Missing and Black: Arianna Fitts and Daniel Robinson families continue their research

When asked why Arianna wasn’t a household name, Tess Fitts took a long hiatus.

“I honestly thought she was,” she said finally. “It’s a little surprising for me to know that she isn’t.”

Fitts says she chooses not to dwell on the issue of race, if there wouldn’t have been more attention if her toddler sister and niece were white, not black, wealthy and not poor.

It’s a problem faced by countless families of color searching for missing loved ones: Has race and prejudice, conscious or unconscious, hindered their search for answers?

“I don’t even want to think like that, but in my situation people think of me or her mother differently. Like we love our kids less or something, or that they’re less important or something. That’s what it feels like, ”he said.

“Someone wanted her”

Tess Fitts smiles when she thinks of Arianna, describing her as “a very energetic, bubbly and curious child”.

“We would be in public [and] she just greeted strangers with a smile and people would respond to that, “Fitts said.” Very intelligent, very curious about things, and she also had a bit of sassy at times. “

But Fitts’ face becomes strained as she moves on to what happened.

“I think Arianna was taken because someone wanted her. Someone fell in love with her and they wanted her as theirs,” she said.

For her, the murder of her sister Nikki and the disappearance of Arianna must be linked. Nothing else makes sense.

She says Nikki Fitts sometimes had babysitters in Oakland to look after her daughter overnight while she took late or early shifts at a Best Buy store in San Francisco, using public transportation to long journeys.

It’s unclear when Nikki Fitts last held her daughter, but they were last seen together in mid-February 2016, according to the family.

Police initially had a few leads, but none led to Arianna. No charges have been laid in Nikki Fitts’ murder or Arianna’s disappearance.

And five years later, there is still no trace of the former toddler who has now likely lost baby teeth, grown a ton, and possibly learned to ride a bike.

But even when she first disappeared, there was no national frenzy to find her.

“It breaks my heart that Arianna is not with her mother or her family, but it breaks my heart even more to know that Nikki doesn’t want anything more than Arianna be with us or at home,” Tess Fitts said. with tears in my eyes.

Having to fight for attention

Robinson became frustrated with what he thought was a lack of official action and traveled to Arizona, to search for his son himself, also hiring a private investigator. He also began to advocate for media attention of the kind directed towards the search for Gabby Petito.

“I love my son, he’s my responsibility… but we need help,” Robinson told CNN. “My son represents the world to me, as well as to his mother and siblings. We would like to have the same kind of attention.”

Five months into what Robinson calls his mission to find his son, evidence and clues have emerged. After the local media made a story, Daniel said help began to arrive, from ordinary citizens who volunteered their time for a stranger.

Four weeks after Daniel Robinson went missing, police called David Robinson. The young man’s car was found in an accident. His cell phone, the clothes he was wearing that day, and a case of water were all found in and around the wrecked car. But not Daniel.

So the volunteers and Robinson continued to search. They found all kinds of things. Most worrying: the human remains.

“We found a human skull,” said Robinson.

Buckeye Police Chief Larry Hall said CNN’s evidence was being assessed, but it wasn’t Daniel. “We are waiting for DNA to come back to this case before we can positively identify us with the victim,” he said.

The volunteer researchers looking for Daniel may have helped resolve the case of another missing person. But David Robinson is left with even more questions and will continue to try to share his son’s story as he seeks a solution.

She said no missing person of color has become a household name in the United States.

“There isn’t,” she told CNN. “I really think there is some unconscious bias there.”

“There are a lot of Gabby Petitos and Natalee Holloways in the black and brunette community,” Wilson said.

Tess Fitts lives this truth every day, looking for her niece. She says the San Francisco Police have been working on her case, but Arianna is not home and she cannot live with it.

So she has to take part of the challenge, create a website, Facebook group, and talk about Arianna whenever asked.

“I want everyone to know Arianna’s name. I want everyone to know what Arianna is like. I want everyone to know Arianna is a place she doesn’t belong to,” she said. she declared.

“I want everyone, everyone to know that.”