Transcript of The Disappearance of Daniel Robinson

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.

I'm Alayna.

And this is A Rainy Day Mawbid.

Oh, it is. Do they hear the pitter-patter?

Oh my God, today is the most beautiful day ever.

It's feeling fall.

I woke up and I looked at the weather and it said feels like 65, and I cried tears of joy. And then I put on a new sweatshirt that I didn't know had thumb holes.

Oh, that— there's nothing better.

Nothing better than a thumb hole.

Nothing better.

And a new sweatshirt.

It's sweater weather, but it's also sweatshirt weather. Yeah, it's a good weather.

So I am into it.

We put on Halloween Town this morning.

Fuck yeah.

While we ate our breakfast.

Oh, it's beautiful.

I'm gonna bake today.

I'm gonna bake today.

What are you making tonight? I'm gonna make some apple crisp.

I'm making apple crisp.

Hell yeah.

Drew specifically wanted apple crisp.

I gotta make some pumpkin loaves.

What app do you use? Honeycrisp apples?

Yes.

For your apple crisp? I do. I usually do too. They work really well.

Yeah. Yeah.

What else are you gonna make?

I'm gonna make some pumpkin loaf.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and I'm gonna make some Crock-Pot meals.

I'm gonna do a Crock-Pot meal today too. Yeah.

I'm gonna try to meal plan for the week.

Yeah. I'm gonna make egg bites and I'm gonna make extra for you.

I love that.

I love her egg bites. How do you make a mean fucking egg bite?

She makes a mean egg bite.

I just put cottage cheese in it and I immersion blend it and then just spices and cheese. It's really it. That's where it's at.

Yeah, truly.

And I get one of those silicone things to cook 'em in. I think that helps, but you gotta put it in a water bath. In a bath. Yeah. Much like a cheesecake.

You gotta bake, you gotta bake them.

You gotta, you know, you gotta bake them.

Uh, that was one of the things that my youngest said last night. I was just thinking about that cuz we were like, it's bath time. And she was like, oh my God. We have to bathe every day. Like, she was just like, you're the worst parents.

We're like, listen, you won't smell like that.

Kids are gross, man.

Like, yeah. Yeah.

Also, they were like, they were outside a lot yesterday.

Yeah.

It's like you were running around barefoot outside.

Yeah. Like, sorry, I won't allow you to track dirt into your bed. My bad. She was like, oh God. She's like, fuck y'all.

Like, damn. Sorry about it.

She's crazy.

She is crazy. Um, but yeah, I don't know if we have, um, any business really. I don't think so. Because I think we're getting into spooky season. So of course that, you know, that'll start bringing the spooky spooky.

Somebody pointed out we haven't said Proctober.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

We are remiss for that.

Thank you for reminding us.

Yeah.

Thank you.

We were saying—

Goodness for you. We were saying pre-October still, but at one point we realized we could say Proctober.

Yes. John Proctober.

Yeah. Yeah. And right now it's Proctober.

It's Proctober. I also, I need to have a Salem trip. I just need, I need it.

We should go to Salem soon.

No, I literally need it. Like my, it'll heal. And again, as always, if you're going to Salem this year, I don't live there, but be nice because people live there.

Yeah. That's the thing.

And I think this is the time of year when the poor people who live there and have businesses there are like—

Just get sieged upon.

Gird your loins. And like most people are awful, like honestly great.

Yeah.

In Salem, but most people are awesome when they go to Salem, you know, like know how to be humans. But there's always a group that comes from like somewhere else and they—

They run amok.

Destroy the place and they make it really hard for people who live there. And I just feel bad for the people who live in Martha's Vineyard.

They're like Sarah Sanderson.

So everybody just keep that in mind when you go to Salem. Just treat it like you would your home, you know?

Hell yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. Just be respectful.

It's my PSA.

Yeah, I like it.

For the people who live in Salem.

Yeah. The good, the good Salemians.

The good citizens of Salem.

What are they called? What are you called if you live in Salem? I don't know. Let me ask Siri.

Yeah.

What are people who live in Salem, Massachusetts called? Here are some results.

You're so stupid.

Well, but it's like, it just sent me like a fucking thing to Salem. I was like, no, I know what it is. I probably shouldn't say that because AI is going to kill us all soon.

It is.

I turned it off before I said that. Yeah.

It still heard you.

I know.

That's actually super annoying. You can't turn it off.

But we're besties. It was a joke. What are people who live in Salem called? Salemites!

Oh my God, I almost said that, but it sounded weird.

Or sometimes, uh, they're playfully called Salamanders. Salamanders?

This is so weird. When you said it, I was like, when it be— in my head, I was like, it would be funny if they were salamanders. I literally thought of that and I didn't say it out loud. That is funny. I ruined my moment.

Damn, you ruined your own moment. I like salamanders and apparently, uh, locals also prefer that. I like that. I like it a lot.

Yeah, that's fun.

So be kind to the salamanders.

Yeah. Be kind to their place of residence.

Of origin.

And working.

Yes. Of atoll.

But yeah, it's spooky season, y'all. So we're going to have some spooky stuff happening. We don't know what yet, but it'll come.

So. All right. Herman Munster, mark down your time codes. The show's starting.

Herman Munster.

I like that. I was thinking Luan.

I feel like he would never.

No, he wouldn't.

But I was thinking.

of Luanne when she says, you walk in with your Herman Munster shoes, and then Alex McCord says, they were Louis Vuitton.

No, you say— all right, Brock.

Brock!

It makes sense.

Yeah, it just makes me think of Reba.

Mark it down.

Ash, Reba's on.

Reba's on. So today we're going to be talking about, um, and this one drives me crazy because I just want answers for this family. We're going to talk about the disappearance of Daniel Robinson.

Yeah. I remember when this was just breaking.

And as an aside right away, we are going to mention Gabby Petito and the case of Gabby Petito. We will cover Gabby's case eventually.

Yeah.

We just didn't cover it while it was happening because, one, we don't cover things that— I think that should be said now because we get a lot of suggestions for cases that are in the middle of happening and we don't do that.

No.

So we'll never do that.

Um, I think we did it once during the Lori Vallow case.

Yeah.

And I think it was a mistake.

Yeah. We'll never do that. Well, it wasn't a mistake. But it was just hard.

Yeah.

Um, I'd like to get all the facts before we cover a case. But also, you know, that one was just— that one like really, it just like hit hard.

I feel like Gabby was a listener.

So yeah, I don't know. It just felt strange to cover it then. So we'll cover it eventually for sure because Her family's amazing, and we want to make sure we honor her.

Absolutely.

But in this case where I'm talking about Daniel, I'm going to mention her case. I'm not going to go into depth about it. So I just didn't want anyone being like, you're just gonna skim over it. Just skim everything over, yeah. In this context, I'm just giving you a really quick overview. We will go in depth eventually.

Yeah.

Today we're focusing on Daniel. Yeah, I wanted to focus on Daniel in this. So let's begin by talking about Daniel.

Let's.

Because right now Daniel has not been found. And this was back in 2021. So I want Daniel found. That's been a long time.

It's been 5 years.

So Daniel had always wanted to show the world that he could succeed no matter what his circumstances were. Like, he was driven, he was motivated, he was confident. When he was born, Actually, he was missing the lower portion of his right arm, just below the elbow.

Oh, wow.

And so it left him with only one hand. Despite this, he never let that challenge get the best of him. He just took it as like, you know what, I'm just special and I can do even more things.

Hell yeah.

And it never dictated anything he could or couldn't do. You know, playing sports like football and basketball, he still did it, or playing trumpet in his high school band. He still went for it all. He met each challenge with, you know, enthusiasm. He had such a big, bright, enthusiastic smile at all times. His mother, Melissa Edmonds, recalled, he was used to people saying, why were you born like that? And he'd just say, that's the way God made me.

Also, imagine asking somebody why you were born like that.

Yeah. I don't fucking know. That's wild. That's wild work.

Jesus Christ.

She said that's what made him so special. He would not let anyone tell him what he couldn't do.

Yeah.

Now, spurred by the growing concerns for climate change, which we should all be spurred by—

Honey, you heard of the El Niño coming?

Yeah. Daniel decided to pursue a degree in geology at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. It was there that he really started to flourish. He built a very strong support group. He had a lot of friends, and he was really, really developing, like, a sense of independence. And after graduating with his degree in 2019, he was quickly offered a job as a hydrogeologist with Matrix New World, which required him to relocate to Phoenix, Arizona.

Okay.

Now, moving across the country was difficult. He had a really close relationship with his family and friends, but he was also, like, really eager to start his professional life. He had worked very hard for this. He had earned it, you know, and he— and again, he was always searching for, like, his kind of independence.

Right.

Unfortunately, within a few months, he learned that an independent life was more expensive than he'd anticipated, than any of us really anticipate, and his entry-level job didn't quite pay enough to cover the bills. So as a result, he was forced to get a second job in the evenings. He was driving for a delivery app, Instacart.

Okay.

Oh, hell yeah, Instacart drivers. The additional work was occasionally exhausting, which I'm sure after a long day. Yeah. So many of the, like, people delivering for Instacart or anything like that have already worked a full day.

Well, you think about it as a user of Instacart. You're doing it because you've had a long day and you don't want to go somewhere, but then that's so many people's second job and they're doing the same thing.

Yeah. And, and so—

That's tough.

Yeah. And so many of them do it with, like, so much enthusiasm.

Yes, the diamond shoppers.

Yeah, like, come on. But again, it was occasionally exhausting, but he knew it was gonna be temporary, so it kind of made it easier for him.

Yeah.

Now on the morning of June 23rd, 2021, Daniel drove out to a work site in the middle of the Arizona desert, just outside Buckeye in Maricopa County. He arrived there around 9:30 AM. It was raining hard when he got to the site, so Daniel and his coworker Ken Elliott took shelter and just kind of chatted for a while while waiting for the weather to clear up. Later, Elliott recalled, I had asked him whether or not he wanted to just hang tight and let the storm cell pass overhead before we started so we wouldn't get all our paperwork wet. But he said he didn't respond. So when he looked up at him, he noticed that Daniel was staring off into the desert, like, kind of in his own—

Huh. You know, like, kind of spacing out.

He said— Elliott later said, he had a very, very distant look in his eyes. that's when he got in his Jeep and left. Oh.

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't remember all the details about this case. Yeah.

So it seems strange that Daniel would just get into his car and leave without saying anything, but Ken didn't know him very well, so he was like, I don't know, maybe that's just how he is. Like, he didn't feel like it was, like, alarming. Like, it wasn't, like, some big production. He just kind of got up and left.

Yeah.

But when the principal of New Matrix called to check in that morning, Elliott did mention that Daniel had just taken off without saying where he was going or why. And to those who knew Daniel well, this behavior was definitely unusual.

Right.

Again, like, Ken Elliott was like, I just didn't know him that well, so...

Yeah.

But everybody who knew him was like, no, that's extremely out of character for him. Like, he just wouldn't do that. His brother David said, Daniel's never been the person to give up or quit anything, or to just walk away. So for him to go to work for a few hours and just leave out of nowhere and not say anything to anybody, The red flags were going up for sure.

Yeah.

Because remember, this is Daniel who never let anything, even, like, the disadvantage that he was born with, stop him from doing anything or giving up on anything.

Right.

Now around 2:30 PM, Ken Elliott got a call from his supervisor at New Matrix, and the supervisor let him know that they still hadn't heard from Daniel, and they asked Elliott to drive around the area near the site to see if they could find him. Ken got into his truck and drove in the direction Daniel had left that morning. And he said the hard rain that morning had kind of washed away any tracks that could have been left in the dirt. So Elliott was able to track Daniel by, like, just kind of following what tracks he could through the desert.

Right.

But eventually he reached an intersection where he made a concerning discovery.

Oh.

A right turn would have taken the driver back to the main road. that led into the city. But Daniel took a left, which would have taken him deeper into the desert.

Yeah, and that's not where you want to end up.

That would throw me off as well, because you're like, where were you going?

Yeah.

And why did you just suddenly go there?

Right.

So obviously concerned for Daniel's safety, his supervisor called his parents, Melissa and David Sr., back in South Carolina. But neither of them had spoken to their son that day, and they had no idea what could have caused him to just walk off the job the way he did.

Yeah.

The news of Daniel's disappearance was immediately alarming for his mother, causing her to think back to the last time she'd heard from him. The day before he went missing, Daniel called his mother and left, like, a kind of vague message saying that he loved her and asking that she call him back.

Okay.

It wasn't the content of the message that she found unusual because Daniel was very close to his mother.

Yeah.

This wasn't strange, but she— it was the way he sounded.

Okay.

He had always been really positive, really optimistic, really enthusiastic when he called. But this time there was something in his tone that just struck as not right.

And a mom can tell.

You always can tell. After learning of his disappearance, she immediately called Daniel's cell phone, which she would continue to do for the rest of the day, but never got a response.

Oh, that's awful.

Now, that night, when they still hadn't heard from Daniel, his parents called the Buckeye Police. to report him missing. Although it had only been 12 hours since he was last seen, the circumstances were so strange, and obviously the potential hazards where he could be—

I was just gonna say dire.

Were numerous.

Well, he's in the fucking desert.

Yeah, like local reporter Nicole Griggs said, I don't think people realize that here in Arizona, we're actually one of the top 5 states for missing persons.

Yeah.

There's just so much desert that getting lost or getting stranded, stranded in the desert you're out on your own. So it doesn't take long for dehydration to set in. The elements out there are really severe and unsurvivable, really.

Yeah.

Now it wasn't just the elements and high temperatures that were really posing a risk to someone who was alone in those remote parts of the Arizona desert. There were also the animals to contend with. Among the biggest threats in that part of the country are the snakes. There's a lot of venomous and extremely territorial snakes like the diamondback rattlesnake and the sidewinder.

The Sidewinder?

Which tend to— and they literally sidewind. Like, yeah. And they tend to blend into the desert as well.

Oh, shit.

It might not be noticed until it's way too late. You're too close. As Daniel's mother put it in a 2023 interview, the desert is just a place where bad things happen.

Yeah.

Because there's also, like, there's bad stuff that happens deep in the desert, like, with people too.

His poor parents.

Yeah. To be left wondering Oh my God, because the amount of things that you're thinking of are just— and they're awful. All of them are awful.

Yeah.

Now given the potential dangers, a Buckeye police officer told Daniel's father that he would go out that evening to drive around the job site and look for Daniel. suggesting he might have simply broken down by the side of the road and attempted to walk to get help. Yeah. But after driving around the area for some time, the officer found no sign of Daniel anywhere. It was like he left the job site that morning and just poof, vanished. Now, when it comes to searching for a missing person, the first few days— we've said this a million times—

Most important.

Critical to the investigation. But in the case of Daniel's disappearance, there was so little to go on that Buckeye police didn't really know where to look. The morning after he was reported missing, a massive search campaign was mounted, uh, primarily focused on the region around the work site. Unfortunately, after conducting a thorough search of the area, they found no sign of Daniel or any evidence that he'd even been there at any time in the last few days.

That's strange.

During the height of the afternoon, temperatures in the desert can reach between 110 to 115 degrees.

Holy shit.

Without water or proper clothing to cover your skin, dehydration and other very serious health problems can set in in a matter of hours.

Yeah.

That morning when he arrived at the job site, he had dressed appropriately for a day of working in the hot sun, but no one knew whether he had packed any food or water in his car or how much.

Right.

Further concerning was the fact that by the second day of the search, calls to his cell phone were going straight to voicemail.

Oh.

Indicating that he had either turned it off or the battery had died.

Yeah.

Now, and I would assume, or he was out of service.

Yeah, yeah.

3 different avenues here. None of them are great.

No.

Now, unable to find any sign of where Daniel might have gone, detectives took a step back and began looking at his behavior in the days and weeks before he went missing. According to his family, Daniel had always been a happy guy, which made it easy to recognize when something was bothering him. And that summer, something definitely seemed off.

Okay.

A few weeks before he went missing, Daniel's brother David noticed that Daniel had deleted all the pictures from his Instagram account, but kept the account active. David told detectives about that, but claims they didn't think it was a factor in the case, which I think is wild.

That is wild.

Yeah.

I mean, there's a myriad of reasons you can do that. I do that so frequently and people get so concerned and message me about it. But like hand in hand with the fact that he then disappeared.

That's the thing. If you disappeared and that had just happened, I would at the very least, I would say that's obviously what's going on, but it's like, I would at the very least be like, yeah, that's something we have to consider.

Right.

Uh, David said, at least for me, it was very upsetting that the police department— that the police department, no one took us seriously enough to say something's not right here. We know it may look like he just walked away, but something's not right with this.

No.

Which I fully agree.

No.

When people go missing, it's common for friends and family to think back, you know, over the recent weeks before they went missing and pick apart any interaction looking for clues.

Because what else are you going to do?

What else are you going to do? And also, the answer might be there.

In those clues. Yeah.

You know, and of course, it's easy to, like, overanalyze comments that they made or something. Yeah, but sometimes that's where the answer lies.

Well, your family knows you best. So it's like, let's listen to the family.

Yeah. There is an instance that Daniel did spend the weekend with a friend from college, like in recent weeks before he went missing.

Okay.

This man, his name was Luke Greco. Uh, he said he didn't recall anything unusual about Daniel in the days before he disappeared from what he had experienced.

Okay.

According to Greco, Daniel was enthusiastic, very eager to show his friend around the city. Um, he said, I hadn't seen him in at least a year. I remember he was super excited to be able to hang out together. So they spent several days together, and he was with him the day before he went missing, but he doesn't remember anything odd about his behavior.

Okay.

In fact, he said he seemed excited about his job and even more excited about having met a girl recently that he really liked.

Okay.

This stuck out in Luke's mind because as far as he knew, Daniel had never had a girlfriend before or even really dated that much. So he was like, this was like a big deal.

Yeah, exciting.

Luke didn't get much information about the girl Daniel was interested in, but he did remember her name, and he gave that to investigators, hoping maybe this could help. According to David Jr., his brother, Daniel had met the young woman while he was working his second job driving for Instacart. He was immediately, like, smitten with her.

Aww.

After exchanging numbers, the two texted back and forth for a few weeks and eventually went on a date. But when Daniel stopped talking about her, his family members just thought things hadn't really worked out, and they didn't want to bring her up and, like, upset him.

Yeah, open a can of worms.

You know, detectives managed to track the woman down, hoping she might have heard from Daniel recently, but she hadn't heard from him in several weeks. In fact, despite what he had told Luke and his siblings, things between Daniel and the woman had ended a little bit unpleasantly.

Oh.

The details of this relationship have not been made public, you know, and the identity of the woman has not been made public either.

Okay.

And she did, like, share texts with detectives that she had had. And it was really like him being like, do you not like me? Like, what's going on? And her just being like, you gotta back off. Like, I don't hate you. Like, please just like—

But I'm just not into this.

Yeah. Like, I'm not into it. Um, and he— and it seemed like he was trying to hold on to it.

Okay.

So for investigators, this at least made them think, okay, was there something going on with Daniel's mental health around the time he went missing?

And everything you've said so far does almost make me feel that way. Yeah. And just based on what I know from, like, today.

Yeah. And it gave credence to the family's ideas that something just wasn't right.

Yeah.

Around this time. Right.

Um, well, and even, like, the voicemail, like, his mom said his tone was off.

Yeah. Like, something just seems a little... little off. His brother said within the last month or so prior to him going missing, there's a big shift in his personality just because he's been so shut off and reserved. Despite noticing the change in Daniel's demeanor, they didn't want to, like, push too hard on him because, like, sometimes you can push them to shut down more.

Yeah, or, like, not open up to you at all.

Yeah, so they just kind of, like, treaded lightly, waited for him to share his feelings when he was ready, just, like, trying to be supportive.

Yeah.

Now, the text messages, you know, and the the relationship and other revelations open up a new avenue of inquiry that it could— it could be helpful to the investigation. Again, like the mental health aspect. Throughout his high school years and college years, Daniel was friendly, outgoing, and had a tendency to attract people. He was just like a really cool guy.

Yeah, like—

Which— which led to him building a large friend group and having a very active social life. People just liked being around him. But since he'd been to Arizona, he'd struggled to meet new people. And on multiple occasions he told his mother he was lonely.

I feel like that transition post-college and then especially starting out in a new state and in a really different new state, like, you know, it's just really tough.

Yeah.

And when you're— I mean, like, you're working during the day and then he's working at night. It's like you don't have a ton of time to meet new people in like fun circumstances.

And like match a schedule with anybody that you really can form a long relationship.

Right.

Now, when he began expressing excitement about having met a girl, they thought things were finally starting to turn around for him. But now that they knew that it didn't turn out great, everyone started to wonder whether the rejection had hit him a lot harder than it probably would have before.

Because of the circumstances.

Just because of where he was.

Yeah.

Hoping to gain more insight into his mental state at the time, investigators convinced Daniel's landlord to let them into his apartment so they could perform a well-being check.

Okay.

What they found inside was kind of shocking. Now, David, his brother, said, I lived with him since he was born. Daniel's never been an organized person, but this was beyond even for him. Oh, it was dirty. It was bad. Daniel's never been the kind of person to live like that. Okay, so that will tell you, like, something is off here in a mental state.

Yeah.

Among other things, there were dirty dishes piled up in the sink, on the counter, even on the floor. There was old food, garbage. In his bedroom, his clothes were strewn around the room, like he had taken them off and just kind of left them where they fell, like, for weeks.

Okay.

The bathroom was dirtier than anyone had ever seen him live. But they were like, this just isn't him.

Yeah.

Like, he's not this way.

Right.

Uh, his brother said, you can just see that he was clearly going through something, and he stopped caring about his living space.

Oh, that would be so awful to see as his family, to know that, like, it— you assumed he was going through it, but it's even worse than you thought.

But it's worse than you even knew. Now, based on the evidence, investigators were starting to seriously consider whether Daniel had gone out into the desert possibly intending to not come back.

Yeah.

But the family felt that there was no way Daniel would have done such a thing. And I can understand, like, this is just not comprehensible. None of it feels like it's adding up. Although they admitted that he was, quote, not like himself in the days before he went missing, they couldn't see any indication that he wanted to leave and never come back. You know, like, that just wasn't coming out to them.

Yeah.

According to his family, despite the noticeable change in his personality, he was still future-oriented around, you know, and even close to his disappearance, he was future-oriented. Which, of course, things can change in an instant.

Yeah, especially when you're going through it, like, with your mental health.

But it's hard when, like, families— like, that he's making plans to visit friends and family. Like, he's never mentioned any kind of, like, indication that he would hurt himself.

Right.

They just— from what they knew of him, and they were a close family, it just wasn't seeming that way. Right.

And I— yeah, like, I get that.

It can be tough, you know? Like, it can be tough because obviously we don't know what's going on in anyone's head.

No.

Even if we're close to them. But it's really hard to be the family that's so close to him and be like, we didn't see any of this.

Yeah.

Um, so as the investigation started nearing its 1-month time frame, the Buckeye police were struggling to make progress, and it looked as though the case was going cold. And that's when they recovered— received a tip from a woman who said Daniel, uh, she saw Daniel in a grocery store near Phoenix.

Oh.

According to the caller, she saw a young man who matched Daniel's description, and he appeared slightly disheveled.

Okay.

When she spoke to him, um, she— he mentioned something about being on a journey, so she gave him food and water. But when she asked if they could take a picture together, the young man refused.

Okay.

Unfortunately, when investigators went to the store and spoke to the staff, they were informed that the young man the woman described was actually a local and wasn't Daniel Robinson.

Okay.

Which must have been really hard for his family.

Yes, you finally get like a little inkling of hope like that.

Now, reaching a dead end, investigators arranged for another area— for an aerial search of the area.

Because I'm wondering about his car. They haven't found his car at this point.

Not yet. But it turned out nothing, and the case was shifted back to, like, you know, in back of more active cases. Which I can't imagine being a family member and hearing, like, you need to be shifted back here because there's another case that's taking priority.

I could never say that.

I understand that, like, That's just unfortunate. That's the way how it goes. That can't ever be something that a family member ever can even conceive of healing.

No.

Now, with the Buckeye police slowing their investigation, Daniel's father took up the search on his own.

I remember him being, like, so, like, combative.

Oh, yeah. His father has been relentless. And he's like—

That's a dad.

If Daniel is going to be found, his family's going to find him, I feel.

Yeah.

Now, so he took up the search on his own. He set up a website where people could report tips and read information. Like, he's really gone the extra mile. To his surprise, the public responded in incredible numbers, turning out in droves to help search the desert. Um, reporter Nicole Grigg recalled, David and these volunteers were out there first thing in the morning before the heat, and sadly, all these efforts and they still weren't finding any trace of Daniel. Now, the first big break in the case finally came on July 19th, when a rancher checking on his cattle discovered Daniel's Jeep.

Okay.

It was overturned in a ravine about 3 miles from the work site.

Oh.

Which I was like, oh, that's weird. Why was this not found?

Yeah. 3 miles away?

Yeah.

And they did, like, aerial searches of this area?

Yeah.

They didn't find a Jeep overturned in a ravine?

That's what was shocking to me. I was like, What?

That's strange. And yeah, that's strange.

And the Jeep had Daniel's clothing and personal items strewn around the outside of the vehicle.

That's weird.

Yeah. To everyone involved, the scene looked incredibly strange. Daniel's clothing, personal belongings, including his phone, wallet, and keys, were again in and around the Jeep.

They were all there.

Perhaps even more bizarre was the fact that investigators and search teams like we just said, had managed to miss this car when it was just 3 miles from when he went missing.

That's very strange.

Yeah. I don't— his brother—

Like, had it been there the whole time?

His brother David said a bluish Jeep out in the brownish-red desert.

Right.

Even with it being in a ravine, I just don't believe that they would have possibly missed that from the air. Right.

Like, that's— that I— Right? I would feel the exact same way.

In fact, the rancher who discovered the Jeep made a habit of checking the ravines regularly for missing cattle, and he believes If the Jeep had been there since Daniel went missing, he would have seen it earlier.

Yeah, that's what I'm sitting here thinking, is that it hadn't— it couldn't have possibly been there that whole time.

No, because in fact, according to the rancher, he had been in that spot just days earlier and there was no Jeep there.

Okay, that makes more sense.

Yeah, which is even weirder.

Well, I was just gonna say that makes more sense, but also—

It's been going on for the month.

What the fuck?

Yeah. Upon examination, the car appeared to have gone through a serious accident with both front airbags having been deployed, glass shattered, and serious, like, you know, like, structural damage, like body damage to the car. In the trunk, they discovered 2 cases of water looking like they were untouched. Given what they found at the scene, investigators started putting together a new theory. They believed that after leaving the worksite that morning, Daniel was in an accident in the desert that caused the car to roll over.

No, because it wasn't there before.

But it wasn't there.

That doesn't make sense.

There was no sign of injury at the scene, but it seems impossible someone would not have sustained some injury. So they suspect he may have suffered a head injury.

I don't understand this.

After getting himself out of the wreckage, they believed that Daniel was disoriented and confused, causing him to remove his clothing and wander off into the desert.

But then you would think that you would likely, and I hate to say this, find his body nearby.

Exactly. And the Jeep wasn't there.

The Jeep wasn't there.

The rancher said it wasn't there when I checked a few days ago.

He's also not going to make it very far in the desert without any clothes on.

No. With a head injury.

And a head injury. Like, you're not gonna make it that far.

I feel— I'm like, I don't know about that. This is weird.

I did not know how weird this got. It's a very—

that's why his, like, family is, like, not letting the— because it's like, no, something weird is here. Now, again, it would— this is all— that was just speculation, really, because, like—

Can I just— that's, like, stupid speculation.

Yeah.

That makes no fucking sense.

I just don't get it.

I don't either.

Like, I really don't. Uh, the only thing that they were saying when people would bring up the idea that, like, well, if, you know, you would likely find his body pretty close to the site, they said, well, there's a lot of scavengers in the desert.

Which, yeah, for sure.

Sure. But you're not even finding, like, evidence of scavengers or a body, like, any being there.

Yeah. Or any, you know, remnants of a body. And again, The car wasn't there previously. So—

That's the thing that's sticking to me.

Why are we just pretending it was?

It was 3 miles away from where he left.

Why are we pretending that bluish Jeep was there in the desert while you were flying planes overlooking? And the farmer himself to be like, nah, that wasn't there.

But because they were putting together— they could answer for most of the things by being like, scavengers, whatever. This is what happens.

Did the scavengers move the fucking car?

Yeah, exactly. So while the case remained open, investigators felt pretty justified in pulling back their search.

That's not justified, in my opinion.

I agree. That's how they felt.

Yeah.

Like that.

Oh, I'm not—

no, I know.

I know what you're saying. Yeah.

Regardless of how investigators felt or what they believed, the family was obviously unsatisfied with the theory.

I would be ripshit.

I too would be unsatisfied.

I am ripshit.

Nothing about the scene of the crash made sense to them, especially the fact that hundreds of people searching on land and from the air had managed to miss the car during multiple searches. And the rancher said that shit wasn't there days ago.

And it's a Jeep. Like, you're not going to miss a Jeep.

Yeah.

Or any car, really.

No. And the car, according to the car's computer system, The crash occurred a short time after Daniel left the job site. So if it had only showed up after the initial searches, where had it been before that?

What?

Also, there was no sign of an accident anywhere in the area around the car. If an accident had happened between 2 people, surely one of the drivers would have reported it.

Yeah.

Because also, what did he crash into?

Well, that's— yeah.

And if Daniel had hit something on the road that caused him to roll over and sustain considerable damage, there would have been evidence of that in the landscape, but there was nothing.

Right.

So where— how did he end up there? A short time after the discovery, Daniel's parents hired private investigator, which was smart, Jeff McGrath, a criminal private investigator and former police detective with a reputation for working cases where police— and this is just his rep, I'm not saying it happened here— He has a reputation for working cases where police may have— there may have been some abuse or neglect of the case.

Okay.

But that is suspected.

Okay.

That's just his reputation.

That's his history.

I'm not saying that it happened.

We're not saying it happened here.

McGrath looked at the report generated by the airbag deployment system, and like Daniel's parents, immediately suspected something was not right here.

Yeah.

According to the report, the Jeep was traveling around 30 miles per hour when the crash happened. But given the rough terrain around the ravine, that didn't seem possible.

No. And for your airbags to deploy—

You'd have to hit something.

Yeah.

And in fact, when McGrath took his own Jeep out to the area to retrace the possible supposed path of the incident— accident, the environment and obstacles made it impossible for him to get to that speed.

Interesting.

He's like, I literally couldn't. The supposed path was equally suspicious. The tracks left at the scene indicated that the car made a straight shot into the ravine. But according to the report produced by the computer, the steering wheel had been turned at a 45-degree angle for 5 seconds just before the crash happened.

Okay.

Now, after looking over everything carefully and recreating as much of the accident as he could, Jeff McGrath came to the conclusion that the Jeep was crashed intentionally, but not at or near the site where it was found. He told a reporter, in my opinion, I think this was staged.

What?

His opinion was backed up by evidence. According to the report, the car seemed to have driven an additional 11 miles after the accident occurred.

What?

Indicating that someone had intentionally left it where it was found.

So let's go look 11 miles in each direction.

Yeah.

For some fucking clues.

Now, the discoveries made by McGrath were a promising step towards potentially finding Daniel, but they soon found themselves faced with a new obstacle: the Buckeye Police.

Hmm.

According to Daniel's parents, quote, the Buckeye Police have publicly taken credit for what has been found, making it appear that police had done exhausted research, conducted forensics, and did helicopter searches looking for Daniel, when most of the work, according to Daniel's family had, in fact, been done by McGrath and the family.

Okay.

According to David Sr., the Buckeye police had routinely dismissed his concerns and the tips he received, telling him that, quote, Daniel just didn't want to be found and wandered off in the desert to become a monk.

Wait, what?

The police said that? That's what his dad said the police said. David Sr. says that that's basically what they were telling him when— what?

Then what? Where's the head injury in the car accident? Yeah.

How does that line up with him deciding to become a monk? He can't just wander into the desert.

No.

You don't survive that. So where is he?

And again, like we've been saying this whole time, if— now I don't really believe personally that the car crashed there, but if that is the supposed story, then he wouldn't be far from that site. He's naked, evidently.

Well, and also, how are we explaining the 11 miles? How are we explaining the 45-degree angle that We're just taking a site before the crash. How are we explaining that there's literally nothing that says he crashed at that site?

What?

Like, what is happening here? And the rancher's just out here being like, hi, it wasn't there. So, like—

This is so bizarre. I did not realize how bizarre this got.

Yeah. Now, for the residents of the area, the growing reports that the Buckeye police were suspected of mistakes sounded a little familiar.

Oh.

Just a few years earlier, a 10-year-old boy went missing and was eventually found dead just 7 miles from his house. At the time, Buckeye police claimed they had, quote, done a 5 to 10 mile search around the boy's house. But if that were true, they would have found the body, which was in a location inconspicuous enough that it was found by a passing street sweeper.

Oh, wow.

When it came to the case of Daniel Robinson, it seemed that similar mistakes were being made. Obvious evidence had been overlooked and suspicious circumstances had been ignored. But when they were asked about the evidence discovered by McGrath, Buckeye investigators simply said, quote, none of those observations are proof of a crime. And what— it's not also not proof of not a crime.

Yeah.

And whatever it, whatever it might have been evidence of, they didn't seem too interested in it.

That's nice.

According to McGrath, all the evidence he collected had remained in his possession, and investigators never asked him to hand it over.

Interesting.

Yeah. So now, feeling that they are no longer able to rely on the Buckeye police for assistance, David Robinson Sr. increased his own search efforts, relying on a big group of volunteers for help. At the end of July, during one of the group's routine searches, they discovered a human skull and a shoulder bone in the desert.

Okay.

The discovery offered the horrible possibility that the mystery might be solved, but the medical examiner reported that the remains were not Daniel Robinson.

Oh.

Which is even more horrifying too.

That's so sad, yeah.

For the family, the conclusion was, you know, as much a relief as it was a frustration.

Right.

They didn't want to find Daniel dead, but they were desperate for any answers. His mother said, at least Daniel helped bring someone home.

Yeah.

So that makes me proud. Which, like—

Oh, I just got chills from that.

For 3 months, the family and their group of volunteers desperately searched for any sign of Daniel without any really any attention from the press or police because, like, people weren't hearing about this. Then in the— because I, I think everybody remembers this case blowing up suddenly.

Yeah.

That was in the fall of 2021. Another disappearance shifted the national spotlight towards the Robinson case for frustrating reasons. In late August 2021, 22-year-old Gabby Petito went missing while on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie.

Peace of shit.

Yep. At the time, the case attracted tons of media attention from regional and national news outlets. A few weeks after her disappearance, unfortunately, Gabby's remains were discovered. After that piece of shit Brian Laundrie's death, investigators were— and again, we're going to cover this, so don't— I'm just going over it quick. Um, they recovered a notebook where he claimed responsibility for killing Gabby Petito, somewhat. Nevertheless, critics accused the press of disproportionate coverage of the Petito case.

Yeah.

Because she is a young white woman.

This does happen frequently.

And they really provided virtually no coverage of cases of people of color who are missing, like Daniel. One woman had written on social media, and this was kind of the feeling, I'm shaking reading about the discovery of poor Gabby Petito's body in Wyoming. So people were like, this is horrific.

Of course.

While we're watching the Petito case unfold, please take 5 seconds to read about Daniel Robinson. His father is still looking for him.

Yeah. 2 things can be true at once.

Which is exactly what this person on social media did correctly. They said, this is fucking awful, and my heart is breaking, and I'm shaking for Gabby Petito and her family.

Any sudden disappearance is also awful.

While you're feeling this way, just take 5 seconds to look at this other missing person's case, because their family is in the same position.

Right.

Now, despite the increased coverage of the case, no one received any new leads that would move the case forward. Hoping to spur the police into action, David Robinson Sr. circulated a petition, and this was, quote, with the intention of holding accountable the Buckeye Police Department. His petition managed to collect 8,000 signatures, and in a statement to the press, he said, this petition gives my family the ability to have their voices heard. Daniel's family will feel empowered knowing that they have the community's support and an agreed-upon desire to see that everything is being done to find Daniel, which is the most—

You should never have to make a petition to—

So reasonable.

It's so reasonable. And you should never have to make a petition to ensure that everything is being done.

Yeah. And that's all they're saying. They just want— literally, this is just saying we have the community support and an agreed-upon desire. Just me, Our family, the community, and the police, can we all share the same desire to find my child? And why would you not share that desire?

Yeah.

Now, in an effort to defend their investigation, the Buckeye police released the findings of their reports to the press. Um, Buckeye Police Chief Bob Sanders said, we've tracked down every lead possible. The forensics examined the phone. We retraced Daniel's whereabouts to a couple of days prior to his disappearance. At this time, we have no proof of evidence anything criminal took place inside or outside the vehicle. But you do because of—

well, in the 11 miles that the car drove after it crashed.

Well, luckily, Daniel's father refused to back down and was very unsatisfied. He said, I don't feel like they're doing enough. When I got here, it took them 3 days to do the initial search for my son. That's 1 day too late. A person should be looked for within that 24 to 48-hour period. Anything after that is problematic.

Mm-hmm. It absolutely is.

And that is what his father said. In June 2022, the family released a statement to update the public on the case. They said, today marks one year that my son went— went missing. To the world, it's one year. To us, the family, it's every day, one after the other, continuous moments passing by where hope is always shadowed by dismay. Somehow, day after day, the will to keep searching is triumphant over losing hope.

I can't imagine being in that position.

I think that is such an important statement that he said to— he said to the world, it's one year. And it's so true.

Yeah.

Just think of how fast we look at it and we say, wow, that was a year ago.

Right.

To them, they're like, oh no, that was this many minutes, this many seconds, excruciating, this many days.

Yeah.

Of just wondering where the person I love is.

Like, and your child, like, makes my— ugh, that's inexplicable.

Yeah. Now, despite their enduring hope that they will find Daniel, after a few years, even, you know, even his father is beginning to accept the fact that there is a likelihood that Daniel might not be alive.

Yeah.

The best they want right now, and, like, one of the things they want is just answers.

Yeah, of course they do.

And unfortunately, all they keep getting is questions. More questions.

Oh, no.

In 2023, years after Daniel went missing, new details about the investigation were made public. Though none moved the case in one direction or the other. According to the Buckeye police, location data from Daniel's cell phone proved that Daniel, or at least his phone, was active in the location where the car was found on the day he went missing.

Okay.

But remember, his phone, not necessarily him. As far as they saw it, this supported their theory that Daniel had crashed the car and wandered off. But the case was still referred to the FBI. For further investigation.

Okay.

So a few months later, in October 2023, David Robinson Sr. and Jeff McGrath revealed that an analysis of Daniel's computer and his home strongly suggested that someone had been in his apartment after he went missing.

Oh!

And had gone through his computer and his personal belongings.

What?

Robinson told reporters, quote, I was able to get the Tempe Police Department to do forensics on all of my son's electronics, from his personal computer to his gaming system. And in that information that I did receive back, someone was in his apartment looking through his computer, searching Google history, just fooling around on his computer.

What?

Yeah.

And he lived on his own?

Mm-hmm.

That's bizarre.

Yeah.

Looking through his Google history?

Yeah. Now, in March 2024, Robinson announced that he was running for the U.S. Congress in South Carolina. Noting that advocating for the families of missing people would be one of his major agenda items.

Hell yeah.

Uh, he said in his campaign announcement, 3,500 going missing every day. We definitely have to do something about that. What— call it what it is, a crisis.

It is a crisis.

Now, he was unfortunately unsuccessful in his bid for Congress, but his campaign was definitely inspiring and started bringing attention to his son's case as well as other cases. Um, among those inspired by Robinson's activism was Gabby Petito's father, Joseph Petito. Despite his own loss, Petito had heard the criticism of the press and the disproportionate coverage of his daughter's case, and it opened his eyes to the realities of families like Daniels.

Yeah.

Uh, he told CNN in 2024, I did a deep dive into it. I looked at popular missing persons cases and the ones that hit the mainstream. They all looked similar. Now, since then, Joseph Petito has been a vocal advocate for the families of missing Black and brown people whose cases have been overlooked by the press, including Daniel Robinson. Uh, Robinson said, what Mr. Petito has done for my family, it means a lot to me because he had a tragedy, and it's amazing when a person can take a tragedy and make something big out of it.

It absolutely is.

Become an advocate and help people.

Yeah, that's huge.

The Petito family is really impressive.

They're incredible.

Now, as of now, Daniel Robinson is still missing, and no new leads have been discovered as to where he could be. Anyone with any knowledge of his disappearance is encouraged to reach out to the family through their 24/7 tip line. That's at 844-602-0660, or to the Buckeye Police Department at 623-349- 6411, or both.

Choices.

Yeah, or both. Get them both. Uh, but literally anything.

Yeah.

Make sure— we're gonna post a picture of Daniel. Take a look at it if you've seen him, if you saw him before the disappearance, after, anything.

If you know who the fuck was in his apartment going through his computer.

Anything.

Weird.

I didn't know— any tips could move this along.

I did not know how weird this one got.

Yeah. Like, it's a—

it's bizarre.

Yes. And we'll post the website. We'll make sure you have all the links you need to, to take a peek at all of this.

Yeah, definitely take a peek.

Yes. I would love to see that family get any kind of—

they deserve it.

Anything.

Every family goes through something like this deserves answers.

I just want them to get answers. That's all.

Yeah, because there's, there's a lot of weirdness going on here.

Yeah, there is for sure. And Daniel just seemed like a light. He seemed like a good guy. What a loss for the world that he's not around right now.

Yeah. Well, and you hate to think that he was really going through something beforehand.

I know.

Well, there's really no way to transition, but we always end on a fun fact just to keep things—

Yeah. Because this one's— and again, keep it in mind. Take a look at the pictures.

Yeah.

Make sure you're thinking a little bit around that area. Those are the places you can contact. Yeah.

This segment is brought to you by State Farm.

But moving on to the fun fact, because let's, let's bring it into fun fact territory.

Heck yeah.

This one blew my mind.

What's up?

Australia is wider than the moon.

Wider than the moon?

It's wider than the moon from east to west.

That's insane.

Like, obviously surface area, the moon is much bigger, but like—

Yeah.

Wider than the moon.

What?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, they have so much outback.

Yeah. Well, the moon is 3,400 kilometers in diameter. Can you tell me that in miles, please?

And Australia— Just do a quick conversion.

You're gonna make me do a conversion?

Well, kilometers—

Converting.

I don't know about kilometers.

That's too—

Here's the one thing about me is that Kilometers and miles in my brain are vastly different.

What did I say it was? I said it was 3,400. 2,112 miles.

See, that in my brain makes a whole lot more sense. That's freaking crazy.

That is freaking crazy. And then Australia is 4,000 kilometers, which is 2,485 miles.

Dang. Yeah. It's so crazy to me how much of Australia is just like unlivable.

I know.

Do you think about that frequently?

So much. Well, I mean, I love getting TikToks of people who live in Australia.

So do I.

And how they just live in such a state of chill with the unchillest environment surrounding them.

Huntsman spiders. Like, that's—

that Australia is trying to kill them at all turns, and they're the chillest people just being like, yeah, it's okay. Huntsman spiders alone. I know that they're supposed to be real nice and they just take—

They're spiders?

They're not here to mess your day up. They're just here to eat all the other pests in your house. Which is dope. And they won't hurt you. I don't think they want to hurt you. I think they're just big and scary looking.

That's what we know of their intentions.

I just know you can hear them walking down a hallway and I don't think that's okay.

How dare you say that to me?

But the amount of Australians that will be like, oh, we just have a house huntsman named Alfred that just— We see them every now and then.

Pay rent!

And I'm like, that thing's too big.

Help me with my mortgage then.

That thing's too big.

Yeah, you're way too big to just be living off my house.

Yeah, but they just—

they're—

Using my warmth and AC. Apparently they're very helpful. So—

I mean, it's nice that they're helpful.

But the thing is, I'm like, but, but that's the pest I want taken care of. So the fact that he's taking care of all the other ones, that's super nice of him, but like, what takes care of him?

But then you think about all the— then you think about all the pests that he probably is taking care of and you don't want to know about them.

I know, like crazy roaches and like—

Ew.

They have crazy bugs.

Yeah.

And it's— and it wouldn't be like because they're, you know, it's not like they're dirty or something. It's like, that's just the environment.

Isn't that like where they used to send people to, like, that like couldn't be like, uh, rehabilitated? Rehabilitated. Yeah, they were just like, go live in Australia and try to make it. Yeah, I think—

and try to make it.

Like, good luck.

I think it was literally like a prisoner colony.

Yeah, like Alcatraz almost.

Let me see. I can look it up. I can look it up. Look it up, bro.

Then I have to—

yeah, it was a penal colony.

A penal colony?

They sent 15,000 prisoners a year there. The UK did.

Dang.

Yeah.

And they just made it through and populated that place.

Well, and then they populated and they— and, and they're like the coolest people.

I love Australians.

Like, Australians are— we've— I just— Australians have always been really good to us.

They send in the best listener tales. And they just—

I think they're so funny, and I think they have the funniest outlook on most things. Like, they're just cool people.

They'd have to have a good outlook on things.

What a great experiment that turned out to be.

Living with—

But that's why, like, Australia is such an uninhabitable— for the most part, because it was technically supposed to be uninhabitable. Yeah, but the ones that's— the, the ones that got through that are there now, I'm like, damn, you're some hardy— you come from hardy stock.

Don't mess with Australians because Because they'll throw a huntsman spider at you.

They live with the unlivable, and they live with it like it's no big deal.

They really do.

Yeah.

Well, that is crazy too, that it's so close to the size of the Moon in width and width.

And also, just a quick little side thing off of that.

What's up?

You know that scientists call the Moon the Earth's child?

That's the most— we have to end there. That's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.

Yeah. Because it really is. It's like a piece. They believe that a large body collided with the Earth and a piece popped off.

I love space.

Yeah.

I think it's adorable.

That Earth's child. Wow.

Thank you so much, State Farm, for sponsoring the fun fact segment. It's one of my favorite things ever.

It is fun.

Thank you again to our sponsor, State Farm, for sponsoring this segment. And with that being said, we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you—

Keep—

Keep it weird. Weird.

But not so weird that you don't take a minute to look a little bit more into this case and think back to that time. If you saw something, if you know something, if you know someone who knows something. Look at Daniel.

See if you recognize him.

Call those numbers.

Let's get—

let's get some eyes on this case. Yeah.

Bring Daniel home.

Bye. Bye.