In the fall of 2018, after months of terror with a shooter on the loose in Malibu Canyon, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrested 42 year-old Anthony Rauda in connection with the murder of Tristan Beaudette and multiple shootings. The shootings occurred in and around Malibu Creek State Park between November 2016 and June 2018.
The high-profile arrest on October 10th, 2018, was suspicious to say the least. An NBC news chopper was strategically hovering overhead following Major Crimes detectives, breaking the story in real-time with just three weeks to go before the highly-contentious November Sheriff’s election.
Retired LASD Lieutenant Alex Villanueva was nipping at the heels of incumbent Jim McDonnell, at the helm of the Sheriff’s Department since 2014.
At the time, McDonnell, feeling pressure with the election fast approaching, was in the middle of a fast and furious clean-up after wrongfully accusing, arresting, and jailing Cherie Townsend in the Rolling Hills Estates murder case. Townsend went public with her story of being targeted by LASD for the crime with no evidence, just the mere coincidence of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
McDonnell never publicly apologized.
On November 4th 2018 and much to the dismay of the LA County Board of Supervisors, Villanueva, without the name recognition or the coffers to support him, went on to pull off the miraculous grass-roots win. The victory was the first of its kind in over 104 years, shocking many of the political powers that be in L.A. County.
Villanueva was sworn in on December 3rd, 2018, a mere five weeks after Rauda’s arrest and immediately began the shake-up in the department, including disciplining officers who were directly involved in the gross mishandling of the Malibu Creek State Park Shootings case.
FIRST STOP: MALIBU/LOST HILLS STATION
In January 2019, at the direction of the new administration, Lt. Jim Royal and Sgt. Tui Wright were transferred and placed under Internal Affairs investigation for conducting a shadow investigation into the Malibu Creek State Park shootings – a probe that significantly overlapped with, and undermined the case under the Homicide and Major Crimes Bureau handle.
After the internal investigations and transfers were leaked, I communicated with one of the officers involved who stated the internal investigations specifically involved the day Rauda was arrested, and went on to say “What we did was not as bad as what they did.” referring to the actions of Major Crimes detectives. He refused to go into further detail in light of the ongoing I.A. investigation.
Internal accounts reveal that Royal was demoted, stripped of his detective‑lieutenant rank, while both he and Wright were investigated for interfering with chain-of-custody and running unauthorized operations during the shootings case. During this period, sources confirmed that their actions “severely compromised the prosecution’s case against Anthony Rauda,” specifically because they were collecting evidence on their own timeline and terms.
These significant details were never discussed during Rauda’s trial nor were Wright and Royal brought into court and questioned under oath about their discipline in connection with interfering with the investigation and evidence uncovered in the case.
Wright was subsequently transferred to the West Hollywood station and later retired amid the probe.
Their transfers and IAB investigations occurred only after Villanueva assumed office, not before, and were directly linked to their unauthorized, self-directed roles in the Malibu Creek Shootings case.
INSIDE JOB?
Multiple sources at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station revealed it was no secret among deputies: some within the department believed the Malibu Creek State Park shooter could be one of their own.
Since 2009, there have been at least four high-profile cases in Malibu Canyon riddled with law enforcement misconduct – cover-ups, corruption, and deliberate deception of the public and press. The one constant in all of them? Now-retired Sgt. Tui Wright.
On June 22, 2018, Lost Hills deputies responded to a shots-fired call at 4:44 a.m. inside Malibu Creek State Park. There, they discovered the body of 34-year-old Tristan Beaudette – shot in the head while sleeping in a tent beside his two young daughters, just 2 and 4 years old.
According to testimony from a 2019 Grand Jury, electronic location data allegedly tied Anthony Rauda to the area that morning. But he was not alone.
A source on the department told me that when he arrived at the crime scene, he was stunned to find Sgt. Tui Wright already present – before any station personnel had arrived. Wright, who headed Search and Rescue, had not been dispatched to the scene and had no official reason to be there.
The source described Wright’s behavior throughout the day as erratic and unusually aggressive. Wright repeatedly demanded K9s be brought in to search the area. Homicide detectives declined his request, multiple times. Eventually, they agreed to bring in a K9 unit, but the dogs never arrived.
A week later, during a meeting at Lost Hills Station, the same source at the station received a phone call- from Wright. Without authorization, Wright had returned to the murder scene and was conducting his own unsanctioned investigation. He claimed to have discovered 9mm shell casings approximately 40 yards from where Beaudette had been killed.
One deputy involved in the original search told me homicide detectives later contacted him to ask if he had accidentally dropped ammunition at the scene. The reason? The casings Wright “discovered” matched department-issued 9mm rounds – identical to what killed Beaudette.
MAKE OUR MOUNTAINS SAFE AGAIN
Reports of gunshots continued for months after the murder. But each time, the LASD downplayed them as cars backfiring, transformer explosions, or fireworks. Deputies responding to call after call were ordered to conclude “no evidence was found.” The department’s strategy was clear: mislead the public and keep the canyon’s danger under wraps. Olympic-level gaslighting.
The growing fear and frustration in the community finally boiled over, prompting Senator Henry Stern to organize a town hall on August 19, 2018, at King Gillette Ranch. The meeting was billed as an update on “Safety in the Santa Monica Mountains.” Representatives from multiple law enforcement and government agencies attended.
After the meeting, Dr. Ronda Hampton, who has long voiced suspicions about Wright’s involvement in the Mitrice Richardson case, witnessed him approach another community member, visibly agitated.
“Brass forced Royal to go up there,” Wright said, referring to then-Chief John Benedict, who, according to court filings, ordered Lt. Jim Royal to conceal the string of shootings from the public – yet still expected Royal to face the community’s outrage at the meeting.
“I’m the one who should’ve been up there,” Wright continued.
Hampton responded bluntly: “Why would you want to be up there? Are you jealous?”
Before Wright could answer, I walked up and interrupted the exchange.
“Are you Cece Woods?” he asked me.
“Yes” I replied.
We had barely exchanged pleasantries when Sgt. Wright immediately launched into a warning about my reporting, saying, “I just want to make sure you’re not putting out bad information.”
Caught off guard, I replied, “Bad for who? Bad as in false—or bad for you?” (meaning the department).
Little did I know just how personal he was taking my reporting.
In the days leading up to that meeting, a local resident and reserve deputy was summoned to Lt. Royal’s office. There, he was interrogated by Royal and Wright, accused of leaking information to me. They threatened to remove him from his position if he was, in fact, my source (he wasn’t).
During that interrogation, Wright leaned in and said: “She knows too much.”
How much is “too much”?
MOUNTAIN MAN
Sergeant Tui Wright’s obsession and involvement in this case is deeply disturbing.
The grand jury testimony revealed Rauda’s devices detected him in Northern California in early 2018 before returning to the Malibu Canyon area at the time of the murder.
Coincidentally, Sgt. Wright has his own history in Northern California.
In 2012, two-years after Richardson was found, Sgt. Wright was on the “hunting trip of a lifetime” and by his own admission, made a potentially “life-altering” decision.
Wright was in Mendocino county, in Northern California, deer hunting with a 12-year-old male, just north of Westport, in an area widely known as “bush hippy” neighborhood.
According to witnesses, Wright was on a spotlight equipped ATV hunting for the coveted deer on the last day of hunting season. The neighbors heard shots after dark and Wright was found with a deer well past eight o’clock at night on private property. The landowner confronted Wright, who was armed with a rifle and his concealed duty weapon. The property owner only armed with a .22 pistol.
As a result of the confrontation, the landowner was arrested for threatening Wright, although Wright had clearly violated the “No Hunting” and “No Trespassing” signs, not to mention the strict safety rules that there is to be no hunting after dark.
In court for the incident Wright said on record “I was a fool to think I could hunt in this lawless area…I have never in my life been so terrified. I have been in gunfights with LA gangsters and in many dangerous situations over the years, but nothing as bad as this. I have been forced to seek counseling and I’ve been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder from this incident.”
The Westport and Wages Creek Road area where this incident took place have approximately 15 to 20 houses along the sunny side of the creek where historically there has been no hunting allowed for obvious reasons. The residents have always had an agreement hunting would be done over on the shady side of the creek where there are no homes. The landowner who confronted Wright, posted in front of his house “No Hunting” and “No Trespassing” signs. The rules were very clear with respect to guidelines for hunting in the area, which were ignored by Wright as evidenced by a photograph of one of the “No Hunting” and “No Trespassing” signs right where Wright was found with the deer.
In court, Wright explained to the judge how being confronted by the landowner caused him to seek counseling and lose work. He didn’t know if he could continue in his stressful line of work. He said he worried he might “freeze up” at a decisive moment or shoot someone who didn’t deserve to be shot. He said he’d been diagnosed with PTSD. “This incident will not be leaving me in my dreams, any time soon,” Wright told the judge.
The landowner testified to the court that in the last 25 years, this was the first time he’d ever had anyone hunting in his front yard, especially after dark.
“Tui Wright was someone who was up to no good when he first went down there. He saw the deer next to the “No Hunting” sign… Now, we all know you can’t hunt after dark. But you can mesmerize deer with a spotlight, and I know Tui Wright has denied this, but here he is on the last day of what he himself describes as a ‘dream hunt’ and he still hasn’t got a deer” the defense told the court.
TOPANGA TEEN
Tui Oscar Wright, grew up in the canyons in and around Malibu. At a young age, Wright, a longtime Topanga resident, developed a fascination for shooting guns… specifically rifles.
In a 2020 Messenger Mountain News article memorializing his mother who had recently passed, a neighbor included a somewhat telling recollection of Wright in the story. The incident involved Wright engaging in reckless behavior by shooting rifles in State Park during his teens.
“The most noteworthy transgression was one involving a neighbor boy who had a rifle. Tui…and my oldest son, Greg… went with this youngster (Tui) into the state park to practice shooting things. After a few shots, some hikers reported them to the ranger and the sheriff was called in. Tui was handcuffed, but somehow …managed to escape and make it back to the house where my son, Chris, did his best to saw off the cuffs…Thereafter she saw to it that Tui went to special classes to learn the proper way of handling guns. Later on in life he was to become a deputy sheriff.”
Wright went on to serve in the military as a Marine and joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department as a narcotics detective, participated on the Marijuana Eradication Team in the Santa Monica Mountains region and served head of Malibu Search & Rescue until 2019.
MULTIPLE MANHUNTS, MULTIPLE SUSPECTS?
Looking like a scene out of Rambo, the Malibu Canyon community was thrown into a frenzy on October 2nd during the first high-profile spectacle staged by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
It was an unprecedented show of force – brazenly executed in plain view during morning rush hour, as parents shuttled kids to school and residents headed to work. Roughly a dozen patrol cars, Search and Rescue units, K-9 teams, and LASD Special Enforcement Bureau descended on the 26800 block of Mulholland Highway, Rauda’s last known location, where he had allegedly broken into an unoccupied office two days earlier at around 3:30 a.m., reportedly looking for food with a rifle slung over his shoulder.
Panicked residents who witnessed the heavily armed activity began calling the station, concerned for their safety. Deputies told them they were searching for an armed burglary suspect – conveniently omitting the fact that the burglary had occurred two days prior and that the scene was anything but “active.”
As the day went on, it became increasingly obvious that the October 2nd “mission” was more theater than threat.
The first red flag? NBC News – and only NBC – was conveniently on scene, camera-ready, as if tipped off to catch the exclusive. The second? Members of the SEB taking a moment mid-operation for a Twitter photo op, proudly posting that they were “tracking a felony suspect.”
It’s a good thing they did. Because if they hadn’t stopped to update their followers, most of the public – aside from those who called the station – wouldn’t have known what was happening at all.
And that’s exactly how they wanted it. A tactical flex, staged perfectly for the press.
So, based on what unfolded on October 2nd – and with the information NBC’s Eric Leonard was kind enough to forward to me via his “exclusive” on Twitter – I decided to go out on a limb and publicly share my own insight.
Sure enough, six days later, it came true.
Fast forward to Saturday, October 6th.
Social media lit up with reports of a suspect sighting near Tapia Park, close to Piuma and Malibu Canyon. A local source who had been monitoring the situation closely messaged me: law enforcement was staging again at King Gillette Ranch. The SWAT team was back, this time with their BearCat armored vehicle in tow.
A few hours later, another message came in: “They’re on the move.”
I rushed to the scene. The LASD Special Enforcement Bureau BearCat had rolled down into the creek bed, flanked by tactical teams with rifles and bloodhounds. I stood maybe 200 feet away, watching what looked like a war zone erupt in the middle of an uncontained public space.
There were no roadblocks. No perimeter. Civilians drove by as if nothing unusual was happening.
Despite the full-blown tactical operation, there was zero crowd control. Anyone could have walked right into the middle of it. It felt less like a manhunt and more like a choreographed media moment.
I kept my distance, filming everything. According to the official narrative, a dangerous fugitive was on the loose. SWAT was deployed. Helicopters circled overhead. But the entire canyon was wide open.
As I furiously uploaded photos and video of what we thought was an “active pursuit” of a “dangerous suspect”, I received a text from one of my new found media friends.
Just days before, authorities had received three separate tips detailing Rauda’s exact location – tips that were officially registered with the County. These weren’t vague sightings. They came from a respected local and experienced outdoorsman who had never seen Rauda in the area until after the burglary at Malibu Valley Farms. He saw him multiple times that week and gave law enforcement precise coordinates.
That information was in the hands of LASD and Malibu Search and Rescue, specifically Sgt. Wright, and State Parks before the October 6th dog and pony show. They had the location for days, but instead, they staged a dramatic sweep for the cameras.
Then, on October 10th, Rauda was arrested in the exact location the tips had pointed to all along. What happened in the four days between the manhunt and the arrest?
On December 3rd, during Sheriff Villanueva’s swearing-in ceremony, I spoke with several members of the Special Enforcement Bureau. Naturally, the Rauda case came up. One of them made a stunning comment after seeing post-arrest photos:
“That was not the description of the suspect we were given,” he said.
SEB had been briefed with a description of a male adult with red hair – a match for someone law enforcement had been monitoring early in the investigation but mysteriously decided not to pursue. That crucial detail? Nowhere to be found in any LASD press release.
When the department released the burglary footage and deployed a full-force tactical response, they omitted the fact that the suspect description circulating internally didn’t even match Rauda.
So the question isn’t just why they arrested him. It’s what – and who – they were trying to cover up when they did.
According to my sources, shortly after the arrest, Sgt. Wright decided (again), against department procedure and protocol, to return to Rauda’s campsite after Major Crimes detectives thoroughly searched the scene. Per my source, Sgt. Wright “found” a torn up map of a State Park in Northern California, coincidentally, an area that Sgt. Wright is also familiar with as a hunter.
The map was allegedly turned over as evidence, however, one of the detectives on the case, was unhappy with Wright’s “findings” as she believed it was going to interfere with the case LASD was building against Rauda and told him to book the evidence under a different case number.
Shortly after Wright’s discovery of the map, according to sources, he ran into the Captain of Major Crimes at a department function and boasted about his “discovery” of the map at Rauda’s campsite after Major Crimes detectives searched the scene. Sources say the Captain was furious and had no knowledge of Wright’s involvement in “finding” potential new evidence.
A few months later, in January 2019, Wright, along with Lt. James Royal were both disciplined, transferred and placed under internal affairs investigation as a result of their involvement in the shootings investigations.
Wright sent out the email to Search & Rescue personnel:
A COMPROMISED CASE TURNED INTO CONVICTION
After almost five years behind bars and multiple circus-like appearances before a judge, Anthony Rauda, was finally afforded his right to a trial.
My sources at the Sheriff’s Department and the DA’s office were shocked at the speediness of the highly anticipated and high-profile trial which was initially scheduled to last two months. The timeframe was then dwindled down to 6 weeks, ultimately concluding Anthony Rauda’s fate in a lightening fast two-and-a-half week trial.
Highly troubling is that neither Wright nor Royal testified, despite both being officially investigated and disciplined for their roles in mishandling the Malibu Creek State Park shootings investigation.
Why would the defense attorney give up the opportunity to cross examine key witnesses who were not only under internal affairs investigation and disciplined for their part in the mishandling of this case, but also witnessed potential malfeasance by department members which very well could have lead to a mistrial or even acquittal? Their absence from the witness stand removed a critical pathway for introducing reasonable doubt – and helped preserve the official narrative as submitted by the prosecution.
On June 7th, 2023, Anthony Rauda was convicted of second-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and five counts of second-degree commercial burglary. He was sentenced to 119 years to life in prison.
The jury acquitted him of seven other attempted murder charges which means Rauda was ultimately found NOT RESPONSIBLE for the other shootings in the area prior to June 2018.
The prosecution never stood a chance in the shootings that occurred during the two years preceeding Beaudette’s murder. There were no eyewitnesses, and the shootings were never properly investigated—if they were investigated at all. In multiple incidents across State Parks, critical evidence was never collected. Melissa Tatangelo, whose vehicle was struck while camping at Malibu Creek State Park, contacted the Sheriff’s Department to report the incident. Her complaint was completely disregarded, and her calls were never returned.
There were also multiple shooting incidents that occurred in the area after Rauda’s arrest.
Based on the jury’s finding that Rauda was not responsible for those crimes, the chilling reality is this: there may still be a shooter on the loose.
The only question now is, will he return to Malibu Canyon?
Nothing about this case screams justice served. Not with how it was manipulated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, fumbled by the District Attorney’s office, and theatrically navigated by defense attorney Nikolas Okorocha.
This wasn’t about convicting the man responsible for Tristan Beaudette’s murder or the terror that unfolded in Malibu Creek State Park. It was about saving face, closing a case, and putting on a show for the public – truth be damned.
In fact, the judge couldn’t help but tip her hat to Okorocha’s courtroom strategy, choosing to play “chess” rather than “checkers” – as if justice were just a board game to be won with clever moves, not a matter of life, death, and accountability.
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