California, Mexico team up to identify bodies

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office in California has established a partnership with the Mexican consulate to hopefully identify some of the forty-odd Jane and John Does lying around the county. Santa Cruz County is in central California, quite a distance from the border, but it seems there are a lot of Mexican immigrants there (perhaps there are a lot all over California) and there’s a very good chance that many of those unidentifieds were Mexican nationals.

I think this is a great thing. I wish more nations would cooperate like this to solve crimes.

Mitrice Richardson’s mom sues Los Angeles County

Earlier I wrote about the strange disappearance of Mitrice Richardson, who vanished into thin air shortly after being released from police custody. She had been arrested on a minor charge. It came to light later on that she was probably suffering from an episode of severe bipolar disorder. She had no history of mental illness and in fact was a high achiever, graduating from college with a 4.0 average. She had also won some beauty contests.

Well, since the beginning Mitrice’s family has blamed the police for letting her go. They say the cops should have seen how strangely she was acting and held her for a psych eval. She definitely was acting oddly in the restaurant where she was arrested, but the police claim she appeared sane enough in jail and they have a legal obligation to release arrestees as soon as possible. For Mitrice, that meant in the middle of the night. Supposedly they offered to let her stay until daybreak, but she refused and left the station a little after midnight.

Now, Mitrice’s mother, Latrice Sutton, has sued the county over her disappearance. According to this article, she’s alleging wrongful death, emotional distress, and civil rights violations. I thought Sutton had filed suit before but it seems she only filed a claim or something. She’s seeking unspecified damages, but mainly the ability to learn more about the circumstances of Mitrice’s arrest and disappearance. Sutton says: “This magical lawsuit will allow me to obtain every single document in the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department and to depose every officer and detective involved.”

A thought — Daisja Weaver now missing one year

I just remembered that nine-month-old Daisja Weaver was reported missing one year and nineteen days ago. Her mom claimed a man had broken into their apartment and tried to rape her, then ran off with the baby. The police were like, “Uh-huh, suuuure.” And very quickly the story fell apart. Daisja’s so-called father, Alandus, confessed that he “accidentally” drowned her while Daisja’s excuse for a mom, Tamaira Creagh, was out. Then he and Tamaira got rid of the body together and made up the kidnap story. They never found Daisja’s body and they don’t expect to. After a year, and given that she was an infant, there may be nothing left to find.

I did a search for more recent info and discovered that Alandus was found guilty of capital murder last month. At his trial he changed his story again, saying Tamaira had smothered the baby. He was sentenced to life in prison. Not sure how he escaped the death sentence. Tamaira gave birth to Alandus’s son a few months after Daisja’s murder. As far as I know she’s not in jail, I found her Facebook page which mentions “two kids daisja marie (RIP) and jayden my little man.”

I do not understand why women date dirt bags, have children by them and then let them abuse the children. Tamaira says she was a victim of long-term abuse at Alandus’s hands. I can buy that. He sounds like the abusing kind — he did kill his daughter after all. But if he was so horrible, why did she leave her helpless baby daughter in his care? I don’t understand that at all. Daisja looks like she was a beautiful baby. I’m sure plenty of people would have been willing to adopt her. Just luck of the draw that she got stuck with those two.