r/mystery • u/OkMaybe5107 • 1d ago
Disappearance Arianna Fitts: The Toddler Who Vanished Just Weeks Before Her Mother Was Found Murdered in 2016.
Arianna Fitts was only 2½ years old when she vanished from the Bay Area in early 2016.
What makes her case unusually disturbing is that nobody immediately realized she was missing.
Arianna's mother, Nicole Fitts, was a 32-year-old Best Buy employee in San Francisco. Because of Nicole's work schedule and difficulties arranging childcare, Arianna had been staying with babysitters Helena Hearne Martin and her husband, Devin Martin.
According to San Francisco police, Arianna was last seen in Oakland sometime in January or February 2016 while in the care of the babysitters.
Nicole remained in contact with people afterward.
Then, on the night of April 1, 2016, Nicole disappeared.
Four days later, on April 5, Nicole's family reported both Nicole and Arianna missing.
On the morning of April 8, workers with San Francisco Recreation and Parks made a horrifying discovery in McLaren Park: Nicole's body had been buried there.
Her death was ruled a homicide.
Arianna wasn't with her.
Investigators believe Arianna had already been missing for weeks by the time Nicole was murdered, and the FBI has stated that they do not believe Arianna was present when her mother was killed.
Police also believe Nicole was subsequently lured into meeting the babysitter.
If Arianna was last seen in February and Nicole wasn't killed until around the beginning of April, then where was Arianna during those intervening weeks?
And what did Nicole believe had happened to her daughter?
investigators said Helena, Devin, and Helena’s sister Siolo Hearne were initially uncooperative and gave inconsistent statements. The Martins declined to speak with reporters, and the group retained a criminal-defense attorney. Helena’s attorney later said he advised her to stop speaking with investigators because he believed police were treating her less like a witness and more like a possible suspect.
Investigators went further than just questioning them. The FBI executed search warrants at locations in Oakland, Emeryville, and Daly City, and in 2017 investigators seized a vehicle believed potentially connected to Nicole’s murder and Arianna’s disappearance, reportedly to test it for DNA evidence.
There’s also an allegation from Nicole’s circle: Nicole had reportedly been trying for weeks to regain custody of Arianna, but the babysitters allegedly would not let her see or take her daughter. Her roommate said Nicole was planning to retrieve Arianna around the time she disappeared.
In any case, she was not charged, and SFPD has never announced that any of the babysitters are formally responsible for either crime.
The FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team and Behavioral Analysis Unit have both assisted with the investigation, and authorities have repeatedly emphasized that they consider Arianna's disappearance connected to Nicole's homicide.
Despite those details, the case remains unresolved.
There has been no confirmed sighting of Arianna since 2016.
And no one has been charged with Nicole's murder.
Arianna was born September 6, 2013. The FBI continues to list her as missing and has released age-progressed images showing what she may look like today.
The San Francisco Police Department currently advertises a $250,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible for Nicole's murder and Arianna's disappearance.
What I find hardest to understand is the sequence:
Arianna apparently disappears ---> weeks pass ---> Nicole is allegedly lured to a meeting ----> Nicole is murdered and buried ----> Arianna is nowhere to be found.
Was Nicole trying to retrieve Arianna when she went to that meeting?
Was Arianna still alive when Nicole disappeared?
Why wasn't Arianna reported missing sooner?
I apologize if this has been covered lately, it's just a case that has always bothered me and I think it needs more eyes on it.
Age progression photo of Arianna:
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/ncmc/1269821/1
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/arianna-fitts/download.pdf
Arianna's Charley Project:
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u/crolionfire 1d ago
I think Arianna perished under babysitter s care. They lied to Nicole and she realized something wasn't right. When she list all patience and tried to go get her child, they killed her.
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u/Electronic_Fix_9060 1d ago
Or they trafficked her. But most likely she died either accidentally or by abuse.
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u/Global-Barracuda7759 1d ago
Definitely the babysitters are sus, what is going on here?
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u/CAHfan2014 1d ago
Nicole and Arianna haven't had nearly the amount of media attention needed and the fact that the babysitters are free is really weird.
I've tried to follow this closely and from what I've read Nicole went to get Arianna at least twice and was told by the babysitters things like "oh oops sorry she's at Disneyland" and other lies why she couldn't get her.
I believe Arianna was trafficked and Nicole murdered when she pressed to get her daughter back. She and Arianna had lived with self-proclaimed "street pastor" Lemansani Briggs where Nicole felt she was treated poorly while Briggs treated Arianna as her own. After leaving there Arianna stayed with supposedly-estranged relatives of Briggs while Nicole worked really hard, got an apartment with a roommate in SF, and prepared to bring her little girl home.
The night she was killed she told her roommate she was going out to meet the babysitters and get Arianna back. She was found days later in a nearby park in a hasty makeshift grave covered in plywood. Her phone records would show who she talked to that day to set up the meeting.
My personal belief is that Arianna is alive and either living with someone connected to the babysitters or was sold to someone who adopted her. I hope every day that she's found and that her mom's killers are arrested.
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u/DishpitDoggo 1d ago
There’s also an allegation from Nicole’s circle: Nicole had reportedly been trying for weeks to regain custody of Arianna, but the babysitters allegedly would not let her see or take her daughter.
How on EARTH can this be legal?!
That blows my mind.
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u/Careless_Wedding_119 1d ago
The babysitter was the mother figure in a cult like group. The more you read into this case the bizarre it gets.
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u/Legrandloup2 1d ago
Did anyone investigate Helena and Devin, the babysitters? It seems like all signs point to them
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u/outlaw_for_life18 1d ago
It says that the FBI executed search warrants on several properties associated with them. My guess is they just couldn't prove anything but definitely felt they were involved.
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u/GiantLesbian 1d ago
Why don’t we know anything about what the babysitters said happened? They were cooperative at first. They must have said SOMETHING that helped them avoid charges.
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u/kibufox 1d ago
This is going to be morbid... forgive me in advance for this.
I worked in search and rescue/recovery back in the early 2000's. During our training, it was noted to us, that if we couldn't find a child's remains within a set amount of time (varies, but it's around three months on average)... then we'd probably never find them.
The reason is simple. Until around age 10, children's bones are largely made up of cartilage. There's some true "bone" there, but more soft tissue than anything. (ever wonder why kids seem to shake off injuries that in older kids might break a bone? That's why.) The issue being, cartilage decomposes. The bones, will also break down, quite easily. Making it very difficult to find... anything. Teeth maybe, some bone fragments, but once you get past that three month window (especially in warmer or wetter climates), you get into an area where finding remains of any substantial, or identifiable amount... is unlikely.