Its also the one-year anniversary of the board exam she never took. But at some point, I feel like there has to be some accountability, he told me. His mother was a substitute teacher and, later, a wildlife educator. or Who is this person outside of this?, On his worst days, Dylan said, he felt like Tristans death was emblematic of something darker and more systemic that was happening in the world at large. It'll still be an adventure. Upon further investigation, she wrote, it seems many, especially those employed by State Parks, are not convinced the murder suspect is in custody. In 2008, on Labor Day weekend, they got married in Tilden Park, in the hills above Berkeley, with all their friends and family present, in a big rented room with glass walls and a stone clearing outside. "If the D.A. She has investigated and reported on crime stories in her publications as an amateur sleuth. In 2009 a 24-year-old woman named Mitrice Richardson went missing after being detainedfor acting erratically at a restaurant and possessing marijuanaand then released by deputies of the same Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriffs Station that had briefly sheltered the man in the tents daughters. LA County removed 1,207,613 ineligible voters from its rolls since last year under the terms of a settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit we filed in 2017, A little late, but about time! They were introduced through a mutual friend. At the end of December 2018, Erica Wu files a claim against the LASD, the California State Parks and Recreation Commission, the California State Park Police, and the California Department of Parks and Recreation, alleging that the agencies were aware of multiple unsolved shootings in the area where Tristan was killed but failed to appropriately alert the public. Tristan and Scott looked at each other like, That was fucking awesome. At times, she said, she had visions of this other life that she and Tristan had constructeddeposits put down on a house miles from here, different schools chosen for the girlsthat was just out there somewhere, a ghost of the one she was actually living, here among strangers. If the city would have done what they needed to do and at least warned their citizens, he could have made a conscious choice to go there or not. Maybe theyre making him a scapegoat, he says. Maybe theres always been a lack of respect. So maybe, someday, they would have had three. For the 2016 City Council election, Cece created a comprehensive local media campaign strategy for the Team Malibuslate using all platforms available, print, social media, and website, which proved to be an integral part in seating three council members in the November election. He loved nature and chemistry and Ultimate Frisbee. Tristan wanted two. And I heard that from guys inside law enforcement. Tristan and Erica's wedding in Tilden Regional Park in 2008. Santa Ana winds push the fire south; the whole area, including the Malibu Creek State Park campground, burns for nearly two weeks, destroying hundreds of homes and who knows what else, turning the hillsides black. All Rights Reserved 2020 - The Local Malibu, Hollywood Reporter Malibu Creek State Park Shootings, L.A. Times Malibu Creek State Park Shootings, /CBS L.A. Malibu Creek State Park Shootings, Mitrice Richardsons Legacy Lives on in New Childrens Book Series The Skool Kids, New Revelations and Lies Exposed: Uncovering the Cover Up in the Mitrice Richardson Case Part 2, New Revelations and Lies Exposed: Uncovering the Cover Up in the Mitrice Richardson Case. In late 2014, after noticing a void in local investigative journalism with the departure of Surfside News founder Ann Sobel, Woods started The Local. Having spent time on the range, Woods noted, she could identify the sound of the gun based on the shot having a slight echo. Woods obtained what she claimed was an internal sheriffs department memo, issued the same day it was announced that the campground would re-open, asking deputies to drive through when time permits, in order to help calm any concerned residents. The award went to Tristan. She already knew she was leaving, to go to school at Stanford; Tristan was going to study abroad for a year in Switzerland. Cece Woods ' noteworthy reports include her 2018 . And also I think, obviously, I'm trying to get as far away as possible from lots of things. We live in a world where most actions go unaccounted for. Irvine and Tristan found a job at a pharmaceutical company called Allergan. For the first couple of months, Nolan said, Id make two and then dump the second one out. You guys aren't even going to do anything about this. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor You're just going to sweep it under the rug because you want to protect your citys image.. And then the final surreal touch, when the chaplain at the station entered to offer comfort, and his home, not far away, for Erica and her daughters to shower and change while they waited to go back to the campground. There were, like, footprints in the ground, in the dirtthey were walking all over it. It was only as his arm began to heal that he noticed that metal pellets, similar to bird shot, were trickling out of the wound. Her. A Facebook post by Cece Woods, whose bio says she is a co-host & news radio producer at TNT Radio as well as an investigative journalist, claimed that Claudia was found safe and was o her way. Being a parent made Tristan happy. I mean, it's something that is in that alternate reality that I feel like I have no control over, Erica told me. They sat around a campfire for the next four hours, talking. To Erica, there was no mystery to this mystery: Her husband was gone. Cece Woods started her career in publishing in 2013 with the launch of 90265 Magazine. I still feel like I'm watching myself sometimes, you know?, We arrived at the day care center, and she went in to get the girls while I waited outside with Milo. In January 2019, after the Wu familys wrongful death lawsuit was filed, his lawyer, Matthew McNicholas, told me, and it was confirmed internally that Lieutenant Royal had recommended a warning, retaliation began. Royal says he was transferred to a different sheriffs station, considerably farther from his home, and the department opened an internal affairs inquiry, accusing Royal of interfering with an investigation. (Citing pending litigation, the LASD declined to comment on Royal's suit. Right after it happened, Scott told me, there were so many conspiracy theories. They set a date for the move, at the end of June, one week after Erica was scheduled to take a qualifying board exam. Having spent most her childhood on sands of Zuma Beach, Cece left Southern California in her early 20s, but it was only a matter of time before she returned to the idyllic place that held so many wonderful memories from her youth. Like Erica, hed grown up in Fresno, California, descended on both sides from longtime residents of the area. There was no reason at all. In March, Monte Nido residents reported hearing gunfire just after 3 a.m. And what about all the gunshots that people continued to hear at night, even after the suspect was arrested? 3,041 posts. Who may have done it? Season 2 takes place in the late 70s and early '80s, as Malibu was changing from a low-profile beach town into a celebrity haven, full of new money and hard drugs. In 2020, Cecebegan exposing the corruption at LA Metro which has lead to national news coverage including working with officials and watchdog organizations in DC. Rogers told me that some time later, after he realized he'd actually been shotwith bird shot, he believes; Rauda was allegedly arrested with a riflehe drove back to the park. You could, couldnt you? and backing the winning candidates in the 2016 and 2020 City Council races. How to keep the memory of their father alive for them? Her early postings on the other shootings in the area had brought to light a pattern that no one else had seen, at least publicly. In 2020, Cece foundedThe Current Report, a regional news and politics platform and began exposing the corruption at LA Metro which has lead to national news coverage and has expanded intoco-hosting and producing on TNT Radio a global, 24/7 news talk station. A month before the death of the man in the tent, a mutilated body was discovered across the street from Malibu Creek State Park, followed by a second body in July, also showing signs of violence. Brissa Bradfield Leaving WICU-TV: Wheres 12News Eries Anchor Going? Must have been close to something, who knows? Eventually she and Tristan got a place together, in San Francisco. Most of the other guests at the Malibu Creek State Park campsite dont wake up; those that do later report hearing three to four loud bangs, which they dont reliably identify at first as gunshots. And yet in the past year she has had to learn: In situations like this one, people want a story. But when they awoke in the morning, they found a sizable hole in the back of the car and then, wedged down by the spare tire, what appeared to be a shotgun slug. After Tristans death, his friends and family developed ritualslittle things they would do to remember him by or to keep him alive in their minds a little longer. I remember I would just have conversations with Tristan: Dont you worry about this? Dont you worry about that? He was just always very satisfied with where he was and what he did. Erica was never able to let go in quite the same way. If they had a ballistics match, they would tell us they have a ballistics match definitively. So thats what they didwent to the Calabasas home of the journeyman character actor Phil Reeves for several hours, until the police finally let Erica go to the campground where Tristan had died. The exposure of the cover-up in the Malibu Creek State Parks Shootings in 2018,and Ceces investigative reporting, was featured in GQ Magazines June, 2019 story The Unsolved Mystery of the Malibu Creek Murder. Erica, who has long loose hair and high cheekbones and a thoughtful face, is the fourth-youngest of five sisters; her father passed away when she was eight years old. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. And then came a small group of bikers in the other direction. He was a scientist who was researching vaccines, that kind of thing. Insiders are far from convinced it is. A young college students car had been shot at in the area back in Octoberafter Rauda had been arrested, Woods noted. In 2014, as a community activist, Cece worked with Measure R campaign organizers to promote a ballot measure that would limit retail chains from destroying Malibus rural coastal charm. . Ceces activism and investigative reporting have led to being quoted regularly in the media, and featured many articles related to Malibu and LA politics. When a Malibu woman and her son mysteriously drowned, her husband was arrested for their murdersand ultimately convicted. Very little is known about Cece Woods relationship history. Look at most politicians. But he didnt know. A thing that could've happened to anyone happened to them. And just his whole demeanor was like, This is a top secret thing.. And I can sort of choose to go down that rabbit hole a little bit if I feel like it or if I have the energy, but then I pull back and it's like, I have to take care of the girls, and we have to get to school tomorrow, and work, and I just don't have the time, she said. Erica now lives in a meticulously organized subdivision near the hospital where she works. When she and I met for lunch in January, at a Malibu restaurant where she is a regular, her first question was: Howd you find me?. Its unfortunate, but its the truth., The coverage, Dylan said, has been a nightmare.. In the last year of her residency, Erica found a job in the Bay Area. It was a tall, skinny guy who maneuvered very military-like. Cece is the mother of twoa daughter, Tatum Hengel, and a son, Travis Hengel. View Cece Woods' profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. 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