A killer has finally been identified in the shocking rape and murder of a Utah teenager that baffled investigators for 40 years, according to police and reports.
Christine Gallegos, 18, was last seen alive hitchhiking to downtown Salt Lake City on her way to work on May 15, 1985. Her body was discovered early the next morning by the driver of a passing car, according to reports from the Salt Lake Tribune at the time.
Investigators arrived and found a grisly scene in the neighborhood now known as Ballpark.
Gallegos had been beaten, raped, stabbed and shot twice in the head. She reportedly put up a fierce struggle against her attacker before she was killed, police said.
“She left a blood trail up to the gutter of Jefferson Street,” Detective Cordon Parks said at a press conference Thursday announcing that the cold case was solved.
With the help of good old-fashioned detective work and cutting-edge genetic technology, police announced that the likely killer who evaded them for decades is Ricky Lee Stallworth — an Air Force vet who went on to marry five times and have three children before his death in 2023.
Stallworth, 27 at the time of Gallegos’ murder, was an airman at Hill Air Force Base in May 1985 when the teenage girl was killed.
Before his death, Stallworth was reportedly known to police for his alleged interactions with prostitutes along State Street, the commercial strip that runs through downtown Salt Lake City, in the last two years of his life.
During the press conference last week, Parks posthumously dubbed him a “State Street stalker” for his late-night rendezvous.
Even though he was married, Stallworth was known to leave his house at the dead of night and come back early in the morning, police said. He’d never tell his wife where he had been or what he had been doing, according to Parks.
Stallworth, whose name never came up in the different rounds of investigations into the murder over the years, died of natural causes in July 2023, so investigators were never able to question him – a frustrating prospect for detectives.
“I wish we could have got to him before he died,” Parks said.
Investigators don’t believe Stallworth and Gallegos knew each other before the murder.
“Handcuffs, however, do not equal healing,” said Utah State Bureau of Investigation Agent Steve O’Camb in a press release. “The resolution of Christine’s case is a prime example. We weren’t able to arrest a suspect, but hopefully we achieved some measure of justice for her and the family and friends that loved her.”
One of Stallworth’s family members voluntarily provided a DNA sample to investigators that police say confirmed Stallworth was the killer.
The DNA preserved from Gallegos’ case was sent to one of the most powerful genetic sequencers in the world, Othram Labs, which found the match.
Gallego’s mother Leah said a day hasn’t gone by since the teen’s brutal killing that she hasn’t thought of her daughter.
“I sure miss that girl every day,” she said at the press conference.
Leah said that Christine was engaged to a man named Troy and that they had plans to have children together.
“I wonder about the kids she would have,” she said. “I watch other people with their daughters, with their grandkids.”
She said was grateful to the police for finally solving the case, but remained heartbroken about her loss.
“They took so much away when they took her away,” she said.
An obituary that appears to be for the suspected killer — which spells his first name as Rickie — described him as a loving family man and with an adventurous spirit.
“Rickie traveled the world during his very impressive and accomplished career in the United States Air Force,” it read. “After retiring from the Air Force, Rickie started a career with HK Systems (now Dematic) and worked tirelessly until he had to retire for health reasons.”
It states that he is survived by his wife, three children and a host of grandkids and other relatives. Cops also said Stallworth had four ex-wives during his lifetime.
One of Stallworth’s ex-wives challenged the police account and said that Gallegos’ real killer remains “out there somewhere.”
“He’s dead,” the ex-wife, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Post. “He never had a chance for a trial. We’re going to fight this.”
She said Stallworth was a loving, gentle husband and hard-working engineer. The ex-wife said she was married to Stallworth for 19 years and never once did he ever raise his voice or his hand to her.
“Not once. How do you go from that to killing someone?” she asked. “You’d think there’d be something in 19 years, but no.”
“We just don’t believe it,” she added.
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