The saga of Mitrice Richardson, who disappeared last September after leaving a somewhat remote L.A. Sheriff's Department outpost, may have a good ending, according to Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore. He told the Weekly she is believed to have been seen in Las Vegas. Officials are planning a press conference there tomorrow, though Whitmore stressed there is nothing yet definitive.

The woman went missing from the sheriff's Lost Hills station early on the morning of Sept. 24 after she was detained there for allegedly failing to pay a restaurant bill in nearby Malibu. Her car had been impounded, so she was released to make her way home on foot, alone, in in the hills above Malibu, at night, without transportation or money, as her purse was in her impounded car. She vanished.

Richardson's family has been critical of the Sheriff's Department for letting the young woman, now 25, walk the hillside roads at night alone. And, they had been campaigning for the department to upgrade the case from missing person to potential murder.

Both parents have separately sued the Sheriff's Department.

She may have been suffering from psychological issues at time of her disappearance, friends and family have said.

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