Children's Safety Zone
Mikelle Biggs Story Index
Contact The Mesa Police Department immediately with any new information!
Mesa Police, Criminal Investigations 480-644-4078, Sgt. Steven Stahl, steven_stahl@mesa.ci.mesa.az.us
It's an annual affair for the Biggs family of Mesa: celebrate daughter Mikelle's birthday at the Golfland-Sunsplash water park.
"We went," said Mikelle's mother, Tracy Biggs, "but it really wasn't much fun for anyone."
It was empty, if anything.
Today Mikelle turns 12. Instead of a birthday fete, the Biggses will this week somberly mark the five-month anniversary of their daughter's mysterious disappearance.
Each passing day is hard, but Tracy Biggs says the birthday is especially so.
"Emotionally, I'm not talking to anybody. It's just way too hard," she said. "We're not sure what we're going to do for her birthday.
"I think we'll just do something as a family."
Kym Pasqualini, director of the Nation's Missing Children's Organization, said Tracy Biggs' emotions are not surprising.
"Christmas and birthdays and other specific dates are really painful for the families of missing children," she said. "I would hope somebody would come forward and provide them closure."
Mikelle disappeared shortly before 6 p.m. Jan. 2 at Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue as she waited for an ice-cream truck. She had been alone for only about two minutes.
Her little sister, Kimber, had gone home for dinner but Mikelle lingered, waiting for the ice-cream truck that no one else in the neighborhood reported hearing. Clutched in her hand were two quarters her mother had given her.
Faded yellow ribbons still hang from street signs, along with an occasional tattered flier, in Mikelle's middle-class neighborhood near Gilbert Road and Southern Avenue.
A bright little girl who wants to be a Disney animator, Mikelle was wearing a short-sleeved red "Lindbergh" T-shirt. She also wore bell-bottom blue jeans. Mikelle was an honor-roll student at nearby Lindbergh Elementary School.
Police found only Kimber's bicycle, which Mikelle had been riding, and the quarters she left behind.
Despite several hundred hours of investigation, police never found a witness. Two detectives and a sergeant still are pursuing the case under the theory that Mikelle was abducted, but have no evidence to back that conclusion.
"How can someone disappear off the face of the Earth like that? It's spooky, right in your own neighborhood," said Nick Orlando, a family friend who helped organize distribution of thousand of fliers.
No one knows if Mikelle is alive or dead, including her family.
Tracy Biggs has a running debate with herself on that issue, a debate with no answers.
"I'll never lose hope that she'll be found," Biggs said.
"If she's dead, I know she's with God. If she's alive, I pray she's safe. I don't want her to be alive and abused."
Orlando and other friends of the Biggs family find themselves in the same dilemma. "Part of me hopes she's not suffering and part of me hopes she's alive," he said. "How can I pray she's dead?"
Everyone realizes that statistically, the odds are overwhelming that Mikelle did not live to see her birthday today.
If Mikelle would suddenly reappear, her parents have a special gift for her.
While in California for the filming of an appearance on the Leeza show, an animator sympathetic to the family's plight drew a special picture of Mickey Mouse for Mikelle, Biggs said.
It was one of hundreds of kind acts from strangers touched by Mikelle's disappearance.
Now, "there's nothing other than keeping her fliers out, saying prayers, talking about her so nobody forgets," Biggs said.
Sgt. Earle Lloyd, a police spokesman, said detectives remain hopeful, despite the lack of concrete information.
"It's still a wide-open case," he said.
Police are still getting about five to 10 leads a week and continue to urge anyone with information to call (480) 644-2002.
In addition, there's a $60,000 reward fund available to anyone who provides the key tip to the Silent Witness Program, 1-800-TIPS.
"It's still an active case," Lloyd said. Photo Color photo Tracy Biggs / "We're not sure what we're going to do for her birthday. I think we'll just do something as a family." Mikelle Biggs / She hasn't been seen since she went for ice cream Jan. 2.
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Reproduced with permission from: The Arizona Republic Written by: Jim Walsh ©Copyright 1999 Arizona Republic |
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