Missing Persons

Exactly three weeks after Mitrice Richardson apparently vanished in Malibu Canyon, Los Angeles police detectives assigned to her case are convinced that the 24-year-old woman is alive. "Mitrice is out there," LAPD robbery-homicide Det. Chuck Knolls said. "We don't believe she's a victim of foul play." But her whereabouts still bedevil Knolls and fellow detective Steven Eguchi. Both men are working the case full-time, and had past assistance from 12 other detectives. At the same time, about 50 family members and friends of Richardson are doing their own tracking of alleged sightings from Malibu to outside L.A. County.

His name might not rank with Amelia Earhart's and Judge Crater's, but the disappearance of Everett Ruess has been an enduring legend of the Southwest for 75 years. Only 20 at the time of his disappearance, the writer, artist and environmentalist who has been compared to a young John Muir was last seen near Utah's Davis Gulch in 1934. Numerous search parties failed to find him, and authors have speculated widely about his demise. Many believed he drowned in the Colorado River.

It was nearly two years ago that 19-year-old Donna Jou left home with a man she met on the Internet and then disappeared. For almost two years, her parents believed that John Steven Burgess knew what had happened to their daughter but refused to tell them. On Thursday, Jou's parents finally got answers to questions that have haunted them. Burgess, a convicted sex offender, had pleaded guilty earlier this week to involuntary manslaughter and to concealing Jou's body.

Two NFL players were in a group of four boaters missing Sunday in the choppy seas off Florida's Gulf Coast. Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper and defensive end Corey Smith, a free agent who last played for the Detroit Lions, were in a group of friends that left in Cooper's 21-foot boat early Saturday morning for a day of fishing off the coast of Clearwater, Fla., and did not return that evening as expected. Officials did not receive a distress signal from the missing craft.

The life of Darrin Bunker, described by family members as an enigmatic loner, has taken a perplexing twist after his sailboat was found bobbing off Hawaii last weekend with no sign of him. He had left Dana Point Harbor three months earlier, bound for San Diego. The 30-foot vessel, damaged by fire and its mast broken, was found drifting off the Kauai coast on Sunday by fishermen. It was still stocked with provisions and Bunker's laptop computer was still aboard.

Rescuers continued to hold out hope Saturday that they would find a retired schoolteacher from North Hollywood who got lost on a hike during last weekend's heavy storms in the San Bernardino Mountains. Dean Christy, 62, is an avid hiker and an experienced outdoorsman, said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller. "We are hopeful he was able to establish a shelter to get out of the weather and that he will be able to survive this," she said.

A Mission Viejo woman visiting the Caribbean island St. Martin vanished a week ago while on a nighttime walk to a casino, her husband said Friday. Leta Lynn Cordes was last seen Jan. 11 shortly before 11 p.m. when she left their vacation home for the Westin St. Martin hotel to gamble, her husband, Frank Cordes, said. "The Westin is about 10 minutes away walking time," Cordes said in a telephone interview from the island. "She had made that walk before."

A Mission Viejo woman who disappeared this month while reportedly walking to a casino on the Caribbean island St. Maarten never arrived at the resort, a spokeswoman said. Frank Cordes, 42, said his wife, Leta Lynn Cordes, 49, left their island vacation home -- where they had gone to spend the holidays -- about 11 p.m. Jan. 11 and walked to the Westin St. Maarten Hotel, about 10 minutes away.

A body found in a San Diego alley is believed to be that of a Huntington Beach man missing for several days, police said Tuesday. Dane Williams, 23, was last seen by friends about 1:30 a.m. Saturday leaving a bar in the Gaslamp Quarter, where he had been attending a trade show with his employer, surf clothing manufacturer Hurley International. About 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, police found a body they believe is Williams' wrapped in a blanket.

The two business partners boarded the 23-foot sailboat in Dana Point on Saturday evening, authorities said, supposedly heading to San Clemente Island to seal a lucrative deal with a mysterious government agency. When the beat-up boat returned to shore in Long Beach on Tuesday, only one of the partners was on board.