Mitrice Richardson Law enforcement agencies continue their search for a 24-year-old woman who’s been missing since she was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Calabasas early in the morning of Sept. 17.

Deputies arrested Mitrice Richardson of Los Angeles on the evening of Wed., Sept. 16 for allegedly failing to pay for a meal at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu.

Marijuana—less than an ounce—was discovered in her Honda Civic, which was towed from the restaurant.

“She is a very reponsible individual and does not go into any establishment without intent to pay,” said Latice Sutton, Richardson’s mother.

Witnesses reported seeing the young woman drunk at the restaurant.

The family tried to pay her bill by phone, but was unsuccessful, Sutton said.

Richardson was taken to the Lost Hills station and released at about 1:30 the next morning. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Richardson left the sheriff’s station without a known destination. She had no identification or possessions with her and didn’t know the Calabasas-Agoura Hills area, Sutton said.

A resident reported seeing her at about 6 a.m. sitting on a porch in Agoura Hills.

“This is not characteristic of Mitrice,” Sutton said. “There seems to be some kind of mental crisis going on with her.”

Her parents fear she’s being held against her will.

According to the family’s missing persons flier, Richardson graduated from Cal State Fullteron with a 4.0 grade-point average and had just passed a test to become a substitute teacher with Los Angeles Unified School District. She was planning to pursue a doctorate in pschology, said her mother.

Richardson is a 5-foot-5, 135-pound African American woman with hazel brown eyes and was last seen wearing a dark T-shirt and blue jeans. She has tattoos on her lower abdomen and behind her neck.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts should contact Detective Kristin Merrill with the Los Angeles Police Department's Missing Persons Unit at (213) 485-5381, or Latice Sutton at (909) 282-8382.