RHOBH – CSI – The disappearance of Lisa Vanderpump.

SUSPECT #1 from RHOBH: Kyle Richards

“It was Lucy Goosey in the library with the candlestick.”

No, Kyle, it wasn’t, but the finger of suspicion certainly did point to this housewife. While Kyle Richards may have joked about this issue during this season, did her humor mask a dark secret?

Kyle was the last housewife to see Lisa Vanderpump before her disappearance from the group. In the “Showdown at Villa Rosa” episode, Kyle is seen meeting with a joyful Vanderpump who’s keen to celebrate her success at Congress with long-term friend Richards.

But Richards is quick to kill the cheerful atmosphere by making accusations about Vanderpump allegedly leaking stories to the press.

This greatly upsets Lisa and her husband Ken. And despite them both professing their innocence, Kyle refuses to budge and is ultimately kicked out of the couples’ mansion, bringing about the end of their friendship and Vanderpump’s ultimate disappearance.

But could Kyle have leaked the story?

Well, according to Kyle “when you look at an article you have to see who it benefits.” But what did Mrs. Richards possibly have to gain from setting up long-term friend Vanderpump? Quite a lot when you look at the evidence.

Motive 1 – “I look like a bruised wife with a black eye who says ‘Ooh I fell down the stairs.’”

Kyle’s endured an extremely fractious relationship with Lisa over the nine seasons. This has seen the two women fall out a number of times and Mrs. Richards even compares the treatment from Vanderpump to that of a violent spouse. Two of those spats could certainly be considered motives for retaliation. Take a look…

Motive 2 – “I wanna know the truth about the tabloids in the suitcase.”

In 2014 stories surfaced of Kyle Richards’ husband, Mauricio, allegedly cheating on his wife. However, instead of supporting Kyle, Vanderpump was accused by Brandi Glanville of planting tabloid newspapers containing news of the affair in Brandi’s suitcase, in a plot to stir up drama on a trip to Palm Springs. Could meddling in somebody’s marriage provide a motive for revenge?

Motive 3 – “Why didn’t you drag Kyle into it?”

If that wasn’t bad enough, 2016 saw the ladies come to blows during Season 6 over an accusation that Vanderpump had asked Lisa Rinna to implicate Kyle in some offensive gossip alleging that fellow housewife Yolanda Foster was suffering from Munchausen syndrome. As you can expect, this didn’t go down too well with Richards, who accosted the Brit on a boat (where else) in Dubai.

Motive 4 – The scam

Aside from the strained relationship between the two ladies, maybe there was a much simpler motive for framing Vanderpump: to deflect from allegations that Kyle’s husband was part of a $37 million dollar scam. An allegation that was resisted in the strongest possible terms by Kyle on part two of the Reunion episodes in Season 9.