Missing Watts woman's family launches campaign for federal investigation

The family of a Watts woman missing for over two months since her release from the sheriff's Malibu-Lost Hills Station has launched a campaign today for a federal investigation into her disappearance.

Mitrice Richardson's family plans to seek support for a federal probe from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters. Waters' 35th Congressional District includes much of South Central Los Angeles and adjacent communities.

"I spent Thanksgiving without my only daughter – my only child, Mitrice," Michael Richardson said in a statement. "Congresswoman Waters has always been willing to speak up for the under-served and mistreated and today that includes Mitrice and her family.

"Mitrice deserves better and we need Congresswoman Waters' help," Michael Richardson said.

Today is the 76th day of her disappearance, according to Richardson family spokeswoman Jasmyne Cannick.

Mitrice Richardson, 24, was arrested Sept. 16 at Geoffrey's restaurant in Malibu, where the owner said she was acting strangely and was unable to pay her $89 bill.

Sheriff's deputies found a small amount of marijuana in her car. The Cal State Fullerton graduate, who passed a sobriety test, was booked at the sheriff's station for failing to pay her bill, then released about 1:25 a.m., according to the sheriff's department.

Her 1990 Honda Civic was impounded, and she walked away from the station with no purse or cell phone.

A homeowner on Cold Canyon Road reported a woman resting her yard about 6:30 a.m., but when deputies arrived, the woman was gone.

The missing woman's mother said she believes her daughter was in a "manic state of mind" because she was sending "erratic" text messages to family and friends the afternoon of Sept. 16.

Richardson is black, 5 feet 5 inches and about 125 pounds with tattoos on her lower abdomen and behind her neck. She was last seen wearing a brown Bob Marley T-shirt and blue jeans.