katydid23 you have great points but if she was having some sort of mental break she would not be in her right mind mentally to realize to call or parents or help. That also means she was not in the proper mental state to leave the police station. They should have kept her on a 5150
After she was held in custody, calmed down, and was told the charges were all dropped, there was no evidence that she was a candidate for a 5150:
A 5150 is an application for an i n v o l u n t a r y psychiatric evaluation and/or treatment when a person is deemed, as a result of a mental disorder, a Danger to Self, or Danger to Others, or Gravely Disabled. When a person meets these legal criteria to be placed on a 5150 hold, the person is transported to a designated psychiatric inpatient facility for evaluation and treatment for up to 72-hours against their will
She did not display any to those ^^^^extreme behaviours at the time she was being released to go home.
She was no longer drunk or high, and no longer angry at the restaurant or the cops. She was relieved she was being allowed to go home. She was given a phone and she told LE she had secured a ride.
That street is a very safe, well lit area. There are some all night fast food restaurants less than a half a mile down the same road as the Lost Hills station. If she wanted to wait for her ride she could have sat in the police lobby or in their front area or walked to the Jack in the Box or the McDonalds.
I am not going to blame LE for not holding her on a 5150 because she was not being violent or irrational or gravely disabled at that time. The bar for 5150 is pretty high.
She had no charges against her, and she had a clear legal right to leave the premises. Can you imagine the backlash if they had denied her the right to leave, and kept her under false premises?
As for her possible mental break, I think that came later, after she made a few poor decisions as she left the station. But I don't think we can blame LE for that because they need some evidence that she was lying and didn't want to wait for her ride, or maybe didn't even have a ride.
My brother was severely schizophrenic at times in his life. Sometimes after speaking to him on the phone, from 8 hours away, I would call in a wellness check, and tell LE that he needed a 5150. I even played them some of his rants and irrational thoughts in trying to help them understand.
But in reality. even when he was hearing a chorus of voices in his head, and was sure that the CIA was coming to kill him, he could almost always get past the 5150 'test.' They ask basic questions, where are we, what year is it, who is the president, etc etc.
My brother told me that he had to muffle the voices and block them out as best as he could, in order to stay out of the 72 hour hold. Most patients have the ability to focus hard, just long enough to do so. It is exhausting and he'd call later and scream at me, accusing me of being part of the CIA plot to kill him.
I think it is quite possible that she was manic, as she hadn't slept in days, according to friends of hers, IIRC.
But the cops aren't psychiatrists and all they can do is see that she can hold a rational conversation and is not an immediate danger to herself or others. If there are no charges against her, and she demands to be released, she has that right.
I think she was in a manic phase, and began walking towards the beach, through the Malibu Hills.
She had come from Malibu when she was first arrested. That area is remote and rugged. If she began hiking and found herself in the hills, she probably became panicky and irrational and exhausted. She also may have been dehydrated and very cold.
When that happens, people often begin taking off their own clothing, in a weird symptom of hypothermia. I think it is possible that she died of natural causes.
But it is also possible she ran into some of the 'crazies' that are known to hang out up there. There are a few types of dangerous people up in those mountains. There are transients and vagrants that camp out up there, and are known to do meth, etc etc. That would have been bad if she stepped into their world.
There are gangs who hang around up there off the main roads, and there are tagging signs seen on some of the hiking trails, which is scary.
There used to be 'grows' of illegal marijuana as well.
And the local teens all go off roading in that area. There are expensive homes up there, dotting the area, but it is still remote.
Both my kids used to sneak around up there as teens and I hated it. They were not supposed to, but once they have their own cars and think they know everything...
![Roll Eyes :rolleyes: :rolleyes:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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