Latest / Hell and Gone: Murder Line / Lost in Lost Hills

Transcript

Lost in Lost Hills · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

0:08
Speaker 1: School of Humans. It's Friday night, and we're driving down
0:26
Speaker 1: the Pacific Coast Highway that winds through Malibu toward the
0:29
Speaker 1: blue neon glow of Jeoffrey's Restaurant. On September sixteenth, two
0:34
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, twenty four year old my Trees Richardson
0:38
Speaker 1: took this same route in her nineteen ninety eight Honda Civic.
0:42
Speaker 1: She went inside the restaurant and ordered a Kobe's Steak
0:45
Speaker 1: and a sea breeze. Many diners and restaurant workers noted
0:50
Speaker 1: her behavior as quote off. Before the night was over,
0:56
Speaker 1: my Trees found herself in a Lost Hills Sheriff's Department
0:59
Speaker 1: holding cell. The officers who took her to jail drove
1:06
Speaker 1: way past the strip of sand called Billionaire Beach, home
1:10
Speaker 1: to CEOs and Hollywood Royalty. My Trees was in the
1:15
Speaker 1: back of the cruiser as it curved sharply into the
1:17
Speaker 1: Santa Monica Mountains, near the gated communities of Calabasas that
1:22
Speaker 1: Kim Kardashian West and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith call home.
1:26
Speaker 1: But it's a long way from the surfers and the
1:29
Speaker 1: celebrity hotspots up here. The roads have no shoulders, and
1:34
Speaker 1: steep drop offs. Her final destination was the Lost Hills
1:38
Speaker 1: Sheriff Station in the middle of nowhere, and that's where
1:44
Speaker 1: on Thursday at twelve fifteen am, My Trees was released. Now,
1:50
Speaker 1: this is the same sheriffs station where mel Gibson was
1:53
Speaker 1: arrested for drunk driving. Even after a drunken rant, officers
1:57
Speaker 1: safely drove Meil back to his car when he sobered up.
2:01
Speaker 1: There was no courtesy ride for My Trees, the young
2:04
Speaker 1: African American woman with no famous last name. She was
2:08
Speaker 1: released into the pitch black night and had no car,
2:11
Speaker 1: no cell phone, no money. She was forty miles from
2:17
Speaker 1: home and had no way of getting back. My Trees
2:21
Speaker 1: disappeared into the darkness and was never seen alive again.
2:25
Speaker 1: To this day, no one knows what happened to My Trees.
2:30
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone. So Catherine, where
3:12
Speaker 1: are we going. We're going to Inglewood Cemetery and we're
3:15
Speaker 1: going to talk to doctor Ronda Hampton at my Teresa's
3:20
Speaker 1: grave site, because today is the anniversary of the day
3:24
Speaker 1: that she disappeared. Take the next right onto East Florence Avenue.
3:29
Speaker 1: Then your destination will be on the right, Sorry, excuse me.
3:38
Speaker 1: Inglewood Cemetery is located right next to the airport. The
3:43
Speaker 1: cemetery is huge, so huge that it's divided by two
3:47
Speaker 1: way streets, beautiful, peaceful lots of palm tree line streets.
3:51
Speaker 1: My Teresa's plot is located on fair Haven. Today, some
3:57
Speaker 1: of her friends and loved ones have gathered to remember her. Oh.
4:02
Speaker 1: Doctor Ronda Hampton organized the event today. Doctor Ronda is
4:06
Speaker 1: a clinical psychologist who first met my Trees in two
4:09
Speaker 1: thousand and six when My Trees was her intern. This
4:12
Speaker 1: is where my Trees is laid to rest and next
4:19
Speaker 1: to her great grandmother and her uncle. She's buried next
4:23
Speaker 1: to her uncle who was shot and killed by police
4:25
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty six, and her great grandmother Mildred, who
4:29
Speaker 1: my trace was living with when she went missing. Okay,
4:32
Speaker 1: let's see this all right. Dear Father, God, would come
4:34
Speaker 1: before you and we thank you that this is the
4:37
Speaker 1: day that you have made. We are accepting Father, what
4:42
Speaker 1: has happened to my Trees, but we are not accepting Father,
4:47
Speaker 1: that justice is has happened. So Father, we're praying for
4:53
Speaker 1: today that this would be a reminder for us that
4:57
Speaker 1: we will all continue to work together to push forward
5:02
Speaker 1: for justice, and even though the road becomes hard and difficult,
5:07
Speaker 1: we thank you that we can rely upon your strength.
5:11
Speaker 1: Doctor Ronda and mourners have brought dozens of sunflowers, my
5:15
Speaker 1: Teresa's favorite. She sets up a memorial display with my
5:18
Speaker 1: Teresa's graduation photo, and she brought gift bags for anyone
5:22
Speaker 1: coming by today featuring the Justice for my Terre's logo,
5:26
Speaker 1: a sunflower with a butterfly inside her masks, a sign
5:30
Speaker 1: of the COVID times, and sunflower seeds. Anytime I see sunflowers,
5:34
Speaker 1: that always makes me happy, I think because because my
5:37
Speaker 1: trees love the flowers. And then when I see some
5:39
Speaker 1: flowers for her, then it makes me feel really happy.
5:44
Speaker 1: And actually I've been really scared to come to her
5:49
Speaker 1: her sight. I don't even know why. Yeah, and this
5:53
Speaker 1: is the first time you've been here since yeah, since
5:57
Speaker 1: the service. Yeah, I don't know. This is the first
6:02
Speaker 1: time that Ronda has been to my Teresa's grave site
6:05
Speaker 1: since the day they buried her. And that is a
6:08
Speaker 1: day she doesn't want to remember. And on that day,
6:12
Speaker 1: you know, like it's not done, you know what I mean,
6:14
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, here we're burying her. It was like
6:17
Speaker 1: a circus. It was like a media circus to begin
6:20
Speaker 1: with no respect for her whatsoever, you know, Like the
6:23
Speaker 1: sheriffs were talking shit. It's like, come on, let her
6:26
Speaker 1: just be buried, you know. So that was just very frustrating.
6:30
Speaker 1: And then and then on the day of her funeral,
6:35
Speaker 1: I so this is what happened. I asked the forensic
6:38
Speaker 1: anthropologist that was volunteering that whenever, whenever we found my
6:43
Speaker 1: Teresa's body, would she come and do like an autopsy. Right,
6:49
Speaker 1: So when she was found, then I called her and
6:51
Speaker 1: I said, they found her. The thing is, she was
6:54
Speaker 1: in England at the time, so she had to She says,
6:57
Speaker 1: the way. The only day I can get back is
7:00
Speaker 1: on September seventeenth, And that was the day that the
7:04
Speaker 1: service was already planned, so like only hours before her funeral.
7:08
Speaker 1: She uh was doing the autopsy just hours before. So
7:14
Speaker 1: then right when the service was gonna start, right then,
7:18
Speaker 1: that's when I get the phone call. Right, her body
7:22
Speaker 1: had not been analyzed, her clothing were in the body bag,
7:27
Speaker 1: clothing in the body bag, her body had not been analyzed.
7:30
Speaker 1: And apologist is like, we gotta figure out what to do, right,
7:33
Speaker 1: So we got like five minutes to make a decision.
7:39
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do. I was at the church.
7:43
Speaker 1: Everybody's rolling in. Yeah, so we were like, okay, so
7:47
Speaker 1: we're just gonna have We're just gonna have to bury
7:50
Speaker 1: because we were It's like if they would put her
7:54
Speaker 1: clothing in the body bag to be buried, you know
7:59
Speaker 1: that they're trying to high. So we had so we
8:03
Speaker 1: had to We just had to have the funeral. So
8:05
Speaker 1: all the time we're sitting there or I don't even
8:09
Speaker 1: think I told her mom. I think I just had
8:11
Speaker 1: to wait, like just sitting there. It's like, okay, so
8:13
Speaker 1: we're just gonna let this uner what happens. So I'm preoccupied.
8:17
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking about none of this. I'm thinking about
8:21
Speaker 1: Colin Lee Baka in the corners and like what the fuck?
8:26
Speaker 1: So all that, I'm not even thinking about it, none
8:31
Speaker 1: of it. Sitting in the church, pissed off, right, Yeah,
8:37
Speaker 1: so that's what happened on that day. So no, that
8:39
Speaker 1: was not a beautiful day or whatever. I was there
8:42
Speaker 1: a p occupied, getting the hell out of here and
8:44
Speaker 1: just jamming up whoever needed to be jammed up. I've
8:49
Speaker 1: been following my Teresa's case for a long time. I
8:52
Speaker 1: first heard about it in late two thousand and nine
8:54
Speaker 1: when I was living in LA and I remember seeing
8:57
Speaker 1: a mention of the search in Malibu. The story seems
9:00
Speaker 1: so strange, a woman who had been arrested, then let
9:03
Speaker 1: go in the middle of the night, and then vanished
9:05
Speaker 1: without I was actually working and training as a PI
9:08
Speaker 1: during that time in Agra Hills, so I would have
9:11
Speaker 1: to make the drive through the Calabasas area. I remember
9:14
Speaker 1: seeing people holding signs and wearing have you seen my
9:17
Speaker 1: Tree's t? Shirts. According to news reports, there were multiple
9:21
Speaker 1: searches by police in Malibu, by the LAPD, and by
9:25
Speaker 1: hundreds of volunteers, but then the story just seemed to disappear.
9:30
Speaker 1: I never even knew that her remains had been found.
9:34
Speaker 1: When I first read about my Teresa's story, it was
9:36
Speaker 1: kind of presented as a girl who may have been
9:38
Speaker 1: on drugs or on the streets, or possibly wandered into
9:41
Speaker 1: the woods and was suicidal. As it turns out, it
9:44
Speaker 1: wasn't like that at all. My Teres was a young
9:47
Speaker 1: woman with a caring family who was vulnerable on one night,
9:51
Speaker 1: and the people around her wanted her to be safe.
9:54
Speaker 1: Then she went to what should have been the safest
9:56
Speaker 1: place in the world the Lost Hills Sheriff Station, and
9:59
Speaker 1: then just vanished. Another thing that interested me about the
10:02
Speaker 1: area where this took place was the fact that it's
10:04
Speaker 1: very remote. People have this misconception that this area is
10:07
Speaker 1: buzzing because it's close to Malibu Beach in the Hollywood hangouts,
10:12
Speaker 1: but the truth is, once you turn up toward the canyon,
10:15
Speaker 1: the areas around there are cut off from anywhere you're
10:18
Speaker 1: in the mountains within a couple of minutes up there.
10:21
Speaker 1: It's all horse trails and very remote neighborhoods that are
10:24
Speaker 1: cut off from the surrounding world by the Santa Monica
10:26
Speaker 1: Mountains and the nearby communities of Agora Hills and Simi
10:30
Speaker 1: Valley are also very different from Malibu and Los Angeles.
10:34
Speaker 1: They're small town, predominantly white, very conservative, and heavily populated
10:38
Speaker 1: by people who work in law enforcement. Side note, the
10:43
Speaker 1: community of Simi Valley was the home of two of
10:45
Speaker 1: the Ventura County jurors who acquitted the police officers who
10:49
Speaker 1: beat Rodney King in nineteen ninety two, triggering the La riots,
10:54
Speaker 1: and in the past couple of years there have been
10:57
Speaker 1: several mysterious deaths in the area. In January twenty seventeen,
11:02
Speaker 1: twenty year old a Lane Park had a date night
11:04
Speaker 1: with her boyfriend. He said she left in the early
11:07
Speaker 1: morning hours the next day. Her car was found abandoned
11:11
Speaker 1: on Pacific Coast Highway a few days later, but she
11:14
Speaker 1: was never seen again. Then, in twenty eighteen, Tristan Bodett,
11:20
Speaker 1: a young father of two, was shot while sleeping in
11:23
Speaker 1: his tent in the Santa Monica National Park campground. A
11:28
Speaker 1: drifter named Anthony Rauta has been charged with Bodet's murder,
11:32
Speaker 1: but there have been many other mysterious shootings in the area,
11:35
Speaker 1: and a lot of people believe that Rauta is not
11:37
Speaker 1: responsible for all of them. But what's so odd to
11:42
Speaker 1: me about my Teres's case is the fact that you
11:44
Speaker 1: can disappear so close to one of the most star
11:47
Speaker 1: studded and populated places in the world. When my Terce
11:57
Speaker 1: was taking the drive that night, she had a lot
11:59
Speaker 1: on her mind. For the past several months, her life
12:03
Speaker 1: had been in transition. She was interning with Ronda and
12:07
Speaker 1: looking at graduate schools. Before we went to the cemetery
12:11
Speaker 1: with Ronda, we gave her a call to get her
12:14
Speaker 1: perspective on the case. She's been investigating my Teresa's death
12:18
Speaker 1: for over ten years or else. Oh hi, doctor Hampton, Hi,
12:24
Speaker 1: how are you. I'm good? Thank you for talking to me.
12:27
Speaker 1: Ronda says she will never forget the first day that
12:30
Speaker 1: my ries walked into her office. What was she like? So,
12:35
Speaker 1: my Trees, I have to tell you when. Okay, So
12:39
Speaker 1: I kind of had a little bit of an attitude
12:41
Speaker 1: taking on an intern. I really didn't want to. My
12:43
Speaker 1: daughter was just starting school that week, first grade, and
12:48
Speaker 1: I just was really not interested in supervising someone because
12:50
Speaker 1: it's quite you know, it's a bit of a responsibility, right,
12:53
Speaker 1: And so on the very first day that she came
12:57
Speaker 1: into my office was the first day that my daughter
12:59
Speaker 1: started school, right, So I, you know, come rushing into
13:04
Speaker 1: the office and she was already there. But I'll tell
13:06
Speaker 1: you when I fell in love with her. I in
13:08
Speaker 1: between clients, I overheard her talking to someone else over
13:11
Speaker 1: the phone. Now I don't actually recall who it was,
13:15
Speaker 1: but she was very clear in saying, well, this is
13:18
Speaker 1: doctor Hampston's office and this is how she runs things.
13:21
Speaker 1: And you know, I will take your you know, your message,
13:24
Speaker 1: and I will pose it onto her, but she was
13:26
Speaker 1: very stern and the way she said it, and I
13:28
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, car she was just like
13:32
Speaker 1: laying down the law. Its very in a very very
13:34
Speaker 1: respectful manner, but really firm. So I absolutely I was
13:38
Speaker 1: like just double take, like, way, who are we? And
13:43
Speaker 1: a couple hours later I had a break and then
13:45
Speaker 1: you know, we just it was just you know, it
13:50
Speaker 1: was on, you know, and I was I had graduated
13:53
Speaker 1: from cal State Polishes, so we had that in common.
13:55
Speaker 1: And and she was just smart as a whip, so
13:58
Speaker 1: it was nothing to kind of just really take her
14:01
Speaker 1: under my wing and you know, just show her everything
14:04
Speaker 1: that I possible it could. Yeah, she seemed like an
14:08
Speaker 1: amazing She seemed like a really amazing person. The good thing.
14:14
Speaker 1: She really was. And it's hard to you know, you
14:16
Speaker 1: hear that stuff all the time, but it's like she
14:18
Speaker 1: was so dynamic, you know, just just smart and very
14:23
Speaker 1: pleasant and very very cheerful and you know, just respectful
14:28
Speaker 1: and and inquisitive like all those things. And and and
14:32
Speaker 1: also I learned very quickly that she definitely was uh
14:36
Speaker 1: going to be a better therapist than than me. And
14:40
Speaker 1: she had much more compassion natural combassion than I do
14:54
Speaker 1: the week My Trees disappeared, she had scheduled lunch with
14:57
Speaker 1: Ronda to talk about her grad school application. She wanted
15:01
Speaker 1: to become a child psychologist, but until then she was
15:04
Speaker 1: working to pay the bill. She worked a clerical job
15:07
Speaker 1: with a shipping company, and on Friday nights she was
15:10
Speaker 1: a go go dancer at an LGBT club in Long
15:13
Speaker 1: Beach called Deborah's. My Trees lived with her great grandmother, Mildred,
15:17
Speaker 1: in Inglewood, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles near lax.
15:22
Speaker 1: Her father, Michael Richardson, had not been around much during
15:25
Speaker 1: My Teresa's childhood, but she grew up. They started to
15:28
Speaker 1: rebuild their relationship and they were in touch regularly. When
15:32
Speaker 1: My Trees disappeared. My Trees had also recently come out
15:36
Speaker 1: as a lesbian, and she started dating a boxer named Tessa.
15:39
Speaker 1: Tessa and My Trees had broken up in the spring.
15:42
Speaker 1: My Trees reportedly became fixated on a woman named Vanessa,
15:46
Speaker 1: who was a regular at Deborah's, but Vanessa wasn't interested.
15:52
Speaker 1: But My Trees also appeared to be suffering from some
15:54
Speaker 1: mental health issues. After her disappearance, her mom, Lettie Sutton,
15:59
Speaker 1: went through My Teresa's social media posts and what she
16:02
Speaker 1: found there was disturbing. On my my Trees had posted
16:08
Speaker 1: have you ever woke up at seven am crying on
16:10
Speaker 1: a Saturday? Because now that you see the light, you
16:13
Speaker 1: see all the people lost in the dark. Welcome to
16:16
Speaker 1: my reality. In the days before her disappearance, my Teres
16:22
Speaker 1: wrote on Facebook that she was not sleeping and her
16:25
Speaker 1: thoughts appeared to be becoming more and more erratic and
16:28
Speaker 1: had a kind of manic energy. Then on the day
16:32
Speaker 1: she went missing, her boss said that she showed up
16:35
Speaker 1: for work in a good mood. She went out for
16:37
Speaker 1: lunch but didn't come back. This was totally out of
16:41
Speaker 1: character for her. Then my Teres went back to her
16:45
Speaker 1: great grandmother's house in Inglewood. She had some business cards
16:50
Speaker 1: printed up with her dancer name Hazel on them, and
16:53
Speaker 1: she pasted them all over the windows of the house.
16:56
Speaker 1: After my Trees left that afternoon, my Teresa's aunt, Lauren,
16:59
Speaker 1: found that she'd also left a strange note on her
17:02
Speaker 1: husband's windshield with some nonsensical writing and the words black
17:06
Speaker 1: woman scorned. Ronda also said my Trees had visited an
17:11
Speaker 1: old professor of hers that day. The day before my
17:15
Speaker 1: trees went missing. She had shown up to her old
17:21
Speaker 1: college professor's office. So this is a woman who she really,
17:25
Speaker 1: you know, liked a lot, so showed up and the
17:27
Speaker 1: office staff told her My treats like, you know, she's
17:31
Speaker 1: not going to be out for a while because she
17:32
Speaker 1: was teaching a class. My treets waited there for a
17:36
Speaker 1: long time, and then eventually the professor came and the professor,
17:40
Speaker 1: I know because I talked to the professor. The professor
17:43
Speaker 1: thought that my truf was acting odd. So she walked
17:46
Speaker 1: the trees over to and to a psychologist that you know,
17:51
Speaker 1: was in the same dome with her, in the hopes
17:54
Speaker 1: that this person would get my treat some help. And
17:56
Speaker 1: my treeth kind of picked up on it, and she
17:58
Speaker 1: ran away and said, okay, that's fine, I'm just going
18:00
Speaker 1: to go be with my friends. So she left and
18:02
Speaker 1: then she met up with her friends and she was
18:04
Speaker 1: crying because, you know, the progressor didn't believe her and
18:07
Speaker 1: thought that something was wrong with her. So everybody was
18:10
Speaker 1: picking up on that something was wrong with her. She
18:12
Speaker 1: was just acting on and she was posting on Facebook
18:15
Speaker 1: all kinds of odd things, probably for twenty four hours straight,
18:19
Speaker 1: constantly posting, and so one of the things that she posted,
18:23
Speaker 1: or I don't remember, she posted this a toll on
18:25
Speaker 1: her friends. I'd have to look at my notes, but
18:27
Speaker 1: that the ocean was calling her, and so we believe
18:30
Speaker 1: that that's why she went to Malibu, because the ocean
18:33
Speaker 1: was calling her. We're driving out to Jeffrey's to retrace
18:38
Speaker 1: my Teresa's steps the night she went missing. Yeah, so
18:42
Speaker 1: right now, we're going to Jeffrey's restaurant in Malibu, which
18:45
Speaker 1: is along the Pacific Coast Highway, and it's the last
18:48
Speaker 1: place where my Terse was. It's where she went the
18:51
Speaker 1: night that she disappeared and where she was arrested and
18:55
Speaker 1: taken into custody. So we're going to go and scope
19:00
Speaker 1: it out, and then we're going to go to the
19:01
Speaker 1: last hill Shriff station. Malibu, California, is one of the
19:04
Speaker 1: most famous cities in the world, known for its spectacular
19:08
Speaker 1: beaches and breathtaking views. It's also home to one of
19:11
Speaker 1: the country's most impressive restaurants, renowned for its natural beauty,
19:16
Speaker 1: impeccable service, and fabulous cuisine. Jeffrey's Malibu, an ocean side
19:21
Speaker 1: dining experience. From the way that my Trees was acting
19:29
Speaker 1: earlier in the day, we know that something wasn't quite right.
19:34
Speaker 1: According to an LA magazine article written by Mike Kessler,
19:37
Speaker 1: when my Trees got to Joffrey's, she did something pretty strange.
19:41
Speaker 1: She got out of her car and into the valet's car.
19:45
Speaker 1: Then the valet, Kenneth Cargle, asked my Trees what she
19:48
Speaker 1: was doing there. She said it's subliminal and then started
19:53
Speaker 1: muttering something about avenging the death of Michael Jackson. Kenneth
19:57
Speaker 1: said he parked her car and when he came back,
20:00
Speaker 1: he noticed that my Rise was still sitting in his
20:02
Speaker 1: car going through a CD collection. Kenneth if he was
20:06
Speaker 1: a music lover. When he said that he was, she
20:09
Speaker 1: said she couldn't figure out how to get his car started.
20:12
Speaker 1: Despite the strange behavior, Kenneth said that my Terse was
20:15
Speaker 1: polite and friendly this entire time. Then my Teres asked
20:18
Speaker 1: Kenneth if he had seen Vanessa, as if he knew
20:21
Speaker 1: the person she was talking about. She told him to
20:24
Speaker 1: keep an eye out for a girl with tattooed arms.
20:27
Speaker 1: Vanessa was most likely the girl that my Teresa's friends
20:30
Speaker 1: and family said she had a crush on my Terce
20:34
Speaker 1: then went to the hostess dan. That's where Caroline Paris
20:37
Speaker 1: was stationed that night. She'd been working at Jeffrey's for
20:40
Speaker 1: a few months. Caroline immediately noticed that my Terse was
20:44
Speaker 1: acting a little strangely. She arrived near the hostess stand
20:48
Speaker 1: where I worked, so I greeted her and asked if
20:52
Speaker 1: she was having dinner with us, and said, you know't
20:57
Speaker 1: let you come over towards me and we'll put your
20:58
Speaker 1: name in the computer because I think she was standing
21:00
Speaker 1: in it a sense, and we'll check you in for dinner.
21:03
Speaker 1: But she didn't. She didn't respond to me, so I
21:08
Speaker 1: went back to the host to stand myself. I think
21:10
Speaker 1: I'd gone up to her and I encouraged her to
21:13
Speaker 1: come with me, but she didn't respond. So I went
21:16
Speaker 1: back to the computer, saw what tables were available, got
21:21
Speaker 1: a menu, and went back to her and said, you know,
21:24
Speaker 1: you can follow me to a table, and she didn't
21:28
Speaker 1: respond again, so I wasn't totally sure. Maybe she was
21:31
Speaker 1: shy or I just led her to a table and
21:34
Speaker 1: told her to enjoy her meal, and that's when she
21:37
Speaker 1: responded for the first time, and she smiled back and
21:39
Speaker 1: said thank you so much. After seating My Trees. The valet, Kenneth,
21:45
Speaker 1: told Caroline that there was something off about My Trees
21:48
Speaker 1: and told her about the odd comments My Trees had
21:50
Speaker 1: made in his car. He also said My Trees had
21:54
Speaker 1: told him she was there to avenge the death of
21:56
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. And the valet told me all this thing
22:00
Speaker 1: that he didn't think she was dangerous. He just thought
22:03
Speaker 1: something was off. That was a word we used that night,
22:06
Speaker 1: if something was just off. So Caroline went over to
22:09
Speaker 1: Jeoffrey's manager and said that they had a customer acting bizarrely.
22:14
Speaker 1: He basically told her not to worry. This was Malibu,
22:17
Speaker 1: which definitely saw it's share of eccentric characters. My Trees
22:22
Speaker 1: sat at her table alone. She ordered an Ocean Breeze
22:25
Speaker 1: cocktail and a Kobe steak. She started to eat, and
22:29
Speaker 1: at some point she joined a large party of seven
22:32
Speaker 1: people who were sitting nearby. Later, I did my rounds,
22:35
Speaker 1: like walking around the tables, and I noticed that she
22:38
Speaker 1: had gotten up from her table and moved to a
22:42
Speaker 1: large party table, a table with several other people, and
22:48
Speaker 1: she was talking and all the people were listening to her.
22:53
Speaker 1: One of the customers got up from the table and
22:56
Speaker 1: as they walked past me, I asked if everything was okay,
22:59
Speaker 1: and they said that they used the word off, so
23:02
Speaker 1: that something was off with the person who joined their table,
23:05
Speaker 1: but she was harming anyone. I just at that point
23:09
Speaker 1: just kept working. I didn't really think anything of it
23:12
Speaker 1: because being in La things often seemed off to me.
23:17
Speaker 1: They were really different than where I was from and Malibu.
23:20
Speaker 1: We would get lots of different people out there, so
23:22
Speaker 1: I just at that point wasn't concerned. And the depositions
23:26
Speaker 1: of the people at the table my Teresa joined, They
23:29
Speaker 1: said my Teresa's behavior was strange, but they said she
23:33
Speaker 1: was friendly and animated. But it was not long before
23:36
Speaker 1: the conversation took a turn for the bizarre. She said
23:39
Speaker 1: she was from Mars and started talking about numerology and
23:42
Speaker 1: how everything was connected. She said a soap opera character
23:45
Speaker 1: had told her to drive there. Her server, Omar Martinez,
23:50
Speaker 1: told Caroline and others that something seemed off. This is
23:53
Speaker 1: the second person after the Valet to make that remark.
23:57
Speaker 1: Omar had asked my Trees where she was from, and
24:00
Speaker 1: he got a different answer from what she told people
24:02
Speaker 1: at the table. Omar suspected my Trees might not pay
24:06
Speaker 1: her bill. He said that he would make sure before
24:10
Speaker 1: she left and let me know that she had paid,
24:12
Speaker 1: and I said okay. He was said Genishal, probably just forget.
24:17
Speaker 1: She might forget. I don't think it's that she doesn't
24:19
Speaker 1: want to like. I think she just might forget to
24:21
Speaker 1: do it, because you know, she's in some kind of
24:23
Speaker 1: distracted state. At some point, the large party paid and left.
24:30
Speaker 1: My Trees got up to leave as well. When she
24:32
Speaker 1: got to the valet, the manager intercepted her and asked
24:35
Speaker 1: her how she planned to pay her eighty nine dollars tab.
24:39
Speaker 1: My Trees seemed surprised and said that the large party
24:42
Speaker 1: should have covered her tab. My Trees then told him
24:45
Speaker 1: that he wasn't understanding the language of numbers. She said,
24:50
Speaker 1: it's okay for me not to pay the bill because
24:52
Speaker 1: the language of numbers, when they coincide like this, it
24:55
Speaker 1: makes sense. At this point, the manager is starting to
25:00
Speaker 1: suspect that something is seriously wrong. He asked her if
25:03
Speaker 1: she had any money in her pockets, and, according to
25:06
Speaker 1: his deposition, Mitrees said, I am busted. She then told
25:10
Speaker 1: him that she was from Mars and made a comment
25:12
Speaker 1: about settling her debt with sex. The manager was really
25:17
Speaker 1: patient with her, and she seems really jovial. She was
25:20
Speaker 1: laughing and joking and very lighthearted and friendly. He then
25:24
Speaker 1: told her that he was going to have to call
25:26
Speaker 1: the police if she couldn't pay for her bill, and
25:29
Speaker 1: she said, okay, Losci Shore Station definish if I can
25:33
Speaker 1: help you, Hi, I'm calling from Jeffrey's Restaurant, Malibu. This
25:37
Speaker 1: is one of the Jeffrey servers on the phone with police.
25:40
Speaker 1: We have a guest here who is refusing to pay
25:43
Speaker 1: her bill, and you think she may she sounds really crazy,
25:46
Speaker 1: she may be on drugs or something. We're wondering if
25:49
Speaker 1: someone to come by and pick her up. And is
25:52
Speaker 1: she a white, Black, Asian Hispanic? She's young black girls,
25:56
Speaker 1: probably in her twenties. Okay, what you're wearing. She's wearing
26:00
Speaker 1: a black T shirt and I think blue jeans with
26:05
Speaker 1: anybody else her With the police on the way, My
26:13
Speaker 1: Trees sat at the bar and then went over to
26:14
Speaker 1: the hostess stand. That's when Caroline had a longer conversation
26:18
Speaker 1: with my Trees. She felt like they had a connection
26:21
Speaker 1: because both of them were in times of transition in
26:23
Speaker 1: their lives. Caroline had recently moved to La to pursue acting,
26:27
Speaker 1: but was realizing that she didn't actually want to do it. Likewise,
26:32
Speaker 1: my Rise was figuring out her next steps in life.
26:35
Speaker 1: That's when we interacted, and no one was with us
26:40
Speaker 1: while we hung out for a few minutes. I asked
26:42
Speaker 1: her her name and she told me it was my
26:44
Speaker 1: Trees and she spelled it. I can still kind of
26:47
Speaker 1: see I can still kind of see her face as
26:51
Speaker 1: she spell I'm sorry, she felt all her name. She
26:57
Speaker 1: smiled really brightly and said, M I t R I C.
27:01
Speaker 1: She said, it's like mitt Rice. I told her my
27:05
Speaker 1: name and asked her what her age was, and she said,
27:07
Speaker 1: I'm twenty four. Since we were almost the same age,
27:10
Speaker 1: I told her that I was twenty five, and then
27:13
Speaker 1: I told her and I told her my birthday and
27:16
Speaker 1: that I was a Leo because I had heard her
27:18
Speaker 1: mentioning signs to the table that she had joined earlier,
27:22
Speaker 1: and she laughed and said, oh yeah, you Leo's are
27:25
Speaker 1: the worst. We laughed, and we made small talk, and
27:29
Speaker 1: then she made some additional odd comments about the language
27:34
Speaker 1: of numbers, and I asked her if she was talking
27:36
Speaker 1: about the binary system, and she said, what's that so
27:41
Speaker 1: then I said, well, what do you mean about the
27:42
Speaker 1: language of numbers? And she said, you know when a
27:46
Speaker 1: number and a number coincide. You know what I mean, Caroline,
27:49
Speaker 1: And it was like she was talking to old friends
27:51
Speaker 1: when she engaged with me or the manager. And at
27:54
Speaker 1: that time I thought she was under the influence of
27:56
Speaker 1: a drug or had some sort of mental illness, But
27:59
Speaker 1: again I was younger and didn't really know what I
28:03
Speaker 1: know now based on the way she spoke to me
28:07
Speaker 1: out a feeling she had a lot going on and
28:09
Speaker 1: was trying to keep it together. Caroline asked if there
28:16
Speaker 1: was someone that she could call. My Trees said she
28:19
Speaker 1: had no parents, but My Trees did give Caroline her
28:22
Speaker 1: great grandmother's phone number, so Caroline called Mildred, who offered
28:26
Speaker 1: to pay my Trees's bill, but Jeoffrey's had no system
28:30
Speaker 1: for paying over the phone without a signature. Mildred was concerned.
28:34
Speaker 1: She said she couldn't drive up to Malibu because she
28:36
Speaker 1: was ninety one years old. My Trees got on the
28:39
Speaker 1: phone with Mildred and reassured her she was fine. At
28:44
Speaker 1: around nine pm, Frank Brower and Armando Lurero, both deputies
28:49
Speaker 1: from the Lost Hills Sheriff's station showed up on the scene.
28:52
Speaker 1: A third deputy, John McKay, arrived as well. When they
28:58
Speaker 1: showed up, the police showed up and one of them
29:03
Speaker 1: got on the phone with the great grandmother. It sounded
29:06
Speaker 1: like she was trying to get all the details from
29:09
Speaker 1: what I based off of what I could hear. It
29:12
Speaker 1: sounded like she was asking him details because he was
29:14
Speaker 1: giving her details as to where my Treuth was going
29:17
Speaker 1: to be taken. While one of the officers was on
29:22
Speaker 1: the phone with her, my trace told one of the
29:25
Speaker 1: other deputies that she was scared and asked her and
29:28
Speaker 1: the deputy asked her, why are you scared, and she said, well,
29:31
Speaker 1: the city where I live in. If three officers walk
29:34
Speaker 1: up to a girl like me, then it's a bad sign.
29:37
Speaker 1: She also said I've had an officer if they needed me. Once.
29:41
Speaker 1: I remember there was one deputy who was really kind
29:44
Speaker 1: and said, look, I'm a person just like you, just
29:46
Speaker 1: a normal person. They just made me aware of this uniform.
29:51
Speaker 1: My Treece said okay, and seemed to be comforted by that.
29:55
Speaker 1: And she said, okay, I want to talk to you
29:57
Speaker 1: to one of the deputies, and it seemed like a
30:01
Speaker 1: kind of cordial exchange, and one of the deputies started
30:05
Speaker 1: asking her questions. I at that point felt really sad
30:13
Speaker 1: about what was happening, and I didn't want to watch
30:17
Speaker 1: her get arrested if that was what was going to happen.
30:20
Speaker 1: So I went to the break room for about five
30:22
Speaker 1: or ten minutes, which so I didn't see what was happening.
30:28
Speaker 1: Deputies McKay and Brower searched my Teresa's cluttered car. They
30:33
Speaker 1: would later say the car looked like it had been
30:35
Speaker 1: trashed and maybe even lived in. The deputies found my
30:38
Speaker 1: Teresa's driver's license, along with marijuana scraps and partially finished
30:42
Speaker 1: bottles of booze. In a later deposition, Brower said Lurero
30:47
Speaker 1: told him that my Terce was possibly drunk making odd statements.
30:51
Speaker 1: For this reason, Brower said he was instructed to administer
30:54
Speaker 1: a field sobriety test. Brower said that he checked my
30:57
Speaker 1: Teresa's eyes and pulse to complete the test to determine
31:01
Speaker 1: that she was sober. He estimated the test took around
31:04
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, though Lrrero would later state in his deposition
31:08
Speaker 1: that he did not order Broward administer any sobriety test.
31:12
Speaker 1: Brower asked my trees if she was on medication and
31:15
Speaker 1: if she had ever been placed on a seventy two
31:17
Speaker 1: hour hold. My Treece said no, she was asthmatic and
31:21
Speaker 1: had an inhaler, but that was it. At that point,
31:25
Speaker 1: employees at Jeoffrey's considered paying my Teres's bill themselves so
31:29
Speaker 1: she could walk with only a misdemeanor ticket for pot possession.
31:33
Speaker 1: The manager and some of the other staff were worried
31:35
Speaker 1: that my Treece may not be safe behind the wheel
31:37
Speaker 1: of a car, so they did what they thought was
31:40
Speaker 1: the safest thing for her. They made sure that she
31:43
Speaker 1: went with the police. My Treece was charged with the
31:46
Speaker 1: defrauding and innkeeper and possession of marijuana. She was placed
31:50
Speaker 1: under arrest, put into the back of the police car,
31:53
Speaker 1: and taken to the Lost Hill station. While my Triese
32:02
Speaker 1: was still on the back of the police cruiser, her mother,
32:05
Speaker 1: Latise called the station. I am calling. I'm a little
32:09
Speaker 1: strapped up right now. I understand my daughter is being
32:11
Speaker 1: brought into the station. My Terce Richard's son. Has they
32:15
Speaker 1: made it to the station yet and she's been booked? Okay?
32:19
Speaker 1: Is do you know where she's coming from? It's some
32:23
Speaker 1: onstaurant out in Malibu, and I didn't even think to
32:27
Speaker 1: get the name the manager. The only place we have
32:29
Speaker 1: somebody that's in custody that they just announced on the
32:32
Speaker 1: radio that they're coming up as from Jeffrey's in Jo Highway.
32:37
Speaker 1: Is the only female that's bringing brought up to the
32:39
Speaker 1: station as we speak. They actually just put it on
32:41
Speaker 1: the radio right before you call it. Okay, okay, I'm
32:45
Speaker 1: her mother, and are you guys want to book her
32:48
Speaker 1: and then release her on her own recognian tonight because
32:52
Speaker 1: it's dark, she doesn't have a car, and I don't
32:54
Speaker 1: want her wandering out. I'm totally just taken aback because
32:58
Speaker 1: it's so out of character for her, and you'll see
33:02
Speaker 1: when she comes in she's well spoken. I think the
33:05
Speaker 1: only way I will come and get her tonight is
33:07
Speaker 1: if you guys are going to release her tonight, it's
33:09
Speaker 1: going to be held in custody for some type of
33:12
Speaker 1: arraignment tomorrow. Then I will wait until tomorrow. She definitely
33:16
Speaker 1: has no place, you know, I mean, she's not from
33:18
Speaker 1: that area, and I would hate to wake up to
33:21
Speaker 1: a morning report so lost somewhere with her head chopped off.
33:25
Speaker 1: So I guess I would have to come and get her.
33:26
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Yeah, we're in a great hose. The
33:28
Speaker 1: only thing is, at least in the station here she
33:30
Speaker 1: will be separated, so nobody's going to be with her certainly,
33:34
Speaker 1: that's you know, the fust thing. So she don't have
33:35
Speaker 1: to worry about her safety. Oh yeah, no, I feel
33:38
Speaker 1: safe with her being in custody. It's being released, but
33:41
Speaker 1: I'm worried about it. It's crazy out here. Early the
33:53
Speaker 1: next morning, Latise called the station again. This time she
33:57
Speaker 1: talked to the jailer. She your own Cummings. Cummings told
34:01
Speaker 1: the tease that my Trees had already been released. The
34:04
Speaker 1: jailer said she had released my Trees at twelve fifteen am.
34:08
Speaker 1: At this point, my Treese was forty miles from home.
34:12
Speaker 1: Cummings has maintained that My Trees declined an offer to
34:15
Speaker 1: stay in the lobby and said that she told Cummings
34:18
Speaker 1: that she was going to meet friends. But the reality
34:20
Speaker 1: is my Treece had no car, no purse, no money,
34:24
Speaker 1: no cell phone, and no way home. And at night,
34:28
Speaker 1: the area around Lost Hills Station is pitch black. All
34:31
Speaker 1: the businesses are closed, there are no buses, there's no
34:35
Speaker 1: public transportation. My trees walked out of the station at
34:40
Speaker 1: around twelve forty am into the darkness. Later, Latisse called again.
34:46
Speaker 1: This time she spoke to Kenneth Bombgardner. She asked him
34:50
Speaker 1: how long she had to wait to follow missing persons report.
34:54
Speaker 1: By this point you can hear the desperation in Latis's voice.
34:59
Speaker 1: Ma Field Station bomb Gardener. Yes, Hi, my name is Latise.
35:03
Speaker 1: That night car. That's too long ago regarding my daughter
35:06
Speaker 1: my treats, which is how long before a missing person's
35:10
Speaker 1: report can be found. This phone call led to months
35:14
Speaker 1: of searching for my Trees. Next time on Helen Gone,
35:20
Speaker 1: it just didn't ring true to me that she went missing,
35:24
Speaker 1: and I think she was considered to be inexpendable, young
35:27
Speaker 1: Likeaeloman from South la. It's a fifty mile long range
35:31
Speaker 1: and you could theoretically walk for a long way and
35:34
Speaker 1: not hit anything. And where my trease was found was
35:38
Speaker 1: five steps from the starting area of the twenty seven
35:42
Speaker 1: square miles that they were going to start looking. It
35:45
Speaker 1: continues like this, I'm going to go ahead and say
35:47
Speaker 1: there's no way she walked to herself. I'm now more
35:49
Speaker 1: convinced that she did not walk here. Helen Gone is
35:54
Speaker 1: a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. It's written
35:58
Speaker 1: and narrated by me Catherine Townsend. Our producers are Gabby Watts,
36:02
Speaker 1: Taylor Church and James Morrison. Music is by Ben Sale.
36:06
Speaker 1: Mix is by Tunewelders. Our executive producers are Brandon Barr,
36:10
Speaker 1: Elsie Crowley and Brian Lavin. Special thanks to Chip Craft
36:15
Speaker 1: for use of footage from his documentary Loss Compassion, School
36:35
Speaker 1: of Humans. School of Humans