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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.
Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.
Today, I'm discussing the case of Nicole and Ariana Fitz. Like so many people in the US, 32-year-old Nicole Fitz was struggling with housing insecurity. She worked at Best Buy in San Francisco, California, and would often travel up to 4 hours a day to commute to work from wherever she was staying at the time. Sometimes the commute was so bad, Nicole would just crash on a couch until her next shift.
This meant she would have to leave her two-year-old daughter Ariana with a babysitter for extended periods of time. This was the reality of trying to make ends meet for Nicole. Eventually, one of her co-workers noticed what she was going through just to get to work each day, and offered for her and Ariana to move in with her.
Nicole was ecstatic. She scraped together enough money to get Ariana a new bed and told the babysitter she was coming to pick up her daughter. But she was met with resistance from the babysitter, saying that they were out of town taking Ariana to Disneyland. She'd have to grab her daughter another day. Nicole was upset, obviously because she was ready to pick up her daughter, but also because they didn't tell her they'd be taking Ariana out of town.
According to Nicole's new roommate, Goyette, the plan was for Nicole to pick up her daughter on April 3rd, 2016. But on the night of April 1st, Nicole withdrew a large amount of money from her bank account, saying she was going to meet the babysitter and would be back in five minutes. A week later, Nicole's body was found in a local park, and Ariana remains missing to this day. This is the case of Nicole and Ariana Fitz.
Nicole Fitz was one of three girls raised by a single mother. They moved around a bit, but ultimately settled in Culver City, California. Catherine was the oldest, Nicole was the middle child, and Contessa was the youngest. For this episode, Contessa was kind enough to do an interview with me, and she told me that Nicole always felt like the baby of the family, because she was so shy, sweet, and kept to herself.
Nicole had a pure heart, got good grades, and was a teacher's pet, even wanting to be a teacher at some point herself. In high school, she spent much of her time volunteering for various programs, including at the Culver Recreational Center. She even received an award from the City of LA for her work with the center. Here is Contessa to tell us more about what Nicole was like.
Growing up with Nikki, so Nikki is what my sisters and I called her, Nicole. She's my older sister. She's a year older than I am. Growing up, I actually always kind of felt like I was the older sibling. Nikki was always shy and kind of...
uh, yeah, just kind of, yeah, just kind of shy and kind of kept herself a lot. And, uh, you know, us being just a year apart, there was three of us, um, girls growing up and, you know, us being a year apart, we were the closest, um, you know, always a year apart in school. Um, you know, my mom would even dress us the same very often. So people, um, always thought we were twins. Um,
And Nikki and I were in Girl Scouts together for a couple of years. And yeah, yeah.
Yes, when she was a teenager, she would volunteer for the neighborhood, the local park and rec center. She would spend pretty much every day after school volunteering her time there with the local kids who would come, the decorations for the park.
The another rec center that was in close proximity in the neighborhood there. She volunteered tons of her time at school with different projects and functions and things going on there, along with my mom. So she got awards from from the school as well. And, yeah, award from the city, you know,
And, you know, that was her as a teenager. And, you know, that's just how she continued, you know, to be, you know, into her adulthood. You know, anyone who's ever met Nikki can tell you just how kind and, you know, selfless she is. You know, again, sometimes to a fault. But, you know, she always looked out for, you know, people ahead of herself. One of my favorite stories to tell is how she...
the person who eventually became her roommate, like how they became friends was they worked together and I can't remember who was new. One of them was new. Either Nikki was new or this other person was new and
one of their first interactions with each other, you know, this person forgot to bring their lunch to work. So Nikki went out and, and, you know, got her lunch and that's just, you know, the kind of person Nikki is. It's just, you know, she wouldn't let people go without. I remember one time she was telling me about how, when she was going to get her tax return, how she was going to buy blankets for the homeless and,
And, you know, I thought that was great of her, but I actually had to tell her, like, you know, you probably, that's a great idea, but you should probably, you know, take care of yourself as well. Like, you can do that, but like, you know, don't spend all of your money on that. Like, you know, you need some things as well. And so, yeah, that's just the kind of giving person that Nikki is.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck the Fitz family while the girls were in high school, when their mother passed away from cancer. From here, they were split up as adults in their lives scrambled to care for the three sisters. Yeah, when I was 15 and Nikki was 16, our mom died. She died of cancer. And...
You know, we mostly just had to be there for each other. Luckily, you know, we had, or, you know, very gratefully, we had, you know, different families that we knew from the neighborhood that we were growing up in. And, you know, they were kind enough to take us in. And, you know, certain situations would happen, you know, with that, you know, they had to move on.
to other things. And so then we'd have, you know, another family who would help us out and take us in. And it wasn't easy for her two teenage kids to lose their mom. But, you know, Nikki and I having each other
uh i think it's definitely what helped get us through it because um like i said it wasn't easy at all and uh like i said very grateful for the people who were there and and you know took us in and helped us out um eventually uh we nikki and i ended up splitting um
Because Nikki ended up going to the job corps and I ended up moving in with someone else who took me in and sent me to school. But yes, very difficult time. And I guess I think having each other is what got us through it.
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This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by June's Journey. June's Journey is a hidden object mystery game, and you step into the role of June Parker and search for hidden clues to uncover the mystery of her sister's murder. Basically, you engage your observation skills to quickly uncover key pieces of information that lead to chapters of mystery, danger, and romance.
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Jumping forward a bit, in 2011, Nicole, Contessa, and Contessa's girlfriend, Claire, decide to move in together. They choose an apartment in Pacifica, just outside of San Francisco. Basically, it's the closest place to San Francisco they could afford.
If you aren't from the U.S. or maybe just not familiar with the area, in 2011, the cost of living in San Francisco was one of the highest in the country. It was about 61% above the national average at that time. It was just below the cost of living in Honolulu, Hawaii, so a very pricey city to live in.
Then, Nicole got pregnant with Ariana and fell behind on her end of the rent. So, the trio decided it was time to find more affordable housing elsewhere. Contessa and Claire moved to Santa Cruz over an hour away, but Nicole really wanted to stay in the area. So, she ended up staying in a local women's shelter.
After learning that Nicole went to this shelter, I asked Contessa about Ariana's father. Contessa doesn't even know his name, but she knows that once Nicole got pregnant, he didn't want to be involved. Ariana was born on September 6, 2013. Despite the distance, Nicole and her sister Contessa remained pretty close, and they saw each other often. Here is Contessa to tell us about what Ariana is like.
She's always a happy kid, um, just, uh, um, energetic and, uh, you know, it's quite contagious. Um, another thing that one of my favorite things to, um, tell about Ariana is just, you know, I remember anytime we're in public with, with Ariana, she would just, um, you know, smile and wave at people and, um,
And, you know, people are very responsive to it and they would smile and wave back. You know, she just has this magnetic energy about her and she's just like very curious about things and just...
I just remember her always smiling and such a bond she had with her mom to, you know, again, out in public, you know, the happiest little kid. But if her mom stepped away, she wasn't happy about that. She would get quite upset.
You know, I remember, you know, going out to dinner, you know, with all of us, Claire and Nikki and Ariana. And, you know, Ariana just happily, you know, drawing with the, you know, the little paper and crayon thing that they give the kids. You know, I have some pictures of her just like the biggest grin with her two little front teeth. Yes. Always smiling. Happy kid.
While living at the shelter, Nicole meets a self-proclaimed evangelical street preacher named Lemesani Briggs. Lemesani offered Nicole a place to stay and child care for Ariana, an offer that Nicole just couldn't refuse. At first, it seemed like things were going well. Nicole got a job at the local Best Buy store, her living situation improved, and she had someone she thought she could trust to watch her daughter.
But it was too good to be true. Lamassani became verbally abusive, refused to give Nicole a key to the house, and would go through her personal things when she was gone. Contessa says Lamassani even went through Nicole's personal writings on her laptop and confronted her about it. Obviously, it just wasn't a good situation. But I really wanted to get a better understanding of who Lamassani is. So I asked Contessa to tell me more about what she knew about her.
Um, so yes, she is a, uh, self, uh, reclaimed street, um, pastor, street preacher. Um, you know, I, I don't know, um, where, if, if she has an actual church, um, where she, uh, uh, you know, where people attend regularly, um,
I think that she's completely bogus. I think that she spews out a lot of religious speak. But I think it's just to get people to follow her and to be deceived and manipulated by her, I think, is all it is. And unfortunately, Nikki fell victim to it.
I feel like Lemesani was just always looking for, you know, the next person to prey on, the next person to take advantage of. And Nikki is easily that person because she is so giving and so kind and to, you know, to a fault, you know, to where she's kind of naive. And, you know, and then, you know, people like Lemesani take advantage of her.
While living with Lemesani, Nicole gets an offer for more affordable child care from Lemesani's nieces, Helena and Ciolo Hearn. They tell Nicole that they understand what she's going through with Lemesani, and they aren't even on speaking terms with their aunt. They'd be happy to watch Ariana for less than what Lemesani is charging her. So, Nicole agrees, and Ariana begins spending a lot of time with Helena and Ciolo Hearn, as well as Helena's husband, Devin Martin.
Nicole's former roommate Claire told SanFranciscoWeekly.com, She told me, yeah, these are Lemesani's nieces, but they're not really on good terms, so I'm not afraid. I know they don't really talk to each other, so I feel like I can trust them. Claire says she basically begged Nicole to find anyone else to watch Ariana.
But she couldn't pass up on more affordable childcare from people she thought she could trust. Unfortunately, after this, life only got harder for Nicole. Lamassani began charging Nicole more for rent to make up for the lost babysitting income, and seemed to just get nastier to her all around, calling her names and continuing to invade her privacy.
Finally, enough was enough, and in November 2015, Contessa and Claire went to physically remove Nicole and Ariana from the situation, calling on the San Francisco PD for backup. You know, when we, the next day, you know, Nikki called me up and, you know, she couldn't take it anymore. And sure enough, you know, Claire and I, we came and we got them. And, you know, it wasn't easy because, you know,
uh, Limassani wasn't having it. Um, and, you know, she wouldn't let Nikki get any of her stuff. Um, and, you know, just to be, you know, uh, precautious, we, we,
decided to have a cop come with us because we knew there was a possibility that it could get ugly so we had a cop just you know come with us so that you know it could be as peaceful as possible and and yeah she just was not budging she was refusing to let nikki in to get any of her stuff um to even get the car seat for ariana so that you know we could you know we could um drive with her in the car um
And, you know, once we did, you know, get out of there, she's just, you know, sending Nikki terrible texts and she's like, bring me my baby back. And yeah, so she was, yeah, she got very possessive. Like Contessa touched on, at this point, Lemasani began texting Nicole, telling her to bring her baby back, meaning Ariana. But Nicole tried to move on with her life the best she could.
She didn't have a car, so she was using public transportation to commute over two hours each way from Santa Cruz to San Francisco to her job at Best Buy. She was also trying to get all the hours she could to improve her situation, so oftentimes she'd work overnight shifts, crash on someone's couch for a few hours, and then go back to work, leaving Ariana with Helena or Ciolo.
Luckily, at Best Buy, Nicole met a few friends that really helped her out, including Goyette Williams, who eventually offered to let Nicole and Ariana move in with her. By all accounts, Nicole was very excited for this. She even saved up enough money to get Ariana a new bed and some presents for her when they moved in. But there was a huge problem. At this point, Nicole hadn't seen Ariana since mid-February, and we're now into mid-March 2016.
This is when Nicole contacted Helena and Sciolo saying she wanted to pick up her daughter. But they told Nicole that this wouldn't be possible because they were out of town in Anaheim visiting Disneyland with Ariana. Now, if you guys follow me on social media, you know that Disneyland is my happy place. That being said, I know a huge part of going to Disneyland is taking pictures. So, I asked Contessa if she ever saw a picture of Ariana from this trip to Disneyland.
She had to think about it, but eventually she said no. She'd never seen a single picture of Ariana at Disneyland. And she said that she was pretty sure Nicole never saw one either, saying it was the type of thing that Nicole would have absolutely shared with her. So, as far as I know, there's no evidence to prove that Helena or Ciolo took Ariana to Disneyland like they told Nicole.
The thing is, this entire struggle with Helena and Sciolo was something Nicole kept to herself at this time. So Contessa and Claire had no idea that Nicole wasn't able to get Ariana back. According to a statement Goyette made to True Crime Daily, Nicole was upset and told Helena and Sciolo that she was coming to get her daughter on April 3rd. But Nicole goes missing before that could ever happen.
On April 1st, 2016, Nicole went to work as usual at Best Buy. She had plans to see Claire that night, but Claire had to cancel. So, Nicole ends up hanging out with her friend and co-worker from Best Buy, a man named Michael. They go to the mall to do some clothes shopping for Michael's new job, and at the end of the night, Nicole grabs a pizza to bring home to Goyette.
During this time, Nicole sees a 7-Eleven convenience store and withdraws a few hundred dollars, possibly up to $600 from the ATM. I've seen some conflicting information about the amount, but Nicole never told Michael what it was for. When she gets home, she and her roommate Goyette eat the pizza and begin watching a movie. During the movie, Nicole is contacted by someone, presumably either Helena or C.O. Lohurn.
Because according to a statement Goyette made to True Crime Daily, quote, she was like, I have to meet my babysitter. She's over at some restaurant on 3rd Street. She's upset. I need to go see if she's okay. She said she was only going to be gone for five minutes, end quote. But Nicole doesn't come back at all that night. The next morning, Goyette wakes up to a text message from Nicole's phone. So Goyette gets a text message, um,
And it's from Nikki. And the text message says, I'm in Fresno with my friend Sam. Or like, I'm in Fresno with Sam, I think it reads.
And so that message comes from Nikki's phone. And, you know, once we find, you know, once we learn that, we're like, there's no way. There's no way that Nikki would just up and leave late at night, go to Fresno when she dies.
doesn't have a car and she has to work the next day like Nikki would stay late for shifts she would pick up shifts she would come in early she would you know she would be there whenever they needed her you know let alone for her own shifts but she would be there for for you know extra time overtime you know there's no way she would just um up and leave town and not go to work the next day
So, um, so yeah, when we saw that, we immediately knew that that was completely bogus. And, you know, she also just wouldn't be like, I'm with Sam because no one knows who Sam is. Like if, if anything, she would just be like, I'm with a friend, you know? So, um, so yeah, we definitely knew that that was a bogus message. Um,
Which, you know, you know, it has to be this all has to be done by someone who knows Nikki personally, because how could someone have Nikki's phone and know exactly who to text, you know, that message to?
In addition to the late-night text, a post was made on Nicole's Facebook account at 1.13 a.m. on the morning of April 2nd. So, when she was supposedly with this random Sam person no one knows, it read, quote, Spending some time with my three-year-old. Need the break. End quote. A few things stood out to Contessa about this post. First, she fully believes Nicole would have told her roommate Goyette as opposed to just posting on Facebook and not returning home. Second,
Second, in the post, break was spelt incorrectly, like car break, as opposed to needing a break, B-R-E-A-K. Contessa says Nicole was a stickler for grammar, and can't imagine her making this mistake. And last, Ariana was two, not three. So she has no idea why her sister would write that she was spending time with her three-year-old. I asked Contessa if Nicole had a passcode on her phone.
She said that she didn't know for sure, but she believed she would have, saying that she and Claire would actually poke fun at her for her laptop password being extremely long. Contessa believes her sister trusted someone enough to have the password to her devices, or she was forced to provide them. Four days after Nicole was last seen on April 5th, her family discovers that she's missing.
I was actually, I was driving, well, Claire and I were driving, Claire was driving, and I was a passenger, and
and, um, I get a text, and this is on the 5th of April, you know, it's not unusual for, um, you know, Nikki and I to go a couple days without talking to each other. We had spoken, um, I believe, um, the Sunday before the, the 1st, because, uh, that was Easter, and so, you know, we called each other up, um, so, like I said, not unusual that we go a couple days without talking, and
So I get a text message from our older sister and the message is, hey, is Nikki missing? And I respond back and I'm like, no, I just talked to her a couple of days ago.
And, um, I can't remember if she told me, I think she, if she told me to look at Facebook or if like, that was just my instinct, but I opened up Facebook and that's the first thing I see is a post with my sister's picture. And it says, you know, have you seen this person? And I am just in complete shock. Uh, like Claire just pulls over, like we have to pull over cause we're like, what the heck is going on? Um,
And, yeah, look at the post and so that she hasn't been seen in a couple days and we weren't that far from from home so we drive home and then, you know, we just, we're just trying to wrap our head around it trying to figure out, like, what could have possibly happened.
I'm not sure if that's when we see, I'm pretty sure that's when we saw that first post. But yeah, we start trying to figure out who to call, you know, work, trying to figure out like who, you know, Nikki is most likely to associate with the most. And yeah, so that's how we find out. Sister texts me and we see the Facebook post.
From here, Contessa Claire and Nicole's other sister Catherine go to San Francisco to file a missing persons report. But Contessa says that because of the text about being with this Sam person that again nobody knew, and this Facebook post, the police said that there wasn't much they could do.
So like so many families end up doing, Contessa began her own investigation the best she could. I do want to ask, you know, about your experience in kind of conducting your own investigation. And I, you know, I have to ask, did you feel compelled to kind of put these pieces together yourself because you felt the police weren't taking it seriously? Or is it just something you were naturally compelled to do? It was it was actually both.
Because so the first thing we did was we did a missing persons report for
And, you know, we started calling hospitals and we started calling like anything we could think of, like very far fetched, but we, you know, called jails. We called, you know, we called any place that we could think of that, you know, a possibility that she could be. And, you know, unfortunately our interactions with the police was that because there was a message that said she was, she was away, you know,
they couldn't say it was foul play. And because we didn't know if she was with Ariana or not was another reason they couldn't say it was foul play. Like if we knew where Ariana was and just didn't know where Nikki was or the other way around, then they would be able to do more as far as like ping Nikki's phone and
And they couldn't do any of that, which was very frustrating. But, you know, at the same time, I had to understand that they, you know, if they can't do it, they can't do it. But so, yeah, that's what causes us to have to, you know, do our own our own digging and
and, um, you know, resources we've, we got ahold of, of Nikki's friend, Michael, and, um, uh, you know, try to figure out, you know, what took place the last time they saw each other. We got ahold of, of, you know, Nikki's roommate, Goya, who, um, you know, I, I met Michael once before they had come by, um, Nikki and Michael to Santa Cruz. Uh, I had never met Goya before. Um, and, uh,
So, yeah.
you know, learned how to get a hold of them and, you know, get, figure out what they knew, you know, try to figure out who the babysitters were. Like, because, you know, whenever Nikki talked about them, she just, you know, referenced the babysitter. She never said, you know, Helena, she never said Cielo. So, you know, we're trying to figure out who they were and how to get a hold of them. Like we went to Best Buy to look at her emergency contact list. Hopefully they were on there. You know, they weren't.
So, you know, coming through social media, you know, Claire and I had remembered dropping Nikki and Ariana off at Helena's apartment one morning. We didn't, you know, we didn't see her or anything. We had gone there and it was probably like five in the morning and we were just parked outside the apartment and, you know, Nikki tried to call her, she didn't answer. And so we ended up driving Ariana to,
I think it was Cielo, the other babysitter. So, you know, during the time that we were doing our investigation, like we didn't know their names. We didn't actually know their address, but we just drove to Oakland and we were like, we know it's near the Greyhound station. So we found the Greyhound station and we just started driving around there until we found the apartment. Yeah.
And then, you know, we got pictures of the apartment and yeah, we just had to do a lot of our own investigating. And then we, you know, we documented everything. We wrote down like names of people who, you know, once we figured out the babysitter's names, we wrote down, you know, we typed out their names and addresses and, and, you know, everything so that, you know, we can hand all that over to the police.
Yeah, there was a lot of information that we figured out on our own. Now, Contessa and Claire did try to get in contact with the Hearn sisters. Claire actually sent Sciolo a friend request on Facebook, and she accepted it. So, Claire sent Sciolo a message asking if she'd seen Nicole or Ariana, but she never responded. Then, they got the news they'd been dreading. Nicole's remains had been located.
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On April 8, 2016, a Parks and Recreation employee found Nicole in a shallow grave in McLaren Park in San Francisco. She was in the fetal position and had been brutally beaten.
She was covered by a piece of plywood with a symbol painted on it. You can find a picture of the actual piece of plywood on my social media channels and the website. But the best way I can describe this symbol is it almost looks like someone drew a grocery bag with a large circle on it. Or if anyone is familiar with the popular video game Among Us, it almost looks like one of the characters turned upside down.
Though, I do have to mention Nicole was found years before this video game came out. I'm just trying to give you some type of reference point. As far as I could find, no one really knows what the meaning of this symbol is, or if it has any meaning at all. It's entirely possible that whoever did this just found a piece of plywood laying around, and what was painted on it was just random graffiti. Now, before we really get into the investigation, let's talk about McLaren Park.
According to their website, quote, at 313 acres, McLaren Park, San Francisco's second largest park, offers a wide range of both active and passive recreational opportunities.
These elements range from trails and paths to six playgrounds, five picnic areas, tennis and basketball courts, an amphitheater, natural areas, a clubhouse, an off-leash dog play area, golf course, reservoir lake, marsh, baseball diamonds, and other amenities. The park has significant topographic changes.
with over 225 feet of elevation change, and sweeping vistas of downtown San Francisco, the East Bay, and San Bruno Mountain. End quote. You guys know me, I had to look further into this park. Apparently, it's really wild, and there were just a ton of overgrown hills and dense blackberry bushes and fennel plants. The city actually dedicated $12 million into renovating it.
It was during these renovations, while someone went to finish repaving a pathway, that Nicole was found. But this is far from the first time someone was found dead in that park. In 2006, the remains of 5-month-old Camille Ferguson were found in dense brush. In 2009, gardeners found body parts of 32-year-old Amar Sheriff Alaa. He was reported missing in 2007.
In 2015, 18-year-old Jonathan Caballero was shot and killed in the park. All of this to say, this park wasn't your ordinary park. It was this huge piece of land with some very overgrown and seemingly kind of desolate areas. It's somewhere many people before Nicole's murderer felt comfortable enough to kill someone and or hide a body.
Contessa says that after Nicole was found is when the San Francisco Police Department began taking the case more seriously. The FBI has come out to say that they don't believe Ariana was with Nicole when she was killed, but they do believe Nicole's murder and Ariana's disappearance are connected. Not long after Nicole was found, search warrants are issued for Sciolo's home in Emeryville and Helena's home in Oakland, but Ariana was not located.
Police would later come out and say that their statements were inconsistent, and they were not being cooperative. During the investigation, it was also discovered that Helena Hearn killed the father of one of her two children when she was 18. Despite initially facing up to 50 years to life in prison, she only served six.
Now, as much as I would love to tell you more about Helena and C.O. Lohurn and Helena's husband, Devin Martin, that's really all that's been made public about them at this time.
Commander Greg McEachern told the media, quote, We are confident that Ariana was in the care of a couple individuals. I think she's still in the Bay Area. And I think she's still alive. End quote. On May 18th, Best Buy offered a $10,000 reward for information that led to the recovery of Ariana, which I just have to say is pretty freaking awesome of them.
Now, like we see in so many cases, at first there was a lot of media coverage surrounding Nicole and Ariana, but then it slowly tapered off. With financial assistance from victims of violent crimes, they held a funeral for Nicole and had her ashes put into a salt urn. Then they took a boat out into the ocean near Marina del Rey and put the urn in the ocean and watched it dissolve. As it dissolved, a group of dolphins appeared.
Claire told San Francisco Weekly, "...most of the time when you think of dolphins, you just imagine gray ones. But these were gorgeous. They had patterns all over them." A crew member on the boat said he'd never seen so many dolphins together at once, and so close to one of his boats. Obviously, Nicole should have never lost her life, but I'm really glad that they all had this beautiful moment while laying her to rest."
Now, the police are rather tight-lipped about the investigation, but because it seemed likely that Ariana was still with Helena and Cielo Hearn, as far as I could find, there were no widespread searches for Ariana. They weren't bringing out teams of hundreds of people to comb the area.
In 2017, the San Francisco PD announced that they were searching a vehicle potentially connected to Ariana's disappearance. Contessa has speculated that it was Helena's car. At this time, the police announced that they are making great strides in the investigation. But what those strides are, we don't really know. Contessa told me that while she trusts the police are doing a good job, she'd like to see what some of these behind-the-scenes strides are, because progress is slow.
In June 2021, Nicole and Ariana's case was featured on the podcast Inside the FBI. For those not familiar, this is a podcast produced by the FBI. In the podcast, spokesperson Catherine Zackel reported that there is new digital and biological evidence that they hope will lead them to finding Nicole's killer.
In April 2022, a press conference was held to discuss the status of the case. Taking the microphone was Assistant Special Agent with the FBI, Scott Shelby. It's been six years since Nicole Fitz was tragically murdered and since her two-year-old daughter Ariana was last seen. It's been six years of heartache and uncertainty for their family, their friends, and their entire community.
Today we are here asking for the public's assistance to help us find Arianna and bring her home. I want to start by giving you all a brief update on the status of this investigation. After six years of a joint investigation between the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department, there's a great deal of information that we have uncovered related to this case. In just the last few months alone, we have developed many new leads.
We have re-interviewed witnesses who have provided us with new information. We've had new individuals come forward and provide us information as well. We continue to re-examine the original evidence on this case, and that has led to additional evidence being recovered. Additionally, there have been significant advances both in digital and biological forensic evidence that is allowing us to see much more than what we knew six years ago.
We know that six years ago today was the last time that Nicole was seen alive. Her remains were found a few days later, which was a terrible tragedy for her family. Law enforcement began immediately looking for Ariana. We do not believe that Ariana was with Nicole at the time of her death, but we do believe that Ariana's disappearance is related to Nicole's murder. We know that Nicole was a dedicated mother.
a hardworking employee, and she deeply loved her family. We know that at the time of her death, she was working hard to find a safe and stable home for both of her daughters. And we know that Arianna has a loving family that can't wait to find her and bring her home. We can't share with you everything that we know about this case at this time. I know that can be frustrating, but this is an active and ongoing investigation, and we're not going to compromise the integrity of the case.
We won't be able to release everything that we know and there are going to be some questions that we will not be able to answer today. We ask for your patience so that we can protect the integrity of this investigation as it moves forward. I also want to talk briefly about what we don't know and this is critically important because this is where we need the public's help. We ask that you take a long look at the photos of Arianna which includes the new age progression photo. Please
Please contact law enforcement if you have any information to share. Even if you have previously talked with us, we want to hear from you again. No detail is too small. Let us worry about assessing the value of that information. We believe there are multiple people with direct knowledge of this case who have not fully cooperated with law enforcement. We believe there's even a larger circle of people with indirect knowledge of what happened. Perhaps you heard of something or thought of something from that night.
Perhaps you know more about Nicole's last movements or have heard some information about Ariana's whereabouts. We are asking you please to come forward to law enforcement. You can contact the FBI. You can contact the San Francisco Police Department. If you are uncomfortable talking with law enforcement, we ask that you would contact NCMEC, which is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We will never give up looking for Ariana.
By now, she is an eight-year-old girl. The FBI and the San Francisco Police Department are working with NCMEC to put up billboards with photos and age progression images of Ariana throughout California and Nevada. In the past year, we've reached out to the public through media interviews, podcasts, social media posts.
We will not stop shining a light on this case because we know we need the public's help to bring Ariana back home. If you have any information on Ariana's whereabouts or the homicide of Nicole, please contact the FBI San Francisco Division at 415-553-7400 or through tips.fbi.gov. Tips can remain anonymous.
You can also contact the San Francisco Police Department's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444. Or you can text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. That will guarantee the caller's anonymity. The FBI and our partners here at the San Francisco Police Department have an unwavering resolve to find Ariana and to find those responsible for Nicole's death.
We will never give up until this case comes to a resolution. We will never give up until we have justice for Nicole and justice for Ariana. Thank you for your time. This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series, Back in Crime.
If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.
In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.
As of recording this episode, this is basically where Nicole and Ariana's case is today.
No arrests have been made, and authorities refuse to name any suspects or persons of interest in the media. But Helena Hearn's attorney says that Helena has given police all the information she has, end quote. Now that they've changed her from being a witness to a possible suspect, I'm not going to let her give any more statements, end quote. But Contessa isn't holding back her feelings about the case, and I'm not going to censor her.
there's no doubt in my mind that the people who were babysitting Ariana are responsible. There's no doubt in my mind that Helena Hearn and Cielo Hearn and Devin Martin are responsible for killing my sister and abducting my niece. I have no doubt at all. Um, and I'm just surprised that they still aren't arrested. I mean, um,
I just, it boggles my mind that they aren't. I don't understand. It's believed that Helena, Cielo, and Devin are now living in the Las Vegas, Nevada area. Billboards with Ariana's age-progressed photo were recently put up in both California and Las Vegas.
As a part of the process when I do these interviews for these cases, at the end of our conversation, I always ask if there's anything they'd like to add. Anything they want to make sure makes the final cut of the episode. And this is what Contessa had to say. But, you know, I just think I just want to say that I think I don't think I need to say, but, you know, Nikki definitely, definitely did not deserve this.
What happened to her? You know, Nikki's life was just about giving to others and, you know, taking care of her kids. And, you know, she loved her kids. And sorry, like I said, she didn't deserve this. And, you know, Helena and Ciolo and Devin, they're, you know, they're just they're just evil and they need to be caught.
Okay, I'm sorry. I'm kind of just... You don't be sorry at all. You take all the time you need. You say whatever you want. Thank you. But, you know, at this point, we need to do this for Nikki and we need to do this for Ariana. We need to bring Ariana home for Nikki. Because if Nikki can't be here to take care of her daughter, the...
She definitely wants nothing more than Ariana to be with her family. So we need to bring Ariana home for Ariana. We need to bring Ariana home for her family. And we need to bring Ariana home for Nikki. You might have caught that Contessa said Nicole loved her kids. Plural. Ariana does have an older sister.
For her safety, Contessa asks that I keep her out of this episode, other than letting you know that Ariana's big sister loves her and misses her very much. That brings me right to our call to action. Please share Ariana's picture, especially her age-progressed photo. Contessa says she believes it's exactly what she would look like now as she approaches her 9th birthday.
Contessa does hold out hope that the people who took Ariana are either keeping her safe or gave her to someone else who they believe would care for her. Authorities have also asked the public to share the photo of the plywood found covering Nicole's body, in hopes that someone recognizes the symbol on it. As always, all of that information is available on my social media and website, so please take a moment to share that information.
You never know who could see it and call law enforcement with a tip that could bring Ariana back to her family where she belongs.
As a reminder, 32-year-old Nicole Fitz was found murdered in McLaren Park in San Francisco, California on April 8th, 2016. She was a black female with black hair and brown eyes. Nicole's daughter, Ariana Fitz, was last seen in Oakland, California in February 2016. When she went missing, she was 2 years old, weighed approximately 45 pounds, and was 2 feet tall.
She is a black female with black hair and brown eyes. As of recording this episode, Ariana Fitz would now be 8 years old. There is a $250,000 reward for information about Nicole and Ariana, as well as the additional $10,000 reward being put up by Best Buy.
If you see Ariana, call 911 immediately. Anyone with information on Ariana's whereabouts or Nicole's homicide are asked to contact the San Francisco Police Department Homicide Unit at 415-553-1145. You can also text TIP411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message or visit sanfranciscopolice.org slash TIP.
But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time. Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode includes research assistance by Lena Gugelhock. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out my other podcast, Disappearances, only on Spotify. And for even more content, check out my Patreon page at patreon.com slash voicesforjustice.