FBI To Examine Remains Of Mitrice Richardson

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The FBI will examine the remains of a California woman who was found in a Los Angeles County canyon nearly a year after she vanished upon release from a sheriff's jail.

Sheriff Lee Baca tells the Los Angeles Times that the skeletal remains of Mitrice Richardson will be exhumed and sent to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va. Baca says he's responding to the wishes of the family, which has criticized his department's handling of the case.

Richardson was arrested by deputies in September 2009 for failing to pay a dinner bill in Malibu. She disappeared without her cell phone or car after being released from a sheriff's station. Her remains were found 11 months later in Malibu Canyon.

The coroner couldn't determine the cause of death.

The county later ruled that deputies followed policy and acted properly.

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