2024 March InMaricopa Magazine - 20th Anniversary.

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March 2024

News flash InMaricopa hits major milestone

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March 2024 | InMaricopa.com

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CONTENTS

GET FAST INTERNET AT EVERYDAY LOW PRICES.

LEADING OFF Editor’s letter 4 Contributors 4 HISTORY

The cat of many hats 8 This month in history 8 GOVERNMENT Meet the new city manager 10 Missing, murdered people get new chance at identity 14 Is economic growth the goal? 22

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Permitting 23 BUSINESS Food inspections 24 Business briefs 25 Meet Maricopa’s most wanted fake contractors 26 Water company’s role in city growth 29 New video game can be prescribed as medicine 30 Gig business is big business in Maricopa 32 COMMUNITY Two decades of journalism and counting 40 The secret weapon against aging 46 SPORTS MHS legend through the eyes of estranged father 47 Hoops vet brings love of game to local youth 48 EDUCATION Public schools’ new attendance problem 50

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HOME Inside Maricopa’s hidden nudist colony 54 Why now’s the time to plant zinnias 56 Realtor’s unique strategy means you pay less for more 57 Local homeowners complete water training 58 What to ask a seller when you guy 59 The power of property management 60 Extreme home sales 61

EVENTS Calendar 62 TRENDING A look at what’s hot on InMaricopa.com 71 PARTING SHOT Ducking out 72

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ON THE COVER In her unique style, Veronika Peskova illustrates the good news — Maricopa’s dominant news source celebrates its 20th birthday this month.

March 2024 | InMaricopa.com Speed listed is maximum wired speed. Maximum download speed 940 Mbps when hardwired via Ethernet. Many factors affect speed. Actual speed may vary. Equipment, taxes, installation, and other fees not included. Taxes, equipment, franchise, and other fees not included. Other restrictions may apply. Call office for details.

InMaricopa.com | March 2024

FROM THE EDITOR

COMPREHENSIVE HOSPITAL CARE FOR ADULTS & CHILDREN

E Extra! Extra! Read all about it! InMaricopa has been in business for 20 years as of the publication of this edition. They say no news is good news. What about 20 years of news? That’s great news, if you ask me. In Maricopa, no news is bad news, really. This community deserves timely information and thoughtful analysis. In March 2004, this desert town became a news desert no more. Back then, I was a mere schoolchild in North Carolina. I had never been west of the Appalachian Mountains — I had definitely never heard of Maricopa. I was more interested in putting together LEGO sets than hard-hitting news stories. A lot can change in 20 years, like going from LEGO architect to magazine editor. Or going from a city of 1,600 to a one of 74,000. At InMaricopa , we went from an online community news and message board to an award-winning glossy magazine and 24/7 news site with its biggest reporting staff ever, welcoming more than 100,000 visitors every month. Many of our visitors make the port-of-call from far beyond Pinal County. If this magazine landed in your mailbox, though, chances are you live in the city of Maricopa. If you’ve been around a while, you know how much things have changed over the last two decades. If you’re new here, welcome! You’re not alone. Our incoming city manager just moved here from Queen Creek — get ready to meet him in this edition. When the next issue hits the stands, he’ll be in his new role, working to make this city a more joyous place to live. Lost in the gloss

Publisher SCOTT BARTLE

I don’t want to harp on everything we’ve done over the last 20 years. We’ve consistently provided quality journalism, and you know that — it’s how we earned your trust and why you’re taking your monthly voyage through these glossy pages to learn about everything new going on in town.

Managing Editor ELIAS WEISS

Advertising Director VINCENT MANFREDI

Like a new video game legally considered medicine by the federal government — that was invented here and debuts this month. I’m excited to tell you more about this futuristic technology. We can’t forget about the old, of course. Like the dark past of several fraudulent contractors working in the city, the hundreds

Advertising IRENE DITTRICH

VERONICA RODRIGUEZ MICHELLE SORENSEN MERCED VILLALOBOS

Writers JEFF CHEW KRISTINA DONNAY

of people found dead in the area still waiting to be identified and the hidden nudist colony that predates InMaricopa . We’ll get into all that. But with the old comes the new — medical examiners have a new chance to identify Maricopans who went missing or were murdered years ago and a primo nudist lot recently went on the market. And a tell-all about local gig workers explores the struggles of transitioning from an old economy to a new one. Is the heyday of ridesharing apps behind us? We seek to answer that question in this edition. So, whether you’ve been along for our entire 20- year ride or if you’re a first-time reader learning all there is to know about your new home, I invite you to get lost in these glossy pages with me and celebrate our significant milestone. Here’s to the next 20!

WENDE GEHRT JUSTIN GRIFFIN RICK HORST DAYV MORGAN BRIAN PETERSHEIM JR. TOM SCHUMAN MONICA D. SPENCER SHERMAN AND EUPHEMIA WEEKES

Photographers JEFF CHEW BRYAN MORDT

BRIAN PETERSHEIM JR. MONICA D. SPENCER

Designer CARL BEZUIDENHOUT

ACCEPTING ALL INSURANCE PLANS INCLUDING MEDICARE & MEDICAID

MISSION Inform readers/viewers. Enrich advertisers.

BELIEFS We believe in: • An informed citizenry. • Holding ourselves and others accountable. • The success of deserving businesses.

ELIAS WEISS MANAGING EDITOR

COMPLETE LAB & IMAGING, INCLUDING X-RAY, CT SCAN & ULTRASOUND

CONTRIBUTORS

VALUES

• Integrity • Accountability

Because someone as as you deserves our care exceptional

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Volume 19, Issue 3 InMaricopa 44400 W. Honeycutt Road, Suite 101 Maricopa, AZ 85138

520-568-0040 Tel 520-568-0050 Fax News@InMaricopa.com Advertising@InMaricopa.com

BOARD CERTIFIED DOCTORS & STAFF

TOM SCHUMAN Tom leaves no sports-related stone unturned with his look at a new, all-inclusive basketball team.

WENDE GEHRT Wende tells us why there’s a zinnia for every gardener — and why you need to get them in the ground now.

DAYV MORGAN Dayv delivers two pieces this month — how to get more out of your real estate investment and how to quiz a seller smartly.

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Published advertisements are not an endorsement of products or advertising claims by InMaricopa . No part of this magazine may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of InMaricopa . Copyright 2024.

Visit our new website www.ehc24.com

InMaricopa.com | March 2024

HISTORY

Maricopa

Top cat Perry Williams wore many hats. The entrepreneur built Hotel Williams in 1884 on the south side of the train tracks, just a few feet from the rails. A fire destroyed it in 1913. He became the postmaster after the post office moved from Maricopaville to what’s now Maricopa in 1887. It’s said he ran the post office out of the hotel. He is remembered as a cat lover. He owned at least one bobcat, which he kept at the post office as a tourist attraction for several years. Williams eventually sold his land holdings in Maricopa and moved to Phoenix.

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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY For these and other historical stories, visit InMaricopa.com.

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In InMaricopa’ s first story, friends and neighbors came together and raised over $20,000 to fund cancer treatments for Andrew Cole, a resident of over 52 years. Cole passed to his disease in 2010 at 67.

Maricopa police arrested “YouTube mom” Machelle Hackney Hobson on charges of child abuse after she forced her kids to partake in videos for a YouTube channel called “Fantastic Adventures.” Hobson’s adult biological daughter told police her adopted siblings were subjected to physical violence, being pepper sprayed, locked in closets, starved and dehydrated if they did not perform adequately for the YouTube series. In May, Hobson suffered a brain injury inside the Pinal County jail and died soon after at a Scottsdale hospital.

Maricopa’s first multigeneration and aquatic center, Copper Sky Recreation Complex, opened its doors to the public. “We hope it will become a regional center for sports tournaments, festivals, concerts, indoor events and workshops,” said then-city councilwoman Peg Chapados. Its opening was quickly followed by the Salsa Festival and Fishing Derby.

Two traffic signals gave a green light to drivers in town for the first time. Then-Mayor Anthony Smith held a ceremony to activate a new traffic light at Honeycutt Road and Maricopa Groves Parkway. A light at Porter and Bowlin Roads was also activated weeks prior.

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InMaricopa.com | March 2024

March 2024 | InMaricopa.com

GOVERNMENT

Rick Horst (left) and Benjamin Bitter (center) sit for an interview at City Hall Feb. 12.

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Bitter days Fired once before, new city manager has big support

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to become the next top brass. First slated to succeed outgoing City Manager Rick Horst in July, Bitter’s start date was recently moved up to April 1. Horst and Bitter “mutually agreed they are ready for the changeover and are looking forward to assuming their new roles,” city spokesperson Monica Williams said. It’s a second chance for Bitter. Ashland City Commission fired him in 2016, marking the first time such action was taken in decades. Bitter says it was gutter politics and poor timing. He’s a husband and father of three with deep ties in Pinal County, and he’s ready to open a new chapter of leadership, making Maricopa “a city worthy of our affection.” All about ben After earning his master’s degree in public administration, Bitter’s career started in Casa Grande with a seven-year stint in the city

manager’s office. When things soured in Kentucky, he returned to Pinal County as the assistant to the town manager of Florence until 2021, joining Maricopa staff that year to direct engineering and capital improvement at Horst’s behest. “I recruited Ben several years ago,” Horst remembered in a recent interview. It was Bitter’s forward thinking that piqued Horst’s interest. Since his return to Pinal County, Bitter served on the Arizona City/County Management Association’s board. “I’ve spent years and years in Pinal County,” he said. “I think I have a unique set of skills when working with all of our neighboring communities.” As deputy city manager, Bitter oversaw $128 million of capital projects in a single fiscal year. He played an intimate role in opening the Sonoran Desert Parkway last year, the city’s largest undertaking ever and Bitter’s favorite

N 2015, BEN BITTER DISPATCHED cops to the frontlines of a protest on the steps of a federal courthouse to tangle with Westboro Baptist

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Church extremists. As a landmark ruling on gay marriage made headlines and history inside, the Ashland, Ky., city manager found himself in the eye of a storm of national press and FBI agents, looking on from his office just across the street. “It was a surreal moment,” Bitter said during an interview with InMaricopa last month at Maricopa City Hall. He looked pensively out the sunlit window of the well-appointed office he will soon inherit. “It became very clear that the role of a manager is to lead, often through times of crisis,” he recalled. “I’ve used those leadership lessons every day since then.” Bitter curried Maricopa City Council’s favor over two other internal candidates in December

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InMaricopa.com | March 2024

GOVERNMENT

he said. “I stand by a code of ethics. I, in every sense, still abide by that same code of ethics. I look at myself in the mirror every day and I am grateful for that code of ethics that I stand on.” The hiccup didn’t sway Maricopa City Council’s decision to place Bitter back in the top municipal role. Councilmember Vincent Manfredi said his faith in Bitter is unwavering. “I don’t put much weight into Ben’s dismissal at Ashland,” he said. A poll by The Daily Independent found more than 81% of its readers did not agree with the city commission’s decision to terminate Bitter. The ultimate goal As Bitter moves his family of five from Queen Creek, he said he will do everything in his power to make Maricopa the perfect community to raise his three daughters. His team is “getting closer and closer to its ultimate goal every day,” he said. What’s the ultimate goal? It’s not revenue. It’s not growth. “Our ultimate goal is that each and every citizen finds greater joy in being here.” Editor’s note: Monica D. Spencer contributed to this report. Vincent Manfredi is an owner of InMaricopa.

personal accomplishment. “Obviously, I have a passion for transportation,” he said. “That is one of the things that both keeps me up at night and gets me up in the morning.” Bringing new expertise and passion to transportation solutions — widely agreed to be the city’s most overt need — Bitter leaves the bulk of economic development work to Horst in a new role. Specialty hats Horst announced he’d step down as city manager in September after six years in that role, taking a new tailor-made job as chief operations officer. In that role, Horst will work fewer hours and see a pay cut. Bitter, meanwhile, becomes the city’s highest-paid staffer ever at $242,000 a year. That’s an $83,7000 raise over his current salary and $20,000 more than Horst’s city manager pay. During Horst’s tenure, the city budget more than doubled from $70 million to $160 million. In response to that growth, “You begin to take off that generalist hat and start finding people who wear specialty hats,” he said. Enter Bitter, who’s credited with special skills in transportation and inter-governmental cooperation. “Something really unique about me is my network and my collaboration skills,” he said. “I bring forth the best ideas, not to copy them but enhance them and make them right for Maricopa.” Horst said there’s something else Bitter brings to the table that he couldn’t offer: “Frankly, I don’t have the patience to deal with politics. Ben does.” Kentucky blues Politics. That’s what led to Bitter’s termination in Ashland, not the accusations levied against him, he contends. Ashland’s commission voted 3-2 to fire Bitter, citing he violated various city policies. The commission later rescinded the vote and gave him the option to resign, according to The Daily Independent . Commissioners lobbed several administra- tive accusations prior to their vote. That Bitter issued a $7,000 check to a city employee as advanced vacation pay — an action explicitly against city policy — and neglected to investi- gate more than $200,000 missing from the city’s expenditure on tires. Shortly after the vote, commissioners cited mixed views on the decision.

“Our ultimate goal is that each and every citizen finds greater

joy in being here.” CITY MANAGER BEN BITTER

One told The Herald-Dispatch he felt “a general lack of confidence” in Bitter, but another called the accusations “asinine.” Bitter told InMaricopa he “took great learning experiences” from his time in Boyd County, Ky.’s largest city. It was transitioning from what had been a regional center to a shrinking community burdened with challenges — a shrinking job base, the closure of a major steel plant and dwindling budgets, he said. He denied any wrongdoing. “In every aspect of my career, from start to finish, I have been governed by a code of ethics,”

REALITY CHECK

Horst asserted. Of 24 Pinal County cities, only six set municipal tax rates lower than Maricopa, and they’re the tiniest — Oracle, San Manuel, Picacho, Stanfield, Red Rock and Arizona City. But complaints over taxes frequent Horst’s desk. “So many people have an entitlement attitude today,” he contended. Also among the most popular citizen requests Horst fields are pleas to “block” a business from opening in town. That’s unamerican, Horst said. And if the government starts banning business, who’s to say the complainer’s small business won’t be next?

“Last time I checked, we’re not Russia. They need to be careful what they ask for because they might get it one day.” Horst admitted the city always has room for improvement. He said he has utmost faith in new City Manager Ben Bitter to take up his mantle and work daily to bring those improvements to fruition. “We are the imperfect union, yet, we have to be united,” Horst said. “I’m just an old-fashioned guy who believes the government works for the people — but the people have to engage, and they have to be a part of the process.”

“People think it’s the

government’s role to grow the city,” outgoing City Manager Rick Horst told InMaricopa . “They’re mistaken.” In Maricopa, as with most cities, the city manager is tasked with implementing the council’s policies, strategic planning, fiscal sustainability and oversight of all city personnel. “Most people don’t understand what city managers do,” Horst said. “They do not set policy or budget. People forget that.” No one wants to pay taxes, but everyone wants government services,

InMaricopa.com | March 2024

March 2024 | InMaricopa.com

GOVERNMENT

Mysteries of the missing Lots of people come to Maricopa to live. Some, unwittingly, come here to die

BY MONICA D. SPENCER

those, 18 are suspected to be undocumented migrants from Mexico and other Central American countries. “They were found in areas where migrants typically are known to cross,” Dodt said. “The belongings with them tend to be Mexican pesos, non-traceable cellphones, water jugs, camouflaged backpacks and clothing items. And they’re all skeletal.” Borderlands Experts say there are migrant corridors a “stone’s throw” from Maricopa, weaving through the mountains and brush flanking Thunderbird Farms and Hidden Valley. A surge occurred last year with border crossings when the Biden Administration lifted Title 42, an immigration policy re- established during the pandemic to limit the spread of the disease. In its most recent quarterly report, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said it processed more than 629,000 people at the border — as many people as live in Boston. This included more than 219,000 processed in Arizona. Around that time, towns and cities like Bisbee and Casa Grande reported seeing higher numbers of undocumented migrants

released when seeking asylum from their home countries, with Casa Grande estimating hundreds of drop-offs weekly. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said he has helped carry the bodies of migrants he found dead. “A lot of the times we land or hoist them up into the helicopter and fly them to one of the border patrol stations and turn them over,” he told Feb. 14. Humane Borders Board Chair Laurie Cantillo believes there is an element missing from the story. “There’s so much noise about the politics of the border, but so little being said about the men, women and children dying out there,” she said. “There’s much more at play than politics. It’s about humanity.” The journey Humane Borders asserts the trek from Nogales to Tucson alone could take a person about five days of walking and most are grossly unprepared. Cantillo said while migration in the Southwest has traditionally consisted of working aged men from Mexico and Central America, the number of families with kids crossing the border has grown exponentially.

OU CAN’T SEE IT, BUT YOU CAN feel it. It’s a visceral reaction. Like your body knows what lies inside those thick plastic bags on

cold metal tables when you step into the freezer at the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office. A foul, almost sickly smell hits the nose just after the puff of icy air. It causes your chest to tighten, your heart rate to jump and the hair to rise on the back of your neck. This is where the medical examiner keeps nearly two dozen unidentified remains, each simply labeled with a case number. They were given a name at birth. They yearn to be given a name in death. Who are they? What brought them into the desert only to die alone and unknown? That’s an answer PCMEO medicolegal investigator Suzi Dodt hopes to find after she received a $500,000 grant last month from the National Institute of Justice, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. But she has her suspicions. “We think that most of our skeletal remains are migrants,” Dodt said. Pinal County has 147 unidentified persons cases, about 20 of which are stored in bags and boxes inside the medical examiner’s freezer. Of

147 UNIDENTIFIED BODIES FROM PINAL COUNTY 20 STORED IN PINAL COUNTY FREEZER

InMaricopa.com | March 2024

March 2024 | InMaricopa.com

GOVERNMENT

“Recently, we have encountered many more families than usual from 18 different countries,” she said. “Many were assaulted or robbed along the way and yet, still, they want to come here because they are fleeing violence, oppression and poverty in their home countries.” Each of the more than 629,000 encounters were processed under Title 8, a decades-old immigration law that includes swifter, stricter deportation measures, but also allows for a larger number of asylum and refugee seekers to enter the country. For many, the journey was long and traumatic. “One thing we observed is migrants are often lied to by smugglers — coyotes, as they’re known — about how easy the journey is going to be,” Cantillo said. “They may show up wearing sandals or kids in crocs or people pushing baby strollers through thorn-scrub because they were told it was just a 30-minute walk.” And that ill-preparation can lead to devastating consequences. Mapping death “Dying alone in the desert of heat stroke is a horrible, horrible way to die,” Cantillo said. Aside from providing safe water stations to migrants, hikers and hunters throughout the Sonoran Desert, Humane Borders also publishes a migrant mortality map on its website. There, visitors encounter a sea of red dots strewn across southern Arizona and extending north of Phoenix. Each of the 4,177 dots is a case of a migrant’s body found over the last four decades, regardless of whether they were identified. Pinal County has the third-most with 288 cases reported since 1990. Some causes of death in the desert are obvious: dehydration or overheating. A surprising number died by drowning, likely by attempting to drink from or cool down in a canal. And others are suspicious. Blunt force trauma, multiple gunshot wounds and asphyxiation. That was the case with Jesus Anaya Longoria who, at age 30, was found dead from multiple blunt force injuries near Amarillo Valley and Papago Roads in Thunderbird Farms in 2007. Or a group of 21- to 40-year-old men found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in the chest and abdomen along Interstate 10 in 2003. But so many are labeled with a case number and two words: “unidentified, undetermined.” That is where the medical examiner and other players get involved.

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Unidentified remains lie on examination tables in a walk-in freezer at the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office in Florence.

MAPPING PINAL COUNTY’S UNIDENTIFIED

As of Feb. 9, 2024, Arizona had 2,058 unidentified persons registered on NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System operated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Pinal County made up 7% with 147 unidentified cases, many of whom are believed to be the remains of migrants traveling northward from the border.

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anything like that. We try to find anything that can lead to an ID.” These clues aren’t always present, and when they are they are usually worn and weatherbeaten. Ripped, faded clothing or a work boot caked in dirt. A ripped paystub. A child’s folded drawing yellowed by the sun. Sometimes, there’s nothing left but bones and dirt. Forensic files When the initial search doesn’t turn up any information, forensic anthropologist Courtney Koppenhaver-Astrom steps in. “When looking at the skeletal remains, I’m trying to assess whether or not the person was male or female, how old they were, how tall they were, their ancestral background,” she said. “But then, also, is there any trauma, any signs of disease on the bones, missing teeth, anything that can be identifying.” That process can take several hours. From there, a biological profile is created and eventually entered onto the DOJ’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, better known as NamUs. Unfortunately, that’s where many cases go cold. While there is a national database main- tained by the FBI for fingerprints, none exist for dental records or even DNA. “Dentists are only required to keep their records for seven years,” Dodt said. “Also, we have databases where DNA can be put into, but it’s not like everyone’s DNA is magically there.” Often, the only reason a DNA sample may exist is if a family member submitted DNA for testing or if a person with a criminal record already had their fingerprints and DNA logged. When DNA is obtained, analyzed and still turns up nothing, an investigative genetic genealogist may take the helm. Last resort Cairenn Binder has worked with DNA Doe Project and Coast to Coast Genetic Genealogy Services for years to help solve cases of unidentified remains across the country. For some of the hundreds of unidentified deceased in Pinal County, she’s the last resort. It can be like finding a needle in a haystack. But she’s done it before. “The DNA profile is uploaded to two databases, and I get two outputs: an ethnicity report of some sort and a genetic match list,” she said.

Medicolegal Investigators Courtney Koppenhaver-Astrom (left) and Suzi Dodt stand in front of the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office in Florence Feb. 6.

MISSING AND MURDERED

Bones and dirt These local cases of unidentified remains often play out like the opening scene of a Law & Order episode. Hunters, hikers or ATV riders stumble across skeletal remains during an outing in the desert. They rarely encounter a complete skeleton or a decomposing body because of the harsh climate. Instead, skulls, femurs or other bones are found scattered near remote trails, in dry washes or along roads. The remains are reported to local law enforcement, which initiate the investigation and turn it over to the county medical examiner. PCMEO contracts with cities and towns Indigenous people across the country as of mid-February. In Arizona, 83 went missing from 1956 to 2023. In Pinal County, six. Meanwhile, social media posts about missing children and adults proliferate on dedicated pages like “Indian Country’s Missing” or “MMIP in AZ & NM.” Updates on those found safe aren’t always provided. Missing and murdered Indigenous people have made headlines in the U.S. and Canada in recent years, particularly women and girls. Some call it a crisis based on centuries of violence and disenfranchisement. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs reports more than 84% of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. But the numbers of those who went missing are underreported and vary widely across platforms. For example, BIA lists 33 Indigenous people missing across the country, including five in Arizona, on its missing and murdered cases website. However, the department also estimates there may be as many as 4,200 missing and murdered cases that have gone unsolved. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System cited 853 missing

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across the county as well as with the Gila River Indian Community, but not with the Ak-Chin Indian Community. It begs the question of why — as of publication time, Ak-Chin member Joy Antone is still missing after nearly two months. She went missing Jan. 8 but Ak-Chin Police Department didn’t notify the community until Jan. 26. Ak-Chin spokesperson Matthew Benson did not respond to several requests for comment. These are the situations PCMEO wants to avoid. “We bring everything found at the scene back to the office,” Dodt said. “We’ll search the clothing to see if there’s anything in the pockets, in the waistband, sewn into the clothing,

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HELPFUL WEBSITES

DNAsolves.com – Allows users to contribute DNA to a national database to help solve John and Jane Doe cases GEDMatch.com – Allows users to contribute DNA to a national database NamUs.gov – A national database and resource center for missing, unidentified and unclaimed persons cases across the country HumaneBorders.info – Interactive migrant mortality map

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GOVERNMENT

From there, Binder can begin to build a family tree. “Usually, we’re looking at third, fourth and fifth cousins,” she said. “We have to build out the genetic match’s family tree to find connections and eventually figure out who the person is we’re trying to identify. It could be less than a day, it could take months or years.” While obtaining a usable DNA profile used to be the biggest obstacle, rapid scientific advancements have changed that. Instead, the bigger challenge these days is having enough profiles to match against. “The databases we use are made up of mostly western Europeans and Caucasians,” Binder said. “When you get into minority populations, it can be very, very difficult or even impossible to identify the subject.” Investigative genetic genealogists like Binder cannot use genetic profiles found on most consumer databases like 23andMe. Instead, they rely on the public to upload that information to the two databases they can use: FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch. “It’s the most common misconception,” she said. “If every person that wants to see these cases solved would upload their DNA, we would solve so many more.” ‘Silent mass disaster’ This summer, PCMEO plans to use its new grant money to start the process of identifying its frozen remains. Over the next two years, the office will collect DNA samples from family members of missing persons via law enforcement and foreign consulates. Each DNA analysis begins at $1,800 and can extend beyond $15,000 for forensic genealogy for addition testing, according to Dodt. That’s why the half-million-dollar grant is so important. Everyone involved in solving unidentified and missing persons cases — from the officers who initially investigate cases to the investigative genetic genealogists like Binder — cite the importance of identifying remains. “Some people have called unidentified remains a silent mass disaster,” Binder said. “We think about missing people all the time. Well, unidentified remains are the answers to missing people cases and their families are missing them.” For forensic anthropologist Koppenhaver- Astrom, it’s about helping families. “Helping families is the most important thing even if that’s just providing answers for what happened,” she said. “We deal with all sorts of death, that’s literally the job description. But we’re also here for the living as much as we are here for the dead.”

Date found Est. age

Sex

Race

Apr. 14, 1983 25-35

Male

Latino

Feb. 11, 1998 30-50

Male

White

Mar. 29, 2009 15-21

Male

Latino

Sep. 18, 2010 35-45

Male

Latino

Dec. 23, 2010 19-35

Male

Latino

Sep. 25, 2011

19-30

Male

Latino

WHO ARE MARICOPA’S UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS?

Feb. 24, 2011

30-50

Male

Uncertain

Thirteen unidentified persons cases are active in and around Maricopa. Nearly all of them are Latino men between the ages of 15 and 50 found in the desert, in washes or near roadways between 1983 and 2021. The three most recent cases — remains found from February 2019 to January 2021 — are all suspected by a county forensic anthropologist to be from the same person. Details about each case, including circumstances, available physical descriptions, evidence photos and specific locations, can be found at NamUs.gov.

Jan. 30, 2012 20-35

Male

Latino

Sep. 4, 2017

24-37

Male

White/Latino

Jan. 24, 2018 18-40

Male

White/Latino

Feb. 13, 2019 Unknown

Male

White/Latino

Mar. 6, 2019 Unknown

Male

White/Latino

Jan. 8, 2021

Unknown

Male

White/Latino

As the Pinal County Medical Examiner’s resident forensic anthropologist, Courtney Koppenhaver- Astrom conducts examinations to see if identity can be determined from skeletal remains.

PEST CONTROL Service

47 YEARS OF UNIDENTIFIED BODIES IN PINAL COUNTY

Records for Pinal County’s long-term unidentified persons cases began March 4, 1977, with the discovery of partial skeletal remains found in a desert wash. Since then, the county has documented 147 cases still pending identification. Before 2017, the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office handled local cases, which is why Pinal County currently only has just 20 unidentified remains in its office.

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