Mommy2Bailey
09-03-2007, 03:47 PM
CHLORIDE, Arizona (AP) -- Riding all-terrain vehicles in the hilly countryside was a frequent pursuit for 13-year-old Rikki Howard and her 10-year-old sister, Casie Hicks, and their family, a neighbor said Monday.
The surviving girl was transported to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, in critical condition.
1 of 3 But the terrain and clumps of brush concealed a derelict mine shaft, not uncommon in a state with a long history of gold and silver prospecting.
On Saturday night Rikki and Casie were riding an ATV, their father ahead of them on a dirt bike outside this northwestern Arizona community, a collection of homes scattered in the desert.
Their father noticed they were no longer behind him. The girls had plunged into the 125-foot-deep shaft that was so well hidden - without signs of barriers - that rescuers searching them walked right by it in the darkness.
Sheriff's personnel searched throughout Saturday night, but they weren't able to follow the ATV's tracks into the shaft until early Sunday, Mohave County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Sandy Edwards said.
When the entrance was discovered, the father called out and one of the girls answered, officials said. Rescuers rappelled into the shaft and found the girls and their vehicle at the bottom.
Rikki was found dead in the shaft. Casie was upgraded to serious condition Monday at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.
"They're just about as distraught as humans can be," said family spokesman Seth Johnson who talked to the girls' father Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, the family was staying in Las Vegas with Casie, he added.
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No one answered a knock Monday at the family's home, a single-wide trailer home on a roughly one-acre lot that also holds Johnson's trailer and about six other small trailers and mobile homes.
A motorized, pink and purple children's car sat in front of the family's home, along with a dirt bike and some pickup trucks.
"They were having a holiday weekend jaunt riding ATVs in the mountains there," said Capt. Greg Smith of the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
"A 10-year-old girl has spent the night at the bottom of a mine shaft, which is the most horrifying thing I can think of," Smith said. Watch officials describe what they found at the bottom of the mine shaft »
The ownership of the shaft had not been determined, said Laurie Swartzbaugh, deputy director of the Arizona State Mine Inspector's office. She said many abandoned mines date back to the early 1900s and sometimes it's not possible to trace ownership.
"There's a significant amount of abandoned mines out there that are hazardous to the public's health," she said. "Most of those mines are from old prospectors who would go in and they would mine and they'd just pick up leave."
Swartzbaugh said that since January 1 the office has secured 108 abandoned mines.
The surviving girl was transported to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, in critical condition.
1 of 3 But the terrain and clumps of brush concealed a derelict mine shaft, not uncommon in a state with a long history of gold and silver prospecting.
On Saturday night Rikki and Casie were riding an ATV, their father ahead of them on a dirt bike outside this northwestern Arizona community, a collection of homes scattered in the desert.
Their father noticed they were no longer behind him. The girls had plunged into the 125-foot-deep shaft that was so well hidden - without signs of barriers - that rescuers searching them walked right by it in the darkness.
Sheriff's personnel searched throughout Saturday night, but they weren't able to follow the ATV's tracks into the shaft until early Sunday, Mohave County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Sandy Edwards said.
When the entrance was discovered, the father called out and one of the girls answered, officials said. Rescuers rappelled into the shaft and found the girls and their vehicle at the bottom.
Rikki was found dead in the shaft. Casie was upgraded to serious condition Monday at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.
"They're just about as distraught as humans can be," said family spokesman Seth Johnson who talked to the girls' father Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, the family was staying in Las Vegas with Casie, he added.
Don't Miss
KPHO: Second victim in bad shape
No one answered a knock Monday at the family's home, a single-wide trailer home on a roughly one-acre lot that also holds Johnson's trailer and about six other small trailers and mobile homes.
A motorized, pink and purple children's car sat in front of the family's home, along with a dirt bike and some pickup trucks.
"They were having a holiday weekend jaunt riding ATVs in the mountains there," said Capt. Greg Smith of the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.
"A 10-year-old girl has spent the night at the bottom of a mine shaft, which is the most horrifying thing I can think of," Smith said. Watch officials describe what they found at the bottom of the mine shaft »
The ownership of the shaft had not been determined, said Laurie Swartzbaugh, deputy director of the Arizona State Mine Inspector's office. She said many abandoned mines date back to the early 1900s and sometimes it's not possible to trace ownership.
"There's a significant amount of abandoned mines out there that are hazardous to the public's health," she said. "Most of those mines are from old prospectors who would go in and they would mine and they'd just pick up leave."
Swartzbaugh said that since January 1 the office has secured 108 abandoned mines.