1 girl dead, 1 alive after mine shaft fall

CHLORIDE, Ariz., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A 13-year-old girl was killed and her 10-year-old half-sister critically injured when their ATV plunged into a 120-foot-deep abandoned mineshaft in Arizona.

The girls were found Sunday following an all-night search in the mountains near the Nevada state line when one of them responded to their stepfather's shouting, a Mohave County Sheriff's Department official said during a news conference aired by CNN.

The victims were identified as Rikki Howard, who was dead at the scene, and Casie Hicks, who was airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital with major injuries.

The sisters were riding a three-wheel all-terrain vehicle behind their father, who was on a dirt bike. The father rode ahead and when he returned they had disappeared.

He looked for them, thinking they had found another route up the mountainside, and then called authorities when he failed to find them. The sheriff's department said the mine shaft was obscured by brush but otherwise there was no barrier, sign or other apparent attempt to prevent anyone from falling in.

"The family is extremely distraught," Seth Johnson, the Chloride-area family's landlord, told The Arizona Republic. "We all are."