Richardson Family Renews Appeal to Find Their Missing Mother Kristi

Casper mother and businesswoman Kristi Richardson disappeared nearly five years ago without an apparent trace, and her family has made another appeal to find her, according to the Help Find Kris Richardson Facebook page on Wednesday.

"As a family over these past five years, we have often struggled with what to do and how to help," the family wrote.

"At times, it is overwhelming and daunting to figure out what to do next. Much of the time you feel helpless. It is often easier to push it to the back of the mind hoping it was all just a bad dream and that it will go away. But alas, it is not and it will not. The reality is we lost a mom, a friend, a confidant, a business leader, and loved one in the blink of an eye. Kristi Lynn Richardson, gone without a trace. And we are still without answers," the family wrote.

K2 Radio has reported that Richardson was last seen on the evening of Oct. 6, 2014, and was reported missing the next day.

Police searched her house and found a cell phone in her bed, her purse with a large amount of cash, identification on the kitchen counter, and no immediately identified evidence of foul play, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Natrona County Circuit Court. Officers were told a garage door opener usually kept in her purse was missing, and they observed stains on the sheets that could possibly be blood or urine.

Within a week, the case went from a missing person case to being possibly a criminal action. Law enforcement authorities executed a search warrant at her trucking company, received numerous tips and interviewed numerous people, and for a while focused on a person of interest.

From the time of her disappearance to the summer of 2016, police occasionally executed search warrants on phone records, email accounts, and credit cards, according to Natrona County Circuit Court records.

Nothing publicly happened with the case until May 18, 2017.

That month, Interim Police Chief Steve Schulz turned over the case to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Schulz was named interim chief after former Chief Jim Wetzel was fired on May 5.

On May 30, the Sheridan media company Lovcom Inc., sued the City of Casper. It questioned whether the police department did all it could to investigate Richardson's disappearance, the suicide of businessman and philanthropist Mick McMurry in March 2015, and any possible relationship between the two cases.

On June 7, Schulz also turned over the McMurry case to the DCI. "In light of the Kristi Richardson missing person investigation reported six months prior and the assumption of an alleged connection. I believe at this juncture in time, it's wise to have the case looked at with a new perspective," Schulz wrote.

The Richardson family has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons involved in her disappearance.

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In the Facebook post, the family said the primary action anyone can take is to keep alive the stories about her.

"So, from this day forward, we pledge to tell her story and document a life well lived. It will not be every day or maybe not even every week, but it will happen on the regular and it will hopefully make a difference. This is our pledge. At a minimum, she deserves this small tribute – and she deserves to have a proper ending to her story."