'Little Miss Nobody' Identified as Girl Abducted in 1960

Body of little girl found in 1960 identified as Sharon Lee Gallegos
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 16, 2022 2:00 AM CDT
Updated Mar 16, 2022 6:58 AM CDT
62 Years Later, 'Little Miss Nobody' Has a Name
Yavapai County Sheriff's Lt. Tom Boelts speaks about the identification of a little girl dubbed "Little Miss Nobody," during a news conference in Prescott, Ariz., Tuesday, March 15, 2022.   (Doug Cook/The Daily Courier via AP)

“Little Miss Nobody” finally has a name. The Yavapai County Sheriff's office said Tuesday the previously unidentified little girl whose burned remains were found over 60 years ago in the Arizona desert was 4-year-old Sharon Lee Gallegos of New Mexico, the AP reports. The child's remains were found on July 31, 1960, partially buried in a wash in Congress, Arizona. Her age at various times over the years was estimated to be between 6 and 8 years old, then later at between 3 and 6 years old.

Residents in the nearby central-north Arizona community of Prescott raised money for a funeral and florists, and a mortuary donated its services for the little girl they had dubbed “Little Miss Nobody.” Her original grave marker read: “Little Miss Nobody. Blessed are the Pure in Heart ... St. Matthew 5:8." News reports at the time said a local radio announcer and his wife stood in for the girl's parents during the funeral at Prescott’s Congregational Church. “I guess I just couldn’t stand to see a little child buried in boot hill,” KYCA announcer Dave Paladin was quoted as saying in an Aug. 11, 1960 article by the AP.

Sharon Lee Gallegos was reportedly abducted from the yard of her grandmother's home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 21, 1960, a little over a week before her body was found. Authorities say they do not know who took and killed the child, and the case is still under investigation. The Alamogordo Police Department and the FBI searched for the little girl but were unable to find her or the suspects believed to be in a dark green 1951 or 1952 Plymouth. Authorities' initial thoughts about the age of the victim found in the desert, the clothing she was wearing and a footprint at the scene caused them to rule out the possibility that the dead girl was the missing 4-year-old from New Mexico. The Yavapai County case went cold until 2015, when the remains were exhumed to get DNA samples.

(More cold cases stories.)

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