SALT LAKE CITY — Forty years after the discovery of an 18-year-old girl found murdered in Salt Lake City, police announced Thursday that they have finally closed the decades-long cold case surrounding her death.
Christine Gallegos was found murdered on May 15, 1985. According to police, Gallegos had been beaten, sexually assaulted, shot and stabbed when her body was found near 1384 South Jefferson Street. Despite forensic testing by the Salt Lake City Police Department, the case eventually went cold.
"You never quit thinking about it. You never quit crying about it,” said Christine's mother, Leah Gallegos, on Thursday.
In 2023, detectives renewed their efforts to identify a suspect using DNA technology and genealogy. Through those advanced efforts and with help from Othram, a Texas-based DNA lab, Ricky Lee Stallworth was identified as a "likely suspect," according to police.
“[Othram] developed a profile that was compatible with forensic ancestry investigation several months after we submitted that evidence, they called and said that they had developed a likely suspect," said Det. Cordon Parks. "That suspect is a man named Ricky Lee Stallworth.”
Watch the full police briefing on the 1985 cold case below:
Stallworth, who was 27 years old and an Airman stationed at Hill Air Force Base at the time of Gallegos' murder, died of natural causes in 2023. However, a DNA sample from a relative of Stallworth's confirmed his identification.
“We missed being able to talk to him and interview him just by a matter of months. I wish we could have got to him before he died,” Parks said.
Police do not believe Gallegos and Stallworth knew each other.
“In our investigation of Ricky Lee Stallowoth, we found out that he was a sort of a State Street stalker," Parks explained. "Even though he was married, he would tell his spouses that he was going out for the night. He'd leave late in the night, and he wouldn't come back until early, early the next morning."
Parks thinks Stallworth picked up Gallegos before a struggle.
Christine's mother is now left with nothing but memories of her daughter.
“I wonder about the kids that she would have…” Leah Gallegos said. "She was outgoing, she was sweet ... they took so much away when they took her away.”
Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd had a message for the families of those whose cases remain unsolved.
“We're not going to stop solving these cases," he said. "We're going to continue going on for the families and working through it, but our hearts go out to the families.”
"The continued commitment of our homicide squad reflects the professionalism and determination of both our current and former detectives," said Police Chief Brian Redd. "Solving the murder of Christine Gallegos is a reminder that justice can prevail, even decades later."
The announcement from Salt Lake City police comes just days after police with the University of Utah said the mystery surrounding the cold case disappearance of a student over 50 years ago had finally been solved.
Remains discovered in the foothills above campus last year were recently identified as those of Douglas Brick, a 23-year-old student who left his dormitory in 1973 and was never seen again.
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