WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 25: Desert Rain (Pt. 1 of 2) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.880 Hello. I'm hugely excited to reveal that Unexplained will be 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:05.840 coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. The year 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.280 is nineteen hundred three. Lighthouse keepers stand watch on a 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:13.200 desolate island far from home, until one day they completely 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.680 vanish from the face of the earth. Unexplained Life brings 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.919 the haunting Flannanal's mystery to the stage in a gripping, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.079 immersive performance that plunges audiences into one of history's most 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.639 chilling and enduring unsolved disappearances. I'll be performing at the 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.680 Space at Surgeons Hall at ten oh five pm every 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.720 night from August seventh to the twenty ninth, excluding the 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.280 sixteenth and twenty third. Please go to Unexplained podcast dot 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.199 com Forward Slash Events for more information, or you can 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.520 purchase tickets direct by going to the Space UK dot 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.520 com Forward Slash Shows, Forward Slash twenty twenty six, Forward 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.320 Slash Unexplained hyphen Life. I look forward to seeing you there. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.000 The man rolled the window down and gazed out from 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.040 the driver's seat of his suv and the wide desert 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.640 vista spread out before him. Although it was only just 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.720 after nine in the morning, the mercury was already well 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.200 into the eighties. It might even have been hotter were 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.640 it not for the scattering of clouds that had brought 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.240 a recent run of much needed rain to the area. 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.520 It was June twenty third, twenty twenty one, and the 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.040 man Ken Elliott was waiting for a colleague to join 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.600 him to inspect a borehole that had just been made 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.479 for a water well intended to serve a new residential 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.600 development just to the west of the White Tank Mountains 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.800 near Phoenix, Arizona. All Ken could see for miles ahead 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.680 of him was the bare, bleached soil of the vast 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:54.480 Sonoran Desert and its scattering of pebbles, cacti, and brittle bush. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:59.440 The occasional spindly pallo verde and twisted ironwood could be seen, too, 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.240 stirring along the bottom of the many dry washes that 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:09.240 traversed the undulating, desicated terrain. Ken breathed in the deep, 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.519 musky scent of creosoap bush as it wafted in through 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:16.160 the window of his car. Finally, he saw a blue 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.600 Jeep Renegade driving slowly toward him along the bumpy desert track. 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:24.639 Ken climbed out of his vehicle and prepared to meet 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.880 the jeep's driver as he pulled up next to him. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.639 As Daniel Robinson slid out of his jeep, Ken took 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.840 in the athletic but slight twenty four year old man 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.600 with his close cropped hair, blue jeans and check shirt, 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.160 and orange hi Ve's vest just like his own. This 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.520 would be the one and only time the two men 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.760 would meet. After Daniel Robinson drove off a little later 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:54.280 that morning, he would never be seen again. You're listening 0:02:54.320 --> 0:03:06.000 to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. As Ken and 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.160 Daniel greeted each other, Ken noticed that the young man 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.920 was missing the lower part of his right forearm. A 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:17.440 native of South Carolina, Daniel Cornelius Robinson had been born 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:20.000 without a right hand and the lower part of his arm, 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.800 but refused to use a prosthetic or to let it 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.080 impact his life in any way. Some say it was 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.840 exactly that attitude which helped him excel in athletics during 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.560 his time as a student at the College of Charleston 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.720 in South Carolina. Daniel would go on to graduate in 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.280 twenty seventeen with a degree in geology. Described by his 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.240 family as bright and adventurous, Daniel had relocated to Arizona 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:49.080 the previous year after taking a job as a hydrogeologist 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:54.160 with a company called Matrix New World. The environmental engineering 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.080 company was involved in a number of projects out west, 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.440 including this one to test and develop water sources to 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:06.160 supply the ever growing urban fringes of Phoenix. Daniel and 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:10.280 Ken were meeting to assess a new well sight. No 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.440 sooner had Daniel arrived, a heavy storm moved in. It 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.279 was so intense they could feel the static in the air, 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.560 so for a while, fearing an imminent lightning strike, the 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.359 two men sat in Ken's car as they waited for 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.520 the rain to pass. Despite this being their first meeting, 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.120 Ken couldn't help but think there was something off with Daniel. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.640 The men talked amiably as the heavy rain splattered the windscreen, 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.480 but every so often Daniel seemed to pull back, then 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.279 turned to look out at the window and stare out 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:46.800 at the desert. It was around nine point forty five 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.080 when Daniel abruptly asked Ken if he wanted to go 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.840 back to Phoenix. Ken assumed he meant it in the 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.560 sense of whether it was worth waiting any longer for 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.320 the rain to end, so He told Daniel to wait 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.680 a moment as he pulled up a weather app to 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.400 find out when it was due to stop, but no 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.040 sooner had he done so. Without saying a word, Daniel 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.720 opened the door and got out of the car. Ken 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.320 watched with confusion as Daniel ambled back over to his jeep, 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.839 then turned to give Ken a brief wave before climbing 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:23.960 into his vehicle and driving off. Startled by the sudden departure, 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.080 Ken could only look on as the jeep made its 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.400 way back down the dirt road and disappeared out of sight. 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.599 Though his view of the vehicle was obscured by the terrain, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.160 Ken knew that in just two thousand feet Daniel would 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.440 come to a spot where the road split. There he 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.039 could either turn to the east and head back towards 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:48.440 the city, or west and out into the wide Sonoran desert. 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.440 Laughing it off, Ken called his boss to fill him 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.800 in on the unexpected turn of events, then shifted his 0:05:55.880 --> 0:06:06.480 car into gear and drove off himself. When Ken reached 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.920 the split in the dirt road, he saw the rain 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.479 had washed away all but the most recent set of 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:16.680 tire tracks, those belonging to Daniel's jeep. Much to his surprise, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.359 they didn't turn east toward Phoenix, but west into the 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:26.440 vast expanse of the desert. Around mid afternoon, Ken's boss 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:28.840 phone to ask if he'd spoken to Daniel at all 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.960 since they last met. No one at the company had 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.599 heard from him since the morning. Ken cast his mind 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.840 back to their meeting earlier and how distant Daniel had 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:43.200 seemed when they spoke. He began to get worried. A 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.279 short time later, Ken was back in his truck, heading 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.720 out to the well site where he and Daniel had 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:53.400 met earlier that day. Scrambling up to a high vantage point, 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:56.480 he stared out long and hard across the desert, but 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.120 saw no sign of Daniel or his vehicle. By late afternoon, 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:07.520 Daniel's family were becoming concerned. Although Daniel was adventurous, he 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.320 also kept in frequent contact with his family, typically calling 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.480 or testing his father and siblings several times a day, 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.920 especially his sister Davisha, who also lived in the Phoenix area. 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:24.200 It just wasn't like him to suddenly go quiet. A 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.080 little after seven that night, with no one in the 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.000 family having heard from Daniel in twenty four hours, his father, 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:35.760 army veteran David Robinson phoned the Buckeye Police Department from 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.360 his home in South Carolina and reported his son as missing. 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.360 The police report filed that evening was characteristically blunt and 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.600 to the point. Twenty four year old Daniel Robinson, it read, 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.560 is black with short hair, missing his right arm and 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.440 has no prosthetic, no visible tattoos, no facial hair, no 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:02.080 medical issue, but has been acting strain. The father last 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.440 heard from his son yesterday. This morning, he met someone 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.480 at a job site. No one has heard from him since. 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.200 The police began their search by attempting to call Daniel 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.560 on his cell phone, but no one picked up. Then 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.200 they called his employer, Matrix New World, who yet to 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.560 hear from him and had little to add to what 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:27.480 was already known. That evening, Daniel's sister d Visha went 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:31.120 to his apartment in Tempe in Central Phoenix, but the 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.000 windows were dark and there was no sign of Daniel, 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:39.680 nor was his jeep Renegade parked outside. At that point, 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.480 all the police had to go on was Ken Elliott's 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.920 account from when Daniel was last seen and the coordinates 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.360 to the work site where he and Daniel had met. 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.120 The spot is surrounded by nothing but desert and ranchland, 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.480 with the dry bed of the Hassiampa River just over 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.240 a mile to the west. The nearest settlement was about 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.200 eight miles further west, out in the desert, in the 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.600 direction that Daniel had last been seen heading. It was 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.719 the fenced compound of the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery, 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:29.400 a small, enclosed community of contemplative nuns. The same day 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.120 Daniel was reported missing, two officers from the Buckeye Police 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.040 Department drove out to where Daniel and Ken had met 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.760 that morning, as a red setting sun sent slanting rays 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.400 across the desert. They drove the surrounding dirt trails for 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.200 four hours until well after dark, but found no trace 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:52.480 of Daniel or his vehicle. The following morning, the police 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.240 quizzed Daniel's father, David, about his son's state of mind. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.959 David insisted there being nothing in his recent phone call 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.000 with his son to suggest that he was suicidal or 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:06.440 wanted to hurt himself. As for drug abuse or other 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.400 addiction issues, David said Daniel had no such problem with 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.800 anything like that, but smoked marijuana from time to time, 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:19.520 which was legal in Arizona. David Robinson did say, however, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.240 that his son had been acting a little odd lately. 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.400 Daniel's shifting mood, according to his father, seemed to coincide 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.440 with his meeting of a woman that he'd apparently fallen 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.120 in love with, but when David questioned his son about 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.679 the woman, he didn't seem to know much about her. 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.520 The police asked Daniel's father to check his son's social 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.000 media for any clues. There, he found a link to 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:49.080 an Instagram account of someone named Caitlin, displaying a profile 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.480 picture of a young woman with straight, dark hair, smiling 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.360 at the camera and holding a dog. But then David 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.480 noticed something strange. Not only were there no new hosts 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.280 on Daniel's account, but all the photos on his Instagram 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:09.280 and Facebook accounts had been completely removed. About the same time, 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.320 police interviewed Daniel's sister, Davisha too. She conferred that Daniel 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.920 had lived alone in an apartment in Tempe for the 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.120 last year. When asked if there been any change in 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.079 his usual character in the last few months or weeks, 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.440 Davisha couldn't help reflecting on one of the last times 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.920 she'd seen him, he'd asked to come to her place, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.840 but when he arrived, he just sat there for half 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.480 an hour without saying anything, before simply getting up and 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.679 walking out of the apartment. Her brother had told her 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.800 too that he'd recently met a woman and was in 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.439 love with her. She couldn't confirm if they were actually 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.120 in a relationship, but the way Daniel talked about her, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:55.840 she suggested that perhaps they were. Curiously, Daniel told his 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.920 sister that the woman had introduced him to a podcast, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.199 which he claimed had profoundly changed the way he looked 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:06.240 at life. Da Visha didn't have the woman's contact details, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.040 but remembered Daniel mentioning that she lived in Lavigne, on 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:20.360 the west side of Phoenix. While Buckeye Police conducted a 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.640 ground search near the well site where Daniel was last seen, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.600 one officer checked you Connect, a vehicle tracking system that 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.679 Daniel's jeep had supposedly been linked to, but the GPS 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.440 coordinates for the vehicle were all set to zero. The 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.400 reason for this could be due to one of three things. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.800 Either the system application had not been properly updated in 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:47.040 the vehicle, the jeep battery had gone dead, or someone 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:51.000 had tampered with the system. An attempt to ping Daniel's 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.959 cell phone for its location was also unsuccessful. Meanwhile, a 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.080 separate search was initiated to try and track down the 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:04.559 mysterious Kate Lie. Incredibly, thanks to the Arizona motor vehicle records, 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.840 a woman was soon found matching her description. When the 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.320 police eventually got hold of her, she was sorry to 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.920 hear that Daniel was missing, but she hadn't heard from 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.360 him either. Then she explained how she knew him in 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.600 the first place. It was back on Saturday, June twelfth, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.240 and the so called Valley of the Sun was living 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.920 up to its name. There wasn't a cloud in the 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.320 sky as the urban sprawl of Phoenix shimmered under a 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.439 smoggy heat haze. It was the first day the city 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.240 had reached one hundred and ten degrees fahrenheit that year, 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.239 and an excessive heat warning had been issued by the authorities. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.679 Caitlin and a friend of hers were hanging out at 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.720 Caitlyn's home in Levigne, on the western edge of the city. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.200 They were doing what many people did on days like this, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.120 staying inside with the air conditioning on, watching TV, and drinking. 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.600 The temperature barely dropped as darkness fell, and neither woman 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.760 fell motivated to go out to eat so they ordered 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.840 a takeout. About half an hour later, the doorbell rang 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.440 and Caitlyn got up to answer it. She opened the 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.920 door to find a smiling, friendly faced young man holding 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.800 their delivery items. He told Caitlyn that his name was Daniel. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.680 He had a warm smile and a bright demeanor, so, 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.800 feeling somewhat tipsy, Caitlyn invited the man to come inside 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.920 and hang out with her and her friend. The three 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.560 shared the food and drank some more. Then, when Daniel 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:37.720 eventually left, he and Caitlyn shared phone numbers. Sometime after 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.880 two a m. Caitlyn sent Daniel a text with a 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.520 link to a podcast on spirituality that she suggested he 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.440 listened to. She thought no more of the encounter until 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.560 a day or so later, when Daniel texted her that 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.800 he'd accidentally left his shade canopy for his car at 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.760 her place. He wanted to know when he could come 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:07.920 over and get it. It was Monday, June fourteenth, the 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.480 day after Daniel left her apartment, that Caitlyn received the 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:16.760 first text message, Hey, I accidentally left my canopy outside 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.840 your house. Is it still there? If so, is it 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:23.040 okay if I pick it up? Also, the podcast was 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.840 great wrote Daniel. Caitlyn replied the next day, Yes, you 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.640 can pick it up whenever. Daniel replied soon after that 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:34.160 he could come over straight away to get it, or 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.360 the following day if Caitlin preferred. Caitlyn hadn't yet replied 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.320 and was away in Flagstaff when she got an alert 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.800 on her phone. Her door camera had picked up movement 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.840 outside her house. Watching back the footage, she was a 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.440 little surprised to see Daniel at the door. She texted 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.400 him back, Hi, I saw you on the camera. I'm 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.760 in Flagstaff and will be home later tonight if you want, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.200 and put it out front by the chairs before I 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.880 head out for work tomorrow morning. Daniel replied an hour 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.560 later with a red heart emoji, then later that night 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.640 with the words I'm sorry. The next day, Caitlin got 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.880 another alert on her phone while she was out of 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.520 the flat. It was Daniel at her door again. Feeling 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.840 a little irked, Caitlyn asked later that evening that he 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:29.680 stopped showing up at her door unannounced, to which he replied, okay, 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.840 I won't ever again. Growing a little tired of the issue, 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:36.320 Caitlyn went out to the garage to have a look 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.920 for the canopy, but couldn't find it anywhere. I don't 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:42.880 see it in the garage, she texted Daniel moments later. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.400 But Daniel, it seemed, had already been in the garage 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.520 and found it for himself. I already have it, he replied. 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.280 I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for disappearing 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:57.640 the other day, he said, then with a sad face emoji. 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:03.640 Then moments later he sent another text, I couldn't stop 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:08.040 thinking about you. Caitlyn didn't know what to say to that. 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.879 She thought perhaps not replying at all might be the 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:16.080 best thing to do, hoping that Daniel might get the message. 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.800 A few days later, Daniel texted again, can we hang out? 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:32.880 Having at first felt irritated by Daniel's unwanted advances, Caitlin 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.439 was now starting to feel harassed. Having told him she 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.480 wasn't free to hang out. Daniel had replied simply, okay. 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.240 It seemed perhaps that that might be the end of it. 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:49.840 Then later that night, just after midnight, he sent another message, 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.679 I love you, it read again. Caitlyn didn't quite know 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.960 how to respond to that, so once more she opted 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:03.600 not to reply. The following morning, Daniel sent another message 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.760 to ask if Caitlyn was at home. In an effort 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.199 to get him to back off, she decided to be 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.960 straight with him. Honestly, you showing up at my house 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:16.879 unannounced made me extremely uncomfortable. I don't see his hanging 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:21.400 out anytime soon, she wrote at three point thirty six pm. 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:26.400 Later that day, Daniel wrote back, I'm outside of your place. 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:28.280 Now. 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.080 Feeling increasingly anxious, Caitlyn tried again to get him to 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.240 back off, telling him it wasn't okay to keep turning 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.040 up at her house when she expressly told him not to. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:43.520 Do you hate me, Daniel replied later, I don't hate you, 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.119 said Caitlyn clearly at the end of her tether, but 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.439 please leave me alone. There was one last text from 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.480 Daniel the following day. It came on Tuesday, twenty second 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.800 of June, at three oh seven pm. The world can 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.480 get better, but I'll have to take all the time 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:06.520 I can, or we can, whatever to name it. I'll 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.440 either see you again or never see you again. The 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:16.080 very next day, Daniel went missing. Two days after his disappearance, 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.240 on Friday, June twenty fifth, the Buckeye Police carried out 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.440 another ground search around the site where Daniel had last 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.080 been seen, while a police helicopter conducted a much wider 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:32.080 search from the air, but still nothing was found. Daniel 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.920 Robinson had been missing for just over a week when 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.040 on Wednesday, June thirtieth, a detective was finally assigned to 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:43.760 the case. Larry Biffin was a decorated officer who'd served 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.800 for many years with the Buckeye Police Department. As Biffin 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.359 poured over the case notes, he couldn't help but be 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.160 puzzled by the whole thing. Having seen that all Daniel's 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.600 Instagram posts had been deleted, he began by making a 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.919 request to the social media company to return them, and 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:13.160 set about getting in touch with all of Daniel's contacts. 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.920 A friend of Daniel's name Antonio, had a seventeen minute 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.280 phone call with Daniel on June sixteenth, the first day 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.840 he'd gone to Caitlyn's house unannounced. Antonio said that his 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.520 friend seemed more hyper than usual and talked about two 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:33.600 girls he'd met while working as a delivery driver. Daniel 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.320 said that he'd hooked up with one of the girls. 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.640 Antonio commented that although very social, Daniel hadn't made many 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.679 friends since moving to Arizona and could at times be 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:48.480 quite gullible, implying that Daniel may have read more into 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:53.800 the encounter than the woman intended. Another friend, Ruben, spoke 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:56.800 with Daniel just after he'd texted Caitlin for the last 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:01.880 time on the twenty second. They only spoke for five minutes. Reuben, 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.840 who lived in Florida, was excited about a vacation He 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.320 was planning to Arizona and California and was looking forward 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.600 to catching up with his friend. He was disappointed when 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.320 Daniel didn't seem to want to talk about his visit. 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:18.639 He said his friend appeared to be down, preoccupied, and 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:24.560 off somehow. After gaining access to Daniel's apartment, Detective Biffin 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.480 found no obvious indications of foul play or any sign 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:31.199 that Daniel had packed for a trip, since most of 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:35.520 his possessions were still there. Biffin then had flyers placed 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.560 at the two small local airports in the Buckeye area, 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.840 asking for any crew flying in and out to keep 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.119 a lookout for Daniel and his vehicle. Then he raised 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.399 for another air search to be conducted over the region 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.240 where Daniel had last been seen. In the early morning 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:55.680 of Friday, July ninth, It was already ninety four degrees 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.960 fahrenheit when Detective Biffin strode out across the baking Aspha 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.760 at the junction of some Valley Parkway and Cactus Road 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:09.080 and shook hands with Daniel's father, David Robinson. Mister Robinson 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.200 had driven all the way from South Carolina to Phoenix 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.520 the day after he learned of his son's disappearance, and 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:19.240 had been there ever since. He was frantic with worry 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.880 and had already undertaken several searches of the desert himself, 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:28.520 helped by local volunteers, with no result. Daniel's father could 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.000 only watch as the two search planes traversed the sky 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.879 back and forth while the thermometer climbed steadily to one 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:39.639 hundred and six fahrenheit. But the search crew found nothing, 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:43.159 and nor did they the following day when another plane 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.600 was sent up to help. It had been over two 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.640 weeks now and not one shred of evidence to where 0:22:49.720 --> 0:23:00.760 Daniel Robinson had gone had been found. Having grown tired 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.560 of the police's seeming in ability to locate his son, 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:08.040 David Robinson hired a private detective named Jeffrey McGrath to 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:12.560 undertake a separate investigation on his behalf ten days later, 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:17.119 on Monday, nineteenth of July, a rancher spotted something at 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.520 the bottom of a ravine on his land. Getting out 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:23.639 of his truck to investigate further, he saw then it 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.960 was a badly damaged blue jeep that had rolled on 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.560 to its passenger side. When he called the police to 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:33.880 report it, a quick check on the number plate confirmed 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:38.359 it with Daniel's jeep. A short time later, Detective Larry 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:41.040 Biffin was making his way out to the site with 0:23:41.119 --> 0:23:45.280 the team of officers in tow. Their route took them 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:48.960 out beyond the urban sprawl of Phoenix and into the dusty, 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.240 sun bleached desert beyond. The further out they went, the 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.480 smaller the roads became, until eventually they found themselves in 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:01.040 the foothills of the White Tank Mountains, heading west along 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:05.119 a narrow dirt track cresting the top of a rise. 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:08.439 Biffin and his entourage finally arrived at the top of 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.399 the ravine, and there at the bottom of it was 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:15.880 Daniel's jeep. Biffin got out of his car and slipped 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:19.359 down into the ravine to get a better look. The 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:22.919 vehicle's front bumper had crumpled where it had hit the dirt. 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:27.320 The driver's window was shattered and the windscreen and roof 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:31.640 were damaged to All of the interior airbags had been deployed, 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:36.720 but there was no sign of Daniel inside. Then Biffin 0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:42.280 found something unexpected About three feet from the wreckage. Gathered 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:45.600 in a messy pile was what he assumed to be most, 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:48.760 if not all, the clothes Daniel had been wearing when 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:53.480 he disappeared. It included a pair of jeans, a pair 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:57.320 of brown work boots, a faded orange high viz vest 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.120 bearing the Matrix New World Company low so Go, as 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:03.320 well as a T shirt and a pair of socks. 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:08.240 Examining the genes, Biffin found a wallet in the back pocket. 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:13.080 Pulling it out, he found Daniel's ID inside it, along 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:18.200 with multiple debit and credit cards, but no cash. Despite 0:25:18.240 --> 0:25:21.679 the substantial damage the vehicle had sustained, there was nothing 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:24.160 to indicate that the driver had been injured at all. 0:25:25.680 --> 0:25:29.440 As Biffin inspected the jeep's interior more closely, he found 0:25:29.600 --> 0:25:33.040 Daniel's cell phone, the keys to the vehicle and his apartment, 0:25:33.480 --> 0:25:37.360 as well as a backpack containing his laptop and some documents. 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:43.480 There were other miscellaneous items, two more clothing, a basketball, 0:25:44.080 --> 0:25:48.560 and quite a few unopened bottles of water. The detective 0:25:48.680 --> 0:25:53.000 straightened back up, not quite knowing what to think. It 0:25:53.040 --> 0:25:56.200 was certainly strange, he thought how they'd searched the area 0:25:56.320 --> 0:26:00.080 multiple times but not spotted the jeep despite it being 0:26:00.119 --> 0:26:03.800 fairly out in the open. And something else bugged him 0:26:03.800 --> 0:26:07.720 about it too. It seemed unusually clean for a vehicle 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:11.879 that had supposedly crashed out there almost four weeks previously. 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:22.879 As Detective Biffin stared down at the wreckage, he was 0:26:22.960 --> 0:26:25.359 joined by the rancher who'd found the vehicle in the 0:26:25.400 --> 0:26:29.080 first place. He too was perplexed as to how the 0:26:29.160 --> 0:26:32.159 jeep had lain there undetected for such a long time, 0:26:32.960 --> 0:26:37.479