More Of Mitrice Richardson's Remains Found

MALIBU (CBS) — More bones were found Sunday in a Malibu ravine where the remains of Mitrice Richardson had been found several months earlier.

The 24-year-old woman disappeared after she was released from a Malibu sheriff's station.

Officials say Sunday's search, which included coroner's investigators and a
sheriff's homicide detective, was conducted with the hope of finding more evidence that would point to what happened to Richardson the night she went missing, said Steve Whitmore of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Richardson was arrested in September 2009 for not paying a restaurant bill and taken to the sheriff's Malibu-Lost Hills station. Around midnight, she was released on her own recognizance from the remote facility, without a vehicle, and was never seen alive again.

Her family alleges Richardson was mentally unstable at the time and that sheriff's deputies should not have released her from custody.

Sheriff's officials have said Richardson did not appear to be impaired and that they followed proper procedure in releasing her.

Investigators have never determined how she got to the ravine or how she died.

A search was conducted in the same area Sunday, turning up eight more bones that appear to be from fingers, a wrist, the neck and ribs, Whitmore said.

The search team consisted of six coroners investigators, two of whom are doctors, four search and rescue team members, one sheriff's representative and one homicide detective.

Whitmore said investigators have now found more than 90 percent of Richardson's remains.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)