Follow-up on Mikelle Biggs, Missing Child from Mesa Arizona
John R. Woodward
posted her a few days ago, because he will be very busy working on his
Serial Killer and Mass Murderer Mailing List this weekend.
For those without the patience to read the stories themselves, the first one
essentially repeats the facts in the case and updates it bys reporting that
there are no new leads or clues.
The second story chronicles the way her family's Mormon community has
organized itself to deal with the crisis.
Betcha we see this one on AMERICA'S MOST WANTED Saturday night.
Desert search yields no clues
Jeep report no good in hunt for Mesa girl
Mikelle Biggs of Mesa vanished Saturday. She was last seen wearing a red
short-sleeve shirt and bell-bottom jeans.
By Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 7, 1999
Another frustrating day passed without any luck in the search for an
11-year-old Mesa girl who seems to have vanished without a trace.
About 100 Maricopa County Sheriff's Office deputies and posse members spent
nearly 24 hours searching a lush desert area northeast of Mesa frequented by
Salt River tubers.
But Sgt. Dave Trombi, a sheriff's spokesman, said searchers found no
evidence of Mikelle Biggs, who disappeared Saturday evening while waiting
for an ice cream truck.
The search, near Power and Thomas roads, was prompted by a tip to police
that a copper Jeep CJ had been seen parked on a dirt road nearby, police
Sgt. Earle Lloyd said.
At the time of Mikelle's apparent abduction, a copper-colored Jeep CJ was
seen in her neighborhood, near El Moro Drive and Toltec Street.
With so few leads, police decided to search the area, but all they found was
a stolen vehicle believed unconnected to the case.
Members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Posse return to base Wednesday to
rest their horses after searching Coon Bluff Recreation Area.
Despite the lack of progress, family members managed to keep a positive
attitude, even though police admit the odds of finding Mikelle unharmed are
worsening.
Neighbors along El Moro showed their support for the Biggs family by tying
yellow ribbons to their mailboxes.
"I'm still very hopeful. I'm just more tired than I was on Saturday," said
Michael Darien Biggs, Mikelle's father.
"Everyone I talk to, the first thing they say is keep your chin up," he
said.
His father, Michael Biggs, said, "you think you're in a nightmare, and then
you realize you're awake and its not going to go away."
The Biggs family's travails were compounded further by disclosure that
Darien Biggs had an extramarital affair with a woman whose ex-husband had
made vague threats against him.
"They weren't even threats. They were more like head games," Biggs said.
Biggs said he told police about the affair Saturday night. He disclosed it
to his wife, Tracy, in November.
Lloyd said police do not believe the ex-husband of Biggs' former lover is
involved in Mikelle's disappearance.
Meanwhile, the Nation's Missing Children Organization announced plans for a
non-denominational prayer service at 7 p.m. Friday at Mesa High School's
auditorium.
Drivers also were asked to use their headlights while driving Friday as
symbolic "Search Lights for Missing Children
Mormon stake responds to call for help
By Judi Villa
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 7, 1999
Mike Stanley squatted next to the folding table, writing out directions as
Lorin Jones highlighted square-mile areas of Mesa on a map.
Next to them, Craig and Christine Smart counted missing persons fliers into
stacks of 50 and handed them out.
And Dayna West and Mike Morgan cut 600 yards of donated yellow ribbon into
pieces large enough to tie around trees and others small enough to pin on
shirts.
This, a stake center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is
the gathering place for volunteers helping look for 11-year-old Mikelle
Biggs, who has been missing since Saturday night.
Although the whole community has mobilized in the search for Mikelle, the
efforts have been spearheaded and coordinated by church members. That's
because the church's organization isn't only prepared, but structured, to
address tragedy immediately.
"You say you're in need, and it's there," said Jolene Griffin, a church
member. "If somebody's hurt, you go and help. If somebody's lost their job,
we find out and we try to help. We bring food. We might be able to find them
a new job. That's the kind of thing that just happens.
"This is family."
It's a family that's made up of wards and stakes and committees and men and
women who go out to each other's homes monthly just to make sure everyone
and everything is OK.
A missing child is just one of a million things that could come up. If
somebody has lost a job or becomes ill or gets hurt in a car crash, church
members swing into action, offering food, prayers, baby-sitting,
housekeeping and any other kind of help that's needed.
"It's just automatic," said Amber Mennenga, a church member. "We're all
God's children, and we're here to help each other. It's compassion. It's
almost like having something happen to yourself."
Congregations, called wards, are made up of 300 to 600 members and are
organized geographically, so members go to school with each other, serve on
the same school committees and wind up in the same scouting troops, said
Wilford Andersen, the church's spokesman in the Phoenix area. Eight to 12
wards make up a stake, which is about 4,000 members, he said. There are 41
stakes in the Phoenix area.
A simple telephone tree makes it possible for one church member to call
seven people and end up with 500 volunteers to help search for a missing
little girl.
"We put a high priority on bearing one another's burdens and helping each
other out," Andersen said. "We teach that."
The church has the manpower to help out and it also has money saved.
Andersen said that on the first Sunday of every month, church members fast
for two meals, donating the money they saved to their ward to assist those
in need.
"It goes back to old traditional values," Dave Morgan said as he stapled
yellow ribbons together. "Years ago people would stick together. There was a
time you didn't have homeowners insurance. If something happened, people
would pull together and help rebuild a house if it was necessary."
In Mikelle's case, as many as 500 volunteers a night have distributed
fliers, passing out 50,000 notices across about 44 square miles, from Elliot
to Brown roads and Power to Alma School roads.
Church members joined Mikelle's neighbors on Saturday night to search for
her by flashlight. And, they've brought so much food to the Biggs' family
that the family has had to turn some away.
"This is not a Mormon thing," said Nick Orlando, a church member and Biggs
family friend who has coordinated the distribution. "It's a people thing.
It's a neighborhood thing. We just have an organization in place to
facilitate it. It's just like any other organization that has an emergency
notification system."
On Tuesday night, volunteers, some wearing white and black "Hope" buttons,
picked up even more fliers to stick onto light and telephone poles, street
signs and onto the windows of every business. Some picked up fliers to take
to Queen Creek, south Chandler and Tempe.
Volunteers are working to blanket the Valley from Phoenix to Gilbert to
Apache Junction. They are trying to get pizza delivery drivers to take one
on every delivery and to get tow truck operators to take them, too. Fliers
also will be distributed statewide today through the presidents of other
stakes.
"Every little bit can help," Mennenga said. "You just don't know what will
help. You don't know who will see something somewhere. Just one little thing
could bring her back."
***
Judi Villa can be reached at 444-7972 or at judi....@pni.com via e-mail.
Demona888
RE: AMW Missing Children:
I have noticed that (about) 28 out of 37 recent missing girls, say 12 to
17-8, have either been tatooed or pierced or both - ANY SIGNIFICANCE -
besides liberal parents ???
I don't think it necessarily means they have liberal parents. The girls may
have gone out and got those things done without parental permission. If they
did get them without permission and these kids are runaways, I would not be as
surprised.
Hester