AZ AZ - Mikelle Biggs, 11, Mesa, 2 Jan 1999

[Crosby87]

I don't think that necessarily looks like a child's handwriting.

Very strange. The bill is only from 9 years ago? So it had to be written on in that time frame. Is this a very well known case? I honestly hadn't heard of it until today.

Why do you think the dollar bill was from 9 years ago?

 

[thesensitivechild]

This sort of bill as I believe it had only been in circulation for nine years. I think based on design etc they can determine year it was issued. Doesn’t mean it was written on nine years ago, just within the past nine years


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[enchilada]

It says series 2009 right on the bill.


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[hayaletcatcher]

I still don't get why charley project etc have her birth year of 1987 but the tombstone says 1989
http://charleyproject.org/case/mikelle-diane-biggs

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[Tssiemer]

I still don't get why charley project etc have her birth year of 1987 but the tombstone says 1989
http://charleyproject.org/case/mikelle-diane-biggs

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Same.


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[iluvmua]

So is Dee Blalock suspected of kidnapping and killing her?

 

[Gardener1850]

It appears her findagrave memorial was created in 2009 (based on the dates of the "flowers" left): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43532193/mikelle-diane-biggs/flower

Coincidence that the dollar is from the same year? :thinking:

 

[Crosby87]

So is Dee Blalock suspected of kidnapping and killing her?

Dee Blalock was a poi in 2009 but LE checked Mikelle's bike for fingerprints and DNA and packaged it after that initial processing "just in case there's some new technology that comes about that we don't know about today". So, if DB, a registered sex offender who is currently serving a 187 year prison sentence at Arizona's maximum security prison at Florence kidnapped Mikelle, I think LE would have compared his DNA and fingerprints to those found on her bike. If they matched, Blalock would have been charged with her disappearance but he wasn't.

When Mikelle's parents confronted DB in prison, he said he did not kidnap their daughter.

Police said Blalock's wife provided an alibi for Blalock, claiming he had been in the garage the entire night.

When Mikelle vanished, police immediately ran a check on all the registered sex offenders in the area. They were surprised to discover that dozens of sex offenders were living within a mile radius of the Biggs house in the child-filled neighborhood.

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[aThousandYearsWide]

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If she is somehow in Jaycee Lee Duggard situation would her captor have her handling money? Maybe she was allowed to answer the door to buy the girl scout cookie. She could have spelled her name wrong to safe space thinking whoever read it would get the picture. If it's a cruel joke then why such an old case? Unless it's a killer themselves trying to get their crime in the news again.

 

[Crosby87]

It was dusk when Mikelle vanished. Even though Mikelle and her younger sister Kimber were apparently lured outside by the sound of an ice cream truck, police investigated every ice cream vendor who could have been in the area that evening and found there were none.

Do ice cream vendor normally work in the evening? Did her parents hear the sound of an ice cream truck too?

The message written on the dollar bill must have shocked Mikelle's parents. "I always believed that we were going to find her," Darien Biggs said. "I just never felt like we were going to find her alive."

"She was running from somebody, based on the evidence that we do have," said Gissel. "It wasn't somebody that she knew or wanted to be with. She dropped the bike, she was running toward home, she dropped quarters, and it was swift. And somebody grabbed her and, I believe, abducted her in a car and drove away with her."

Mikelle lived in a family-friendly and busy neighborhood, but police soon discovered there were no witnesses.

"Sheer chance," said Darien Biggs. "If the person that took her had been off by 30 seconds either way," it's likely someone would have seen it.

"We received an enormous amount of leads. ... Going through all that information was a huge task," said Det. Domenick Kaufman, who joined Gissel on the case. "We've been everywhere, at residences in Mesa, pig farms ... dump sites, the desert ... the mountains. ... You name it."

Police traversed all of Arizona and beyond in what would become the largest investigation in the state's history.

In the months and years after Mikelle vanished, the Biggses continued to raise awareness about their daughter, attending vigils and conducting interviews with the local media.

http://a.abcnews.com/2020/90-seconds-agonizing-search-spans-decade/story?id=7577706

 

[liltexans]

This was discussed on Crime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield on HLN last night. Here’s a link to the transcript from the show:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1803/21/ptab.01.html

 

[Crosby87]

BANFIELD: When Mikelle Biggs got 50 cents and made a dash for the ice cream truck, it was likely a dream come true. What the 11-year-old honor student did not know was that a horrifying nightmare was about to play out. Mikelle`s little sister just lost sight of her for a matter ofseconds but that`s all it took for the girl with the toothy grin to vanish. One of the only things police ever found were those two coins that Mikelle never got to spend on the ice cream. And now nearly two decades after her disappearance, money is again providing a bizarre clue to this mystery. A $1 bill has turned up nearly 1800 miles away with a child-like nose scribbled on the front around the edges and it reads, my name is Mikelle Biggs, kidnapped from Mesa, Arizona. I`m alive.

Here`s one problem though with this cryptic message. Mikelle`s first name is spelled wrong. The local reports say Mesa police are investigating as the Biggs family holds on to hope that this missing girl will in fact be found alive. Still with me is defense attorney Sara Azari. Sara, is that significant? The fact that the name is misspelled 19 years later, would that mitigate the effort to really go after this forensically and try to track down this bill which by the way is a 2009 bill, so it could be nine years old, this message, or it could be last week?

AZARI: That`s right. We don`t know when this message was written. We also don`t know if she wrote it. I hope it`s not a hoax because this would be one cruel joke. This is a cold case from almost two decades ago, like you said. And law enforcement has every duty and obligation no matter how old these types of cases are to pay close attention and do everything in their power to do a very thorough investigation of any piece of evidence that comes across their desk. And I think that even though there are these signs that perhaps this might be a hoax and this might give false hope, every false hope in this type of case has to be fully investigated with the hope that maybe one day some piece of evidence will lead to this girl who is now 20 years older than she was.

BANFIELD: Right. She is 30. She would be 30 today if she`s alive.

AZARI: Right.

BANFIELD: And I want to say if she`s alive and that`s usually what the National Center for Missing and Exploited --

AZARI: Right.

BANFIELD: -- Children wants to say as well. I want to put up what they do a lot. The age progression. I am always fascinated by the pictures. This is Mikelle as she was seen last at 11 years old, progressed to 14 years old, then progressed to 17 years old and then ultimately the last progression was from about five years ago. But even the age progressions &#8211; I mean, that`s really -- it`s a long shot because who knows if she really ends up looking like that, if she gained or lost weight, if she dyed or cut her hair. Everything can make the biggest difference.

AZARI: Right.

BANFIELD: But this is the kind of thing even if it`s a hoax which would be evil like you said. It does get tips sometimes. It does get it back in the news and sometimes it solves these cases.

AZARI: Right. Totally. And I think that the police just because of the age of this case sitting on their desk should not discount their efforts --

BANFIELD: Yes.

AZARI: -- in trying to do a full investigation of any tip that really comes across their desk.

BANFIELD: Maybe there will be something on that bill.

 

[thenotebook]

I'm glad her case is getting renewed attention. Unfortunately I think the dollar bill is a total hoax. If a person really was Mikelle and alive after all of these years, surely she would try another method of getting someone's attention and getting help. If you logically think about someone reaching out for help via a dollar bill it makes zero sense. The dollar bill could end up being put in a vending machine and sit there for months or longer. When a cashier is handed dollar bills they don't examine them. They put them right into a cash register.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Sadly, I have to say that I agree it's a hoax...Mikelle is an unusual name, so I could see someone else easily misspelling it. But the girl herself? Not likely.

Likely some disturbed person thought it would be "funny," and nothing more.

 

[DakotaMayi]

Of course, this is more than likely a a hoax. But, if it wasn't? Could she have spelt her name wrong on purpose so she would be able to say to whoever is keeping her captive, that it wasn't her? Sort of like "Of course it wasn't me! Look, they can't even spell my name right." Also, her handling money while captive is not a stretch for me, captives have done much more and been unable to escape.

Like I said, more than likely its a hoax (how cruel) but you know, I gotta think of all options, and I'm glad to see it's at least bought Mikelle back into the media, even if nothing more.

 

[Crosby87]

Missing Girl's Sister Says Note on dollar bill is likely a hoax

https://nypost.com/2018/03/21/missing-girls-sister-says-note-on-dollar-bill-is-likely-a-hoax/

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

It could very well have been the killer him/herself. Like in Jamie Trotter's case where his killer was also the guy the happened to "find" his remains.

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[Crosby87]

FYI, January 2nd, 1999 was a Saturday. It was 5:50 pm when Mikelle and her sister were outside waiting for the ice cream truck near Toltec Street and El Moro Avenue.

Mikelle was a talented artist who wanted to be a Disney animator. At 11 years of age, Mikelle would have been in Grade 6.

Apparently a persons handwriting changes as they age and can reflect a persons mindset and any health issues they may have.

So, what does the handwriting on the dollar bill reveal about the author?

Mikelel has brown hair and hazel eyes. Her upper front teeth are prominent and she had several moles on the left side of her neck however, moles can change over time or disappear completely. Her ears were pierced.

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[cybervampira]

City of Mesa PD: https://www.facebook.com/MesaAzPD/posts/1992295674117373
In recent days, a dollar bill was discovered in Neenah Wisconsin with writing that said, "My name is Mikel Biggs Kidnapped from Mesa AZ I'm Alive." The Mikelle Biggs missing person case is one of the largest investigations in the history of the Mesa Police Department. The dollar bill has spurred new interest in the case, now 19 year later.

Mikelle was last seen on her bicycle at approximately 6:00 p.m. on January 2, 1999, in a neighborhood near Gilbert Rd and Southern Ave in Mesa. Her bicycle was found in the street near her home. She could not be found and that was the last time she has been seen. She was 11 years old at the time. She was last seen wearing a red shirt with a white stripe across the chest and blue jeans with designs on the sides.

The first photo is Mikelle at the age she went missing.
The second photo is age-progressed to show what Mikelle may have looked like at age 25. The age progression photo is from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The Mesa Police Department actively investigates new leads on this case anytime they come in. Anyone with information about Mikelle's whereabouts is asked to please call the Mesa Police Department at 480-644-2211 or your local law enforcement agency.

 

[wdmcmahan]

Hopefully the dollar bill can be tracked back several transactions at least, that should be fairly easy to do. With a little luck, the person responsible for writing the message could be discovered if they wrote it recently. If it wasn't written recently then I'm afraid there isn't much hope tracing it too far back.

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