Note on Dollar Bill Could Be Cold-Case Clue

It names 11-year-old girl who vanished in Arizona in 1999
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 20, 2018 9:35 AM CDT
Note on Dollar Bill Could Be Cold-Case Clue
A note on the bill begins, "My name is Mikel."   (Getty Images/Andrey_KZ)

It happened in the 90 seconds it took her younger sister to dash home and back. Where Mikelle Biggs had last been seen riding her bike, waiting for an ice cream truck to arrive, her sister found only a discarded bike and a sprinkling of quarters. Nineteen years later and 1,800 miles away, a note written on a dollar bill might offer a clue as to what happened to the 11-year-old from Mesa, Ariz., police say. Written in a child's hand on the edges of the 2009 bill found in Neenah, Wis., the note reads: "My name is Mikel (sic) Biggs kidnapped From Mesa AZ I'm Alive," per the Arizona Republic. Reported to police on March 14, the note could be authentic but could also be someone's idea of a joke, says Neenah police investigator Adam Streubel, citing Mikelle's misspelled name.

Even if the dollar was once in the girl's hands, "there's no way to trace it," Streubel says. "There was a little spring of hope for a second, and then reality set in. There is nothing you can do with it." But the Mesa Police Department isn't ready to discard this new evidence. "We always follow up on [tips]" and "hope that might be the one that breaks the case," a detective tells the Republic. In an interview with the East Valley Tribune earlier this year, Mikelle's sister, 28-year-old Kimber Biggs, said she believes Mikelle was abducted and murdered—police reportedly suspect a convicted sex offender serving a 187-sentence for unrelated crimes—but still seeks closure. "I am meant to find justice for her, to get an answer," she said. "I think my mind would be a little more at ease." (This dollar bill left a widower in tears.)

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