Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Dad Desperate to Find Son After Clues Emerge in Deserted Ravine

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

Geologist Daniel Robinson drives away from his worksite west of Phoenix, Arizona, and is never seen again. David Robinson, who lives in South Carolina, has been in Arizona leading searches himself after his son's Jeep was found by a rancher found. The blue, 2017 Jeep Renegade was discovered in a remote, shallow ravine on his property, rolled over and on its side. The vehicle’s airbags were deployed, and authorities said the evidence shows that Robinson was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the crash.  The rancher, who runs cattle in the area, says the vehicle was not there just three days before.  The private detective hired by Robinson’s father, David, says he believes the crash “looked like a stage event to me.” Data shows after the airbags were deployed, someone turned the Jeep's ignition over at least 46 more times.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: David Robinson - Victim's Father, PleaseHelpFindDaniel.com, Twitter: @PleaseHelpFind4, Instagram: @pleasehelpfinddaniel Dale Carson - High Profile Attorney (Jacksonville), Former FBI Agent, Former Police Officer, Author: "Arrest-Proof Yourself, DaleCarsonLaw.com Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, CarynStark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"  Sheryl McCollum - Forensic Expert, Founder: Cold Case Investigative Research Institute in Atlanta, GA, ColdCaseCrimes.org, @ColdCaseTips Nate Eaton - News Director, EastIdahoNews.com Twitter: @NateNewsNow, Instagram: @n.eaton   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How does a young man vanish off the face of the earth? How does that happen? No record, no sightings, nothing. He's just gone. When I say a young man, I'm talking about 25-year-old Daniel Robinson. He is the apple of his parents' eye. A young geologist, music lover, good looking, great grades, the works. So why can't we find Daniel? I'm Nancy Grace.

This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to our friends at KPNX. This video of 24-year-old Daniel Robinson is quickly spreading on TikTok. The nicest guys you'll ever meet. His family and friends desperately hoping for his return. His older brother is asking for your help all the way from South Carolina. It's been really, really hard.

Just trying to keep going throughout the day. Daniel was last seen last Wednesday, June 23rd, leaving his job site near Sun Valley Parkway and Cactus Road in Buckeye in this gray Jeep Renegade. There's not really a whole lot that we know around it. Daniel was working his first job out of college here, coming from South Carolina to make a living. Wow so his first job out since becoming a geologist coming from South Carolina to try to make it as a geologist. So what happened to him? With us his father to tell us the very latest David Robinson joining us and you can find him at pleasehelpfinddaniel.com. Let me just tell you there is a GoFundMe and his dad David Robinson is using the GoFundMe money to fund his own investigation in the desperate search for his boy, his son, Daniel Robinson, 25 years old.

What happened to him? How did he just disappear? David Robinson, sir, thank you so much for being with us. Tell me when you first realized your son just hadn't called in a couple of days, that he was truly missing. Yes, my son, on the 23rd, I did get a call from my daughter. She also lived out in phoenix um at the time and uh she did call because one of the co-workers from his job came by her apartment uh looking for daniel uh one of daniel's friends from the job uh that was really troubling to her

of course my daughter first thing she wanted to do is call me. Once I heard that news, I told her to go check his apartment, you know, to make sure he wasn't there. In the meantime, I was making phone calls. We weren't getting any phone calls, any answers from his phone. That wasn't so bad to me at the time. I just tried to talk with his friends, do all my due diligence. But I noticed that from the time when I got information, they said my son was last seen at nine o'clock that morning here in Arizona. And I look at a time difference in South Carolina. I think that was over six hours. That's when I got worried about it.

Daniel would never, ever go that long without telling his siblings or the family, everybody. Do you have any travel plans or things like that? So, you know, that was my first indication that something's wrong. Let me understand something with indication that something's wrong. Well, let me understand something. With me is Daniel's father. This is David Robinson, and you can find him at PleaseHelpFindDaniel.com. So he left for South Carolina to go to Arizona that day.

Is that what you're telling me? Well, I did talk to the Buckeye Police Department, who was in charge at that time, and they said they weren't going to do a search that night because they asked my son missing because it was night. The next morning, they told me they'd have a flight out there, a helicopter out there to search that desert for my son. Once that time came, I did end up getting a call, a second call from the officer saying that his higher-ups said that they would not be able to go out there because he's a grown man.

If he wanted to disappear, he can. But that's one of the indications for me to know that the police department wasn't going to do anything at that point. So grab everything. I kind of lost my sense of thought. Grab everything I can. Hop in my vehicle and start heading west. I'm just thinking about Mr. Robinson trying to get to his son,

that drive to reach him to try to help him. Take a listen to our friends at KPNX 12. David Robinson had only one thought on his mind as he drove the nearly 1,800 miles from his South Carolina home to Phoenix. I had to find my son. His 24-year-old son, Daniel, missing since June 23rd. Trying to make calls as I'm driving.

I just had hopes that by the time I got here, something would turn up and I would see my son. I'd get to put my arms around him and talk to him and try to find out what's going on. Buckeye police say Daniel was last seen driving a blue 2017 Jeep Renegade away from his work site near Sun Valley Parkway and Cactus Road.

The area he was last seen is a desert, so you got to be prepared for that. You have to get water. You have to get certain things to even just go out there to look. You know, David Robinson, this is Daniel's father. It reminds me, I'd just gotten the twins back home to our apartment in New York and had given them their baths, got them in their PJs when I got a call that they were going to put my dad on life support. And the race to get them dressed, packed, out on the street at midnight trying to helicab to somehow get home, those hours, those hours at the interim trying to get to him was like, well, it was like pure hell.

What was going through your mind as you were driving all the way out to Arizona? Well, it was a very hard trip. Of course, the idea definitely stayed on constantly with Buckeye Police Department, trying to get all the information I could get, as well as Daniel's work, his job, Matrix New World. I just wanted to make sure I get all the information I can. I feel like that trip was taking longer than I wanted. You know, I couldn't get there fast enough. You know, just wanted to know exactly what happened to my son, if anybody was going to go out there before I get there. They go search for him, things like that.

So it was an anxious moment for me. And take a listen to Jess Winters at KPNX. The 24-year-old geologist was last seen leaving his work site in Buckeye on June 23rd. Since then, David feels as though he's had to wear two hats, dad and detective, leading weekly search parties and pressing police for a more thorough investigation, like fingerprinting Daniel's Jeep. I asked how can they be sure that my son was driving the vehicle without doing forensic work.

The reply was that it was my son's vehicle. It is obvious he was driving. He also points to what he calls concerning conversations, like a detective suggesting his son wanted to vanish. But maybe he wanted to be away from his family, to join a monastery, and become a monk. David Robinson, this is Daniel's father. They actually, cops actually told you maybe your son Daniel wanted to become a monk? Yes, yes. Yeah, that was really, really, wanted to become a monk? Yes, yes. Yeah, that was really, really, really bad.

You know, it was at a time when the officer was showing me my son's vehicle. It was at a compound at this facility. And before I saw the vehicle, mind you, this was the first time I'd seen my son's vehicle ever. We did have plans for myself, my daughters. We're here in Phoenix to see that vehicle is the first time i've seen my son be able ever uh we did have plans for myself uh my daughters but we're here in phoenix uh to see that vehicle for the first time but i ended up seeing it the way i have to have to see it but before he showed it to me he did mention that to me hey he told me about a story uh that a family thought um one of the family members missing turned out the lady wanted to be a nun, and he also described that as well to me. Maybe that's the possibility.

My son wanted to be a monk and join the monastery. I thought your son was interested in a woman that he just recently made a grocery delivery to. That does not fit with being a monk. That's right. That's right. Exactly. Okay. Somebody help me out. What the hay?

Karen Stewart, you got a father that drives all the way from South Carolina to Arizona to find his son. And the cops say, yeah, he probably wanted to vanish. Maybe he wanted to become a monk. And they're not kidding. They're serious. It's really upsetting. And I'm so sorry for you, Mr. Robinson. Really, my heart goes out because I can't understand how they could possibly say that. It just doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't they be? Nancy, you know too, why wouldn't they search the vehicle and do forensic work and begin to worry that he's been gone for so long and that it's not just the jeep, his clothes are there. Who would put their clothes there and decide that they want to join a monastery?

It's so far-fetched that it's really sad. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Mr. Robinson, you remind me so much of my dad. He would get in his car and come immediately to wherever I was, if I was in any kind of distress, without me even having to ask for him to do it. He and my mom always right there. And it hurts me so much. Cheryl McCollum, a forensics expert, founder of the Cold Case Research Institute. I'm not going to ask you

about the forensics yet, but to hear somebody, a cop, tell a parent he's 25. Hey, that's a grown man. Butt out, Budinsky, basically,. He's on his own and so are you. You know, Cheryl, you and I were already working in the trenches by the time I was 25. And do you know my mother would call me still. I would be out prosecuting rapists, murderers, drug lords. But my mother would call me at about 6 o'clock every morning when she got to work to make sure I was up and going. We didn't have cell phones. And even at that age, she would still send me six packs of V8

for me to drink on the way to work because she wanted to make sure I got vegetables. Yes, at age 25. And if a day went by and I didn't call them, they would know something was wrong. And that's what David Robinson is saying. And to think a cop would say, he's 25 years old, man. Click. Right.

That's just total bs well there's another thing about daniels and i think we need to know that law enforcement should have zeroed in on he didn't go more than six hours according to his family without taking somebody where he was or where he was going he checked in regularly he let people know what his plans were, where the job site was, what his hours were there. So he was very good about that. And I don't think that's crazy. I mean, I still do that. Oh, it's not crazy.

I still am in touch with my mom all the time. I mean, because if you love them, you want to talk to them. You want to text them. You want to hear what they're doing. I mean, David Robinson, you had to know almost immediately that something was wrong when you didn't hear from him and nobody in your family had heard from him. Your daughter, his sister hadn't heard from him. The people at work were worried he didn't show up. I mean, you knew something was really wrong.

That's right. That's right. That pattern has been broken. Okay, Nate Eaton joining me, a special guest joining us today with David Robinson. And again, I can't say it enough. Please help them. He is now funding the investigation to find his son. Please help find Daniel.com. Nate, help me, Nate.

Let me start at the beginning because I got carried off hearing Mr. Robinson on what happened in his life. Start at the beginning. Tell me everything, Nate. Don't leave anything out. So Daniel goes to work. He's a geologist. It's his first job.

He's in the middle of nowhere, you could say, right outside of Phoenix. But was he living in Phoenix? He was living. Was he living in Phoenix, David? He was living living was he living in phoenix david uh yeah living in tempe at the time uh he first was in phoenix and then moved to tempe so he was living in phoenix at the time right yeah tempe arizona gotcha okay go ahead nate so he gets to work and um one of his co-workers is is there with him he says that he stayed for about, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes. Is that in an office or were they out at a... Little known fact, my fiance, Keith, that was

murdered, was studying geology and he already was working geologist jobs as he was going through school. And a lot of times he would not report into an office. He would report to a site. So when you say, Nate Eaton, that he met up with a co-worker, was it at some office? Or was it out in the middle of a geological site? Yeah, this was out at a site. Oh, darn. Because I was hoping I could glean something from maybe surveillance video.

Anyway, go ahead. Go ahead, Nate. This is near the white tank mountains his co-worker said that daniel was acting strange he was uh quote staring into the distance and talking about things that didn't make sense so after about 15 minutes his co-workers told police that daniel left that was the last time he was seen i didn't know that what do you mean he was staring out i mean when, when you're working in geology, you are staring out in the distance. That's one of the things you do.

I don't find that odd, but what do they mean by talking about things that didn't make any sense? Not to them, maybe, but what do they mean by that? Well, that's all that the police report said, all that he elaborated on, but you do make a good point. Geologists love to go

out there and explore. And Daniel was a scientist, is a scientist. He has a brilliant mind. He loves, this is his passion. So he leaves after about 15 minutes, according to his coworker, and he has not been seen since. But three weeks later, three or four weeks later, they discover his Jeep. And who discovers it? A local rancher discovers the Jeep about three miles from the work site. Okay. Nate Eaton. Sorry.

Guys, Nate Eaton joining me from eastidahonews.com. Nate, I want to back up to something. I'm always constantly multitasking, even in my head. And I will suddenly say something here in the studio to Jackie and she's like, what? I'm, you know, three stories ahead or three stories behind having a thought about this or that or what we need to do or where we need to go or who we need to talk to. It doesn't always make sense to her or my husband or my children, whoever's around me at that moment, because I'm thinking in a different place of where I'm at at that moment. So, you know, bottom line, Cheryl McCollum, that doesn't mean anything to me that he was talking about things and they didn't know what he was talking about.

Right. It could be a lot of things, Nancy. When you're juggling, for instance, a caseload, you could be talking about one case one minute and something else the next minute. I need to find out what happened from the time they saw him and when a rancher

found his vehicle. It was a Jeep, right, Nate Eaton? Yeah, it was a 2017 Jeep Renegade about three miles from the work site. Three miles. Was it on or off road? It was off road and his clothes were on the ground next to it. His wallet and phone were in the car. Okay, that's a lot of information, what you just said so succinctly. But I'm curious to David Robinson, why did a local rancher have to find his Jeep when you had reported him missing?

A simple flyover and a helicopter would have seen that. Yes. Well, you know, that was one of the reasons why I left Columbia, South Carolina, is that they didn't do an initial search the day my son was missing, the day after they didn't do a search. But it did almost three days later using a Phoenix Firebird, they say. And also, once I got here in Arizona, I started my own searches at that time before the rancher in the vehicle. Almost 30 days later, the ranch was out there, according to him and the testimony gave myself and also my investigator today he's out there uh

two to three days prior to the 19th uh to chase down his uh cattle they come through the same ravine that the vehicle was found in uh the vehicle wasn't there uh he's down checking for his cattle but on the 19th um two three days after, the vehicle was there. That's why he called it in. He said he noticed it matched the description of something that was said in the local media. And so that's where it went from that point. Okay, David Robinson, you just gave me a lot of

ammunition, something to work with. Because you're telling me, let's get this timeline down, Nate Eaton. And everybody, Dale Carson, high-profile lawyer, Jacksonville, former FBI, Karen Stark, New York psychologist on Facebook and at KarenStark.com. Everybody jump in. Cheryl, what David is just telling me is very critical because he leaves the work site. His Jeep is found three days later.

Was it three days later? No, almost 30 days later. 30 days is that right 30 days almost 30 days that's correct but curiously cheryl mccollum the jeep wasn't there the last time the rancher had ridden through that ravine trying to round up cattle and when was that david robinson how many days before he spotted the Jeep? Had he been there? He said the vehicle was found on July the 19th. He said he was there two to three days prior to look for his cattle that comes down that same ravine, and it wasn't there. So we'll just go with the 16th. So what happened in that period of time? So he's last seen June 23, Cheryl. Right. And then suddenly his Jeep turns up just three miles away from that original work site on July 19-ish. That really doesn't make any sense,

does it? It doesn't make any sense, but the Jeep has essentially like a black box like an airplane has. So they're going to be able to extract all of that data from that Jeep. For example, they already know that prior to hitting that ravine, that Jeep accelerated. They know that somebody tried to get the ignition to engage 40 times after the crash. So there's been activity that they know from that Jeep. So if it had been anywhere else, they would know that. Okay, Cheryl, would you repeat what you just said about the way, the condition in which the Jeep was found, the multiple attempts to turn the Jeep back on, and the hitting the gas before impact? Right. So it looks like he's off road,

maybe four wheeling, so to speak. There's a ravine. It's got like about a 45 degree grade. Before getting to the up part, he accelerates almost like he's gunning it, trying to make it up that hill. Well, what happens is he hits it in such a way that it appears, flips the car on his side. So the driver's side is going to be vacant of any dust or rocks or scratches. The passenger's side is going to have significant damage as the front end does as well. Because again, the way it looks like it was hit it flips it because of the grade the tire just runs out of road that's all there is to it to add to cheryl's comment jump in yes you know after the airbags deployed there was apparently 11 more miles put on the

vehicle and so the view may be that someone else wrecked the vehicle from other location and transported it there because that may be because someone else abducted him. And when that happened, of course, they tried to get rid of the evidence by putting the vehicle subsequently in that ravine. And, you know, if there's a love interest involved in this, it's quite possible that someone else is angry at him having a love interest in their paramour. Could you say that again, Cheryl McCollum, about how far what Dale Carson just brought out? Nate Eaton, jump in if you or David Robinson know about the 11-mile driving post-impact. I'm going to play devil's advocate, Nancy. 11 miles doesn't mean those tires are on the road. They could have been because of an acceleration.

So, again, they're going to know from tracks in that dirt. They're going to know from skid marks, rocks being thrown with acceleration. If there were other miles driven on the roadway or off-road, there would be evidence of that as well. Again, it appears there's parts of the vehicle up near where the clothes were left. It looks like whoever got out of that vehicle put the clothes right there in a pile. They're just all together in a pile like somebody just got naked and walked off. The fact that his cell phone is there, the fact that his wallet is there, the fact there's no activity on his bank account or cards at all. He's made zero contact with anybody. He scrubbed

Instagram before this happened. I mean, it may not be as nefarious as it appears. It could very well be that Daniel was the only one in that car and Daniel walked away from that car. Naked. I find that really hard to believe. Okay. You know, another clue to me, Nate Eaton, is that his clothes, Daniel's clothes, were folded up. They're basically in a pile near this Jeep. And the Jeep, guys, is found out in a remote desert site about three miles from his work site. And it looks wrecked. It's gone down about a 20 foot ravine.

But then his clothes have been taken off and are found near the truck. Were the clothes found near the Jeep, Nate Eaton? They were. And you want to know what else was found near the Jeep? His wallet and cell phone. His wallet and cell phone were inside the Jeep. But they also found, David and his pi found human remains about 10 days after that vehicle was found by the rancher a skull was found near daniel's jeep and the me came out and said it

wasn't it wasn't uh daniel's here because they believed that school had been there longer longer than the time. But then a few months later, they found additional human remains. They found two, two human femurs, hip bones, vertebrae.

Again, the medical examiner saying they don't believe this is Daniels, but here is this father who over the past year has spent 40 weeks searching 32,000 acres of land. And he's found these human remains and this Jeep has been found, yet no sign of his son. That cannot be a coincidence

that Daniel's Jeep is found wrecked, which would suggest that Daniel would have to get out of the Jeep, which is, as you look at it, it's wrecked down a ravine. It's crashed. And then step away from it and calmly take his clothes off and leave them in a pile. If he were trying to kill himself, wouldn't you think that he would take his clothes off and then wreck the car? Instead of wreck the car, take off his, and then vanish in the desert on what foot? And it's basically found in a burial ground where at least one, if not three, other skeletons

are right there in the same vicinity. I mean, everything is, it's a red flag waving at me that this was not a self-induced crash. Who's jumping in? Tailors often return to the place where they've deposited bodies, if not for nothing else, to view the condition of the body that they left there. So the idea that the Jeep was found in an area where there were other human remains is an indication that someone outside this is a third-party active. You're right, Dale Carson.

I mean, think about it. Sheryl McCollum, what's the likelihood he's going to go crash his Jeep, strip down, and wander off into the desert on foot, right where other human remains are found? Well, I have a question for David. Number one, it sounds like the bones were not found with clothing. And David, do you know how they ruled Daniel out? Well, you know, yeah, of course, in the course of my searches, the volunteers, we did find those human remains, the human skull. The freshest one was the last part of last year.

That really was scary for me. But the way they ruled that one out, for instance, first they told me, Buckeye Police told me they all had animal bones. Of course, I made a big thing about it. Senator Mary Copeland County, they said it was human bones. They finally made a

crime scene. But they told me only 40 minutes later. I couldn't make it from Buckeye to Phoenix after that search. And they called me before I made it to Phoenix and said, hey, it's not your son. And I don't know how they did that, but they say they can tell it's not a black man's bone. That's what I was told. Okay, it was a skull? It was bones, the femurs, the hip bones.

Well, maybe they were totally skeletonized and that would not have been the case had it been Daniel because it was closer. Well, it had some bone marrow there. It had collage still there. That's the freshest I've seen remains since I've been out there. But at first they told you they were animal bones? Yes, they did. Oh,

dear Lord in heaven, it just gets worse. Why would they make that comment to you when it turns out to be human bones and then it turns out to be not Daniel? Thank God. It's gotten to a point where Daniel's father has felt he had to hire a private investigator to try to find his son. Take a listen to our friends at KPNX 12. Losing faith in the force, David hired private

investigator Jeff McGrath in July, who says the crash data doesn't add up. The detective told him the vehicle rolled down the ravine. I looked at the photo. I said that vehicle never rolled. It got to the bottom. It tipped on its side. That's all it did. So I can't rule out foul play. So I don't know how Buckeye can. Buckeye police say they're taking another look at the crash data in the coming days with an expert, but still don't suspect foul play. BPD also released a partial police report on Thursday that documents all the leads and evidence they've followed up on. Did you hear that? What the private investigator who took the time to look at the crash data is saying? This was not necessarily a crash.

More like the Jeep was rolled down the ravine and turned over. Take a listen to Matt Galka at Fox 10. This latest information release has to do with the crash data from the Jeep that Robinson was driving. He's been missing since late June. That Jeep was found nearly a month later smashed up near a ravine. This is Daniel Robinson's Jeep. The 23-year-old was last seen June 23rd. His Jeep was found July 19th.

On its side near a ravine within miles of the geological worksite he's said to have walked off from in the Far West Valley. The findings of the collision report of the vehicle were released yesterday. Investigators say the Jeep Renegade was in a rollover crash, the only crash recorded internally on the Jeep. They say speed increased before impact, leading investigators to speculate the Jeep was trying to get up the side of the ravine. 40 ignition cycles were recorded after the crash, meaning the driver could have been attempting to restart the vehicle. What does that mean? I've got to analyze that, but I do know what it means to Daniel's mother. Take a listen to our cut five from KPNX 12. It took me three months to look at

my son's picture. I just seen his car. It took me three months to look at his car. You thought you felt pain. Try looking for your child and not knowing where he is. Daniel's mom, Melissa Edmond, speaking out for the first time, fighting back tears. Meanwhile, Daniel's dad, Melissa Edmonds, speaking out for the first time, fighting back tears Meanwhile, Daniel's dad, David, is calling out the cops for lack of urgency in the first 48 hours Yeah, I believe that if they would have stepped up to play at the beginning, I wouldn't be standing here now crime stories with nancy grace david robinson is joining me this is daniel's father and i implore you to help any way you can go to please help findindDaniel.com. What did you mean by that? If the cops had stepped up to the plate earlier, you would not be where you are right now.

Well, yes. Well, you know, the first 24 to 48 hours is the most crucial point that I've learned also as well. It's very crucial when you're trying to look for a missing person. I think with me and my family, knowing my son, I've been there since his birth. I would know a lot more than a coworker, for instance, would know about my son. And, you know, the family, we've been worried. We know the difference between Daniel disappearing on his own or versus something happening. We should know the difference. We know his patterns. Those patterns have been broken. If the police department would have at the beginning

decided to go look for my son that night as well as the next morning without this assumption that Daniel, without evidence that Daniel said or wanted to disappear on his own, I think they would have found him. They would have found him immediately before I even made it to Phoenix.

It shouldn't have took me all those hours just to drive here to go look for Daniel myself. I'm curious about the timeline. I'm curious about whether the interior of that Jeep was processed, whose fingerprints were on the steering wheel at the time of the impact. Were they Daniel's? If the airbags went off, there'll be DNA from whoever was driving the car. Well, you're right. Cheryl McCollum, there could be other prints as well.

And I'm wondering, was he driving the car at the time of the rollover? Or was the car left there coincidentally in the same area as other human remains? What happened in those days from the day he disappears, June 23, to July 16? But Nancy, keep in mind, if somebody left that car there, there would be a secondary vehicle to take them away. I don't think anybody would drive that far out in the desert just to have to walk back to town. That doesn't make any sense to me. There's no tracks. There's no evidence there was anybody else. Police used ATVs. They used cadaver dogs. They used air support with helicopters and drones. And let's talk about Daniel's pattern. His own sister said he came to her apartment,

stared for 30 minutes without talking, got up and left abruptly. That's exactly what the co-worker said. We have to listen to that. Okay, back to you. Joining me is Daniel's dad, David Robinson. Yes, well, one thing I wanted to throw in is that those things about my son staring off,

my daughter and I put in an interrogation room with the Buckeye Police Department, and they asked us to sit there and think about anything that would seem kind of strange. But Daniel, my daughter had to think about something that happened almost two weeks prior to Daniel going missing, that he came over and kind of stared off, as well as some of the things that

haven't been reported, according to my investigator, who I hired. The vehicle, we had a vehicle, not only the Black Box Delta came from the Buckeye Police Department, all the information that we got, as well as my investigator who I hired the vehicle. We had a vehicle, not only the Black Box Delta came from the Buckeye Police Department, all the information that we got, as well as my investigator, he decided to have the infotainment system sent to California for analysis. At the 800, 900-page report, we found out the vehicle's crashed four hours out there. My son went missing.

We have, of course, the Buckeye Police did their first search almost three days after my son was missing the second one was done almost two weeks later with silver air patrol all was in the same area where the vehicle the bitch will be found and they came up empty-handed so that kind of backs up the rancher's story that the vehicle wasn't there two to three days prior of course like i said that that mystery accident happened at four hours after you were missing around one o'clock that day on the 23rd nate eaton what does that mean what does that mean because i think david robinson just said the crash of the vehicle happened shortly after daniel goes missing but it wasn't in that location until about a month later what right yeah transfer paint

as well i'm sorry but it's also red transfer paint on the vehicle on the side that's on the ground that's not the red in the desert um the son's vehicle came in contact with something that's red uh vehicle old something so a crash with a red object like another car or a dumpster, something painted red that would leave that imprint on his car. What about that, Nate Eaton? Well, the question I have, and David, maybe you can answer this. He disappears June 23rd. The car is found July 19th with his phone inside.

Were they able to ping his phone at all over the course of that month to see if there was movement and where it went? Well, those are some of the same same questions I have with my family. The first thing I did when I got to Arizona was go to Buckeye Police Department. Those are the questions we had. We needed camera footage. We needed cell phone pins. He had also a Uconnect in his vehicle. All they said they couldn't get information from. They couldn't get the cell phone pins. They couldn't get those pictures of traffic lights. And they said the Uconnect was pings, they couldn't get those pictures of that traffic lights, and they said the UConnect was all zeros

when they tried to get something from it. So that's one of the things. Yeah, the cell phone pings as well are some of the things we're looking for. So you do not believe your son took his Jeep down that ravine, correct? That is correct. I highly doubt that. You highly

doubt that. and you're still struggling fighting to get the cell phone ping data yes i am um you know some of those things i was told by the buckeye police department at the time uh they were going to do that and then they came back later uh told my my daughter and i that it wasn't made able to because no law no judge would give them a warrant or anything they applied for to get that kind of information. So today we're kind of stuck just with everything we have from my son's phone records and things like that. Isn't it true that there was a series of texts that had been wiped off your son's phone? That is correct. Once the Buckeye Police Department returned the phone to me, mind you, I mentioned that everything was turned over to me.

The vehicle was found on the 19th. The Bucke guy police department turned the vehicle over to me on the 20th uh they had a meeting a couple days later they turned on all the evidence i mean everything in evidence bags with his mark for safekeeping uh they told me uh they was done with my son's case now when i received the phone from them uh the cell phone was missing his memory card uh that is recently purchased for him he needed the cell phone, it was missing his memory card that I just recently purchased for him. He needed a bigger card. That was missing his geolocations, everything, because I was trying to find out where he was located at the time. All that had been wiped from the phone. Everything about this young lady was wiped from the phone, except for her name and her phone number.

But everything else is wiped in terms of the text messages and things like that, pictures. Nate Eaton, how could that be? So is this some sort of a love triangle where someone gets his phone, wipes all the text between him and this girl, cleans them off, and then does away with him and crashes the car? Well, it's possible. Of course, the girl told police that she had no relationship with Daniel, but one of Daniel's friends said that there was something more. As David said, he spent the night with her. So somebody could have been jealous. Somebody could have taken that phone. Somebody could have wiped it off. I mean, I don't know who's going to wipe their phone and then take a car and crash it in the desert. And obviously these are questions that need to be answered. But the family is not getting answers. That's where we come in.

There's a private investigator that has been hired doing its best. And I'm curious, Dale Carson, what you think about contacting someone over the Buckeye police, for instance, the state attorney general. Well, that's exactly right. I mean, if you're not getting satisfaction at the local level, then you go up one level. And it's clear that there are unusual events surrounding this young fellow's disappearance. And clearly, there's also evidence that he was possibly abducted. I mean, so that's where the investigation starts. And any really active law enforcement agency isn't going to let this come to rest until there's a conclusion. To David Robinson, this is Daniel's father, and you can find him at PleaseHelpFindDaniel.com. What is your message today? My message today is that I will continue to fight for my son. I'm standing against my family. My family, they have a mother

who's terrified, you know, everything that's going on, siblings, grandparents, as well as other family members and friends. But Daniel,

he's a high-spirited young man, a man that loves God, first of all. He has a lot of friends, very intelligent, has dreams and aspirations to do great things. He's a contributor to society.

Daniel is my son. And, you know, I'm just going to continue to fight for him, do everything I can as a father. And I just want to make sure everybody knows who Daniel is. He's a young geologist geared to do great things. Cheryl, jump in. David, I think something that's going to be really important is any of the items that they gave you back, like his cell phone or his clothes or even the airbags, if you can get them, get them to a private lab. That costs money, Cheryl.

That's what the cops, that's what we're paying the cops to do. We pay the cops. We pay the crime lab. We pay every single scientist at the crime lab. We pay every single scientist at the crime lab. And now, sadly, I agree with you, Cheryl. We're having to tell Daniel's father, you get the evidence and you go pay to have it done by the crime lab. I mean, Nancy, here's the great thing. Because of you, he can raise that money. And second of all, if they can't even get a warrant to get in his car or his home, they're not going to be able to do the testing.

Because as far as they know, there's no crime. So they're not going to let them do it. We can do it. We can help him. Here is a number for the Attorney General of Arizona. 602-542-2123. Repeat. 602-542-2123. That's the number for the Arizona Attorney General.

At this point, the Buckeye Police Department has helped in no way and may have actually hindered the investigation. We wait as justice unfolds. If you want to know more, please go to CrimeOnline.com or go to PleaseHelpFindDaniel. PleaseHelpFindDaniel.com Goodbye, friend.