Mitrice Richardson vanished 15 years ago in Malibu. L.A. County has a new reward in her case

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors reestablished a $20,000 reward Tuesday for information regarding the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson, a 24-year-old woman who disappeared in 2009 after she was released from a Malibu sheriff’s station in the middle of the night and was found dead a year later.

The episode began when Richardson failed to pay an $89 tab at the restaurant Geoffrey’s in Malibu. The Sheriff’s Department was called and Richardson was arrested and taken to the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station.

She was released from custody early in the morning Sept. 17, 2009, without her car. She also did not have her purse or cellphone on her. She was never seen again.

“My hopes are that for the people who live in that community ... maybe they’ll find it in their heart to remember something and bring closure to the family,” said Michael Richardson, Richardson’s father.

Richardson’s mysterious disappearance, which lasted nearly a year, ended in August 2010 when her skeletal remains were discovered in Malibu Canyon. While her death has not been ruled a homicide, her family has insisted in the past that she was a victim of foul play.

Her family pinned blame on the Sheriff’s Department for releasing Richardson into the night despite the fact that she was suffering from a mental health episode, they said.

She had acted bizarrely at the restaurant before her arrest and LAPD investigators subsequently determined that she had probably been suffering from severe bipolar disorder.

One friend said that in the weeks before she disappeared, Richardson had been going around saying she knew Michael Jackson, who was dead, and that she was going to Mars.

When she was at Geoffrey’s restaurant, she also spoke about being from Mars.

Despite her erratic behavior, the sheriff’s deputies at the station had “no legal justification to deprive her of her freedom,” according to a report by the Office of Independent Review.