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Can you hear me now? I'm Doctor Laurie Santos, and I'm devoting the new season of my podcast, the Happiness Lab, to topics that are dear to my heart with people dear to my heart, like my mom.

Wait a minute. Let me put the tv on.

I'll be finding out why I personally struggle so badly with perfectionism, stress, and even sitting still and doing nothing. But I feel like I'm bad at boredom.

Because you're bad at boredom?

Yeah. No, I didn't do well with doing nothing. And once I find out why these things affect me so badly, I'm hoping to do something about it. So join me on my journey wherever you get your podcasts. Before we get to this episode, I want to let you know that you can binge the entire season right now, ad free, by becoming a Pushkin plus subscriber. Sign up for Pushkin on the Lost Hills Apple podcast show page or visit Pushkin FM plus now onto the episode. September 16, 2009 the day Maitrice drove to Malibu, her long time off and on girlfriend Desiree Black decided to do something drastic.

That was the day that I had, I mean, finally worked up the courage to try and, like, break it off, call it quits, but definitely was not brave enough to do that in person.

She wrote my Teresa text.

It went something along the lines of, I love you, I care about you, but I don't think that I can do this anymore.

Maitrice had been seeing Tessa on and off during her relationship with Desiree, and now she was head over heels for this new woman, Hannah Parks. Desiree was over it.

I think that it really weighed on me that I had to share. So I text that, and her response was definitely unexpected. Her response was just like, I love you. I totally understand. You're an amazing person. And, like, all of the things that you don't want to hear when you're trying to, like, break it off with somebody, like, those are all of the things that I was getting.

After she sent the text, Desiree, who was still a student at Cal State Fullerton, had to go to track practice, but she thought about maitrice the whole time.

I mean, like, immediately I regretted sending that text. I just didn't know how much I was going to regret it because that day she didn't come home and that was definitely out of the ordinary.

Maitrice still slept over at Desiree's occasionally, and she was expecting her that night at 07:00 p.m. when she got out of practice, she started texting maitrice.

She wasn't responding. And I just assumed that that was my own fault because of the text message that I sent out before I went to practice, which was, we're not doing this anymore. I didn't believe me. I don't think that she believed me either. But that's what I said.

Do you remember making dinner that night and waiting for it?

To be honest, that whole chunk of time in my life is just a blur. Like, it was not a good time for me. And so I did cook dinner, but I can't say for sure, like, what else I was doing besides, like, just kind of wondering where she was at.

At 07:00 p.m. maitrice was nowhere near Desiree's place. She was pulling into Joffrey's, an upscale restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway. Maitrice would later tell the cops she stopped at Joffrey's because she saw the white fairy lights dangling from the trees. She parked in the valet lot. Her car was a beater, a ten year old Honda Civic with a jerry rigged ignition. She told the valet she was there to meet up with Hannah. Hannah with the tattoos. She walked past the hostess station to a table, smiling at everyone. She ordered a steak and an ocean breeze. Within 2 hours, deputies from Lost Hill station would be at the restaurant trying to figure out what to do with this charming young woman who couldn't pay her $89.51 bill. Where had she come from? That was easy. She was from Mars, she said. And what was she doing there? Well, she said sweetly, she was there to avenge the death of Michael Jackson. I'm Dana Goodyear, and this is Lost Hills. Episode three call for help Hannah Parks says my trees had been in a state of full blown psychosis for over a week. She'd lost her grasp on reality.

For one thing, Hannah says she had no plans to meet matrice at Joffrey's. That was all in my treece's head. Maitrice had been writing desperately in her journal about not sleeping, about being trapped in a never ending waking dream. When she got to Joffrey's, she'd been awake for something like five days. Throughout the early morning hours and into the afternoon of September 16, she'd churned out a steady stream of social media posts about her favorite subject, Michael Jackson. Her journals and messages in this episode are being read by an actor and have been lightly edited for clarity. 01:17 a.m. o M g Michael Jackson I was your biggest fan in the world, but you already knew my trees. Rich Erdson it's all in the eyes of a believer slash child. 513 am Mood Mike Jack current mood crazy I'm tired. I'm so tired. See me somebody, please. I'm here. Doesn't anyone hear me? Ghost. 08:47 a.m. princess Diana and Michael Jackson equal Maitrese, America's princess. Long live the king. She went to her job at the freight company owned by Tess's family. She kept posting strange things all day long. With Michael's death, the legend is born that proof is in the numbness mind playing tricks on me.

Ha ha. Forgive such flakes, father. Just ask the believers who are there. 01:34 p.m. two I equals six s's. Michael Jackson's number one fan. I know it. OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG. According to law enforcement documents, while Maitrice was watching a soap opera in the break room at the freight company, she thought that one of the actresses gave her, quote, a message from God telling her to go to Malibu.

So she was acting strange at work. She wasn't, you know, getting her work done because matrice was very efficient at her job.

This is Doctor Rhonda Hampton. She's a psychologist maitrice interned for in college.

It's almost like I saw her, what, four days a week? And we would spend a lot of time together.

She considered herself a mentor to Maitrese.

So, I mean, a lot of our relationship was definitely about the work, but it was also about her future.

My Triese was Doctor Hampton's intern in 2007 and 2008. And during that time, Doctor Hampton began to notice a change in my treece.

It's just that her symptoms were really subtle. You know, it wasn't anything that was bizarre. A couple times she would come in very disheveled or very angry sometimes, and I started to notice like a cyclical pattern to that. And it was almost like clockwork. I can tell, like every six to seven weeks, something's going to happen. You're going to look not right, she.

Urged Maitrese to get a psychiatric evaluation. This would have been at least a year before Hannah was urging her to do the same thing.

We talked about, specifically about bipolar disorder and about the treatment for that. And, I mean, she was very open to hearing that. And I know that she got evaluated, and I know that she went to the school counseling center at least on two occasions.

Over time, Maitrice's condition grew noticeably worse. But no one except Hannah seemed to really comprehend just how bad things had gotten. Maitrice's mother, Lettice, was preoccupied with marital problems, although they later got back together. In 2009, she and her husband Larry were in the midst of a painful divorce, and she had Mia, her young daughter, with Larry to worry about. On the day of her disappearance, Maitrice sent her mother some really confusing texts, which lettice included in her memoir. 12:48 a.m. i told you I would take care of everything. Mommy, I love you. 03:04 a.m. did you know my name means behind every man is a strong woman? What have you taken care of? Latisse replied when she woke up, Maitrice, I'm not understanding. After Maitrice left work, she didn't go straight to Malibu. She headed to Cal State Fullerton. She was looking for one of her old psychology professors, someone she may have recently confided in about her mental problems.

That professor was not in the office at the time. Like, I think she may have been teaching a class. And so when Maitrice went in there, they said, she's not going to be here for a few hours. And apparently, from what I hear is my trees sat there and waited for the to come. So for whatever amount of time.

When the professor returned to her office, she found Maitrice in an elevated state, talking excitedly about publishing her journals as a book. Recognizing something was wrong, the professor tried to find someone to help Maitrice.

And so that professor actually walked Maitrice to another professor who was a clinical psychologist, walked her to that psychologist office, and Maitrice was apparently not happy with that. And so Maitrice at that point said, well, I gotta go. I'm gonna go hang out with my friends. And so she ran off.

After Maitrice left campus, she stopped by her aunt's house, where she left some flyers advertising her go go dancing. Then she set out for Malibu.

She did say the beach was calling her, so that was one of the things that she had said earlier in that day. I could see her driving out to the beach. She was familiar with Pepperdine because she was considering going there for grad school. I can't say whether she had ever eaten at Joffrey's before. I don't know. But I do know that she was familiar enough with how to get to Malibu and the beach.

In her journals, Maitrese wrote about the ocean as a place of healing, a place of calm. She was in pain, and she thought Malibu would help.

With NFL news happening around the clock, you'll never be left on the outside looking in on the Insiders podcast featuring me, Tom Pelissero, along with Ian Rapaport, Mike Garofolo, Judy Batista, and NFL Network's team of experts. The Insiders has you covered with up to the minute news from around the league. Our team of insiders and reporters bring you daily, detailed team reports and analysis that only the insiders can deliver. It's the insiders. You're a loyal viewer of the show. Now you're on it. How does it feel? I am a loyal viewer, one of my very favorite shows. We appreciate that greatly.

If you want a deeper dive into the inner workings of the NFL, look no further on the insiders. You'll hear from the league's top players, head coaches, and key decision makers.

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You may know Jackson Pollock, the painter famous for his iconic drip paintings. But what do you know about his wife, artist Lee Krasner, on death of an artist. Krasner and Pollock, the story of the artist who reset the market for american abstract painting. Just maybe not the one you're thinking of. Listen to death of an artist, Krasner and Pollock on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Can you settle a long running question for us? Why is it called Joffrey's, not Jeffrey's?

You know how many times people have had that argument? Settle a bet. And I'm like, okay, I know exactly what you're talking about.

This is Jeff Peterson. He owns Joffrey's Malibu.

Joffrey and Harvey Baskin started Joffrey's in 1983. Yes, it should be pronounced Jeffries, but his name was Joffrey.

Jeff lives in a big McMansion in Malibu. When I went to see him, he was in the middle of a divorce. The place was half empty, and his two gigantic dogs were jumping all over the place. He told me he came to LA in the late eighties to be an actor and started bussing tables at Joffrey's. Eventually, he bought the place.

Lucky for me, I'm a terrible actor. Fail at one thing, do well at something else.

Joffrey's is a Malibu institution. Think tourists, aging celebrities, and a few Malibu regulars sipping cocktails and eating food. That hasn't changed since the eighties.

Well, it sits along like a cliff overlooking the ocean, and it's surrounded by gardens and water fountains and fire pits. I was talking to chuck woolery one time, the old dating game guy. It was love connection, one of those things. And he was at the restaurant filming something, and he said, you know what? This was the number one place that men would always say they take their dates because it's so romantic and relaxing. So there's a lot of anniversaries and dates and birthdays and special occasions.

It's a celebrity clubhouse. The art on the walls is made by patrons like Clint Eastwood and John Travolta.

Yes, we get our celebrities. I used to wait on Redford back in the day. Nicest man in the world. What a class act. So we get a combination of both and we get presidents. So we get everybody in.

Depositions they gave. Later, just about everyone who interacted with maitrice at the restaurant said they noticed that something was wrong with her. The valet, for instance, he says he found Maitrice sitting in his car, rifling through his cds. When he asked her what she was doing, she replied, it's subliminal. And the hostess, she says Maitrice got up from the table where she'd been seated alone and joined a party of seven. Hi. Sorry I'm late. Can I sit next to you? She asked one of the strangers. From what these witnesses said later, Maitrice was pretty amusing, chatty, spirited, and zany, talking about her fascination with the number eight and her plans to move to Hawaii and, of course, Michael Jackson. In her deposition, the hostess stated, quote, at this point, I did not make too much of the situation because during my time working in Malibu, I had encountered lots of people who were off in their behavior and personalities, unquote. About an hour after Maitrice walked into Joffrey's, she walked out past the hostess stand to the valet. There was just one problem. She hadn't paid her bill. In his deposition, the manager says he confronted Maitrese in the parking lot.

When she said she couldn't pay, he took her back inside. He asked her to empty her pockets, thinking there might be a credit card or some cash in there, she pulled out a joint. Instead, the manager called Jeff, the owner.

I can remember that night. I remember I was sitting on a couch. Not this couch, but another couch right here. I was sucking a Thera flu down. I had a cold. For the best of my recollection. He calls me up. He tells me there's a lady there. They don't know if something's wrong with her, if she's mentally ill, if she's drunk, if she's high. She's only had one drink. She's talking in gibberish. And he doesn't know what to do.

According to law enforcement documents, when the manager confronted maitrice about paying her bill, she said, quote, that she was from Mars and that she was going to have sex with him, unquote.

So I think the managers really, they just wanted to help her because the message I got from her was that she was a nice, sweet, she wasn't threatening mean, but something was just very wrong. One of the concerns was that we couldn't let her go that night without calling for help. Because if you let a person who's obviously something's wrong with them, and like I said, I didn't know if it was drugs or alcohol or mental illness. If you let a person go and give them their car keys and send them out into the road and they run over a child or hit a family, then people ask you the question, why did you let this person go?

At 08:30 p.m. the manager told the bartender to call 911.

Lostell Shore station deputy, shall I help you? Hi, I'm calling from Joffrey's restaurant in Malibu. We have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill, and we think she may. She sounds really crazy. She may be on drugs or something. We were wondering if someone could come by and pick her up. And is she a white, black, asian, hispanic? She's a young black girl. She's probably in her twenties. Is she with anybody else? No, it's just her.

20 minutes later, three lost Hills deputies arrived at Joffrey's. Now the equation changed. The deputies searched Maitrice's car, supposedly looking for a form of payment, and found it was a mess full of cds, clothes, and shoes. It was so bad, they thought maybe she'd been living out of it, which was pretty accurate. In the trunk, they found some handles of vodka, a half drunk bottle of tequila and half a case of beer. And between the two front seats, they found a small bag of weed. The valet asked a deputy, what was wrong with my trees. He replied that she was, quote, a ding, which is cops speak for mentally ill, with the deputies. Maitrice was lovely. Later, according to investigation documents, they said that while she, quote, seemed slightly embarrassed, Miss Richardson was cooperative and polite. The deputies gave her a field sobriety test, which she passed. Maitrice was trained at keeping up appearances. She was afraid of what was happening to her mind, and she was in the midst of a crisis that was altering her sense of reality. When they asked her if she had a history of psychiatric problems, she said no.

Still, she had to pay that bill. The hostess asked Maitrice if there was anyone she could call. Maitrice gave her the number of her great grandmother, Mildred Harris. The hostess called her and asked her if she could come to the restaurant and take care of the bill. Joffrey's apparently had a policy, and they wouldn't take a credit card over the phone. I'm 91 years old, Miss Harris said, I can't drive to Malibu. Then Maitrice's mother, Lettice, called the restaurant and spoke to a manager. Investigation documents state that Lettice told the manager her daughter had, quote, been spending time with persons of whom she did not approve and, quote, needed to learn a lesson and be taken to jail. Maitrice's offense, dine and dash or defrauding an innkeeper, was misdemeanor petty theft. That's typically a citation, not a crime, for which a person usually gets taken into custody. But the Joffrey's management didn't want Maitrice leaving in her car. The cops told the manager that if he wanted them to take Maitrice away, the manager would have to make a citizen's arrest. Here's how Jeff Peterson, the owner of Joffrey's, explains it.

So what happened was, and excuse my dogs, they're coming in the room now. The only way that we were able to get her help, the deputy told us, you have to, we have to be able to take her away on something because we don't defrauding that came from them. So they told us, this is what you need to do for us to be able to get her help.

There was another option, though. The deputies could have put maitrice on a 72 hours psychiatric hold, also known as a 5150. Jeff says he had no idea.

If I knew that there was other ways, like if she could be charged on a 5150 and taken for mental evaluation and we didn't have to do that, then absolutely. Why the heck would I want to charge her? Because it's never been about $89 the.

Lost Hills deputies executed a citizen's arrest on the dine and dash charge, and also charged Maitrice with another misdemeanor for the pot in her car. Everyone, even her mother, seemed to agree she'd be better off in custody. So Anthony Larrero, the arresting officer, decided to hard book her at the Lost Hill Sheriff's station. The justification he gave his superiors is that he was worried about her, that she was, quote, a little ditzy, and he was uneasy about just letting her go. According to internal station correspondence written after Maitrice was officially a missing person or MP deputies uncomfortable with field release, no articulated reason. Instinctive feeling concern for MP's welfare, Larrero put Maitrice in the back of a squad car, and they drove through Malibu Canyon to the station about 13 miles away. Meanwhile, her car was taken to a tow yard near Pacific Coast highway, where it was impounded while matrice was in transit, deputies were preparing for her arrival. One of the deputies who'd responded to the Joffrey's call typed a message to another deputy over the interdepartmental computer system at station in 15. Re femsearch, he wrote. What'd you get? His colleague typed back, defrauding an innkeeper.

Lol. What, did she leave without paying? Tried but failed, then had no means to pay. Citizen's arrest why didn't you help a sister out? This exchange is callous and it has uncomfortable racial undertones. Matrice was a black female, alone and in crisis in Malibu. For many, her race would be the defining factor in what happened to her. She should have been granted extra protection. But that's not what happened. What happened is that sometime on that long, dark drive from the restaurant to the station, the concern for Maitrice's well being that had justified her arrest in the first place seemed to vanish.

With NFL news happening around the clock, you'll never be left on the outside looking in on the Insiders podcast featuring me, Tom Pelissero, along with Ian Rapaport, Mike Garofolo, Judy Batista, and NFL Network's team of experts, the insiders has you.

Covered with up to the minute news.

From around the league. Our team of insiders and reporters bring you daily, detailed team reports and analysis that only the insiders can deliver. It's the insiders. You're a loyal viewer of the show. Now you're on it. How does it feel? I am a loyal viewer, one of my very favorite shows. We appreciate that greatly.

If you want a deeper dive into the inner workings of the NFL. Look no further on the insiders. You'll hear from the league's top players, head coaches, and key decision makers.

The insiders will keep you informed and educated on everything NFL. Listen to the insiders on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You may know Jackson Pollock, the painter famous for his iconic drip paintings, but what do you know about his wife, artist Lee Krasner on death of an artist. Krasner and Pollock, the story of the artist who reset the market for american abstract painting. Just maybe not the one you're thinking of. Listen to death of an artist, Krasner and Pollock on the iHeartRadio Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

I am calling. I'm a little frazzled right now. I understand my daughter is being brought into the station. My Teresa Richardson. Have they made it to the station yet? And she's been booked. Okay. Do you know where she's coming from? It's some restaurant out in Malibu, and I didn't even think to get the name. The manager. The only place we have somebody that's in custody that they just announced on the radio that they're coming up is from Joffrey's highway. It's the only female that's being brought up to the station as we speak. They actually just put it on the radio right before you called.

This is a recording of a call latisse Sutton made to Lost Hill station on the night of the arrest. It was published on the Internet shortly after maitrice disappeared.

Okay. Okay. I'm her mother, and you guys want to book her and then release her on her own? Recognize tonight because it's dark, she doesn't have a car, and I don't want her wandering out. I'm totally just taken aback because this is so out of character for her. And you'll see when she comes in. She's well spoken. I think the only way I will come and get her tonight is if you guys are going to release her tonight.

It was already late, almost 10:00 p.m. latisse lived at least an hour away from the station. She and Larry weren't living together at the time, and she couldn't leave their daughter home alone.

If she's going to be held in custody for some type of arraignment tomorrow, then I will wait until tomorrow. She definitely has no place. You know, I mean, she's not from that area, and I would hate to wake up to a morning report. Girl lost somewhere with her head chopped off, so I guess I would have to come and get her. Oh, my God. Yeah, we're in a great hills. The only thing is, at least in the station here, she will be separated, but nobody's going to be with her, so at least that's, you know, the plus thing. So you don't have to worry about her safety. Oh, yeah. I feel safe with her being in custody. It's being released, but I'm worried about it. It's crazy out here.

A short time later, the squad car carrying Maitrice arrived at Lost Hill station. She was taken to a booking cell, where she was searched and made to hand over her possessions. She was given a medical and mental health assessment and a live scan for fingerprints and other identifying details, like her tattoos, to submit to law enforcement databases. In pictures, maitrice was always radiant. Eyes lit up, dazzling smile. In the mugshot taken at Lost Hill station that night, she looks like a different person. Her hair is messy. Her skin looks waxy and tired. But really, it's her eyes. The light has gone out. Lost Hills is what's known as a slow station. That night, there was just one other person in custody.

My name is Charmaine Marie Henderson.

I recently met Charmaine in the courtyard of a motel where she was staying.

It was just me and matrice. I don't know how big the station was, but I know it's, like, a little, small station where they help people, say, going for, like, dui. They go in until you get well enough to drive, you know, leave again like they have hold of. So that type, you know, it was.

A small station that night. Charmaine said she'd been picked up in the valley for soliciting. Her memory's foggy. It's been a long time, and over the years, she's had multiple strokes. But she does remember that maitrice was already in the cell when she arrived.

I mean, she was there before me, and I walked in. Cause she was standing, like, in a doorway, like, I need to sit down. I'm very tired. I want to sit down. It was just me and her in the cell, and she was just by the doorway, and I was like, excuse me. Can I get in so I can sit down?

Charmaine noticed right away that my treece was acting strange.

From some of her, like, her actions and stuff, I could tell that she was not okay to be by herself. I don't know what kind of mental state she was in. Like, some people ain't okay to be by themselves.

She seemed kind of vulnerable to you?

Yes. Very vulnerable.

Yeah. I read somewhere that you requested to change cells. Do you remember that? Was she being annoying?

Because she was like, she would not understand her situation. Like, I'm trying to sleep. If she gonna keep knocking at the door, trying to, like, you know.

Right.

She wanted. She wanted out.

Come on.

Who will arrest someone? You get a ticket for that. You don't go to jail for not being there. Pay your meal. Who arrest someone for that? So it's like they went overboard with it, and I felt. I felt her. So she was like, she wanted out.

So she's, like, banging on the door.

Banging on the door, like, trying to get Debbie, like, cite me out or let me know my charges.

Around 11:45 p.m. when it was determined that Maitrice had no outstanding warrants, the jailer gave her the citation and told her she could go. She asked Maitrice if someone was going to pick her up. Maitrice said she hadn't been able to reach anyone. According to the sheriff's department, she had tried calling her great grandmother, Mildred Harris, with no luck. The jailer later said she offered to let maitrice stay the night in an unlocked cell or wait in the front lobby until she got a ride, but she declined, saying she had to go meet friends. Charmaine was in a different cell at this point, but she says she could hear what was going on.

I guess they cited her out. But when you cite someone out, you still don't let them leave until they have knowledge of a ride or they have a way to get somewhere. I mean, they can call a cab on their own, something like that. You know, they wouldn't have released me in the middle of the night. I mean, I would hope not, you know, because in the middle of nowhere.

It struck her as unusual and not okay.

When I seen the news, they was like, damn, that's crazy. Cause I was, like, in a cell with this woman, and all of a sudden, she's missing. I was thinking, like, damn, if I would have got released. Like, that could have been me.

Over the following weeks, months, and years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department would repeatedly seek to justify their release of Maitrice Richardson, saying that legally, they did not have the right to detain her. She had no outstanding warrants, her infractions were misdemeanors, and she was not gravely disabled or in immediate danger to herself or others. Thats the standard for a 5150 psychiatric hold. Thats bullshit is what that is. Thats bullshit. Heres Hannah again, a young woman by herself. Drives to Malibu to go to Joffrey's, an expensive restaurant in Malibu. By herself, claiming she's there to avenge Michael Jackson's death. Sits with people she doesn't know, says weird things, gets arrested for her own safety, goes to the police station, all of a sudden she's okay? Thats bullshit. She wasnt okay. Maitrices unstable mental condition was the reason deputies had taken her into custody in the first place. Remember the arresting deputy thought she was, quote, a little ditzy and he was uneasy about just letting her go. But once she got to the station, law enforcement says Maitrice was acting normal so they had no reason to keep her. In fact, they said they were legally obligated to release her.

Hannah says that is just not possible. Anyone who interacted with Maitrice would have recognized that she was in crisis. I understand that some people are thinking, oh, maybe she was on drugs or maybe that's what it was for me personally, it was a psychotic break that my treece was experiencing. The drive to Malibu, the Joffreys, the saying she was meeting me, the talking about aliens and Michael Jackson and all that. And it is without question anybody that came into contact with my trees. Look at the mugshots. Anybody who came into any contact with her. I don't care who you are. Family, neighbor, somebody who's walking past her on the street. There is a 0% chance that they didn't know something was wrong with her mentally. Zero. At 12:25 a.m. maitrice left Lost Hill station. She had no money and her phone was in her car, which was in a tow yard 10 miles away on the other side of Malibu Canyon near Pacific Coast highway. Make it make sense. It doesn't make sense. At bare minimum, they should have kept my trees at the sheriff's station until morning. Until her mom came or somebody came to come check on her and get her.

She had nothing. They knew she was mentally unwell, which is why she was there in the first place. What they should have done is placed her on a hold and taken her to a psychiatric facility. But they can't do that because they're claiming she was fine. They're lying. It's bullshit. And if you care about my treats, you'll say what's true. That's true. They're just trying to cover their own ass. That's bullshit. And that really bothers me. Once she left the station, Maitrice had no way to call anyone for help and no way for help to find her. All of this was news to her mother, who called the station around 05:20 a.m. on the morning of the 17th and was horrified to learn that her daughter was no longer there. She thought she had an agreement with the cops that they would keep Maitrice overnight. Lettice was alarmed. Maitrice had already been out of custody for 5 hours, and no one in the family had heard from her. 15 minutes later, at 05:35 a.m. letize called Lost Hill station again to find out how to file a missing persons report. Lost Hill station, palm Gardener this recording of Lettice's call was released on the Internet shortly after maitrice disappeared.

Yes? Hi, my name is Letice Sutton. I called not too long ago regarding my daughter, Maitreys Richardson. How long before a missing persons report can be filed? Is it 24 or 48 hours? Well, it depends on the circumstances, but I didnt take your call, so im not familiar with it. Did she just not return home after going out?

She explains that Maitrice had been in custody at Lost Hill station and then released.

She was arrested last night. This is the first time she's been arrested. She's in an unknown area she's never been in. She's without a vehicle. Nobody can find her.

But the deputy doesn't seem overly concerned. He thinks Letece can hold off on the missing persons report.

Yeah, normally we wouldn't. I wouldn't recommend doing one that soon. Right. What is the time frame? You know, I guess probably 24 hours would be reasonable. I mean, if there would be some, some mitigating factors, you know, where, you know, uses would suspect maybe something. Well, yeah, right. She doesn't know the area. She's never been in your area. Where do you, where do she lived? She is unfamiliar with that area. Do you think she possibly could have gotten a bus and listen, my child has never ridden a bus. No, she would not know how to ride a bus. I would probably wait till, you know, early this morning, and if she doesn't turn up, you can certainly call. I don't suspect anything bad happen, but.

Lettice does suspect something bad has happened, so she decides to level with him.

Something is obviously going on with her. Have you tried the jailer and. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I have. He said he tried to get her to stay, but because she was an adult, they had to let her go. I believe that she is highly depressed and she's in a depressive state. You know, it could be possible that maybe she, I mean, there's a lot of options and I. A lot of possibilities, and I don't think all of them would be, you know, something dire, but I can certainly understand your fears, you know, being your daughter and all that. Well, I think she's suppressed. That's what has me. Is that what that's worth you more than just her? Okay, that and the fact that she's in an area where she doesn't know where she's at. Does she take medication at all? No, she. I believe it's a state that she's in right now because of just the weird activities that's been going on. What's your name? What's your name? Her name is my trees. Richardson.

In another hour, around 06:30 a.m. bill and Karen Smith, the couple in Montenegro who spotted maitrice in their backyard, would call the cops. This is a recording of that call, which was published online.

Yeah, hi, this is Smith at Coles Canyon. We had a prowler walking around through the backyard here, but we don't know what the situation was. I don't know if you have a unit in the area. Might do a little drive by or something. Okay, where's this at?

The Smiths lived at the tennis courthouse.

This is Cold Canyon, I find cold in mount, but it's in the back of the house, which is right where wood bluff hits the. Hits cold canyon. And we just hear this strange woman walking through the backyard here, the fairly large properties. And she was sitting on the steps right on the back of the house here. This is kind of a circular driveway, and the gates were closed, so we don't know where this woman came from.

Their property, Smith said, connected to a network of trails used by everyone in the neighborhood.

What'd she look like?

White, black, you know, a tall, slim black woman with afro hair. How tall? Well, she was sitting down, stretched out on the wooden steps in the back of the house. Hard to tell, but she looked like she might have been medium to slightly tall with a big afro hair, very skinny. And I think she was wearing maybe jeans or tight pants with a t shirt. You've never seen her there before? No, never. Nobody never does that. I mean, the people hike on the trail all the time. We, you know, the trail goes through our property, but we leave it open on purpose because it's kind of a nice thing for horses and people. And she's laying across the. She was laying across the steps, or she was sitting kind of sprawled out on a. On these wooden steps in the back of the house, right against the back of the house. She since got up and left. She's since gone? Yeah, she's been gone about five minutes now. But as we followed her over, we thought maybe a little drive by wouldn't be a bad idea. And what direction was she last seen? Never saw her.

Once she left, she just disappeared. I moved from one window to another. I said to her, I hollered down, are you all right? And she said, I'm just resting, or something like that.

According to her memoir, when Lettice arrived at Lost Hill station to file a missing persons report, the deputy recognized the name Maitrice Richardson. He told Lettice someone who looked like her daughter had been seen in Montenegro early that morning. Maitrice, he said, might be with some friends in the neighborhood. Friends in Montenito? My trees didnt have any friends in Montenegro. Lettice asked how to get there. The deputy told her, just take Las Verge, the road that turns into Malibu Canyon, and you'll hit Cold Canyon Road. As Lettice drove mile after mile of rural Canyon Road, no houses, no street lamps, no nothing, she thought, there's no way on earth my daughter walked here. Maitrice was afraid of the dark. Next time on lost hills. Did you have the feeling when you were dealing with people in Montenegro like they wanted to tell you something, but they couldn't tell you something?

Yes, definitely. People just didn't want to talk. They're just afraid of law enforcement. This story by this time had broke on the news, and law enforcement did not look good. They were not really in a position to talk because these are the people that they have to rely on to protect them because, you know, it's so secluded.

That's next in episode four of Lost Hills Hopscotch. Lost Hills is written and hosted by me, Dana Goodyear. It was reported by me and Hailey Fox, our senior producer. The show was created by me and Ben Adair. Lost Hills is a production of western Sound and Pushkin industries. Subscribe to Pushkin PLUS and you can binge the whole season right now ad free. Find Pushkin on the Lost Hill show page in Apple Podcasts or at Pushkin FM. Plus.

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