The father of a geologist who vanished in the Arizonadesert three years ago has revealed his theories about what he thinks could have happened to his son.
Daniel Robinson, 24, disappeared in a remote part of Buckeye on June 23, 2021, with his car found overturned in a 20ft ravine four miles away almost a month later.
The Jeep Renegade was badly damaged with the airbags deployed. Inside were all the clothes Daniel was last seen wearing down to his underpants - apart from one sock - along with his wallet, phone, and credit card.
Buckeye Police Department said the case was not suspicious and ruled out foul play - suggesting that Daniel, who was born with one hand, had simply disappeared of his own accord.
But his father, David Robinson II, a US Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, refused to accept this explanation and launched his own probe.
Daniel Robinson, 24, disappeared in a remote part of Buckeye on June 23, 2021, with his car found overturned in a 20-foot ravine four miles away almost a month later. Police ruled no foul play, but his father said he was 'high spirited' the day before he went missing
Daniel's Jeep Renegade was badly damaged with the airbags deployed. Inside were all the clothes Daniel was last seen wearing down to his underpants - apart from one sock - along with his wallet, phone, and credit card
David Robinson ii, the father of geologist Daniel Robinson who vanished in the Arizona desert three years ago has revealed his theories about what he thinks could have happened to his son. (Pictured: David with his son Daniel in the months before he disappeared)
Speaking with DailyMail.com three years later, Robinson revealed that his investigation never ended - and he's hoping to take it to the next level by becoming a Member of Congress in November.
David, who won the Democratic primary election last month for his home state of South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District, said police mishandled Daniel's case and there are plenty of disturbing clues they never explored.
He blasted Buckeye Police Department for 'covering up' what really happened and ignoring crucial evidence which could have led to answers if it was pursued at the time.
Robinson said the department did not properly investigate why his son's clothes were found discarded in the jeep, and simply bagged them up and returned them to him after two days rather than treating them as serious evidence.
They even told him they thought his son had simply wandered off to 'become a monk'.
‘They called it a cold case when it shouldn’t be. I have leads and things that law enforcement officials can use and follow,' Robinson, 54, told DailyMail.com.
'For me, I really feel that foul play happened,' he added. 'We don’t know what that exactly means, but he didn’t do this by himself, given the circ*mstances.'
Robinson deployed drones, facial recognition technology and an army of more than 100 people to comb the desert for his missing son. He also enlisted the help of a retired police chief and a private investigator.
He revealed that they found a tranche of evidence which cops never mentioned, including Daniel's missing sock back at his job site, miles from where the other was found at the jeep in his ravine.
They also found that the jeep had miles on it beyond the day Daniel went missing, and that his apartment in Tempe, on the outskirts of Phoenix, had been ransacked in the hours before he vanished.
Geologist Daniel Robinson, 24, has been missing since June 23, when he was last seen leaving his worksite in Buckeye, Arizona
His father, Army vet David Robinson, has been in Arizona for months trying to find out what happened to his son
Pictured: Robinson's private investigator surveying the scene where his son went missing
Even more disturbing, they found that Daniel's personal laptop in his bedroom had been active after he went missing, suggesting someone else had been in his home.
‘His results were that someone was tampering with Daniel’s apartment,' Robinson said, referring to the private investigator.
David Robinson ii with his missing son Daniel
'He said that someone was looking for something in his bedroom. The way it was ransacked. His room was torn up.’
Robinson revealed that given the state of his son's vehicle, he believes the best case scenario was that he got into a road accident and forgot his own identity.
‘Maybe he was in some type of accident and hit his head,' Robinson told DailyMail.com.
'He doesn’t know who he is anymore. He is living among the homeless population in Arizona - it’s a big population.
'And someone was joy-riding his vehicle when they found it abandoned. If this is the case, maybe I can find him and rescue him.’
The grief-stricken father said that based on what the private investigator had told him, the worst-case scenario would be that his son was stripped and trafficked across the southern border.
'Potentially he's crossed the border and is being held against his will,' Robinson said.
Though these possibilities seem far-fetched, Buckeye Police Department's conclusion in 2021 was even more bizarre.
Geologist Daniel Robinson, 24, has been missing since June 23, when he was last seen leaving his worksite in Buckeye, Arizona
Geologist Daniel Robinson, 24, has been missing since June 23, when he was last seen leaving his worksite in Buckeye, Arizona
Daniel's Jeep, which private investigator Jeff McGrath claims raises a lot of questions about the circ*mstances surrounding his disappearance. The vehicle was found with its airbags deployed and with Daniel's wallet, clothes, phone and credit card inside
Pictured: Damage on Daniel's Jeep Renegade in pictures his father shared with DailyMail.com
Buckeye Police Department said the case was not suspicious and ruled out foul play - suggesting that Daniel, who was born with one hand, had simply disappeared of his own accord
‘The police told me he had a brain injury and went off into the desert to cool off,' Robinson said - though no blood was found in his jeep or at the scene to support this.
'One investigator even told me “maybe your son joined a monastery to become a monk”,' Robinson added.
'We are very close, family-oriented people and that’s not something that happens with my family. He could tell us anything. He would have told us if he wanted to become a monk.’
‘In my opinion, this is some sort of cover-up by law enforcement,' Robinson said. 'The cops did not want to process the evidence’.
'As a single parent I know a lot about my son which is why I’m really uptight with law enforcement,' he added.
'We had a conversation about everything. He was high spirited before he went missing.
'He had just come back from hanging out with his friends at a local bar. He was talking about his dreams. He also mentioned a young lady.’
Robinson - who was born with one hand - was the youngest of four children. He grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, and graduated from the College of Charleston
Daniel Robinson, 24, disappeared in a remote part of Buckeye on June 23, 2021, with his car found overturned in a 20-foot ravine four miles away almost a month later
Robinson said that two days before Daniel's disappearance, they had had a two-hour phone call where his son opened up about a girl he liked for the first time.
Daniel had been delivering something to a home where a girl named Caitlin opened the door and invited him to hang out with her and her roommate.
The young geologist ended up spending the night with Caitlin and she later appeared to spurn him - but his father said this had nothing to do with his disappearance.
'This was the first time he had girl talk with me,' Robinson said. 'He was kind of beating around the bush.'
Robinson said they used Caitlin's later apparent rejection of Daniel to 'twist the narrative'.
'Law enforcement used that as a basis to say, he was having troubles in his life,' Robinson said.
'They said he was depressed. It was very troubling to me because they twisted it. She had nothing to do with him going missing.
'They were sensationalizing the case to give off the vibe that Daniel was depressed in some way.’
Robinson said Daniel left three sisters and a brother behind in their home city of Columbia, South Carolina.
‘It’s hard because what happens is, you think about your loved one every single day. It’s on your mind every day,' he told DailyMail.com.
'I don’t know if he’s here on this earth. We don’t have the answers or the closure. I can’t tell my son I love him any more.
'You reduce your loved one down to a phone call, an old voicemail. It’s sad when you have to do that so you don’t forget their voice.’
Robinson's family have been organizing civilian search parties where he was last seen andhave accused cops of failing to conduct a thorough investigation
A marker near the ravine where Daniel's Jeep was discovered in the desert in Buckeye
But Robinson is channeling this energy into his campaign for Congress.
He's running on a missing person's platform with policies he hopes will improve the future of policing and the approach to launching inquiries about people who go missing more quickly.
Robinson said this is particularly important for black missing people, as he feels part of the reason his son's case wasn't taken seriously was down to race.
‘I want to bring the missing person’s crisis in America to the forefront,' Robinson said.
'Forty percent of those who go missing are black - and only 13 percent of the population are. That’s alarming. Being a black man I have to point that out again.’
DailyMail.com has contacted Buckeye Police Department for comment.
