A Utah teenager told her family one spring evening 40 years ago that she was hitchhiking to work in downtown Salt Lake City. An hour later, the 18-year-old had died.
Christine Gallegos was sexually assaulted, beaten, shot, and stabbed to death on May 15, 1985, according to Salt Lake police.
Despite an extensive investigation and forensic testing, there were no viable leads or answers, and the case went cold. Until now.
On Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Gallegos’ disappearance, police announced at a press conference that they had identified a suspect in the case.
Ricky Lee Stallworth was identified as a “likely suspect” with the assistance of Othram, a Texas-based DNA lab, and a renewed effort by police in 2023 to use DNA technology and genealogy in the case, according to Detective Cordon Parks.
A voluntary DNA sample from one of his sons confirmed the match, according to police.
Gallegos was killed in May 1985, while Stallworth was a 27-year-old airman stationed at Hill Air Force Base.
He will not face criminal charges, however, because he died of natural causes in 2023 at the age of 65, only a few months before becoming a person of interest and potentially being questioned.
“Unfortunately, in this case, we do not have a suspect to handcuff or anyone to charge,” Utah State Bureau of Investigation Agent Steve O’Camb said during a press conference Thursday. “But we hope our efforts achieved some measure of justice for her and the family and friends that loved her.”
Gallegos’ mother, Leah Gallegos, thanked police for their continued investigation into her daughter’s murder.
“You never stop thinking about it, and you never stop crying about it,” she said of her lost daughter.
“It is just always there.”
The night Christine vanished
But Gallegos did not give up without a fight, Parks said.
“They had a big fight where she was stabbed outside of the car,” he said.
“She left a blood trail up to the gutter of Jefferson Street.”
Multiple people were interviewed, but no one was ever named a suspect or arrested. Stallworth’s name was never brought up and Parks said there is no indication that Stallworth and Gallegos knew each other.
The ‘State Street Stalker’
Stallworth’s name did not appear on the police department’s radar until 2023, when the department renewed its efforts to solve the case.
The state’s Cold Case Review Board suggested to Parks that investigators try “forensic investigative genealogy” or “forensic ancestry investigation,” which compares DNA with a database of civilian DNA samples collected for genealogical purposes, according to KSL.
The results of that test led police to Stallworth as a likely suspect. They interviewed Stallworth’s family, and after collecting DNA from his sons and comparing it to forensic evidence collected in 1985, they found a match.
The former US Air Force airman was stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Layton, Utah, at the time of Gallegos’ murder, police said.
An investigation also revealed that Stallworth was the “State Street stalker,” and that police had contacted him in the last two years of his life regarding his alleged interactions with sex workers on State Street.
Stallworth would tell his wife he was going out for the night, disappear all night, and then return in the morning “without explanation,” Parks said.
When he interviewed one of Stallworth’s four ex-wives and explained why he was there, “she was not surprised that we would be collecting DNA for other criminal acts he may have committed,” he told KSL.
‘They took so much away when they took her away’
Leah Gallegors remembers her daughter as a unique, sweet, and outgoing individual who she misses every day.
“She was just special. She was outgoing, sweet, and in love with Troy, her fiancé. “They had a family plan,” she said Thursday.
“I wonder about the children she would have, and I see other people with their daughters and grandchildren. They took so much away from her.”
The heartbroken mother thanked the police for solving her daughter’s case.
“They have never given up,” she explained. “Even though I had thought they had given up, they would never given up.”
“I just know that I sure miss this girl every day.”