‘Little Miss Nobody’ found in Arizona 60 years ago identified as New Mexico girl

PHOENIX — A girl dubbed “Little Miss Nobody” found dead in Arizona more than 60 years ago has finally been identified.

The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a press conference the body was that of Sharon Lee Gallegos of New Mexico, who was 4 years old at the time of her death in 1960.

Efforts to identify the girl at that time were unsuccessful, but breakthroughs in DNA technology in recent years helped bring some closure to the six-decade mystery.

The sheriff’s office and Texas DNA company Othram raised $4,000 earlier this year to pay for specialized testing that finally identified the girl.

“Any time you have a horrific crime like this exist, no matter how long ago, we can never give up, never stop searching,” Sheriff David Rhodes said.

Gallegos was abducted on July 21, 1960, in Alamagordo, New Mexico, while playing with two other children in an alley behind her grandmother’s house.

Her partially buried body was found by a man looking for rocks at Sand Wash Creek in Congress, north of Wickenburg, 10 days later.

Her remains had been burned prior to her discovery and there was no further trauma, investigators said, making her cause of death difficult to determine.

There were information snags that also hindered the identification of the girl.

Differing age estimates, and clothing and footprint comparisons determined to be not those of Gallegos cast doubt on her identity.

Residents in the nearby central-north Arizona community of Prescott raised money for a funeral at the time and florists and a mortuary donated their services.

News reports said a local radio announcer and his wife stood in for the girl’s parents during the funeral at Prescott’s Congregational Church.

Authorities say they do not know who took and killed the child.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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