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Biggs, Mikelle 1-2-1999; Mesa AZ
Topic Started: Jul 25 2006, 07:20 PM (2,556 Views)
monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
Posted Imagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikelle_Biggs

Posted Image

Mikelle Dianne Biggs (born May 31, 1987) was an Arizona resident who made headline news nationally in the United States when she disappeared early in 1999, after having left her house to purchase ice cream at an ice cream vendor's truck. Her disappearance was never solved, and her family held a funeral service five years later.

[edit]
Biography and case information
Mikelle Biggs was a fifth grader in Mesa, Arizona. She had no history of running away from home; she apparently led a normal child's life with her family in the Phoenix suburb.

At around 5:30 p.m. on January 2, 1999, Mikelle and her sister thought they heard the chimes of an ice cream truck, and went down the street to wait for it. Her sister was cold and returned home a few minutes later; their mother sent her to retrieve Mikelle just before 6:00. Mikelle was nowhere to be found, but her bicycle and some spare change were lying by the side of the road. News of the disappearance quickly spread across her country, with many of the most important television networks there picking up the story, broadcasting it and following it for a long period of time. Mikelle Biggs' photo and story also appeared on The Arizona Republic.


An FBI age composition photo of Mikelle Biggs, age 15.Police could not confirm the presence of an ice cream truck in the neighborhood, but questioned all of the city's ice cream vendors. All were cleared of involvement. There have been many other false leads in the case. Suspicion fell on a man wanted for sexual molestation at a nearby apartment complex, but no connection could be made between the incidents.

The Biggs family and their church organized many vigils after her disappearance; these vigils soon after spread across Phoenix, as many more groups and organizations got involved in her cause. The vigils and rallies were also covered by media, and posters featuring Mikelle Biggs' photo was prominent on Phoenix area corners during the late 1990s.

Biggs would currently be nineteen years of age. The Biggs family believes Mikelle is dead and held a funeral service for her on the fifth anniversary of her disappearance. Her father has stated he believes the individual responsible for the apparent abduction is a man currently serving time in an Arizona prison whose identity has not been released and who denies involvement. [1] There are few leads and the case is at an apparent stalemate.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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oldies4mari2004
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/biggs_mikelle.html
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oldies4mari2004
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http://charleyproject.org/cases/b/biggs_mikelle.html

Mikelle Diane Biggs


Left and Center: Biggs, circa 1999;
Right: Age-progression at age 14 (circa 2001)


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: January 2, 1999 from Mesa, Arizona
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: May 31, 1987
Age: 11 years old
Height and Weight: 4'8, 85 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Biggs's upper front teeth are prominent. Her ears are pierced. Biggs has several moles on the left side of her neck. Her hair had been permed and was growing out prior to her disappearance.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: A red t-shirt with her elementary school's name, Lindbergh (sometimes given as "Lindburg"), imprinted on the front, bell-bottom jeans with embroidered seams on the sides of both of the pant legs, white canvas shoes and possibly earrings.


Details of Disappearance

Biggs was last seen riding her bicycle near her family's residence in Mesa, Arizona on January 2, 1999. Biggs and her younger sister thought they heard an ice cream truck's music in the distance and asked their mother for money. Biggs and her sister waited for the truck near Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue at approximately 5:50 p.m. Her sister became cold and returned to the family's home for a coat. Their mother sent her back for Biggs, but she had disappeared. Biggs's bicycle and her two quarters were found near the street where she had been standing. The bicycle was not at the corner, but partially back towards the house.
Authorities searched the entire area near Biggs's family's home, but no evidence pertaining to her whereabouts was found. Authorities were unable to confirm if an ice cream truck was in the area at the time of her disappearance, but all ice cream vendors in the area were cleared of involvement in Biggs's case. Known sex offenders in the vicinity were also cleared of any connection to Biggs.

There have been many false leads in Biggs's case. On January 9, police dug up what appeared to be a freshly-dug grave outside of Mesa. They found nothing. Two witnesses were put under hypnosis in hopes that they would remember something, but nothing came of that. A copper-colored jeep was reportedly spotted near Biggs's home at the time she was last seen, but when its driver was located he was ruled out as a suspect and he had seen nothing usual. Houses in the neighborhood were searched with the consent of their owners, but to no avail. Only one homeowner refused to permit a search; he is not considered a suspect. On March 10, 1999, a man reportedly tried to abduct two girls, a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old, from a schoolyard. Police thought the incident might have been connected to Biggs's case, but the "abduction" was revealed to be a hoax.

Investigators have released sketches of two possible suspects in Biggs's disappearance. Both images are posted below this case summary. The sketches are not being widely publicized since authorities are not certain if the men are connected to her case.

Biggs's father believes he knows who was reponsible for his daughter's apparent abduction. The man, who has not been identified, is currently incarcerated in an Arizona prison and denies any involvement in the case. On the fifth anniversary of Biggs's disappearance, her family held a funeral for her with an empty casket. Her family now lives in Gilbert, Arizona. They believe Biggs was murdered shortly after her disappearance. No charges have been filed against anyone in her disappearance.

Biggs is described an intelligent, artistic, sociable person and an honor student. She played the clarinet and was a member of her school's student council at the time of her disappearance. She wanted to become an animator when she grew up. Her favorite color is purple and she has two younger sisters and a younger brother. There are few leads in Biggs's disappearance and her case remains unsolved.



Above: Sketches of possible suspects in Biggs's disappearance


Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Mesa Police Department
480-644-2211

Source Information
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
http://www.missingkids.com/
Child Protection Education Of America
http://www.find-missing-children.org/
Mikelle Biggs: Missing
http://www.mikellebiggs.com/
The Polly Klaas Foundation
http://www.pollyklaas.org/
America's Most Wanted
http://www.amw.com/
Swift Office Solutions
http://www.sosnet.com/
Crime@About.Com
http://crime.about.com/
Arizona Central
http://www.azcentral.com/
Nation's Missing Children Organization
http://www.theyaremissed.org/


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oldies4mari2004
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
Name: Mikelle Biggs
Date of Birth: 05/31/87
Height: 4'8"
Weight: 65 pounds
Hair: brown
Eyes: hazel
Mikelle was last seen on her bicycle at approximately 6:00 p.m. on January 2, 1999. Her bicycle has been found. She was wearing a red shirt with a white stripe across the chest and blue jeans with designs on the sides. Her photo at bottom left is shown age-progressed to fourteen years.
If you have seen Mikelle or have any information concerning her, please call (480) 644-3505, or e-mail Detective Domenick Kaufman at domenick.kaufman@cityofmesa.org.


http://www.cityofmesa.org/police/missing_persons/m_biggs.asp
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.geocities.com/farmgirl1032001/Mikelle_Biggs.html

Case Type :Endangered Missing
DOB :may-31-1987 Age :19 years
Height : 4' 8" - 142 cm
Weight : 65 lbs - 29 kg
Eyes :Hazel Hair : Brown
Circumstances : Mikelle's picture is age progressed to 14.Biggs was last seen riding her bicycle near her family's residence in Mesa, Arizona on January 2, 1999. Biggs and her younger sister thought they heard an ice cream truck's music in the distance and asked their mother for money. Biggs and her sister waited for the truck near Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue at approximately 5:50 PM. Her sister became cold and returned to the family's home for a coat. Their mother sent her back for Biggs, but she had disappeared. Biggs' bicycle and her two quarters were found near the street where she had been standing. The bicycle was not at the corner, but partially back towards the house. Biggs has never been seen again. She was wearing a red t-shirt with her elementary school's name, Lindbergh (sometimes spelled Lindburg), imprinted on the front, bell-bottom jeans with embroidered seams on the sides of both of the pant legs and white canvas shoes. Biggs may have been wearing earrings.
Authorities searched the entire area near Biggs' family's home, but no evidence pertaining to her whereabouts was found. Authorities were unable to confirm if an ice cream truck was in the area at the time of her disappearance, but all ice cream vendors in the area were cleared of involvement in Biggs' case. Known sex offenders in the vicinity were also cleared of any connection to Biggs.
There have been many false leads in Biggs's case. On January 9, police dug up what looked like a freshly-dug grave outside of Mesa. They found nothing. Two witnesses were put under hypnosis in hopes that they would remember something, but nothing came of that. A copper-colored Jeep was reportedly spotted near Biggs' home at the time she was last seen, but when its driver was located he was ruled out as a suspect and he had seen nothing usual. Houses in the neighborhood were searched with the consent of their owners, but to no avail. Only one homeowner refused to permit a search; he is not considered a suspect. On March 10, 1999, a man reportedly tried to abduct two girls, a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old, from a schoolyard. Police thought the incident might have been connected to Biggs's case, but the "abduction" was revealed to be a hoax.
Investigators have released sketches of two possible suspects in Biggs' disappearance. Both images are posted below this case summary. The sketches are not being widely publicized since authorities are not certain if the men are connected to her case.
Biggs's father believes he knows who was reponsible for his daughter's apparent abduction. The man, who has not been identified, is currently incarcerated in an Arizona prison and denies any involvement in the case. On the fifth anniversary of Biggs's disappearance, her family held a funeral for her with an empty casket. Her family now lives in Gilbert, Arizona. They believe Biggs was murdered shortly after her disappearance. No charges have been filed against anyone in her disappearance
Biggs is described an intelligent, sociable person and an honor student. She played the clarinet and was a member of her school's student council at the time of her disappearance. She wanted to become an animator when she grew up. There are few leads in Biggs' disappearance and her case remains unsolved.
Date Missing :jan-02-1999


Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Ell
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Heart of Gold
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Age progression helps solve crimes, frustrates Mesa family

Last Update: 12:14 am


Related Links
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Diana Trepkov Forensic Artist
Mesa Police Department Mikelle Biggs Case
Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the story

Age progression is used to help police find missing children, but has brought grief to a Mesa family.

It has been nearly ten years since eleven-year-old Mikelle Biggs disappeared.

The girl was riding her bike in her Mesa neighborhood with her sister when she went missing.

The two girls, along with several other kids in the community, had planned to meet an ice cream truck in their neighborhood, but the truck never came.

Mikelle's sister returned home when the truck didn't come, but Mikelle continued to ride her bike in the neighborhood.

During the time Mikelle was by herself, she disappeared.

For years police followed possible leads, but they were unable to confirm what happened to Mikelle.

Mikelle's parents now believe they know who is responsible for their child's disappearance, but police have never been able to prove it.

They held a funeral for Mikelle several years ago, and no longer believe a search for their daughter is necessary.

However, in the early years after Mikelle's disappearance, investigators turned to the process of age progression at the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children for help as they continued the search.

Most Valley police departments do not employ a trained artist who is an expert in child age-progression.

The NCMEC, meanwhile, employs a senior forensic artist and two other forensic artists.

Each person has special training and knowledge of the human anatomy and how the human body ages over time.

A child's body changes at a different pace and proportion when compared to an adult.

The artists at the NCMEC use Adobe Photoshop and their own artistic expertise and training to age a missing person's photograph every few years.

They are trying to give detectives a more realistic image to consider when looking for the missing person.

They've featured an age-progressed picture of Mikelle on their site for several years.

While some say the resemblance is obvious, Mikelle's parents are disappointed with the picture and say the picture does not resemble their daughter.

They said they asked the NCMEC and the police department to stop distributing the picture long ago.

"This is a very useful tool," said Darien Biggs, Mikelle's father. "But like any tool, if it's not used properly it's worthless and that's how I feel about this particular effort."

ABC15 contacted the NCMEC to explain the Biggs' frustration with the sketch and, as a result, they removed the age-progressed picture of Mikelle from their site.

They said they didn't realize that sketch was still accessible to their website visitors.

A photo of Mikelle at age eleven still remains on the site.

The NCMEC reports several success cases, however, in which found children to appear to look like their age-progressed sketches.

There are several factors that contribute to a person's physical changes over time.

"You spend a great deal of time just going over and over and over just as much as you can," said Kirt Messick, a forensic artist trained to age progress adults for the Phoenix Police Department.

"It's not just adding sags and wrinkles," he told ABC15, describing the process of age progressing an adult as one that can last twenty to seventy-five hours.
He said a child ages differently than an adult.

Factors like diet, sun exposure, and health can all affect how a person changes.

It is difficult to estimate how a person's hairstyle will be.

ABC15 tested out the technology.

We contacted Diana Trepkov, a forensic artist based in Canada, to help us.

Trepkov has previously worked with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office to help identify the deceased.

We asked her to age-progress one of our employees.

We supplied her with childhood photographs of our executive producer, Jesse
Hamilton, 30.

We asked her to complete a drawing of what she believes he would look like at age 30.

We did not show her a photograph of Jesse as an adult.

One of her sketches was more acurate than the other.

To see the results, click here.

To see the process Trepkov goes through when making sketches, click here.
http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx...5a-ab3ec0c5388a

Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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tatertot
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http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID...ArticleID=63034

Thursday, January 01, 2009
Hope has no limits for parents of a missing child
By Richard Haddad

This is a personal message written with a heart full of concern for a little girl.

On January 2, 1999 11-year-old Mikelle Biggs and her younger sister thought they heard an ice cream truck in the distance and asked their mother for some money. The two girls waited in their Mesa, Arizona neighborhood but the younger sister became cold and went home for a coat. When she returned Mikelle was gone. Her bicycle and two quarters where found near the street where she had been standing.

Mikelle was abducted four doors away from her own home.

I know children are abducted each year and parents around the world shudder, but after a decade my heart still aches for Mikelle and her family. Perhaps it is because I have a daughter the same age, and now I am watching her blossom into a beautiful young woman preparing for marriage and all the wonders life can hold.

With each passing year the odds build against ever knowing what happened to Mikelle. On the fifth anniversary of her disappearance Mikelle’s family held a funeral for her with an empty casket. They believe she was murdered shortly after being abducted.

On this tenth anniversary I wanted to publish Mikelle's photo. I don't know exactly what I hope to accomplish by doing so — perhaps in part to remember her. Perhaps I am too much of a dreamer, reaching for that billion-to-one chance that someone in Arizona might recognize her age-progressed photo and play a part in her safe return.

If I am just an absurd dreamer, I am also a parent, like many of you, and I believe any parent would want that billion-to-one chance for their child.

This is a precious soul we are looking for. Who can say how much effort is too much or what time is wasted time in such a quest?

Please look at the photos and may we all be dreamers together and pray with hearts in tune for this child and all the little ones that deserve a life of safety and love.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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January 1, 2009 - 6:56PM
Mystery of Mikelle Biggs goes into 10th year
Comments 7| Recommend 6
Gary Grado, Tribune
The hot pursuit to find the person who kidnapped 11-year-old Mikelle Biggs ended long ago. Now it's a waiting game for the Mesa police detectives assigned to the case, which today marks its 10th year of remaining unsolved with no trace of the girl or her remains.


Detectives Domenick Kaufman, who has been the primary detective for about six years, and Jerry Gissel, who has been on the case from the beginning, still chase the occasional lead, but now are left to wait for either technological advances in forensics or the assailant's heart to soften.

"Hopefully, the individual who did this will realize the nightmare that they're putting this family through," Gissel said. "I know this person has got to be aching to get this information out. I know, like I'm sure he knows, that he needs to clear up this before he leaves this life because it's not going to be very good for him afterwards."

When the Lindbergh Elementary School sixth-grader vanished from the street just outside her home, Mesa police heaped resources into finding her for months and the case drew national attention.

Police have followed more than 10,000 leads, rappeled down mine shafts in search of her, hypnotized witnesses, consulted with the FBI, who conducted polygraph and voice stress tests and developed a profile of the perpetrator.

At first, "Missing" fliers with her school photo saturated Mesa's high visibility areas such as doors of convenience stores, light poles at major intersections and on car windows.

And over the years, Kaufman has chased the intermittent leads, which usually are third- or fourth-hand information from either jailbirds or ex-cons.

But even those tips have slowed to a trickle, Kaufman said.

Watching enticing leads turn into dead-ends has been frustrating, but the disappointment has subsided, he said.

"There are those cases you're going to solve in a shorter period of time," Kaufman said. "This is not one of those cases. This is one that is going to take a great deal of time and everyone involved in that knows that now and has accepted that fact."

Mikelle was an artist who aspired to be a Disney animator.

Her father, Darien Biggs, described her then as "a flower child born too late."

It was a little before 6 p.m. on Jan. 2, 1999, when Mikelle heard the bells of an ice cream truck and asked her mom, Tracy Biggs, for money.

Mikelle and her younger sister, Kimber, then 9, went to the corner of El Moro and Toltec to wait for the ice cream truck, Gissel said.

Kimber got cold and went back to their home four doors away on El Moro to get a jacket.

A neighbor driving by saw Mikelle standing alone on the corner under the street lamp with her sister's bicycle.

Police still have the pink and purple bicycle, which has "Wild Style" etched on the chain guard and white tires. It is now wrapped in clear plastic and leaning against a wall in an evidence vault with other bikes.

Tracy Biggs sent Kimber back outside to fetch her sister.

"When Kimber returns, Mikelle is no longer there. The bike is a little bit closer to the house but it's laying on its side with the wheel still spinning," Gissel said.

Kimber picked up the bike and went home, but her mother almost immediately began searching for Mikelle, calling friends and neighbors and then police.

Investigators later re-enacted Kimber's steps with her to determine how long she was gone from Mikelle.

"We're talking about 90 seconds or so," Gissel said.

Police dogs picked up her scent but lost it within a few feet, leading investigators to believe she was placed into a vehicle and driven away, Gissel said.

Gissel said every ice cream vendor and ice cream truck owner in the area was cleared and no one other than Mikelle reported hearing the bells.

Investigators found the two quarters her mother gave her, though.

"They were obviously thrown to get away from who her attacker was," Gissel said.

Certain that Mikelle is dead, the Biggs family buried a white casket on Jan. 2, 2004, and said goodbye.

Darien Biggs said then that he believed he knew who the killer was.

He declined to comment for this story.

Kaufman and Gissel said they haven't focused on any single person, but they have a short list of "people that possibly could have done this."

And they also keep tabs of the whereabouts of everyone on the list.

"We don't want to prematurely judge or rush to judgment on something until we have everything necessary to go forward with the prosecution. We get one shot at this to get this case right so I would rather sit back and wait for everything to fall into place," Kaufman said.

He's also confident that if the assailant's conscience doesn't get the best of him, then advances in forensic technology, which happen exponentially, will help to break the case open.

Gissel said he doesn't want to wait for the technology.

"I want this person to come forward and get this thing off their chest," he said, "and allow this nightmare to stop for the Biggs family."

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/133466
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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mtnmom
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Sense of loss is still felt in 1999 case of missing girl
Mikelle Biggs mystery haunts dad, detective

Mesa police Detective Jerry Gissel was sitting in church when his beeper went off.

It was the first Sunday in January, two days after New Year's Day 1999, and he had planned to spend the rest of the day watching football at a family gathering.

He hurried outside to call back his partner, Detective Butch Gates
An 11-year-old girl had been missing all night.

"It wasn't a kid who just walked away and we knew would be found at a friend's house," Gissel recalls.

Ten years later, the case still frustrates him.

***

The night before Gissel got the call in church, Darien Biggs received a frantic page from his wife, Tracy. It was 6 p.m., and their daughter Mikelle was missing.

Mikelle had heard the ice-cream truck coming and ran to meet it. Her sister Kimber went inside to get a jacket. Tracy sent Kimber back to tell Mikelle to come inside. When Kimber went back outside, her sister was gone. Kimber's purple-and-pink bicycle was still sitting by the curb. They found two quarters close by.

For Darien, a decadelong nightmare had begun. That nightmare was compounded by the fact that he would not be treated as the grieving father of a missing child but as a suspect.

His most intimate failings as a husband would be splashed across the pages of the newspaper.

And his life would become forever intertwined with Gissel's.

***

Officially, the case of Mikelle Biggs remains open. She has never been found. No body has ever been discovered. No firm evidence about what happened to her on Jan. 2, 1999, has been uncovered. No suspect has been publicly identified, and no potential suspects have been ruled in or out.

Darien thinks he knows what happened.

And the answer, he thinks, lies with a convicted sex offender who lived in the Biggses' neighborhood at the time and is now serving more than 100 years in prison.

But the evidence is only circumstantial, police say, and there is not enough to stand up in court.

***

Mikelle's disappearance generated the most intense investigation in the Mesa Police Department's history at that time.

Detectives interviewed more than 400 people and collected more than 800 pieces of evidence. Even now, Detective Domenick Kaufman says, Mesa police receive an estimated 40 to 50 tips a year.

"I didn't get hardly any sleep," Gissel says, recalling the first few months of the investigation. "I just thrived on thinking the next tip we heard was going to be it, and I wanted to be there."

Police looked for ice-cream-truck drivers. Every one they checked had an alibi.

Someone in the neighborhood had seen a jeep, so police stopped hundreds of them. They questioned a neighbor but quickly ruled him out.

"It's a frustrating feeling. I don't have any other unsolved cases," Gissel says. "When I look at my own kids, I think how thankful I am that they are happy and healthy, and I think about the Mikelle Biggs case."

With retirement two years away, Gissel still hopes he'll be able to knock on the Biggses' door and tell them what really happened.

"I would be absolutely elated. It would culminate 10 years of frustrations," says Gissel, who has spent 26 years on the force and worked hundreds of cases. "It would top off my career as a police officer."

***

Darien can't wait for the holidays to be over. "It's tough to enjoy Christmas when part of your family is missing," he says. "There's always going to be a hole in your life."

Over the past 10 years, anger built to rage, and then rage gave way to resignation.

He finally realized that his rage would destroy him. He was so consumed that he barely remembers anything about the lives of his other three children during the two years that followed Mikelle's disappearance.

"It's pretty much a blank spot," Darien says.

Five years after Mikelle's disappearance and desperate for some kind of resolution, Darien and his wife drove to Florence and met face to face with the man they believe killed their daughter.

The sex offender lived a couple of blocks from the Biggs family. Mikelle took piano lessons at a house across the street from where he lived.

In 2000, he was sentenced to 187 years for a brutal attack on a woman who lived in the same south-central Mesa neighborhood nine months after Mikelle disappeared. The woman's face was badly disfigured, and she was left for dead. But she lived to testify against her attacker, and all his attempts to appeal his conviction have been rejected.

Darien says the sex offender agreed to meet them after they exchanged letters. Police recorded the conversation.

"I said, 'Did you have anything to do with my daughter's disappearance?' " Darien says, recalling how he faced the sex offender through bulletproof glass while talking to him over a telephone.

"I didn't have a d*mn thing to do with that," the sex offender told Darien.

"I think you did," Darien said.

On the way home, Darien asked his wife to count the number of times she thought the man had lied. She estimated it was 30 to 35 times.

"She said, 'He's the one who did it,' " Darien says. "Just looking into his eyes, he did it."

The confrontation, although somewhat liberating, was frustrating, as well.

"I sat 3 feet away from the guy who killed my daughter, and I couldn't do a thing about it," Darien says. "I wouldn't have any problem with them letting him out as long as I was there to meet him."

Although Darien has tried to move on, it still stings that he was considered a suspect even though Gissel said police always focus on family members, relatives and neighbors in missing-children cases because they are found responsible more than 90 percent of the time.

"We did a lot of things with him to rule him out," Gissel says.

Darien says he underwent a psychiatric test given to sex offenders, though Gissel has no memory of that. Darien's polygraph test, an investigative tool inadmissible in court, came back inconclusive, fueling media speculation about him.

But the real humiliation came when an affair, which Darien had revealed to his wife a month before Mikelle disappeared, surfaced in a newspaper report.

Despite the grief, embarrassment and finger-pointing, he never retained a lawyer and cooperated fully with detectives.

"I didn't hide," Darien says.

For him, the most important thing was to find out what happened to his daughter.

***

It was not to be.

On the fifth anniversary of her disappearance, Darien and Tracy held a memorial service for Mikelle.

An empty casket symbolized the emptiness of not knowing, but it helped the family start to heal and begin to rebuild their lives.

But as the 10th anniversary of his daughter's disappearance passes, Darien says he is still yearning for an answer.

"I'm a different person than I used to be," Darien says, no longer consumed by anger. "I don't feel as strong as I used to. I really feel like the world is beating me."

Gissel wants closure, too.

"It's a milestone for the person who did this," the detective says. "It's time for him to get this off his chest and put this nightmare for the Biggs family to rest."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/n...2biggs0102.html
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=7567492&page=1

Missing Mikelle: Family Grapples With Daughter's Disappearance
Sister Kimber Biggs Blamed Herself: 'There's a Hole in Our Family Now'
By SUNNY ANTRIM
MESA, Ariz., May 13, 2009
SHARE Jan. 2, 1999, is a day that will forever haunt Kimber Biggs. It was on that fateful day that her big sister, Mikelle, disappeared forever from their Mesa, Ariz., neighborhood while waiting for the ice cream truck.

Family of abducted 11-year-old recalls terror of realization: Mikelle is gone.Kimber was only 9 years old when her 11-year-old sister vanished. And because she was the last person to see Mikelle alive, she would grapple with the disappearance for years, blaming herself for what happened.

Watch the Elizabeth Vargas 'Vanished' special on "20/20" FRIDAY at 10 p.m. ET

"[Mikelle's] like 'Oh, I hear the ice cream man,' so she went inside and got the money and came out," Kimber told ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas. "We thought he was on the other side of the neighborhood...and we waited."

But Kimber got cold and tired of waiting, so she decided to head home for her jacket, leaving her sister alone.

Kimber came in and [said], 'I don't think the ice cream man is coming,'" their mother, Tracy Biggs recalled. "And I was like, 'It's so close to dinner anyway, and it's time to come in. And so go get Mikelle and tell her to come in.'"

But when Kimber went back outside to look for her, Mikelle was nowhere in sight. The only signs of Mikelle that remained were her bicycle and two quarters to buy ice cream, which were strewn on the street and sidewalk. An evening that began with the tantalizing bells of an ice cream truck would end with the eerie sirens of police cars.


Mesa police immediately responded to the call, where neighbors and friends frantically searched for missing Mikelle. With no witnesses, the police launched a full-fledged investigation and explored promising leads -- questioning all ice cream truck drivers in the area to following e-mail tips.

Everyone in the household dealt differently with Mikelle's mysterious disappearance. Mikelle's three younger siblings were confused and frightened.

"I was scared to go to sleep alone for the longest time," Kimber recalled. "I didn't want to be near the window... And I wouldn't go out alone in the dark...It was scary."
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Classmates Blame Kimber for Mikelle's Disappearance
The night Mikelle disappeared, her brother, Nathan was 4 years old.

Kimber Biggs is haunted by the 1999 disappearance of her older sister, Mikelle. Since she was the last known person to see Mikelle alive, Kimber grappled with the disappearance for years, blaming herself for what happened.
(ABC News/Courtesy Biggs Family)"All he really understood was that bad guys took her... It was just beyond his comprehension," Tracy Biggs told ABC News of her son.

Kimber recalled a night when her parents were out searching for Mikelle and she and her siblings stayed at a friends' house. Nathan wet the bed and came crying to Kimber.

"I was trying to help him get changed and cleaned up, and he said, 'What's going on?' and I said, 'Mikelle's not safe,' and then he started crying, you know, 'Well, where's mom and dad?'"

For Kimber, being the last known person to see Mikelle alive has taken its toll.

"I blamed myself for a while," Kimber told Vargas. "I remember... I was sleeping on the living room couch one night, and my aunt came in and heard me crying. And she asked me what was wrong and I said, 'It's my fault.' And she had to comfort me. She had to convince me that it wasn't my fault."

But the kids at school didn't make it any easier on her, blaming her for her sister's disappearance.


"[They] were stupid and they'd ask, 'Well, why'd you leave her alone'? And I would just start crying at school," she told ABC News. "So it made me think, 'Well, it is my fault, because all the kids think it is.'"

"She said, 'If I hadn't left her, she would still be here," recalled Tracy Biggs. "And that's when I first started telling her: 'You're just a little girl, you couldn't have stopped it from happening.'"

Even though she heard those words from her mother many times, Kimber said it took six years before she truly believed that Mikelle's disappearance wasn't her fault.

"It wasn't until I got...older...more mature, that I really was [like], 'OK. It was not my fault. I couldn't have done anything,'" she said.

Family Tries to Find Closure in Unsolved Case
Five years after Mikelle's disappearance, her family shifted its focus from searching for Mikelle to hunting for her killer. The case remained unsolved.

To try to get some closure, they held a funeral for their beloved daughter and buried an empty casket, which finally brought Kimber and her family a little peace.

"There wasn't such an empty space..." Kimber told us. "There's a hole in our family now, but I think that hole has kind of healed a little bit."


When Mikelle went missing, Kimber became the oldest child, playing a major role in her younger sister's life. Lynelle, the youngest sibling, is about the age that Mikelle was when she went missing.

"I hang out with Lynelle all the time," Kimber said. "She sleeps over at my apartment once in awhile and we have a girl's night. And I...love being a big sister to her, because I don't get to have that anymore."

Kimber yearns for her older sister and for a relationship that will never be.

"One of my good friends, she has an older sister. And they're about the same age difference as me and Mikelle. And ...sometimes she complains about, 'Oh, I hate having an older sister.' And I was like, "You don't know how lucky you are,'" Kimber said.




Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Mikelle Biggs case on national TV show Friday
by Jim Walsh - May. 14, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The heartbreaking case of Mikelle Biggs, an 11-year-old Mesa girl who disappeared more than 10 years ago, returns to the national spotlight Friday.

ABC News' "20/20," a newsmagazine show, will delve into the unsolved case as part of a series of shows featuring people who have disappeared.

Darien Biggs, Mikelle's father, remains convinced that a sex offender sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for the brutal rape of a neighbor is responsible for his daughter's murder.
While suspicion has focused on the convicted rapist, Mesa police consider Mikelle's disappearance an open case and have never named a suspect. They say there isn't enough evidence to charge anyone.

Mikelle disappeared about 6 p.m. on Jan. 2, 1999, at Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue in central Mesa. Mikelle had heard an ice cream truck and ran out to meet it. Her sister, Kimber, went home to get a jacket. Tracy Biggs, their mother, sent Kimber back to tell Mikelle to come home.

Only 90 seconds passed, but Mikelle already was gone, less than a block from the family's house.

Mikelle's body never was found. No one apparently witnessed what police still believe was an abduction. Police found Mikelle's bicycle and two quarters she planned to use to buy the ice cream.

Elizabeth Vargas, an award-winning reporter who worked in Phoenix early in her career for KTVK (Channel 3) from 1986-1989, interviews the Biggs family as part of the show.

"It's such a heartbreaking case," Vargas said. "Within two minutes, she vanishes into thin air."

Vargas said she has worked on profiles of 10 to 15 cases where people have vanished; some eventually were solved and others remain unsolved.

"I think the thing we have found repeatedly in these shows is that not knowing is the worst," she said.

Darien Biggs called the "20/20" interview another in a series of attempts to finally find out what happened to Mikelle after more than a decade.

"I won't be a whole person again until we know for sure," Biggs said. "I think there has to be more than one person in the world who knows what happened. It's so hard to keep a secret."

His hope is that the "20/20" profile will jog memories and generate more tips for police, perhaps from someone who once lived in Mesa but has moved out of state.

"I just hope that someone will say something. You never know," he said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/200...iggstv0514.html
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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mimi
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The "America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response" system, otherwise known as AMBER Alert or Child Abduction Emergency (CAE), appeared in a primitive from in 1998 before transforming into its modern incarnation in 2001. These alerts are no more permanent than the text messages or other forms they appear in. Once people look at them, they remember it for a few seconds before their mind moves onto the next bit of information coming their way.

Plus, the case that came and went before the system became more widespread fall through the cracks, losing out on the coverage modern cases receive on a daily basis. For people who weren't the victim's family members or law enforcement officials investigating their case, they will never know these poor souls vanished unless they sought out the information. In a world gone mad, remembering who missing people are and what happened to them is low on our list of priorities.
The Mikelle Biggs Alert
November 27, 12:54 PMSalt Lake City Missing Persons ExaminerAllen Glines

Oklahoma went a long way in expanding the alert reach with the establishment of the Silver Alert program, which seeks to locate missing senior citizens with Alzheimer's and dementia. Still, several other cases slip through the cracks due to strict inclusion criteria and alert systems that wouldn't cover their cases even if they fit the criteria. This calls for the establishment of the Mikelle Alert, an alert system that increases the awareness for cases that never got AMBER Alerts or occurred before the establishment of the AMBER Alert system.

"Biggs was last seen riding her bicycle near her family's residence in Mesa, Arizona on January 2, 1999. Biggs and her younger sister thought they heard an ice cream truck's music in the distance and asked their mother for money. Biggs and her sister waited for the truck near Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue at approximately 5:50 p.m. Her sister became cold and returned to the family's home for a coat. Their mother sent her back for Biggs, but she had disappeared. Biggs's bicycle and her two quarters were found near the street where she had been standing. The bicycle was not at the corner, but partially back towards the house. It was lying on its side with the wheel still spinning. Biggs and her sister had been separated for only about ninety seconds."

This would provide the platform to increase awareness for the cause of missing people and cases that time hasn't been kind to. It could serve as net to catch the current cases that fall through the cracks as well. Maybe it could bring a few of these people home.

http://www.examiner.com/x-28069-Salt-Lake-...lle-Biggs-Alert

__________________________________________________________________

Biggs was last seen riding her bicycle near her family's residence in Mesa, Arizona on January 2, 1999. Biggs and her younger sister thought they heard an ice cream truck's music in the distance and asked their mother for money. Biggs and her sister waited for the truck near Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue at approximately 5:50 p.m. Her sister became cold and returned to the family's home for a coat. Their mother sent her back for Biggs, but she had disappeared. Biggs's bicycle and her two quarters were found near the street where she had been standing. The bicycle was not at the corner, but partially back towards the house. It was lying on its side with the wheel still spinning. Biggs and her sister had been separated for only about ninety seconds.

Authorities searched the entire area near Biggs's family's home, but no evidence pertaining to her whereabouts was found. Search dogs lost her scent after only a few feet, suggesting she was placed into a vehicle and driven away. Authorities were unable to confirm if an ice cream truck was in the area at the time of her disappearance, but all ice cream vendors in the area were cleared of involvement in Biggs's case. Known sex offenders in the vicinity were also cleared of any connection to Biggs.

There have been many false leads in Biggs's case. On January 9, police dug up what appeared to be a freshly-dug grave outside of Mesa. They found nothing. Two witnesses were put under hypnosis in hopes that they would remember something, but nothing came of that. A copper-colored jeep was reportedly spotted near Biggs's home at the time she was last seen, but when its driver was located he was ruled out as a suspect and he had seen nothing usual. Houses in the neighborhood were searched with the consent of their owners, but to no avail. Only one homeowner refused to permit a search; he is not considered a suspect. On March 10, 1999, a man reportedly tried to abduct two girls, a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old, from a schoolyard. Police thought the incident might have been connected to Biggs's case, but the "abduction" was revealed to be a hoax.

Investigators have released sketches of two possible suspects in Biggs's disappearance. Both images are posted below this case summary. The sketches are not being widely publicized since authorities are not certain if the men are connected to her case.

Biggs's father believes he knows who was reponsible for his daughter's apparent abduction. The man, Dee Blalock, lived two blocks from the Biggs home in 1999. He had prior convictions for sex offenses in three states and was registered as a sex offender. In 2001, he was convicting of raping a neighbor and trying to kill her. He is presently serving a fifteen-and-a-half-year sentence in an Arizona prison. Blalock denies any involvement in the case, and his wife provided him an alibi for the time Biggs disappeared. On the fifth anniversary of Biggs's disappearance, her family held a funeral for her with an empty casket. Her family now lives in Gilbert, Arizona. They believe Biggs was murdered shortly after her disappearance. No charges have been filed against anyone in her case.

Biggs is described an intelligent, artistic, sociable person and an honor student. She played the clarinet and was a member of her school's student council at the time of her disappearance. She wanted to become an animator when she grew up. Her favorite color is purple and she has two younger sisters and a younger brother. There are few leads in Biggs's disappearance and her case remains unsolved.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/biggs_mikelle.html
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mimi
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suspect sketches
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https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-police-investigating-dollar-bill-that-could-be-tied-to-cold-case-of-missing-girl

Mesa police investigating dollar bill that could be tied to cold case of missing girl
Clayton Klapper, Katie Conner
3:19 PM, Mar 20, 2018
9:30 AM, Mar 21, 2018

MESA, AZ - The Mesa Police Department is investigating a dollar bill found in Wisconsin that may be a new tip in a 1999 cold case.

Mikelle Biggs was 11 years old when she went missing from Mesa in 1999. Police said at the time that Biggs went missing while waiting for an ice cream truck in her neighborhood. Her bike and change were found, but she had vanished.

Fast forward to 2018, police in Wisconsin say they were tipped off recently to a dollar bill that had been located with, “My name is Mikel Biggs kidnapped from Mesa AZ I’m Alive,” written on it.

Although the name is spelled wrong on the dollar bill, Mesa police say they are still going to look into the validity of it.

Mesa police also point out that the bill was printed in 2009, ten years after Biggs went missing.

"Someone out there clearly recalls the case whether it be Mikelle or someone else around because that bill wasn’t in existence in 1999," said Mesa Police Detective Steve Berry. "So is that a clue one way or another? We just simply don’t know at this point."

Mesa police say a citizen who had gotten the dollar bill contacted their local police department after noticing the writing on it.

"It's something that still resonates here in the community, and that's very evident by the fact you look at this one dollar bill from across the country, and it has reignited everyone's interest in this case wanting to know what happened to Mikelle," Berry said.

Berry says it will be very hard to track who all exchanged the bill since it was printed, but they’ll do their best to investigate what they can.

"Sometimes cases like these will get solved through random tips like this," Berry said. "You can be here in Mesa today and two hours later be across the country or in a different part of the world," Berry said.

Mesa police are continuing to investigate the bill, and ABC15 will continue to follow up on any new findings.
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