WEBVTT - Vultures from Lost Hills: Dark Canyon 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:21.956 Pushkin Hello, Hello Revision's history listeners. Today we're taking you 0:00:22.036 --> 0:00:27.716 to Malibu to explore one of the city's greatest unsolved mysteries. 0:00:28.076 --> 0:00:31.916 In two thousand and nine, a woman named Matrice Richardson 0:00:32.276 --> 0:00:35.596 was released from the Malibu Lost Hills Sheriff's Station, and 0:00:35.676 --> 0:00:39.556 she never made it home. Nearly a year later, Patrees's 0:00:39.636 --> 0:00:43.036 remains were discovered in a canyon six miles from the station. 0:00:43.516 --> 0:00:47.956 Everyone knows something horrible happened to Mctries, and for fifteen years, 0:00:47.996 --> 0:00:51.436 the Sheriff's department has failed to solve her case. In 0:00:51.476 --> 0:00:55.476 the latest season out of Pushkin Industries, host Dana Goodyear 0:00:55.516 --> 0:01:01.316 is investigating what happened to Matries in Lost Hills Dark Canyon. 0:01:02.236 --> 0:01:05.476 Today you'll hear the first episode of the season. If 0:01:05.476 --> 0:01:07.436 you want to hear more, you can find a show 0:01:07.476 --> 0:01:10.436 in your favorite podcast player. And if you want to 0:01:10.436 --> 0:01:13.996 hear the entire season right now at free, you can 0:01:14.036 --> 0:01:18.236 subscribe to Pushkin Plus on the Lost Hills Dark Canyon 0:01:18.396 --> 0:01:24.156 Apple podcast show page or at pushkin dot fm, slash Plus. 0:01:24.876 --> 0:01:49.156 Here's Dana. 0:01:52.076 --> 0:01:54.876 A couple of years ago, I found a video buried 0:01:54.916 --> 0:01:58.156 on the Internet, deep in the metadata behind the four 0:01:58.316 --> 0:02:01.956 or four error codes. In it, a young black woman 0:02:02.076 --> 0:02:04.836 is questioning a middle aged white guy who's sitting on 0:02:04.876 --> 0:02:06.636 the edge of his bed drinking a beer. 0:02:06.996 --> 0:02:09.756 Did you hear Bena on the door talking the door 0:02:09.796 --> 0:02:11.836 like they just shut it on her or something on. 0:02:12.476 --> 0:02:16.476 The person they're talking about is my Teres Richardson, a 0:02:16.516 --> 0:02:19.556 twenty four year old black woman who disappeared in Malibu 0:02:19.636 --> 0:02:22.476 in two thousand and nine and whose remains were discovered 0:02:22.476 --> 0:02:26.276 there eleven months later. They're talking about the day of 0:02:26.276 --> 0:02:27.796 her disappearance. 0:02:27.636 --> 0:02:30.036 And was above when I first hearted to void him 0:02:30.036 --> 0:02:32.676 by the time I got down with love and kind 0:02:32.676 --> 0:02:34.996 of curiosity kind of drugged me closer. 0:02:35.036 --> 0:02:38.236 In the Facebook, the interview is being shot vertical, seemingly 0:02:38.276 --> 0:02:40.476 on a cell phone, with the guy taking up the 0:02:40.516 --> 0:02:44.436 whole frame. He looks like an aging California golden boy 0:02:44.876 --> 0:02:47.836 with gray and blonde hair, a tan and a barrel chest. 0:02:48.516 --> 0:02:51.716 He's relaxed, wearing a sky blue Henley shirt tucked into 0:02:51.756 --> 0:02:53.196 a pair of camouflage shorts. 0:02:53.396 --> 0:02:54.996 So I really couldn't see her face, but I could 0:02:54.996 --> 0:02:56.516 see her shadow. 0:02:56.716 --> 0:03:01.156 That's While he says this, he gestures broadly, waving his 0:03:01.236 --> 0:03:02.716 big paws around in the air. 0:03:03.276 --> 0:03:04.716 In the light of the knife, you know, with the 0:03:04.796 --> 0:03:07.876 light of the front porch, and she was screaming at something. 0:03:07.956 --> 0:03:10.676 Yeah, it was pretty loud. I'm thinking, God damn's forth, 0:03:10.676 --> 0:03:13.316 three of them morn What was she saying? She was saying, 0:03:13.316 --> 0:03:18.116 God damn, buddy. Still, you know, she was pit or something, 0:03:18.156 --> 0:03:19.836 you know, something that he was. 0:03:19.836 --> 0:03:23.236 The people at the house, she was angry and maybe 0:03:23.236 --> 0:03:25.236 they told her she had to read get a call 0:03:25.276 --> 0:03:28.116 at police, and she was telling him miss you sun 0:03:28.196 --> 0:03:29.116 him whatever. 0:03:29.636 --> 0:03:33.436 But he got curious. The scene was so out of 0:03:33.516 --> 0:03:37.916 place in this quiet neighborhood, a young woman alone in 0:03:37.996 --> 0:03:42.396 the early morning hours, shouting she might be in trouble. 0:03:42.116 --> 0:03:43.916 Because I think, well, if there's some dude there, I'm 0:03:43.956 --> 0:03:45.156 not going to let some dudy here her. 0:03:45.196 --> 0:03:49.036 You know, I would have hesitated to walk on that property. 0:03:49.156 --> 0:03:52.956 But since I wasn't, you know, and I couldn't see 0:03:53.036 --> 0:03:56.196 anybody else except for her, or not really even her, 0:03:56.436 --> 0:03:59.356 just she was she was angry something. 0:03:59.836 --> 0:04:01.956 I mean, I'm kind of that would have been right there. 0:04:02.196 --> 0:04:03.676 I would donald protected. 0:04:05.476 --> 0:04:09.076 The interviewer her name's Raven Masterson. She made the video 0:04:09.116 --> 0:04:12.676 so sometime after my Terce's remains were found, like so 0:04:12.796 --> 0:04:15.196 many people she wanted to figure out what happened to 0:04:15.276 --> 0:04:19.796 my trees because the death of my Teres Richardson is 0:04:19.916 --> 0:04:27.476 Malibu's most horrifying, notorious, and scandalous unsolved case. For fifteen years, 0:04:27.636 --> 0:04:31.596 my Teresa's story has been shrouded in mystery. The scant 0:04:31.676 --> 0:04:35.036 clues have been worked over a thousand times to no end. 0:04:35.916 --> 0:04:40.236 There's no resolution, no satisfying explanation, and no one has 0:04:40.276 --> 0:04:44.756 been held accountable. Many people blame the Los Angeles County 0:04:44.796 --> 0:04:48.316 Sheriff's Department for her death. Some take it farther, and 0:04:48.436 --> 0:04:51.476 this is how Ravenlean's in the video. They even think 0:04:51.556 --> 0:04:55.516 a deputy may have killed my Teres. My Terrese was 0:04:55.596 --> 0:04:59.436 arrested at Geoffrey's Restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway on September sixteenth, 0:04:59.556 --> 0:05:03.276 two thousand and nine. She was released from Lost Hill 0:05:03.356 --> 0:05:07.836 Station at twelve twenty five am on the seventeenth. After that, 0:05:08.396 --> 0:05:11.276 there was one official sighting of her at six thirty 0:05:11.316 --> 0:05:14.316 am in the backyard of a house in Montanito, a 0:05:14.396 --> 0:05:18.956 secluded neighborhood off Malibu Canyon that's about six miles from 0:05:18.996 --> 0:05:22.356 the Lost Hill Sheriff Station. But the guy in the 0:05:22.476 --> 0:05:27.036 video he says he saw her too, two hours earlier, 0:05:27.476 --> 0:05:31.476 at four thirty am, making a commotion in the front 0:05:31.556 --> 0:05:40.796 yard of that same house. Montaneito Mountain Nest. It's a 0:05:40.876 --> 0:05:44.036 tight knit community in the shadow of the Santa Monica Mountains. 0:05:44.956 --> 0:05:48.836 Most people in La don't even know it exists. It's 0:05:48.876 --> 0:05:51.636 got creeks and horses and neighbors that have known each 0:05:51.636 --> 0:05:56.196 other in some cases for generations. Kids run around barefoot. 0:05:56.556 --> 0:05:59.476 There's a big Fourth of July parade and an annual 0:05:59.556 --> 0:06:04.916 square dance. It's a place out of time. It feels 0:06:05.076 --> 0:06:09.756 like the rustic horsey California of the nineteen forties mixed 0:06:09.796 --> 0:06:12.916 with the free wheeling party culture of the nineteen seventies. 0:06:13.676 --> 0:06:16.396 And it's got none of the flash of coastal Malibu 0:06:16.636 --> 0:06:21.596 or the nearby gated communities of Calabasas. This is California, 0:06:21.876 --> 0:06:23.556 so of course there have been a couple of waves 0:06:23.596 --> 0:06:27.476 of gentrifiers. But among the old timers, the people who 0:06:27.556 --> 0:06:32.196 practically homesteaded there in the fifties, there's a distinct backwoods 0:06:32.756 --> 0:06:37.476 ingrown feeling, and it bears mentioning. The whole place is 0:06:37.556 --> 0:06:43.036 extremely white, with one notable exception, Will Smith, one of 0:06:43.076 --> 0:06:46.036 the most famous black men in America owns an estate 0:06:46.156 --> 0:06:49.516 in Montanito, but I don't think he frequents the Square 0:06:49.596 --> 0:06:53.436 Dance or the Fourth of July parade. It's hard to 0:06:53.516 --> 0:06:56.356 express how unlikely it is that my trace would end 0:06:56.436 --> 0:07:00.396 up in this isolated community. There isn't even a sign 0:07:00.476 --> 0:07:04.276 for Montanito on Malibu Canyon. How would she even have 0:07:04.436 --> 0:07:20.556 known it was there. Eleven months after my Terce Richardson disappeared, 0:07:20.876 --> 0:07:24.596 park rangers checking a known illegal pot grow found her 0:07:24.636 --> 0:07:28.636 remains in a treacherous canyon above Montanito called Dark Canyon. 0:07:29.716 --> 0:07:32.716 During this time, the Santa Monica Mountains were notorious for 0:07:32.836 --> 0:07:38.156 harboring large marijuana operations run by organized crime syndicates. These 0:07:38.316 --> 0:07:41.356 massive grows were often protected with armed guards who would 0:07:41.396 --> 0:07:45.276 camp out in the canyons for extended periods. The rangers 0:07:45.276 --> 0:07:48.396 had disrupted a Dark Canyon grow in July two thousand 0:07:48.436 --> 0:07:52.196 and nine, two months before my Teresa's disappearance. When they 0:07:52.276 --> 0:07:56.156 returned in August of twenty ten, they didn't report any 0:07:56.236 --> 0:08:00.316 fresh signs of pot growing activity. But there in the 0:08:00.396 --> 0:08:05.156 dormant grow were the remains of a black woman. She 0:08:05.356 --> 0:08:09.436 was mostly bones, a skeleton with small flats as of 0:08:09.476 --> 0:08:16.076 mummified skin remaining, and she was naked. From the beginning, 0:08:16.476 --> 0:08:20.556 every aspect of the case seemed off. What was wrong, 0:08:21.516 --> 0:08:24.516 how she was arrested, how she was released, how she 0:08:24.676 --> 0:08:27.916 was searched for, how her remains were discovered, how her 0:08:27.996 --> 0:08:32.716 remains were recovered, and how her death was investigated. All 0:08:32.836 --> 0:08:35.116 of it looked like a colossal screw up on the 0:08:35.156 --> 0:08:38.676 part of law enforcement, starting with the Lost Hills cops 0:08:39.796 --> 0:08:41.796 and what the Sheriff's Department has said about the case 0:08:41.796 --> 0:08:45.836 over the years, it just makes no sense. Their refrain, 0:08:46.156 --> 0:08:51.316 essentially is some cases can't be solved. This is a 0:08:51.356 --> 0:08:55.436 Sheriff's spokesman three days after my Teres's body was found. 0:08:56.236 --> 0:08:58.156 Homicide will continue their investigation. 0:08:58.676 --> 0:09:01.316 It's likely that we can never find out exactly how 0:09:01.436 --> 0:09:03.516 she got there, but they're going to do their very 0:09:03.596 --> 0:09:03.956 best to. 0:09:04.156 --> 0:09:08.156 Figure And they're still saying my Teres's death will always 0:09:08.236 --> 0:09:14.996 be a mystery. But I don't accept that. It's a stubborn, strange, 0:09:15.236 --> 0:09:21.276 problematic case. But I do think it's solvable because someone 0:09:22.236 --> 0:09:27.076 in that secluded, tight knit community of Montanito knows what 0:09:27.276 --> 0:09:34.956 happened to her. I'm Dana Goodyear and this is lost 0:09:35.036 --> 0:10:13.316 Hills Season four, Dark Canyon, Episode one, Vultures. Right off 0:10:13.396 --> 0:10:16.516 Pacific Coast Highway, across from the Malibu Lagoon and next 0:10:16.556 --> 0:10:19.996 to the gas station, there's a small memorial. It's a 0:10:20.116 --> 0:10:22.636 rock with a plaque on it, commemorating the life of 0:10:22.716 --> 0:10:27.756 a man who was known as Malibu Jo. Malibujo was 0:10:27.876 --> 0:10:32.276 Joe Costello. He was originally from Genoa, Italy, but starting 0:10:32.316 --> 0:10:35.516 in the mid nineteen fifties, he became a beloved Malibu figure, 0:10:36.036 --> 0:10:39.116 riding his bike slowly up and down pH in a 0:10:39.196 --> 0:10:43.036 fedora and a baggy overcoat. In the summer of nineteen 0:10:43.076 --> 0:10:45.556 eighty eight, he was beaten and left for dead in 0:10:45.596 --> 0:10:48.476 the only under bushes where he lived, where the memorial 0:10:48.596 --> 0:10:52.316 is today. He died a few days later. He was 0:10:52.476 --> 0:10:57.396 ninety six years old. The Sheriff's department investigated, but the 0:10:57.516 --> 0:11:00.716 killing was never solved, so no one was ever punished. 0:11:02.636 --> 0:11:06.676 Malibu Jo died two decades before my Terce Richardson. The 0:11:06.796 --> 0:11:10.116 cases have nothing to do with one another except this. 0:11:11.516 --> 0:11:15.596 Both Joe and My Trees show moments of rupture. They're 0:11:15.636 --> 0:11:21.396 both signals that Malibu isn't what it seems. Malibu is 0:11:21.556 --> 0:11:28.036 not paradise sunshine, nature, beauty, health, wealth, and eternal youth. 0:11:28.756 --> 0:11:32.436 That's the myth. But if I've learned one thing reporting here, 0:11:32.996 --> 0:11:37.996 it's that every seductive surface has its dark side. The 0:11:38.076 --> 0:11:41.236 beauty is the danger. It makes you let down your 0:11:41.276 --> 0:11:46.676 guard and believe in the fantasy. The unspoiled wilderness hides 0:11:46.996 --> 0:11:52.116 unspeakable crimes, and a place like that, a place like 0:11:52.236 --> 0:11:59.396 that breeds monsters. In the fall of two thousand and nine, 0:11:59.716 --> 0:12:02.756 my Teresa's disappearance was all over the local news. 0:12:03.276 --> 0:12:06.356 The mystery unraveled on a September night in two thousand 0:12:06.356 --> 0:12:09.756 and nine, right where the Pacific reached the shore of Malibu. 0:12:10.716 --> 0:12:13.796 It all started when my Teres tried to leave Jeffrey's, 0:12:14.116 --> 0:12:17.836 a pricey restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway, without paying her bill. 0:12:18.676 --> 0:12:21.756 She was arrested and taken to Lost Hill station, about 0:12:21.836 --> 0:12:22.996 thirteen miles away. 0:12:23.756 --> 0:12:26.276 They contacted her mother, who said that she will pick 0:12:26.316 --> 0:12:28.236 her up in the morning if you will keep her there. 0:12:28.796 --> 0:12:30.196 Deputy said we will. 0:12:30.436 --> 0:12:33.636 But instead of staying at the station, my Teres walked 0:12:33.676 --> 0:12:36.596 out into the Malibu night. Her car was at a 0:12:36.676 --> 0:12:39.676 towyard near pch with her belongings inside. 0:12:40.036 --> 0:12:43.396 She was released at twelve thirty a m no wallet, 0:12:43.596 --> 0:12:45.836 no cell phone, no credit cards, no car. 0:12:46.756 --> 0:12:50.596 She was gorgeous and charismatic, and as would later come out, 0:12:50.956 --> 0:12:53.676 she was in the midst of a mental health crisis. 0:12:54.316 --> 0:12:58.196 A beauty contestant and honor student, and now a missing person. 0:12:58.836 --> 0:13:02.036 According to her mom, she had no street savvy whatsoever, 0:13:02.636 --> 0:13:04.116 and she didn't know Malibu at all. 0:13:04.476 --> 0:13:07.236 My Terce Richardson walked out of a Los Angeles County 0:13:07.316 --> 0:13:12.436 Sheriff's office and into a miss that continues to baffle investigators. 0:13:12.476 --> 0:13:15.076 And then the mystery became a horror. 0:13:15.756 --> 0:13:19.596 Eleven months later, the twenty four year old college graduates. 0:13:19.156 --> 0:13:22.716 Remains were found here in Dark Canyon. She was naked 0:13:22.876 --> 0:13:24.316 and partially mummified. 0:13:24.716 --> 0:13:28.276 They discovered a skull, They discovered a pelvis, and they 0:13:28.316 --> 0:13:28.876 discovered a. 0:13:28.916 --> 0:13:31.116 Leg, just bones. 0:13:31.876 --> 0:13:37.996 They determined officially, unequivocally, and unfortunately it was my Terce Richardson. 0:13:38.276 --> 0:13:38.636 Corners. 0:13:38.716 --> 0:13:41.836 Officials haven't determined the cause of death, and they say 0:13:41.956 --> 0:13:45.716 Richardson's body was in the canyon for more than six months. 0:13:46.236 --> 0:13:50.316 Whatever happened in Dark Canyon remains from the moment a 0:13:50.476 --> 0:13:51.116 dark secret. 0:13:54.396 --> 0:13:58.436 It's been fifteen years since my trace disappeared, fourteen years 0:13:58.516 --> 0:14:01.636 since her remains were found, and there's been no progress 0:14:01.676 --> 0:14:05.036 on her case. There's no sign that law enforcement is 0:14:05.076 --> 0:14:07.676 actively working on it. But it's not a cold case. 0:14:08.436 --> 0:14:12.876 It's a quote active criminal investigation, which means the Sheriff's 0:14:12.916 --> 0:14:16.556 department doesn't have to share information. And believe me, they 0:14:16.636 --> 0:14:19.916 take that very seriously. They do not like to talk 0:14:19.956 --> 0:14:24.156 about this case. In the midst of their silence, a 0:14:24.316 --> 0:14:28.196 sinister narrative has taken hold in the public imagination that 0:14:28.316 --> 0:14:32.396 the La County Sheriff's Department, specifically the Lost Heils cops, 0:14:32.796 --> 0:14:36.716 are behind my Teres's death. They deny this, but the 0:14:36.796 --> 0:14:40.156 idea lives on in a new generation of true crime 0:14:40.276 --> 0:14:41.796 TikTokers and YouTubers. 0:14:42.516 --> 0:14:45.996 Welcome to another episode of Murder, Mystery and Makeup Monday. 0:14:46.276 --> 0:14:48.476 Today's story was about Matrise Richardson. 0:14:48.916 --> 0:14:51.636 Kind of feels like that they were hiding something. 0:14:51.756 --> 0:14:53.676 The police work in this case was off long. Is 0:14:53.716 --> 0:14:55.356 this incompetence or cover up? 0:14:55.396 --> 0:14:58.316 I mean they originally were trying to hide the fact 0:14:58.356 --> 0:14:59.956 that they had security footage. 0:15:00.156 --> 0:15:03.916 The previous captain was in on it and promoted for 0:15:04.116 --> 0:15:05.156 his cover up job. 0:15:05.316 --> 0:15:07.556 I believe that matterse Richardson was murdered and it was 0:15:07.636 --> 0:15:08.996 covered up by the La County Sheriff. 0:15:13.516 --> 0:15:15.556 We know the cops took My Trees to the station, 0:15:16.076 --> 0:15:19.156 and the cops let her go in the dark. This 0:15:19.316 --> 0:15:25.716 part is true, undisputed fact. And then what how did 0:15:25.756 --> 0:15:28.836 she get from the station to Montanito six miles away? 0:15:29.796 --> 0:15:33.316 How did she end up in dark Canyon? Why was 0:15:33.396 --> 0:15:38.836 she naked? And what happened to her missing bones? Oh yeah, 0:15:39.876 --> 0:15:44.196 that's one more undisputed fact. While most of my Trees's 0:15:44.276 --> 0:15:48.196 bones were eventually accounted for, discovered in the canyon's heavy 0:15:48.316 --> 0:15:54.356 leaf litter, an important one has not been found, the 0:15:54.476 --> 0:15:58.276 fragile bone above the larynx that often breaks when a 0:15:58.356 --> 0:16:19.396 person is strangled. My Terce Richardson's death is not officially 0:16:19.516 --> 0:16:24.676 a homicide. The autopsy reads, quote, while there is no 0:16:24.876 --> 0:16:27.956 evidence of antimortem trauma to the bones or the limited 0:16:27.996 --> 0:16:31.796 amount of tissue accompanying them, in the absence of internal viscera, 0:16:32.356 --> 0:16:37.636 internal injury cannot be completely ruled out and quote, in 0:16:37.716 --> 0:16:42.476 the absence of suitable specimens for toxicology testing, the possibility 0:16:42.756 --> 0:16:47.356 of fatal substance abuse cannot be ruled out, and quote 0:16:47.756 --> 0:16:52.036 death due to exposure snake bite, pneumonia, or other natural 0:16:52.116 --> 0:16:57.916 diseases also cannot be ruled out. Therefore, quote both cause 0:16:58.116 --> 0:17:06.076 and manner of death remain undetermined. Unquote Hello, how are you. 0:17:06.516 --> 0:17:08.956 I'm Dana, Dana. Hi, nice to meet. 0:17:09.156 --> 0:17:12.716 Yes, I'm at the home of Lisa Shinen. She's the 0:17:12.796 --> 0:17:16.396 forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy of my Teresa's remains. 0:17:16.916 --> 0:17:21.156 She's also one of the world's foremost authorities on roller coasters. 0:17:21.596 --> 0:17:24.876 That is my big hobby, that collecting butterflies. 0:17:25.236 --> 0:17:28.396 Her house, a normal looking suburban house in Redondo Beach, 0:17:28.916 --> 0:17:33.876 is basically a natural history museum. So do you capture 0:17:33.916 --> 0:17:34.516 them in a net? 0:17:34.716 --> 0:17:38.116 And then uh tick a look. 0:17:38.436 --> 0:17:42.396 Shadow box frames filled with specimens are stacked in every corner. 0:17:43.236 --> 0:17:45.556 There's something called a killing jar which you can make. 0:17:46.836 --> 0:17:49.356 It's a jar that has a plaster of Paris base 0:17:49.836 --> 0:17:53.756 and then you pour in. You can use cyanide when 0:17:53.796 --> 0:17:56.156 you screw the cap on. It's a closed environment and 0:17:56.276 --> 0:17:58.716 it makes fumes that kill the butterfly, basically put it 0:17:58.796 --> 0:17:59.916 to sleep in seconds. 0:18:00.836 --> 0:18:03.916 Doctor Shinen worked for the La County Coroner's Office for 0:18:04.036 --> 0:18:06.116 twenty four years or. 0:18:06.236 --> 0:18:10.236 I was a deputy medical examiner at the La County 0:18:10.596 --> 0:18:11.556 Coroner's Office. 0:18:11.876 --> 0:18:16.116 Now retired, she worked on a lot of high profile cases. 0:18:16.716 --> 0:18:19.836 She did the autopsies on the musicians Elliott Smith, a 0:18:19.956 --> 0:18:21.396 notorious big. 0:18:22.076 --> 0:18:27.036 My autopsyed Steve Allen, Doctor Nor from the Killing Fields, 0:18:27.596 --> 0:18:31.356 Brittany Murphy, Brian Keith. That goes back. 0:18:31.716 --> 0:18:33.836 But my Terce's case stands out. 0:18:34.996 --> 0:18:39.836 There are, over the years some cases that do stick 0:18:39.916 --> 0:18:44.276 with me because of the circumstances of the case. There 0:18:44.316 --> 0:18:47.596 were so many unknowns. I mean, every time I've been 0:18:47.716 --> 0:18:50.756 near Malibu, I'd start thinking of oll, geez, this is 0:18:50.836 --> 0:18:54.396 where my trace was, and this is just such a 0:18:54.556 --> 0:18:55.476 tragic case. 0:18:57.076 --> 0:18:59.916 But she knew at the start was very basic. A 0:18:59.996 --> 0:19:03.396 few scattered pieces of clothing and a human skeleton had 0:19:03.436 --> 0:19:07.876 been found in an inaccessible canyon in Malibu. The autopsy 0:19:07.996 --> 0:19:10.956 report details the pie of my Teresa's clothing that were 0:19:10.996 --> 0:19:15.196 recovered from the remain site. One navy blue or black 0:19:15.316 --> 0:19:21.276 padded bra two pink narrow belt, medium large alligator skin pattern, 0:19:21.916 --> 0:19:27.076 three blue jeans US size twenty nine, dirty, empty pockets. 0:19:28.116 --> 0:19:30.076 She'd been wearing a Bob Marley T shirt and a 0:19:30.156 --> 0:19:33.436 pair of vans when she left Lost Hill Station. She 0:19:33.636 --> 0:19:37.676 also had her California driver's license on her. Those items, 0:19:37.796 --> 0:19:40.076 along with her hat and her keys, were missing. 0:19:41.356 --> 0:19:47.196 I had the investigator's report. This particular investigator's report was 0:19:47.396 --> 0:19:51.916 very straightforward. It said somebody from law enforcement was checking 0:19:51.996 --> 0:19:56.356 an area in a remote canyon and found the bones 0:19:56.596 --> 0:20:00.036 and the clothing, and the clothing was about one hundred 0:20:00.076 --> 0:20:05.276 feet away from the skeleton. You know, that's very limited information. 0:20:05.676 --> 0:20:08.796 Sometimes we have two or three pages of information, but 0:20:09.276 --> 0:20:13.316 some in this case. So the first thing you do 0:20:13.436 --> 0:20:18.876 is you lay everything out in anatomical order and count 0:20:18.956 --> 0:20:24.556 what you've got. It was a nearly complete skeleton. It 0:20:24.756 --> 0:20:29.156 wasn't in an intact skeleton, and that everything was connected. 0:20:30.076 --> 0:20:34.196 There were a lot of disarticulated bones, but there were 0:20:34.276 --> 0:20:37.236 some areas or certain blocks, like some parts of the 0:20:37.276 --> 0:20:40.196 lower extremities, parts of some of the upper extremities were 0:20:40.316 --> 0:20:43.676 held together by a minimal amount of soft tissue. 0:20:44.156 --> 0:20:47.836 The soft tissue was mostly skin that had been mummified. 0:20:48.596 --> 0:20:53.636 Yeah, mummification is a process. It can be accidental. If 0:20:53.676 --> 0:20:57.356 you have a body in a very dry, hot environment, 0:20:58.036 --> 0:21:03.116 the liquid essentially disappears and what you get is this 0:21:03.756 --> 0:21:10.036 very leathery, rigid skin. Sometimes some soft tissue. Usually the 0:21:11.036 --> 0:21:16.156 internal organs don't mummify, so it's mostly the skin muscle 0:21:16.476 --> 0:21:18.076 tendons at that type of thing. 0:21:19.196 --> 0:21:21.236 There were a few small marks on some of the 0:21:21.316 --> 0:21:26.796 bones the work. Doctor Shinen thought of animals scavenging the remains. 0:21:27.996 --> 0:21:31.756 The toes of the left foot were missing, and that 0:21:32.116 --> 0:21:35.756 was consistent with animal activity. 0:21:36.276 --> 0:21:38.276 But otherwise the bones were intact. 0:21:38.836 --> 0:21:42.996 We look for things like fractures, which would usually mean 0:21:43.076 --> 0:21:46.436 some sort of a blunt force impact. We would look 0:21:46.516 --> 0:21:50.876 for any evidence of a gunshot wound, or a stabbing. 0:21:51.236 --> 0:21:55.516 I didn't see any evidence of a physical traumatic injury. 0:21:56.836 --> 0:21:59.196 There was also no way to tell if my Trees 0:21:59.276 --> 0:22:00.436 had been sexually assaulted. 0:22:00.836 --> 0:22:04.716 Without soft tissue, there's really nothing that you can do 0:22:04.916 --> 0:22:06.716 or see, and sperm doesn't last. 0:22:07.516 --> 0:22:10.316 Without internal organs. There was no way to tell if 0:22:10.396 --> 0:22:11.276 she had overdosed. 0:22:11.636 --> 0:22:15.796 She wasn't found with cocaine, with amphetamine, heroin, anything like that. 0:22:15.836 --> 0:22:17.956 I didn't really have a history of that type of thing, 0:22:18.436 --> 0:22:21.756 But again without being able to do an accurate test, 0:22:22.036 --> 0:22:22.516 we don't know. 0:22:23.916 --> 0:22:27.396 There was a small amount of leg muscle. Doctor Schinen 0:22:27.476 --> 0:22:32.156 sent it in for toxicology, and that report came back inconclusive. 0:22:37.156 --> 0:22:40.436 As soon as my Trees's remains were discovered. Law enforcement 0:22:40.516 --> 0:22:44.276 began suggesting that my Trees, experiencing a mental health episode, 0:22:44.676 --> 0:22:48.556 had probably wandered into Dark Canyon by herself and died 0:22:48.676 --> 0:22:54.956 from exposure, dehydration, venom, or something. Her death, they implied, 0:22:55.156 --> 0:22:59.716 was tragic but natural. I asked doctor Shinin about the 0:22:59.836 --> 0:23:01.316 natural causes theory. 0:23:01.636 --> 0:23:06.316 In this particular case. There's several possibilities. There are rattlesnakes there. 0:23:06.396 --> 0:23:10.716 She could have been bitten by a rattlesnakes fire. Ants, 0:23:11.436 --> 0:23:14.076 she could have had a severe allergic reaction to something. 0:23:14.396 --> 0:23:19.876 There's poison oak there. That's horrible. It's everywhere, and some 0:23:19.996 --> 0:23:21.916 people are more sensitive than others. 0:23:23.076 --> 0:23:27.316 But why would the skeleton be naked. My Trees's broad 0:23:27.476 --> 0:23:30.476 belt and jeans were found hundreds of feet from the skeleton, 0:23:31.156 --> 0:23:35.036 and the belt was no longer on the jeans. A 0:23:35.116 --> 0:23:39.436 seasonal stream, Dark Creek runs through the canyon, and cops 0:23:39.476 --> 0:23:42.636 suggested that a flash flood could have removed her clothes, 0:23:42.996 --> 0:23:47.276 carrying them downstream. The winter my Trese was missing was 0:23:47.356 --> 0:23:50.716 a rainy one, but even so, it takes a real 0:23:50.876 --> 0:23:54.396 contortion of logic to imagine a flood could strip a 0:23:54.476 --> 0:23:58.316 body naked and remove a belt from a pair of pants. 0:23:58.836 --> 0:24:01.396 Usually, when we have a person who's dead with their 0:24:01.436 --> 0:24:04.196 clothes on, the clothes will stay on. Even if the 0:24:04.236 --> 0:24:08.236 body mummifies, the clothes are going to stay on. Water 0:24:08.396 --> 0:24:10.956 might wash all socks or something like that, but it's 0:24:11.036 --> 0:24:13.156 not going to completely undress a body. 0:24:15.276 --> 0:24:19.316 Doctor Shinen raised a different natural explanation for my Teresa's 0:24:19.396 --> 0:24:21.116 nudity hypothermia. 0:24:21.756 --> 0:24:27.316 There's something that happens with extreme cold cold, paradoxical undressing. Normally, 0:24:27.396 --> 0:24:29.996 when you're cold, your blood vessels will constrict to try 0:24:30.356 --> 0:24:33.636 to keep the blood more central in the body. Well, 0:24:33.676 --> 0:24:38.836 what happens with paradoxical undressing is there is a reflex 0:24:38.996 --> 0:24:42.236 dilatation of these blood vessels. So all of a sudden, 0:24:42.316 --> 0:24:45.596 you get this rush of nice warm blood into these 0:24:45.676 --> 0:24:49.476 areas that were previously cold, and people who were probably 0:24:50.796 --> 0:24:53.796 a little bit out of it by this point think, 0:24:53.916 --> 0:24:56.116 oh my gosh, it's so warm, I'm too hot, and 0:24:56.196 --> 0:24:59.996 they take their clothes off. However, that tends to happen 0:25:00.796 --> 0:25:04.436 more often in extreme cold where there's snow. 0:25:05.676 --> 0:25:08.756 In mid September two thousand and nine, the average overnight 0:25:08.836 --> 0:25:11.756 low at the weather recording station nearest to Dark Canyon 0:25:12.036 --> 0:25:13.796 was in the mid sixties, and. 0:25:13.836 --> 0:25:15.996 I'm not sure it would get cold enough up in 0:25:16.076 --> 0:25:20.316 the canyon for that to happen, But it's just something 0:25:20.436 --> 0:25:21.196 to think about. 0:25:21.996 --> 0:25:26.476 Obviously, there's another possible explanation foul play. 0:25:27.636 --> 0:25:30.796 There are sinister reasons for the person not having their 0:25:31.636 --> 0:25:35.316 clothes on. I mean, could she have been sexually assaulted 0:25:36.276 --> 0:25:40.116 and they just took her clothes off and left them off. 0:25:41.316 --> 0:25:45.996 Who knows. It's certainly a real possibility. 0:25:47.156 --> 0:25:50.636 And what about the missing clothing, and also the. 0:25:50.676 --> 0:25:53.716 Fact that it was an incomplete set of clothes and 0:25:54.076 --> 0:25:57.436 none of the additional items of clothing were ever found, 0:25:57.716 --> 0:26:00.356 and including shoes, which I think have a little more 0:26:00.396 --> 0:26:02.196 weight than other clothing. 0:26:03.596 --> 0:26:06.716 As with everything about my Teresa's case, the story of 0:26:06.796 --> 0:26:10.916 her remains is a story of absence, gaps, and guesses. 0:26:12.036 --> 0:26:15.836 A forensic pathologist works by process of elimination, but with 0:26:16.076 --> 0:26:19.636 so little hard evidence, it was difficult to rule out anything. 0:26:20.956 --> 0:26:25.036 So the fact that I didn't see any trauma in 0:26:25.156 --> 0:26:30.796 the bones doesn't mean trauma didn't happen. It's always possible 0:26:31.476 --> 0:26:34.636 that a gunshot wound can go through and through a 0:26:34.716 --> 0:26:38.596 body without hitting bone, same thing for a stab wound. 0:26:39.236 --> 0:26:45.036 What's also possible is asphyxia or a manual strangulation, or 0:26:45.116 --> 0:26:49.916 maybe you know, choked with a rope. The reason people 0:26:50.276 --> 0:26:55.596 die when they're strangled is you're cutting off the blood 0:26:55.676 --> 0:27:00.236 flow to the brain. We're looking for things that reflect 0:27:00.356 --> 0:27:03.556 the fact that you are compressing neck structures. 0:27:05.556 --> 0:27:08.276 In the autopsy report, there's a list of missing bones 0:27:09.356 --> 0:27:12.916 from the hand, the left toes presumably scavenged by animals, 0:27:13.436 --> 0:27:17.196 the tailbone, the zyphoid process at the bottom of the sternum, 0:27:18.116 --> 0:27:21.876 and a thin, fragile neck bone called the hyoid. 0:27:23.516 --> 0:27:27.556 The hyoid bone is the only floating bone in the body. 0:27:27.596 --> 0:27:31.356