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Chandler/Tempe Edition
EV balloon club teaches kids skills 10
Sunday, December 29, 2019
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS ........................ 3
EV wedding venue closure strands couples. What a difference 10 years made in the East Valley. It began with Elevation Chandler, on the right, which became a symbol for the real estate crash that left deep scars on the region.. Now, as we turn the page on the the 2010s, The Offices at Viridian, left, stands on the very same spot as an example of the region’s economic recovery. (Tribune file photos)
COMMUNITY ........ 12 East Mesa author honored twice.
BUSINESS ................ 14
Chandler woman creates pet-related accessories
The 2010s: The East Valley’s decade to remember BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
I
f you want a metaphor for how the East Valley was doing as this decade began, here’s one for you: A gaunt, rusting multistory steel skeleton in Chandler. Elevation Chandler sat at the corner of South Price and Frye roads, the abandoned dream of a whiz-bang developer who had launched the hotel-condo project in 2006
only to run out of money – as did much of the world about that time. The ruin loomed over every shopper who visited the next-door mall, every driver who rolled past on Loop 101. It stood as a haunting reminder of the Great Recession until the decade was almost half-past, not coming down until 2014. If you want a metaphor for how the East Valley is doing as this decade ends, this same site will do.
Go there and you’ll see gleaming new offices, fine apartments, places to eat and no sign the skeleton was ever there. Ten years will do that to a place. Start low, end high. Or vice versa. Along the way, the nearly finished decade produced a kaleidoscope of events, in retrospect, roared past like water gushing through a busted Tempe Town Lake dam –
juveniles for months. Now all four family members are missing and have left their relatives confused as to where they may have gone. Some have speculated Vallow’s joined a mysterious cult, while others are hopeful no foul play has taken place. Three people connected to Vallow and Daybell have all died within the last few months. One was shot to death at a residence in Chandler. A death in Gilbert is still under investigation. Charles Vallow, the missing mother’s ex-husband, was killed during a domestic dispute on July 11 in the 5500 block of South
Four Peaks Place. According to Chandler Police, Vallow came to Chandler to pick up his son from Lori. Once he arrived, an argument ensued and Lori’s brother, Alexander Cox, intervened by shooting Vallow dead. Chandler Police determined in July, Cox acted in self-defense and chose not to arrest him. Cox died on Dec. 12 in Gilbert after police found him unresponsive at his home. His cause of death won’t be determined until an autopsy is completed, according to the Gilbert
see DECADE page 4
Chandler, Gilbert deaths tied to cult mystery
BY KEVIN REAGAN Tribune Staff Writer
FOOD ........................22 Where to take the kids next month.
COMMUNITY ............... 12 BUSINESS ...................... 14 OPINION ........................15 SPORTS ......................... 16 GETOUT..........................17 CLASSIFIED....................24
A
former East Valley woman has left behind a trail of bodies as authorities attempt to trace the whereabouts of her and her two children amid speculation about her connection to a doomsday cult. The FBI is on the lookout for 46-year-old Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, after the couple abruptly fled their Idaho home last month. Local authorities had been checking on the welfare of Vallow’s two children since no one had seen or spoken to the
see MISSING page 8