Associated Press via SF Examiner: FBI asked to examine Calif. woman's remains

by Andrew Dalton

Authorities have asked the FBI to examine the remains of a bipolar California woman found in Malibu Canyon nearly a year after she disappeared when she was released from jail.

The Sheriff's Department plans to exhume the remains of Mitrice Richardson and send them to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va., for examination along with clothing and hair found at the scene, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"The family has requested it, I think it's appropriate," Baca said. "A lot of questions need to be answered."

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the FBI had received the request, and it was under review.

Richardson's family sharply criticized the Sheriff's Department for allowing her to walk away from the station shortly after midnight without her car, cash, cell phone or purse.

The items were in her car, which was towed after she was arrested for investigation of failing to pay an $86 dinner bill at a restaurant.

Richardson's parents have sued the county for wrongful death and negligence.

Richardson's mother Latice Sutton told the Los Angeles Times she was elated by the news the remains would be examined. She had publicly called for the move to determine how her daughter died.

Richardson, 24, vanished after she was freed from the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff's station in Calabasas on Sept. 17, 2009. The woman was held for two hours after being arrested.

In the months after she disappeared, searchers combed 40 square miles in a hunt for the woman, and authorities said there were numerous reports that she had been spotted in Las Vegas.

Her skeleton was finally discovered in August in a remote Malibu Canyon ravine eight miles from the sheriff's station.

The county coroner was unable to determine the cause of her death.

In May, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters asked the Justice Department to investigate the case to determine whether the woman's civil rights were violated.

Baca said he thought it would be better, at this point, to put the case in new hands.

"Rather than confound the matter, in terms of who could do better, we'll just let the FBI handle it," he said.

A report last year by the county's Office of Independent Review concluded that deputies followed department policy and acted prudently. It said the woman refused offers to remain jailed until daybreak or until she could get a ride, and that authorities made substantial efforts to find her in the months after she vanished.

"There's always things that people could do different," Baca said. "The circumstances are almost unbelievable. The circumstances are almost one of a kind. It's our obligation to make sure it never gets repeated again."

Associated Press writer Robert Jablon contributed to this report.