Sharon Lee Gallegos

Sharon Lee Gallegos (September 6, 1955 – c. July 21–24, 1960) was a formerly unidentified American murder victim known as Little Miss Nobody whose body was found in Congress, Yavapai County, Arizona on July 31, 1960. Her remains were estimated to have been discovered within one to two weeks of the date of her murder. Due to the advanced state of decomposition of the child's remains, the specific cause of death of Gallegos has never been established, although her death has always been considered to be a homicide.

On March 15, 2022, investigators in Arizona announced the identification of Gallegos's remains, almost 62 years after the discovery of her body. The child had been kidnapped from outside her grandmother's home in Alamogordo, New Mexico by two unknown individuals ten days prior to the discovery of her body.

Gallegos became known as "Little Miss Nobody" after contemporary efforts to identify her proved unsuccessful and no family or friends came forward to identify or claim her body. Her 2022 identification is the oldest cold case identification in Yavapai County; efforts to identify her abductors/murderers are ongoing.

Early life Gallegos lived in Alamogordo with her mother, Guadelupe Gallegos, along with her two older siblings, Ramona and John, and her grandmother. Six other relatives lived in the same home, including four other children aged between five and fifteen. Her biological father, a soldier, had left the family when Gallegos was a baby, and the child had no contact with him.

Her family was not wealthy, and Gallegos's mother supported the family by working as a maid at a local motel. Despite general financial limitations, the Gallegos family was close-knit. Sharon herself has been described as a "feisty" and "happy-go-lucky" child who enjoyed performing simple errands for her mother and playing close to the family home with her siblings and other neighborhood children. Due to her fair complexion by comparison to her siblings, the child was affectionately known to relatives as "La Güera."

Prior stalking concerns Authorities believe the couple who kidnapped Gallegos had been actively stalking the child for days, if not weeks, before her actual kidnapping. On Sunday, July 17, a couple were observed in a distinctive dark-green sedan car with two children (one a freckle-faced male; one a "small" female) after Gallegos and her mother had attended a church service. Following the church service, the female abductor had asked several attendees probing questions pertaining to Sharon and her mother, Guadelupe.

Gallegos's mother later stated that her daughter's behavior had markedly changed in the days immediately prior to her disappearance. The girl became markedly nervous and wary, and suddenly ceased wishing to retrieve groceries for the family from a local grocery store (an errand she particularly enjoyed). She also became visibly upset whenever she observed this same distinctive dark-green car near her home or places she visited, asking relatives to pick her up and carry her past the vehicle.

Shortly thereafter, on or about July 19, this female abductor is known to have knocked on a neighbor's door, inquiring as to Gallegos's mother, her actual address, and asking about her children—specifically whether she had a little girl. Other questions asked included whether Gallegos's mother had numerous children and her current financial situation. This woman then claimed to this neighbor she wanted to offer a job to Gallegos's mother.

At the time of her disappearance, Gallegos was two months shy of her fifth birthday. She was approximately in height and had light brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing pink shorts and white shoes.

Abduction At approximately 3 p.m. on July 21, 1960, while playing with her two cousins (aged five and eleven), Gallegos was kidnapped in an alley at the rear of her Virginia Avenue home. The couple offered to buy Gallegos some candy and new clothing if she would get in the car with them. Gallegos refused, and the female suspect emerged from the car and grabbed the girl by the arm and forced her into the "dirty, old green car" (believed to be a dark-green 1951- or 1952-model Dodge or Plymouth sedan). This woman was described by the witnesses as a short, bespectacled and heavy-set individual in her 30s, with dirty blonde hair. The man was described as a fair, thin Caucasian with a long nose and straight, sandy-colored hair. Immediately after the woman dragged the child into the car, the driver sped away; the vehicle was last seen turning west onto Fifth Street at high speed.

The child witnesses to Gallegos's abduction immediately reported the incident to her mother, who in turn immediately notified authorities. Within one hour, police had set up roadblocks at the Texas-New Mexico state border, ultimately searching numerous vehicles of the description described by the eyewitnesses at the roadblocks. This tactic failed to apprehend the abductors. (Dolores Badial's older sister, 16-year-old Mary Lou Badial, also informed investigators that shortly before the actual abduction, she observed the female abductor sitting inside the vehicle, intently staring at the Gallegos residence.)

Discovery of remains On July 31, 1960, The child wore a pair of adult-sized rubber thong sandals that had been cut to fit her feet and fastened with leather straps. The child's toes and fingernails had evidently been painted bright red. Sections of the child's clothing were also recovered close to the shallow grave.

Autopsy The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy determined that the body was that of a white girl, (The actual race of the decedent was later ruled as being indeterminable.) 3 feet–6 inches to 4 feet–5 inches in height, and likely weighing 50 to 60 pounds. (Further examinations of the child's remains conducted shortly after the discovery of her body indicated she may have been as old as nine Her hair color was brown, possibly having been tinted or dyed auburn, and she had a full set of intact milk teeth described as being in a markedly good condition.)

The actual cause of death of the child was never determined by medical examiners, or bone fractures, either at the time of her death or during her lifetime. Furthermore, the contemporary autopsy report states that her remains were charred, presumably from her body having been set alight around the time of her death, and none of the items of clothing recovered bore any puncture holes indicative of being penetrated by a knife.

Because the decedent had been in an advanced state of decomposition at the time of her discovery, creating an actual composite drawing of the child's facial features was not possible.

2018 Forensic facial reconstruction of Gallegos, created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Renewed efforts Due to recent advances in technology and DNA profiling, a decision to exhume the body of Little Miss Nobody to obtain a DNA sample was made in 2018, with The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offering to pay for the exhumation and required testing. As a result, samples of the girl's DNA were successfully obtained from her body, and entered into both the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children databases for comparison with nationwide unsolved murders and missing person reports.

The University of North Texas Center for Human Identification also created a detailed forensic facial reconstruction of the decedent, depicting how she may have appeared in life, before her body was reburied at Mountain View Cemetery.

Identification On March 15, 2022, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office announced that Little Miss Nobody had been identified as Sharon Lee Gallegos. The child's identification was made via the usage of genetic genealogy analysis conducted by Othram Inc.: a corporation specializing in the usage of forensic genealogy to identify unidentified decedents. The child's identity had been established in February, although the official announcement of her identification was withheld pending Gallegos's surviving relatives' notification of developments. (Gallegos's mother, Guadelupe, had died of natural causes in 2011 at the age of 87.) adding the "unidentified little girl who won the hearts of Yavapai County in 1960, and who occupied the minds and time of our sheriff's office and partners for 62 years, will now, rightfully, be given her name back."

Reburial Sharon Lee Gallegos was reburied in the grounds of Saint Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa, New Mexico, on October 25, 2022. The child was laid to rest in the same grave as her mother and grandmother following a small ceremony attended by her family members. The choice of her final burial place was made by family members.

Ongoing investigation Investigations into Gallegos's abduction and murder are ongoing, with the primary focuses being upon identifying the child's abductors and determining the precise chain of events to occur in the ten days between the actual abduction and the discovery of Gallegos's body.