Christine Gallegos

Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as talk of sexual assault. Please listen with discretion. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to get into right now and true crime. We have a few things we need to talk about. There's actually been a lot that has happened this week. I feel like it's been kind of quiet as far as some of the cases that we've been following. There hasn't been a ton of new developments in those cases. So we have a few things we need to talk about in some of the cases that we are following. And by we, I mean me because I can only keep up with so much. I have people send me stuff all the time, local stuff, which I do very much try to keep up with, but I cannot keep up with all of it all the time because it's a lot between keeping up with all of the case says that I keep up with and then the weekly episodes. It's a lot to try to keep on top of everything. So I definitely try my best, but there are going to be things that I just I might know about them, but I'm not necessarily going to talk about him because I will be here all day and night and I will probably lose my mind. So first thing we're going to get into is Rex Huerman, the Long Island serial killer. A judge has officially ruled earlier this week that he is going to face a single trial for all seven of his murder charges. Now, his team very much wanted these trials broken down to individual trials. In my opinion, my personal opinion, Rex is toast because they're going to present seven cases that all have a common factor, which is why he was charged with them, and the common factor in a lot of these cases is items from his home, documents from his computer that detail different things about the different murders. I personally think that Rex's toast, and I am just looking forward to hearing what evidence they have. I'm sure they have a lot more than what we know, and I think the fact that they're trying him for seven murders is going to be very very interesting, and I feel like there's probably more coming down the pipeline, So we shall see what ends up happening with that. Next thing I want to talk about is Travis Decker, who is the father who killed his three beautiful daughters. They had suspected that he could also be deceased. They thought that he might be on the run. There was some bones they found a couple weeks ago that they thought could be his, but they were determined not to be his. But they officially have confirmed that he is deceased. They found his remains, and unfortunately, this is just another case of philicide, which I've briefly spoken about on this podcast previously. But this man was struggling from some mental health crisis, ongoing mental health crisis. He did not have permanent housing, He was homeless essentially, still had custody of his children, an unsupervised visitation of his children. Even though he had all of this stuff going on, and it was intermixed in the court system. It ended up, unfortunately resulting in the three girls losing their lives and Travis ultimately taking his own life. And there was this massive manhunt for months looking for Travis, and it's really just a super unfortunate situation all the way around, because four lives were lost and in the grand scheme of things. Those kids should have never been allowed to be with their father unsupervised. He didn't even have permanent housing. He was living on different campgrounds. That's not a stable situation to be bringing a child into, and that is very much what Hok Houten and Brandy Morey poles. They're really trying to raise awareness of a what phil aside is because a lot of people don't know, and b the court system and all of those entities are being told that. This is a problem. We went through this with Josh Palell way back in the day with Susan Powell and her two children. We've seen this before. It's not something new, but it's something that we need to be talking about, and they have to start actually listening to parents when they are expressing concern about another parent's mental state and then having visitation rights with these children. It's all really sad, really unfortunate. And I am going to be having a conversation with Hope at some point on the podcast so she can tell you about her experience and everything that she's doing now to raise awareness for phill aside and hopefully we get to a point as a community, as a true crime community, where we're demanding that mental health and children's custody be taken very seriously because it is a very serious issue. So stay tuned for that that will be coming up on the podcast eventually. I really want to start trying to do more interviews where I have different types of guests coming onto the podcast to talk about different topics, different subjects, and really try to broaden the horizon of what I talk about because I do focus on mostly unsolved cases, but there are so many other components to true crime that I want to cover, so many things that we need to be raising awareness on. There's financial sex stortion, there's phill aside, there's the unfortunate crimes against children, there are so many different things. Crimes against children in the online space that is a big one right now because online prevalence amongst children has become such a thing because we're giving children access to devices at such a young age, and unfortunately, it's really hard to combat that when that's just what they know. So I want to start doing more interview type of episodes. But I am slowly but surely kind of dipping my toe into the water because new things scare me and I am such a creature of habit. But stay tuned for that because I am going to start doing more stuff like that. All right, Last thing I want to talk about, and this is probably going to be a lot. I want to talk about the singer I guess that's what we're calling him, David. So he kind of rose to start him on YouTube. I think he started on YouTube. He had a couple of viral songs on TikTok, and I know he actually has some ties to Houston, but he has been living in LA and he met Celeste Revas Hernandez on discord. I believe they started communicating online when Celeste was thirteen and David was seventeen ish. He might have been seventeen going on eighteen, So they started communicating. I guess they started a relationship. It might have started online, but it soon turned to in person and in real life. And I do know that Celeste's mom said that she knew that Celeste was dating somebody named David. And it seems that Celeste would often run away from home and she would just be staying with David. So she was reported missing over a year ago, and she could be seen sometimes kind of sort of in photos with David. It would never be like a full frontal picture of her. You wouldn't actually see her whole face, but you might see the side of her face or a profile something like that. They also had matching tattoos on the inside of one of their fingers, and it was obviously just a very interesting, odd relationship because she was thirteen when they started dating and he was older than that. And now David is he was born in two thousand and five, so he's twenty twenty one. I don't know exactly when his birthday is, but he has been on tour because he's a musician. And on September seventh, they found a dismember decomposed body in the trunk of an abandoned Tesla that was registered to David. So obviously everything has started coming out. There's also been people coming out of the woodworks that have talked about knowing that he was dating a minor and that being a whole whole point of contention and different people trying to expose him for that over the last few months, and now this car being registered to him, the body in the trunk being identified as that of Celeste. It's honestly going to be very interesting to see what ends up coming. Out of this. Celeste was discovered on September seventh of this year, twenty twenty five, and in the two weeks leading up to that discovery, David was not in la He was out on tour, so very much depending on what they deem the time of death, that is going to be very telling as to if David was involved in this or not. They have not arrested him. He apparently has been cooperating with law enforcement. I think it's interesting because even if he is completely one hundred percent innocent of taking celeste life, there still is a component here of him being with a minor, which is a huge issue. So I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know what direction we're going. If they are working on gathering evidence so they can officially make an arrest, if they have a completely different suspect, It's really going to be interesting. But this poor girl, she was only fifteen years old, and in my opinion, it just doesn't seem like it was a great situation. She was young, very impressionable, and I just think that this one is going to be really interesting. It is developing day by day. More information is coming out. I will be sure to keep you guys updated. If there is any new information that comes out, I will be sure to let you know. Stay tuned also to my social media because I do post a lot of the times on there when something is breaking, because it's just easy to do that. But if there is any new things coming out in the next week, I will be sure to let you know. And we are going to go ahead and get into today's episode. All right, guys, Today. We are jumping into a brand new case that was unsolved for forty years, but we finally have some resolution in this case. So today's episode is about a girl named Christine Diegos and like I said, her case was unsolved for forty years pretty much to the day, but we do now have a little bit of resolution in Christine's case. Her story is very important and it's a perfect example of why we can't ever give up on these decades long cold cases. Christine was only eighteen years old and living in Salt Lake City, Utah at the time of her death. In this episode, we are going to get into Christine's life, her unfortunate death, and how her case finally got solved. I really do like sprinkling in some of these cases that although they were cold for so many years, they are now finally solved cases. Because I think it's so important to remember, as somebody who does a podcast that focuses primarily on unsolved cases, there's a reason we cover those cases, and that is so one day they can be solved. Because we are all literally. Just one step away from solving many of these cold cases. A lot of it hinges on DNA being tested and getting the resources together and putting pressure on law enforcement to finally retest some of this evidence that has been sitting at the bottom of a storage locker for decades. So that is why I share these episodes. I feel like they are so important to see the other side that there is resolution. We just have to all be willing to work together to get there. Christine Gegos was born on December twenty second of nineteen sixty six in Salt Lake City, Utah, and from and what I could find, her mom's name was Lee. She had a brother named Stephen and a sister named Danielle, and was engaged to a man named Troy. Now Troy was living with Christine and her mom and siblings at the time of her death. From what I've seen in my research, they were all a very close family. She was loved and very well liked by everybody that surrounded her. Her mom has fought so long and hard to get her case solved. Christine is described by her mom Lee as outgoing, sweet, and in love with her fiance Troy. She said that they were making plans for their future and had plans to start a family. However, unfortunately that never got to happen because a very deranged human decided to take Christine's life. So Christine was last seen alive around ten thirty PM on May fifteenth of nineteen eighty five. She had shared with her family that she was going to hitchhike downtown. To work at a bar. Now, let's flash back to nineteen eighty five. I was not even born yet. This was a very common occurrence hitchhiking, and it was a much different time of life than it is today. Not to say that bad things didn't happen, because it's obvious that there were bad people out there and people didn't always have the best of intentions, But hitchhiking to get from point A to point and B was not very uncommon. And a lot of people use this as their way to get around, especially for younger people, and Christine was eighteen, so it only makes sense she needed to go to work and this is how she was going to get there. So about an hour after Christine was last seen, there were witnesses that said that they heard two gunshots in the area of thirteen eighty four Jefferson Street in Salt Lake City, Utah. But it wasn't until three point fifty am on May sixteenth that the body of Christine was found in a field that was at the time known as Jerk's Field. Christine had been severely beaten. She had been stabbed, she had been shot twice in the head, and had been sexually assaulted. It was very clear from the condition of her body that she fought for her life and whoever had done this to Christine had really gone to great lengths to end her life. When you think of somebody being. Shot and stabbed, that is a obviously deranged human and somebody that maybe necessarily doesn't have a plan and they were just grasping its straws essentially to try and end Christine's life. This person that we're dealing with here is obviously a monster. So investigators very much believed that whoever had picked Christine up that night during the hitchhiking had picked her up, drove her to this remote location, attempted to sexually assault her, and then when Christine fought back, they made the decision that they were going to take her life, and they did so in a very brutal way. So investigators did what they could to try and figure out who did this. They started their investigation. But unfortunately they pretty much came up empty handed from the start. There was no named suspects initially and everything just kind of unfortunately faded into the background. Now, they did have some DNA and they routinely would test this DNA, so the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services and Sorens and Forensics did multiple different rounds of forensic testing over the years as the DNA technology of course was evolving, But no viable leads ever came up, nor did any suspects, so this case went dormant for a long time despite having all of this physical evidence that was left behind. So with this Christine horrifically being taken at such a young age, her family was pretty much left behind to try and pick up the pieces, wondering every single day if today was going to be the day that Christine's case would eventually be solved. Her family had to learn how to go on with their life even though they had this horrible tragedy that was just looming over them. And they also had so many questions. Who would want to do this to Christine? Why would somebody want to do this to Christine? She was only eighteen, She was in the prime of her life. She was getting ready to get married and start a family with her fiance. Why did this happen? And was this somebody that was familiar with Christine? Was this a total random stranger and a crime of opportunity type of situation? Was it a sexually motivated crime? And it turned violent when Christine fought back? These are all of the things that investigators are trying to ask themselves to try to piece together who possibly could have done this and come up with a suspect, But unfortunately they never did so. Although Christine's case was technically cold, it did remain an active case in the national and state cold case databases. It was also in the FBI database, and there is something called the ViCAP the violent criminal Apprehension Program database, and there's also something called the Utah Cold Case Database that ended up being created in twenty eighteen. So her case was active in all of these databases, which is so important because it's not just in one database, it's in several, So it's in a federal level, it's at a state level, it is under a violent criminal level, so that way, hopefully they can figure out the monster that did this. So, although there wasn't anything new with Christine's case, at least it was pretty active in these three databases, meaning that if anything hit along the way, it would alert the proper authorities. So it wasn't until twenty twenty three that investigators decided to re examine Christine's case, and they did so with the support from Utah's Cold Case Review Board and also the State Crime Lab. Upon completing this review, they decided that they very much wanted to try and focus on identifying the unknown male DNA profile which had been entered into CODIS. Now, if you aren't familiar with COTIS, I have talked about it on here in the past, but it is the Combined DNA Index System and it's very important because it operates at a local state and national level, and it contains the DNA profiles from offenders as well as unsolved cases and missing persons cases as well. So it is a. Database for DNA and obviously the main end goal for all of these cases is for every single one of them to be solved, and on the other hand, you want to convict those that are responsible for these heinous crimes. So they decided that they were going to finally try and identify this mail DNA. Now, they did have this mail profile previously from the DNA, but because back when they tested it there wasn't all the advancements that are present day, they weren't able to really come up with anything. So they really honed in on this unknown male DNA pile. And when I talk about DNA and how it is ever evolving, I mean daily it is ever evolving. The things that these state DNA labs are doing are amazing. Every single day I'm getting notifications that AUTHORAM has solved another decades long cold case because of this advanced DNA technology and the different testing that they're doing. So with Christine's case, they said that they were going to try and identify this male DNA and they worked with assistance from the Utah Department of Public Safety State Bureau, and they were able to get funding from the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, and with that they were able to send the evidence and the DNA to AUTHROAM Labs in the Woodlands, Texas, which. We talk about AUTHORM all the time. I talk about AUTHORAM all the time, and there are many other labs across the United States, but AUTHORM honestly is doing unbelievable things daily and solving these cases. And they use what is called IgG, which is investigative genetic genealogy, and they are able to determine who the perpetrator is and link them via a family tree. So they were able to take this DNA that is from nineteen eighty five and they were able to determine that the suspect in Christine's murder was a man named Ricky Lee Stalworth. So a little bit about Ricky. He was twenty seven years old at the time of Christine's murder and he was actually an airman stationed at Hill Air Force. Base in Utah. He ended up passing away of natural causes on July first of twenty twenty three, and he lived in Leyton, Utah. There was a family member who was willing to provide a DNA sample, and of course it came. Back as a match. And when they do this IgG type of technology, they very clearly have an idea of who this person is. They just have to go through the proper channels to actually confirm it. Now, since Ricky had already passed away at the time that this discovery was made, they had to go through a family member, and luckily that family member was willing to give their DNA to make the confirmation Ricky Lee Stalworth is their guy. There was also some additional lab analysis done and investigators did some interviews with friends, family, and coworkers, basically to confirm Ricky's identification and of course go through the proper channels. Now it is unclear if Ricky was known to or was a stranger to Christine. There is no evidence that they knew of each other or had any type of previous interaction prior to that night. But really the only people that can answer that for us are Ricky and Christine. I personally think it was random and that she was looking for a ride, Ricky picked her up, and Ricky, we're going to get into it allegedly, in my opinion, was not a good person. Obviously. I think the crime probably was sexually motivated in nature, and Ricky saw this young girl and thought that he could probably easily take advantage of her. And Christine wasn't. Having it because she was eighteen, she was engaged, she was just trying to go to work, and this guy was taking advantage of her. So I think she very much fought for her life and I think this upset Ricky and that's kind of what set him off, and he went the. Route of taking her life. Despite the investigation into Christine's death being pretty extensive, Ricky Lee Stalwarth's name never came up during the investigation. And like I said, he. Flew under the radar for forty years and lived his whole life without having to take any accountability for what he did. He likely went on with his life and never told a soul what he did to Christine. So once they. Officially identified Ricky as the perpetrator, they started to dig into his past a little bit and Detective Cordon Parks learned that Ricky Lee Stalwarth was what they called the State Street Stalker, and this was a street that was in Utah, and he basically would tell his wife that he was going out for the night. He would leave all night and return home around five am, and he never had an explanation for where he was or what he was doing, so he was more likely than not a no good. They did also discover that in the last two years of his life, police had had contact with him on State Street for having interactions with prostitutes. He was married multiple times. He had four ex wives and police did interview these women and one of them, upon getting an explanation for the interview, said that she was not surprised that they would be collecting DNA for criminal acts that he may have committed, and basically said she's not surprised that he was a suspect and a murder, which I think really says a lot, so very interesting. Nonetheless, so when it comes to exactly what happened that day, we are never going to fully know exactly what happened because the two people that could speak on it are both no longer here. Salt Lake City Police Detective Cordon Parks said that quote, our best guess is that she was hitchhiking to her job, and the suspect is the one who picked her up. Instead of taking her to the bar to work, he took her to a very secluded park by Old Dirksfield, assaulted her behind thirteen eighty four South Jefferson. She fought her way out of the car. They had a big fight where she was stabbed outside of the car, and she left a blood trail up to the gutter of Jefferson Street where she fell and was shot twice in the head end quote, which when you think about it, I am sure Christine was absolutely terrified. She did everything she could to try to save her own life, but unfortunately, Ricky Lee Stalworth was just that person that was going to go to the ends of the earth to silence his victims. Utah State Bureau of Investigation agent who is named Steve o'cam said that quote, Our goal is to ensure justice for victims through victims centered investigations. Handcuffs, however, do not equal healing end quote, which I think is so true because obviously, in these decades long cold cases, families want to know exactly what happened. They want answers, they want resolution, But just because they have that doesn't mean that the hurt and the pain goes away. It's always going to be there because their loved one was taken in such a horrific way. It might give a small piece of peace back to the families, but it doesn't change what happened at the end of the day. They go on to say that Christine's case is a prime example of that, and unfortunately they weren't able to arrest the suspect, but hopefully they achieved some measure of justice for her and the family and friends that loved her. Christine's mom was very grateful for their hard work in solving her daughter's case. She said that they never gave up trying to find her daughter's killer, even when she thought that they had. She said that so much was taken away when Christine's life was taken. She said, it's one of those things that's always there. You never quit thinking about it or crying about it. It's always there. The results of the investigation were officially announced to the public on May sixteenth of twenty twenty five, forty years to the day of Christine's murder. Unfortunately, Ricky Lee Starwarth never had to pay for his horrible actions. However, I am personally a believer that he is now having to pay for them in the afterlife. Christine's case is a prime example of time running out for these suspects, for these horrific crimes that have DNA left behind, because so many of these small law enforcement divisions are starting to go back through their cold cases, they're decades long cold cases and retest some of the evidence, retest some of the DNA, So people like Ricky Lee Starwarth their time is running out. These cases are being solved pretty. Much daily, and I think it's a really cool time to be living in because we are seeing so much resolution in cases that haven't had answers or movement in a long time. So I think it's a really interesting time to be living in the cold case world because things are changing, things are getting solved, and that is exactly why we do what we do. So thank you guys so much for tuning in to Christine's episode. I'm going to be posting some photos on my Instagram and Facebook pages that correlate with the story, so please head over there and check those out. If you aren't following me over there, please go do so. Now. I always post and correlate my weekly post with my episode, so go check it. Out and I will see you guys next week for a brand new Unsolved case, and I will see you then. Bye.