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Like so many people in the US, 32-year-old Nicole Fitts 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 Arianna with a babysitter for extended periods of time.
This was the reality of trying to make ends meet for Nicole. Eventually, one of her coworkers noticed what Nicole was going through just to get to work each day and offered for her and Arianna to move in with her. Nicole was ecstatic. She scraped together enough money to get Arianna 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 they were out of town taking Arianna 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 Arianna out of town. According to Nicole’s new roommate Goyette Williams, 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, says she was going to meet the babysitter and would be back in 5 minutes.
A week later, Nicole’s body was found in a local park. Nicole’s killer has never been caught and Arianna remains missing to this day.
32-year-old Nicole Fitts 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, Arianna Fitts 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, Arianna Fitts would now be 8 years old.
The San Francisco Police Department is offering a $250,000 reward for information about Nicole and Arianna. And Best Buy is offering an additional $10,000 reward.
If you see Arianna, call 911 immediately. If you have information on Arianna’s whereabouts or anything related to the homicide of Nicole, contact the SFPD Homicide Unit at 415-553-1145, the SFPD Anonymous Tip Line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP 411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message, or visit sanfranciscopolice.org/tip.
Arianna and Nicole Fitts
Arianna Fitts' age progressed photo to age 8
The piece of plywood found over Nicole's body
Resources:
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Arianna Fitts. FBI, 14 July 2016, https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/arianna-fitts.
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