2. Mitrice Richardson
Sometimes, a mundane death is made much more suspicious due to the behavior of the deceased before they met their end. Such is the case with Mitrice Richardson, who was found dead in a ravine in the Santa Monica Mountains, in an area well-known for clandestine marijuana-growers, after going missing a year earlier upon being released from a Malibu police station. Mitrice likely died of exposure, perhaps after falling in the mountains. But why she was there, and her mental state when she went missing in the first place is far more suspicious.
In September 2009, Mitrice – a college-educated, working woman – took a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway from Long Beach, North to Malibu. A scenic, gorgeous drive, it was a perfectly normal road to drive along for people just wishing to take in the beautiful Oceanside scenery. Upon her arrival in Malibu, Mitrice decided to stop at an upscale, famous restaurant named Geoffrey’s. Then, things got strange.
In the parking lot outside of the restaurant, Mitrice exited her car and waited for the valet, but by the time he was ready to park her car, he found her seated in his vehicle, which was nearby with the door open. The valet asked Mitrice what she was doing in his car. “It’s subliminal,” she said and muttered about avenging the death of Michael Jackson. Her behavior only escalated in weirdness. She asked the valet if “Vanessa” was at the restaurant, and to keep an eye out for a girl with tattooed arms. The valet knew no such woman.
Once inside, Mitrice sat down alone and ordered an expensive, foofy drink and a Kobe steak. Soon, however, Mitrice seated herself at a table with a large party she did not know and tried to join the conversation, speaking unintelligibly about astrological signs. Mitrice went back and forth between her table and the strangers’ table, speaking nonsense for quite some time. After her newfound “friends” finished dinner and left, Mitrice tried to walk out without paying.
The manager caught her and asked if she planned on paying, to which she replied that she was “busted” and giggled. Mitrice’s bizarre behavior continued, telling the manager that she was from Mars and would pay for her bill in sexual favors. Eventually, the manager called the police stating that “We have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill, she sounds really crazy…. She may be on drugs or something.”
Mitrice was eventually taken to jail after Police arrived and found empty booze bottles and marijuana in her car. She was booked, at which point police spoke to her grandmother, with whom she was close. Despite her grandmother’s protests to keep her overnight, Mitrice was released from the Malibu substation, several miles from her car. Mitrice was sighted walking alongside the road, and then again later, several miles away, by a resident who said a black woman matching Mitrice’s description was peering through windows in his backyard.
The next time anyone saw Mitrice was when her body was recovered nearly a year later. Whether she was met with foul play, and what caused her erratic behavior, remains incredibly mysterious.