Important Lost Hills – Dark Canyon Update
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department listened to our podcast and now they’re asking us some new questions — and answering some of ours. Are they ready to reopen the…
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Lost Hills investigates the dark side of Malibu, California. Beneath a seductive facade, this city of billionaires, celebrities, and surf bums is hiding something menacing.
On September 16, 2009, 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for failing to pay her bill at a restaurant in Malibu, CA. After being released from Lost Hills Station shortly after midnight, she disappeared. Eleven months later, her naked, skeletal remains were discovered in a canyon some six miles away.
For nearly 15 years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Mitrice’s friends and family, and generations of internet sleuths have tried to crack the case.
To this day, her death remains an unsolved mystery.
The truth lies in the remote Malibu community where Mitrice was last seen. And now, finally, people are starting to talk.
Hosted by Dana Goodyear (The New Yorker) and produced by Western Sound and Pushkin Industries. Show artwork copyright Francesca Gabbiani.
Email the show: losthills@western-sound.com
Most Recent Episode
Important Lost Hills – Dark Canyon Update
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department listened to our podcast and now they’re asking us some new questions — and answering some of ours. Are they ready to reopen the…
12. Dig Two Graves
Dana lays out all the evidence, and we await results from forensic testing. We reconnect with Mitrice’s loved ones, as they celebrate what would have been her 39th birthday.
11. The Suitcase
A round of cold calls yields brand new information tying the Person of Interest to Mitrice. We return to the fort in the woods, and make a startling discovery.
10. The Wallypad
The home of a local firefighter is infiltrated by an informant hoping to get more information on the Person of Interest. And a hike planned for Dark Canyon instead leads…
9. Fearful Witness
A 2011 exhumation of Mitrice’s remains leads to a second autopsy. Meanwhile, a woman describes a disturbing encounter in Monte Nido around the time of Mitrice’s death.
8. Rick Trouble
We learn everything we can about our Person of Interest — a longtime member of the Monte Nido community, who went from golden boy to convict to off-the-grid survivalist living in…
7. In the Shit
Looking for a way into Dark Canyon, we follow a former pot grower on a treacherous route, and pay a visit to the Porn Ranch, which borders Dark Canyon. Plus,…
6. Reconnaissance
Eleven months after her disappearance, Mitrice’s naked remains are discovered in an abandoned pot field in Dark Canyon, just above Monte Nido. Deputies on scene make a controversial decision, sparking…
Bonus: Get Jim
Three years before Mitrice’s arrest, Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving on Pacific Coast Highway. An interview with the arresting officer, James Mee, reveals the power wielded by celebrities…
5. So Close
As the months pass with no sign of Mitrice, rumors abound. Law enforcement questions the artist behind a creepy mural. And deputies raid a fort in the wilderness looking for…
4. Hopscotch
Six hours after her release from Lost Hills Station, Mitrice is spotted in the rural community of Monte Nido. Investigators find Mitrice’s footprints, and neighbors report unusual disturbances around the…
3. Call for Help
Mitrice arrives at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu on Sept. 16, 2009, claiming she’s there to “avenge the death of Michael Jackson.” When she walks out without paying, a restaurant staffer…
2. My Light
Investigators search Mitrice’s impounded car and find several journals she wrote in the last months of her life. Never before shared publicly, the journals offer details about Mitrice’s mental state…
1. Vultures
As Mitrice Richardson’s disappearance dominates news headlines, the Sheriff’s Department defends its decision to release her with no phone, no wallet, and no ride. Meanwhile, Mitrice’s autopsy raises puzzling questions…
Season 4 Trailer: Dark Canyon
The disappearance and death of Mitrice Richardson remains Malibu, CA’s most baffling unsolved case. It’s been nearly 14 years since her remains were discovered in a remote canyon, and still,…
Black Heroes of Surfing
Textured Waves is a Black female surf collective focused on promoting diversity in the water and teaching Black youth to surf. In this bonus episode, Dana talks to two of…
The Toughest Girl in Malibu
Malibu, 1950. Before Gidget, before even Miki Dora, there was one surfer who ruled the waves and was known for cutting down anyone who got in her way. And she…
12. A Nasty Piece of Work
When he dies, in 2002, Miki leaves wreckage in his wake. A stash of letters reveal his deepest and most toxic beliefs. And Linda Cuy explains the true cost of…
11. Writing on the Wall
After prison, Miki is a changed man . . . kind of. He knows better than to break the law again. So he finds other ways to make money. He…
10. Aging Boy of Summer
After getting busted in France in 1981, Miki finally surrenders himself to the FBI. Agents have spent years interviewing denizens of the surf world, gathering dirt on Miki. His criminal…
9. The Fall Guys
Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson are on assignment for Surfer magazine. Their task? Find Miki Dora. When they do, he’s living in a campervan in the South of France, surfing…
8. AKA Fugitive
After moaning about the ruination of Malibu for years, Miki sets out … for New Zealand. He and Linda are going to use a bunch of fraudulent airline tickets and…
7. Misdirection
From nothing, a surf industry is born. There are magazines. And gear. And competitions. Everyone is hustling…. Including Miki. He introduces a new board called Da Cat, complete with an…
6. Fuck the World
Miki puts his surfing skills to use in the Gidget movies and in every beach party movie he can get cast in. He wants to be a star, but he…
5. Surf Nazi
Mainland surfing has been steeped in the symbols of fascism since its inception. Iron Crosses, swastikas, Nazi uniforms…in the golden era of surfing, surfers flaunt them on their boards and…
4. Gidget Goes to Hollywood, Pt2
Kathy Kohner’s family were immigrants from Eastern Europe who helped launch the Golden Age of Hollywood. Miki Dora’s family had also escaped the rise of fascism to start anew in…
3. Gidget Goes to Hollywood, Pt1
In the bitchen’ summer of 1956, a 15 year-old girl named Kathy Kohner shows up in Malibu and asks the guys to teach her how to surf. They call her…
2. Death in Mexico
The most iconic surfer in Southern California was born in… Hungary. Emigrating to Los Angeles as a baby, he was raised partly by his father, a sophisticated European wine lover…
1. The Legend of Miki Dora
Miki Dora, Malibu’s most celebrated surfer, was known as Da Cat. Gorgeous, graceful, and debonair, Miki was intimidating. He ruled Malibu from the 1950s to the 1970s. But then, he…
Lost Hills Season 3: The Dark Prince
There’s an evil undercurrent that runs through the surf world, and it all leads back to the Dark Prince of Malibu: Miki Dora. A surfer who ruled Malibu from the…
Actor Rob Lowe on Growing Up in “the MILF Capital of the World”
Rob Lowe moved to Malibu in 1976, when he was 12. The Malibu of his youth was crazy. In this Season 2 bonus episode, Lowe takes us on a trippy…
Episode 10: Lifelines
Fred’s daughters share a trove of correspondence, and wrestle with unanswered questions about Jeanne’s death. The fight for Fred’s release continues. And a trip to Bird Rock brings resolution, at…
Episode 9: Prejudicial Effect
Fred’s trial is the longest and most expensive in Santa Barbara history, and the dory plays a starring role. Stan Roden, the DA, wants to send Fred to the gas…
Episode 8: Three Freds
Fred hires a high-powered defense attorney and a team of private eyes, and starts pushing back on the detectives’ narrative. He’s got an explanation for everything: his real-estate holdings, his…
Episode 7: Love or Money
After Fred’s arrest, detectives start looking into his finances. How does a civilian employee of the Navy afford a beachfront home, on a gated road in Malibu, and a brand-new…
Episode 6: Cold Pricklies
The sheriff’s department orders a new set of autopsies on Verna and Doug, to be conducted in secret. Now, there’s enough evidence to arrest Fred. Meanwhile, detectives talk to his…
Episode 5: Who Would You Take?
Shortly after Jeanne’s death, Fred starts seeing Verna, one of Jeanne’s closest friends. It’s a whirlwind romance, and soon they’re merging families. The timeline of their relationship stokes Malibu gossip,…
Episode 4: The Shallow End, Part 2
It’s 1976 and Jeanne is in thrall to Lifespring, a self-improvement group, or, some would say, a cult. She is manifesting her future—without Fred. This alternative reality never arrives. Instead,…
Episode 3: The Shallow End, Part 1
Fred’s first wife, Jeanne, a flight attendant for United Airlines, is glamorous, outgoing, the life of the party. But there are tensions in the marriage and they’re mounting. Jeanne tells…
Episode 1: Mr. Malibu
Fred, Verna, and their four young children are the happiest-looking family in Malibu. It’s a Brady Bunch story, a blended family living by the beach. But when they take their…
Episode 2: Quiet No Longer
The Ventura County Medical Examiner determines Verna and Doug’s deaths to be accidental drownings, so Fred moves forward with funeral plans. But the cremations are halted after a family friend…
Introducing Lost Hills Season Two
In January 1981, Verna Johnson-Roehler and her young son, Doug, drowned while boating thirty miles off the coast of Malibu. Verna’s husband, Fred Roehler, was the sole survivor and only…
Season 1 bonus: “The Eyewitness”
On the night that Tristan Beaudette was killed in Malibu Creek State Park, Stacey Sebourn was in a tent with her eight-year-old daughter and her daughter’s best friend just across…
Episode 8: East of Eden
Two hikers who stumbled on Rauda’s camp before the Beaudette murder lament a missed opportunity to stop the crime before it happened.With Anthony Rauda in custody, will peace return to…
Episode 7: Morning Light
A look at Rauda’s writing reveals a secret connection to the crime. And a close examination of a photograph taken by a citizen investigator at Rauda’s camp gives rise to…
Episode 6: One More Day in Paradise
Lost Hills Station is embroiled in scandal. But the new captain is determined to set the story straight.
Episode 5: Krazy Horse
Who is Anthony Rauda?He’s more than a drifter. He’s an aspiring musician and a writer, with a long history of mental-health struggles and an extensive criminal record. He’s a committed…
Episode 4: Animals of the Night
The cops went from saying that they couldn’t connect the crimes to saying that one person, Anthony Rauda, had done them all. Is that even possible?
Episode 3: Lost
Three months after his arrest, Anthony Rauda is charged with the murder of Tristan Beaudette, all the other shootings, as well as a series of strange burglaries involving junk food…
Episode 2: The Pink Bubble
A devastating fire rips through Malibu, burning Anthony Rauda’s campsite, Malibu Creek State Park, and any evidence the cops might have missed. Rauda appears in court, and a tentative link…
Episode 1: The Killing Zone
After Tristan Beaudette’s murder, other victims come forward telling similar tales. . . of a sniper in Malibu who has been shooting at campers and at moving cars for the…
Lost Hills Trailer
Lost Hills, reported, written and hosted by Dana Goodyear. Coming March 16th from Western Sound and Pushkin Industries.
The Host
Dana Goodyear
Dana Goodyear, a staff writer at The New Yorker, is the author of two collections of poetry. Her nonfiction debut, Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making…
