Forty years after an 18-year-old girl was discovered killed in Salt Lake City, police revealed that the decades-long cold case surrounding her killing has finally been closed.
Christine Gallegos was discovered killed on May 15, 1985. When Gallegos’ body was discovered, authorities said she had been beaten, sexually abused, shot, and stabbed. Despite forensic tests by the Salt Lake City Police Department, the case ultimately fell cold.
“You never stopped thinking about it. “You never stop crying about it,” Christine’s mother, Leah Gallegos, said on Thursday.
In 2023, police redoubled their efforts to identify a culprit through DNA technology and genealogy. According to authorities, Ricky Lee Stallworth was identified as a “likely suspect” thanks to those advanced efforts and the assistance of Othram, a Texas-based DNA lab.
“[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,” Det. Cordon Parks claimed. “That suspect is a man named Ricky Lee Stallworth.”
Stallworth, a 27-year-old Airman stationed at Hill Air Force Base at the time of Gallegos’ murder, died naturally in 2023. However, a DNA sample from a relative of Stallworth’s proved his identity.
“We lost the opportunity to speak with and interview him by only a few months. “I wish we could have gotten to him before he died,” Parks stated.
Police do not believe Gallegos and Stallworth know each other.
“In our investigation of Ricky Lee Stallowoth, we found out that he was a sort of a State Street stalker,” Parks recalled. “Even though he was married, he would inform his spouses that he was going out for the night. He’d go late at night and not return until quite early the next morning.
Parks believes Stallworth picked up Gallegos before a fight.
Christine’s mother now has nothing but memories of her daughter.
“I wonder about the kids that she would have …” Leah Gallegos stated. “She was outgoing, she was sweet … they took so much away when they took her away.”
Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd sent a message to the families of victims whose cases remain unresolved.
“We’re not going to stop solving these cases,” he told me. “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,” the police chief, Brian Redd, stated. “Solving the murder of Christine Gallegos is a reminder that justice can prevail, even decades later.”
Reference: Police crack 40-year-old cold case in Utah woman’s murder
