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Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelyn Moore
Into the Desert: The Disappearance of Daniel Robinson
01:12:59
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- [00:00]
Morgan Abshur
I'm Dr. Haruni Bhat, host of Hidden History. Every Monday I go where history gets uncomfortable.
- [00:05]
Kaylin Moore
Banished civilizations, doomsday prophecies and events that science still can't fully explain.
- [00:11]
Morgan Abshur
Listen to and follow Hidden History available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is Crime House.
- [00:25]
Kaylin Moore
A geologist goes missing about a month later. His Jeep is found deep in the Arizona desert. But the rancher who finds it says the car wasn't there a few days earlier.
- [00:35]
Morgan Abshur
So how did it get there? And where is the driver? With no activity on his bank accounts or his electronic devices since the day he disappeared, everyone involved is at a loss. Today we're tackling the mysterious case of Daniel Robinson and examining the questions surrounding the disappearance that continue to go unanswered.
- [00:59]
Unknown Foreign Speaker
Foreign.
- [01:06]
Morgan Abshur
Hi guys. Welcome back to Clues, where we sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases.
- [01:13]
Kaylin Moore
I'm Kaylin Moore and I'll be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories, and the court files released for these cases.
- [01:19]
Morgan Abshur
And I'm your Internet sleuth, Morgan Abshur. I'm the one who's diving into anything I can find online to talk about those lesser known details and pull up threads that just aren't adding up. Don't forget to share your thoughts on social want ad free listening and early access. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts and make sure to go back and listen to our previous episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Now let's get into Daniel Robinson's case and the clues that defined it.
- [01:45]
Kaylin Moore
This episode is brought to you by Quints. So lately I feel like I've wanted to be more intentional about the stuff that I've been wearing every day. I want to lean into pieces that feel effortless and comfortable but still look put together. That's the key. It just makes getting dressed simpler. And Quints is a go to for all of those things. The fabrics feel elevated, the fits are very flattering, and everything really works without having to overthink it.
- [02:11]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah, these are pieces you're going to have in your closet for years to come. They stand the test of time. And I needed a closet refresh. So I've got my Quint bodysuit on. Some of the softest, most flattering bodysuits I know.
- [02:23]
Kaylin Moore
I was just rubbing your arm. I felt how soft it was.
- [02:26]
Morgan Abshur
I also love my linen dress for summer. It's so lightweight, breathable, is cute with everything.
- [02:33]
Kaylin Moore
I just put in a new order. I'm so excited I'm getting the Bella Stretch Relax straight leg jeans and also the 100 organic cotton boyfriend crew sweater which looks so soft and like slouchy.
- [02:44]
Morgan Abshur
Perfect for recording.
- [02:45]
Kaylin Moore
Perfect for recording.
- [02:46]
Morgan Abshur
Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.comclues for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N c e.com Cluze for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com clues this episode is brought to you by Groons. I am really, really prioritizing my health and I know that I wasn't getting enough vitamins and nutrients and that is where Groons came in. Groons are a convenient, comprehensive formula in one delicious daily pack of gummy bears. This isn't a multivitamin, a greens gummy or a prebiotic. It's all of those things and then some at a fraction of the price. And bonus, it tastes great. I have a pack of Grunes in my purse pretty much constantly now. It's my little sweet treat, my snack that also makes sure I'm getting the nutrients I need. It's this perfect solution to have a daily pack of gummies because you can't fit the amount of nutrients Groons does into just one gummy. And my favorite part, they are vegan, nut free, gluten free, dairy free. They don't have artificial colors or flavors, but they do have 20 plus vitamins and minerals and 60 ingredients that are nutrient dense whole foods. They even have a low or sugar free option. Groons has 6 grams of prebiotic fiber. That's more than 2 cups of broccoli. And you may even be eligible for reimbursement with HSA. FSA and Groons ingredients are backed by over 35,000 research publications. If you're ready to try it for yourself, save up to 52% off with code Cluze at Gruuns Co. That's Clus. I think I first encountered Daniel's case when we did our research for Gabby Petito. Oh.
- [04:36]
Kaylin Moore
Because he was the featured missing person that week.
- [04:39]
Morgan Abshur
We featured him as a missing person and it kind of came up, I think more towards the end in our advocacy efforts about how Gabby's family has really helped Daniel's family search for him. They used the news and the notoriety from Gabby's case to like highlight other missing people cases. Cause he went missing around the same time Gabby Petito did.
- [05:00]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, yeah. But obviously it was not the same level of coverage at all. Like, I didn't hear about this case when it was going on.
- [05:06]
Morgan Abshur
Neither did I. Yeah, it wasn't literally until our research where you have to dig for it.
- [05:11]
Kaylin Moore
Yes.
- [05:12]
Morgan Abshur
So his family has continued to advocate for, you know, search and answers in his case and we hope that this amplifies it today. So, yeah, without further ado, let's dive in.
- [05:25]
Kaylin Moore
Also, just a quick reminder, anyone who's watching this episode on YouTube, you're going to see some pictures, images, videos that are going to help you visualize the case. And if you're listening, you're going to see all that same stuff on our Instagram. That's at Clues podcast and you should just follow us there. Anyways, we've been posting a lot of updates recently on cases, a lot of
- [05:42]
Morgan Abshur
updates like the Martin family that, yeah,
- [05:46]
Kaylin Moore
the Martin family was positively identified.
- [05:48]
Morgan Abshur
Positively identified.
- [05:50]
Kaylin Moore
Which is wild, I think. Still doesn't solve the mystery of what happened necessarily.
- [05:55]
Morgan Abshur
No.
- [05:55]
Kaylin Moore
But yeah, go back and listen to that episode if you haven't listened to our Martin family episode, because that case, I still can't really wrap my head around it.
- [06:03]
Morgan Abshur
Very confusing. But again, yeah, go follow Clues podcast. And just a warning before we dive in, this episode does contain discussions on suicide, drug use, mental illness, sexual harassment and murder. So please listen with care. All right?
- [06:16]
Kaylin Moore
And with that, the this case starts on the morning of June 23, 2021, in Buckeye, Arizona, the beginning of monsoon season. That's when 24 year old hydrogeologist Daniel Robinson meets up with a pump technician named Ken Elliott at a job site in the desert. Daniel had left his home early that morning to begin inspecting wells. He had already stopped at one site and reported his findings to a supervisor prior to meeting up with Ken. Now, Daniel, as a hydrogeologist, studies groundwater. Daniel works for a company that does environmental consulting and engineering, but Ken works for a different company that works on water wells. And Daniel is there to test the groundwater and just to see how much supply this well has. This is actually pretty high stakes stuff in Arizona where every new home built by a developer has to prove that it has 100 years of water supply available to it. So even though Daniel is a fairly junior employee, his work is very important. The two have never met in person before today, but after they introduce themselves to one another, they just start talking about the job site, some technical aspects of the job that they're going to do, and how far along the development phase was. But before they can really talk about it all that much, it starts raining and Ken asks if Daniel wants to Wait out the storm and relax a bit so that the rain won't ruin the paperwork that they have to do. But Daniel, at least according to Ken, seems a bit distracted that day. It seems like he's staring out into the desert. And Ken says he has kind of this strange look on his face. Daniel suggests that they go back to Phoenix, which is 40 miles away, because they'll have a little break from the storm. Then, after being on the job for only 15 minutes, Daniel just stops what he's doing and leaves. He gets into his blue gray Jeep Renegade and he drives off without really saying much. So Ken calls the manager of the project that they're working on, and he tells him what happened. He assumes somebody from Daniel's company will get in touch with him and straighten things out. But at 2:30pm the principal from the firm calls Ken and says Daniel hasn't been answering any calls or texts, either from work or from his family. Nobody has seen or heard from Daniel since he drove away from the job site. And at this point, Ken starts getting kind of worried enough for him to get into his car and try to go look for Daniel himself. He drives off down the dirt road leading away from their job site, and he heads south, the direction that he saw Daniel go that morning. Eventually, he comes to an intersection. If Daniel turned east, he'd get back to Sun Valley Parkway, which is the road that both Ken and Daniel took to get to the job site from the city. But thanks to the rain, Ken can actually see that there's tire tracks going west into a large, remote desert area. He follows these tracks for a while, but he doesn't see Daniel or the Jeep. So eventually he just turns back. The temperature is over 98 degrees Fahrenheit. It's way too hot for him to risk getting lost out there. Not to mention, it's now raining for the first time in months. And out in the Arizona desert, that leads to pretty dangerous flash flooding. And that can kind of come out of nowhere and just sweep entire vehicles away. So Ken decides he's going to leave the desert, but he has a really bad feeling about the whole situation. And just a few hours later, he gets a call that validates these worries. Daniel Robinson is officially a missing person. But let's rewind a little bit and talk a bit more about who Daniel was before this day. So Daniel's full name was Daniel Cornelius Robinson. He was born on January 14, 1997, to David Robinson and Melissa Edmonds. Daniel grew up in South Carolina with three older siblings and one younger sister. His parents later split up, but they both remained pretty active in Daniel's life. Now something unique about Daniel is he was actually born with a limb difference. His right arm ended just below the elbow, leaving him with no right hand. That didn't ever hold him back, though. He still played French, horn and trombone. He lifted weights, he played football. But Daniel's biggest passion seemed to be for the planet. When he got old enough to learn about climate change, Daniel immediately wanted to do something about it. He told his mom she would see his picture in National Geographic someday. And Daniel was growing up in the right family for a budding scientist. His father, David senior, studied computer engineering at Howard University on a scholarship. But after having his children, he dropped out in order to support his family. David wanted his kids to have the kind of top notch education that he never got to finish. So he nurtured their curiosity about the world and he encouraged them to prioritize education, their faith and their family. And ultimately, Daniel and his four siblings all chose paths in sciences. In 2015, 18 year old Daniel followed his older twin sisters to college at the University of Charleston in South Carolina where he studied geology. There, Daniel really spread his wings, making new friends and trying new things. He even joined a fraternity. But college also had its downsides. According to his father, Daniel was maybe a little bit naive and sheltered when he went into school. Although he was a devoted activist and had attended Black Lives Matter protests, he sometimes didn't notice when people were being racist towards him personally. Some of his college classmates gave him a racist nickname that referred to the history of slavery. And Daniel went along with it, probably in his own naivete. So it was a little scary for David when 22 year old Daniel graduated with honors in 2019 and announced his plans to move to Arizona for a job. Luckily, Daniel's older sister Davisha was living in Arizona, so he at least had a little bit of a support system. You know, it seemed like David was just worried about his son living on his own and kind of like entering the adult world and maybe still being a little bit naive. And sadly, on June 23, 2021, David's worst fears about something happening to his son came true. When David first found out that 24 year old Daniel wasn't responding to calls or texts, he sent Davisha to Daniel's apartment in Tempe to check on him. Davisha lived in Phoenix, which was a 20 minute drive away. So the two spent a lot of time together. And Davisha confirmed that Daniel was not home. Neither was his blue Gray Jeep Renegade. So then later that day, David called the Buckeye Police Department to file a missing persons report. And Sergeant Stuart Cruz was dispatched at 7:04pm to begin an investigation. But that, at that point, was 10 hours after Daniel was last seen. Sergeant Cruz first tried contacting Daniel himself. And the phone rang, meaning that, you know, the phone is probably on, but no one answered. After that, Cruz met up with another officer and drove out to the desert to look for Daniel in the area where he was last seen. And they spent the next two hours looking for Daniel with no luck. And they called it a night at around 11pm and the next morning at 6am, another officer named Josh Haley took over the search for Daniel. And at 7:37am he tried calling Daniel's phone again. But now it was going straight to voicemail. Meaning at some point over the last 12 hours, Daniel's phone had either lost power, been turned off, or gone out of service. So Officer Haley spoke with Daniel's family members to learn a little bit more about him. Maybe they knew something about why he was acting so odd at the job site the day before. And that's how they discovered a major recent event in Daniel's life. A chance encounter that may have changed everything for him.
- [13:39]
Morgan Abshur
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- [13:41]
Kaylin Moore
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Yeah, people who use ALMA to find a therapist who accepts their insurance save an average of 80% on the cost of sessions.
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Clients with insurance pay 20 on average. And you know, May is mental health awareness month, so it's time to start thinking about this.
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Morgan Abshur
Absolutely. It's always a good time to address your mental health.
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Kaylin Moore
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Oh, so crucial if you get headaches from screens.
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And it's pretty accurate. That's how I picked the pair I ordered and they're so, so cute. If your glasses are overdue for a refresh, now is the time. Go to zenni.com podcast and use code podcast15 for 15% off your first order. The styles sell out, so don't sit on it. That's Z-E-N-N-I.com podcast promo code podcast15. So we're on June 24, 2021. This is the day after Daniel went missing. His dad David told Officer Haley that Daniel had no mental or physical health problems that he knew of. But at some point over the last few weeks, he had noticed one unusual thing about Daniel's behavior. Police learned that Daniel had told his father that he was in love with a woman named Caitlin. This connection is our first clue. Unfortunately, Daniel didn't tell David much about her. They seemed to not really know each other. Even Daniel's dad David, though, did find her Instagram account and gave Officer Haley her username. Next, the detective spoke to Daniel's sister Davisha, who had also heard about this potential new love interest. Davisha told police that Caitlin had apparently introduced Daniel to a new self help podcast. He told Davisha that this podcast had changed his life. It helped him look at the world in a more positive light. But recently, Davisha said that Daniel wasn't acting at all optimistic or positive. During a recent visit to her apartment, Daniel had just sat there kind of silently for 30 minutes while she tried to talk to him. He would barely respond to her and then just abruptly left. Then the day before his disappearance, June 22, things were really odd. Daniel had texted Davisha that he had an emergency, but when she called him a few minutes later, he didn't reply. Davisha got super worried, repeatedly texted Daniel to try to check in, try to make contact with him. Hours went by with no response. She ended up going to his apartment, but he wasn't home. Davisha then had other friends and family members try to get in touch. No one was having any luck. Eventually, Daniel does finally text her back. He said that basically he didn't answer because he wanted to, quote, be in the present moment, which is just like another concept from this new self help podcast he was listening to. So at that point, Officer Haley really wanted to meet Caitlin. But when he got her on the phone, Haley heard a very different version of events. According to Caitlin, she met Daniel on June 12, 2021, 11 days before he disappeared when he delivered her an instacart order. Daniel was doing this as a side job for some extra money, and according to Caitlin, she was hanging out, had a female friend over when Daniel arrived. They were both drinking, so they invited him in to hang out. It seems that they hung out and chatted for a while because by the end of the night, Caitlyn and Daniel had exchanged phone numbers so that she could send him the podcast recommendation. She insisted that they weren't dating. To her, she felt this relationship was like really casual. There weren't any blurred lines. She said that she didn't think she had done or said anything to make Daniel think there was anything more going on between them. Daniel, though, apparently remembered that night very differently. He had told a friend that he delivered alcohol to two girls via instacart and hooked up with one of them. And based on their text history, he clearly wanted to see Caitlyn again. Caitlyn actually did give police screenshots of their conversation on the night they met. Daniel had apparently left a pop up canopy, which he used to go camping at Caitlyn's house. He asked her if he could come pick it up, and Caitlyn had replied, quote, yes, you can pick it up whenever. So on June 16, four days after the two had met, Daniel stopped by her place unannounced to just grab it, but she wasn't home. She then texted him to say that she noticed him on her security cameras and she didn't seem upset that he showed up without warning her. She just told him that she was out of town and that he could actually pick it up tomorrow after she put it outside for him. After this, Daniel sent her a red heart emoji and apologized. The next day, June 17, there was another text from Caitlyn to Daniel telling him to stop showing up at her house unannounced. Daniel apologized again, said that, you know, he'd already picked up his canopy, but then he texted, quote, I couldn't Stop thinking about you. They exchanged a few more texts over the next couple of days. Daniel kept trying to see Caitlin while she was seemingly trying to cut him off. But just after midnight on June 20, three days before his disappearance, Daniel sent Caitlyn a text saying, quote, I love you. When she hadn't replied by the next morning, he sent another, asking if she was home. And at this point, Caitlyn is really not feeling it. She says this, quote, honestly, you showing up at my house unannounced made me extremely uncomfortable. I will not be home today, but I don't see us hanging out anytime soon, end quote. Daniel said he'd have to accept her answer. But then the very next day, June 21, he texted, quote, I'm outside of your place. Caitlin wasn't home and was understandably pretty upset. She told him again that his behavior wasn't okay and asked him to please leave her alone. Later that night, Daniel replied, you're right. Then at 3:07pm on Tuesday, June 22, Daniel sent a cryptic final text saying, quote, the world can get better, but I'll have to take all the time I can, or we can, whatever to name it. I'll either see you again or never see you again, end quote. And the next day is when Daniel disappeared. We don't know if the police ever looked at the original texts on Caitlyn's phone. Only screenshots were ever mentioned in reports on this case, so they may not have been shown all the messages between Caitlyn and Daniel. You know, you can easily delete messages and then take a screenshot. So unclear if it was ever verified. Like forensically.
- [21:39]
Kaylin Moore
Right.
- [21:40]
Morgan Abshur
Investigators also couldn't recover the conversation from Daniel's cell phone provider because at the time, that would have required a search warrant. They didn't have it. Same thing goes with his location data. Now, police can only get warrants for criminal investigations, which this isn't that at this point in time. However, we have talked about exceptions in the past where if police think a person is in imminent danger, they can show the judge probable cause and then get an exception, which is like exigent circumstances. It does appear that police did receive a partial exception from T Mobile on June 27, but the carrier only released the data beginning on June 22 when he went missing. But they didn't have anything from the conversations between Daniel and Caitlin prior to that.
- [22:25]
Kaylin Moore
Now, knowing about Caitlyn's rejection helped police understand Daniel's state of mind. But was it really gonna do much to help find him? Well, on June 24, the first full day of the investigation, another ground search near the job site came up empty. Police also got a service provider to send a silent signal to his phone, triggering it to report its current location. Now, unlike getting historical location data, pings don't need a warrant. Cell phone providers can choose to ping a phone at law enforcement's request based on those exigent circumstances that you were talking about.
- [22:57]
Morgan Abshur
I'm so surprised we don't ping people more, like, right away when they go missing. I know.
- [23:01]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. That you can just ping.
- [23:02]
Morgan Abshur
Like, why is it like a reported missing, Immediate ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Like, you know, I mean.
- [23:07]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [23:07]
Morgan Abshur
While, like, his phone was still on, I guess.
- [23:10]
Kaylin Moore
Well, you need those exigent, Right? Because if someone just left on their own accord, then, like, they don't want the police all up in their business. Like, pinging their phone to be like, this is, you know, especially, like, what if you're fleeing a domestic violence situation? 100, you don't want your partner to be able to go to the.
- [23:24]
Morgan Abshur
Like, family had reported him missing, and then the police start, like, calling him, like, a lot, and they're like, okay, well, the phone's on, so. Yeah, but not off. It's not dead, I guess.
- [23:32]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. You don't know if, like, his family's a problem and he's, like, fleeing them for some reason. So I get why they don't do it immediately.
- [23:38]
Sarah Turney
I'm just.
- [23:38]
Morgan Abshur
I'm surprised I don't hear about the pings more.
- [23:40]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, that you don't hear about more pings just being sent out. Unfortunately, Daniel's phone didn't respond to any of these pings, meaning that it was turned off, it was out of service, or it was dead. Police also tried to get information from his Jeep's uconnect system. And we've talked about this in other cases that, like, your car is just constantly tracking you, and police get access to that. They know everywhere you've been. This uconnect system tracks the location of the vehicle, and it also has some other safety features. But the problem was Daniel never actually created a uconnect account to connect to his car. So in this specific Jeep, I guess you had to create an account for it. So the company had no historical remote data on the Jeep's location. But detectives did find a loophole around this. They actually were able to create an account for him. With or without an account, that data was still being recorded. So when they logged in, they should have gotten some info on the Jeep, including its real time location. But the coordinates came back as 0.0 slash 0.0. According to the company, this could happen if there was no electricity coming from the vehicle's battery to power the uconnect device, or if someone had tampered with it. Either way, the system was a dead end for now. So the next day, on June 25, two days after Daniel vanished, they tried looking for his jeep with a helicopter. And again, nothing was found. Meanwhile, David Robinson was making the 2000 mile drive from South Carolina to Buckeye, Arizona to join the search for his son. And one of the things police asked him when he arrived was if he could obtain the power of attorney to access Daniel's bank accounts and phone records. This would allow them to get around the requirement for a warrant, but it does take time to do this. David was going to have to get an attorney. He was going to have to go before a judge before he could get all of that. So by the end of June, police were pretty much still nowhere when it came to finding Daniel.
- [25:31]
Morgan Abshur
On July 6, almost two weeks into the search, two Buckeye police officers drove to Tempe, hoping to get inside Daniel's apartment. Still didn't have a search warrant at this time. His place, though, is our second clue. Both of the police officers and Daniel's family had actually tried to get into the apartment previously, but the apartment manager up until that point had refused to give them access. But by now, something is very clearly wrong. Daniel hasn't come home. And so as they explain this to this manager more, they do eventually let investigators in. But there are two very different stories about what was found inside. The police version is pretty simple and I'll read you the whole quote basically from the report here. Quote, the common areas of the apartment appeared to be well kept and clean, and no valuables appeared to be missing. There was no indication of foul play and no indication that Daniel had packed and planned a trip. Daniel did not appear to take his computers or valuable items. Daniel's bedroom was messy with clothes and miscellaneous items on the floor. I also observed what appeared to be marijuana blunts left on counters and in various places in the apartment, end quote. His dad, however, got a very different impression from the apartment. He actually thinks that somebody else was in Daniel's bedroom after he went missing. To him, it appeared that someone had been rummaging through his closet. And his bedroom was so much messier than the common areas. The report released by the Buckeye Police Department says the computer forensic from Daniel's computer didn't provide any new leads. David, his dad, Though says that's not the case. He says the forensic testing on Daniel's computer proved someone searched his files after he had disappeared. Basically, the police and family are drawing totally different conclusions from this apartment search. The police felt that this didn't really explain anything about his disappearance. He's a young guy. Room's messy, not anything unusual. But from his dad's point of view, he said, no, this is clear that there's some foul play going on here.
- [27:39]
Kaylin Moore
Now, throughout the entire investigation, David had a big issue with police refusing to open a criminal investigation into Daniel's disappearance. He also believed that the police held back evidence that proved Daniel's disappearance was the result of foul play, like what you were talking about with the room being a mess. So the longer David dealt with the Buckeye police department, the less he was trusting them, which is why he chose to stay in Arizona indefinitely and just keep investigating himself. On July 6, 2021, he opened a gofundme to raise money for his own search effort, using volunteers and private investigators. And at the same time, the police were still investigating themselves, and they were looking for Daniel, too. And their report does contain records of a lot of search activity, including an aerial search with the local civil air patrol on July 9, 2021, over two weeks after the disappearance. Now, this was a much more comprehensive search of the area compared to the ones that they did with helicopters. Back on June 25, they flew over a large part of the desert that included the job site as well as the area. Ken saw Daniel's tire tracks on the day of his disappearance. But still, even doing a bigger search, they found no sign of Daniel or the jeep.
- [28:48]
Morgan Abshur
At this point, investigators are kind of beginning to lose steam until they get this next piece of evidence from Daniel's own family. On July 15, 2021, Daniel's brother gained access to his bank accounts without actually needing that power of attorney. Supposedly, the family was kind of known to share passwords, so they were able to log in to all of Daniel's accounts. Which brings us to our third clue. Daniel's bank accounts. There was one charge on the account on June 24, the day after Daniel's disappearance, for $17.88 at a waffle house in Phoenix. Detectives didn't get too excited about this. They know that debit card charges can sometimes be posted to an account a day or two after the actual transaction. But still, they, you know, they followed up with the manager, to be sure, and they were able to view surveillance video there. They did confirm that Daniel was at the Waffle House on June 22, the day before he disappeared. He was alone that day. Nothing on the video seemed out of the ordinary. The server who helped him, though, did say that Daniel seemed, quote, skittish. She had waited on him several times before and basically said like, he was not acting like his normal self this day. But that's all investigators were kind of able to get from her. There were two other interesting charges on his card, though. So both of these charges come from June 23, 2021, the day he disappeared. One was for Uber, a charge for $10.48, and another for a Shell gas station in Buckeye for $3.83. Unfortunately, Uber did refuse to provide any information on Daniel's trip history without a warrant, so detectives couldn't tell whether or not he actually took a ride with Uber on June 23rd. It could have been another one of those late posting situations. As for the gas station, the transaction didn't include a time of day or an exact address. There's three Shell stations in Buckeye, actually. So detectives checked surveillance at the closest one to the job site, and they did get a hit. Daniel's Jeep was shown arriving at the station at 7am and leaving at 7:03am
- [30:57]
Kaylin Moore
and he got to the job site like at 9:30 in the morning. So I guess there's a chance he was doing that before he arrived.
- [31:05]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah, he could have done that before. And he also did go to another job site prior to the one he met Ken at. He was up early and working. He only got about $3 worth of gas, though, which would have been about a gallon. So this really confused investigators. Like, if you're empty, a gallon's not going to get you far. And if you're full, why even bother?
- [31:25]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, why top off like that?
- [31:26]
Morgan Abshur
So they were just left with more questions. But luckily, four days after getting Daniel's bank records, the police do get a new tip. And this one reshaped the entire investigation.
- [31:49]
Unknown Foreign Speaker
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- [33:13]
Kaylin Moore
This episode is brought to you by Instacart. I have a four month old at home, which means I don't leave the house unless I absolutely have to. Going to the grocery store is a really big deal for me these days, which is why I love Instacart so much.
- [33:27]
Morgan Abshur
I hate grocery shopping. I always forget things, I get overwhelmed, I have decision paralysis or I shop hungry and then I get way too much. Which is why I love to use Instacart. Keep me out of the store. I can sit at home reading my book instead.
- [33:39]
Kaylin Moore
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- [33:58]
Morgan Abshur
And if you know you're going to be short on time the next day, you can order what you need in the morning and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes. So you can keep whatever plans you have without adding a grocery run to the mix.
- [34:08]
Kaylin Moore
Absolutely. Instacart brings convenience, quick quality and ease right to your door so that you can focus on what matters most. Download the Instacart app now and get groceries just how you like.
- [34:19]
Sarah Turney
When someone goes missing, the headlines focus on what happened, but the truth often lives in the smallest details. I'm Sarah Turney. After my sister disappeared, I learned how those final hours, the last conversations, the last decisions can haunt families for forever.
- [34:37]
Courtney Nicole
And I'm Courtney Nicole. After seeing crime impact my own family, I've learned how overlooked moments, missed red flags, and unanswered questions can change everything.
- [34:47]
Sarah Turney
Together, we're bringing those lived experiences into the work. This is the Final hours. A Crime House Original Powered by Pave Studios A podcast that puts the moments before a disappearance Under a microscope.
- [35:01]
Courtney Nicole
Listen to and follow. Follow the final hours wherever you get your podcasts new episodes every Monday.
- [35:12]
Morgan Abshur
On the morning of July 19, 2021, almost a month into the search for Daniel Robinson, police got a break in the case. At 8:54am that day, a rancher named Brandon Shelton called the Buckeye Police. He said that he had found an abandoned blue Jeep Renegade out where his cattle were grazing. He gave them the Jeep's license plate number, and it was a match for Daniel's. Which brings us to our fourth clue. Daniel's Jeep. Police asked if Daniel was with the vehicle, but Brandon said it was empty and there was no sign of anyone nearby. He couldn't provide an exact address because the Jeep was essentially in this unmarked desert area. But he was willing to meet an officer on the Sun Valley Parkway, which is the road that Daniel disappeared from, and help guide them to the vehicle. So Brandon met police kind of in an area where they could drive up easily. And then Brandon took them off the paved road and into a super hilly area just west of the White Tank Mountains. Eventually, the terrain got so steep that investigators had to leave their cars behind and actually take ATVs in. And once they rode in, they did finally see Daniel's Jeep. It was tipped over onto the passenger side at the bottom of a ravine. Now, the report doesn't really give a depth of the ravine. No credible sources really do. But we were able to find one blog post that said it's essentially 20ft deep. Now, the Jeep is pretty badly damaged. All the airbags were deployed. The driver's side front window was shattered. Police believed that it had hit the bottom of the ravine front first and then tipped forward, damaging the top of the windshield, and then it landed on its side. Eventually, detectives realized that they were standing less than three miles from Daniel's job site. But they're starting to wonder how did numerous ground searches, a helicopter search, multiple other airplane searches, all fail to find this Jeep. The ravine was within their search area. They should have flown basically right over the top of it. And that's kind of where the rancher pipes in. And he says that he believes the Jeep was not in the ravine during those earlier searches. The police likely would have found it otherwise. Even if the authorities missed it, Brandon, the rancher, felt that he would have seen it himself when he checked on his cattle, which was just two days before finding the Jeep.
- [37:46]
Kaylin Moore
And this kind of brings us to another complicated spot in the story where the police report starts diverging from the rancher's account. Here's what the police report says about Brandon's theory. Quote, he had not been in this ravine recently, but explained that he felt it would have damage from his cows licking it. He also felt it was too clean on the outside. So basically, the police version of the story says that Brandon couldn't say for sure if the Jeep was there the entire time or not.
- [38:13]
Morgan Abshur
When you look at pictures of the Jeep, it does look very clean. So I think to Brandon, he's like, if this would have been out here the whole time, this thing would be covered in dirt. It's been raining dusty. Like, it doesn't make sense that it's so clean.
- [38:27]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. And the cat, like, he really thought his cows would have gone over and tried to mess with it and stuff.
- [38:31]
Morgan Abshur
And cows love licking stuff. Yeah, they do. They love a salt block. So a little strange object and there
- [38:38]
Kaylin Moore
wasn't really any damage. That said that that was what had happened.
- [38:41]
Morgan Abshur
No.
- [38:42]
Kaylin Moore
And when you hear from the rancher, Brandon, in his own words, he tells the story completely differently. He later talked to David, who recorded their conversation and released some of it on YouTube. But Brandon insisted he was in the ravine between the time Daniel disappeared and when the Jeep was located. And he was completely certain that the Jeep was not there. He said, quote, so when they tell me that, oh, we searched this area, we searched it, we searched it, we searched it, we didn't see it. Well, no, you probably didn't, because it wasn't there. Point blank. That's what he says. And he even got more explicit in an interview with the Arizona Republic newspaper. He says, quote, they told us that they flew over this thing numerous times where it was, and they can't believe they missed it. Well, that's because it wasn't there, you morons.
- [39:27]
Morgan Abshur
Just exasperated.
- [39:28]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. On public record, in the newspaper, calling the cops morons. A true rancher. That sounds a lot more definitive than the version in the police report. And another part of this search discrepancy that comes up a lot in this case is the fact that they didn't call Daniel's father, David, for over 24 hours after they found the Jeep.
- [39:47]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah.
- [39:48]
Kaylin Moore
He was leading the search for his son, and the police knew that. And when they found the Jeep, they didn't notify him.
- [39:53]
Morgan Abshur
No. He was in the desert that day that they found it. And, you know, Brandon, the rancher does say, like, you know, when I called, they told me, don't tell the family, don't tell the media. And you hear that and you're like, yeah, that makes sense. If they're, you know, wanting to cordon off the area and do an investigation without any tampering, but to not notify the dad and be like, hey, you can stop searching wherever you're at, you know, we found something. We'll call you in once we're looking into it.
- [40:21]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, it's just sad. Like, I. I don't know in, like, what the actual protocol is for something like that, but it's still just sad.
- [40:29]
Morgan Abshur
Just give him a heads up.
- [40:30]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [40:30]
Morgan Abshur
Rather than, you know, him potentially hearing from someone else. Because we do have that in cases, like, I think about Nanette Krental's case where her family was at her funeral, finding out key information that Nanette hadn't committed suicide. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just like, you don't want them to find out accidentally.
- [40:50]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. From someone else.
- [40:51]
Morgan Abshur
And basically, you know, I watched an interview with David, and he basically says investigators told him that they didn't want to interrupt his sleep. Investigators were at the scene of the Jeep around noon.
- [41:02]
Kaylin Moore
That's why. And they waited to see that.
- [41:04]
Morgan Abshur
They waited a full 24 hours. So I think they were like, well, you know, we got there at noon. We needed time to process. And by that point, we didn't want to interrupt your sleep.
- [41:13]
Kaylin Moore
But, I mean, how many times do they call people at 3 in the morning, though, to let them know stuff?
- [41:17]
Morgan Abshur
This is his son's Jeep.
- [41:19]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, he's. He's sleeping in general. He's probably up all night because he's looking for his son.
- [41:24]
Morgan Abshur
He would want to be woken up now. The Jeep isn't the only thing found in the ravine. Police also find our fifth clue. Daniel's personal belongings. Outside the vehicle, just a few feet from its front bumper, they find Daniel's jeans. They're turned inside out. There's also some socks there. They find a pair of boots, a T shirt, his orange work vest. Inside the vehicle, they do find Daniel's Galaxy S10 smartphone. His keys were in the Jeep, along with his wallet and bank cards. They're also able to locate his backpack, his work laptop. There's several unopened water bottles. And this just seemed kind of odd to investigators that there would be all these unopened water bottles left behind. I mean, Daniel had been working in the desert now for over a year. It was in the high 90s the day he disappeared. So if he would have walked away from the crash site, they. They kind of assumed he would have taken water with them. And this wasn't the only odd Thing at the scene, there was no blood found in or outside of the badly damaged vehicles. So kind of missing evidence that Daniel was injured in this crash.
- [42:34]
Kaylin Moore
And it's. I mean, when you see the car, it looks like someone would have gotten really banged up.
- [42:39]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah. I mean there's a boot lodged underneath like the popped out roof and the side of the vehicle.
- [42:45]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. I mean they basically said that the car nose dove and then flipped onto its side, right? Yeah. So the fact that someone would have just walked out totally unscathed is kind of surprising.
- [42:55]
Morgan Abshur
Very surprising. There's also water damage to the vehicle's interior. They do notice that his hard hat is inside and it's still full of rainwater. So to investigators, they know that it's been out here and at least endured one rainstorm. So it is possible to them that this blood evidence could have been washed away by the time the vehicle was found. Now this is another big point of contention in the investigation and you get some differing sides here. So we don't know if the Jeep was forensically tested for traces of blood at the scene that day. According to Daniel's family and David. David said the Jeep was not tested for fingerprints or DNA while in the ravine at the scene. However, once the Jeep was brought back in, David did really push with police afterwards to test for fingerprints and DNA. So we do know it was swabbed for possible trace DNA after that. However, the Buckeye Police report says that they never ended up testing any of those swabs against Daniel's DNA. And they basically point to the fact that his family failed to provide an item for them to have his DNA. David on the other hand, says that like, no, like, again, you guys, I had to beg for them to even forensically test the vehicle. They refused to do it. So again, very differing sides here. And like it's, it's kind of starting to feel botched to me where I'm like, how are you guys differing this much? And like you have this missing person, you find this Jeep. You think they would have tested for something at the scene?
- [44:35]
Kaylin Moore
I know.
- [44:35]
Morgan Abshur
Before moving it. It just, it seems like an oversight. Again, you don't really know the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. The Jeep is looking a little odd. You had to drive ATVs in to get to the Jeep.
- [44:47]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, that's the thing that's so surprising is like they couldn't even get their own cars into the site. Like they had to take the ATVs. So like the fact that there is a car here should immediately kind of like raise this red flag for you. Like, well, how did this car get here?
- [44:59]
Morgan Abshur
Also, Daniel's gone. Yeah, Daniel's not anywhere near this Jeep. So why not just do diligence and swab dust?
- [45:08]
Kaylin Moore
Exactly. So as soon as this crash site was located on July 19, 2021, there was another extensive search, this time involving multiple agencies. They called out a helicopter, a drone, numerous off road vehicles, and six or seven cadaver dogs along with tracking canines. This is all according to police reports. And we know that there's some variation there. We know that Brandon the rancher claims that he never saw more than four people and one dog searching at any given time. And that could be why, after about 18 hours of this search, they ended without any new evidence being found.
- [45:43]
Morgan Abshur
So one person who didn't participate in the search is David, Daniel's father. Again, he wasn't notified that the Jeep was found until the next day. When detectives did finally notify David, they had a request for him. They essentially needed his permission to check Daniel's phone and the Jeep's computer systems for any information relevant to the case. So what I'm gonna tell you next is, according to David, I heard this in an interview that he says. So he essentially says police called him to the station the day after they found the Jeep, and they brought him back to their lot and showed him the vehicle. And that was the first time he had seen the Jeep. Like, he didn't get to go out into the ravine and see where they had actually found it.
- [46:25]
Kaylin Moore
See it at the site.
- [46:26]
Morgan Abshur
At the site. So he's coming on the lot and he's seeing the Jeep and he's just gutted. He's just in shock, just in such despair because for him, he says, I had plans to come out that summer and ride around in this Jeep with my son. He was so proud of this Jeep. And this is the first time I'm seeing it in this police lot. He basically says the officer was telling him his theories about Daniel must have crashed and he hit his head so hard that he wandered away from the site and took off all his clothes. And the investigators going up to the vehicle and like holding up the airbag that's like, flopped outside of the window on the driver's side. And he's like, here, look, touch it. Investigate things. Touch it. And David's just kind of like, I can't move. Like I'm frozen.
- [47:14]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:15]
Morgan Abshur
And essentially the officer kind of wraps up. Their conversation, is like, okay, well, you got to get this out of here today. Otherwise we're going to have it towed to a storage facility and you'll get charged by the day.
- [47:27]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [47:28]
Morgan Abshur
And he's like, whoa, okay.
- [47:30]
Kaylin Moore
He's still trying to process everything.
- [47:32]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah. Like, my son is still missing. What is going on? And so essentially he, you know, asks. He's like, can I have a couple days? I'm not from here. I need time to figure this out. And at this point, he's like, I need. I need some other investigators here. Like, they're handing the car back over to me without even, like, really thoroughly investigating it. And at this point, they hadn't done any of the forensic testing yet.
- [47:57]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [47:57]
Morgan Abshur
So he's like, whoa, we need to slow this down. So at this point, he brings on a private investigator whose recommendation is we need to analyze the black box data from the vehicle. And that is clue number six for us, the black box data. And now this is where things are going to get a little technical, you guys. So hang in there. So modern cars have something that's kind of similar to what airplanes have. That black box on a car, though. It's called an edr, an Event Data Recorder. It's part of the computer that controls the airbags. We heard about this quite a bit in John o' Keefe's case with Karen Reed. Now, the EDR activates when it detects a significant crash. That captures data from the few seconds leading up to the moment of the collision. You can download data from the edr, but this requires special equipment. So it's usually something only law enforcement, accident investigators, or other vehicle manufacturers can do. The information retrieved is then compiled as a crash data report, or cdr. In Daniel's case, the police downloaded the cdr and they were disappointed to learn that it didn't capture the exact time or location of the crash, but it did capture the Jeep's mileage at the time, which was 58,000, 154. It also told them that the driver's seatbelt was buckled, the passenger side seatbelt was unbuckled, and the car was going about 30 miles per hour before the airbags were deployed. The throttle fluctuated from 78% depressed to 22 depressed in the five seconds before the crash, which suggests that the driver was conscious and able to control the gas pedal. But the brake pedal was not used in the five seconds before the crash. So it's hard to determine if the crash was intentional or not. But it did record something else that they found pretty interesting. It captured the ignition cycle count. This is the total number of times that the car had been started since the Jeep was manufactured. At the time of the crash, the cycle count was 6,805 times. But by the time investigators downloaded the Jeep's data, the cycle count was at 6,850. So someone had tried to start the Jeep 45 times after it had crashed. Now, this is not definitive proof that the driver survived the crash and tried to restart the engine, but that would be one logical explanation. I also saw an interview with one investigator that said this would have been really difficult to do with the Jeep on its side, the way that it was found in the ravine.
- [50:40]
Kaylin Moore
I'm also like, would you even try to start the car if it was on its side? Like, you're really only trying to start the car if it's on all four wheels.
- [50:47]
Morgan Abshur
And that's what a lot of investigators are pointing to. They're like, why would you start this car if it's on its side? You likely wouldn't. Meaning how it was found maybe wasn't how it actually crashed. And the CDR data answers some questions, but it raises a lot more like that. To fill in the gaps, detectives turned their attention to Daniel's Galaxy smartphone that was found. What they learned from that is our seventh clue. On the day of his disappearance, June 23rd, Daniel's calls were mostly work related. He had calls with three coworkers, Two of them being Ken and his project manager, Steve. Steve was in charge of the project Daniel was working on that day. So Daniel talked to him most frequently. He's probably the last person that Daniel spoke to on the phone at 8:35am just before he arrived on that site with Ken. This call only lasted about 2 minutes and 7 seconds. But there is one more outbound call listed that was placed after Daniel had already left the job site. The name of the recipient has been redacted in the police report, but they did leave the first initial K. It's not Ken because his name appears elsewhere in the call log without any redaction. It's possible it was Caitlyn.
- [52:04]
Kaylin Moore
I mean, that's where my brain first went.
- [52:06]
Morgan Abshur
I mean, I think that's where everyone's went. I mean, that's mine.
- [52:09]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [52:10]
Morgan Abshur
Whoever it was, though, either didn't pick up or it was a very brief conversation. The call only lasted 38 seconds. Daniel's phone also contained some texts from his siblings about his odd behavior on June 22, the night before his disappearance. At 8pm that evening, Daniel's brother texted him, quote, hey, so I'm sure by now you know Davisha told me about tonight. You don't have to talk about anything right now, but can you please call me tomorrow at some point? Can you do me a favor and maybe acknowledge this message? You worried me a bit and I just want to see if I can help you in any way. Love you. And something that's really odd. Daniel's thread with Caitlin was missing from his text inbox. His final message to her was found in his trash folder, though apparently he had deleted it after Caitlin told him to leave her alone. But it didn't really seem like this was over for him. In the days leading up to his disappearance, his Google search history contained some somewhat concerning terms like quote, should I call her? Can you break lease before it renews Love changed me. Love is patience. 10 Commandments Delete Instagram account shooting Tempe Love is something you can't explain. Explosion and last quote, I'm okay to do things I hate.
- [53:31]
Kaylin Moore
My initial thought is Google. When you're googling things, sometimes it's so stream of conscious or you're talking to someone and they're like oh, what's the seventh commandment? So you like quickly Google 10 commandments. You know it's so hard to look at Google searches out of context 100%. And some of this stuff to me like also looks like it was maybe coming from that self help podcast. So maybe he was just looking stuff up as he was listening to the podcast. It's to me it's so hard to discern anything from just a bunch of random Google searches. I'm sure if you looked at my phone right now, you could build a whole profile about me that looks very concerning.
- [54:07]
Morgan Abshur
People would think what is wrong with her? Who is she trying to kill and how she like to google stuff for these cases and do my research. I'm like, if someone got a hold of my search history, they'd think I'm out of my mind.
- [54:18]
Kaylin Moore
Yes, it's literally like true crime cases and like me Googling my own medical symptoms and it just like looks very strange out of context.
- [54:24]
Morgan Abshur
The hypochondriac in me, yeah, no, I feel the same way. But there is some other concerning behavior that they look at because Daniel did delete all of his Instagram photos before his disappearance. He didn't delete his account though he stopped short of that. And unfortunately police aren't able to recover any GPS data from his phone. They did find some recorded turn by turn directions from the morning of his disappearance for a drive that happened between 8:49am and 8:58am this was right before his encounter with Ken at that job site. But this short drive has kind of been a subject of debate. For those following the case. There's some speculation Daniel could have gone to a second Shell gas station. There's nothing from police about interviewing Steve, about the phone call. The police didn't come up with a clear explanation for these turn by turn directions. So between a mystery trip and other things found at the crash scene, things really aren't sitting well for David.
- [55:25]
Kaylin Moore
Now, David reportedly said once a Buckeye Police officer suggested that Daniel might have run away to join a monastery because he had had enough. Which. Okay, that's such a random thing to, like, come to a parent with and be like, well, do you think he maybe ran away to become a priest?
- [55:40]
Morgan Abshur
Well, and according to David, like, that gets told to him when he's seen his son's car.
- [55:46]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, because they're just shouting out theories. They're like, off the dome.
- [55:49]
Morgan Abshur
He could have crashed and then walked away or, you know, maybe he went and joined a monastery. I've. I've seen it before. This woman ran off to become a nun.
- [55:57]
Kaylin Moore
So not helpful in that moment, you guys. So at that point, David is like, okay, you guys are pretty much useless. So he decides he's going to reach out to a private investigator named Jeff McGrath. Jeff was a former police detective who was now working as a PI specializing in vehicular accident reconstruction. Now, initially, Jeff didn't want to get involved in this case. He had never worked a missing persons case like this before. But after seeing drone photos of the Jeep, Jeff not only agreed to help, but he offered his services pro bono. He felt strongly that the damage to Daniel's Jeep did not match the police's narrative of the accident. Because this still wasn't being considered a criminal investigation. The Buckeye Police agreed to release Daniel's Jeep to his family, which they got on August 4, 2021. Now, that's 17 days after it was found.
- [56:44]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah, and this is something that David does point to being kind of odd. So when the Jeep was found, according to him, police said, you need to get this out of here today. Yeah, they agreed to hold it for a couple more days. He had a meeting with the police chief. They agreed to do forensic testing on the vehicle. So they held it for a few more days. When his PI, Jeff McGrath, went in to go and get the Jeep because police, he already knew, like, police wanted to release this to me. And when Jeff said, like, oh, we're gonna, you know, take the black box and do this. Data police were like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know if you can take the Jeep. Like, it's really interesting how this all went down according to David.
- [57:25]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. And you know, when they get the Jeep back, Jeff goes ahead and he redownloads the crash data. And what he found led to a very shocking conclusion because there wasn't just one crash that happened with this vehicle, there appeared to be two.
- [57:46]
Morgan Abshur
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Kaylin Moore
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- [58:54]
Morgan Abshur
So the PI Jeff McGrath joined the search for Daniel in late July 2021, which is about a month after he disappeared. By early August, Jeff began his own investigation of that crash, data that was captured by the Jeep's onboard computer. He got the same information from the CDR that the police did, but he noticed something big that they missed, which is our eighth clue. An odometer discrepancy. The last time the car system recorded the mileage was at 12:54pm on June 23, and the mileage on the car was around 58,153.51 miles. Like it is specific, but when Jeff briefly powered up the Jeep's electrical system, the odometer on the dashboard now displayed 58,165 miles driven. That's 11 miles more than the CDR said to Jeff. It's Looking like the Jeep was driven again after it crashed, meaning there was an accident, but the Jeep was still drivable. So the first crash that was recorded may not have been the Jeep falling down the ravine, but crashing somewhere else. The second crash would have been where it ended up, in the ravine after it was started another 45 times, because again, we have the data from the Jeep's ignition being tried to start. Jeff also noticed that there was some red paint transfer on the side of the vehicle, which could have been from a collision with another vehicle. And based on all of this, Jeff felt like the most likely explanation was a pretty horrifying one. He suggested that the crash scene in the ravine was staged to cover up foul play, that someone other than Daniel intentionally flipped the Jeep in the ravine between July 17 and July 19, and Daniel was likely dead by this time.
- [60:57]
Kaylin Moore
In September of 2021, after weeks of trying to get the police to take his findings seriously, Jeff and the Robinson family held a press conference. There. They revealed Jeff's second crash theory. It generated a lot of national coverage for the case, and the Buckeye police got a lot of heat from the public. So they decided that they were going to hire their own accident reconstructionist to respond, and they chose this man named Joe Catone. And in late September, Joe began reviewing the data and made multiple trips to the crash site before he generated his report. Meanwhile, the police amped up their search efforts for Daniel, seemingly in response to this public backlash, which I feel like we can make a botched mark for that too, because, like, the fact that they're only doing this because they don't want to get in trouble from the public is ridiculous.
- [61:43]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah. And also, like, I think definitely this botch is earned just for the fact that there's so much data on this Jeep that, like, the odometer readings being different from the data, like, how are you guys not catching this?
- [61:58]
Kaylin Moore
And during this new search, they checked mine shafts in the area, they lowered cameras into wells, they followed tips from the public, all stuff that apparently they didn't do the first time. And finally, Joe's report came out on October 18, 2021, which was a little less than a month after he was hired. Kind of unsurprisingly, Joe disagreed with Jeff's conclusion about the 11 mile discrepancy. According to Joe, it's normal for Jeep vehicles to display a different number on the dashboard odometer than the one reported by their onboard computer systems. In fact, Joe's report wrote off both the 11 mile discrepancy and the 45 ignition start attempts at after the crash. He called them unexplained anomalies and said that they just weren't enough to change the conclusion.
- [62:45]
Morgan Abshur
I don't get that.
- [62:46]
Kaylin Moore
And the conclusion was in Joe's own words, quote, the Jeep had been in only one recorded event. That event is the crash at the bottom of the ravine. There is insufficient evidence to scientifically connect the Jeep to another crash or support a theory. The Jeep crash, as found, was staged. The driver of the Jeep drove it into a ravine and having rolled and unable to proceed further, abandoned the Jeep as it lay. Now, needless to say, Jeff and David were not happy with Joe's report. They saw it as the police putting more effort and resources towards debunking the foul play theory and basically trying to prove themselves right. And they pointed out the fact that Joe didn't physically examine the Jeep because it was still in David's possession. So he made all of these conclusions without actually, like looking at the Jeep himself.
- [63:32]
Morgan Abshur
Insane.
- [63:33]
Kaylin Moore
All of this was done just with crash site photos and the downloaded data.
- [63:37]
Morgan Abshur
And for a lot of us listening, it is confusing how they would discount 11 miles and the starts on the ignition. But there was another detail that Joe Cotone, the police's hired investigator, took heavily into his consideration. After using forensic software to extract the deleted location data from Daniel's phone, detectives learned that Daniel had been using another app called Mileiq. That data is our ninth clue. Daniel seemingly used the app to keep track of his mileage for work. And it looked like the app had actually captured data on his travels up until shortly after 10am on June 23, 2021. The mile IQ data showed that Daniel had actually taken three trips the morning of his disappearance. According to the mile IQ, Daniel's final trip of the morning started at 9:07am at the Shell station near his job site. By 10:05am, mile IQ showed Daniel's phone arriving at the GPS coordinates of the ravine where his Jeep was ultimately found. The app stopped tracking Daniel's location at 10:32am and never started again. The Buckeye police believed this Mile IQ data solidly confirmed there was only one crash. It happened in the ravine. And Daniel's vehicle did not actually travel 11 miles after 12:54pm at the very least, it seemed to confirm that his phone never left the ravine after 10.05am, which from the police perspective, pointed to a tragic end for Daniel, but not any foul play. Still, we have one clue left, and maybe the most mysterious clue we have in November 2021. Police received a tip from someone named Billy Hayes. He said he was a federal agent and claimed to have seen Daniel in the desert on the day of his disappearance. His account is our tenth and final clue. He said he ran into Daniel near a riverbed called Dagg's Wash. This is about a half a mile from the crash site. Billy said that he was out there looking for a place to shoot off airsoft guns when he spotted Daniel next to his parked Jeep. He was moving some things around in the back of the vehicle. According to Billy, he asked Daniel whether or not the area was shooter friendly. It was a brief interaction and he said he didn't notice anything strange or unusual about Daniel's behavior. The problem was his story didn't line up with the police timeline at all. Billy said this encounter happened around noon, so about two hours after the mile. IQ data says Daniel's phone was in the ravine. Billy did change his timeline a couple of times though. But no version of his story has him meeting Daniel before 10.05am but to David, Daniel's dad and his PI Jeff, Billy's story does seem credible. It also seemed like proof that Daniel survived, restarted his Jeep and drove out of the ravine after the 1,005am crash. Which could mean that Brandon the rancher was right and the Jeep really wasn't sitting there. During the initial searches for Daniel, however, there were members of David's volunteer search group that warned the police about Bill. It turns out he was allegedly a convicted felon and he had inserted himself into multiple search parties looking for Daniel, all while behaving very strangely. Most of his convictions were related to marijuana and to carrying a gun while having past drug convictions. When detectives dug deeper into Bill's story, they trusted him less and less. Bill had given them a map of the route that he took on June 23rd when he traveled into Buckeye Desert to shoot off those airsoft guns. According to police, his map didn't cross Daniel's known route at all. When confronted with Daniel's mile IQ route, Bill then changed his story but insisted that he had seen Daniel on June 23rd. Just maybe a different time or a different place. At this point, I mean, police are fully suspicious of Bill. Maybe he did something to Daniel himself and was trying to mislead detectives to keep them from finding Daniel's body. A detective did ask Bill directly if he had harmed Daniel. He denied it. Still, the police were so sure that he was hiding something and so they continued investigating him for at least 18 months. In May 2023, almost two years after Daniel's disappearance, police performed surveillance on Bill's residence, and they did execute a search warrant for his home cell phone data and other electronic devices. Which I will say, like, that seems very Sherlock Y. Like, very. Doing their diligence.
- [68:43]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah, still looking into it.
- [68:44]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah. And after thorough searching and reviewing the seized data, they weren't able to find anything that could either confirm or deny connection between Bill and Daniel, either on the day of his disappearance or before that time.
- [68:57]
Kaylin Moore
Meanwhile, Daniel was still missing. Despite numerous searches, the case remained open, with detectives chasing any leads that they could. And they investigated multiple tips about sightings of Daniel. Some of them were obviously bogus. There was one from a psychic who implied that Daniel might have become a cyborg. Okay, that was a little ridiculous. The only credible tip that they couldn't fully disprove was about a young man seen at a cafe near Pinion Pines in California who said he was on a spiritual journey and didn't want people to know where he was. Unfortunately, detectives were never able to find that person, and there was no security footage to confirm. And then, in 2024, another powerful ally helped keep Daniel's case in the news, and that was actually Gabby Petito's father, Joe Petito. Joe was very grateful. I mean, we talked about in the episode that we did on her case, her father was very grateful for all of the media attention that her case garnered when she was a missing person. And then that ultimately led to her being found. And it was. I mean, I'm sure you guys remember. But he was upset to learn that many other parents couldn't get the same kind of media attention for their children's cases, especially when the missing person was black like Daniel. And so he used his platform to try to help keep Daniel's case in the news. And unfortunately, that still didn't lead to any new evidence in his case. Although David's searches did help locate the remains of at least one other missing person in the Buckeye area. Desert volunteer searches found a skull and other remains belonging to a victim named Jeremy Isaac Lawrence, who disappeared in 2019. But David says that his volunteers may have found remains from as many as seven different people. He thinks police have downplayed that to avoid scaring the public, which is, wow.
- [70:41]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah, I'm gonna give it a botch, because how many times do we have police hide serial killers? Yeah. And then they keep acting and acting. I will say, too, that skull was found with a search with David and his team, and it was nearby where the Jeep was found. So it's again, like, did they search that thoroughly?
- [71:04]
Kaylin Moore
It does seem like over time, David's relationship with the Buckeye police has been improving. In April 2025, David Robinson publicly announced that he called a reset after the Buckeye Police Department appointed a new chief and assigned a new, new detective to Daniel's case. He started cooperating with them on searches going forward. And a new search was also conducted that same month, but police declined to share any updates with the media. And Daniel does remain a missing person.
- [71:31]
Morgan Abshur
And that brings us to where we're at today. I mean, there's a lot of loose ends, a lot of theories. There's a lot of investigators say this family says this. It's. It's a very complicated and conflicting case.
- [71:46]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. I don't know that we've covered one besides the case of Mitrice, where what the family is saying is so different than what the police are saying.
- [71:54]
Morgan Abshur
So vastly different. And there's. There's some loose ends that a lot of people point to again, of, like, why are they not searching more? And there was a sock found at the well site, which is three miles away from where he disappeared. But, you know, was that sock in the car? And it fell out before, but a lot of people question whether the sock was in his car and fell out and then he drove off. And a similar sock was then found on the crash scene. I've seen some reports of, like, the sister saying that the clothes at the scene she didn't even recognize.
- [72:31]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [72:31]
Morgan Abshur
So that's really interesting.
- [72:33]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [72:33]
Morgan Abshur
I've also seen one interview where the PI Is on a news segment, and the reporter asks, like, are they still investigating? You know, what evidence do they have? And he goes, I don't know. They handed over all the evidence to me. So, like, police don't even have any evidence left in their inventory.
- [72:50]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. Wow.
- [72:51]
Morgan Abshur
So they're basically like, I don't know what they're investigating when they have nothing to go.
- [72:55]
Kaylin Moore
There's nothing to, like, look into anymore.
- [72:57]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah.
- [72:57]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. I mean, they. It seems like they've really made up their minds that he just died of misadventure. He walked off somewhere.
- [73:03]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah.
- [73:03]
Kaylin Moore
And maybe fell into something or. Yeah.
- [73:07]
Morgan Abshur
But then you have that sighting, so.
- [73:10]
Kaylin Moore
Right, right. You know, I think that one thing that's missing in this is if there was foul play, if Daniel was killed, who would have done it? Who had any reason to do it? Was it just a stranger that came across him in the desert and did something? But when we were looking into it, there is kind of an answer. For that, Yeah.
- [73:28]
Morgan Abshur
A lot of people point to the company he was working for. And essentially because of what Daniel was doing, he was testing the groundwater in an area that required by law needed 100 years of water supply for every new home built. And so in 2023, the state of Arizona actually revealed that the Buckeye area didn't have anywhere near enough water to complete a development called Terravallis, which was supposed to be the biggest development in Arizona history. The Arizona governor at the time accused the previous governor of covering up the Buckeye groundwater report in order to protect developers. And in 2023, after this report came out that there was not enough groundwater, they actually stopped approving new construction in the vicinity. So a lot of people online point to the fact that like, hey, maybe Daniel was gonna tell people about the groundwater shortage and was killed to protect the developers profits. I mean it's, it's somewhat far fetched, but. Yeah, I mean people kill for less all the time. And this is a multi million dollar development that.
- [74:33]
Kaylin Moore
Right.
- [74:33]
Morgan Abshur
If they find out there's not enough groundwater, it's done. We've wasted money and millions of research and infrastructure and whatever.
- [74:41]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah. So we can just take out the 24 year old kid who would be the one that would blow the whistle on us.
- [74:46]
Morgan Abshur
Exactly.
- [74:47]
Kaylin Moore
That's kind of the theory.
- [74:48]
Morgan Abshur
So that's what a lot of people online are running with.
- [74:50]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [74:51]
Morgan Abshur
A lot of people also point to Bill and how suspicious his activity is and he's out there shooting off airsoft guns.
- [74:58]
Kaylin Moore
Yeah.
- [74:58]
Morgan Abshur
Maybe he encountered Daniel and is trying
- [75:01]
Kaylin Moore
to like lead them astray.
- [75:02]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah, but there's a lot of theories out there. So if you guys have heard any that we haven't touched on, please let us know. Let us know your thoughts. Again, it's a very complicated and conflicting case, but at the center of it is Daniel's family. And I really, really hope that for them they get some answers because David's gone above and beyond to keep his son's name out there.
- [75:26]
Kaylin Moore
Well, in the years since Daniel's disappearance, David Robinson has become an advocate for families of missing persons whose cases are not considered criminal. He helped to propose a South Carolina state law called Help Find Missing Americans Act, AKA the Daniel Robinson Law. And it would require cell phone service providers to hand over all cell phone records of a missing person to another account holder in response to a valid active missing persons report. If a law like this had been in effect when Daniel disappeared, David would have been able to get Daniel's data right away. Whether or not police opened a criminal investigation and obtained a search warrant. David hopes to pass the bill first in South Carolina, where his family lives, and then nationwide. He's also running for Congress for the second time after an unsuccessful campaign in 2024 so that he can more directly influence laws relating to missing persons cases. In the meantime, Daniel is still missing. His case is still open, and tips from the public are very much needed. If he's still alive, he'd be 29 years old as of this recording. Now, if you've seen Daniel or if you know anything about where he might be, you can reach out to the Robinson family's private tip line at 844-602-0660. You can also call the Buckeye Police if you feel so inclined to at 623-349-6411. Or you can submit a tip to them at buckeyeaz.gov crimetip and with that, let's go to the missing person that we're going to highlight this week.
- [76:54]
Morgan Abshur
The missing person we're going to highlight is Rhoda Dunya. Rhoda is missing from Glendale, Arizona. She was last seen on April 6, 2026, near her home around Glendale Avenue and 67th Avenue at 3pm Rhoda is described as female, black, 5 4, about 100 pounds, black, long hair with brown eyes. The circumstance of her disappearance are very unknown at this time, but if you have any information, please contact the Glendale Police Department at 623-930-3000.
- [77:27]
Kaylin Moore
And that is all we have for this episode of Clues. Now we kind of turn it over to you guys. I mean, this is a big mystery that's still open. What do you think? You can leave comments, thoughts, theories, anywhere you listen.
- [77:40]
Morgan Abshur
Yeah, it's a complicated case, but we really do want to hear from you at Crime House. We value your support. So share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review and subscribe to help others discover our show. Thanks, guys. Bye.
- [77:57]
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- [78:47]
Sarah Turney
When someone goes missing, the headlines focus on what happened, but the truth often lives in the smallest details. I'm Sarah Turney. After my sister disappeared, I learned how those final hours hours, the last conversations, the last decisions can haunt families forever.
- [79:05]
Courtney Nicole
And I'm Courtney Nicole. After seeing crime impact my own family, I've learned how overlooked moments, missed red flags and unanswered questions can change everything.
- [79:15]
Sarah Turney
Together, we're bringing those lived experiences into the work. This is the Final Hours, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. A podcast that puts the moments before a disappearance under a microscope.
- [79:29]
Courtney Nicole
Listen to and follow the Final hours wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday.