THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
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2 huge rec areas are coming to Gilbert
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Northeast Mesa Edition Inside
This Week
COMMUNITY ....... 10 Tempe leaders to build garden for disabled adults center
BUSINESS................... 12 Sibley’s West strikes gold with Arizona gifts
SPORTS ......................16 Perry girls are undefeated in soccer, set higher goals
DINING .................... 20 TUMI brings Peruvian cuisine to Chandler
COMMUNITY......... 10 BUSINESS.....................12 OPINION.................... 14 SPORTS........................ 16 FAITH............................ 18 CLASSIFIEDS............. 24
EAST VALLEY
Mesa facility to recycle hazardous wastes PAGE 10
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Politics, jackhammers will rattle EV in 2018 BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
I
n ancient China, seers sought to foretell the future by studying cracks in heatstressed animal bones. Smart seers learned to hedge their bets; vague forecasts had a better chance of pleasing the emperor than precise ones. While it’s true that art of foretelling the course of human events hasn’t improved much in the past 4,000 years, we can at least say, without the resorting to oracle bones,
that in 2018 the East Valley will endure immeasurable decibels of noise from politicians and jackhammers. The politicians will be jostling for office (Special to the Tribune) from city halls to the U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Synnation’s capital. The ema is running for the jackhammers will seat vacated by Sen. punctuate work on Jeff Flake. multimillion-dollar projects that continue to transform the grow-
ing region’s physical face. BATTLEGROUNDS The noisiest political combat in Arizona undoubtedly will be that to replace U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, the Mesa Republican who announced this year he will not seek re-election out of disgust for the governing style of President Donald Trump. Among those seeking Flake’s seat will be U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Synema, a Democrat whose See
YEAR AHEAD on page 2
19 years later, missing Mesa girl still haunts sister BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
K
imber and Mikelle Biggs were little girls living a life centered on their family and school, like thousands of other children in Mesa – until Jan. 2, 1999, when 11-year-old Mikelle’s picture landed on posters that covered the East Valley. Mikelle was missing. Everyone was worried about her. Everyone wanted to find her. Volunteers joined the increasingly desperate search while Mesa police pursued a series of leads in a case hampered from the start by little concrete evidence. Kimber and Mikelle had gone outside late that afternoon to buy an ice cream after they thought they heard an ice cream truck. Kimber, 9, went inside because it was getting cold as the sun went down. Mikelle vanished. Quickly, it became clear she had probably been abducted.
Mikelle’s picture was everywhere as she emerged from obscurity for the wrong reason. It was on the backs of minivans and SUVs, posted in storefronts and featured on newscasts and in newspapers. No one has found Mikelle to this day. All police found was two quarters and Kimber’s bicycle, oddly left in the street after Kimber got it recently as a birthday present from her parents. Her grief-stricken family finally held an empty-casket funeral service in an attempt to find a sense of peace and closure. Kimber remembers the day she last saw her sister. “I got cold and I was whiney,” she recalled. “My mom said, ‘Tell See
MIKELLE on page 4
Happy New Year
(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune Photographer)
Kimber Biggs holds photo of older sister Mikelle that was taken shortly before she disappeared 19 years ago in Mesa.