Matrice Richardson was an honors student in search of getting her masters in psychology when she began sending very cryptic messages. When she vanished one night relatives began to think back on these messages and wonder what could’ve happened to her mental state in this short amount of time. When her body was found in a place she couldn’t have gotten to on her own the family had to start looking elsewhere for answers.
Link to this podcast episode: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/26386429
Matrice Richardson was born to a young, teen mother and father. Due to this Matrice’s great grandmother was around a lot and became very close to Matrice. After marrying someone while Matrice's father was in jail the family decided that it would be best to move to Covina, which is a suburb of LA due to the LA riots going on and a lot of violence in the city at this time. This proved to be a great choice for the family because not only did it give Matrice a better environment to grow up in but also gave the family an environment to thrive in.
Before leaving high school she found her true love in psychology and was determined to pursue that.
After Matrice obtained her bachelor's degree she began to look for college to pursue her masters at. During this time Matrice, being the beautiful woman she was, decided to try out modeling. However, this worried her friends and family because often the meetings between her and agents or photographers would be in very sketchy areas. They were worried something could happen to her during one of those meetings.
Family and friends noticed that around this time, early 2009, Matrice became much more withdrawn. Not texting anyone as much, not going out as much, and it seems she lost her lust for life. This was also the time that cryptic message began being sent out by Matrice.
So Matrice left her shared home around 5 p.m. that Wednesday night and began to drive. It seems on the way down to Malibu she stopped off at her aunt's because when her aunt got home she found her yard covered in Matrice’s go-go dancing business cards. Some reports state that this happened the day before on September 15, 2009 so I am unsure which is the exact date, but it did happen. Matrice’s aunt thought maybe she had stopped by and accidently dropped her business cards everywhere, that’s not that odd, everyone drops stuff. Then she saw a note on her husbands car windshield that read, “Uncle Johnny Jimmy, Black Women Scorned.” This note was in Matrice’s handwriting and they had no idea what it meant or what she would leave it, and they never would. The aunt would later say that she had a gut feeling something was wrong but chose to ignore it because she thought she was just getting overly worried about nothing.
So Matrice left her shared home around 5 p.m. that Wednesday night and began to drive. It seems on the way down to Malibu she stopped off at her aunt's because when her aunt got home she found her yard covered in Matrice’s go-go dancing business cards. Some reports state that this happened the day before on September 15, 2009, so I am unsure which is the exact date, but it did happen. Matrice’s aunt thought maybe she had stopped by and accidentally dropped her business cards everywhere, that’s not that odd, everyone drops stuff. Then she saw a note on her husband's car windshield that read, “Uncle Johnny Jimmy, Black Women Scorned.” This note was in Matrice’s handwriting and they had no idea what it meant or what she would leave it, and they never would.
Asking for a table for one she was seated in the very fancy restaurant. Sitting alone at her table she saw a table not too far away of 7+ people who were laughing, talking, and over all having a good time. Matrice decided to grab a chair and join them. This table was struck by this as it was very odd but conversed with her none the less. This group reported that Matrice had told them she was from a different planet and her mother was earth. So needless to say, they were somewhat concerned about her, as was the restaurant staff at this time.
Eventually the group left and Matrice tried to leave as well but was informed she had not paid her bill.
When police arrive the restaurant staff still states that Matrice is acting weird but the police never seem to put it down in a report. Matrice ends up telling the police to look in her car because maybe her wallet is in there and then she can pay the bill. Due to this police go into her car and begin to look around. The first thing they notice is that the car is filthy and just filled with stuff. As they begin to search they state they do not find Matrice’s wallet but do find some marijuana, barley enough to warrant anything though. However, since people are worried about Matrice’s behavior the police decide to arrest her for the marijuana and not paying the bill, and off towards the station they go.
We don’t completely know what happened while Matrice was in that jail because it is clear that the police did not report everything. A deputy stated in the email that he was concerned with letting Matrice go but the department let her go anyway. What we do know is that she placed four calls. However, the payphone that records calls was inoperable that night so we will never know exactly who she called or what she talked about. Some sources state that she called her great grandmother four times and she never answered because she didn’t notice. As it is reported that that is the only number she really knew by heart. However, some deputies have said they saw and heard Matrice talking on the phone so that points towards the idea that she placed those calls to people who did answer and talk to her. Another idea is that in her confused and odd state she was just talking to herself as if she was having a conversation on the phone. We will never know for sure.
Around 5:20 a.m. the next morning Latrice places a call to the station again asking if there is any word on her daughter being released. He tells her that Matrice had been let go in between 12:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. that morning.
After the family is unable to locate Matrice all day her mother travels to the Sheriff’s office to officially file a missing person report, about 6:30 p.m. At this point she is told about a call from Bill Smith, this was over 12 hours after the call came in, no doubt she should’ve been called sooner. Due to this, she is given directions to the area to look for her daughter. Later Latrice would state that this area would have been very difficult for Matrice to walk there, she felt Matrice would’ve had to been driven to this neighborhood. Latrice also states that this is the point where she began to have a really bad gut feeling.
On August 9, 2010, almost a year after Matrice went missing, two rangers were hiking through a place called the Dark Canyon and found a decomposing body. This area is called the dark canyon because it is very strenuous and it is not somewhere that you would stumble upon it. When they find the body they note that there are still dark curls connected to the skull and there are pieces of the clothing in a bush nearby. It was also noted that one leg was found about six feet away from where the body mostly was and her left arm was in a flexed position.
To hear more details about the story and the ending of why this case is a huge injustice to Matrice and her family click the link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/26386429
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