Transcript
A (0:00)
Content this episode contains discussion of violence and murder.
B (0:05)
Micah Bodoni was only 29. His cousin, Taylor Chimony remembers him as a quiet guy with a great sense of humor, a love for Sasquatch lore, and a strong work ethic. He was out and about in the early morning hours of August 17, 2018, having hit up a bar with a friend in Phoenix, Arizona. But he never made it home. In fact, he never saw another dawn.
A (0:28)
Micah and his friend ran into some trouble, a group of violent men who hurt them. Then things got even worse. Micah ended up in the road at the intersection of McDowell Road and 40th Street. When you drop down to that intersection on Google Maps, you will see the circle K on the corner with a big American flag. That circle K plays an important role in the story of what happened to Micah and we'll hear more about that from Taylor.
B (0:57)
In contemporaneous media reports, police said they were not sure if Maiko was in the crosswalk. They then later clarified that they thought he was likely either in the crosswalk or very close to it. It was about 3:30am when a car traveling westbound on McDowell Road approached Micah. It did not stop. The car hit him, then the driver went on, leaving him critically injured and lying in the road.
A (1:22)
Micah was transported to the hospital where he died that morning. The intersection of 40th and McDowell remained closed. The Phoenix Police Department became the lead agency on the case. They never released images of the suspect vehicle and a description has never been given out to the public.
B (1:40)
As we mentioned, Micah was a cousin of Taylor Chimony. She is a registered nurse and the mother of a six year old daughter. She's also raising awareness about her family's tragic cases. We previously heard her speak on the unsolved murder of her aunt Velda Chimony, at a Phoenix, Arizona Whataburger.
A (1:57)
Taylor is half Navajo, a fourth San Carlos Apache and a fourth Zuni. She told us about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people. This crisis sees Indigenous, Native American and Alaska Native people, especially women and girls, facing disproportionately high rates of abduction and murder. It occurs in both the United States and Canada, but it also affects men in those communities. Take the center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, for instance, that found that in.
B (2:36)
2020, non Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native males had the second highest rate of homicide compared with males in all other racial and ethnic groups, making homicide one of the top 10 leading causes of death in that demographic from ages 1 to 54 years.