KINGMAN (AP) — A 10-year-old Mohave County girl who survived a plunge into a mine shaft that killed her sister last month has returned home after more than a month in a Las Vegas hospital.
Casie Hicks of Chloride was welcomed by scores of well-wishers in Kingman Friday, even receiving a horse as a welcome-home gift.
Casie had been hospitalized since she and her sister plunged more than 100 feet down an abandoned mine shaft on Sept. 1 while out riding an all-terrain vehicle. She was discovered early the next morning after an all-night search, but rescuers found her 13-year-old sister Rikki Howard dead alongside her.
“She’s a miracle girl,” said her grandfather, Leeman Dakin. “She fell 125 feet. It’s just too bad Rikki ain’t here.”
The accident brought renewed focus on abandoned mines in the state, which counts more than 100,000 shafts and open holes. Several hundred mines have been fenced since the end of the last decade, but the State Mine Inspector’s Office reports about 1,200 still pose an extreme risk to public safety.
