Sharon Gallegos

**Sharon Gallegos** (September 6, 1955 - c. July 1960) was American girl.

## Early Life

Gallegos lived in Alamogordo with her mother, Lupe Gallegos, along with her two older siblings, grandmother, and other relatives. Her father, a soldier, had left the family when Gallegos was young. Her family was not wealthy, and Gallegos's mother supported the family by working as a maid at a 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

## Death

### Abduction

Sharon was abducted as she was in an alley behind her home in the 500 block of Virginia Avenue in Alamogordo, New Mexico just before 3:00 p.m. on July 21, 1960.

Two children who were with her, stated a man and a woman drove up in a "dirty old green car", possibly a dark green 1951 or 1952 Dodge or Plymouth. They offered to buy Sharon candy and clothing if she would get in the car with them. When she refused, they dragged her into the vehicle and fled, turning west onto Fifth Street and disappearing.

The abduction was reported immediately and within about an hour police set up roadblocks to try and catch the green car at the Texas/New Mexico state border, but their efforts were fruitless. Sharon has never been heard from again.

The male abductor is described as a fair and thin Caucasian man with a long nose and straight sandy-colored hair. The female is described as short and overweight with dirty blonde hair and eyeglasses; she was in her thirties. Witnesses reported that a woman matching the description of Sharon's female abductor had been seen in the neighborhood, asking questions about Sharon, her mother and their home.

Authorities believe the couple had been stalking Sharon for at least a week prior to her abduction. They had been seen after church the Sunday prior to her disappearance, accompanied by two young children, a boy with freckles and a girl. The woman knocked on a neighbor's door to ask about Sharon's mother, Lupe Gallegos. She inquired where Lupe lived and what her financial situation was, and whether she had a little girl and whether she had a lot of children. The woman said she wanted to offer Lupe a job.

It's possible that the strange couple had tried to abduct Sharon before her disappearance on July 21. Sharon's mother stated Sharon suddenly stopped wanting to go to the grocery store around the corner; previously, she had enjoyed doing this. She also got upset when she saw a green car, and asked to be picked up and carried past it.

### Discovery

The partially buried body of a female child was found in Sand Wash Creek Bed on Old Alamo Road in Congress, Arizona on July 31, 1960. Her body was discovered by a Las Vegas schoolteacher named Russell Allen, who had been searching for rocks to decorate his garden.

Investigators at the scene observed that the individual or individuals responsible for the child's burial had possibly made two separate attempts to dig an alternate grave for her body. This was determined by two evident disturbances in the sand close to the actual burial site.

The body was clothed in white shorts and a checkered blouse with a distinctive chain pattern, along with a pair of adult rubber thong sandals that had been cut to fit the child's feet and fastened with leather straps. The child's toes and fingernails had reportedly been painted a bright red color. Investigators also found an apparently bloodstained pocket knife near the body, but were unable to definitively determine whether this utensil held any relation to the crime scene

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy determined that the body was that of a white girl most likely between the ages of five and seven years old, 3 feet–6 inches to 4 feet–5 inches in height, and likely weighing 50 to 60 pounds (later examinations of the child's remains indicated she may have been as old as 9 or as young as 2 at the time of her death). The child had been dead for between one and two weeks prior to the discovery of her remains. 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. (Although the actual race of the decedent has since been described as being indeterminable, the highest likelihood of her age at the time of her death has since been determined as being 3 to 6 years.)

The actual cause of death of the child was never determined by medical examiners, although her death was officially declared to be a homicide. Furthermore, the contemporary report of the child's autopsy states that her remains were charred, presumably from her body having been set alight around the time of her death. Although unable to determine the actual cause of death, the forensic pathologist was able to definitively state the decedent had not suffered any bone fractures either at the time of her death, or in her lifetime.

Because the child 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. So was given the name *Little Miss Nobody*.

### Identification

On March 15, 2022, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office announced that Little Miss Nobody has been identified as Sharon Lee Gallegos. The identification was made through genetic genealogy analysis done by Othram Inc. in Texas, nearly 62 years after her body was discovery