Search For Kristi Richardson Continues; Casper Woman Has Been Missing Since Oct. 6

Friends of Kristi Richardson have not given up their search for her after her last known sighting five weeks ago.

Neither have Casper police, but they are keeping mum about their work, detective John Hatcher said Monday.

"The Casper Police Department is looking into all leads," Hatcher said, speaking on behalf of Capt. Steve Freel.

"We are not divulging anything we have done or are doing just because it is an ongoing investigation, but we are still actively pursuing this investigation," he said. "We're not giving out anything. It's just too sensitive to get anything out there."

Meanwhile, Richardson family friend and Casper firefighter Tim Cortez has worked with the police and coordinated several searches.

"The first (objective) is to locate Kris," Cortez said.

"The second objective is to keep the buzz going," he said. "And now with us getting cold weather and the snow, what do we do to keep people talking?"

The last contact with Kristi Richardson was at 7:45 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6, with a member of her Richardson Trucking company, according to court records.

After she was reported missing, police searched her house the next day, according to an affidavit filed in Natrona County Circuit Court.

That Wednesday, they searched her office in Mills that she and her late husband started in the 1970s.

Friends family and neighbors told police they didn’t have any idea of the whereabouts of Richardson, 61, according to the affidavit.

She is described as 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighs less than 100 pounds.

In another search Saturday, Cortez took a group of 11 fire science students and five other volunteers to Casper Mountain to conduct a grid search by foot from lookout point to the mountain's base, he said.

They gained real-world experience, and found some items unrelated to the missing Richardson including a CO2 pellet pistol and clothing, Cortez said.

"The students did a good job of keeping their eyes open and systematically searching that area so that nothing would get by them," he said.

Anyone with any information about Richardson is urged to call Casper police at 235-8278.