Turning tragedy into purpose: Gabby Petito’s father advocates for missing Black and brown people

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN

When Daniel Robinson, a 24-year-old Black man, went missing in Arizona in June 2021, his father, David Robinson, spent months pleading for police to be more aggressive in their search.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, Robinson temporarily moved to Arizona, hired an independent investigator and assembled a volunteer search team to look for Daniel.

Despite local media reporting Daniel’s disappearance as early as July 9, 2021, Robinson also felt the case did not receive the necessary media coverage. At the time, America’s attention was captured by the disappearance and death of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old White woman.

“You wish you lived in a world where everything was equal, but it’s really not equal,” Robinson told CNN then.

More than three years later, Robinson is still desperately looking for Daniel. He plans to travel to Arizona next spring and assemble a team of volunteers to search new areas and follow up on leads. And he has found a new ally in his efforts — Joseph Petito, Gabby’s father.

While searching for Gabby, Petito said he was being tagged in social media posts about the term “Missing White Woman Syndrome,” which prompted him to look it up.

The term, coined by the late TV news anchor Gwen Ifill, is defined by researchers as the heavier spotlight White women and girls receive when they go missing compared to anyone outside of those demographics.

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“I did a deep dive into it,” Petito told CNN. “I looked at popular missing persons cases and the ones that hit the mainstream all looked the same.”

Petito is on a mission to change that.

Discover how Petito is advocating for missing people of color.

One website shows how how much you’d get if you went missing.

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