06-04-2012, 03:47 PM
about some heroes
azcentral
![[Image: PHP4FC9B3327E072.jpg]](http://i.azcentral.com/i/sized/2/7/0/e298/j350/PHP4FC9B3327E072.jpg)
They work shoulder to shoulder for hours each day, the steady scrape of rakes combing through garbage in a valley surrounded by sandy, man-made mountains of trash.
They stand on earth covered with dried sludge. Red-plastic cups, paper and other debris poke through.
The wind coats their faces with dust, which seeps through their protective gear.
The acidic smell of rot, like old cheese, is constant. The odor sticks long after they've left each day. They shower, rinse and repeat to escape it.
But they will return Monday for Week 18 of the search.
The searchers -- nearly 200 in all -- are working their way through a single day's trash, enough to fill about 60 railroad boxcars, to find the body of a little girl.
All of them are police or public-safety workers from around the Valley, and they all volunteered. They did so because they are parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles; each with unique backgrounds that steel their resolve for the grim task.
But each holds onto a single image: a smiling Jhessye Shockley, the Glendale girl reported missing last October who police believe was murdered.
And they cling to the same goal: justice and a proper burial.
"We can't let people think they can dispose of this little 40-pound child and get away with it," Phoenix Detective William Andersen says.
azcentral
They work shoulder to shoulder for hours each day, the steady scrape of rakes combing through garbage in a valley surrounded by sandy, man-made mountains of trash.
They stand on earth covered with dried sludge. Red-plastic cups, paper and other debris poke through.
The wind coats their faces with dust, which seeps through their protective gear.
The acidic smell of rot, like old cheese, is constant. The odor sticks long after they've left each day. They shower, rinse and repeat to escape it.
But they will return Monday for Week 18 of the search.
The searchers -- nearly 200 in all -- are working their way through a single day's trash, enough to fill about 60 railroad boxcars, to find the body of a little girl.
All of them are police or public-safety workers from around the Valley, and they all volunteered. They did so because they are parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles; each with unique backgrounds that steel their resolve for the grim task.
But each holds onto a single image: a smiling Jhessye Shockley, the Glendale girl reported missing last October who police believe was murdered.
And they cling to the same goal: justice and a proper burial.
"We can't let people think they can dispose of this little 40-pound child and get away with it," Phoenix Detective William Andersen says.