Going West: True Crime - Nicole & Arianna Fitts // 107

Episode Date: February 10, 2021

In April 2016, a hardworking single mother disappeared after running a seemingly quick errand one night in San Francisco. When her murdered body turned up the following week, it left her family and friends horrified, confused, and frantically searching for her 2-year-old daughter. This is the story of Nikki and Arianna Fitts. *BONUS EPISODES* patreon.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.ktvu.com/news/sfpd-exhausting-leads-in-bizarre-homicide-case-with-missing-2-year-old https://truecrimedaily.com/2017/03/13/baby-daughter-missing-mysterious-logo-may-hold-key-to-mothers-murder-in-san-francisco/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/6glfj8/arianna_fitts_babysitters_didnt_want_to_return/ https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/arianna-fitts-case-reward-for-info-on-killed-mom-missing-daughter https://abc7news.com/news/sf-police-release-new-info-in-search-for-missing-girl-mothers-homicide/1303617/ https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/arianna-fitts https://charleyproject.org/case/arianna-fitts https://www.sfweekly.com/topstories/where-is-arianna-fitts/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1099688866770572 https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/04/01/new-evidence-a-year-after-sf-mom-was-murdered-and-her-toddler-went-missing/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Arianna_Fitts Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Heath and I'm your other host, Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. I got a hand at to Heath. He has had an ear infection or a sinus infection for the last three months Has been on a ton of antibiotics and it's not going away and he went to the doctor today and it's still there so Thank you for being here today, but I'm here. I am here He's a true buddy to go today's case is a little bit unique and it includes a core group of people who are doing Everything they can to get answers for their

family and friend. So we urge you guys to share this story because it's just a matter of time that the right person comes along who can give them the answers they need in this incredibly tragic case. So thanks for tuning in to Going West today and every week. Let's jump right into today's episode. This is episode 107 of Going West, so let's get into it. In April of 2016, a hardworking single mother disappeared after running a seemingly quick errand one night in San Francisco. When her murdered body turned up the following week,

it left her family and friends horrified, confused, and frantically searching for her two-year-old daughter. This is the story of Nicole and Ariana Fitts. Nicole Fitz, who went by Nikki, was born in Los Angeles, California in the mid 1980s, and she was incredibly loved and described as very energetic and bubbly, but she also kind of had a shy side. She was the second of three girls, her older sister is Catherine, then Nikki was born, and then came Contessa, who goes by tests. From a young age, Nikki always wanted to help people and make the world a better place,

so she developed a big interest in becoming a teacher. And she was always that student who was very respectful in class and was known to be kind of a teacher's pet, which her sisters loved to poke fun at her for. When she was just 15 years old, she actually received an award from the City of Los Angeles for all the volunteer work that she did at the Culver Slosson Recreation Center in Culver City. So she was working really hard to help her community and create a successful path for herself. That's really impressive of her to do at the age of 15. I know, it is, and it's really cool that she cared enough to do it when she was a young teen,

but she was just that kind of girl. But although Nikki was doing so much to help, she definitely had a tough home life. And that may have helped push her to live a good life since she wasn't dealt the best hand growing up. But she made the most of it and did everything that she could to come out on the other side. Her mother passed away when she and her sisters were just teenagers, so they went into the system and were split up. But despite this, they all made sure to keep in contact and remain close to each other.

And years later, when Nikki was just 28 years old, she and her younger sister Tessa, and Tessa's girlfriend Claire, got an apartment together in Pacifica, California, which is just south of San Francisco. By this point, Nikki also had a child, a nine-year-old daughter named Cindy. So it would basically be the four of them living in that apartment together. Tessa's girlfriend Claire found a cheap bunk bed on Craigslist for Nikki and Cindy, but Nikki soon became pregnant with another daughter and the following year, on September 6, 2013, she gave birth to a beautiful girl named Ariana.

And this was really tough on Nikki because she wasn't able to work as much and she kind of fell behind on her bills. As most of us know, California, especially the Bay Area, is really expensive to live, so they were paying a lot and rent for a small place together. And even then, they had trouble making ends meet. And as the months rolled on, the three women determined that it was just too hard for them to make the rent payments, so they had to move on. And I don't know what test was doing for work at this time, but I know that Claire was working at Trader Joe's, which for those of you who don't know what Trader Joe's is, it's the best store ever, but... Daphne's obsessed. It's a grocery store, it's amazing, it's only in the US. So that's where Claire was working,

but I'm not sure about tests. So none of them had really, really high paying jobs. So of course, for anyone, this area is expensive, but especially if you're working, you know, somewhat of a more minimum wage job. To be able to afford a better place for themselves, Tess and Claire decided that they needed to move a little bit away from the city, and Claire decided that they needed to move a little bit away from the city,

and that's when they decided to move an hour south of San Francisco and Pacifica to Santa Cruz. But Nikki didn't want to move there, she really wanted to stay in or close to San Francisco. So, she kind of just made the decision to live in a homeless shelter to stay in the area. And by the way, when I say homeless shelter, it wasn't like this big shared space. Nikki basically had her own room. It was almost like a one bedroom apartment, but you didn't have to pay. So it wasn't ideal, but it could have been much worse. But still, it wasn't a really good situation for Cindy to be living there, so Nikki sent

Cindy to live in Los Angeles with Cindy's father. But Nikki also had her daughter, Ariana, who was nearing the age of two at this point. So also this wasn't a good situation for her. But in 2015, while she was living in this shelter, Nikki met a woman named Lemassani Briggs, who was a self-proclaimed evangelical street pastor. So she did not belong to any church or anything, she was very much self-proclaimed. And Lemassani invited Nikki and Ariana to live with her to get them out of the shelter, and it wasn't going to be free, but it would be affordable for Nikki and she and her daughter

could be in a better situation. By the way, at this time Nikki was working, so she did have income, it was just really hard for her to be able to pay rent, then Lemassani comes in and now she has somewhere to live. Right, so Lemassani kind of seems like this saving grace in the situation. Exactly. At this time, Nikki was working as a merchandiser at the Best Buy on Harrison Street in San Francisco, and she used her money to, like Daphne said, help pay Lemassani's rent, as well as pay her to watch Ariana while she was at work.

But Lemassani kind of started to take advantage of Nikki and make her pay more than she should. Meanwhile, here's a 32-year-old woman who's doing her best to get into good financial standing so that she can raise her daughter and get started on a good career, but this woman is basically ripping her off. And even stranger, Nikki didn't even have a key to the house, so she couldn't go home unless someone was there. Which is really weird and controlling?

Because she's literally paying to stay at this house and you don't even give her a key. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me. So it was just overall a very strange situation. And to save money, Nikki stopped having Lemissani watch Ariana and instead paid Lemissani's nieces, Siyolo Herne and Hal Helena Hurn Martin to help with her child care. Siola lived in Emeryville, which is right above Oakland, and Helena lived in Oakland, so it wasn't too far, but she did have to take the bus there since she didn't have a car.

Nikki's sister Tess and girlfriend Claire were super sketched out by the situation because they did not trust Lemisani, So why would they trust her nieces? Nikki told them that the nieces weren't very close with Lemisani, so she kind of felt like she could trust them more, because they weren't like Incahoots with Lemisani to kind of screw over childcare payment wise, you know what I mean? But Tess and Claire just hated that Nikki was even involved in any of this, and felt like it was a really weird and toxic situation all around. But Nikki continued to live there, and Lemissani just kept getting worse. After stopping child care with her,

Lemissani turned around and raised Nikki's rent, so she was kinda like, I'm getting this money from you one way or another. Right, which is so fucked up. I know, horrible. But things continued to get worse, and there was belief that Lemassani was going through Nikki's stuff while Nikki was at work at Best Buy. Because Nikki was kinda seeing this guy, and she wrote about him in her journal on her computer. But Lemassani texted Nikki once, and called her all these really hurtful and awful names and even brought up this guy that she was supposedly kind of seeing.

So Nikki told Tess and Claire that she only could have known this if she went through her computer. And this was kind of the last straw, you know, from high rent to snooping and inappropriately texting her rude things, tests and clear literally went to physically get Nikki out of that house for good and they did. After driving all the way to San Francisco from Santa Cruz and even calling the local police to back them up in case Lemissani acted out an anger,

they were successfully able to grab most of Nikki's things and rush out of the house. But Lemissani kept texting Nikki horrible and harassing things including, bring my baby back here regarding Ariana. And just to be clear, this woman had known Ariana for very long at all and she was certainly not Lemissani's baby. But Ariana was so adorable and had such a great personality, that Lemassani became seemingly obsessed with her after all of those times of watching her while Nikki was at work.

But Nikki's situation didn't get easier after leaving, and it almost became more difficult because although she was out of this toxic environment, she now had to commute nearly two hours to work each day and had to sleep on friend's couches. Nikki was really determined to get through this hard time and she didn't even make her business anyone else's, like none of her co-workers knew what was going on. She never complained and she always went to work with a good attitude, despite all of her intense struggles. Not to mention while all this was going on, she was also fighting for custody for Cindy, her other daughter,

because Cindy's father was neglecting her and she was actually put into child protective services. So when Nikki did get a day off, she would spend it going down to LA to be in court. And the only person that Nikki really told about all this was one of her coworkers and good friends, Michael. Nikki really told about all this, was one of her co-workers and good friends, Michael. He would do a lot, and he even went with her to LA when she needed to go to court, so he could help support his friend. He was just really, really awesome like that. But luckily, eventually, Nikki did confide in another co-worker, Goyette Williams, who actually had space for both Nikki and Ariana with her at her mom's house.

So finally, things were turning around. Nikki would have a great place to stay with her daughter, and they'd be close to work because Goiette lived in San Francisco. So while these changes were happening, it was March 2016, so about four months after leaving Lemisani Briggs's house, and Ariana had been staying back and forth between Cielo and Helena's while Nikki couch-surfed. We can't be sure that Ariana was with them all of these four months, and no one in Nikki's family knew this information either, but Ariana

definitely spent the majority of her time there while Nikki figured out their housing situation. However, when Nikki explained to them that she was going to be picking up Arianna and taking her to their new home, in March, things got really weird. And just so no one thinks Nikki was neglecting her daughter, she did see her during this time, of course. They just weren't really living in the same place full time, and this was actually to benefit Ariana so she didn't have to go back and forth very much. But as soon as Nikki was moved into Goyette's place, she planned to have Ariana with her.

In mid to late March, they told Nikki that they were at Disneyland with Ariana, and this was very odd because Disneyland is in Southern California, so about 6 hours away from San Francisco. And neither Cielo nor Helena asked Nikki if they could even take her there, and yet suddenly they're supposedly there. And this really upset Nikki because she had no choice but to accept it and just pick up Ariana when they were ready. Since she was about to get settled into her new place with Goyette, she told Helena and Cielo that she would be picking up Ariana for good by April 3rd after she got settled in. About a week later on April 1st, 2016,

Nikki headed to work at Best Buy and planned to hang out with her sister's girlfriend, Claire afterwards, since Claire had a job interview in San Francisco that afternoon. That day, Claire had to cancel plans so Nikki went out with her good friend Michael Jacobo instead. The two hung out at the mall and then they headed to Pizza Hut so Nikki could grab a pizza for her new roommate and coworker Goiiet.

And this was a very Nikki thing to do. She didn't have a lot of money, but she loved doing small favors and nice things for people that she really cared about. On their way to Pizza Hut, they were about to pass a 7-Eleven when Nikki asked if Michael could pull in so she could hit the ATM. And she actually withdrew $600, but she didn't explain to Michael what it was for. So maybe he thought this was for rent money, for Goi-at, or maybe it was for something else, but he didn't really prior question it. Then they headed to Pizza Hut, grabbed a pie, and Michael dropped Nikki off at her new

apartment in Bayview, which is a San Francisco neighborhood. While she and Goi-at were on the couch watching a movie and eating said pizza, Nikki got a phone call. After she got off the phone, she explained to Goya that she was going to head to a BJ's restaurant, which is an American restaurant in Brue House, to meet up with her babysitter, and that she would be back before the movie ended, and she actually said she would just be back in a few minutes. According to Goya, she said that her babysitter was upset and she needed to see if everything was okay. She wasn't going to eat dinner at the restaurant, but was just going there to meet her babysitter

for a few minutes before coming back. But Nikki never came back that night. In the next morning, she still wasn't home. But Goyette had a text from Nikki that came in late the night before at about 12.45 am that explained that she was headed to Fresno with her friend Sam. This was odd for a few different reasons. First of all, Goyette had never heard her talk about anyone named Sam and they were pretty good friends, so it's weird that Sam never came up. and they were pretty good friends, so it's weird that Sam never came up.

Also, why was she going to Fresno, and how was she getting there? Fresno was about three hours southeast of San Francisco, so she was going there super late and Goya just couldn't understand why. And Nikki had to work the next day. Then, even weirder, Nicole had also posted to Facebook the night before at about 113am saying, spending time with my three year old need this break. One sentence, no punctuation, except a period at the end and break was spelled B-R-A-K-E and not B-R-E-A-K. So different kind of break. This was extremely odd to Nikki's friends,

and her family because not only was Nikki a fanatic about spelling and grammar, but her daughter, Arianna's half birthday, had just come up a few weeks prior, meaning that she was newly two and a half and not three. So obviously that's really weird, because she knows how old her daughter is and Then the whole thing about the misspelling is weird because she doesn't do that

But then going back to the whole Sam thing Michael when he found this out he hadn't heard this name either and so he went to Nikki's Facebook and looked at her friends and she didn't even have a Facebook friend named Sam Not to say everybody has Facebook, but this was really strange to him. Yeah, I mean, when you think about Facebook, for the most part, like most of your close friends are typically your Facebook friends. I mean, like you said, some people don't have them, but I would say 99% of the time your Facebook friends are like your close friends

are also Facebook friends with you. I think that all the time because every time I do go on Facebook, I see all these people that I knew a person who knew them in high school, you know, so there's just a point where you add everyone because you know of them. So Facebook is that thing, maybe not Instagram, which wasn't following a Sam on Instagram, that would maybe be different. But still, you're going to drive to Fresno. Three hours away, she has no connection to Fresno at this point. And none of your close people know who Sam is. Yeah, I mean, not even your family knows who this Sam is. And obviously she's probably got a very close relationship with her sisters, so they would probably know Sam.

Exactly. So that next morning when Goyette headed into work at Best Buy, she noticed that Nikki wasn't there, and the manager said that she hadn't come into work that day. Since Nikki hadn't been at her place when she woke up, Goyette just kind of figured that she was at work, but she wasn't. The next morning, Nikki had work again, but she didn't show up for this shift either, which she would never do willingly, like she was the kind of person who showed up at work when she was sick. Right, so two mornings have come and passed and she's not showing up at work.

Right, again, it's just weird because she wants all the money she can get. She's trying to save up. So very unlike her. So Goya and Michael got really concerned and they started calling different police stations and hospitals from San Francisco to Fresno to see if Nikki had maybe been in some type of accident or gotten into trouble somehow,

not that she was the type of person that would ever end up in jail according to everyone she knew, but they didn't have any luck. So then they started posting to Facebook and doing what they could to look into this. And then on April 5th, so four days after Nikki was last seen, Tess and Claire saw the posts and that's how they found out about Nikki being missing. So we can't be sure why Goi-at or Michael didn't inform them personally, but they didn't.

I don't know how close everyone is, I know that Goi-at and Michael had met Tess and Claire because Tess and Claire were so so so close with Nikki, but I don't think they were tight friends, you know, Michael and Goyette with Tess and Claire. This is pretty much when shit hit the fan, because it was days later and they had absolutely no idea where she would be. After learning that Nikki had withdrawn money and knowing she was trying to get Ariana back, Tess and Claire worried that she took out cash to give to Helena and Cielo, then went to meet up with them to meet and do the switch,

and then something bad happened to her there. As if Helena and Cielo were maybe holding Ariana hostage in some way? Yeah, that's kinda where their minds were going. And a reason why they felt this could be the reality of the situation is because they also described Nikki as being very naive and easy to fool. But hoping that everything was fine and wanting to take the proper steps, Tess and Claire reported Nikki missing with the San Francisco Police Department. And even Nikki's older sister, Catherine, flew up from San Diego to be there to figure

out what happened to Nikki. Even though Nikki's family reported her missing, the police weren't really doing anything about it. Since she was an adult who could do what she pleased and the text made it seem like she left on her own free will, Launforcemen didn't seem very convinced that anything had happened to her. But they also didn't do nothing. They interviewed both Michael Jakobo and, goi-at-williams, and got their side of things to help give them more information about what was going on in the whole story. They also made sure to check out what they were doing at the time that Nikki had disappeared,

but they were both cleared. No real suspicion fell on either of them except from Claire and Tess, but even that wasn't suspicions. They just kind of wondered if at first they knew more than they were really leading on since they were the two last people to see Nikki. But after talking to them and seeing how much they cared and all the things that they were doing to help find her, they all started theorizing that Helena and Cielo had to be behind this.

Nikki's younger sister Tess essentially took matters into her own hands and did everything that she could to figure out where Nikki was by contacting all of her friends and co-workers and getting on Facebook to spread the word. A big red flag for Tess and Claire was that Helena and Cielo didn't come forward asking about Nikki at all. Considering they had her daughter, Tess figured that they definitely would have commented on the Facebook post or reached out to see what to do with Ariana, but they never did. I mean this is huge because they have a child that is not theirs that they've been watching

and they're not even reaching out to anybody saying, hey, I haven't heard from Nikki in a few days. What do I do with her freaking child? Like that is a huge red flag. Yeah, 100%. It's like you've seen the posts. Like, come on, you had to have seen the posts and you still have this person's child. Like, what are you doing? Even so, days have passed and if you haven't heard from the mother Then you should be concerned and take matters into your own hands at that point and be proactive. Yeah, be proactive Maybe contact one of the sisters and and try and figure the situation out We're gonna get more into this particularly in a second

But I do want to just kind of point out Tess and Claire and Helena and Cielo didn't know each other, they didn't even know each other's names until this was all going on. So it's not like there were all buddies in texting and oh, they didn't reach out even though they knew and had the sister's number, because that's not the case, but the point is that they didn't try to find anybody

to get Ariana back to Nikki. Right, the point is is that they didn't try to find anybody to get Ariana back to Nikki. Right. The point is that they didn't do anything. Right. And I also do want to point out how seriously amazing Goyette and Michael seem as well as Tess and Claire, like they really care about Nikki and helped in every way that they could, and based on interviews that I saw of them, they all seem super intelligent

and genuine, and the exact kind of people that you want in your life, so kudos to all of them for going above and beyond to help Nikki before and after her disappearance. So Claire and Cielo weren't even friends on Facebook, and she wasn't with Helena either, so at this point Claire decided, I'm gonna request C.O.L.O. on Facebook and see what happens. So she did, and shortly after, C.O.L.O. approved Claire's request. With that, Claire messaged C.O.L.O. asking her if she had seen Nikki or if Ariana was with her, and C.O.L.O. didn't reply at all. Which is weird, because you see the message pop up, you got the notification just

like you got the friend request, why aren't you responding? Yeah, obviously if you approve this person, you're probably going to see their messages. Right, we go on Facebook, we do know that. And either way here, even if she didn't have Ariana and Nikki, she learned that Nikki was missing, she would probably be concerned about where Ariana was, considering Ariana had spent so much time with Cielo, so it's either way, just strange. Since Claire didn't get a response, she and Tess drove to Helena's house in Oakland to confront her, and they did have her address since they had dropped both Nikki and Ariana

their months prior. But Helena didn't come to the door. So they then went to Siyolo's house, which was also pretty close by. And luckily, they knew where she lived as well. Unfortunately, Siyolo didn't answer either. But Tess and Claire felt confident that they were hiding something. So they went back to the police and explained the whole situation to them regarding Cielo and Helena, and provided their full names and addresses, hoping that they'd be able to get the women to open up.

But just one week after Nikki went missing, on April 8, 2016, news came into the SFPD, and a detective reached out to Nikki's sisters, Catherine and Tess, and asked them to come in and speak with them immediately. When they arrived, the investigator explained to them that Nikki's body had been found and that she was the victim of a homicide. John McLaren Park is a massive park in San Francisco that takes up over 300 acres and it includes a ton of different amenities from multiple playgrounds and overlook, an amphitheater, a golf course, and even a pool. So it's a very beautiful place to spend a nice sunny California day.

But in the early morning hours of April 8th, 2016, a gardener who was on duty to work in the area of the Lewis Sutter playground saw a large, flat piece of wood with a silver spray-painted character on it, lying on a small pile of dirt in the playground-slash-park area. Thinking that it was just scrapped from construction or maybe just garbage in general, the gardener picked it up to dispose of it, but when he did, he noticed the body of a woman underneath in a shallow grave in the dirt. He immediately phoned the police and an investigation was underway, and they quickly determined that it was the body of 32-year-old Nicole Fitz.

And creepy enough, this park has seen multiple body dumps over the years. And I feel like this makes sense just because it's such a large metropolitan area, and I feel like crime rates are a lot higher in these areas. I mean, you're probably bound to stumble upon a body every once in a while, and I know that sounds terrible, but it's kind of the truth. No, it is. Same thing with Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and I'm sure many, many others, so yeah, you're totally right. And by the way, this particular area of the large park is only about

two miles from the apartment that Nikki was staying at and Bayview, so not far at all, about a 10-minute drive. So, police have not released Nikki's cause of death, but we do know for sure that it's being ruled a homicide due to the fact that she was buried in a shallow grave, I mean that's an obvious sign in itself, that her body was attempted to be hidden by the wooden board, as well as her cause of death, whatever that may be. So this case took a huge turn, because now not only is there the huge question of who killed Nikki, but also, where the hell is Ariana?

The first obvious place to look for police was to check Ariana's birth father's house and also Nikki's other daughter Cindy's father to see if maybe either of them had anything to do with Ariana's disappearance. Police questioned Cindy's father and found him to be very cooperative and concerned, and by all accounts he had been in Southern California during the time of Nikki's murder. So he's out. Then police tried to locate Arianna's father, but they couldn't figure out who he was

exactly, and it didn't seem that anyone in Nikki's life knew either. But from what police gathered from the various interviews that they did with Nikki's friends and family, they determined that the father didn't want anything to do with Ariana's life when he found out that Nikki was pregnant and never expressed any interest at all after she was born. Police also wanted to make sure Ariana wasn't at Goiets house and wanted to see if there was any evidence they're leading to more answers since that's where Nikki had recently been living, but they found nothing.

Then police quickly checked up on Helena and Cielo Harns and were quickly able to get search warrants for both of their homes, but they didn't find Ariana at either home. Police became even more suspicious of the sisters, particularly Helena, when they discovered that she shot and killed 20-year-old Dante Hebron, her fiancee's father of her 2-year-old child. She pled not guilty and only served 6 years in prison for the crime, and she was released about 9 years before Nikki's murder and Ariana's disappearance. Investigators had a really difficult time questioning Cielo and Helena because they were both

incredibly uncooperative and loyered up right away. The annoying thing here is that if they are involved, they probably wouldn't be dumb enough to kill Nikki and then keep Ariana in their homes where neighbors could spot them. So yes, Ariana wasn't found in their homes, but it doesn't mean that they don't have her somewhere else. Yeah, exactly. I mean, think about it this way. If Helena has already killed someone in her lifetime, she's probably willing to do

some other shady shit. Yeah, this is just, it's a very weird development. Another weird development. Another weird development. Shortly after all of this went down, like we're talking within weeks, both Cielo and Helena moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. They both grew up in Daily City, which is near San Francisco, but for whatever reason, moved to Las Vegas after Nikki's murder. And people all move all the time and try out different states, even ask Keith and I, but it does seem a little bit suspicious that they picked up and moved.

Yeah, I mean, I find that really weird too. I mean, especially if you're involved in a missing person's case, slash a homicide case, I think moving is a very weird thing to do, especially, you know, they lived in that area their whole lives and then they just decided to move all the sudden. And also to give you guys a little more perspective as well, when she, I say supposedly because obviously she went to prison for it, but you know, when she killed Dante, she was just 18 years old. And when all this was going down, both Cielo and Helena were in their late 30s.

So a few years older than Nikki was. But then of course, we can't forget about Lemissani. She still appears to be in the Bay Area, possibly San Francisco according to her Facebook, and police did search her home in Daily City at this time as well for Ariana, but again, to no avail. Not that I don't think she's involved, but I think Suspicion really does have to mostly fall on Siala and Helena, unless they're all three involved. Because Siala and Helena were the last people to see Ariana, and they absolutely could

have murdered Nikki or had someone else do it, and then dump her body in the park so they could keep Ariana for themselves. Because it truly does seem like all three of these women were obsessed with keeping Ariana with them and not giving her back. I mean, we have a lot of evidence of that. The Lemisani text when she said bring my baby back, when Nikki had a really hard time getting Cielo and Helena to meet up with her so she could take her daughter back like they were all really like weirdly obsessed.

Yeah, and Lemisani, she's sketchy, check. Cielo and Helena, sketchy, check. Like it's just this whole case. What I don't understand is why did Tess and Claire not get answers from Helena and Cielo? Like we know that police questions Cielo and Helena and what they were just like, oh no, we have no idea where Ariane is, even though we were the last people, we were the last people to see her. But they didn't admit that and it's not like they have, it's not like Cielo and Helena owned a

daycare that had camera footage and the police are like, we see Ariane in here the day that Nikki disappeared or something like that. This was just by the word of tests and Claire and, you know, go yet and everybody else in the circle that said, these women were watching Ariana but there's no actual proof of that. So all police can do is question them.

If they don't confess, okay, we got a search warrant. Ariana's not here, okay, now what do we do? You know, it's like, there's unfortunately not very much that the police can do until, you know, a witness comes forward or somebody in Cielo and Helena's circle comes forward and says, they have her, you know what I mean? Yeah, and I totally understand that. I guess it's just really weird because it's, it's almost as if we know who's done this who's taken Ariana. We have five people who all believe the same thing but there's no proof. It's just so strange. I know that's why this case is so frustrating because

it's like all the pieces are right here but we need the concrete evidence to put the nail in the coffin. But at the same time, again, there's three possible people that could be involved. It could be one of them, it could be two of them, or it could be three of them. So who is involved and who is not? After word of Nikki's murder spread and best by was informed of why she had been absent to work, the company offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could provide information of Ariana's whereabouts, but no one has come forward with anything that's lead police in the right direction.

Nikki's family believes that someone wanted Ariana all for themselves, and that she's still alive today. It's also very possible that Ariana was taken out of the area well before Nikki's murder, and that even the whole Disneyland excuse was a way to buy Helena and CO low more time. Because Ariana hasn't been seen since February, and she was seen in Oakland, so over a month before Nikki's murder. And I totally believe that because the whole Disneyland excuse is really weird. First of all, you're gonna drive her six hours away to go to Disneyland for the day,

which is really expensive. I don't know if these people kind of for that or not, but I mean, that's like a big trip. That's not, that's like family save up for that kind of trip. You know, you're not just gonna go randomly take her there one day. And it does seem really sketchy like, oh yeah, no we're in Disneyland. Like, oh, are you sure you weren't going to Vegas to drop her off at your new house? Yeah, and that's, I'm getting the same feeling. Like, like, you're not gonna drive six hours south and spend all that money to go to Disneyland with another person's child.

Like, that just seems so fucking weird to me, I don't know. Which, I mean, it would go to show you how much they were really interested in Ariana but still I just don't believe that. And of course police would have been able to figure this out if they looked at phone pings or you know credit card records and all these things of Cielo and Helena. I don't know if they did that I couldn't find that information and they're probably not releasing it but just so you guys know I couldn't find it. In 2017 a car that could be connected to Nicky's murder and Arianna's abduction was impounded. But no information regarding what they have

or haven't found or who the car belongs to has been released. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing about unsolved cases. Is a lot of the questions that we have, we can't find an answer to because police aren't making it public. Right. Police as well as Nikki's family believe that Nikki in Arianna's cases must be connected. The FBI is also involved in Arianna's case and Nikki sisters truly believe that the police

are doing everything they can to find out where she is and find the person or people who murdered their sister. Since this is still an open investigation, we weren't able to find information regarding who Nikki had spoken to on the phone that night if, you know, she still had cash on her when her body was found or anything regarding her cell phone pings. But if anyone knows any information about who killed Nikki Fitz or where Ariana Fitz is, please call the San Francisco FBI office at 415-553-7400 or the tip line 8333. Pursue. When Ariana was last seen, she was 2 feet tall, weighed 45 pounds, and she's black with brown eyes and black hair. Today Ariana would be 7 and a half years old.

There's an updated composite sketch that we posted on our social media, along with photos of her at the age of 2. We really urge everyone, especially those in the Bay Area or in Las Vegas, to go look at the photos to help find Ariana Fits and bring her home to her aunts who miss her dearly. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an all new episode for you guys to dive into.

This case is really tragic and I actually think this is the first case that we've covered where we think the missing person is still alive so please, please share this episode, share the photos, take a look at the photos, let's circulate this, because somebody out there knows something. Yeah, honestly, it's... this is kind of one of those rare cases where it's like, I really think that it can be solved. I really think that we'll be able to find Arianna. I just, I have this feeling that she's out there somewhere. Again, please share this episode as much as you can.

Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West and also to all the other ones. But if you're all caught up and you want more content, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast. We have a couple different tiers on there that get bonus episodes. You either get one or you get two. It's all up to you. But they're all full length,

ad-free bonus episodes, and they're cases that we wouldn't cover here because they're usually international cases, so go check it out. And these are the people who decided to subscribe and help out going west this week. Big thanks going out to Aaron, R.A. Hughes, Jimmy, Amanda, Chrisah, Laura, Annie, and Lindsay. And thank you so much to R.G. Bev, Heather, Ashley, Rebecca, Lauren, Alex, and Lizzie. Big thanks going out to Abigail, Tracy, Erica, Sarah, Denise, Jennifer, and Krista. And thank you to Stephanie, Jennifer, Josephine, Rachel, Allie, Deborah, thank you Kiki and Courtney, Madison, Nicole and Rowena. We have so many this week. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, thank you guys. There's still a few more.

So bear with us. Big thanks going out to Sarah, Carrie, Marie, Nicole, Carrie, Alyssa, Valentina, Marilyn and Kristen. And last but not least, thank you so much to Marissa, Jennifer, Sarah, Amy, Carol, Brooke, Madeline, thank you Yanna, Kim, Sherry, Megan, Michelle. Thank you Paige, Brandi, Alisa, and Amy. We really appreciate all your guys' support. It's really fun making those bonus episodes. We hope you guys are loving them. So thanks for joining the Patreon community.

Dang, that was a lot of patrons this week. You guys are fucking awesome. I know, my God, thank you guys. It means a lot, really how it's honestly what keeps the show going, so thank you. So for everybody out there in the world, cheerio and don't be a stranger! Thank you. you