In July 1960, the decomposed and burned body of a little girl was found by a hiker in a remote part of Arizona. The child was wearing a plaid blouse and white shorts. The adult size flip flops were cut to fit her small feet. Her nails were painted red. She became known as “Little Miss Nobody” because no one could figure out who she was or how she died.
After more than half a century, her name was returned to her: her name was Sharon Lee Gallegos, and she died when she was 4 years old.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, investigators with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said DNA analysis of the girl’s remains helped link her to relatives and eventually to a case in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where she was identified as a young girl. missing. July 21, 1960 It was the oldest cold case the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had ever helped solve.
“The unknown little girl who captured the hearts of Yavapai County in 1960 and occupied the minds and time of the YCSO and associates for 62 years will now rightfully be given her name back and no longer need to be called Little Miss Nobody,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. on Facebook this week.
Authorities said Sharon was playing with other children in her grandmother’s backyard in Alamogordo when she was abducted by a woman and others in a sedan.
Investigators have used newspaper clippings over the years to try to determine if the missing child in New Mexico is related to the remains found in Arizona. On August 8, 1960, The Arizona Republic reported “some speculation” that the girl found in the desert and the missing Sharon Gallegos were the same person, but the Arizona child was estimated to be over 4 years old.
Ultimately, they dismissed the possibility that Sharon Lee Gallegos was a child whose remains were found in Arizona because too many elements in the two cases — clothing, dates, footprint comparisons — did not match, investigators said.
The Arizona child was labeled as “unidentified female child” in a 1960 coroner’s report and as “Jane Yavapai Doe” on missing child posters.
But with the development of DNA technology, investigators said they were finally able to match the identity of “Little Miss Nobody” to the New Mexico case.
Now that the remains have been identified, Sharon’s relatives have been informed, authorities said. Nephew Ray Chavez said at a press conference that he grew up hearing about his mother’s missing sister, whom he said was called “evil”.
“It was very comforting to know that people are still looking,” he added. “It’s still sinking.”
There have been no reports of suspects in her murder.
A tragic mystery has rocked Prescott, a city in west-central Arizona of about 45,000 people.
Sheriff David Rhodes of the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office at a press conference on the Little Miss Nobody case on Tuesday. Credit… Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office
Records and newspaper reports of the time stated that on July 31, 1960, a teacher walking in a remote area outside of Congress, Arizona, saw the partially buried body of a child in a sandy creek bed. Investigators believed she had been dead for at least a week.
According to an Associated Press report covering the event, the child was given a funeral in mid-August 1960 with funds raised by the people of Prescott. During the ceremony, Dave Palladin, a local radio host, and his wife filled in for her parents.
“Somewhere, someone is watching to find out what happened to the little girl left in the desert,” Charles Franklin Parker, minister of the First City Congregational Church, told 70 people who had gathered to mourn the girl no one knew.
“If there was a misconduct, then probably the restless conscience will continue further,” the AP quoted him in the service as saying. Attached to a small child’s coffin was a card that read, “Child of God. Date of birth unknown, date of death unknown.
She was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott, with “Little Miss Nobody” engraved on her headstone.
According to a report in The Arizona Republic in August 1960, the FBI broadcast her description across the country. The agency said a man’s footprints were found next to the footprints believed to be the girl’s. Tire tracks in the area indicate that someone has run off the road and turned around in the sandbank.
Authorities said the case, ruled a murder, was frozen.
In 2014, investigators working with Colorado authorities on an unrelated cold case stumbled upon the Little Miss Nobody case. Her remains were exhumed in 2018 for DNA testing, and in January the sheriff’s office ran a fundraising campaign to support the project by working with Othram, a private Texas lab that helps law enforcement with DNA cases, local media reported.
Kitty Bennett contributed to the study.