Arizona police seek public's help in case of 24-year-old man missing since June
Daniel Robinson has been missing for nearly three months. Now his family is hoping that the Gabby Petito case will bring renewed interest in their son's unsolved disappearance.
The 24-year-old geologist was last seen leaving a job site in the area of Sun Valley Parkway and Cactus Road in Buckeye, Arizona, at around 9:15 a.m. on June 23. He was reported missing that same day, and authorities launched a massive search.
Local police, along with outside agencies, covered more than 70 square miles using "UTVs, cadaver dogs and air support including a drone and a helicopter," police said in a press release last week.
On July 19, a rancher found Robinson's Jeep on his property — approximately four miles southwest of the job site where Robinson was last seen, police said.
According to investigators, the Jeep seemed to have rolled over and landed on its side. The airbags were deployed and "initial evidence indicates Daniel was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident," police said in a press release at the time. Robinson's cell phone, wallet and keys were all found in the Jeep.
Then, just over a week later, "a human skull was located in an area south of where the Jeep had been recovered," police said.
But authorities determined it was not Robinson's skull.
"No additional human remains have been found, despite online reports claiming otherwise," police said last week. "Other remains recovered during searches were determined to be animal bones."
Robinson's father, David Robinson, told CBS affiliate KPHO-TV on Tuesday that although his son's case is different from that of Petito — a 22-year-old woman who went missing while on a cross-country trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, before her body was found Sunday in Wyoming — he is hopeful that the national attention given to Petito will renew interest in finding Robinson.
"I've been up all night, emailing, texting, reaching out to whoever," David Robinson said. "Just seeing all of a sudden movement, it's a good feeling."
David Robinson, who is from South Carolina, put his son's belongings in storage on Monday.
"Going through his things, he's not there to tell us what he wants or what he doesn't want," he told KPHO. "So that kind of stuff is kind of hard so far."
Anyone with information is asked to call the Buckeye Police Department non-emergency number 623-349-6400.
