The fate of a missing girl resolved more than 60 years after her abduction thanks to a DNA sample
Steph Deschamps / March 17, 2022
It is a Cold Case that has been solved 60 years after the fact thanks to science. In July 1960, the body of a child was found by a hiker in a remote area of the state of Arizona in the United States. Using DNA technology, investigators were finally able to identify her as 4-year-old Sharon Lee Gallegos. The little girl had disappeared a few days earlier while playing with other children in the backyard of her grandparents' home in New Mexico. Witnesses saw a woman approach the child and leave in a sedan with other adults.
On December 8, 1960, Arizona state authorities reported that there was some speculation that the girl found in the desert and Sharon Gallegos were the same person, but the age of the child found in Arizona had been estimated to be over 4 years old and the clothing, did not match that of her missing.
The child found in Arizona had been labeled unidentified female child in a 1960 coroner's report and Jane Yavapai Doe" on posters of missing children. She had been nicknamed Little Miss Nobody.
The unidentified little girl who captured the hearts of Yavapai County in 1960 and occupied the minds of investigators for 62 years is getting her identity back. She will no longer need to be called Little Miss Nobody, the sheriff's office said on Facebook this week. In fact, the girl's body was buried and the DNA was compared to those of little Sharon's relatives. It matched.