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I I couldn't believe it I remember I was sitting on the couch with my boyfriend and I just like gasped and he was like
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what and I was like Jamie Claus was found alive Kimber BS felt Joy when she heard Jamie Claus had come home and a
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deep aching pain when something like this happens does that give you renewed hope um somewhat she has always hoped to
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see her own sister muel walk back in the door how would you describe Mel uh she was
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perfect she was funny and smart Mel was a sixth grade honors student in Mesa Arizona who played clarinet and wanted
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to be a Disney animator when she grew up she was amazing to be around it was the evening of January 2nd
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1999 Kimber then nine Mikel 11 were outside playing Mikel had kimber's bike as both waited for an ice cream truck
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muel was riding my bike and she was doing big circles and I said well I'm cold I'm going inside you know I crossed
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the street and I remember I looked I saw her riding still doing big circles in the street and that was the last time I
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saw her when Kimber went back outside her bike was there but Mikel was gone it took only 90 seconds the thing that
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sticks out most in my mind about that day is the bike in the road you know it was on its side the tire was still
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spinning What followed was a blur of yellow ribbons and trees cameras and investigators questioning the 9-year-old
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I mean it took 30 minutes for a thousand people to be looking for her and there was every news station and multiple
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police cars and people organizing search parties abductions like mikel's are rare
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less than 1% of missing children are reported as having been abducted by a stranger this one immediately was
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different from the get-go it was different Mesa police detective Steve Barry a patrol officer back then joined
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the massive Manhunt no one had seen anything she just simply seemed to be gone Without a
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Trace police will uh flood an area when a child is missing because they know the
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clock is ticking and it's ticking loudly local print reporter Jim Walsh covered the story from the beginning and says
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investigators had very few leads and no physical evidence no one heard her cry call out no I never heard of anybody
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actually seeing anything or hearing anything there's a reason they say Mel bigs vanished Into Thin Air because it
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looks like she did police questioned everyone in the neighborhood starting with Mel's own father Daren to my
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knowledge they never named anybody a suspect but they looked pretty hard at him I think part of it was his
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personality Darren was more of a aof person didn't mean that he didn't feel it inside you it but he was just a less
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demonstrative person but daram bigs was quickly cleared I was very angry my heart was broken that my dad had to go
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through that on top of not having his little girl investigators also question neighbors including d block who lived
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just two blocks away they knocked on his door they spoke to him they spoke to his
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wife his wife gave an alibi to the effect that he was out in the garage watching the Cardinals game in an
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interview with a local news station block appeared to be a law order guy if you're my neighbor and I see that you're
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living next to me and I see something vitious going on I guarantee you I'd be called 911 he was described as friendly
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and personable the police moved on and they kept looking and then on March 14th 2018 about 1700 M away there was a
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glimmer of hope I was was sitting at my desk one day when I got a phone call from a reporter in Wisconsin a dollar
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bill was turned into the Nina Wisconsin police by a man who said he found it in a stack of bills collected as payment
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for Girl Scout cookies a child scraw on it caught his eye it said my name is Mel
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bigs kidnapped from Mesa I'm alive did that give you hope did you think is this possible it kind of did for a moment it
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was it was hope but then also I felt shattered like God if she is alive what is she going through but I remember
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looking at it and the fact that her name was misspelled and the the handwriting it
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just didn't look like her handwriting to me it looked like someone trying to write like a child why would someone do
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that I'm not sure you know there's some horrible people out there and I deal with quite a few of them on a
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regular basis but what felt like a promising lead quickly turned into another frustrating dead end in any case
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Kimber feels she knows who took her sister nearly two years after Mel vanished and I see something the
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neighbor who said he knew nothing de block was convicted of beating and raping a neighbor he allegedly made some
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comments while incarcerating ated in prison um tying back to this case um needless to say that stirred things up
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again block has repeatedly denied any involvement there is no physical evidence to tie him to the crime that's
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what's one of the hardest things about this case there's nothing to go on and even though I do kind of feel that d
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block is responsible you know that's not good enough I'm I'm not going to settle
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for I think it's him Jan uary 2nd 2019 marked 20 years since Mel bigs was last seen and Kimber is now the mother
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of a six-year-old son said I'm a helicopter mom if we're at the park and he goes behind the play structure I get
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up so I can see him I do not let him out of my sight in just 90 seconds Kimber bigs
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lost her sister and her childhood and she still wants to know why I hope that she is alive and well and that we get
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her back but you know then reality kicks in and then I think well then my hopes need to just be that I know who took her
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and we find her body and give her you know the proper burial that she [Music] deserves