One Year After He Went Missing, Clues Are Sparse

It's been a year since Daniel Robinson vanished in the Arizona desert, and his family says not much in the way of news on the missing geologist has developed since then. Robinson, then 24, disappeared after leaving his Buckeye worksite on June 23 of last year, and about a month later, his SUV was found by a rancher a few miles from the worksite. In a Thursday statement, the Buckeye Police Department acknowledged the "terrifying, confusing, and stressful time" it is for family members when someone goes missing, but the department added that investigators have never stopped in "their pursuit of answers that can bring Daniel home and provide closure for the Robinson family," per the Arizona Republic.

Not so, says dad David Robinson, who insists it's a private investigator he hired and volunteers who've made all the headway, as sparse as it's been. "So far, I have conducted over 40 weeks of searches in the Sonoran Desert, a search based on science and investigation that covers large amounts of land," he writes in a Tuesday update on a GoFundMe that's so far raised more than $270,000. "We have searched over 23K acres of that large area that has areas that haven't been searched yet."

He also has suggested that his son's case isn't getting nearly as much attention as other missing persons in recent headlines, such as Gabby Petito. "After 1 year, I still struggle to get (law enforcement) to treat my son's case as they did for others who don't look like him, even though my son's brilliance made Arizona great again," he wrote Friday on Twitter. He adds to FOX 10: "We don't have answers, don't have what happened to my son." The Buckeye PD notes it doesn't suspect foul play. Anyone with information on Daniel Robinson should call the Buckeye PD hotline at 623-349-6411 or alert them anonymously online. (More Daniel Robinson stories.)