Father of missing SC man says Petito case renewed interest in son’s case

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The father of a missing Columbia geologist says the Gabby Petito case has renewed interest in his son’s case.

Daniel Robinson, 24, went missing on June 23 from a job site just outside Phoenix, Arizona.

David Robinson, Daniel’s father, said he’s made it his mission to find his son after the way the Buckeye Police Department was handling the case upset him.

WIS spoke with David Friday and he said he’s appreciative that they’re doing more now.

The Buckeye Police Department posted some pictures on their Facebook page showing they are searching desert mineshafts for Daniel.

Investigators say they used a robot equipped with a camera to search two mineshafts, one of them is more than 75 feet deep. They conducted targeted searches this week in an effort to locate him. David said he and his volunteer crews already searched that area.

Police say they also searched the area where Daniel’s car was found. Investigators focused on locations where volunteer search crews reported their tracking dogs had previously alerted. Unfortunately the follow-up searches did not yield any evidence of Daniel.

David said that he’s expecting a lot of volunteers for their search Saturday.

“We had over 2,000 show up for the last one. I’m grateful,” said David. “We expect at least 1,000 tomorrow, and we’ll prepare for that.”

A private investigator, hired by David, determined Daniel’s wrecked Jeep was driven 11 miles after its initial crash and started more than 40 times after that collision.

If you would like to help, visit https://pleasehelpfinddaniel.com/.

Buckeye Police urge anyone with information to call (623) 349-6400.

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