My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 288 - MFM Guest Host Picks #11 - Erin & Erin

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

This summer, Exactly Right family members will be guest hosting My Favorite Murder! Each week a guest host will pick their favorite stories from Karen and Georgia. Today's episode is hosted by Erin & Erin, hosts of This Podcast Will Kill You on Exactly Right. The Erins cover the stories of The Incredible Survival of Jennifer Morey (Episode 33) and The Tragic Death of Mitrice Richardson (Episode 65). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We at Wondery live, breathe and downright obsess over true crime and now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Exhibit C. It's truly criminal. Hi, I'm Erin Welsh and I'm Erin Oman Updyke and we are the guest hosts of My Favorite Murder. Normally, the actual hosts of this podcast will kill you on Exactly Right Network. But this week, we are super-duper a thousand percent excited to be guest hosting the podcast that kind of inspired our podcast. Yeah, a hundred percent. We both have nervous upper lips sweats, but we're really excited because Karen and Georgia were a huge inspiration to us

in starting our podcast and we still pinch ourselves every time we realize that we are a part of the Exactly Right Network. Yeah, it's been a complete dream come true. I can't believe that this is our life now. It's unbelievable. And so yeah, we're super excited to kind of get the chance to re-listen to some old episodes and kind of get back into like, okay, this is what inspired us to start podcasting. This is what we would talk about constantly. Did you listen to the latest one? Did you? Yeah, it was really fun to go back through old episodes. So we're excited to bring you our favorite Karen and Georgia stories. So our first pick is a Karen pick. I got to pick this one. I'm very excited because

I've always considered myself a Karen. You're totally a Karen. I'm definitely a Georgia. A hundred percent. So I feel like this was appropriate. And also, this is just one of my favorite all-time stories from my favorite murder. And it's not even about a murder. It is actually the incredible survival of Jennifer Morey, episode 33. And I picked this one because it's something that I actually couldn't listen to it the first time that it aired. I was too nervous. I was too scared because it taps into all of my, some of my biggest fears. Like, you know, single woman living alone, someone that you thought you could trust, but you know, suddenly becoming a threat. But then when I finally listened to it, it rapidly became like

one of my all-time favorites because Jennifer is like, the way that Karen tells the story is so incredible, first of all. And second of all, it is such a story of like strength and resilience and like fighting back. And I just love that so much about it. But the real clincher for me, I think, is, didn't happen until several episodes later. I think episode 95, when Karen and Georgia included a story from a live show that they did in Dallas where Jennifer Morey comes on stage at the end and talks about like how wonderful it was that Karen told the story and how much she's been like inspirational to all of these people that have, you know, like be prepared and don't be afraid to, you know, put up a fight, stuff like that. And so every time I listen to that, it just brings

like complete tears. And so I was like walking this morning and listening to the live show part of it and just like wiping away tears, like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. So it was a real strange to say like pleasure, but it was really great to kind of get to re-listen to this. And I'm excited to share it with you guys. So this week, I'm going back to my tried and true, which is I'm going to retell you one of my favorite episodes of I Survived. Well, I never, I've never seen the show, so please do. And this one I love because this plays on if you, if this, if you have some home alone as a young lady fears, this is going to cause some problems. So spoiler alert, trigger alert, scary, scary alert. Oh no. It has all these pieces. And the first time I saw this

on I Survived, I was like gripping the couch. I was so freaked out. So essentially, it goes a little something like this. It's April 15, 1995. And a young, bright, beautiful, successful, 25 year old young lawyer named Jennifer Morey goes out and has a drink with her friends after work one night. Big mistake. Her fault. She goes, she's at the local ale house. All her friends are there. She doesn't want to go at first. They convince her to stay. Then she ends up having a great time. And she stays until midnight. Then her friend drives her home. And she lives in an apartment complex called Bayou Park in Houston. And the reason that she picked this apartment complex to move into was because it was all about security. And it had not just like, you know,

the apartment security guards, they had, they actually hired Pinkerton security guards to, to work at this place. So it was back in time. That's still a thing. No, they've been around. That's how long they've been around. It's still like a major company. So, and that name means a lot to people in security. So that's why she picked that apartment building to live in. So she goes home at midnight, goes in, let's say she washed her face, which is what you should do before you go to bed, ladies. So she goes in, gets ready for bed, goes to bed, turns out all the lights, wakes up at 4am, there's someone on top of her. No. Yeah, get ready for this. No, it's going to be this the whole time. Scared. So there's someone straddling her. And she can feel something

on her neck. And she realizes that a puppy, someone know is not, she realizes someone's broken into apartment, and they're attempting to rape her. She's, she can't figure out if she's dreaming at first. It's horrible. In between feeling she finally, when she becomes fully awake and she realizes someone's straddling her, they've got a knife to her throat and they're going to rape her, she just starts fighting. Good for her. So she does everything she can. She, she fights this guy, she grabs the knife, it's all the stuff, all the crazy shit. And she's fighting him so hard that he cuts her from the cheekbone to the middle of her neck and he slices her neck open. So she keeps on fighting, but suddenly it gets very slippery and there's blood everywhere. And

finally, she starts losing blood and like the fight goes out of her. He takes her by the hair. Oh no. And he pulls her across, out of the bed, across the room, throws her into the bathroom and says, you stay in here and you do not move. And he slams the door. And so she, she throws her back up against the door in the bathroom. She grabs a washcloth and she puts it up against her wound pressure, constant pressure when you have a wound like that. She throws her feet up against the wall and she's like jammed herself there so he can't come back in. Yeah. And then she sits there and waits and listens and she hears him zip his pants up and then she wait and then she hears the door close and then she waits a little bit longer to make sure and then she goes to open

the door and she can't open the door because there's so much blood on her hands that she cannot get a grip on the door and she's pulling at it and pulling at it. And then she actually says in the story, she actually started laughing because she was like, Oh, this is how I'm going to die. She's one of us. I get stuck. I get stuck in the bathroom and that's how I can't get help. So finally she gets out. She yanks the door open. She gets out. She fumbles to throw on the hallway light. The lights are dead. She crawls. She gets to the phone. The phone's dead. No, no, no, no. Yeah. So then she finds her cell phone. It's live. She brings it back into the bathroom and she calls 911. So that night, a man named Richard Everett was working was the dispatcher.

He had just gotten on to his shift. Oh my God, heroes. They're all heroes. So this is 4am when this started. So I guess he was starting a very early morning shift, maybe middle of night, I don't know. So she explains to him what's happened and he just starts telling her, you're going to be fine. Just try to stay calm. Don't talk that much. We just keep it. The cops and the ambulance are on their way right now. They're going to be there really soon. You know, we could listen to this right now. And you're going to be fine. There's no fucking way I would ever listen to it. I know. And she's saying, I'm bleeding so much, you please make sure they hurry or whatever. And he's like, they're coming there as fast as they can. Just hold that washcloth.

You're going to be okay. Oh my God. And so after like 10 minutes, he's just talking her down and she's actually starting to calm down and she's feeling okay. There's a knock at the door. No, no, no. So she's like, there's someone's knocking at the door. And he's like, who is it? And she goes, well, hold. So she yells from the bathroom, who is it? And he says, this is Brian Gibson, the security guard that's on duty tonight. I just got attacked by a guy who jumped off your balcony. Are you okay? Is that true? Is it true? And she doesn't know. So she's like, he goes, are you okay? You should let me in. And she goes, I'm okay. I'm talking to 911 right now. And the dispatcher on 911 goes, wait, what's going on? And she goes, no, it's okay.

It's the security guard. He wants me to let him in. And Richard Everett for no reason except for gut goes, do not let him in the door. And she goes, no, it's Pinkerton security. That's the whole apartment. Like that's the whole setup here. And he goes, he said, here's the thing, we haven't notified security at your apartment complex yet. So unless they have a police scanner. Yeah, but if you saw someone jumping off that doesn't matter. What is he going to do? We don't know about that story. But he goes, we just don't know what that is. So just don't let him in. Yeah. So she's like, I'm not gonna let you in right now. And the guy's like, I swear, it's okay. I'm here's my badge, you know, like he's like, I just need to help you. Are you,

are you bleeding? There's blood out here. You know, I want to make sure that you're okay. And she's like, I'm fine. The cops are on their way. And he's like, I know I can hear the alarms. You know, I know CPR, I can help you, whatever. And he goes, I'm sorry, I just the dispatcher says to Jennifer, I just don't think you should let him in. And she's like, okay, I'm really scared though. I'm starting to lose blood. I'm getting lightheaded. Like what if I, what if I pass out and I'm in here and the door's locked, they kick it down. And so he's just, he just keeps talking to her and he's like, just listen to the sound of my voice. I'm watching the cops drive up the street. They are three minutes away. You just have to hang on for three more minutes. And

meanwhile, the guy's like, Jennifer, can you talk to me? Are you okay? You know, can you just let me in? And so he wouldn't, if he was supposed to be there, he wouldn't be so insistent. He would, you know what I mean? Like, well, but it's a woman who's bleeding and there's blood. It's like, clearly there's a scenario. Now, if you were a security guard, and you knew a woman had just gotten attacked with a knife, you would kick the door down and she's in there bleeding out and freaking out and not letting anybody help her, you might kick the door. Yeah. So but Richard's like, I don't know. So just don't do it. Well, then the knocking starts getting harder. He's like, you need to let me in here. And she then she's starting to freak out because now she doesn't

trust anybody. She has no idea what to do. But then suddenly she hears the sirens in the background. So she knows the plate and he's like, do you hear the sirens? They are, they're coming up the driveway road. She's like, yes. And he goes, so the ambulance is there. Like you are going to live you're fine. So just keep that door shut and you will be fine. Well, the knocking stopped. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. It's totally silent outside of the door. So now she's more scared. She's like, what the fuck is it? Yeah. When the cops pull up to this apartment complex, this security guard, Brian Gibson meets them out there. And he is a mess. He is bleeding from his right hand. There's blood on his face. There's blood on his uniform. And he tells the

police his story that he walked up. He saw a guy he jumped down from her second story balcony and attacked him. They got into this fight. And the guy ran off into the woods, like into a field over on the side and he didn't see where he went. And then he went up to check on the lady who will not let him in who's freaking out. Right. So the cops are like, all right, stay here. Sounds good. They start to check everything out. There's no trail into the grasses do we know it's six a.m. Yep. No, not nothing. So they're like, get that guy and put him in a room over there. Yeah, they go up to Jennifer's apartment that the ambulance has already taken her away. She's going to live because the show was called I survived. She told the story herself with a big

old scar on her neck. She's gorgeous. This woman is like gorgeous and a lawyer. So she's the best killing it. Yeah. The cops go into her apartment. There's blood everywhere. There's also a Pinkerton hat. And there's men's underwear on the ground and a knife. So they pick up all the shit and they go back down to Brian Gibson the secure the Pinkerton security guard that works there. How was that in there? And they say, can you take your shirt off, please? And he's like, no, I know it's fine. I was actually the one that was attacked. They're like, take your shirt off. There's claw marks all over his body. Oh my God. He's not wearing underwear. Nope. Nope. He has shaved his pubic hair. No pubic hair. Meaning no hair left behind. That's exactly

right. And he doesn't have hat because he was the person the security guard at the apartment building where she lived. Did he have keys to everywhere? Well, he didn't have a, oh yeah, he must have had keys to get into her house because that's why or some key or he could have like, I mean, he had total access. Oh, sorry, shit. That was the most upsetting thing that I read is no, no, no, but I just forgot it. It's he was calling her by her first name when he was talking to her before he when he was first on her, which I think is one of the other the other reasons she got so freaked out and fought so hard is because it's like what the fuck is going on. Guess how much I'm sleeping tonight? Zero. But she survived. It turns out. Yeah. So

they arrest him. They he gets 20 years for attempted murder. Man, what the fuck? And he's on parole now. What? No, I'm gonna fucking in Texas jump off my second story balcony. He's on parole in Texas. When is attempted murder going to be treated like what it was intended to be? Like murder, you mean murder, right? That is so troubling to me that it's like, well, you didn't get away with it. So you're not gonna, because she lived, right? Simply because she fought. So you don't, you don't deserve the punishment of what you were intending to fucking do. Well, and also the cops are positive that if she had let him in when he came back the next time to quote unquote check on her, murder, he would have killed her and picked

up all his shit he left behind. Totally. Totally. There's that is absolutely there. The cops are positive. That's the reason. So did what's the name of the guy the the 901 dispatcher? Did he Richard Everett all of the ribbons and whatnot? They're still friends to this day. He went to her wedding. Yeah. Yeah, they're they're close friends. I'm gonna cry. Yeah. And she talks about him when in her episode of I survived, she the way she talks about him is like one of the sweetest things you've ever seen. Can't deal with because he in the worst moment of her life, like saved her life essentially in that way that like, beautiful things happen to hideous fucking things. And she went on to become the trauma support, the director of trauma support

services of North Texas. Gorgeous. And she I read a thing she went around spoke I mean, it was 2015, I think when the article what the article is from 2013 or 2015, she was going around speaking at schools and telling people horrible things happen in life. But it's all about what you're prepared, how you're prepared for them. And basically, she gave this talk that was kind of like the stuff that we talk about, which is like running scenarios and thinking about these things can actually help you not panic and not completely lose it. Yeah, when something really upsetting happens, because you've kind of run a scenario, you know where your cell phone is, you have things plant, you know, where flashlights are, like you have things planned out a little bit. So

you at least can put a plan together. It's a good way to like, to make sense of your anxiety and that like, well, maybe someday this anxiety or this thing that me thinking about these awful things happening is going to make me better in a in a situation where I need to not fucking panic because I've already run the scenario through my head or yeah, and also it can take away from that like you don't need to beat yourself up for thinking about it. You don't need to tell yourself you're crazy for thinking about it. You're smart for thinking about it and you're empowered for thinking about it. And you you're taking action. It's not, you know, you don't have to live in it and shut the door. You go out in your life knowing that you are armed with information

and having an awareness and a security that you, you know, you've done as much as you can with your anxiety to prepare yourself, but you're not letting it take over your life and get in the way like you're never, you're not going to never leave the house again because you're aware of all these fucking terrible things that happen. Well, and also it's like, this isn't a story about how all security guards are evil, right? A lot of them do just as good as Richard Everett, the 911 dispatcher did. A lot of them have, you know, good, that good intentions of I took this job because I want to help people for this exact reason. But you take it on a case by case basis. So if you meet a person, you get the weird feeling in your gut, absolutely trust yourself and just

get out of there. You know what I mean? You don't, that's, that's what all that's about. It's like to the individual. Arm yourself with knowledge, but don't let that overwhelm you. Yeah. And also take a break every once in a while. And like the other day, some girls like I had a, she tweeted, I had a hard day at work. I'm going to drink wine and watch I survived. And I wrote back drink wine and watch Bob's burgers. If you already had a bad day, relax. That's a great suggestion. Take a break. Watch fucking Rosemary and Time where it's a lot of nice flowers, a lot of great accents. It's chill. You don't live in it. Like, visit and then go somewhere else for a while. That's a beautiful take a, have a glass of wine and watch Bob's burgers is like.

Bob's burgers is the, oh my God, it makes me so happy. It is the most perfect show. So it's positive. It's a family that loves each other. That's funny. That, that isn't perfect at all. And it's hilarious. Relatable. My six year old nephew is obsessed with Bob's burgers. The songs they write for that show are the best comedy songs there are. It is my favorite. How they come up with those every episode. Who goes my mind, whoever their musical, I should look it up right now, whoever their musical director is fucking straight up 1000 props to you. And that's Karen, that was, you tell those stories so well. It's almost like I'm not cheating. Yeah. When I am. Are you? I wouldn't know. This is a podcast where some of

the time I just retell TV shows. But you say that, but you tell them, you don't read them. That's true. Because I've seen that one. Jennifer's, I've watched probably five times because she tells it. It's, it's so compelling. She's, she's so real. She's upset at certain points. She's very angry and like very self-righteous at certain points. It's a fucking awesome thing to behold. So she's a great survivor. You tell it to me like we're at a party together. Whereas like if I did mine, it would be like so many missing elements of it because I can't remember half the shit that like I have to kind of like go off my own notes, which I don't copy and paste, but you know, I lead with them. Right. Yeah. But I mean, I'm just copying her, her story. Wow.

I mean, that's, that's stories though. You just, that's how I learned to sell stories is just both of my parents. That's all they did. Yeah. It's like we're sitting by a fire. Two cavemen. Two cavemen sitting by fire. Tales as old as time. The only thing we have to eat are cookies. Oh. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping and prepping handled. Hello Fresh has you covered. Hello Fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. Hello Fresh meals are convenient, seasonal and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy Hello Fresh's expanded menu of quick lunch

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It was it's still it's chills every time. Uh huh. Okay, now it's my turn to pick. I'm very excited about this one. Georgia tells a lot of my favorite stories. So it's actually really hard to choose my favorite. But the one I chose for this was the tragic death of my Trace Richardson, which is an episode 65. It I think it's a classic Georgia telling of a story because it's all of the things that I love that my favorite murder does, I think really well. One, even though it's my favorite murder, this one again is not like a clear cut murder. But it's the story that centers the victim themselves and it's a story about the person that they were and the circumstances that they were under. It's a story about the system that we

exist within and all of the flaws that we know still exist today. And so I think it's just a really powerful story and a powerful reminder that even though the story was told many years ago and the story itself happened in 2009, it's still so relevant. So it's not a fun story and it's not a satisfying ending. But I hope that everyone enjoys. So this is what I've wanted to do for a while, but it's scary to tackle because it's kind of big. It's and it's every time I go back to look into it, it's just like, it's a lot. Okay. This is the story of my trees Richardson. Do you know this one? You probably will once I tell you. So 7pm around 7pm on the night of September 17th, 2009, 24 year old my trees Richardson pulls her Honda Civic into the

parking lot of joffrees, which is a fancy pants restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, it's one of those like joffrees. It's like super fancy pants, like on the coast, like on the coast in Malibu. Yeah, yeah. It's very like it's spelled joffree, not Jeffrey. You know what I mean? While she's there from the valet to ordering her food, interacting with other patrons, her behavior is erratic and bizarre. But she wasn't threatening in any way. When the bill came for 8951, she Matrice couldn't pay. So when she was confronted by staff, she announced that she had come to avenge Michael Jackson's death. Oh, no, I know. Management decides to call the police and they say we have a guest here who was refusing to pay her bill.

And we think she may, she sounds really crazy. She may be on drugs or something. But my trees Richardson wasn't on drugs. She's a 24 year old smart and beautiful African American woman from South LA. She graduated from California State University Fullerton with a bachelor of arts in psychology the year before. And at the time she worked as an administrative assistant at a freight company, but she wanted to work with children. And at the time she volunteered as a mentor for at risk children and worked with kids at a cheerleading camp. So it's not really known why she was in Malibu though, which was 40 miles from her home. They think maybe she was visiting the campus of Pepperdine, which is right by joffrees, you know, to look at the campus, but

just sorry side note. I told my mom when I was a junior in high school that I wanted to go to Pepperdine because my friend Jen Mason's older sister Becky went there and my mother laughed in my face and said who's going to pay for that. Yeah, because Pepperdine is insanely expensive. Volleyball college on the beach. Yeah, it's Tony. It's for the rich. It's for rich people. Okay. As is joffrees, which is how you build an $89 dinner for one person. I could do that at Applebee. I mean, let's be honest. I had a $60 lunch today with Vince, so let's be, let's be realistic here. I swear to God, sometimes when I start, when I get a pretzel as a appetizer, I could just eat nine pretzels. Do it.

Okay. Cheesauce? I mean, that's crucial. I'm not going to eat them dry. What do I look like? Big and soft and then have like a thing of that cheese sauce. Am I a monster? Mustard. I hate when they try to get creative. Okay. I hate when they try to be like, this stupid aioli or whatever. Oh, no, no, no. And then the, oh, like a, it's a mustard that's got that spicy honey in it. No, no. Just give me cheese sauce like they serve at Applebee. That's all we want. We want to eat cheese soup, but we can't and we know it because a polite society says it's not okay unless you're in like Wisconsin. Right. So give me a bread to dip it in it and be okay with that. Fine. I'll pretend it's a dip. Fine. Fine. It's the same thing with onion

soup. Like I just want to eat bread and cheese with a spoon. But fine. You can put a little broth underneath it if you need me to be that fine. Okay. Sorry. That was a real left turn. She's leaving camp. So they don't know why she was there, but it seems that she was suffering at the time of a previously undiagnosed manic episode, which is also evidenced by her, her Facebook posts recently, which were incoherent and rambling. She said things like there are signs everywhere, smile with a smiley face. And then another said, I just want to sleep low, but you know me and my crazy ideas. Let's see where they take me smiley face. Yeah. So that's like, did she not know she was manic from what I can tell? No. And her mom,

I think they were all very surprised by it by the fact that this is, they think that's what happened for sure, but nobody knew what was going to happen. It seems like it was undiagnosed and unknown. I'm sorry to ask this, but when, when was this? 2009. Oh wow. Yeah. Okay. No, no one listens in the beginning of what year it is. You know what I mean? It's hard to focus. Yeah. I like get to the story. Yeah. I settled down. I'm still thinking of stuff I said, my story, my thing. 2009. Where were you? 2000? You were near 2010. Oh my God. This is like, it's like we picked a theme for this episode. That's so true. We didn't. That weird chunk of time. We're just like, it's like our periods are synced, but our murders are synced instead.

It's all coming together in the red tent, Steven. Yeah. Steven's writing this one down because he's blushing so hard. He loves a good period joke. Sisters. Sisters. Signs. Three nights after that last post she wrote, she's at Joffrey's going through this shit. Three LAPD deputies arrive. They call Matrice's, it's MyTrice, I believe, not Matrice. MyTrice's great-grandmother who offers to pay the bill, but she would have had a fax and image of her credit card, which she wasn't able to do because who the fuck has a fucking fax machine? In 2009. Yeah. Don't you hate that? Yeah. So they were like, nope. Sorry, grandma. Sorry, great-grandma. You can't do this. They search her car and they find a very small amount of marijuana as well as

bottles of vodka and tequila and half a case of beer, but they gave her a field of sobriety test and she passed. Okay. So I'm sorry, but the officers could have placed Matrice in MyTrice in an involuntary psychiatric hold based on her odd behavior, but they said that that would require a lot of paperwork and a trip to the hospital. So instead, they arrested her on charges of suspicion of not paying for the meal and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and they took her to Lost Hills Police Department. Uh-oh. I know. Upon her arrest, her phone, purse, and money are locked in her car and the car is towed to a tow yard. What? Why? Do you gonna need that after? Well, Lost Hills Police Department, again, Fancy Pants Police Department

and a Fancy Pants part of Malibu, like really nice area. It's the same station where Mel Gibson was taken after being pulled over for drunk driving and yelling anti-Semitic slurs, same station, but but they let him keep his purse. Well, well, they escorted him from Lost Hills to his towed car that because they treat famous and rich people, which is what their neighborhood is. And white people. Remember in the Big Lebowski, stay out of my beach community, Thurson Mugget, Big Lebowski's face. It's like that. Yeah. Yeah. And stay out of my beach community. It's just like that. Yeah. Unfortunately, MyTrice didn't receive the same treatment as a famous asshole. MyTrice's mother called the Lost Hills station around 10 p.m. and all of these

phone calls you can hear on YouTube and I fucking listened to them. She's asking if they're going to book her and release her that night and saying it's dark and she doesn't have a car and I don't want her wandering. And she's like, I'll come pick her up right now. But if you keep her overnight, that's fine. I'll get her in the morning. I just want to know you're not going to release her. And this woman is, you know, she's clearly upset, but she's just like, I don't know what's happening. I'll deal with it. She's a together woman. Yeah. She's, the mother said she's not from that area and I would hate to wake up and to a morning report saying girl lost somewhere and her head chopped off. But the deputy assured MyTrice's mother not to worry. I can't breathe. Hold on.

Okay. But yet at 12 30 in the morning, MyTrice with only the clothes on her back and without a purse, money or her phone was released into the darkness and cold of the Santa Monica mountains. Why? Which you and I like, let's, let's set the stage again from Beverly Hills to Santa Monica Mountain in Malibu. It is fucking remote. It's huge houses on a lot of land that butt up against the Santa Monica mountains, which are not pretty hiking trails. They're fucking wilderness. Yeah. It's scrub brush. It's, there's no, there's nothing commercial around there. Because I think that's what they said too is nothing was open at that point. All businesses are closed. It closed at like six. Yes. And there's, it's like even the businesses that are there

are really few and far between. It's not like shopping centers and get, yeah, you have to basically be down in the city of Malibu to be close to anything. And the Santa Monica mountain is where all the mountain lions live. And it's really rocky and hilly. I went to Jewish camp there and it was totally wilderness. I mean, it was not cute. Yes. It's not the city. No, it's really not. And this is a city girl who had never been out in the wilderness like this. So all businesses are closed. Public transportation doesn't really exist out there. You know, they have like bus to the shopping center and back, but not, you know, real transportation. And she's 11 miles from her car at the Malibu toe yard. The walk would have taken

her up and down hills through a tunnel along the shoulder of a highway winding through the mountains, which I fucking have driven there and you get carsick just from driving. It's a crazy mountain. Also, I'll tell you this from my research, 11 miles, just so you know, it's 13 miles from Beverly Hills to downtown Los Angeles. So she would have had to walk slightly less than that long all the way down sunset. That's ridiculous. That's a day's walk. So when her mom calls the next morning, she finds out that my trees had been released. And I listened to the fucking message, the call and it's they're blowing the officers blowing her off and she's like, how long do I have to wait to file a missing person's report?

And he's like, well, wait a couple hours and then call us back. Like they're, they're very being, being very casual. And she's like, she doesn't know the area. She didn't have anything on her. What the hell's going on? And they were very flippant about it. And we're like, let me try to track things down. Call me in a couple hours, which is like, can you imagine waiting for your child for a couple of hours? And then, and then she said, you know, I, she doesn't know the area and she's in a depressive state. So she probably had some clue, you know, that something was triggering. So at 530 that morning, a homeowner in Cold Canyon, which is right next to the actual Santa Monica Mountain Canyon called Lost Hills to say that

there was a prowler walking around. He told the dispatcher that the prowler had been sitting kind of sprawled out on these wooden steps in the back of the house, but had disappeared into the surrounding wilderness. And other neighbors said that they heard and saw my trees either leaving or attempting to enter the man's home. And that they heard loud screams in a vacant home around the time that she went missing. But they searched the area and didn't find anything. And later, they searched the area. They called the police. I don't know if they came. That was the last time my trees was seen alive. She disappeared into the Santa Monica Mountains. And for five months, the Lost Hills, so she disappeared. Super crazy wilderness gone with only her clothes that she

had on t-shirt jeans, sneakers. So for five months, Lost Hills insisted that there was no surveillance tape of the police station because they wanted to see this, you know, like what happened when did she leave what state was she in. But they miraculously found the tape five months later sitting on a desk. According to my tree's mother, the tape shows her daughter in an obvious psychological distress inside the intake towel. So she clutches, quote, she clutches at the mesh screening and is rocking side to side like a small child says a cousin of hers. But a spokesperson for the department said about releasing her, she exhibited no signs of mental illness or intoxication. She was fine. She's an adult. Okay, but you don't let them go without a

fucking wallet or cell phone. Yeah, none of this makes sense. Like it doesn't add up. Is she an adult? Then what's like, then why are you treating her? Why would you lock her purse away? Yeah. And not answer questions to her parents. Okay. Don't worry, it gets worse. Okay. Like it always does. So the station log shows that my tree's made for phone calls to her grandmother, but AT&T phone records don't reflect those calls for whatever reason. So the surveillance tape also shows a deputy leaving the station right after my tree's was released, like leaving towards where she was going. But the deputy maintained that he wasn't at the station before the tapes were released. He said he wasn't there that night. Then when he's caught in his lie,

he stated, the night this nonsense happened, I was one of the guys that kept away from this, minding my own business, which is like what that insinuates that something was going on that you kept out of. Yes. Well, also, it's your job to be at the police station and take care of the people that are at the police station. That's not nonsense. Right. That's your job of a person's in distress. This isn't, this is a person that is in mental distress. Well, the nonsense could have been, you know, the actions police took when she got there, whatever happened to her there. If anything happened to her there, I'm speculating. So that's the nonsense he could have been talking about, you know what I mean? So three, it wasn't until three months later, January 2010,

that Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department conducted, so three months later, conducts one of the largest scale searches in the history of the department. Over 300 volunteers trained in search and rescue, participate in the 18 square mile search of the area of Malibu Canyon and the hills of Malibu Creek State Park. They find racially and sexually offensive graffiti on the walls of a culvert in the canyon. The graffiti was freshly painted and the paint can's brushes and other potential evidence was left at the scene. And Matrice wasn't found. Finally, almost a year after she disappeared from the station, in August 2010, park rangers who were looking to see if marijuana growers had returned to dark canyon, they stumble on Matrice's naked, mummified body. She was in a

very secluded creek bed in Malibu Canyon. With the clothes she was wearing the night she disappeared scattered around. Oh, so they were had been taken off? Yeah. Or she took them off. Now here's the most fucked up thing. Okay. Okay. Deputies by protocol should have waited for the coroner to arrive so that Matrice's remains could be photographed, the site inspected for clues and the crime scene established. Instead, against orders by the coroner who later said that he, quote, was very clear with officials, the deputies bagged Richardson's remains and airlifted them by helicopter. Whoa. Before the coroner could even get there. Whoa. This is okay. The coroner said that he could not think of another case in which police agency had moved entire skeletal remains without

coroner's approval. To prove this point, months later, Matrice's mother to, so I can, so this is proof, how badly it was done. Matrice's mother was visiting the site where her daughter's body was found and found a finger bone that belonged to Matrice left behind in the dirt. Oh my god. I think there's an article that they're with her and they find that. That's insane. Finds in the spot. Oh look and digs out a fucking finger bone that had been left behind because the proper people didn't. Did they eventually prove it really was hers? Yeah, it was hers for sure. And there have also been small toe bones, finger and vertebrae found left behind. And also the bones from her neck, there's bones from her neck, foot and hand missing from her body, her remains. So.

What? Yeah. The fuck. This was such a crazy case because I followed it step by step. So her leaving, I was like, what happened? And everyone was like, what could have happened to her? And then you see the video, the surveillance video and you're like, oh, that's some shady shit. Then they find her body and then the bones are fucked. It's just like, it just keeps getting worse. Yeah. So the disturbance made it so that the coroner was unable to determine how she died. Right. I think that would be the idea. Right. And the jeans, belt and black bra that were discovered a few feet from her body, they were found, but they were not tested for signs of foul play and were buried along with her. So they weren't tested for any DNA, any ripping or anything that

would have. Uh-huh. This is like that thing. It just reminds me of where you don't know what any things you need to be in place until you realize they're not in place. So it's like, once a coroner tells people don't move that body and the police airlift the body away, shouldn't then those police be frozen in no longer, they're no longer active duty in this case because they're clearly hiding something. Like there should be protocol for the coroner to then go to some other police chief. Yeah. And this is where, so this article I was gonna, that I got a lot of info on, it's a Newsweek article by Alexander Nazarion, who this article is really great because he talks a lot about the LAPD corruption and why this could have taken place

and they were like rampant racism that was going on at the time to a point where, you know, the second in command is going to prison for 15 years because of corruption. So it's incredibly corrupt. There's like, you know, rampant anti, rampant racism. And so he tells, I don't talk about a lot in this, but he tells background of why this is so obvious and you know, could have happened this way. When you, and I think most people that are into true crime watched the ESPN 30 by 30 of Jay Simpson, that part of the Daryl Gates era of the LAPD was so shocking and eye-opening to me. And it going all the way back to the riots in the 60s, it's just so crazy how long this has been a humongous problem in Los Angeles that has never,

that hasn't been solved or even really addressed. Yeah. No, for sure. And it's, it's not, not happening anymore. You know, it's, it hasn't changed at all. No, no, it's just hidden better. And, you know, we've, we've put a bandaid over some of the things to make it look less horrifying, but it's still there. In LA, and I'm sure a lot of other cities specifically, the cards are stacked against you if you're not white and you don't have money. Yes. And you're, you know, the cards are stacked against you. You're not, you don't start at zero sum. Yes. At all. Yeah. And I, yeah, I don't, you know, I don't want to forget that as someone who lives here and knows that I'm fucking privileged as shit to be wearing that.

Well, and also just, we don't have to think about totally how bad it could be. I mean, this is like, this is like saying you can't be mentally ill or you will just be almost literally thrown to the wolves. Right. It's insanity. Yeah. And what did happen to her at that police station, then it opens up that whole door. The mental illness thing is incredible because it's like, you should have taken her and admitted her for psychiatric treatment because she was mentally unstable and unsound to make her own decisions. And not only did you not do that and keep her in prison or keep her in jail until her mother could come or someone could come, you let her out without money, without a jacket, without any, you knew she wasn't going

to get anywhere. It's not like she could have hitchhiked or maybe she did hitchhike and that's what happened, but it's, they're still culpable. Right. Well, yeah, also what's the, if you know, see that's the thing is this isn't just a random person that they don't know and like, well too bad for you and you're an adult. Yeah. There's someone contacting you, telling you what the situation is, telling you there are concerns and you still do the thing against that person's wishes. That's what makes, leads me to believe something else was taking place because why would you hide, why would you say, we just let her go and she left and it's not our problem. She's an adult. It makes, that feels like cover up. Well, it's so crazy. The mom specifically was like,

she doesn't know the area and I don't want her to get killed. Yes. But what's so frustrating to me listening to the tape of her mother calling is like this feeling of nobody, like, I think a lot about when you call the cops and they don't help you, what do you, you can't call the cops again. Right. On like, that's your last. Yes. That's your last, that's supposed to be the last option is you call the cops and they help you. Yeah. But it's so sad to be like the minute, the minute they told her to wait two hours and she hung up the phone. I picture her in her house and her family having to wait two hours. Yeah. That's insane. Yeah. And she's not a runaway. You know, you let, you guys let her out and the minute they're like, oh shit, they're, then they're culpable

and they're open for her. When also it doesn't make sense because it's like, oh, if you're going to treat this person like, oh, there, look, she went to a restaurant, she ate $80 for the food and she couldn't pay for it. And we arrested her. Okay. Got it. Yeah. All of that makes sense to me. Yeah. It is illegal to do that thing. And there, but there, then you learn there are extenuating circumstances and it, so clearly it wasn't that big of a crime to you if you just released her the next day. Right. So you didn't, there, this isn't, you're not holding her for robbery or what would that be? You're not holding her. That's not stealing. Well, when I, when I was a teen, you know, like in seventh grade and got caught stealing, you know, they give you

a ticket, like they ticket you like copwood. Yeah. And you move on, you know? Yeah. It's like, why didn't that just happen? Well, it's because they've been searched her car and found, you know. But then they're not holding her for drugs. They're not holding her for liquor. No, because she took a sobriety test and she passed. Yeah. Fuck. It doesn't, it's just like you can't, you can't justify the police action in this because it nothing is adding up to this is a criminal. And so we treated her like a criminal. It's like, you know, this is a person, this is say a criminal who ate $80 worth of food that she couldn't pay for in a manic episode where people do way crazier shit. Well, yeah, we talked about Elisa Lamb and how that could have been what,

how she got in the water tank, which, you know, if you compare these two cases, it's like, yeah, you do crazy shit when you're going through a manic episode. Yes. But also, the lost, I feel like you're talking about, we're talking about a police department or a police, yeah, police department lost Hills that deals mostly with rich white people upset about something. They don't know how to deal with something like this. And so they, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. So that, I think that makes a big difference. It's not like it was, you know, the Hollywood police department, which also wouldn't have been as big of a deal because if they let around Hollywood, she'd have fucking places to go. Well, and also I would think that they would be much more used

to dealing with people with mental illness, the Hollywood police department, like there's that one on Wilcox that's just like never not hopped day and night. There's somebody pulling in or pulling out of that. Because that's my, that's my sneak up to get out of Hollywood and go home. Don't tell anyone the sneaks Wilcox. That's my sneak at Wilcox, man. That's like, that's the North South fountain. Yeah. But totally. But I mean, like, you're right. It's like, it's almost like a privileged police department because they don't have that much happening there. So they don't have experience with these sorts of things. And when they do, it's like some crazily rich drunk white woman or Mel Gibson who's like, fuck you or Mel Gibson who, or I

think, oh, didn't also they pull over Reese with their spin and she said, do you know who I am? Is that I bet you're right. I'm pretty sure that happened in Malibu. Yeah. Anyway, whatever. That's that kind of thing of like, everyone's kind of living up to this certain. So it's suddenly like, Oh, there's a black girl that ate, ate food she couldn't pay for. And she's acting a little bonkers. Yeah. So now we're going to treat her like the criminal she is. Well, okay. But then that means you would that that would mean process her in a criminal way that keeps her safe at least that the thing of the mom going, please don't let her go. That's just we have to get plumbers. So my beautiful new house is now having plumbing problems.

Is everybody? They don't know. But I hope that's not a ghost. It's just plumbing problems. It just suddenly starts like gloob, like it's about to overflow with like fucking with racial tension. All right. Yes, all of that is correct. They find her body. All these bones are missing. They can't determine how she died. And then her shit's not tested for foul play. Okay, then there's no explanation given for why investigators were never able to find her vans, sneakers, or her t-shirt that she was wearing when she disappeared. So her jeans, belt and black bra were there, which is like, you could be like, well, animals came and got them. But it's like, why would they pick a pair of shoes and a t-shirt and not all this other stuff? And her body wasn't messed with. It's not.

Right. Also, that makes me think of I did those stories about the deaths on Mount Hood. I mean, was no Crater Lake, the Crater Lake stories I did in Portland. And one of them, there was a guy that they found his body like years later, and it was a skeleton sitting in jeans. Like jeans don't just come off. It's not that animals can't take your jeans off. Right. Right. Yes. Animals can't take your jeans off is what Steven's writing down right now. I can tell. Don't think about what he's sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. We need a like a booth to put him in where we can't see him. But also, going back to the Lisa Lam thing, she took her clothes off too. Right. That's the thing that that happens to manic people. Yeah. And, you know, I think another thing people understand is how

fucking cold it gets in them. I know LA is like warm all the time, but in the mountains in LA, and especially in Malibu by the ocean. You're next to the ocean. Really fucking cold. It's cold. So maybe she was having hypothermia, which is a thing that they take their clothes off, but then why wouldn't they have found the rest of them, you know, traced her the trail she took and found the other stuff. Okay. My Teresa's parents have maintained that their daughter should never have been released on her own by the sheriff's department. They filed several lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for releasing her from jail, even though they claim she was experiencing severe bipolar disorder at the time. In 2011, they won a civil lawsuit against

the county. However, two reports by the Office of Independent Review found the LAPD not culpable from my Teresa's death, deeming it was not, it was not a homicide and there was no foul play. Then why did they airlift the fucking body against the coroner's wishes? And the coroner couldn't say how she died. So how can you definitely definitively say it was a homicide? It was not a homicide. Yeah, because yeah, you don't have that report. Yeah. Well, you don't have the neck bones to test to see if she was choked to death because you fucking left them behind. Yeah, it's months later. Yeah. The body has been out there for months. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. No, so I'm yelling at you. You're the one that told me the story. And they also

clear, they were also cleared of any wrongdoing in how to how it handled the discovery of her remains. So they were like, and also, it's fine. Okay. Sounds great. Rhonda Hampton, who's the woman that Alexander Nazarion from the Newsweek article, it kind of goes around with and interviews her. She was a psychologist at one time in an office where my Teresa interned. So she's really devoted to finding answers. She's just this really awesome woman. She filed a dozen complaints about the various deputies involved. In my Teresa's case, nine of these were registered with the Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, but they are treating them as instead of let's see, they're treating them as service complaints, not matters of potential criminality, which is

like they're just belittling them, or minimizing them. On December 30th, 2016, which is recently, results of the criminal investigation into the handling of my Teresa's case concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support criminal prosecution of anyone involved in the handling of the case. In either way, the statute of limitations for concealment or tampering of evidence like the surveillance tapes had passed. Wow. The end. Wow. The end. I mean, that sucks. Yeah, that's just straight up chit-tastic and I mean, Pac-Man. It's such a good story, right? It's so important. Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, I am Erin Welsh and I'm Erin Almond Updike. Of this podcast will kill you. Yeah. If you haven't listened yet

to our podcast, we talk about diseases. If you like murders, you'll probably like diseases too. New episodes come out every other Tuesday, so wherever you get your podcasts, that's where you can find us. Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of overlap. We kind of go into the biology, we go into the history, and we go into the current status of all kinds of diseases. We do some infectious, now we're doing some chronic, now we're doing some heavy metals. You know, there's kind of something for everyone. Yeah. We think so. We're biased, but we think so. Well, this was incredible fun. If you had told me four years ago that we would be guest hosting my favorite murder, there's no way. I would have believed you. No, I still am not sure it's real, quite honestly.

Yeah. Anyway, well, this is the best part, the absolute best, my true dream come true. Stay sexy. I don't get murdered. Yeah. Amazing. Oh, man. Elvis, do you want a cookie?