Mitrice Richardson Missing in Same Stretch of Malibu Area That Claimed Life of Actress’ Husband
Diahann Carroll with her young husband, Robert DeLeon, then managing editor at Jet (Courtesy: Diahann-Carroll.Info)
This is a really interesting observation from Jerry Brice’s Blog, also on WordPress. If true, it may take longer to find a body than we know, especially since Mitrice is not related to or is a celebrity. And it puts paid to the very idea that Mitrice was in some kind of suburban area of Southern California. I’ve been on the Pacific Coast Highway myself, and by no stretch of the imagination can it be considered lining a suburb in that area.
The sheriff’s deputies haven’t done their job; they need to take a much closer look.
Reality Check: Diahann Carroll’s 3rd Husband, Jet Editor Robert DeLeon, […] Went Missing, and Found Dead In Same Rural Area of Malibu Canyon That Mitrice Richardson Is Missing
In March of 1977, Robert DeLeon was found at the bottom of a canyon in Malibu, close to Topanga Canyon, in the wreckage of his totally destroyed Ferrari. He had been missing for several weeks, in this hilly forest in the countryside of Malibu, California.
This is the same place that Mitrice Richardson has gone missing currently, after the Malibu sheriff callously and carelessly let her wander, by their own account against their advice, while suffering an apparent mental lapse, into the coyote infested, steep deadly cliff area, that awaits those walking around at night. This area is dangerous for these same reasons during the day, as well.
Diahann Carroll’s third husband was a Jet Magazine managing editor named Robert DeLeon. They wed in May, 1975. They were still married when he was killed in a car accident on March 31, 1977. DeLeon was reported to have been intoxicated when last seen alive, driving away into Malibu canyon. If you are not familiar with this part of Malibu, to get an idea of where Mitrice was left to fend for herself, look on the street views for this part of Malibu and Topanga Canyon on Google Maps, and Google Earth.
DeLeon went missing there in 1977 for over two weeks, even though helicopters and bloodhounds were used in the air, and on foot. There is not much reporting about Robert DeLeon’s death on the internet, but I hope that the Mitrice Richardson debacle can be put into perspective, given the amount of time that this area has been known to be treacherous, in light of the disappearance of Diahann Carroll’s late husband Robert DeLeon, and the circumstances that prevented him from being found sooner in this rural part of Malibu.
Why on earth would they let her walk into the forest alone at the dead of night, I can see they are busy defending their indefensible actions, to cover any legal liability, rather than manning-up, and admitting their callousness in this matter.
Diahann Carroll was 40, Robert DeLeon was 24 when they met in the course of her publicity tour for the film, Claudine. After a three-month courtship, they married. (In the photo, DeLeon not only looks young, he looks gay–but looks are not the whole story.) Carroll was looking forward to an early retirement in Oakland, California with her husband in tow, but when DeLeon began to act the fool drinking and running through her money, the DeLeons moved back to Los Angeles, possibly for Carroll to take on film or TV roles to recoup her losses. This marriage might have resulted in another divorce had he not been killed in what was a clear case of drunk driving. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Carroll eulogized her husband as a “a complex, brilliant young man.”
Mitrice was complex and brilliant, too. And from what some blogs like this one are saying, lesbian.
This Black Sista's Memorial Page 
Hey Blksista,thanks for circulating the article and the word….
to clarify, a lot of people in the valley,when traveling from Callabassas to the P.C.H.in Malibu to go to say, Pepperdine, those in the know will go on the 405 east, to the Topanga Canyon off ramp,west, and take that backroad to Malibu.
It is a long distance, I will agree, and at some point, you cross from Topanga canyon to Malibu Canyon…
It is all hilly, country, and from my perspective it looks woodsy, like a forrest.You do encounter a tree line, but the exact geography can be viewed on Google Earth.
Point being, if you are on that back road you are going to, or from Malibu, and it is circuitous,twisting, winding, mountan-like road…the ones that claim to know the area are mincing words, and being disingenuous to you readers.
I9 did not state exact miles, and we all have a different idea of what is a short distance or long distance.
My point is is that if you are unfamiliar with the area, and suspected to be mentally unstable,it is a dangerous area.
Some of these cop apoligist main motive is to justify this hienous racist action against this women.
None of these idiots would ever want their wife, mother, daughter, or mistress to be abandoned in the dark in a rural area if she is drunk and mentally ill. They know they treated her less than human, and their actions to shift the blame, leads me to believe that they may have killed her, raped her,or harmed her in some inhuman cop like way, and that she never left the sherriff station.
I call for an immediate homicide investigation against every officer present at the sherrif station that night.
That is the only reasonible action that makes sense at this point.
The cops probably murdered her….
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Topanga Canyon is quite some distance from Malibu Canyon. I’m familiar with both. The cops did not make her walk down Malibu Canyon Road, if that’s what she did. The area right around the station is residential and office. High end, safe. In facts, the cops reportedly offered an overnight stay at the station. Moreover, if she was in fact the person sighted at about 7:30 am, then the “pitch black of night” doesn’t apply —it as bright by then.
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I appreciate your input, however, I think that the writer made it plain that the crash of DeLeon’s car occurred NEAR Topanga and still in Malibu Canyon area. My interest in the blogger’s account has to do with the terrain in that area beyond the station and anything “high end.”
I am inclined to disagree with the deputies’ version of events. I believe that they are not to be trusted at this point. The woman was let go around 1:30 in the morning, which makes it pitch black. She wasn’t let go at 7:30 a.m.
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Michael Jackson was also an adult who made his own choices. Does that mean that you wouldn’t want someone to frantically try to save him, or, in this case try to find this young, troubled, woman. Does the fact that MJ made bad decisions mean that no one else is liable in his death? Obviously not, since someone is being charged.
I always try to maintain objectivity. I am dismayed by the fact that there is not more attention to this story and finding Mitrice.
Does anyone know if they have communicated with the woman that she may have been involved with?
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This whole thing is tragic on so many levels. However, she is an adult and responsible for her own actions. She chose to go to a restaurant far away from her home, she chose to eat dinner and drink wine that she could not pay for, she chose to have pot in her car, she chose to leave the police station (even though she was told she could stay in a cell, the lobby or have someone come pick her up). Was she troubled? it sounds like it. But after being taken in, she gave no indication that she was “under the influence” and was kept for several hours. This is a case of “damn’d if you don’t, damn’d if you do”.
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You don’t get it at all. She was not in her right mind. She may have been an adult, but she was not making rational decisions. She was dumped by the cops, even though they had been warned about her condition.
Imagine yourself in the same situation for one minute. But no, that’s too impossible for your likes: cop lover.
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The terrain is horrible. Many cars do go off the road and go missing for a long time. I think the assertion about the coyotes is pure hyperbolic though, —not on that side of the 101. However, there would have been bobcats, and in the day, rattlesnakes. Knowing the rest of the country, it is hard to call that area a forest, more like a rocky and bushy rise and fall, than a forest. If she wondered into a canyon (or fell into one) and was hurt, she is probably dead. If someone picked her up, and then drove off into a canyon, they are both dead. A police could have raped her and threw her into a canyon. Nevertheless, I would not want to have to deal with that area, at night, actually not in the day either, —-there is no water. And no public transportation, I cannot imagine where the police thought she could go.
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You are sort of mistaken about where you state Mitrice was last scene. The Agoura HIlls station is all the way up Malibu Canyon Road, where it becomes Las Virgines near the 101. Mapquest it. It is miles from Topanga/PCH. You are right about the dense brush everywhere. Many cars have been missing for weeks before they have been discovered. I think she was picked up by a stranger. Lots of delivery trucks, LD truckers and agricultral employees around there. This is a tragic situatin made more tragic by the lack of news coverasge.
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What Jerry Brice was trying to get us to appreciate was the type of terrain Mitrice had to traverse to even get five miles (where she was last spotted, allegedly by a resident). It may be miles from where Robert DeLeon was killed, but it is still rural and rugged.
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