Miami – White women get more media and law enforcement attention when they are reported missing than Black women and men in what the late TV news anchor Gwen Ifill depicted as the Missing White Woman Syndrome.

According to Ifill, the White Woman Syndrome is when a missing white woman is given more attention from reporters, police and the public.

Moreover, more search parties are formed to look for missing white women than African American females and the lack of efforts epitomized the frustration of family members who called it discrimination.

Ifill coined the White Woman Syndrome phrase to disclose the disparity in missing person cases.

"When it comes to attention, the media and many other authorities have reportedly been focused more on missing cases concerning white women," Ifill said on her show in the 2000s.

Ifill, who became the first Black woman to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs program with Washington Week in Review in 1999, died of cancer in 2016.

The latest example of the White Woman Syndrome was the case of 22year-old Gabby Petitio, who went missing in July 2021 while on a road trip with her fiancé Brain Christopher Laundrie, and 24-year-old Daniel Robinson who also vanished in the same year in Arizona.

The media and law enforcement focused their attention on Petitio including forming large search groups to find her.

In September 2021, Petitio’s remains were discovered in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest and an autopsy divulged she had been strangled and suffered blunt-force injuries to her skull.

Laundrie, who was the prime suspect, went missing also until his remains were found in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park on Oct. 20, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The FBI said he confessed he killed Petitio in his notebook discovered near his remains.

Daniel Robinson, who lived in Tempe, Arizona, was last seen leaving his job site on June 23, 2021. Nearly one month later a rancher found a jeep rolled over in a ravine on his property, according to published reports.

Personal items found in the vehicle belonged to Robinson including cell phone, wallet and clothes.

In late July 2021, a human skull was found in the area south of where Robinson’s vehicle was recovered, and testing later indicated that the skull was not that of Robinson, and no additional human remains were recovered at that time.

The Buckeye Police Department told reporters that they had worked with outside agencies to search over 70 square miles, with the assistance of utility task vehicles, cadaver dogs, drones and helicopters.

The Buckeye Police Department has been the lead law enforcement agency overseeing the investigation of Robinson’s disappearance with assistance from the Tempe Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

But David Robinson, Daniel Robinson’s father, has been critical of the police’s effort, claiming that he has done more in attempting to locate his son than law enforcement has.

David Robinson disagreed with their decision to follow missing person protocols, being slow to investigate his son’s disappearance, but being quick to rule out foul play.

David Robinson hired a private investigator to look into his son’s disappearance who concluded that Buckeye Police used insufficient investigative methods to rule out foul play.

The senior Robinson also noted irregularities in the official Buckeye Police timeline of the case including a statement by Daniel Robinson’s coworker about events on the morning of his disappearance in contrast to what the initial Buckeye officer on the case had stated.

He has formed several groups of volunteers to look for his son.

Previous missing person cases are also examples of Missing White Syndrome which is why Gabby’s father, Josephy Petitio, has decided to call for equal efforts to find missing Blacks, and urged authorities to as aggressively investigate the cases as they do with white women.

According to CNN, Joseph Petito has been advocating for missing people of color for three years, and launched The Gabbi Petito Foundation which partners with families of color whose relatives are missing.

He is also working with the Black and Missing Foundation and has been actively advocating for Daniel Robinson’s case.

David Robinsonsaid he is grateful for Petito’s role.

"What Mr. Petito has done for my family, it means a lot to me," David Robinson told CNN. "Because he had a tragedy and it’s amazing when a person can take a tragedy and make something big out of it, become an advocate and help people."

Petito and Robinson keep in touch and have attended Crimecon to share their stories.

Petito has been a part of virtual gatherings for Daniel as well.

Netizens have appreciated his efforts after posts about Missing White Woman Syndrome led him to help people of color.

According to Statista.com, the FBI said Black people in the U.S. are overrepresented among missing person cases in the U.S.

While Black people make up around 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 37 percent of the missing while white people, who make up 75 percent of the population, accounted for 59 percent of missing people.

Young Black women 20 years of age or younger are more likely to be reported missing than Black and white boys and men, as 80,000 African American women disappeared in 2022, compared to 21 percent of white women.

Some Black and white women vanished on their own to start new lives in a new city but never told their family members, who reported them missing, of their plans.

Of the 2.4 percent of Black and white women who vanished, someone they knew was responsible for their disappearance, which was the case for Gabby Petitio.

In November 2024, a Utah judge dismissed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Petito’s parents against the city of Moab, alleging police failed to protect their daughter during an August 2021 domestic violence incident involving her fiancé, according to published reports.

Seventh District Court Judge Don Torgerson cited Utah’s governmental immunity law in his decision. While plaintiffs’ attorney Judson Burton argued the law is unconstitutional, the judge said he could not rule on the matter but noted the Utah Court of Appeals could address it.