August 9th, 2024 marked the 14th anniversary of Mitrice Richardson’s remains being found in Malibu Canyon.
Recently, podcaster Dana Goodyear who hosts the Lost Hills Podcast produced by Pushkin Industries, claims Monte Nido local Rick Forsberg is believed to be Mitrice Richardson’s killer.
Goodyear bases her claims on what she admits is circumstantial evidence, and is based on interviews with Forsberg’s friends and neighbors recalling events that occured close to 15 years ago.
Gooodyear states on her podcast that her discovery of Forsberg and his involvement has never been disclosed to law enforcement and that she researched this information on the web.
According to Mitrice Richardson’s family and friends, including Dr. Ronda Hampton, Richardson’s mentor, Goodyear’s claims that this is new information she uncovered is completely untrue. Dr. Hampton confirms this in an interview released on You Tube this week.
Hampton originally provided law enforcement with Forsberg’s information, including the names of friends and witnesses who contacted Hampton directly, shortly after Richardson disappeared on September 17th, 2009.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated Forsberg, which included not one, but two polygraph tests of which Forsberg passed.
Sources close to the case reveal Forsberg was followed and his location was raided for evidence. Multiple people with knowledge of Forberg’s history and behavior at the time Richardson disappeared, were interviewed as a part of the investigation.
While Forsberg’s history and behavior are troubling, the investigation carried out by the LASD did not result in the discovery of any evidence – even circumstantial – that rose to the level of justifying an arrest.
Given the intense scrutiny the department was under for their handling of Richardson’s case, if there was sufficient evidence to charge Forsberg, the department would have more than likely pursued it and allowed his innocence or guilt be decided by a jury.
“As we are looking for justice for Mitrice we want to make that the information that gets out there is accurate… It is not the case that law enforcement ignored this man… I actually provided the information about this man to law enforcement myself.” Hampton said in the You Tube interview.
“Not only that, I provided the information to Dana Goodyear about Rick Forsberg. She did not just dig that information up from the web as she indicates. I provided her the name, the video and the people to interview.” Hampton continues. “It is disengenious for that podcaster (Goodyear) to even remotely make statements that law enforcement did not know anything about that man because that is not true.”
In light of the misinformation being distributed by the Goodyear on her podcast and misleading listeners into believing Forsberg is responsible for Mitrice’s death, Dr. Hampton made a public plea this week to Sheriff Robert Luna to re-investigate Richardson’s case.
Additionally, the reward offered to anyone with information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Mitrice Richardson’s death was renewed by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors this week.
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