Arianna Fitts would now be eight years old, but she hasn’t been seen since 2016, and CNN is shining new light on her case in hopes of a breakthrough.
Fox News is the most frequently mocked news network for the phenomenon called “missing white woman syndrome,” where wall-to-wall coverage is given to any missing-persons case wherein the missing person is a conventionally attractive Caucasian female. But all of the cable news networks obsessed hard over the case of Gabby Petito in September, despite the fact that there were some 17,000 other missing people in the U.S. at the time. CNN, to their credit, has had some reckoning over this and has started shining light on other missing persons of color.
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Their latest is today’s piece about outstanding cases that includes a profile on Bay Area toddler Arianna Fitts, whom you may remember has been missing since February 2016. Only two years old at the time of her disappearance, Fitts's mother’s body was found in McLaren Park in April 2016, but Arianna has not been seen since.
Arianna would now be eight years old, and the SFPD released an updated sketch this past April speculating what she might look like five and a half years later. Additionally, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has their own age-rendered portrait, seen below.
"I do believe that Arianna is still alive, and it would mean everything to me to know where she is and to find her," Fitts's aunt Tess Fitts told CNN. "I wait for that day, every single day. I believe that day will come."
We hope it will, and CNN’s report has generated additional syndicated coverage from Microsoft News and various local TV stations.
SFPD asks that if you have information on Arianna Fitts's whereabouts or on her mother's slaying, please contact the SFPD Homicide Unit at 415-553-1145, the SFPD Anonymous Tip Line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP 411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message.
Related: On Occasion Of Third Birthday, Family Of Missing Toddler Holds Out Hope For Her Safe Return [SFist]
Image: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
