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4-Year-Old Identified 60 Years Later | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace

May 29, 2023 / 41:53

This episode covers the case of Little Miss Nobody, an unidentified girl found murdered in 1960 near Congress, Arizona. The discussion includes the discovery of her remains, the community's efforts to name her, and the use of genetic genealogy to identify her as Sharon Lee Gallegos, a girl who went missing from New Mexico.

The episode begins with the traumatic discovery of a young girl's body by a school teacher while hiking in the desert. The remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, making identification difficult. The community named her Little Miss Nobody and organized a funeral for her.

Investigators initially struggled to identify the girl, with various leads going cold over the decades. The case was reopened in 2014, and advancements in DNA technology led to renewed hope for identification.

In 2022, DNA from the remains was matched with a living relative, confirming that Little Miss Nobody was actually Sharon Lee Gallegos. The episode highlights the emotional impact on her family and the importance of genetic genealogy in solving cold cases.

Ultimately, the episode emphasizes the significance of community involvement and modern forensic science in bringing closure to long-unsolved cases.

TL;DR

The episode reveals Little Miss Nobody's identity as Sharon Lee Gallegos, solved through genetic genealogy after 60 years of mystery.

Episode

41:53
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foreign
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1960 Congress Arizona a school teacher
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out on a hike in the desert makes a
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horrible discovery
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anytime you deal with crimes against
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children it always affects people in
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different ways and I can imagine that
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walking on and finding a little girl
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buried in the middle of the desert by
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herself I would imagine that was pretty
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traumatic for for everybody on scene not
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just the fact that it's a human being
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but the other fact that it is just a
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small child
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the little girl's remains are terribly
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decomposed she cannot be identified she
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was in an advanced stage of
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decomposition that was part of what made
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it difficult to identify her and they
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made note of it that she had her
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fingernails and toenails appeared to be
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recently painted
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story of the murder of an unidentified
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child who is ultimately dubbed Little
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Miss nobody
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and for 60 years her identity remains
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unknown
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and the search to find it goes cold
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but can a groundbreaking new tool called
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genetic genealogy give this little
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girl's name back to her
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I'm Nancy Grace this is bloodline
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detectives
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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is
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[Music]
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July 31 1960 the desert near Congress
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Arizona a school teacher from Vegas is
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out looking for rocks to decorate his
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garden when he suddenly makes a gruesome
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Discovery he will never forget
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he came across two spots in that wash
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that looked like there had been some
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digging activity but there was nothing
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in them and then came upon her body
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partially buried in the wash he called
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to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
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so Maricopa County Sheriff's deputy
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showed up and confirmed that this was
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human remains and then also realized
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that it was in Yavapai County called us
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and so we had a deputy who lived down in
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that area at the time he went out to the
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scene and started the investigation
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police arrived at
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another what
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looked she was wearing like a brown and
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white button-up shirt with some red
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shorts and she had some flip-flop
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sandals on that were appeared to be
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adult-sized sandals that had been the
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backs of them have been cut off so they
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would fit her feet a little bit better
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yeah it looks like it's her toenails and
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fingernails had been painted at one
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point in time they had found like a
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knife close to the scene where she had
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been buried that had what they believed
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was like a red stain on what they
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thought was blood
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there were some tire tracks that they
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saw in the area
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they took photographs of them but there
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were no casts made of those as far as
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the footprints you know when you get
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into those Sandy areas those Footprints
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don't have a whole lot of detail to them
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it's very difficult to
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compare a footprint in a sand wash to an
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actual shoe it's even hard to tell the
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size with any specificity
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that time of the year we're in what we
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call monsoon season so it's very warm
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down there in the desert it's not
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uncommon to have temperatures over 110
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115 degrees and then when you get the
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high humidity from from the monsoons all
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of those factors speed up the
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decomposition
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continue to stay to scare the crime
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scene and wonder why this little girl
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was only partially buried exposing her
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to the brutal elements
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out here in the in the desert especially
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at lower elevations it's very hard to
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dig there's a lot of rock in the soil
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the soil is very dry it's just not
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conducive for digging a hole and so a
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lot of these people are under pressure
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they're under stress they want to get as
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far away from you know their victim as
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they can as quickly as they can and at
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some point they just
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abandon it cover it up best they can and
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leave
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at the time people in nearby Prescott
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are horrified by the crime and sad this
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child has no name
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they take it upon themselves to create a
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name for her Little Miss nobody
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Little Miss nobody was given her name by
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the community in Prescott because they
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felt horrible that this little girl was
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just going to be buried with no name and
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nobody there to even pay their respects
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so the community rallied around to buy a
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headstone and on The Headstone they
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wrote Little Miss nobody
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between the pastor and one of the DJs on
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the radio station
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they got the word out about Little Miss
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nobody
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and rallied the community to donate
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funds to pay for a funeral to have a
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funeral service
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and they did that at you know one of the
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cemeteries here in town there were about
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75 people from What We Gather in
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attendance there there was a eulogy
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a tender little child murdered and left
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to decompose in the Arizona desert and
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now unidentified Clues are hard to come
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by next on bloodline detectives
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investigators launch their search for
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the truth
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[Music]
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July 31 1960 the desert near Congress
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Arizona the unidentified body of a
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little girl is discovered half buried in
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a shallow grave the community mobilized
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to give this little girl a funeral her
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only name Little Miss nobody
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meanwhile investigators wait for her
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autopsy report hoping the coroner comes
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up with meaningful Clues
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he came up with an age range that you
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know was about three or four years in
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range now we would be able to get far
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more specific he also came up with the
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range in height
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that we would be very specific now
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because she was in you know she was
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intact but back then uh we ended up with
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with a range in height those estimations
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also created an issue with trying to get
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her identified her hair did have like an
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Auburn tint to it that was believed to
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possibly been you know tinted a
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different color from her original color
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her teeth were intact they did have the
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her teeth they did look at that it
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looked like she had been taken care of
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but her hair color did appear to have
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been changed to trolley possibly to
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conceal her identity I would imagine
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the coroner at the time didn't have
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the medical training that we would
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require now the cause of death was
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undetermined he couldn't come to a an
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opinion on how she died
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they didn't find any fractured bones no
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signs of real significant trauma found
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the knife but they didn't find any
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punctures or stab marks in her so it was
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difficult I would imagine to to make
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that call and that's why she was listed
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as her death was undetermined they
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couldn't figure out exactly what she
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died from even to begin with we don't
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know for sure if she was killed there at
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that scene at that moment or she had
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died prior to that and just buried there
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and that's something that has never
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really been determined due to the fact
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that we don't know exactly what caused
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her death
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[Music]
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most people
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go through their entire life without
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ever seeing a deceased person firsthand
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we we do that frequently in this line of
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work
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that's one of the hardest things to do
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is to emotionally is to deal with a
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child who's passed away whether it's
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homicide or natural causes or accidental
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it's incredibly challenging to have you
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know removed her back in 1960 under
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those conditions you're dealing with you
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know everything associated with
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decomposition there's there's bacteria
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that causes odor there's there's you
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know you you're not just looking at this
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but you you know there's there's other
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senses that become involved
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and so it's it's incredibly challenging
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it's 1960 and at that time forensic
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science is in its infancy
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investigators have heard of DNA
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deoxyribonucleic acid but retrieving it
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from a victim to analyze it for evidence
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is Out Of Reach
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[Music]
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live interviewing a lot of talking to
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people a lot of the old-fashioned police
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work that they just rely on reports from
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other agencies a lot of that was just
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rely upon just going out and talking to
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people and interviewing and and
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the best they can with what they had at
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the time
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local police in Prescott Arizona know
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they need help they reach out to Yavapai
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County Sheriff
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so in 1960 I mean they don't have
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internet they don't have DNA like we
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have it now they barely knew what DNA
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was and they don't have the ways to
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communicate by computer or anything like
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that between state to state agency to
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agency so unless somebody's coming
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forward and saying that is my daughter
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they're kind of out of luck in terms of
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just trying to Canvas the area but
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that's totally a shot in the dark
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there were several other states who said
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hey we have a child who is missing and
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because of that large age range
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estimation and the height estimation
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there were a lot of kids that could be
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included in that the Yavapai County
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Sheriff's Office deputies and detectives
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at the time spent a lot of time driving
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around the western United States to go
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interview law enforcement in those
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communities who contacted us or we
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became aware of had missing kids
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they reached out
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all different law enforcement agencies
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inquiring about missing girls that have
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been in other jurisdictions there were
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several different leads to detectives
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with the yappa County Sheriff's Office
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looked into but were never successful in
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finding any certain lease at that time
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the hard work by Yavapai sheriffs pays
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off they learn of a little girl
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kidnapped across the Arizona State Line
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in New Mexico
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four-year-old Sharon Lee Gallegos
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disappears from Alamogordo New Mexico
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just 10 days before the body a little
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Miss nobody is found
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my mom told me that she had a sister
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when she was five years old a couple
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came and took her away and so I started
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asking questions I said well did they
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find her what happened did the police
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come so my mom said yeah you know the
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police came the FBI got involved the
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local Alamogordo Police Department got
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involved
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they interviewed my grandmother and
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during their interview an investigation
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comes to find out Sharon was outside
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playing
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my mom was in the front porch Vicky was
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in the backyard playing with her and
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neighborhood friends and they were
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playing in the back
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and then the green car drove through the
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back alley the lady in the car it was
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being driven by a man and actually
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shouted out the window
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Sharon do you want to come with us we'll
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buy you new clothes and give you candy
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and Sharon clung to Vicky and said I
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don't want to go with you and Vicky
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being as old as she was she said I'll go
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with you if you buy me candy and clothes
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and then so the lady got out of the car
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grabbed Sharon by the arm and pulled her
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dragged her into the back seat of the
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car where there was two other kids and
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then sped off
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well instantly they ran to the front of
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the house where my mom was on the porch
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and said somebody took share and
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somebody took Sharon and they started
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screaming and my mom called for my
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grandmother and they had to run to a
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neighbor's house because they didn't
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have a telephone in the home and call
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the police and so the police got there
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pretty quickly they started it doing
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what the police do even back then they
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eventually called the FBI and the
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sheriff had started setting up
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roadblocks and for a lookout for the
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green car then they started canvassing
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the neighborhood and come to find out
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that this couple had been around for
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about 10 days asking questions
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specifically about my grandmother and
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about Sharon herself like who's her mom
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is that Sharon does she have siblings is
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her mother my grandmother Lupe is she
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married all those type of questions we
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found that very odd I mean nobody could
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explain it to us my grandmother had no
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idea who would want to take her so there
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was a lot of good evidence Visual
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Evidence but they could never catch them
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Yavapai Sheriff's investigators reach
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out to Alamogordo police
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Alamogordo suggests the little girl
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found in the desert may actually be
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Sharon Lee Gallegos
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there was some sheriffs in Arizona that
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might have some information
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so instead of sending my mom or my
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grandmother they asked a neighbor a
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friend a good friend of my grandmother
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to go she said that the sheriffs had
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discovered a body in the desert of a
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young girl
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but the young girl had dyed hair painted
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fingernails which is something that
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Sharon and my grandmother and my mom
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never did
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friend of the Gallegos family travels to
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Yavapai County Arizona to view the
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little girls remains
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she tells investigators the child's body
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in the morgue is not Sharon
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there were any Footprints taken from the
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feet of Little Miss nobody that were
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compared to known Footprints of Sharon
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Lee Gallegos
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and the FBI compared those and ruled
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them out
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Sharon Lee Gallegos was ruled out as
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being a little Miss nobody
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from my pre-teens all the way to my
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teenage years and into my 20s that was a
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talk anytime any kid would go missing it
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didn't happen often but you know
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sometimes kids go missing for a day and
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you know things like that but then they
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bring up you know oh what about you know
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Sharon Gallegos she went missing and
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nobody ever found her and in our family
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we always held out hope that we would
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she would actually walk in the door or
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we would actually find her living her
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life my grandmother you know she would
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be sad and always say you know I wish I
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knew what happened to my daughter my mom
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would always say I wish I knew what
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happened to my sister my uncle John
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never spoke about it at all
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and um
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you know through the years there'd be a
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sheriff call or uh somebody would put
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the name would would actually eventually
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contacted us and said we put Sharon Lee
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gallegos's name into a database of the
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missing children and we always carry
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that hope as a kid I always did my
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siblings did and my mom my mom and dad
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they truly thought that
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they would find her
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what kind of Lee would come in they
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would most definitely follow it but
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ultimately they didn't it was never LED
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anywhere and it it was probably a little
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bit frustrating I might imagine it was
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probably something that ultimately they
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all wanted to to solve but you know as
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time goes on you know unfortunately the
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tips come in a little bit slower there's
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not as many things to go on and
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ultimately that the case goes dry and
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ultimately after a few years later it
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kind of got pushed you know Sally as it
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is kind of to the side and because there
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weren't new leagues there weren't new
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things to do at that time there wasn't
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the technology that we have so it does
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kind of just get put on the back burner
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a little bit and kind of get pushed to
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the side because there ultimately isn't
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much to go on at that point
00:18:07
next on bloodline detectives yapovi
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County investigators get help to solve a
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50 year old Cold Case the murder of a
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little girl
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[Music]
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2014 Yavapai County Arizona sheriff's
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investigator Tom Boltz and his team
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reopened the case of an unidentified
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little girl murdered in 1960 known only
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as Little Miss nobody
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now over 50 years later investigator Tom
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Boltz hopes a highly sophisticated lab
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can somehow retrieve DNA from the
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child's body
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there wasn't a whole lot of knowledge
00:19:04
passed down from the old paper Reports
00:19:06
most of the people who were working here
00:19:09
in the 1960s had long since retired our
00:19:13
Cold Case volunteer Brendan had attended
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a training in meta Another Cold Case
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volunteer from Colorado her name was
00:19:21
Sylvia petum and the two of them became
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acquainted started talking and Miss
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pettum had asked about Little Miss
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nobody because of some similarities
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between a case she was helping with in
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Colorado Miss pettum also had worked
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with the national Center for Miss
00:19:37
exploited children or Nick Nick for
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short she mentioned to Brendan that Nick
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may be willing to pay for the
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examination and examination of the
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remains of Little Miss nobody
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it's a lot of paperwork that does have
00:19:54
to be signed off by a superior court
00:19:56
judge all that paperwork was drafted
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ultimately it was signed by a judge who
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did approve that and the funds were
00:20:02
raised we got the money and we went to
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the local cemetery and and the process
00:20:06
was started but does a lot of paperwork
00:20:08
a lot of stuff prior to that that had it
00:20:11
been done and approved and it's just a
00:20:12
process like everything and it just
00:20:14
takes time and ultimately we got things
00:20:16
together and got that approved and were
00:20:18
able to do that
00:20:19
there's emotions that you go through you
00:20:22
have a dead child
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and probably a murdered child that was
00:20:27
cast out and to our knowledge at the
00:20:31
time not reported missing you feel very
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sad for the child but you feel hopeful
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at the same time for the child that
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you're going to be able to find out who
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she is and what happened to her and
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bring somebody to Justice
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it is challenging and it is hard like I
00:20:49
said you're dealing with little kids and
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little girls a little human remains but
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I think at the same time it is difficult
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but at the same time there's that level
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of excitement like this is a possibility
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this is a possible way that we can find
00:21:00
out who this girl is so at the same time
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it is difficult but on the other side
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just that excitement of you know this is
00:21:07
possibly the way that we're going to
00:21:09
find out who she is I believe that it's
00:21:10
probably one something that they want to
00:21:13
do it was exciting it was opening the
00:21:15
doors to you know possibilities of
00:21:17
finally figuring out who this little
00:21:19
girl was
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the exclamation of Little Miss nobody
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takes place 2014.
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the girl's skeleton remains are removed
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from her resting place where the
00:21:32
community buried her 50 years before now
00:21:36
yapa Valley County investigators hope to
00:21:39
obtain enough DNA to make a match
00:21:45
closely with the lab and University of
00:21:48
North Texas to try and determine cause
00:21:51
of death and recover DNA that we would
00:21:55
then be able to put into with CODIS the
00:21:57
combined offender database in hopes that
00:22:00
maybe someone in her family had
00:22:03
committed a crime and their DNA would be
00:22:05
close enough and and we'd be able to get
00:22:07
her identified or that police you know
00:22:11
wherever she was missing from had taken
00:22:14
DNA from a family member and put that in
00:22:17
we submit all of our prior DNA reports
00:22:20
through the University of North Texas
00:22:22
everything that we've done up to that
00:22:23
point they knew quite a bit about the
00:22:25
background of the case we did share
00:22:27
quite a bit of that information with
00:22:28
them and they did have all the previous
00:22:30
DNA reports at that time so they did
00:22:32
have a good understanding of what the
00:22:33
case was and I think that's why that
00:22:35
kind of sparked their interest in and
00:22:37
their willingness to help us out with
00:22:39
that case
00:22:40
the University of North Texas was able
00:22:43
to give us a much more precise age range
00:22:46
for a little Miss nobody and a very
00:22:49
precise height for Little Miss nobody
00:22:52
they estimated that she was probably
00:22:54
most likely four years old and about
00:22:56
three and a half feet tall they were
00:22:58
unable to come up with any likely cause
00:23:01
of death they were able to get a DNA
00:23:03
profile that they could enter into CODIS
00:23:07
but there were no hits on that
00:23:10
we were hopeful that we would get a name
00:23:13
and a date of birth and a location an
00:23:15
exact cause of death and and we'd be
00:23:18
able to use that information to
00:23:20
determine exactly how this happened who
00:23:21
did it and get them into into court we
00:23:25
didn't get all of that what we did get
00:23:27
helped move us closer but it didn't give
00:23:31
us all the answers that we needed to
00:23:33
pursue the case
00:23:35
the codas
00:23:39
Nevada any
00:23:40
hits
00:23:42
the University of North Texas Center for
00:23:44
human identification then creates a
00:23:48
facial reconstruction of how little Miss
00:23:51
nobody may have looked in life
00:23:55
in 2015 the national Center for missing
00:23:58
and exploited children got involved and
00:24:00
they were able to take her teeth and
00:24:02
what they did have of her remains and
00:24:04
basically create an image of what they
00:24:07
thought this little girl looked like and
00:24:10
when they did that it changed the game
00:24:13
with this case so to speak because now
00:24:16
you had this picture of a little girl
00:24:18
who looked so young and everybody wanted
00:24:22
to figure out who she was it's like
00:24:24
anything else when you see a picture of
00:24:26
somebody you're talking about you can
00:24:27
put two and two together oh this is who
00:24:29
I'm talking to this is who I'm relating
00:24:31
to this little girl is who everybody's
00:24:34
rallying behind to try to figure out who
00:24:36
she was and what happened to her so I
00:24:37
think it just gave the case even more
00:24:39
emotion and urgency than had before
00:24:44
when we received the artists rendering
00:24:47
the sketch we publicized that in hopes
00:24:50
that somebody would see that that sketch
00:24:53
that picture and call us and say hey I
00:24:56
know who this is
00:24:57
but we never did get you know anybody
00:25:00
who knew exactly who it was or enough to
00:25:02
move forward to identify her
00:25:05
so from the time we exhumed her until
00:25:09
about 2021 the case had gone cold again
00:25:13
because again we didn't have any reports
00:25:15
we had no idea who she was and so
00:25:19
there's really you know nowhere to start
00:25:22
until we got a phone call from othram
00:25:26
saying that they wanted to help
00:25:29
offram Laboratories Houston Texas a
00:25:33
world-renowned specialist in forensic
00:25:36
genetic genealogy its team of scientists
00:25:40
combined DNA recovery with family
00:25:43
history they use this information to
00:25:47
crack seemingly impossible to crack cold
00:25:51
cases there's so many cases out there of
00:25:54
these unidentified children you know
00:25:56
it's it it's terrible and and and we
00:25:59
want to help solve every single one of
00:26:00
those but but the Little Miss nobody
00:26:02
case is is just you know an especially
00:26:05
tragic and just very well known case
00:26:07
it's something that I think anyone
00:26:09
that's interested or has uh has read
00:26:11
about you know unidentified remains and
00:26:13
changing John does probably knows this
00:26:15
case and it goes all the way back to
00:26:17
1960 and they spent decades trying all
00:26:20
sorts of different methods lots of
00:26:22
different techniques and trying to
00:26:24
figure out uh who she might be and then
00:26:26
I think what really got me interested in
00:26:28
it was that you know over 60 years have
00:26:31
passed and there's just no identity for
00:26:33
this girl so when I heard about the case
00:26:35
the fact that they had already tried
00:26:36
methods elsewhere and they truly in the
00:26:39
truest sense of the word exhausted all
00:26:41
leads and possibilities I felt like this
00:26:43
was an important case for us to look at
00:26:45
because I worried that if we did not
00:26:47
take a look at it there may be perhaps
00:26:50
no answer for even longer for possibly
00:26:52
forever
00:26:54
can the scientists at author M Labs
00:26:56
finally provide a name for Little Miss
00:27:00
nobody we find out next on bloodline
00:27:03
Detectives
00:27:06
foreign
00:27:07
[Music]
00:27:17
County Arizona investigators hoping
00:27:20
scientists at othram Labs can utilize
00:27:24
DNA technology to identify a little girl
00:27:27
found murdered out in the Arizona desert
00:27:32
in 1960. othram is the first lab in the
00:27:38
world that was purpose-built to use
00:27:40
Advanced genomics and apply it to
00:27:42
intractable forensic evidence
00:27:45
what we do is when all these standard
00:27:47
forensic methods fail and you come to a
00:27:49
DNA dead end where you're not able to
00:27:51
figure out any more clues about the DNA
00:27:54
that was left at a crime scene we come
00:27:57
in and we create one of these high
00:27:59
performing DNA profiles that have
00:28:02
hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
00:28:04
markers and more information than any
00:28:06
other DNA profile ever created using
00:28:08
these Advanced genomics methods our case
00:28:11
manager Michael vogan he actually had a
00:28:14
relationship with law enforcement in
00:28:17
Arizona and Yavapai they asked Michael
00:28:20
if we would take a look at the evidence
00:28:21
but told him that unfortunately there
00:28:23
were there was no more budget for this
00:28:25
case because they had already paid for
00:28:27
advanced testing and it hadn't worked
00:28:30
and so Michael said we would be very
00:28:32
happy to do so
00:28:34
othrum had told us that they would make
00:28:39
an attempt to do an extraction they
00:28:41
would look at the existing DNA profile
00:28:45
and if they didn't think that they would
00:28:48
be able to identify her then there was
00:28:51
no risk to us
00:28:53
but if they thought that they had enough
00:28:56
DNA material to get her identified then
00:29:00
they would partner with us DNA testing
00:29:04
is very expensive our public affairs
00:29:07
officers were thrilled to help and
00:29:10
really did a phenomenal job of getting
00:29:13
the word out we were covered on every
00:29:16
local news broadcast down in Phoenix
00:29:19
which is about an hour and a half south
00:29:21
of here that's our largest media market
00:29:25
and so because of that effort we were
00:29:28
able to to raise those funds in a very
00:29:30
short period of time it was under under
00:29:32
24 hours
00:29:34
our community is very caring and very
00:29:36
giving and when they said that they'd
00:29:38
already received the money within 24
00:29:40
hours the public here is very supportive
00:29:42
of law enforcement it was a story that
00:29:44
had been out there people were
00:29:45
interested in it I believe that people
00:29:47
just in general that people have good
00:29:49
hearts and they want to solve just as
00:29:51
much as we did
00:29:54
took the remains we extracted DNA from
00:29:56
the remains after the extraction we ran
00:30:00
this inspection to make sure that we
00:30:01
understood everything that was all the
00:30:04
different components that comprise that
00:30:05
DNA how degraded it was whether it was a
00:30:07
mixture or not how contaminated it was
00:30:10
all these different components for DNA
00:30:12
and then we decided the best approach on
00:30:14
how to sequence that and build a profile
00:30:17
I was actually very pleased it was
00:30:20
certainly far from the worst thing we've
00:30:21
worked with and I was extremely
00:30:23
optimistic to be able to build a profile
00:30:24
once the QC was in it was just really a
00:30:27
matter of time from our perspective and
00:30:30
sure enough when we built the DNA
00:30:31
profile it came out looking great we did
00:30:34
not see any of the challenges that that
00:30:36
other groups had faced everything looked
00:30:38
wonderful quality of the data was high
00:30:40
and we had plenty of these genetic
00:30:42
markers with which to then go perform
00:30:44
the genealogical search and and the you
00:30:47
know familial testing was necessary to
00:30:49
positively resolve this case
00:30:51
[Music]
00:30:52
in 1960 police considered Little Miss
00:30:56
nobody may have been four-year-old
00:30:59
Sharon Lee Gallegos
00:31:02
Sharon disappeared in Alamogordo New
00:31:05
Mexico just 10 days before Little Miss
00:31:08
nobody's body was found
00:31:11
now investigators again follow that lead
00:31:16
they reach out to the missing girls
00:31:19
family seeking a DNA sample that's next
00:31:23
on bloodline Detectives
00:31:28
[Music]
00:31:36
2022 Yavapai County Arizona
00:31:39
investigators team up with forensic
00:31:42
scientists to try and identify a little
00:31:45
girl
00:31:46
60 years after she's found murdered in
00:31:49
the desert their next move
00:31:52
to obtain DNA from a living relative
00:31:56
that could be connected to this little
00:31:59
child victim
00:32:02
throughout the years we've had different
00:32:04
people contact us
00:32:06
the police the Alamogordo police
00:32:08
actually came to my mom and said would
00:32:10
you give us a DNA sample so that we can
00:32:14
put it in the missing children database
00:32:16
and then they contacted me and asked if
00:32:19
I could get my uncle to do that the next
00:32:21
time he was here in the United States
00:32:23
and so I was able to make that happen he
00:32:26
went to San San Padre Island and the
00:32:29
police there took a DNA sample from him
00:32:31
and put it in the missing database
00:32:34
one thing we wanted to really kind of
00:32:36
consider is that you know over the last
00:32:39
six decades there was a speculation that
00:32:41
this unknown set of remains could have
00:32:44
belonged to this little girl that had
00:32:46
gone missing in New Mexico and so that's
00:32:48
something we wanted to confirm and we
00:32:50
had the benefit of a relative a living
00:32:53
relative of the girl that had vanished
00:32:55
and so we built a profile from his DNA
00:33:00
we built the profile from the DNA of the
00:33:02
skeletal remains and and we did a
00:33:05
comparison to determine if we could
00:33:07
establish that there was a relationship
00:33:08
and what we found which was even more
00:33:11
exciting is that there was a
00:33:12
relationship and so this this
00:33:14
information together with the
00:33:16
investigation and other details enabled
00:33:18
investigators to conclude that in fact
00:33:20
this unidentified little girl was Sharon
00:33:24
Gallegos
00:33:26
[Music]
00:33:28
and although they had ruled out Sharon
00:33:30
glagos as a possibility early on as
00:33:32
science caught up and improved we were
00:33:35
finally able to use the proper
00:33:36
techniques to demonstrate that in fact
00:33:38
it was this little girl
00:33:41
when we got the call from othram
00:33:44
and they told us that they were
00:33:47
convinced that little Miss nobody was
00:33:50
actually sharing Lee Gallegos from
00:33:52
Alamogordo New Mexico
00:33:54
and the first reaction was are you sure
00:33:58
and we said yes absolutely 100 they said
00:34:01
but this name was ruled out
00:34:05
multiple different ways multiple
00:34:06
different times in the beginning as as a
00:34:10
possibility to this case this case
00:34:12
didn't just solve the unknown identity
00:34:15
of Little Miss nobody there was also The
00:34:17
Disappearance of of the little girl from
00:34:20
Alamogordo New Mexico early on in the
00:34:23
investigation there was a thought that
00:34:24
maybe the two cases were connected and
00:34:26
then that was ruled out and so they were
00:34:30
very surprised to hear the name but they
00:34:33
were also very excited because they knew
00:34:36
that finally there were answers finally
00:34:39
there was a path to figuring out what
00:34:41
happened to Little Miss nobody or
00:34:44
sharing the Legos in this case
00:34:47
immediately after getting off the phone
00:34:49
with Ostrom and making sure we
00:34:51
understood exactly what they had been
00:34:54
able to determine we started to work
00:34:57
with Nick to make contact with those
00:35:00
remaining relatives so that we could
00:35:03
arrange a meeting to explain to them
00:35:06
what we had found out
00:35:09
what they confirm is that little Miss
00:35:11
nobody is in fact little miss somebody
00:35:15
she's four year old Sharon Lee Gallegos
00:35:18
after all
00:35:20
Sharon the young girl who disappeared
00:35:22
from the neighboring state of New Mexico
00:35:25
in 1960.
00:35:28
I was trying to keep it together and not
00:35:31
burst out crying my sister did start
00:35:34
crying my brother was speechless and my
00:35:37
uncle didn't say anything they were like
00:35:40
oh my goodness my aunt really in Germany
00:35:43
was the one talking and saying oh my
00:35:45
gosh I can't believe it after all these
00:35:47
years and
00:35:49
I myself I thought you know
00:35:52
I just didn't believe it was happening
00:35:54
but then
00:35:55
I was like okay they found her what
00:35:58
happened what do we do you know and so
00:36:01
they told us they were going to do a
00:36:03
news conference and they had invited us
00:36:05
to be there it's kind of amazing I mean
00:36:08
this is a story I grew up with my entire
00:36:11
life
00:36:13
and I had always I had never given up
00:36:15
hope that we would find her and
00:36:17
hopefully alive but at the same time we
00:36:20
do know what happened to her now
00:36:22
David and I myself Michael we all went
00:36:25
up to the press conference in Arizona
00:36:27
and we also met Little Miss nobody's
00:36:30
nephew he was a family member that flew
00:36:32
in for the press conference to speak on
00:36:34
behalf of the family
00:36:36
and it was extremely touching because
00:36:38
even though he was only the nephew it
00:36:41
was very obvious very early on in his
00:36:43
talk in the press conference how
00:36:45
affected he actually was
00:36:47
by Sharon Gallegos being abducted he
00:36:51
said he grew up a very different life
00:36:52
because
00:36:53
you know they were always afraid to let
00:36:56
the children
00:36:57
go outside and do normal things she was
00:36:59
abducted in the middle of the day right
00:37:01
there in the middle of a small town
00:37:03
there was obviously some premeditation
00:37:05
and a woman had approached her mom about
00:37:07
her job this is the same woman that was
00:37:10
found or thought to be seen in the car
00:37:12
that took her away there were other
00:37:14
children in the car that took her away
00:37:16
that eyewitnesses saw and there was a
00:37:19
strange man that is the last thing
00:37:21
anyone knows about what happened to
00:37:23
Sharon Gallegos and how she ended up in
00:37:25
Arizona is a complete unknown
00:37:29
Yavapai County Sheriff's Department is a
00:37:31
great example to hopefully other
00:37:33
sheriff's departments and police
00:37:34
departments that this technology works
00:37:37
and if there are cases that are sitting
00:37:39
dormant on a shelf where there is a girl
00:37:42
or a boy or a mom or a daughter or a
00:37:45
father who has no identity that they
00:37:48
could have an identity and that
00:37:50
hopefully they'll they'll take this
00:37:51
knowledge take that case off the shelf
00:37:54
and reopen it and try something new
00:37:56
because it's obviously working
00:37:59
it would have been very easy to just say
00:38:02
you know hey it was a long time ago
00:38:04
there's you know we're not going to be
00:38:06
able to do much with this but being able
00:38:10
to identify her and we're still working
00:38:14
the case we we very much want to find
00:38:16
out who those people in the car were we
00:38:19
very much want to find out what they
00:38:21
were doing in Alamogordo and why they
00:38:24
came through Yavapai County and what
00:38:27
happened to Sharon
00:38:29
[Music]
00:38:30
happy that we got closure
00:38:34
I wish my mom was alive
00:38:37
you know to have seen this because it
00:38:40
was really hard for her
00:38:42
it was really hard for her
00:38:44
and
00:38:46
you know she took that to a grave not
00:38:48
knowing what happened to her sister
00:38:51
I I was able to see footage of my mother
00:38:54
having her DNA taken at the police
00:38:56
station
00:38:58
and it just broke my heart when
00:39:00
she was telling detective oscaro that
00:39:04
you know about the story she was telling
00:39:07
the detective about the story and that
00:39:09
and and how how she felt and she wished
00:39:13
she could have done something and
00:39:15
and it just broke our heart to see our
00:39:17
mom like that so
00:39:19
I actually visited the site this Easter
00:39:24
me and my partner went out there
00:39:27
actually to the spot where they found
00:39:30
her body
00:39:31
and it's just probably 50 feet away from
00:39:35
the road
00:39:36
and ironically we had passed by that
00:39:40
spot
00:39:41
15 times in our lifetime
00:39:43
going to Las Vegas Nevada from
00:39:46
Alamogordo and I left a memorial there
00:39:49
for her just for our family
00:39:52
showing our respective that's where they
00:39:55
found her if it wasn't for that teacher
00:39:56
that stumbled upon her you know we would
00:39:59
have never known it's just kind of sad
00:40:01
that they left this little girl there
00:40:04
but at least we know now that this
00:40:07
little girl is my aunt
00:40:10
so-called nobody finally becomes a
00:40:14
somebody
00:40:16
a nameless child gets her name back and
00:40:19
with it a portrait of her short but
00:40:23
sweet life is uncovered
00:40:26
it's the kind of resolution genetic
00:40:29
genealogy can give us
00:40:31
the more people whose DNA is in the
00:40:35
National Database the more likely it is
00:40:38
that victims like little Sharon Lee
00:40:41
Gallegos can get their names back again
00:40:44
even after 60 long years
00:40:49
I'm Nancy Grace thank you for joining us
00:40:52
here on bloodline detectives
00:40:58
thank you
00:41:13
foreign
00:41:17
[Music]
00:41:22
[Music]
00:41:24
[Applause]
00:41:26
[Music]
00:41:42
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 85
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Biggest twist
  • 80
    Most emotional
  • 80
    Best overall

Episode Highlights

  • The Discovery of Little Miss Nobody
    In July 1960, a school teacher discovers the remains of a little girl in the desert, sparking a community's quest for justice.
    “Little Miss Nobody was given her name by the community in Prescott.”
    @ 05m 15s
    May 29, 2023
  • Community Mobilizes for a Funeral
    The community rallies to give Little Miss Nobody a proper funeral, ensuring she is not forgotten.
    “They felt horrible that this little girl was just going to be buried with no name.”
    @ 05m 20s
    May 29, 2023
  • Cold Case Reopened
    In 2014, investigators reopen the case of Little Miss Nobody, hoping to retrieve DNA for identification.
    “Investigator Tom Boltz hopes a highly sophisticated lab can somehow retrieve DNA.”
    @ 18m 36s
    May 29, 2023
  • Community Support for Justice
    The local community quickly raised funds for DNA testing, showing their commitment to solving the case.
    “Our community is very caring and very giving.”
    @ 29m 36s
    May 29, 2023
  • A Heartbreaking Reunion
    Family members react emotionally to the news of Sharon's identification, reflecting on years of uncertainty.
    “I was trying to keep it together and not burst out crying.”
    @ 35m 31s
    May 29, 2023
  • The Identification of Little Miss Nobody
    After decades, DNA technology finally identifies Little Miss Nobody as Sharon Lee Gallegos.
    “This nameless child gets her name back and a portrait of her life is uncovered.”
    @ 40m 16s
    May 29, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Can a groundbreaking new tool called genetic genealogy give this little girl's name back?
    4-Year-Old Identified 60 Years Later | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
  • This little girl was just going to be buried with no name.
    4-Year-Old Identified 60 Years Later | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
  • It’s incredibly challenging to deal with a child who’s passed away.
    4-Year-Old Identified 60 Years Later | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
  • This little girl is who everybody's rallying behind.
    4-Year-Old Identified 60 Years Later | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
  • Finally, there were answers; finally, there was a path to figuring out what happened.
    4-Year-Old Identified 60 Years Later | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace

Key Moments

  • Horrible Discovery00:20
  • Cold Case Reopened18:33
  • DNA Retrieval Efforts18:52
  • Facial Reconstruction23:48
  • Case Goes Cold25:05
  • DNA Breakthrough25:22
  • Sharon Identified33:20
  • Closure After 60 Years40:44

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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1987 Double Homicide Finally Solved | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
Okaloosa Jane Doe | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
June 13, 2025
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41:46
Okaloosa Jane Doe | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 20 - The Boy in the Bundle - Full Episode
June 01, 2022
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41:35
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 20 - The Boy in the Bundle - Full Episode
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 10 - San Bernadino Bodies - Full Episode
June 01, 2022
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41:50
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 10 - San Bernadino Bodies - Full Episode
DNA Unmasks Predator! | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
April 27, 2025
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41:47
DNA Unmasks Predator! | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
Bloodline Detectives - Episode 16 - A Life Stolen
April 01, 2021
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41:57
Bloodline Detectives - Episode 16 - A Life Stolen
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 7 - The Murder of Siobhan McGuiness - Full Episode
June 01, 2022
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41:47
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 7 - The Murder of Siobhan McGuiness - Full Episode
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 16 - A Family Torn Apart - Full Episode
June 01, 2022
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41:49
Bloodline Detectives - Season 2, Episode 16 - A Family Torn Apart - Full Episode
Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 12, Episode 2 - Full Episode
May 23, 2019
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45:30
Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 12, Episode 2 - Full Episode
The Murder of Robin Brooks | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
June 16, 2024
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41:46
The Murder of Robin Brooks | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace
Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 8, Episode 11
March 09, 2017
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42:49
Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 8, Episode 11
Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 7, Episode 19
March 09, 2017
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42:50
Unsolved Mysteries with Dennis Farina - Season 7, Episode 19