6. Reconnaissance

Teshaka Starwell, who'd been helping Mitrice's family with their searches, told Dr. Rhonda Hampton that human remains had been found in Monte Nido.

I got a, a text message from him saying, "Hey, there was a partially mummified skeletal remains naked found in Monte Nido, so I think you guys should head out there."

She let the family know.

Mitrice's aunt called Lieutenant Rossen, one of the homicide detectives.

She called the detective to say, "Hey, this is what we are hearing, that there's, you know, partially mummified remains." And, uh, she spoke to Lieutenant Rossen, who said, "No, no, no.

There's just a couple of bones.

It's not complete.

There's just a few bones.

We don't even know.

You guys don't need to come out," which alerted us to come out.

Now that there was a body in the Sheriff's Department's jurisdiction, they took over from the LAPD.

The sheriff set up a command post at a large ranch overlooking Dark Canyon.

It's known as the Porn Ranch because they shoot a lot of porn out there.

It has a long driveway that runs along one side of Dark Canyon.

So we get out there.

The media's there.

It's like a f- media frenzy, like clearly something has been found.

But they couldn't get access to the site.

Like, they only let us go so far, so we didn't know where her remains were.

We just know it was somewhere around there.

And eventually they told us, "You know, after a few hours, it's getting dark.

You guys should just go home.

We're probably just going to lift her remains in the morning, and you guys can just leave." I felt like they were waiting us out, 'cause we just wouldn't leave.

Finally, as the sun was setting, they saw a helicopter leaving Dark Canyon and heading for Lost Hills Station.

Apparently, there'd been a change of plans.