Forgotten True Crime · Episode 14 · Every quote, numbered
Every Quote, Numbered
Daniel Robinson was twenty-four when he drove away from a water well site outside Buckeye, Arizona on June 23, 2021 and did not come back. Every quote in the episode is below, numbered in the order you hear it — who said it, when, to whom, and a link, so you can read the whole thing in context and decide for yourself whether it was used fairly.
If you know anything — the family tip line
844 · 602 · 0660
How to use this page
The numbers match the numbered quotes in the episode, in the order they are spoken. Each entry gives the speaker, the date, the outlet the words were said to, and a direct link.
Checked at source means the article was fetched at that link on the date in the header and its text compared against the quote, word for word. Not re-read means the quote came through a research pass and has not been independently re-opened — it is flagged rather than presented as confirmed. Corrected means the wording differed from an earlier draft of this page or of the script, and the difference is written out underneath it.
News pages get edited. If the wording you find at one of these links does not match what is printed here, that is worth telling us about, and it will be fixed.
This case is open and Daniel's family is alive. Their words are theirs. If anything here is wrong, say so and it will be corrected on this page, in public, with the change noted.
§3Who He Was
Daniel Cornelius Robinson, born January 14, 1997. College of Charleston, geology, 2017. Hydrogeologist for Matrix New World Engineering.
1
It wasn’t a handicap for him.
2
He was very into science, and he loved rocks that came out of the earth.
3
And I was sleeping. And Daniel says, ‘Hello, mom. I’m just checking on you. And I want you to know I love you. And we will talk later.’
Corrected August 24, 2026. Earlier drafts of the script and of this page cut the quote after “I’m just checking on you,” and then described that as the last thing he said to her. It was not — the sentence continues, and the last thing he said to his mother was that he loved her.
Her account of that night has been printed in more than one shape. An earlier research pass recorded it as “We talked and I said when we always end with ‘I love you and we’ll talk later.’ Later on that night, Daniel called me again… And Daniel says, ‘Hello, mom. I’m just checking on you.’” The version above is what the page carried when it was checked on August 24, 2026. Both renderings are set down here rather than one being picked for her.
Also relayed in this section
- That Daniel wanted to expand his horizons and not be trapped in a box — David Robinson II, Fox News, September 29, 2021. “He wanted to expand his horizons. He didn’t want to be trapped in a box. Trying to see as much as you can while young and trying to prepare himself for it.” Paraphrased on air. Link
- That their phone calls always ran two hours — David Robinson II: “Every time we talk, it was always a two-hour conversation.” NPR, June 29, 2024. Link
- The childhood friend who called Daniel his rock — Marcus McDonald, at a birthday gathering in Charleston: “Daniel you are my rock and a part of my life. Even when he wasn’t there, he meant so much to me.” Paraphrased on air. WCBD News 2. Link
- Biography — date of birth, College of Charleston geology degree (2017), hydrogeologist for Matrix New World Engineering, 5′8″, black hair, brown eyes, congenital absence of the lower right arm. Overview · NamUs case MP82064.
§4The Morning, and the Two Hours
4
When I first called in, [authorities] made me hang the phone up, wait two hours and call back
The square brackets around [authorities] are Fox News’s, not ours — the outlet substituted the word for whatever he actually said. The episode renders it as “they.” The quote is printed here exactly as the source prints it, without a closing full stop.
5
I kind of lost it. That prompted me to grab everything I could, throw it in my car and start driving to go find Daniel myself.
6
It was unacceptable to me. It didn’t make sense.
An excerpt. The full sentence as printed is “Law enforcement gave me an idea of what they said happened at that scene. It was unacceptable to me. It didn’t make sense.”
Worth knowing. The two-hour callback is David Robinson’s account, given consistently and on the record. No released dispatch record confirms or contradicts it. What the police file does show is that once the call was logged at 7:04 p.m. on June 23, the responding officer called Daniel repeatedly, called his employer, interviewed the coworker by phone, searched the desert with a second officer for hours, entered Daniel into NCIC that night and tried the phone again at 1 a.m. Both can be true; the episode says so.
§5Twenty-Six Days
The Jeep was found July 19, 2021 — twenty-six days later — rolled on its side in a ravine on a rancher’s property, about three and a half miles from the job site. No numbered quotes in this section.
The clothing question is resolved, from the primary source. For four years published accounts ran two ways — inside the vehicle, or in a pile a few feet away. Neither is what the file says. Det. Biffin, at the scene: “I observed a pair of jeans inside out, two brown work type boots, a faded orange vest with the Matrix company logo, a tee shirt and two socks which were inside out… Daniel’s clothing was collected from the ground.” Catone, the reconstructionist: “Scattered up the western side of the hill were two (2) socks, two (2) boots, jeans, shorts, shirt, and an orange reflective vest. In the pants was a wallet with an Arizona Driver’s License belonging to Daniel Cornelius.”
Not inside the vehicle. Not a neat pile. Scattered up a hillside, inside out, with the wallet still in the jeans — and the Jeep still in drive. The orange item visible on the ground in the Buckeye PD crash photograph is his Matrix hi-vis work vest.
Sources for this section
- What was in the Jeep — cell phone, wallet, keys, backpack and laptop, hard hat; every airbag deployed; the driver’s seatbelt buckled; no blood; the Jeep still in drive. Buckeye Police Department, Daniel Robinson Investigation Overview and the department’s Missing Persons Report (PDF, May 2023).
- Phone data — last recorded at the crash site around 10:05 a.m.; MileIQ stopped tracking at 10:32 a.m. at the coordinates where the Jeep was found. From the department’s May/June 2023 report release, as reported by Arizona’s Family, June 1, 2023.
§6What the Desert Gave Up
No numbered quotes in this section.
Sources for this section
- Seven weeks of searching without police assistance — David Robinson II: “We conducted seven weeks of searches without assistance from the Buckeye Police Department including searches with cadaver dogs, drones, and fixed-wing aircraft.” ABC15, September 27, 2021. Link Checked at source
- The volunteers as extended family — “Me and the volunteers that come out, they are my extended family.” Fox News, July 19, 2025. Link
- January 2023 — remains found near Johnson Road, later identified as Juan Fierro, 35, unconnected to this case. Arizona’s Family, Jan 9, 2023 · FOX 10 Phoenix
- The well — a tip on January 27, 2023 reported remains in a roughly 1,000-foot well half a mile north of Daniel’s last known location. Scoped February 9; excavated with heavy equipment February 13. Nothing found. Arizona’s Family, Feb 22, 2023
- The February 2023 multi-agency operation — February 18–20, Buckeye PD with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office: 60+ personnel, 3 K-9 teams, 6 mounted riders, 5 ATV crews, 4 ground crews, a drone. “The search did not reveal any additional evidence related to Daniel’s case.” FOX 10 Phoenix
§7Two Readings of the Same Jeep
The heart of the case, and the section where the record fights with itself hardest.
7
The driver of the Jeep drove it into the ravine, and having rolled and unable to proceed further, abandoned the Jeep as it lay.
Joseph Catone — ACTAR-accredited accident reconstructionist, San Tan Recon — the conclusion of the fifteen-page report he produced for Buckeye PD. He volunteered his services and was not paid
Buckeye Police Department report, Incident 210623079 — released May 30, 2023Checked at source
8
At this time, foul play is not suspected.
The full statement reads “Buckeye Police continue to investigate the disappearance of Daniel Robinson who was reported missing June 23, 2021. The missing person case remains open. At this time, foul play is not suspected.” The public case timeline on that same page has not been added to since November 23, 2021.
9
I can’t rule out foul play, I don’t know how Buckeye can.
The full quote as printed is “I found one of Daniel’s socks three miles away. There should be a secondary crime scene. I can’t rule out foul play, I don’t know how Buckeye can.” The episode deliberately does not repeat the three-mile figure. The police file locates the recovery near the roadway that runs back to Sun Valley Parkway from the job site, which is not three miles from the Jeep. The mileage is his; the sock is in the record.
10
You cannot speak for someone and say you know a person until you’ve been round them long enough to say they’re having a problem
Corrected August 24, 2026. The outlet prints “been round them,” not “been around them,” and prints no closing full stop. That is almost certainly a transcription artifact rather than her words, so the episode says “around” aloud; the quote is printed here as published.
On the four points, and what the file does to them. The eleven miles is a gap between the dash odometer and the crash module’s stored figure, not a record of driving — and on September 14, 2021 the family’s own investigator agreed with Det. Biffin that spinning wheels and a tow recovery could each account for it. The red paint has never been analysed by anybody, on either side. The passenger airbag is stronger than it has been reported: the officer’s supplement records that the vehicle was “not configured at the time of event to detect front passengers.” The ignition cycles number 44, including the officer’s own two presses during the download — and the count was taken July 21, 2021, two weeks before the Jeep was released to the family. Catone’s own phrase for the remainder was “an unanswered anomaly.” The figure of 64 that circulated for years was a typo he corrected in writing on November 1, 2021.
What is not on this page. The file contains a record of Daniel’s last days, including messages to and from his family and a list of private internet searches. The messages are quoted in the episode. The search list is not read aloud and is not reproduced here — it is in the public report for anyone who wants it. A coworker and a second man are named in the file; neither has ever been a person of interest, and neither is named in the episode or on this site.
§8The Month the Country Looked Away
11
It took an unfortunate missing person case that captured the nation’s attention that my son had a shot at being seen and heard.
Also relayed in this section
- Carmen Bolden Day, mother of Jelani Day, missing from Illinois that same summer: “I want them to look for my child like they’re looking for her. He is not a nobody, he is somebody” and “this young white girl is getting that attention and my young Black son is not.” Paraphrased on air. NPR, September 22, 2021. Link
- How the case reached a national audience — via a viral post pointing out that two young people had vanished that summer and only one was on television. 12News, September 2021. Link
- Dateline: Missing in America made Daniel Robinson the first episode of the series, July 2022. Link · Investigation Discovery’s Disappeared, Season 10 Episode 2, “Disappearance in the Desert,” aired September 14, 2022.
- The Black and Missing Foundation wrote about Daniel’s case again in June 2026. Link
- The claim about the national dailies. The episode states that the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and CNN have not covered this case. That is a searched-for negative — four separate research passes, the most recent on August 24, 2026, found nothing from any of them. If you find otherwise, say so and it will be corrected here.
§9The Fiftieth Search
April 12, 2025 — near Sun Valley Parkway and Rosewood Avenue. About a hundred volunteers, prompted by a witness report of a man walking out of a ravine.
12
I had heard some stories about Daniel’s case almost four years ago. I saw this one come up and I’m like, I’m gonna be there, David. No matter what.
Flagged August 24, 2026. Read at the source on August 10 as printed above. On a re-read the outlet’s text runs “I saw this one come up and I’m gonna be there, David” — without “and I’m like.” Either the page was edited or one of the two reads came off the accompanying video. Check this one against the source before the episode is recorded and set it whichever way the page reads on the day.
13
We didn’t ask to be part of the family, this thing happened to both our families
Corrected August 24, 2026. Earlier drafts read “to be a part of the family.” The source prints “to be part of.” The full answer as printed is “That’s exactly what it is. We didn’t ask to be part of the family, this thing happened to both our families, so I know Mr. Petito, Joseph, he knows exactly what I’m feeling.”
14
We’re not looking for Daniel out here running around. We are looking for remains.
15
It’s always that thing of not knowing what to keep and what to let go.
The episode uses the second half. The full quote as printed is “I was in the storage unit just before I came here to let things go. I had to do it before, and it’s always that thing of not knowing what to keep and what to let go.”
Also relayed in this section
- Joseph Petito on grief — that there is never going to be closure on the death of a child, but there is starting the grieving process properly. FOX 10 Phoenix, April 12, 2025. Link
- That the fiftieth might be among the last — David Robinson II: “I look at this 50th search as possibly being one of the latter searches that I have out in the desert.” Paraphrased on air. FOX 10 Phoenix, April 12, 2025. Link
- What prompted the search — a witness report of a man walking out of a ravine. Daily Caller, April 14, 2025
- A note on the date. The search was April 12, 2025 and ABC15’s report is datelined that day. Arizona’s Family’s piece sits at an April 12 URL but carries a byline time of April 11, 5:10 p.m. MST. The quotes are theirs either way; the date given here follows the URL.
§10What a Father Built Instead
16
I left the desert of Afghanistan and ended up in the desert of Arizona searching for my son, but I would’ve never thought it would’ve been the case where the training I had to never leave a fallen comrade would also mean not leaving my son behind and still try to fight for him as well.
The outlet prints “Afganistan” and “comrad”; both are the outlet’s spelling errors, not his words, and are silently corrected above. The episode trims the tail.
A note on what the bill is called. Coverage close to the family often refers to S.745 by an informal name attaching Daniel’s to it. The bill text does not mention Daniel Robinson by name — confirmed by reading it — which is why the episode and this archive use the real title. A Change.org petition of a similar name also exists; it is a different thing.
Sources for this section
- The Daniel Robinson Foundation — a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 88-2135623, motto “Never Leave an American Behind.” It publishes a family guide for the newly missing and refers families to search-and-rescue groups and to specialists in ambiguous loss. danielrobinsonfoundation.org
- The legislation. South Carolina Senate Bill S.745, the “Help Find Missing Americans Act,” sponsored by Sen. Ott, introduced January 13, 2026 and residing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It would require wireless carriers to release a missing person’s location data, call records and data usage to the account holder within thirty days, with criminal penalties for misuse and good-faith immunity for carriers. Read the bill Checked at source
- The congressional runs — South Carolina’s 2nd district, 2024: won the Democratic primary with 84.1%, lost the general 40.2% to 59.5%. A declared candidate again for November 2026. Ballotpedia
- The break with the private investigator — Jeff McGrath, July 2025: “When he contacted me, he was a desperate father, which is why I said I can’t find it in my heart to take money. But I think he lost focus. It’s unfortunate.” Paraphrased on air. InBuckeye, July 18, 2025
§11The Workup
17
We want to find out all that information, if Daniel was actually driving, so it’s a lot of stuff that needs to be tested.
The full quote as printed opens “All the airbags in the vehicle were deployed, so that signifies someone had to be in the passenger side.” The episode uses the second sentence and answers the first one separately, in §7.
Sources for this section
- The custody change, April 11–12, 2025. David Robinson II: “So, we did a custody change yesterday. They took possession of everything and they’re doing a full workup to see if we can come up with new leads in Daniel’s case.” Arizona’s Family, April 2025 Checked at source
- Still pending, June 2025 — forensic testing on the airbags, vehicle and clothing not yet completed. FOX 10 Phoenix
- Still pending, July 2025 — national coverage on the premise that new forensics might reveal the truth; nothing released. Fox News, July 19, 2025
- The department’s standing statement — “Buckeye police are committed to locating Daniel Robinson… This missing person case remains open until we find Daniel.” FOX 10 Phoenix, June 23, 2025
- Nothing since. Checked again on August 24, 2026: no forensic result from that workup has been published in any outlet. The Daniel Robinson Foundation keeps an active news page, and the most recent item on it specific to Daniel is from July 2025. Sixteen months. Checked at source
- The timeline. The City of Buckeye’s investigation page carries a public timeline of the case. Its most recent entry is dated November 23, 2021. Checked directly on August 24, 2026. See for yourself Checked at source
What Nobody Has
Things looked for and not found. Recorded here so the next person doesn’t have to look twice.
The dead ends
- No litigation of any kind. No public-records suit, no notice of claim, no civil action against Buckeye PD or the City of Buckeye. The family’s records pressure went through Arizona public-records requests and a 2023 mail-in campaign, not through court.
- No outside agency ever took the case. The FBI was briefed twice and never opened its own investigation. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the February 2023 search only. No state Attorney General involvement, no federal review, no external audit.
- No arrests. No named person of interest. No grand jury.
- No forensic results from the April 2025 workup have been made public.
- No blood was found in the vehicle, at the scene, or anywhere searched.
- No confirmed ground search since April 2025. Search #50 is the last one on record.
- No written news coverage of the five-year mark. June 23, 2026 appears to have been marked by a single FOX 10 Phoenix interview with David Robinson. Watch it
- No current reward. No current figure appears anywhere and the family’s own site lists none, which is why neither the episode nor this page states one. Any amount still circulating for this case is years out of date.
- Held out on purpose: a second recovery reported in July 2025 — remains found roughly three miles north of the Jeep and reportedly identified as a man missing from Litchfield Park since 2018 — is single-sourced to one local outlet and could not be corroborated in Arizona’s Family, 12News, ABC15, AZCentral or FOX 10. It is not stated as fact in the episode or here.
Corrections
Changes made to this page, or to the episode script, after the first draft. They are listed rather than quietly made — a page that promises you every quote in context has no business editing itself in the dark.
What changed, and why
- ★ [3] — Melissa Edmonds, on the last time she heard her son’s voice. We had: “Daniel called me again. And Daniel says, ‘Hello, mom. I’m just checking on you.’” — and then described that as the last thing he said to her. The source continues: “…And I want you to know I love you. And we will talk later.” The last thing Daniel said to his mother was that he loved her, and cutting the quote where we cut it took that away from her. Restored in full. Her account has been printed in more than one shape and both are now set down on this page rather than one being chosen for her.
- [13] — David Robinson II, on the Petitos. We had: “We didn’t ask to be a part of the family…” The source prints: “…to be part of…” One word, but it was inside quotation marks. Corrected.
- [10] — Melissa Edmonds, on police reading her son’s state of mind. We had: “…until you’ve been around them long enough…” The outlet prints: “…been round them…” Almost certainly the outlet’s transcription and not her words — but tidying it silently is still editing a living woman’s sentence, so it is printed as published and the reason is given.
- [12] — Joseph Petito. Unsettled, and flagged as such. Read at the source on August 10 as “I saw this one come up and I’m like, I’m gonna be there, David”; on a re-read the page runs without “and I’m like.” Either it was edited or one read came off the accompanying video. Marked Not re-read until it can be settled at the source.
- The clothing question. An earlier version of this page recorded it as unresolved — inside the vehicle, or in a pile beside it. It is resolved, from the primary source, and the entry has been rewritten.
- The Buckeye PD number. Earlier drafts carried 623-349-6411, which could not be confirmed anywhere. Corrected to 623-349-6400, alongside the city’s online tip form.
- The reward figure is gone. A 2022 amount had been included only in order to disclaim it. Printing a stale figure at all is still printing it, so it has been removed from both this page and the case file.
- Smaller fixes to the record. June 23, 2021 was a Wednesday. The coworker told police Daniel drove away south — the turn west is an inference from tyre tracks in the wet ground. Melissa Edmonds was not the last person Daniel called; the last outgoing call that morning was to a coworker. And the four points are one that collapses, one nobody ever tested, and two still standing — not, as a draft briefly had it, two that fail and two that hold.
- If you find another one, say so. It will be fixed here, in public, and listed with the rest.
Photograph Credits
Every image used
- The identification photograph, the Jeep in the ravine and the wide crash scene — released by the Buckeye Police Department and published on the City of Buckeye’s investigation page for public circulation.
- Daniel in the desert, and Daniel at the canyon rim — family photographs. Credit: courtesy of the Robinson family.
- The missing-person flyer — Black and Missing Foundation. An advocacy flyer, made for circulation. Note that its “Age Now: 28” predates Daniel’s January 2026 birthday, and that its “about four miles” differs from the department’s “approximately three.”
- Nothing on this site is reproduced from a broadcaster. Video stills and thumbnails belonging to ABC News, Arizona’s Family, FOX 10, ABC15 and Sinclair, and any Getty-credited image, are deliberately not used here.