| NEWS | Augmented reality software brings this missing person poster of 24-year- old Daniel Robinson, who disappeared last summer, into the real world. Watching the Detectives BY ELIAS WEISS O ne year ago, 24-year-old geologist Daniel Robinson left a job site in Buckeye, near Sun Valley Parkway and Cactus Road, in his steel blue Jeep Renegade and headed west into the desert. He was never seen again. His family carried foam board signs- bearing his face, and posted paper bulle- tins across metro Phoenix as they pleaded with police for a more thorough investiga- tion into his disappearance. As the months slipped by, the signs began to disintegrate. They ripped, they got wet, they blew away in the wind. Some of those signs were covered up with other signs. One year later, there are still no answers. But there’s a new sign begging the public for information about the missing Robinson. It doesn’t exist in the real world and will never succumb to the elements. It’s a milk carton-style missing person adver- tisement that you can find in the world of virtual reality thanks to CrimeDoor, a startup based in Hollywood, California. CrimeDoor uses augmented and virtual reality technology to help keep cold cases in the spotlight by re-creating real crime scenes down to the most graphic, gory, and realistic detail. In the digital universe, detectives and armchair sleuths alike can inspect weapons, shell casings, and blood spatter 8 Elias Weiss Calling armchair sleuths: This VR app could help find missing Arizona persons. at real crime scenes that were cleaned up decades ago. “The crime scenes are preserved forever,” CrimeDoor founder Neil Mandt recently told Phoenix New Times. “The detectives can go back and revisit it. Somebody, years later, might see it a different way. That can lead to cold-case murders getting solved.” CrimeDoor hasn’t been used to crack a cold case in Arizona yet. But the company thinks it’s close. Information on the three-dimensional missing person posters in the app can be changed easily and instantly as new infor- mation surfaces. They’re easy to distribute quickly on social media, too. “The idea that only police can solve crimes is bullshit,” Bill Richardson, a retired detective with the Mesa Police Department, told New Times. “In law enforcement, you have bias and you can develop tunnel vision.” Police departments across the country and the FBI already have vouched for the usefulness of CrimeDoor. They are using the app and working with the app’s founders, Mandt and his wife, Lauren, to catch things that may have been missed during original investigations and as a way for users to aid in solving cases. Creators describe the tool as “a revolu- tionary news app for the true crime space” that “delivers daily news updates with an unmatched database of case file content from around the globe.” The database includes more than 1,750 cases, according to the developers. >> p 10 JUNE 30TH–JULY 6TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
