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
Original Story Jan. 5 1999
A bicycle, riderless, tipped sideways on a residential street. Nearby, two quarters that were given
an 11-year-old girl to buy ice cream.
The single stark image frames the disappearance of little Mikelle Biggs of Mesa. It also raises
several key questions: How?
How does a girl, just four houses from her home, vanish? Without a scream or a cry heard?
Without a suspicious character seen?
Minutes before the abduction Saturday evening, other neighborhood kids had milled about the
area, all waiting, as Mikelle had done, for an ice cream truck they thought they had heard. It was,
by all accounts, an uneventful though futile wait.
The children dispersed until there remained only Mikelle. Young and diminutive, Mikelle is also
bright, a gifted student who knows "stranger danger" as well as she does her favorite subjects of
art and reading, her parents say.
How could she have disappeared, seemingly without a trace? The questions have vexed family
friends and neighbors as much as the answers remain elusive to police.
Armed with few solid clues, authorities switched gears in their search for Mikelle on Monday
night, setting up six roadblocks around Gilbert Road and Southern Avenue to question people who
regularly drive through the area about 6 p.m.
In addition, Detective Jose Martinez, a police spokesman, said officers are looking for a copper
Jeep CJ with a light-colored top that was seen leaving the area about the time Mikelle disappeared.
About 20 FBI agents joined 75 Mesa police officers - many who were not scheduled to work
Monday - in the search, police said.
Throughout the weekend, police and neighbors had saturated the area, conducting door-to-door
searches and passing out fliers, respectively.
Mikelle's disappearance, like those of all children, rallied people together.
"You look at her, and she could be one of our kids," said Kym Pasqualini of the Nation's
Missing Children Organization, which posted Mikelle's picture on its Web site.
It's the most sincere outpouring from the community in our five years in Phoenix, she said.
Volunteers such as Christine Blodget, a neighbor, and Paul Tachias, a friend of Mikelle's father,
had distributed 12,000 fliers by Sunday night. Printing companies donated an additional 35,000
Monday.
About 500 volunteers gathered Sunday night at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
stake center where the Biggs family attends services.
"The community has been so great. It's unbelievable," said Connie Huff, Mikelle's grandmother.
"It's been a lot of comfort to us that people have been so involved."
Neighbors in the typical middle-class neighborhood are forming a Block Watch after past efforts
failed. "It's a shame it's taken something like this to get people motivated," Blodget said.
Mikelle, whose name is derived from Michael, her father's first name, is smart and creative, an
honor roll student in the sixth grade. She loves art and playing the clarinet, and even made a board
game for her family as a Christmas present, Michael Biggs said.
No one suspected that something as mundane as getting a cool treat would turn out so nightmarish.
"She came in and said she heard the sound of the ice cream truck, but she couldn't tell where it
was coming from," said Tracy Biggs, her mother.
Mikelle's younger sister and other children went home when they tired of waiting for the truck, but
Mikelle stayed behind.
Her bicycle was found in the street at El Moro Avenue and Toltec Street, along with the two
quarters Tracy Biggs gave her to buy ice cream.
Family members are doing their best to keep a positive attitude.
"It seems kind of bleak, but I think it's both good and bad that we haven't heard anything,"
Michael Biggs said.
"It's good that I haven't heard anything negative. It's bad that I don't have any information. I
don't like feeling helpless."
Biggs said his little girl is friendly once she gets to know someone, but very reserved otherwise.
"She's not the one who would be easily tricked," said Blodget, the neighbor. "She'd be the one
to tell someone to get away from her."
Connie Huff said her granddaughter would call someone for help if she could get away from an
abductor. "She's a very sharp little kid," Huff said.
But while Jeff Huff remains hopeful that his niece will come home alive and well, he can't deny
having some doubts.
"Experience and history shows that the longer it goes on, the less likely there's a good outcome,"
he said.
A reward fund has been established in Mikelle's name at Bank of America, family members said.
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Reproduced with permission from: The Arizona Republic Written by: By Jim Walsh ©Copyright 1999 Arizona Republic |
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