Mother Of Mitrice Richardson Wants Body Exhumed

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The mother of Mitrice Richardson, whose remains were found in a ravine about 11 months after she was released from the sheriff's Malibu/Lost Hills Station, wants her daughter's body exhumed.

Latice Sutton has scheduled a news conference Monday in which a forensic anthropologist is expected discuss the case. Sutton wants the FBI to look at whether sheriff's deputies moved the body improperly and if authorities made a rush to judgment in ruling the death accidental.

The county's Office of Independent Review (OIR) issued a report in July, concluding that deputies at the Malibu/Lost Hills substation acted "properly and legally."

Members of Richardson's family have been critical of sheriff's deputies for releasing the 24-year-old woman from custody with no phone, money or car. Richardson was arrested after allegedly failing to pay a restaurant bill in September 2009.

Her remains were found Aug. 9, of this year near an abandoned marijuana patch. Three days later, they were positively identified as those of the Cal State Fullerton graduate.

For months, searches in Malibu Canyon failed to turn up any trace of the woman, though at least one possible sighting was reported the same morning she was released. Her remains were finally found by park rangers about two miles from the sheriff's station.

At the time of the discovery, Sheriff Lee Baca said there was no indication that Richardson was met with foul play. Her cause of death is still "undetermined," according to coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter.

But county investigators have cleared deputies of fault.

"Although station personnel offered Ms. Richardson the choice to remain voluntarily at the station jail until the arrival of daylight hours or her transportation, she chose to leave the station jail," the OIR report read. " ... OIR has concluded that the station personnel acted legally and reasonably in taking Ms. Richardson into custody and then releasing her from custody."

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