Formerly unidentified murder victim
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, grandmother, and six other relatives, 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 child 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 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 her reason for inquiring as to Gallegos's mother's current social and financial situation was that she intended to offer Gallegos's mother a job.
At the time of her disappearance, Gallegos was two months shy of her fifth birthday. She was approximately 3 ft 6 in () in height and had light brown hair. 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 was then dragged by the arm into the "dirty, old green car" (believed to be a dark-green 1951- or 1952-model Dodge or Plymouth sedan) by the female abductor, who had exited the vehicle. 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.
Motive.
Although investigators remained open-minded as to the actual motive for the child's abduction, the prospect of kidnapping for ransom was quickly discounted both due to the family's modest means and the fact no demands for money were received. Moreover, the circumstances surrounding the abduction and evident previous stalking indicated the child had been specifically targeted. One of the child witnesses to Gallegos's abduction, 11-year-old Dolores Badial, was adamant she had observed the same vehicle into which the child had been dragged parked outside the Gallegos household shortly before the actual abduction as she and Gallegos had walked toward the vehicle en route to a local grocery store. According to Badial, the female occupant had been staring intently at the Gallegos household and the actual sight of the car had greatly distressed the child, who asked to be carried as the two passed the vehicle.
A friend and neighbor of the Gallegos family, Helen González, also informed investigators she had observed a dark-green vehicle matching the description provided by the eyewitnesses parked at the site of the abduction the previous Sunday. However, by July 28, investigators had announced their investigation into the possibility "a relative or possible acquaintance" of the Gallegos family being the abductor(s) had failed to bear any fruit.
Discovery of remains.
On July 31, 1960, the partially buried body of a female child was found in Sand Wash Creek Bed on Old Alamo Road in Congress, Arizona, approximately 48 kilometers from the town of Wickenburg and roughly half a mile west of Highway 93. Her body was discovered by a Las Vegas schoolteacher named Russell Allen, who had been searching for rocks to decorate his garden. 
The body was clothed in red shorts and a buttoned blue blouse with a distinctive, vertical linear pattern. 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. The child's body was taken to Widmer Funeral Home, to undergo an autopsy.
Investigators at the scene later stated at the inquest that the individual(s) responsible for the child's death had possibly made two separate attempts to dig an alternate grave for the child's body at the location she was subsequently discovered. This conclusion was determined by two evident disturbances in the sand close to the actual burial site. In addition, evident tire impressions indicated the perpetrator(s) had driven off Highway 93 to the actual disposal location before "[turning] around" in their vehicle and driving from the actual burial location.
Two sets of footprints were recovered at the crime scene, one of which had evidently been made by an adult; the other possibly by the sandal-footed child, indicating she may have walked to the site of her murder. Investigators also recovered a rusted and apparently bloodstained pocket knife near the body, but were unable to definitively determine whether this utensil held any relation to the crime scene. The clothing, knife, and footprint impressions found upon and/or near the child's body were sent to an FBI laboratory to undergo further examination.
Autopsy.
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. 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.
The actual cause of death of the child was never determined by medical examiners, although her death was officially declared to be a homicide. Although unable to determine the actual cause of death, the forensic pathologist was able to definitively state the decedent had not suffered any puncture wounds 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.
Initial investigation.
With active assistance from the local media, private citizens, and (later) assistance from officials as eminent as individuals within the FBI, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office worked tirelessly in their efforts to discover the decedent's identity. An all-points bulletin was initially broadcast across all sheriff radio and teletype networks following the discovery of the child's body.
Numerous individuals previously convicted of various offenses involving young children were subjected to prolonged interrogations, and the sheriff's office also received dozens of letters, telephone calls, and telegrams in response to their nationwide public appeals for information in their efforts to discover the child's identity. Any possibility the decedent had been any known missing young girl was investigated, and discounted.
Due to initial eyewitness accounts of a family seen walking close to where the child's body was discovered on July 27, and that one of the two young girls within this troupe had been wearing similar clothing and sandals to the decedent, speculation that the child may have been a member of this family of transients was also considered. A known transient family named Davidson were subjected to over an hour of questioning in early August. The family had been seen hitchhiking close to Prescott in late-July, with a confirmed sighting occurring near Alamogordo on the date of Gallegos's abduction. Police questioning concluded that the family likely had no connection to either the unidentified child or Sharon Gallegos, and the family were released following the verification of their alibis.
Discounting of Gallegos.
Investigators considered the unidentified child to potentially be Sharon Gallegos based upon her age (the decedent was initially determined to be aged between five and nine) and both the date and proximity of her disappearance. On August 2, a Yavapai County undersheriff informed the media: "It is possible that the body is that of [Gallegos], but we can't be sure." Despite the fact that the clothing the decedent wore was inconsistent to that Gallegos was wearing at the time of her abduction, investigators could not eliminate Gallegos as being the decedent due to this material fact, as her clothing and footwear could have easily been changed in the intervening ten days. Moreover, although the location of the unidentified child's remains was some 800 kilometers from the site of the Gallegos abduction, only ten days had elapsed between her abduction and this discovery. 
Shortly thereafter, police released a statement indicating they believed the unidentified child—with a revised estimated age of "around seven"—was therefore older than Gallegos, and could not be the abductee.
Further investigations.
As numerous leads of inquiry were pursued and discounted in the months following the child's discovery, Yavapai County Sheriff Jim Cramer, Deputy County Attorney George Ireland and other local law enforcement personnel expanded their search radius, ultimately travelling hundreds of miles via both air and land in their efforts to discover her identity.
In March 1961, a possibility arose that the decedent may have been one Deborah Jane Dudley; a four-year-old girl missing from Virginia. Investigators had failed to find the bodies of Dudley and her