Mysterious Monte Nido Death: County Increases Reward To $20,000

MALIBU, CA — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to extend and double the reward for information surrounding the 2009 disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson.

The award now sits at a whopping $20,000 in exchange for information that will help find and convict the person or people responsible, according to a motion brought to the board by supervisor Holly Mitchell. The reward was set at $10,000 in late December.

Richardson, a 24-year-old California State University, Fullerton graduate, disappeared on Sept. 17, 2009 after she was released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lost Hills Station, according to the motion. Richardson had been arrested the night before at Geoffrey's in Malibu, amid a mental health crisis, ABC 7 reported.

She was released from the station and was last seen shortly after near Monte Nido, according to the motion. Despite extensive searches, Richardson's remains were found nearly a year later in Dark Canyon, just east of Monte Nido.

Her case is still open with the sheriff's department, and the L.A. County Coroner's Department still calls her cause of death "undetermined," ABC7 reported.

The county first offered a $10,000 reward just 12 days after Richardson first disappeared in 2009 and renewed the reward until Oct. 11, 2010 according to a motion from December brought to the board by Mitchell.

Read More:

• County Approves $10,000 Reward For Mysterious Malibu Death
• Calabasas, Agoura Hills Offer Reward In Mitrice Richardson Case
• Mitrice Richardson's Parents May Get $900K Settlement From County
• Bones Identified as Mitrice Richardson's