Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and this is one of two mini episodes that we're releasing today. So if you're just tuning in, be sure to check out your feed after you listen to this episode. And this episode is about a young mother trying to get back on her feed to care for her daughters. But someone got in the way of that when they took the woman's life, and at the same time her youngest daughter goes missing.
The connection seems too close to write off as a coincidence and investigators need your help getting the people with answers to talk. This is the story of Nikki and Ariana Fitz. It's the morning of April 2nd, 2016, and a woman named Goya wakes up to this strange text message from her roommate Nicole Fitz, Goya sees that at some point in the middle of the night, Nikki had texted her saying that she was going to go to Fresno, California with a friend named Sam.
But Fresno is like four hours away from where they live in San Francisco, and Nikki doesn't have a car. Now, Goya has never even heard of a friend named Sam, and Nikki's not the type of person who just takes off with a little warning. But what makes this all extra strange is this memory that Goya has of the way that Nikki left the night before. At the time, it wasn't concerning, but now in hindsight and in light of this message, it's just kind of gnawing at her. You see, Nikki had left some time in the evening saying that she was going to go meet someone at a local restaurant, and then she'd be back soon.
But she didn't come back, and by the time Goya went to bed, she still wasn't home. Now, Nikki is 32 years old, and she has every right to take off on some mystery trip and not tell her roommate about every friend she has. But Goya's confusion only grows when she gets on Facebook and sees that Nikki made a post at like 1.13 in the morning that reads, quote, spending time with my three-year-old, need this break, end quote. So, Nikki does have a little girl, Ariana, but she's two, not three. And in the post, the word break is spelled B-R-A-K-E, not B-R-E-A-K.
According to reporting by Nula Sawyer-Bashari for SF Weekly, Nikki always used proper spelling and grammar. She's not like me. So, Goya starts to wonder if Nikki was even the one who wrote that post to begin with. Now, at the time all of this is happening, Nikki's daughter Ariana doesn't actually live in the home with them. Based on my research, I don't think Goya knows all of the details, but Nikki had fallen on some hard times, and so while she was trying to get back on her feet, she let Ariana stay with some babysitters in another part of town.
But during this time, just to feel you know what's going on, things were looking up for Nikki. I mean, she had got a job at Best Buy where Goya also works. She was working on bringing Ariana back to live with them. So, part of Goya is wondering, okay, maybe she did go on some kind of trip with her daughter. I don't know, but it all still seems weird.
And it keeps getting weirder as the whole day goes by without any sign of Nikki. And weirder still when the next day comes and Nikki is a no-call, no-show to work. And then the same thing happens the next day. This is super unlike Nikki, and her co-workers start to get really worried. So, they start asking around to see who last talked to her.
Another co-worker named Michael Jacobo says that the last time he saw her was the last time she was at work a few days ago on April 1st. He says that her shift was entirely normal, and after they got off work, she had been planning on going and hanging out with her sister's girlfriend, who was in town for an interview. But like something happened, those plans fell through, and so she and Michael actually decided to go to the mall. Just like her shift at work, Michael said that their mall trip went smoothly, and Michael didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He bought some clothes, and before the two parted ways for the night, they stopped by a pizza hut so Nikki could pick up some food.
But then, he said she did something weird that even at the time Michael thought was a little strange. She went to a nearby 7-eleven and withdrew a few hundred dollars from an ATM. Now, she didn't tell Michael what the money was for, and I'm not sure if he even asked about it, but now that he's looking back on it, it stands out even more. Though, to be fair, he doesn't even know what to make of it. He's just like, I don't know why she was pulling out a couple hundred dollars, and she's like, go home because that's where he thought she was going.
Nikki continues missing work, and by this point, her coworkers are sure something is wrong. But they don't call police. And it's around this time that Nikki's sister Tess and Tess's girlfriend Claire learned that Nikki is missing. And when they hear that she hasn't been seen in a few days, they start panicking. Because just like her coworkers, they know that her missing work is a massive red flat.
They're even more concerned because they have a little more context than her roommate and coworkers do. And what they know makes them so nervous. You see, Nikki had more than her fair share of struggles in her lifetime. For a while, she experienced homelessness, and in addition to two-year-old Ariana, she also has another daughter named Cindy, who's 12. Now, she lost custody of Cindy years ago, but she was actively working on getting her back, and she seemed to be so close.
But a big piece of that was where she was going to live and finding a place for her and Ariana and eventually Cindy had not been an easy journey. According to an article for KTVU Fox 2, while Nikki was staying at a local homeless shelter, she met a woman named Lemasani Briggs. Lemasani described herself as a quote unquote street pastor, and she had offered Nikki and Ariana a place to stay. Nikki accepted, and at first it seemed like a really good deal. Like she and her daughter had a roof over the head, she got that job at Best Buy, and Lemasani would watch Ariana for her while she was at work.
Now, even though she didn't have to pay some rent, this seemed like the first step in getting her life back on track. But things quickly took a turn. Lemasani raised her rent, and she even raised the fee for babysitting Ariana. So just about all of her Best Buy page checks are going to go straight to Lemasani. And as time went on, their relationship began to deteriorate, to the point where Lemasani was being verbally abusive and going through Nikki's things.
And what's more, Nikki was never even given a key to the apartment that she was living in and paying rent for her. So she couldn't just come and go as she pleased. Now, during all of this tests and clear, we're aware of how bad things have gotten. So they eventually stepped in and got Nikki and Ariana out of that house in November of 2015. But just because she left Lemasani doesn't mean that the harassment stopped.
Over the next few months, Nikki got texts after texts from Lemasani demanding that she bring Ariana back to her. But Nikki stayed away. She never moved back in. After she moved out of that house, Nikki bounced around a few friends' couches, but she knew that Ariana needed a more consistent place to be. So she would actually leave her with two sisters, named Helena Martin and Ciolo Hearn, while she was at work.
Now, Nikki knew these two because they are actually Lemasani's nieces. And they would sometimes help babysit Ariana before the two had moved out of Lemasani's house. But even though the two sisters and Lemasani had a strange relationship, like they weren't getting along, Nikki trusted Helena and Ciolo. She felt like her daughter was safe with them. You know, she'd stayed with them before, and you guys finding childcare is rough.
I do not know how single moms do it. Like, she cannot afford a better life for her and her daughters unless she works. She cannot work unless she has childcare. This is an impossible situation that so many parents find themselves in. So Nikki utilizes the help she can get.
And since she was couch hopping, it made more sense for Helena and Ciolo to babysit for days at a time. So Ariana had a safe place to stay. Again, she was looking for consistency for her daughter. Now, eventually, Goyette offered to let Nikki stay at her place, and she even offered to let Ariana come stay there too. But after Nikki moved in with Goyette, she ran into another problem.
Helena and Ciolo wouldn't give Ariana back, and they weren't even letting her see her own daughter. Every time she would reach out, they always had some excuse. Like once in March when Nikki said that she was going to go pick up Ariana, they said that they had taken her to Disneyland, which Nikki hadn't even known about or approved. And this was all upsetting, but Nikki wasn't really letting people in on how worried she was. I don't know if she was embarrassed or trying to protect herself or trying to protect her daughter, but she kind of kept this to herself.
In fact, Tess and Claire hadn't actually seen Ariana themselves since about February. And when they finally learned about Nikki's struggles to get Ariana back, they realized that they had no idea how long it had been since Nikki had seen her own kid. So this is the situation. This is where everything stands, and this is all the background info that they have, while Nikki herself is now missing. So Claire and Tess, and then Tess and Nikki's other sister, Catherine, they all go report Nikki missing on April 5th.
You guys want to guess what happened? Yeah. They're told that since Nikki is over 18, there is not much they can do. Now Ariana is reported missing around this time as well. Sources vary on exactly when she was reported missing and what police's initial efforts were to find her.
But that doesn't stop Tess, Claire, and Catherine from searching for the two themselves. They go through Nikki's Facebook friends, they start contacting people, and eventually they reach out directly to Helena and Ciolo. They do this by Claire sending a friend request to Ciolo, which gets accepted. But when Claire sends her a message, she doesn't get a response. So after getting the silent treatment, the women decide to try to physically track these two women down.
They had actually been to Helena's house once before, so they drive over, they knock on the door, but no one answers. So they go to Ciolo's apartment, they do the same thing. But again, no one answers. Now this whole time, there's something strange and disturbing that's happening, because even though Nikki is missing, her Facebook is still active. And either she, or more likely someone who has her login, keeps making posts.
And you might think that seeing activity would be encouraging, but the stuff that's being posted is really worrisome. In the ITDU Fox 2 reported that on Thursday, April 7, there is a post on her page that reads, quote, Happy Birthday to my son. But hi, this is weird, because anyone who actually knows Nikki knows that she only has Ariana and Cindy. So someone has her login, someone who clearly doesn't even know her. But the question is, who? A few more days pass with no word from Nikki, and her family and friends get increasingly more scared.
That something bad has happened to her. But still, it seems like the police aren't doing anything to find either Nikki or Ariana. Which, again, I know the whole thing is like, oh Nikki's over 18, she can do what she wants, she's a grown adult. If you want to say she walked away fine, okay, but Ariana is two years old. And they should know based on everything they've been told that she was not with her mother last.
Her mother couldn't even see her. She was with people who were not her legal guardians. And now, no one in her family can locate this two year old or the women she's supposed to be with. This is a problem. It doesn't seem to be much of a concern for the San Francisco police.
And that decision to write off their disappearances was one that had dire consequences, when the truth of what really happened to Nikki can crashing in on them on April 8. When the holiday shopping season rolls around, business owners are reminded of how rewarding and demanding it can be to run an online store. For anyone developing a business idea or looking to start selling products, now is the ideal time to launch before the holiday rush, it's full speed. That is where Shopify comes in. Shopify helps you launch a store and start selling in a few simple steps without needing to be an e-commerce expert.
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The night sky may look endless, but its secrets could be closer than we think. Because in this universe, you're never truly alone. I'm Yvette Gentile. And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecorero. Every Friday on So Supernatural, we investigate alien encounters, haunting tales of the unknown and cosmic mysteries that defy explanation.
Ready to discover what's out there? Listen to So Supernatural, wherever you get your podcast. That morning, police got a call from a gardener in San Francisco who tells them that he found the body of a woman under some plywood behind bushes. When police respond, they find that the woman is curled up almost in the fetal position and from the looks of it, she has been severely beaten. Now, they suspect early on that it could be missing 32-year-old Nikki Fitz, and by the next day, that suspicion is confirmed.
Now, just a side note for you, the police haven't disclosed a lot about the scene or how Nikki was killed, and I can't find anything that stays if she was killed there at the park or if she was killed somewhere else and then just dumped there. But something that stands out to investigators at the scene right away is that piece of plywood that was covering her. It's pretty large and it has a silver figure spray painted on it. I actually included a picture of the plywood in our blog post for this episode because honestly, it's super hard to describe it. They're hopeful that they can figure out where it came from based on that figure. It's pretty distinctive.
So once police notify Nikki's family about their discovery, all of them immediately start asking the same question that they've been asking for days. Okay, you found Nikki, but where is Ariana? Her father isn't in the picture and it is confirmed that he doesn't have her. I assume that they checked with other family members just to make sure no one else has her either, but that's never reported on. But what is reported on is that when police go talk to Nikki's family and coworkers, they give them the same names that have been on their lips all along.
Lemasani, Helena, Ciolo. When police look into who these women are, there is something about Helena that stands out. It turns out she had previously been convicted of killing a man when she was just 18 years old. He was the father of her two-year-old child and she served a total of six years. Now, I'm not sure what the circumstances surrounding that situation were, and I can't find much reporting on his death or her motive or incarceration.
But knowing that a convicted murderer was one of the last people known to have a missing child of a murdered woman seems like a good place to start. So police try and talk to her and her sister and her aunt. But right away, it's clear that none of them have Ariana, and all three of them quickly become uncooperative. Investigators have never released what their conversations with Helena, Ciolo, and Lemasani consisted of. But we do know, based on that article by Nula Sawyer-Beshari that over the following days and weeks, the three give statements that are inconsistent.
Investigators serve multiple search warrants over the following weeks for both Helena and Ciolo's homes. And I think they even check out other cities around California where Nicki was known to have frequented. And while it's not clear whether they found any evidence of what happened to Ariana or Nicki, I have to assume that anything they may have found wasn't concrete enough to move the case forward because several weeks go by without any advancements. During this time, Helena and her husband, Devin, hire an attorney to represent her, and they completely stop cooperating with investigators. Ciolo follows suit, soon after, which, of course, raises some eyebrows.
I mean, their behavior, both before and after Ariana's disappearance, and Nicki's murder raises a ton of suspicion because you would think if they were the last people to have seen the toddler, they probably know what happened. They're not talking. One of Nicki's friends named Cheryl even goes so far as to speculate that they did something to Ariana in another article for KTVU Fox 2. She believes that something happened to Ariana in their care and that the two sisters killed Nicki to cover it up. But that's just one theory.
And police don't even name any of these women as suspects. At some point, the FBI is brought in to assist in the investigation, but as time goes on, they just don't get anywhere. Though it's not for a lack of information. According to an article by Ria Bhattacharya for NBC Bay Area, investigators have over 30,000 pieces of information. But even though it seems like they have a lot to work with, the case just stays open and unsolved.
So later that month, police take another step to try and bring in whatever it is that they're looking for information-wise. And to do this, they decide to release an image of the plywood that they found covering Nicki's body, the one with that spray painted symbol. Again, they had found it out that seeing you guys knew about it, but this is the first time the public was hearing about it. And the investigators' hopes are that someone can at least clarify where it came from. But literally, they don't get anything solid from this, which is why it is so important that I need you to go to our blog post and look at that picture.
This is key to the investigation. Best Buy has even offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to Ariana's discovery, and family members started a Facebook page to keep Ariana's name top of mind. But soon, that month turned into a year, and there were no leads. Nothing solid. Around the one-year anniversary of Nicki's murder and Ariana's disappearance, San Francisco police and the FBI partner up to test evidence from the crime scene for DNA.
Although, they never say what exactly that evidence is. They also serve a search warrant on a car that they believe is tied to the case. And some people speculate that it's a Tylena's car, but again, they never name whose car is or what exactly they're searching for. Almost four years after Ariana was last seen, the San Francisco police department authorizes a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of Nicki's killer or killers, as well as Ariana's disappearance. They also have a sketch artist do an age progression sketch of what Ariana would look like at six years old, and they update that sketch in April of 2022, like there's a very recent one now.
And that same month of April, the reward is raised to a staggering $250,000. Billboards are even put up in California and Nevada, where Ciolo, Helena, and possibly Lemasani have all moved. As of the release of this episode, no arrests have been made for Nicki's murder or Ariana's disappearance, and Ariana still has not been located. Since the investigation is ongoing, there are a lot of questions I have that I can't answer, like whether there were cameras at the park where Nicki was found or what happened to that money that she withdrew on the night she was last seen. But even without these answers, Nicki's family still believes that Ariana is alive up there somewhere.
I mean, she would be nine years old now, and if you want to see that updated age progression photo, I beg you to go take a look. You can find that in our blog post. Ariana fits.org and they have two Facebook pages that are dedicated to keeping the search for her alive. We're going to have those pages linked in our show notes. Again, you can find them on our blog post as well.
This case truly can be solved if the right person comes forward and points police in the right direction. And you guys don't want to miss say that's you. If you or anyone you know has information that could help to bring Ariana home, call the San Francisco Police Department's 24 hour tip line at 1415-575-4444. You can even text a tip to tip 411 and begin the message with SFPD. You can also submit a tip online to the Black and Missing Foundation.
We're going to have all of that information in our show notes for you. Again, please go look at the age progress photo of Ariana and please look at that picture of the plywood. Both of those are key to solving the murder of Nicki and finding Ariana. And don't forget we drop another episode in your feed today, so be sure to go check out that case as well because much like Nicki and Ariana's story, the other one is a story of a murdered family with a young girl at the center of the mystery. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkypodcast.com.
Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast and I'm going to be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an audio chuck production. So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?
When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir and that can only mean one thing. Full body chills is back. The season step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful. You never know what might follow you home.
So gather round, listen close, and stream full body chills wherever you get your podcasts.