Late Wednesday afternoon, July 28, police and fire agencies in the Verde Valley announced with sorrow that they had recovered the body of a young woman believed to be 16-year-old Faith Moore, who had been swept from her car during a flash flood on Saturday, July 24.
In the early evening of July 28, journalist Mikayla Blair and photojournalist Daulton Venglar reported that Cottonwood Police Chief Steve Gesell formally confirmed at a press conference at Mingus Union High School that the remains recovered had been positively identified by the family and was indeed the young Faith Moore.
Finally recovering the young teen was the tragic end of a traumatic week that had gripped the Verde Valley, with hundreds of residents, including some from Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek, joining the effort to search for her along the wash from Camino Reál in the Verde Villages to the Verde River, where her body was eventually recovered.
Over the course of the week as the search carried on, there was a massive outpouring of support from all corners in the Verde Valley. Residents from Oak Creek Canyon to Rimrock and Jerome, who did not know the Moore family, nor had ever driven that stretch of Camino Reál, were concerned for a safe return or recovery, as were neighbors in the area, including the firefighters and paramedics of the Verde Valley Fire District, with whom she was a member of their extended family as the granddaughter of a former fire chief.
Hundreds turned out for a prayer vigil held at the Mingus Union High School softball field on Monday, July 26.
Everyone wanted her safely returned home or, as that became increasingly unlikely over time, wanted her body recovered to provide some sense of closure so that the healing process could begin, even in the face of utter tragedy for all concerned.
We use the word “widow” when a person loses a spouse and “orphan” when children lose their parents, but we don’t have a word when a parent loses a child, because the thought is too terrifying to name.
By giving that thought a spoken word, in English, we give it power, or the potential to exist, which, more than anything, terrifies us, as parents, to our cores.
Yet it remains possible, despite all our efforts, to prevent such horror. In Sanskrit, the noun “vilomah” literally means “against a natural order,” and is best interpreted as “the grey-haired should not bury those with black hair,” which is perhaps the nearest word we have for someone who has suffered an otherwise unspeakable tragedy.
Funeral services for the young teen have not yet been announced, but if there is a ceremony open to the public, we will post the details on our websites and social media pages for those who wish to attend and pay their respects. There’s also a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $26,000 to help the family with expenses, in case others would like to donate.
We sincerely thank all the community volunteers who joined in the effort and search. And we thank those volunteers who provided food, water, supplies, logistical resources and material to aid the first-responder agencies and community search crews in the effort to locate her.
Time and again, despite all of our differences and especially conflicts, the Verde Valley is a community that comes together both in disaster and tragedy to help one another.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
