breaks when a person is strangled. A tenacious 26 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:13.560 reporter and gifted storyteller, Dana Goodyear spent the past five 27 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:17.560 years on the case, leading her and her co reporter 28 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:22.039 Hailey Fox to the secluded, tight knit mountain community of 29 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:28.240 Montonito where Matrese was last seen. Driven by conversations with 30 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:33.000 Richardson's grieving friends and family, and undeterred by the scant 31 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:35.960 clues that have been picked through by dozens of previous 32 00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:42.080 investigations lost Hills, dark Canyon probes where others have not, 33 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:49.439 including Richardson's never before seen personal journals, new eyewitness interviews, 34 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:56.479 and new potential forensic evidence. In twelve gripping episodes, Goodyear 35 00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:01.719 painstakingly builds a case that Matrise's death involved foul play, 36 00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:08.280 and she identifies a potential suspect. The true crime podcast 37 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:12.520 that we were featuring this evening is Lost Hills Dark 38 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:18.680 Canyon Season four with my special guest journalist, author, writer, 39 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:24.120 and host of the Lost Hills podcast, Dana Goodyear. Welcome 40 00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:26.840 to the program, and thank you very much for this interview. 41 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:28.240 Dana Goodyear. 42 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:31.439 Thank you so much for your interest in for having 43 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:31.800 me on. 44 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:37.199 Thank you so much. Now, before I have you, take 45 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:41.000 us back to September sixteenth, two thousand and nine and 46 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:45.360 Matrese Richardson and Jeoffrey's restaurant and why police were called 47 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.000 in the first place. Tell us how and why you 48 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:52.240 came to be involved with this case and this story. 49 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:59.599 Well, I heard about my Teresa's disappearance when it happened. 50 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.800 I was living in Los Angeles, and I read about 51 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:07.000 it with horror and just kind of bafflement. Like so 52 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:11.719 many other people, I did not imagine that her story 53 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:14.039 would come to consume my life in the way that 54 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:16.800 it did many many years later. At the time, I 55 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.839 was writing for The New Yorker full time, and I 56 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:23.639 was writing poetry, and I had deep interest in crime 57 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:26.399 stories and true crime stories, but I hadn't yet become 58 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:30.040 a teller of them, and I don't think podcasts existed. 59 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:34.000 So the way that I got involved with my Teresa's 60 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:39.519 story is that in twenty eighteen, I started investigating a 61 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:43.560 story in Malibu, a horrible story of a young father 62 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:45.879 who was camping with his two year old and four 63 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:49.439 year old daughters in Malibu Creek State Park and he 64 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:53.439 was inexplicably shot in the head at four in the morning, 65 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:58.360 and there were no suspects initially, and there was a 66 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:04.000 great outcry in Malibui, and it was obviously a terrible tragedy. 67 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.879 And as I began to learn more about that story 68 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:10.519 and report it out and learn that there had been 69 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:13.839 many incidents of shootings that had been happening in and 70 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:17.560 around that campground and in Malibu Canyon, which runs alongside 71 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:20.279 one side of the campground, that hadn't been reported to 72 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:24.279 the public, I started hearing from people in the community 73 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:27.240 that they've thought there could be a connection to my 74 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:32.319 Teres Richardson because her case, her disappearance in two thousand 75 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:35.000 and nine and the discovery of her remains in twenty ten, 76 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:39.639 had left people very unsatisfied. They had no answers as 77 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:42.560 to what had really happened to her, and the story 78 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:47.160 that law enforcement put out there also really didn't make sense. 79 00:05:47.279 --> 00:05:49.399 In the same way that there were many problems with 80 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:52.480 the story of the shooting in Malibu Creek State Park, 81 00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:55.319 so people started to wonder, you know, could the same 82 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:59.680 person who killed this father in the campground, Tristan Boudett, 83 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:03.560 have harmed you or she have harmed my Trees? And 84 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:05.639 that did not turn out to be the case, as 85 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:10.360 my reporting would show. But that was initially how I 86 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:13.360 started reporting on my Trees. I was really reporting on 87 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:17.600 a different murder, and everywhere I went people wanted to 88 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:21.639 talk about my race Richardson. So it took years of 89 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:25.920 developing sources in Malibu to feel that I could do 90 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:28.360 justice to her story and bring something new to her 91 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:32.079 story because it's been told many times before. But there's 92 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:34.439 a kind of built in limitation to a lot of 93 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:39.720 the other reporting, which is that they just couldn't progress 94 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:43.199 beyond what the law enforcement had said, even though that 95 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:48.480 clearly was unsatisfactory. And I just got extremely lucky in 96 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:53.879 being able to with my reporting partner, who was also 97 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.560 a senior producer on the show, Hayley Fox, unpeel some 98 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:00.839 of those layers and go with the story. 99 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:04.920 For those that don't know this story, can you give 100 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.120 us the basic outline of that September sixteen, two thousand 101 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:13.360 and nine, and Matrise Richardson is at a high end 102 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:18.160 or better lack of term, the celebrity type restaurant. Tell 103 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:19.399 us what happens. 104 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:25.519 Yeah, So, Jeoffrey's of Malibu is this kind of celebrity 105 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:30.639 clubhouse type of place on Pacific Coast Highway. It's very beautiful. 106 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:34.639 There are you know, those kind of fairy lights hanging 107 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:37.639 from the trees. It's very lush. There's plants everywhere. You're 108 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:40.199 sort of hanging off the side of the cliff overlooking 109 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:43.920 the Pacific Ocean, and it's a very romantic spot and 110 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:49.040 it's been around forever and it has this devoted clientele 111 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.639 of locals and some of them celebrities and tourists. And 112 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:56.720 nobody really knows why my trees showed up there that night, 113 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:01.519 but she did. And she wasn't from Malibu. She loved 114 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:03.680 the ocean and she loved to drive by the ocean. 115 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:06.920 So some people in her the circle of her friends 116 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:09.920 and family, speculated that maybe she was just taking a 117 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.160 drive by the ocean. And she told law enforcement later 118 00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:16.120 that night that she responded to those lights that she 119 00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:20.399 saw outside the restaurant, and so she pulled in and 120 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:25.720 my trace was twenty four years old, very beautiful, very charming, 121 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:30.439 very delightful human being from everything I've ever heard about her, 122 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:35.240 a black woman who was a recent graduate of cal 123 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.919 State Fullerton and was on her way to She was 124 00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:43.320 in the process of applying to graduate school for clinical psychology, 125 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:47.639 so she wanted to become a psychologist. And she showed 126 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:51.679 up at Jeffreys and she was by herself, and she 127 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:55.200 was acting strange, but not in a threatening way at all. 128 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.279 She went and sat down with a large party of people, 129 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:02.559 was chatting with them and saying some kind of a 130 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:05.159 little bit off the wall things that they didn't really understand, 131 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:07.759 but they didn't mind her sitting there because she was 132 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:13.799 pretty entertaining. And then she ordered dinner and ended up 133 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:18.799 leaving the restaurant without paying her bill. So the staffit 134 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:22.879 Jeoffrey's called basically called nine one one, saying we don't 135 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:25.039 really know what to do. We're a little concerned about her. 136 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:27.639 We don't know she's been saying some strange things and 137 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:29.919 acting a little strange, and we don't know if she's okay. 138 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:34.799 So can you help us out? And so deputies from 139 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:38.360 Lost Hill Station, which is the Los Angeles County Sheriff's 140 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:43.120 Department's station that's out there and covers Malibu and Calabasas 141 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:49.120 and some other communities. Those deputies responded and they decided 142 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:52.159 to give her a field sobriety test, and she passed. 143 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:55.039 She wasn't drunk. It turned out they did find some 144 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:59.200 marijuana in her car, which at that point was illegal. 145 00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:02.120 Was less than announce but it was not legal at 146 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:05.120 that point. That's a misdemeanor at that point. And then 147 00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:08.600 they just felt like something was off about her and 148 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.080 they said to the again to the Jeoffrey staff, you know, 149 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:17.759 if you want us to take her with us, we 150 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.679 have to execute a citizens arrest for you. And so 151 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:25.000 they did that, and so she was charged with the 152 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:30.200 marijuana misdemeanor, but also with another misdemeanor, which was quote 153 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.799 unquote defrauding an innkeeper for the failure to pay the bill. 154 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:38.000 And they took her to Lost Hills station, which is 155 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:42.240 pretty far distance actually from Jeoffrey's. So you have to 156 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:45.480 drive all the way through Malibu Canyon and over basically 157 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.919 to where the one O one Highway is for Californians. 158 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:53.399 So I want to let you jump in if you 159 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:56.039 have more questions and I can tell you next what 160 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:57.960 happened when she was at the station. 161 00:11:00.039 --> 00:11:02.919 Let's find out what happens at the station. But we 162 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:08.159 skipped over that. The restaurant really just wants this bill 163 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:13.639 to be paid, and so Matrise contacts someone about that 164 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:14.480 bill that night. 165 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:21.440 Well, she did try calling her great grandmother, who she 166 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.200 sort of on in love she lived with. You know, 167 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:27.039 she technically lived with her great grandmother at that point, 168 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:29.559 but she was kind of a free spirit who had 169 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:31.399 a lot of friends and a lot of girlfriends. She 170 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.240 was gay, and she would sleep in different places and 171 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:36.639 she was actually, it turned out, sleeping in her car 172 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:38.919 a lot at that point too. But they called her 173 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:42.919 great grandmother and said, you know, can you come out 174 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.279 and pay her bill? And her great grandmother was ninety 175 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:48.679 one years old and said, I can't come to Balibu 176 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:52.080 and they wouldn't accept They had a policy apparently of 177 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:55.600 not accepting a credit card over the phone, and they 178 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:57.519 said she would have to fax it, and she didn't 179 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:59.879 have a fax machine. So there were a lot of 180 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:05.600 to resolving the issue, you know. According to my Teresa's dad, 181 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:09.759 one of the most painful ironies of this moment is 182 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:14.840 that he later discovered that not only was her wallet 183 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:17.840 in her car, but he said there was a bank 184 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:20.519 card linked to an account with thousands of dollars in it. 185 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:23.639 So it wasn't that she couldn't pay, It's just that, well, 186 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.320 she didn't have the presence of mind right then to 187 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:33.600 be able to execute that payment, and so they took 188 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.200 it to the station. 189 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:37.559 Now they take her to the station, tell us about 190 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:42.000 the phone call with her mother and police. 191 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:47.600 So during the time while deputies were talking to various 192 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.039 people at the restaurant and doing the field so varriety 193 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:53.759 test and searching my Teresa's car, the conversation among her 194 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:59.080 family members was happening, and so her mother found out 195 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.679 that she had been I was on her way to 196 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.519 the station, and while she was in transit, she had 197 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:08.360 a conversation with the deputy who answered the phone at 198 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:13.559 Lost Hill station about saying basically, look, if you're gonna 199 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.879 keep her overnight, I won't come out there. She lived 200 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:20.039 about an hour away and she had a ten or 201 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.600 eleven year old daughter at home, my Terce's little half sister. 202 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:28.559 I'd really rather just come in the morning. If you're 203 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:30.360 going to keep her all night, I don't need to 204 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:32.440 go out there and sit there in the lobby waiting 205 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:34.360 for her to be released. But if you're going to 206 00:13:34.440 --> 00:13:36.440 release her, i'd love you know, I don't want her 207 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:38.840 wandering around. She doesn't know the area and she doesn't 208 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:42.000 have friends out there, and she I'm paraphrasing, but that 209 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:44.639 could be dangerous. And she actually said something that's so 210 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:47.879 haunting to hear. She said, I'd hate to wake up 211 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:51.519 in the morning and hear the report girl found somewhere 212 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:52.720 with her head chopped off. 213 00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:53.360 Wow. 214 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:57.399 And the deputy reassured her, you know, no, no, you know, 215 00:13:57.879 --> 00:14:01.480 she'll be fine, She'll be safe here. And then in 216 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:04.720 the event that she was taken to the station, she 217 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.080 was given all the live scan, background check, checked for 218 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:11.639 outstanding warrants, all the things that happened when you were 219 00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:16.639 hard booked. And then at a little past midnight, she 220 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:19.039 was told by the jailer that she was free to go. 221 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:24.919 And that is technically, you know, the legal obligation of 222 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:28.559 law enforcement. You know, otherwise there could have been a 223 00:14:28.600 --> 00:14:33.240 claim of over detention. But it's very unfortunate that someone 224 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:35.519 there at this very small station where there were not 225 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:38.799 very many other people in custody, that night didn't think 226 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:41.679 to call her mother back and say, actually, we are 227 00:14:41.720 --> 00:14:45.679 going to release her. So the other thing that happened 228 00:14:45.799 --> 00:14:51.799 was that my Teresa's phone had been impounded in her car, 229 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:55.159 which was all the way back near Pacific Coast Highway, 230 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.960 you know, about twelve miles from the station, and she 231 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:03.440 had no ride, so she didn't have money to pay 232 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:06.279 for a cab, she didn't have a phone to call 233 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:11.440 a friend or to be tracked by anyone, and she 234 00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:14.840 left the station. She left Lost Hill Station around twelve 235 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:20.480 twenty five am, and nobody knows how she got from 236 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:22.799 there to where she was next scene at six point 237 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:27.000 thirty approximately the next morning. But that six thirty am 238 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.279 citing the next morning was for a long time the 239 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.720 kind of the last known sighting of her. 240 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.600 Her mother calls back at you, say, after five am, 241 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:40.080 expecting that she thought she had some agreement with the 242 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:43.639 police in that they would keep her in custody till 243 00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:47.360 she got there in the morning. So incredibly, in this 244 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:51.879 podcast you have the interview, the conversation with the police 245 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.759 again and then later the missing trying to file a 246 00:15:56.799 --> 00:15:59.480 missing person's report on behalf of her daughter. 247 00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:02.759 Incredible, Well, lucky for US. A lot of these calls 248 00:16:02.759 --> 00:16:05.519 were published on the internet because there was so much 249 00:16:05.559 --> 00:16:10.440 outrage nationwide, but especially in California. I would think about 250 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:14.440 how she was released and whether this was a safe 251 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:18.559 for ethical, forget legal. It was a legal release, but 252 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:21.399 was it the right thing to do? I don't think 253 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:25.320 anyone would argue that. At this point, my Teresa's mother, 254 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:29.279 Latis Sutton, finds out that her daughter has been released, 255 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:36.240 and she's she's terrified. And then, as it happened, the 256 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:39.799 place where my Terce was seen at six point thirty 257 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:44.039 in the morning is this small community of Montanito, which 258 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:49.000 is kind of halfway back to approximately where my Teresa's 259 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:51.320 car was, so you could sort of imagine maybe she 260 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:55.480 was maybe she walked back there, or maybe someone gave 261 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:57.720 her a ride, somebody who's never come forward. We really 262 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.679 don't know how she got to Montanito. She had six 263 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:04.759 hours to walk about six miles, so it is possible, 264 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:07.839 of course, that she did it on foot, but her 265 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:10.480 mother felt that that was very unlikely, just given her 266 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:15.599 her general habits. I guess should we say now what 267 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:21.599 was becoming a parent to people in her in law 268 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:24.720 enforcement and her family were starting to talk about the 269 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:29.319 fact that my Truce was not well mentally and she 270 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:33.000 had gone to Jeoffrey's in the midst of what would 271 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:38.519 later be described as a bipolar episode. But she had 272 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:43.680 a not very well documented history of mental illness, and 273 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:48.000 she herself was concerned about her own mental well being. 274 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:51.880 But there was a big effort on part of the 275 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:57.880 Sheriff's department initially to downplay any indications that my Trece 276 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:02.119 was mentally ill at the time, because that would have 277 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.359 put their decision to release her in such a fashion 278 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:07.960 and even worse a worse light, and that could have 279 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:12.400 been illegal potentially, I think. So they chose not to 280 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:16.079 put her on a psychiatric hold. So they were then 281 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:18.839 sort of at pains to say, oh, no, she was. 282 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:21.559 She seemed really fine, you know, there was nothing wrong 283 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:25.160 with her. But it did come out that she was 284 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:27.759 not fine at all, and she had not slept or 285 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:31.799 eaten really for days leading up to this episode at Jeffrey's, 286 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:37.279 and her odd conversations that she was having were kind 287 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:40.319 of part of this breakdown that she was in the 288 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:43.920 in the middle of. But in any case, so my 289 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:48.240 Trees could potentially have walked to Montanito and she was 290 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:51.359 seen in a backyard there around six point thirty in 291 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:54.759 the morning, and the owners of the home where she 292 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:59.640 was actually called law enforcement. They called the sheriff's department 293 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:05.079 and they said, there's a prowler. And so when my 294 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:07.559 Teresa's mother called the station back and learned that her 295 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:12.200 daughter was no longer there, somebody figured out, oh, wait 296 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.519 a minute, we got a report of someone who sort 297 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:18.880 of sounds like the description of my teres Richardson. And 298 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.279 they told her, They told Latis, oh, your your daughter go, 299 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:26.039 you know, we think she's a Montanito. She's over there, 300 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:29.319 probably with some friends or something like that. And so 301 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:34.880 that seemed absolutely unbelievable to Latisse Sutton, my Teresa's mother. 302 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.480 She did not have friends in Montanito. But that's basically 303 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:42.279 you know. Her next move was to file a missing 304 00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:46.119 person's report and try to start putting some pressure on 305 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:48.519 law enforcement to find her daughter. 306 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:53.519 La Teresus has an opportunity to stop to hear these messages. 307 00:19:54.759 --> 00:19:58.880 Now you were talking about Latis putting some pressure on 308 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:01.680 police to find out out more about the disappearance of 309 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:04.799 her daughter. Tell us how she does that. 310 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:10.640 So she actually had to go to LAPD because my 311 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:13.160 Race was a resident of the city of la And 312 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:16.279 that's how missing person's cases are conducted. They're conducted by 313 00:20:16.359 --> 00:20:21.319 the law enforcement agency in the area where the missing 314 00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:29.160 person lives. So LAPD collaborated with the Sheriff's department because 315 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:34.480 they didn't really know much about rural Malibu and this area. 316 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:39.200 You've got a picture. This is not you know, ocean 317 00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:42.559 front Malibu. This is in the heart of the Santa 318 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:47.599 Monica Mountains. It's incredibly rural. There are mountain lions. Montanito 319 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:50.839 is dark sky community, so there are not even street 320 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:56.240 lights out there, and it's actually really easy to get 321 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:00.720 lost in a place like that. And so the Lost 322 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:04.319 Hi Station has a well known search and rescue group 323 00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:08.480 and they started to conduct the searches. And they went 324 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:12.079 first to that house in Montanito where my Trees had 325 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:18.240 last been seen, and they found her footsteps and going 326 00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:20.720 down into the backyard of the couple who had called 327 00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:25.640 law enforcement saying there was a prowler, and going out 328 00:21:25.640 --> 00:21:29.119 to the front of the house and then the footprints. 329 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:32.759 They couldn't find any other footprints near there, but they 330 00:21:32.839 --> 00:21:37.519 brought in some dogs and the dogs sniffed my Trees's 331 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.039 scent and it led them to the house next door. 332 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:43.880 They searched that house. There was no sign of her there, 333 00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:50.160 and they really didn't know. At first. They were assuming 334 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.720 that they were looking for somebody who was lost, who 335 00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:56.480 might be seeking help, who might be going house to house, 336 00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:00.680 who might be hungry, thirsty, or they didn't didn't really know. 337 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:03.880 But then the information started to come from my Teresa's 338 00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:07.960 family and some of her friends that actually, maybe she 339 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:12.839 wasn't in her right mental state. She was in some 340 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:18.640 kind of elevated state. She was not acting like herself basically. 341 00:22:18.839 --> 00:22:24.200 So eventually law enforcement really started looking for a suicide. 342 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:27.400 They were looking at the bottom of cliffs for thinking 343 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:29.880 maybe she had jumped. They started to really conceive of 344 00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:36.160 this case quite differently as a disappearance due to a suicide. 345 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:44.119 And eleven months passed, and then one day, a group 346 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:49.400 of rangers who were searching for a marijuana grow, because 347 00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:52.319 that's another thing that happens out in these rural Santa 348 00:22:52.359 --> 00:22:56.480 Monica mountains, especially back then, there were some very large 349 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.240 marijuana operations. There were also some smaller, kind of more 350 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:05.480 cottage industry type of operations, but they had these rangers 351 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:09.559 had disrupted a grow a year earlier, before my race 352 00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:11.759 would have been there, and they went back to check 353 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:17.319 whether the people respond operating the grow had started up again, 354 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:23.119 and they found her remains. And what they found was 355 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:27.359 kind of in a sense where my starting point is 356 00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:31.880 as a reporter and Haley Fox and I just talked 357 00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:35.400 endlessly about this scenario that I'm about to describe to you. 358 00:23:36.119 --> 00:23:46.960 So my Terce's remains were skeletonized. There almost a complete skeleton, 359 00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:53.039 but naked. Her jeans and her belt and her bra 360 00:23:53.240 --> 00:23:58.000 were found separate from her body. The belt was off, 361 00:23:58.039 --> 00:24:02.839 the jeans, her shirt, her underwear if she was wearing them, 362 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:11.519 her shoes, those items were never found, and my traces 363 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:16.359 remains were also partially mummified, which led to a lot 364 00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:20.079 of different speculation about, you know, where she had died 365 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:26.599 and what had happened to her. But basically, at that 366 00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:29.799 point it became a coroner's case. 367 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:30.039 And. 368 00:24:31.720 --> 00:24:34.720 It turns into I said that there's a lot of 369 00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:38.240 you know, different agencies involved, and a lot of kind 370 00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:41.920 of overlaps. So at that point it becomes a Sheriff's 371 00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:45.319 department homicide case because now the body has been found 372 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:49.039 and it's in the Sheriff's department's jurisdiction and a corner case, 373 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:51.680 and there's a big dispute between the corner and the 374 00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:53.839 sheriff's department, which I can get into if you're interested. 375 00:24:54.359 --> 00:25:00.039 But the bottom line was we talked to the a 376 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:04.960 forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy and she said there 377 00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:09.799 was no evidence of trauma on the bones, so they 378 00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:13.200 could not classify this as a homicide. It was an 379 00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:19.119 undetermined cause of death. It was not obviously it wasn't. 380 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:21.799 There was nothing to indicate a suicide. There was nothing 381 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.720 to prove that it was a natural cause. That there 382 00:25:24.759 --> 00:25:28.119 are natural causes. There was not enough soft tissue to 383 00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:31.799 do any kind of rape kit or sexual assault assessment. 384 00:25:32.359 --> 00:25:36.759 There was not enough soft tissue to do a thorough toxicology. 385 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:40.400 You know, they really couldn't determine anything. They didn't know 386 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:43.319 if it was an overdose, as suicide, of death from exposure, 387 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:46.640 a death from snake bite, or a homicide. But if 388 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:48.839 it was a homicide, it was one that didn't leave 389 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:53.599 any marks on the remains that were found. And that 390 00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:58.319 was just you know, that was the place that basically 391 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:02.599 the story got left by law enforcement, which is they said, well, 392 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:06.559 everything we've come to learn about her suggests that she 393 00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:10.200 was in the midst of a mental health crisis and 394 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:14.599 wandered up into this canyon and died. And Haley and 395 00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:19.480 I just could not believe that that she had taken 396 00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:23.200 off her own clothes and just sat down and willed 397 00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:25.559 herself to death. And meanwhile, where were the rest of 398 00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:26.079 her clothes? 399 00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:31.200 Now, tell us about the person that you spoke to, 400 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:36.279 the Karen Smith and the person that reported seeing her 401 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:39.720