Missing Womans Case Persued as Homicide

Los Angeles County sheriff Lee Baca ordered his department to increase the effort to find missing local woman Mitrice Richardson by investigating the case as a homicide.

A department spokesman told the Malibu Surfside News that the change in definition of the case is only to expand resources, and that authorities do not believe she is dead.

Richardson, a 24-year-old lesbian, was arrested in September when she couldn't cover an $89 bill at a Malibu restaurant 40 miles from her home. She was eventually released at 12:25 a.m. from the Lost Hills sheriff's station with no money, phone, or mode of transportation (her car was impounded). She has been missing since that morning.

Baca made the announcement after meeting with Richardson's family last weekend as a massive search was launched for her.