It's been a full year since 32-year-old Nicole Fitts was last seen, and over a year since friends and family have seen her daughter Arianna. Arianna would now be three years old, and she was reported missing by family last April 8 after her mother turned up dead in a shallow grave in San Francisco's McLaren Park, discovered there by Rec & Parks workers under a piece of plywood. Now, as NBC Bay Area reports, the FBI uncovered a new lead in what has otherwise been a case gone cold: a vehicle that may be connected to the case, which was seized Friday.
Suspicion from Fitts's family fell last year on the caregivers of the toddler, with whom the girl often stayed for extended periods of time in the East Bay. Helena and Devin Martin and Siolo Hearne, who frequently took care of Arianna at an Oakland home, initially gave conflicting statements to police, and allegedly Fitts was having some conflict with the trio when she tried to gain access to her daughter around April 1, the same day that Fitts herself went missing.
NBC Bay Area followed up with Helena Martin's attorney once more, who said "she's given them all the information she can" and "Now that they changed from her being a witness to a possible suspect, I’m not going to let her give anymore statements."
Despite conducting numerous interviews, executing search warrants in Oakland, Emeryville, and Daly City, and seizing more than 30,000 pieces of evidence in the case, no charges have been filed and Arianna's whereabouts remain unknown. Police have also pursued leads in Southern California.
This website remains up and dedicated to the search for the young girl, and the family is holding a vigil tonight, April 1, at 7 p.m. in McLaren Park near the University and Woolsey entrance, marking one year since Nicole Fitts disappeared.
Previously: On Occasion Of Third Birthday, Family Of Missing Toddler Holds Out Hope For Her Safe Return