Search grows for girl who disappeared in ’16
San Francisco police and federal authorities are ramping up their search for Arianna Fitts, a toddler who went missing in late February 2016.
Less than two months after Arianna’s disappearance, her mother, Nicole Fitts, was found dead at McLaren Park, in the south end of the city. Employees of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department discovered her body in a tangle of ivy and brush near Woolsey and University streets on April 8, 2016. She had disappeared a week earlier, on April 1.
Five years later, local and federal investigators are hoping to find out what happened to Fitts and her little girl.
Arianna would now be 7 years old. She was last seen in Oakland, in the care of her babysitters.
Weeks after the little girl’s
February disappearance, Nicole Fitts received a phone call around 9 p.m. on April 1 asking her to go out and “meet the babysitter,” according to San Francisco police. After leaving home that night, Fitts was never seen alive again.
Officials have not disclosed a cause of death for Fitts, but have said they do not believe Arianna was with her mother at the time she was killed.
The case captured public attention and has recently picked up new leads, said Katherine Zackel, a spokesperson for the FBI’s San Francisco office.
“We’ve been able to reinterview witnesses recently, including in the past week,” Zackel told The Chronicle. “We’ve gotten additional information.”
She and other officials are encouraging people to come forward with any new details they may remember. Seemingly minor facts about the places Nicole and Arianna Fitts went, or the people who were with them, could help investigators, Zackel said.
The cold case could also benefit from advances in forensic science and technology. The FBI now has better tools to analyze biological and digital evidence. And San Francisco police have released a new age progression sketch of Arianna.
“That’s why we’re doing the big public push,” Zackel said.
The FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team and Behavioral Analysis Unit are assisting the investigation, the agency said in a release Thursday.
Separately, police are offering $100,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for the killing of Pitts and the disappearance of Arianna.
“We want to take the opportunity today to assure the public — and those who knew Nicole and Arianna — that we will continue to investigate this matter as long as it takes to find out what happened,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair said in the release. “This is a tragic situation for everyone involved.”
Anyone with information on the killing of Pitts or on Arianna’s whereabouts is asked to call 4155537400 or visit tips. fbi.gov.