25 years after Mikelle Biggs vanished, sister seeks healing through documentary

Kimber Biggs remembers her big sister Mikelle as the golden child.

Smart, charismatic and artistic, Mikelle loved reading and horses. The two were polar opposites. Kimber kept her room in their Mesa home messy, while Mikelle kept hers spotless. Kimber got in trouble for talking at school, while Mikelle was a perfect student.

The sister of the long-missing Mikelle Biggs is working with a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and a private investigator on a documentary recounting her disappearance and the search for her.

Mikelle disappeared and was believed kidnapped 25 years ago in 1999.

Kimber Biggs was 9 years old and the last person to see her older sister Mikelle, then 11. Her disappearance made national news and kicked off one of the biggest searches in Arizona history — along with a ripple of rumors in the community as people speculated about what could have happened to her.

Much of the speculation was based on clues that seemed plausible at the time but ended up leading nowhere, Mikelle’s father, Darien Biggs, said.

“Every time a new lead came up, people would seize on it and then worry it to death, even though it had been put to bed,” he said.

Documentary to focus on family's perspective

Kimber said she had always wanted to make a documentary about her sister but was waiting for the right time and a team she knew would handle the story with care. When filmmaker Elliot Feld and private investigator Jay Pirouznia approached her in February, Kimber said they let her take the lead.

The documentary, slated to be finished within the next nine months, is meant to quell the rumors by sharing all information available from the family’s perspective.

“We just kind of clicked on all of our ideas,” she said. “The fact that they were very welcoming and supportive of having me actually on the production team was very comforting because then I knew I would have some control over what we’re actually putting out there.”

Feld, who grew up in Gilbert, said he remembered the case vividly. His vision is to tell the story of Mikelle's disappearance through re-enacted scenarios from Mikelle's childhood and testimonials from Mikelle's family.

The team is looking for distribution partners who can bring the story of the Biggs family to the big screen.

“I’m hoping it sort of becomes the go-to to unwind, to understand the case,” Feld said.

He asked that anyone who may have information about what happened to Mikelle that night or who was involved in the search for her to reach out to him.

For Kimber, the documentary is an opportunity to gain closure. Since 2023, she has traveled the country doing speaking engagements and coaching police officers on how to explain situations like Mikelle’s to young family members of victims, a scenario she once found herself in.

The cases of the families she has met have all been solved, she said.

She still wonders when it will be her turn.

“That was an interesting perspective,” she said. “It was like, ‘Oh, I still am the one that doesn’t have answers.'”

Making the documentary is a way to keep Mikelle’s memory alive, Kimber said, and will perhaps put an end to the spinning wheel of rumors around her sister’s disappearance.

“All victims and survivors, they’re always looking to get their loved one remembered,” she said. “That’s something that I’m really passionate about: putting an end to horrible people stealing our children. I want Mikelle’s name to mean something to people.”

A family's worst nightmare: Mikelle Biggs disappeared 25 years ago in Mesa. Will her case be solved soon?

What happened to Mikelle Biggs?

On the evening of Jan. 2, 1999, Mikelle was playing outside just before nightfall, riding Kimber’s bike. She heard an ice cream truck in the distance, and Kimber came outside to join Mikelle.

When the weather turned colder, Kimber wanted to go home, but Mikelle chose to stay outside. Kimber went inside, then returned to get Mikelle at their mother’s orders. Instead of her sister, she found Mikelle’s quarters for ice cream strewn on the pavement and her bike lying on the side of the road, wheels spinning. She was away for just 90 seconds.

Kimber said her family believes Mikelle is no longer alive. They believe Mikelle was kidnapped by Dee Lee Blalock, a neighbor of the family and one of the dozens of convicted sex offenders who lived in the neighborhood at the time. Blalock was arrested in 1999 after kidnapping and raping Susan Quinnette, who lived near the Biggs’ home and is serving a 187-year sentence for the attack.

Blalock has never been charged in connection with Mikelle’s case, but Kimber said her parents exchanged letters and spoke with him in prison, coming away with the feeling he did it.

Mesa Police Department Detective Paul Sipe, now the lead investigator on the case, told Dateline in January that the Mesa Police Department echoes the family’s theory.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Family of Mikelle Biggs, missing Mesa girl, works on documentary