Lost in Lost Hills

her behavior as quote off. Before the night was over, my Trees found herself in a Lost Hills Sheriff's Department holding cell. The officers who took her to jail drove way past the strip of sand called Billionaire Beach, home to CEOs and Hollywood Royalty. My Trees was in the back of the cruiser as it curved sharply into the Santa Monica Mountains, near the gated communities of Calabasas that Kim Kardashian West and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith call home.

But it's a long way from the surfers and the celebrity hotspots up here. The roads have no shoulders, and steep drop offs. Her final destination was the Lost Hills Sheriff Station in the middle of nowhere, and that's where on Thursday at twelve fifteen am, My Trees was released. Now, this is the same sheriffs station where mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving. Even after a drunken rant, officers safely drove Meil back to his car when he sobered up.

There was no courtesy ride for My Trees, the young African American woman with no famous last name. She was released into the pitch black night and had no car, no cell phone, no money. She was forty miles from home and had no way of getting back. My Trees disappeared into the darkness and was never seen alive again. To this day, no one knows what happened to My Trees. I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone. So Catherine, where

are we going. We're going to Inglewood Cemetery and we're going to talk to doctor Ronda Hampton at my Teresa's grave site, because today is the anniversary of the day that she disappeared. Take the next right onto East Florence Avenue. Then your destination will be on the right, Sorry, excuse me. Inglewood Cemetery is located right next to the airport. The cemetery is huge, so huge that it's divided by two way streets, beautiful, peaceful lots of palm tree line streets.

My Teresa's plot is located on fair Haven. Today, some of her friends and loved ones have gathered to remember her. Oh. Doctor Ronda Hampton organized the event today. Doctor Ronda is a clinical psychologist who first met my Trees in two thousand and six when My Trees was her intern. This is where my Trees is laid to rest and next to her great grandmother and her uncle. She's buried next to her uncle who was shot and killed by police in nineteen eighty six, and her great grandmother Mildred, who

my trace was living with when she went missing. Okay, let's see this all right. Dear Father, God, would come before you and we thank you that this is the day that you have made. We are accepting Father, what has happened to my Trees, but we are not accepting Father,

that justice is has happened. So Father, we're praying for today that this would be a reminder for us that we will all continue to work together to push forward for justice, and even though the road becomes hard and difficult, we thank you that we can rely upon your strength. Doctor Ronda and mourners have brought dozens of sunflowers, my

Teresa's favorite. She sets up a memorial display with my Teresa's graduation photo, and she brought gift bags for anyone coming by today featuring the Justice for my Terre's logo, a sunflower with a butterfly inside her masks, a sign of the COVID times, and sunflower seeds. Anytime I see sunflowers, that always makes me happy, I think because because my trees love the flowers. And then when I see some flowers for her, then it makes me feel really happy.

And actually I've been really scared to come to her her sight. I don't even know why. Yeah, and this is the first time you've been here since yeah, since the service. Yeah, I don't know. This is the first time that Ronda has been to my Teresa's grave site since the day they buried her. And that is a day she doesn't want to remember. And on that day, you know, like it's not done, you know what I mean, It's like, Okay, here we're burying her. It was like

a circus. It was like a media circus to begin with no respect for her whatsoever, you know, Like the sheriffs were talking shit. It's like, come on, let her just be buried, you know. So that was just very frustrating. And then and then on the day of her funeral, I so this is what happened. I asked the forensic anthropologist that was volunteering that whenever, whenever we found my Teresa's body, would she come and do like an autopsy. Right, So when she was found, then I called her and

I said, they found her. The thing is, she was in England at the time, so she had to She says, the way. The only day I can get back is on September seventeenth, And that was the day that the service was already planned, so like only hours before her funeral. She uh was doing the autopsy just hours before. So then right when the service was gonna start, right then,

that's when I get the phone call. Right, her body had not been analyzed, her clothing were in the body bag, clothing in the body bag, her body had not been analyzed. And apologist is like, we gotta figure out what to do, right, So we got like five minutes to make a decision. What are we gonna do. I was at the church.

Everybody's rolling in. Yeah, so we were like, okay, so we're just gonna have We're just gonna have to bury because we were It's like if they would put her clothing in the body bag to be buried, you know that they're trying to high. So we had so we had to We just had to have the funeral. So all the time we're sitting there or I don't even think I told her mom. I think I just had to wait, like just sitting there. It's like, okay, so we're just gonna let this uner what happens. So I'm preoccupied.

I'm not thinking about none of this. I'm thinking about Colin Lee Baka in the corners and like what the fuck? So all that, I'm not even thinking about it, none of it. Sitting in the church, pissed off, right, Yeah, so that's what happened on that day. So no, that was not a beautiful day or whatever. I was there a p occupied, getting the hell out of here and just jamming up whoever needed to be jammed up. I've

been following my Teresa's case for a long time. I first heard about it in late two thousand and nine when I was living in LA and I remember seeing a mention of the search in Malibu. The story seems so strange, a woman who had been arrested, then let go in the middle of the night, and then vanished without I was actually working and training as a PI during that time in Agra Hills, so I would have

to make the drive through the Calabasas area. I remember seeing people holding signs and wearing have you seen my Tree's t? Shirts. According to news reports, there were multiple searches by police in Malibu, by the LAPD, and by hundreds of volunteers, but then the story just seemed to disappear. I never even knew that her remains had been found. When I first read about my Teresa's story, it was kind of presented as a girl who may have been on drugs or on the streets, or possibly wandered into

the woods and was suicidal. As it turns out, it wasn't like that at all. My Teres was a young woman with a caring family who was vulnerable on one night, and the people around her wanted her to be safe. Then she went to what should have been the safest place in the world the Lost Hills Sheriff Station, and then just vanished. Another thing that interested me about the area where this took place was the fact that it's

very remote. People have this misconception that this area is buzzing because it's close to Malibu Beach in the Hollywood hangouts, but the truth is, once you turn up toward the canyon, the areas around there are cut off from anywhere you're in the mountains within a couple of minutes up there.

It's all horse trails and very remote neighborhoods that are cut off from the surrounding world by the Santa Monica Mountains and the nearby communities of Agora Hills and Simi Valley are also very different from Malibu and Los Angeles. They're small town, predominantly white, very conservative, and heavily populated

by people who work in law enforcement. Side note, the community of Simi Valley was the home of two of the Ventura County jurors who acquitted the police officers who beat Rodney King in nineteen ninety two, triggering the La riots, and in the past couple of years there have been several mysterious deaths in the area. In January twenty seventeen, twenty year old a Lane Park had a date night with her boyfriend. He said she left in the early

morning hours the next day. Her car was found abandoned on Pacific Coast Highway a few days later, but she was never seen again. Then, in twenty eighteen, Tristan Bodett, a young father of two, was shot while sleeping in his tent in the Santa Monica National Park campground. A drifter named Anthony Rauta has been charged with Bodet's murder, but there have been many other mysterious shootings in the area, and a lot of people believe that Rauta is not

responsible for all of them. But what's so odd to me about my Teres's case is the fact that you can disappear so close to one of the most star studded and populated places in the world. When my Terce was taking the drive that night, she had a lot on her mind. For the past several months, her life had been in transition. She was interning with Ronda and looking at graduate schools. Before we went to the cemetery with Ronda, we gave her a call to get her

perspective on the case. She's been investigating my Teresa's death for over ten years or else. Oh hi, doctor Hampton, Hi, how are you. I'm good? Thank you for talking to me. Ronda says she will never forget the first day that my ries walked into her office. What was she like? So, my Trees, I have to tell you when. Okay, So I kind of had a little bit of an attitude

taking on an intern. I really didn't want to. My daughter was just starting school that week, first grade, and I just was really not interested in supervising someone because it's quite you know, it's a bit of a responsibility, right, And so on the very first day that she came into my office was the first day that my daughter started school, right, So I, you know, come rushing into the office and she was already there. But I'll tell

you when I fell in love with her. I in between clients, I overheard her talking to someone else over the phone. Now I don't actually recall who it was, but she was very clear in saying, well, this is doctor Hampston's office and this is how she runs things. And you know, I will take your you know, your message, and I will pose it onto her, but she was very stern and the way she said it, and I was like, wait a minute, car she was just like laying down the law. Its very in a very very

respectful manner, but really firm. So I absolutely I was like just double take, like, way, who are we? And a couple hours later I had a break and then you know, we just it was just you know, it was on, you know, and I was I had graduated from cal State Polishes, so we had that in common. And and she was just smart as a whip, so it was nothing to kind of just really take her under my wing and you know, just show her everything that I possible it could. Yeah, she seemed like an

amazing She seemed like a really amazing person. The good thing. She really was. And it's hard to you know, you hear that stuff all the time, but it's like she was so dynamic, you know, just just smart and very pleasant and very very cheerful and you know, just respectful and and inquisitive like all those things. And and and also I learned very quickly that she definitely was uh

going to be a better therapist than than me. And she had much more compassion natural combassion than I do the week My Trees disappeared, she had scheduled lunch with Ronda to talk about her grad school application. She wanted to become a child psychologist, but until then she was working to pay the bill. She worked a clerical job with a shipping company, and on Friday nights she was a go go dancer at an LGBT club in Long

Beach called Deborah's. My Trees lived with her great grandmother, Mildred, in Inglewood, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles near lax. Her father, Michael Richardson, had not been around much during My Teresa's childhood, but she grew up. They started to rebuild their relationship and they were in touch regularly. When My Trees disappeared. My Trees had also recently come out as a lesbian, and she started dating a boxer named Tessa. Tessa and My Trees had broken up in the spring.

My Trees reportedly became fixated on a woman named Vanessa, who was a regular at Deborah's, but Vanessa wasn't interested. But My Trees also appeared to be suffering from some mental health issues. After her disappearance, her mom, Lettie Sutton, went through My Teresa's social media posts and what she found there was disturbing. On my my Trees had posted have you ever woke up at seven am crying on a Saturday? Because now that you see the light, you

see all the people lost in the dark. Welcome to my reality. In the days before her disappearance, my Teres wrote on Facebook that she was not sleeping and her thoughts appeared to be becoming more and more erratic and had a kind of manic energy. Then on the day she went missing, her boss said that she showed up for work in a good mood. She went out for lunch but didn't come back. This was totally out of character for her. Then my Teres went back to her

great grandmother's house in Inglewood. She had some business cards printed up with her dancer name Hazel on them, and she pasted them all over the windows of the house. After my Trees left that afternoon, my Teresa's aunt, Lauren, found that she'd also left a strange note on her husband's windshield with some nonsensical writing and the words black woman scorned. Ronda also said my Trees had visited an old professor of hers that day. The day before my

trees went missing. She had shown up to her old college professor's office. So this is a woman who she really, you know, liked a lot, so showed up and the office staff told her My treats like, you know, she's not going to be out for a while because she was teaching a class. My treets waited there for a long time, and then eventually the professor came and the professor, I know because I talked to the professor. The professor

thought that my truf was acting odd. So she walked the trees over to and to a psychologist that you know, was in the same dome with her, in the hopes that this person would get my treat some help. And my treeth kind of picked up on it, and she ran away and said, okay, that's fine, I'm just going to go be with my friends. So she left and then she met up with her friends and she was crying because, you know, the progressor didn't believe her and

thought that something was wrong with her. So everybody was picking up on that something was wrong with her. She was just acting on and she was posting on Facebook all kinds of odd things, probably for twenty four hours straight, constantly posting, and so one of the things that she posted, or I don't remember, she posted this a toll on her friends. I'd have to look at my notes, but that the ocean was calling her, and so we believe that that's why she went to Malibu, because the ocean

was calling her. We're driving out to Jeffrey's to retrace my Teresa's steps the night she went missing. Yeah, so right now, we're going to Jeffrey's restaurant in Malibu, which is along the Pacific Coast Highway, and it's the last place where my Terse was. It's where she went the night that she disappeared and where she was arrested and taken into custody. So we're going to go and scope it out, and then we're going to go to the

last hill Shriff station. Malibu, California, is one of the most famous cities in the world, known for its spectacular beaches and breathtaking views. It's also home to one of the country's most impressive restaurants, renowned for its natural beauty, impeccable service, and fabulous cuisine. Jeffrey's Malibu, an ocean side dining experience. From the way that my Trees was acting earlier in the day, we know that something wasn't quite right.

According to an LA magazine article written by Mike Kessler, when my Trees got to Joffrey's, she did something pretty strange. She got out of her car and into the valet's car. Then the valet, Kenneth Cargle, asked my Trees what she was doing there. She said it's subliminal and then started muttering something about avenging the death of Michael Jackson. Kenneth said he parked her car and when he came back, he noticed that my Rise was still sitting in his

car going through a CD collection. Kenneth if he was a music lover. When he said that he was, she said she couldn't figure out how to get his car started. Despite the strange behavior, Kenneth said that my Terse was polite and friendly this entire time. Then my Teres asked Kenneth if he had seen Vanessa, as if he knew the person she was talking about. She told him to keep an eye out for a girl with tattooed arms.

Vanessa was most likely the girl that my Teresa's friends and family said she had a crush on my Terce then went to the hostess dan. That's where Caroline Paris was stationed that night. She'd been working at Jeffrey's for a few months. Caroline immediately noticed that my Terse was

acting a little strangely. She arrived near the hostess stand where I worked, so I greeted her and asked if she was having dinner with us, and said, you know't let you come over towards me and we'll put your name in the computer because I think she was standing in it a sense, and we'll check you in for dinner. But she didn't. She didn't respond to me, so I went back to the host to stand myself. I think I'd gone up to her and I encouraged her to

come with me, but she didn't respond. So I went back to the computer, saw what tables were available, got a menu, and went back to her and said, you know, you can follow me to a table, and she didn't respond again, so I wasn't totally sure. Maybe she was shy or I just led her to a table and told her to enjoy her meal, and that's when she responded for the first time, and she smiled back and

said thank you so much. After seating My Trees. The valet, Kenneth, told Caroline that there was something off about My Trees and told her about the odd comments My Trees had made in his car. He also said My Trees had told him she was there to avenge the death of Michael Jackson. And the valet told me all this thing that he didn't think she was dangerous. He just thought something was off. That was a word we used that night,

if something was just off. So Caroline went over to Jeoffrey's manager and said that they had a customer acting bizarrely. He basically told her not to worry. This was Malibu, which definitely saw it's share of eccentric characters. My Trees sat at her table alone. She ordered an Ocean Breeze cocktail and a Kobe steak. She started to eat, and at some point she joined a large party of seven

people who were sitting nearby. Later, I did my rounds, like walking around the tables, and I noticed that she had gotten up from her table and moved to a large party table, a table with several other people, and she was talking and all the people were listening to her. One of the customers got up from the table and as they walked past me, I asked if everything was okay, and they said that they used the word off, so that something was off with the person who joined their table,

but she was harming anyone. I just at that point just kept working. I didn't really think anything of it because being in La things often seemed off to me. They were really different than where I was from and Malibu. We would get lots of different people out there, so I just at that point wasn't concerned. And the depositions of the people at the table my Teresa joined, They said my Teresa's behavior was strange, but they said she was friendly and animated. But it was not long before

the conversation took a turn for the bizarre. She said she was from Mars and started talking about numerology and how everything was connected. She said a soap opera character had told her to drive there. Her server, Omar Martinez, told Caroline and others that something seemed off. This is the second person after the Valet to make that remark. Omar had asked my Trees where she was from, and he got a different answer from what she told people at the table. Omar suspected my Trees might not pay

her bill. He said that he would make sure before she left and let me know that she had paid, and I said okay. He was said Genishal, probably just forget. She might forget. I don't think it's that she doesn't want to like. I think she just might forget to do it, because you know, she's in some kind of distracted state. At some point, the large party paid and left.

My Trees got up to leave as well. When she got to the valet, the manager intercepted her and asked her how she planned to pay her eighty nine dollars tab. My Trees seemed surprised and said that the large party should have covered her tab. My Trees then told him that he wasn't understanding the language of numbers. She said, it's okay for me not to pay the bill because the language of numbers, when they coincide like this, it makes sense. At this point, the manager is starting to

suspect that something is seriously wrong. He asked her if she had any money in her pockets, and, according to his deposition, Mitrees said, I am busted. She then told him that she was from Mars and made a comment about settling her debt with sex. The manager was really patient with her, and she seems really jovial. She was

laughing and joking and very lighthearted and friendly. He then told her that he was going to have to call the police if she couldn't pay for her bill, and she said, okay, Losci Shore Station definish if I can help you, Hi, I'm calling from Jeffrey's Restaurant, Malibu. This is one of the Jeffrey servers on the phone with police. We have a guest here who is refusing to pay her bill, and you think she may she sounds really crazy, she may be on drugs or something. We're wondering if

someone to come by and pick her up. And is she a white, Black, Asian Hispanic? She's young black girls, probably in her twenties. Okay, what you're wearing. She's wearing a black T shirt and I think blue jeans with anybody else her With the police on the way, My Trees sat at the bar and then went over to the hostess stand. That's when Caroline had a longer conversation with my Trees. She felt like they had a connection because both of them were in times of transition in

their lives. Caroline had recently moved to La to pursue acting, but was realizing that she didn't actually want to do it. Likewise, my Rise was figuring out her next steps in life. That's when we interacted, and no one was with us while we hung out for a few minutes. I asked her her name and she told me it was my Trees and she spelled it. I can still kind of see I can still kind of see her face as she spell I'm sorry, she felt all her name. She smiled really brightly and said, M I t R I C.

She said, it's like mitt Rice. I told her my name and asked her what her age was, and she said, I'm twenty four. Since we were almost the same age, I told her that I was twenty five, and then I told her and I told her my birthday and that I was a Leo because I had heard her mentioning signs to the table that she had joined earlier, and she laughed and said, oh yeah, you Leo's are

the worst. We laughed, and we made small talk, and then she made some additional odd comments about the language of numbers, and I asked her if she was talking about the binary system, and she said, what's that so then I said, well, what do you mean about the language of numbers? And she said, you know when a number and a number coincide. You know what I mean, Caroline, And it was like she was talking to old friends

when she engaged with me or the manager. And at that time I thought she was under the influence of a drug or had some sort of mental illness, But again I was younger and didn't really know what I know now based on the way she spoke to me out a feeling she had a lot going on and was trying to keep it together. Caroline asked if there

was someone that she could call. My Trees said she had no parents, but My Trees did give Caroline her great grandmother's phone number, so Caroline called Mildred, who offered to pay my Trees's bill, but Jeoffrey's had no system for paying over the phone without a signature. Mildred was concerned. She said she couldn't drive up to Malibu because she was ninety one years old. My Trees got on the

phone with Mildred and reassured her she was fine. At around nine pm, Frank Brower and Armando Lurero, both deputies from the Lost Hills Sheriff's station showed up on the scene. A third deputy, John McKay, arrived as well. When they showed up, the police showed up and one of them got on the phone with the great grandmother. It sounded like she was trying to get all the details from

what I based off of what I could hear. It sounded like she was asking him details because he was giving her details as to where my Treuth was going to be taken. While one of the officers was on the phone with her, my trace told one of the other deputies that she was scared and asked her and the deputy asked her, why are you scared, and she said, well, the city where I live in. If three officers walk up to a girl like me, then it's a bad sign.

She also said I've had an officer if they needed me. Once. I remember there was one deputy who was really kind and said, look, I'm a person just like you, just a normal person. They just made me aware of this uniform. My Treece said okay, and seemed to be comforted by that. And she said, okay, I want to talk to you to one of the deputies, and it seemed like a kind of cordial exchange, and one of the deputies started

asking her questions. I at that point felt really sad about what was happening, and I didn't want to watch her get arrested if that was what was going to happen. So I went to the break room for about five or ten minutes, which so I didn't see what was happening. Deputies McKay and Brower searched my Teresa's cluttered car. They would later say the car looked like it had been

trashed and maybe even lived in. The deputies found my Teresa's driver's license, along with marijuana scraps and partially finished bottles of booze. In a later deposition, Brower said Lurero told him that my Terce was possibly drunk making odd statements. For this reason, Brower said he was instructed to administer a field sobriety test. Brower said that he checked my Teresa's eyes and pulse to complete the test to determine

that she was sober. He estimated the test took around fifteen minutes, though Lrrero would later state in his deposition that he did not order Broward administer any sobriety test. Brower asked my trees if she was on medication and if she had ever been placed on a seventy two hour hold. My Treece said no, she was asthmatic and

had an inhaler, but that was it. At that point, employees at Jeoffrey's considered paying my Teres's bill themselves so she could walk with only a misdemeanor ticket for pot possession. The manager and some of the other staff were worried that my Treece may not be safe behind the wheel of a car, so they did what they thought was the safest thing for her. They made sure that she went with the police. My Treece was charged with the

defrauding and innkeeper and possession of marijuana. She was placed under arrest, put into the back of the police car, and taken to the Lost Hill station. While my Triese was still on the back of the police cruiser, her mother, Latise called the station. I am calling. I'm a little strapped up right now. I understand my daughter is being brought into the station. My Terce Richard's son. Has they made it to the station yet and she's been booked? Okay?

Is do you know where she's coming from? It's some onstaurant out in Malibu, and I didn't even think to get the name the manager. The only place we have somebody that's in custody that they just announced on the radio that they're coming up as from Jeffrey's in Jo Highway. Is the only female that's bringing brought up to the station as we speak. They actually just put it on

the radio right before you call it. Okay, okay, I'm her mother, and are you guys want to book her and then release her on her own recognian tonight because it's dark, she doesn't have a car, and I don't want her wandering out. I'm totally just taken aback because it's so out of character for her, and you'll see

when she comes in she's well spoken. I think the only way I will come and get her tonight is if you guys are going to release her tonight, it's going to be held in custody for some type of arraignment tomorrow. Then I will wait until tomorrow. She definitely has no place, you know, I mean, she's not from that area, and I would hate to wake up to a morning report so lost somewhere with her head chopped off. So I guess I would have to come and get her.

Oh my god. Yeah, we're in a great hose. The only thing is, at least in the station here she will be separated, so nobody's going to be with her certainly, that's you know, the fust thing. So she don't have to worry about her safety. Oh yeah, no, I feel safe with her being in custody. It's being released, but I'm worried about it. It's crazy out here. Early the next morning, Latise called the station again. This time she talked to the jailer. She your own Cummings. Cummings told

the tease that my Trees had already been released. The jailer said she had released my Trees at twelve fifteen am. At this point, my Treese was forty miles from home. Cummings has maintained that My Trees declined an offer to stay in the lobby and said that she told Cummings that she was going to meet friends. But the reality is my Treece had no car, no purse, no money, no cell phone, and no way home. And at night,

the area around Lost Hills Station is pitch black. All the businesses are closed, there are no buses, there's no public transportation. My trees walked out of the station at around twelve forty am into the darkness. Later, Latisse called again. This time she spoke to Kenneth Bombgardner. She asked him how long she had to wait to follow missing persons report. By this point you can hear the desperation in Latis's voice. Ma Field Station bomb Gardener. Yes, Hi, my name is Latise.

That night car. That's too long ago regarding my daughter my treats, which is how long before a missing person's report can be found. This phone call led to months of searching for my Trees. Next time on Helen Gone, it just didn't ring true to me that she went missing, and I think she was considered to be inexpendable, young Likeaeloman from South la. It's a fifty mile long range and you could theoretically walk for a long way and

not hit anything. And where my trease was found was five steps from the starting area of the twenty seven square miles that they were going to start looking. It continues like this, I'm going to go ahead and say there's no way she walked to herself. I'm now more convinced that she did not walk here. Helen Gone is a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend. Our producers are Gabby Watts,

Taylor Church and James Morrison. Music is by Ben Sale. Mix is by Tunewelders. Our executive producers are Brandon Barr, Elsie Crowley and Brian Lavin. Special thanks to Chip Craft for use of footage from his documentary Loss Compassion, School of Humans. School of Humans