On the fifth anniversary of the day that a woman’s body was found in the Bay Area, the FBI Thursday sought the public’s assistance to identify potential witnesses and “people of interest” who might be residing in the Los Angeles area and have information about her now-7-year-old missing daughter.
Arianna Fitts, then 2, and her 32-year-old mother were reported missing by family members on April 5, 2016. Three days later, the body of Nicole Fitts was found in a shallow hole in McLaren Park near the intersection Woolsey Street and University Street just south of San Francisco, according to the FBI.
The investigation revealed that the toddler was last seen in Oakland in February 2016 in the care of her babysitter and the woman’s husband, according to San Francisco police, who said Fitts “was lured out of her residence about 9 p.m. on April 1, 2016 — the day she was last seen alive — by a phone call urging her to `go meet the babysitter.”’
According to a statement released by FBI officials in Los Angeles, the agency “believes Arianna was not with her mother when Nicole was killed. Moreover, the FBI believes that witnesses and/or persons of interest may be residing in the Los Angeles area.”
The San Francisco Police Department has authorized a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for Fitts’ murder and her daughter’s disappearance. Her former employer, Best Buy, is also offering a $10,000 reward.
“The FBI and SFPD want to speak to everyone who interacted with Nicole leading up to her disappearance,” according to a SFPD statement. “Try to remember every detail you can, no matter how insignificant you think it may be. If you remember something, please contact us even if you previously talked with us. As we have continued to collect information, analyze forensic evidence, and have developed new leads, SFPD and the FBI will be reaching out to people again in the coming months.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI San Francisco Division at 415-553-7400 or the SFPD Tip Line at 415-575-4444, or send a text to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD, which guarantees the tipster’s anonymity.