Arianna Fitts. A Girl Missing for 7 Years, Her Mother Murdered
The case of Nicole and Arianna Fitts is a tragic case of an unsolved murdered mother and the search for her missing daughter for almost seven years.
San Francisco, California. A two-and-a-half-year-old girl named Arianna Fitts; was reported missing on April 5th, 2016. She was last seen by relatives in Oakland in mid-February, having been staying with babysitters in a nearby city.
Her mother. Nicole had been dealing with financial problems for quite a few years. Nicole was a single mother who lost custody of one of her two daughters.
She often spent her time moving from homeless shelters.
She needed to sustain a job and find a place for her daughter to stay, but she struggled to do so; matters were much worse as she did not have identification on her at the time, which made it more difficult for her to find rent anywhere, especially on minimum wage.
Nicole's only goal was to find refuge for her daughter Arianna to stay where she could support her.
Meanwhile, she worked hard to get her daughter Cindy back into custody, attending courts in Los Angelos.
Nicole worked hard on herself and tried to do right by her daughter, getting an ID and working hard to provide.
She met and worked with a self-proclaimed pastor called Lemasani, who, according to Contessa Fitts, Nicole's niece, had mistreated her. Nevertheless, Nicole and Arianna lived with her for a while.
But as time progressed, Lemasani started charging her high on child care, but Nicole had to take up on her offer for housing Arianna, as it was a better solution being a stable place for her daughter to stay. She found work at a local Best Buy store, while, crashing with friends from one time to another.
According to the podcast The vanished, Lemasani demonstrated possessive and controlling behavior towards Nicole and Arianna, which Nicole didn't like but had to deal with. They never got along, and their situation escalated in the fall of 2015.
Nicole and Arianna left for Santa Cruz, but the tense commuting to her work was arduous, and she couldn't find any place to live in San Fransisco. And left without any options for child care, Nicole had decided to stay in Santa Cruz and allow Lemasani's relatives to look after Arianna; she still brought her home to Santa Cruz as much as she could.
Her sister Contessa states how cheerful and pleasant she was to be around, always giving to people; however, she says, sometimes naive.
She became a super hard worker, having trouble balancing the workload, transportation, and keeping up with her daughter, so she had to leave Arianna for nights with the babysitters.
Nicole found help from her new roommate Goyette, a coworker of Nicole who observed how hard it was for her to come to work every day and suggested that she and Arianna move to live with her. Nicole felt blissful.
She managed to save enough money for a new bed for Arianna and informed the babysitter that she was on her way to getting her daughter. But the babysitter resisted, saying they had taken Arianna to Disneyland out of town and she would have to wait for another day. Nicole was upset. Not only because she wanted to get her daughter back but also because they never informed her about taking Arianna out of town.
According to Goyette Williams, who shared a room with Nicole, the plan was for Nicole to pick up her daughter on April 3rd, 2016. But on the night of April 1st, 2016, Nicole went out to run errands, withdrew an amount of $600 money from her bank account, and mentioned that she would meet up with the babysitter and that she should be back soon after.
Goyette received a message from Nicole saying that she was with a friend named Sam and that they were going to Fresno, but who Sam remains a mystery to all her friends and family.
At 1:13 AM, Nicole posted on Facebook the following post.
The spelling errors mistakes made it hard for those who knew her to believe that Nicole was the one who posted it.
On April 5th, 2016, After no one had heard from Nicole in 4 days, they were reported missing by their family.
Three days later, a gardener in John McLaren Park discovered Nicole's body in a shallow grave behind a clump of ivy-covered bushes. She had been placed in the fetal position with a piece of plywood over her, and painted on it was a silver character/symbol, strongly believed to have a meaning behind it.
And unfortunately, Arianna remains missing to this day.
Authorities have put up a $250,000 reward for information regarding Arianna Fitts, who should be nine years old now, and the (NCMEC) released the following age-progressed picture of what Arianna would look like now
Let us hope Arianna is somewhere safe, and I hope she finds her way back to her family. Please share the message. Who knows, maybe someone somewhere knows something!
Arianna Fitts by The Vanished Podcast | Podchaser
Police Offer $250K Reward to Find Girl Missing Since 2016 | Inside Edition
You can find more information on the case here:
Missing: Arianna Fitts | San Francisco, CA | Uncovered
If you have any information regarding Arianna's disappearance or Nicole's murder, please, contact the San Francisco Police Department's tip line at (415) 575-4444 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation San Francisco Division at (415) 553-7400.