BUCKEYE, Ariz. (NewsNation Now) — Police in Arizona this week helped with the search for Daniel Robinson, a 24-year-old geologist who has been missing for more than three months.
On Thursday, NewsNation heard from police in Buckeye, who say they have swabbed Daniel’s car, including DNA and fingerprinting, and they’ve even extracted some data from his phone.
Investigators also used a robot-equipped camera Thursday to search two mine shafts in the area. Still, there’s no sign of Robinson. He was last seen leaving his work site in a western suburb of Phoenix on June 23.
Police have told NewsNation they have no evidence of foul play in this case, or that a violent crime was committed. Robinson’s family and a private investigator aren’t so sure. They say it is just not like Daniel to disappear.
“I know something bad has happened,” Daniel’s father David Robinson told NewsNation Prime on Thursday. “However, I just don’t know what it is.”
The Army vet has been searching in the deserts of Arizona for his son.
“Try to keep the faith that my son is out there alive somewhere,” the father said. “I’m not waiting on anybody who don’t value my son, I value my son, and I’m gonna actually be out there and fight for him.”
A month after Daniel Robinson’s disappearance, a rancher found his Jeep wrecked in a ravine. His keys, wallet and phone were in his Jeep, but there was no sign of him.
His co-workers said he made odd comments about needing rest before he left the job site that morning.
“They don’t know my son is as well as I do,” David Robinson said. “A lot of people have a bad day.”
The Robinson family hired Jeff McGrath, of 3Laws Recon Investigations, to look into the case.
“I haven’t turned up anything new as of today,” McGrath said on NewsNation Prime on Thursday. “There are some leads I’m going to follow in the next weekend and coming week. But at this point, I don’t have anything as pointing me to Daniel, whether he perished or he’s alive. It’s still a mystery.”
He’s concerned about a tip regarding cartel activity in the Arizona desert.
“I’m concerned that either Daniel stumbled across the wrong person or the wrong person stumbled across Daniel,” McGrath said. “That’s that’s my concern. That’s kind of the avenue I’m going right now.”
McGrath previously pointed out that Daniel’s “vehicle had 11 additional miles on it from when the airbags deployed. It had 46 additional ignition cycles on it after the airbags deployed.”
McGrath also noted red paint had transferred onto the right side of the Jeep.
He would like to work with Buckeye police on the case, but says “I don’t think they want to hear what I have to say.”
A major ground search is planned for this weekend with a crew of more than 1,000 volunteers. Anyone with information about the case is urged to click on pleasehelpfinddaniel.com or call (803) 200-7994.
NewsNation asked viewers to send us cases that we should be featuring on Missing in America. More than 370 of you have already done so since Wednesday night.
NewsNation’s Nancy Loo and Tom Palmer contributed to this report.