(UnitedVoice.com) – Modern forensic science is capable of doing phenomenal things. Law enforcement advancements continue to transform police work. As it does, science is helping investigators identify people lost long ago or solve crimes once thought unsolvable. Take in point a case involving a young girl’s disappearance over sixty years ago.
In 1960, a Las Vegas school teacher searching for rocks in Sand Wash Creek, Arizona, stumbled upon a young girl’s burned and decomposed body. No one knew who the girl was or where she was from. Local officials raised money to provide the girl with a proper burial. They named her Little Miss Nobody. Thanks to modern DNA science, law enforcement recently identified the young girl as 4-year-old Sharon Gallegos.
Little Miss Nobody Identified
On July 21, 1960, the parents of Sharon Gallegos reported someone kidnapped their daughter. At the time of her disappearance, Gallegos was playing with her cousins behind her grandmother’s New Mexico home when strangers approached them. Witnesses said a man, woman, and child in a dark green 1950s car approached Gallegos and the playing children. The woman attempted to give the 4-year-old girl some candy and clothes, but Gallegos declined to take it. That’s when the woman grabbed the child and pulled her into the car.
Ten days later, the Las Vegas school teacher found her burned body 500 miles away from home. At the time, authorities determined the girl was dead for up to two weeks and initially estimated her to be 7-years-old. They later revised to between 3 and 6 years of age.
In 2015, officials exhumed Little Miss Nobody’s remains to collect DNA data. As part of a program to connect unknown victims with their families, authorities gathered DNA from Gallegos’s relatives. At that time, DNA science still wasn’t advanced enough to make a match. Fast forward to February 2022 when officials finally made a match and declared that Little Miss Nobody was indeed Sharon Gallegos.
Unfortunately, her parents are no longer alive. Even though authorities identified Gallego’s remains, police still don’t have a suspect. Law enforcement officials are still asking for tips to learn who took the young girl and how she died.
There’s Always Hope
Gallego’s family hopes the mystery is one day solved. There’s hope it could happen. On Tuesday, February 8, authorities solved a nearly 60-year-old case in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, involving the murder of a 9-year-old girl. Police say it was the fourth-oldest case solved in the US using genetic genealogy.
So, just because a case is old doesn’t mean families won’t get closure over time, thanks to the marvel of modern science.
Copyright 2022, UnitedVoice.com
