A 1985 COLD CASE MURDER SOLVED

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to True Detective Stories podcast, a podcast where homicide
detectives share their most intense cases. Let's begin unlock the

(00:22):
secrets of your soul with the new book The Soul's Odyssey,
written by doctor Carlos. This transformative book blends mythology, psychology,
and epic tales like Dante's Inferno to guide you to
know yourself better. Discover practical tools for healing and growth.
Perfect for clinicians, clients, for anyone seeking a deeper connection
with their inner works. Well welcome. We have a nineteen

(00:48):
eighty five cold case murder that was solved of Christine Diego's.
The Salt Lake City Police Department announced detectives that identified
the person responsible for the nineteen eighty five murder. On
May sixteen, nineteen eighty five, Diegos was found dead near
thirteen eighty four South Jefferson Street, just west of what
was then known as Dirks known as Dirk's Field. She

(01:08):
had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and shot to death. Investigators
determined she had strangled. She had struggled with her attacker
before she was shot and stabbed. One of the things
we do know about these types of individuals is this
was an overkill. The use of those stabbing and shooting
will suggest an intense rage, personal connection, possibly to the victim,

(01:31):
even though they couldn't find any a need to exert
extreme control and dominance, though the combination of methods does
reflect some kind of impulsivity and emotional escalation. The stabbing,
of course, is highly personal and intimate act, requiring close
physical proximity. It usually indicates a perpetrators driven by anger
or sadism, as often associated with emotional volatility or desire

(01:54):
to punish the victim. The shooting, by contrasts, though it
is kind of interesting because it's more and can suggest premeditation.
So I wouldn't be surprised if this is similar to
some of the things that we've seen with rejection, where
the individual the female rejects the male and the male
gets so worked up and comes back to punish this individual.

(02:15):
We saw this with Ted Bundy and others, and by
no means is this the blame on the victim at all,
but it's a possible ideology or the reason of why
this could have happened and what led to this behavior
by this guy, What motivated this particular perpetrator which we
don't really know. A sexual assault often points to a
sexually motivated defender where the act of killing maybe secondary

(02:35):
to the sexual gratification. So this is what they'll aligned
with what they call a power control serial killer or
a lust murderer where dominance or sadistic pleasure is really
the focus here. So we'll continue back with the story.
Despite exhaustive efforts in multiple rounds of forensic testing, no

(02:57):
viable leads emerged in the case. Eventually, when cold remained
active in national and state cold databases, But in twenty
twenty three, the case was re examined with support from
Utah's Cold Case Review Board. In the state Crime Lab,
detectives focused on identifying an unknown male DNA profile that
entered into COTIS, which operates local, state national databases of
DNA profiles from convicted defenders unsolved crime scene evidence in

(03:19):
missing people. What they ended up finding is the advanced
analysis identified Ricky Lee Stalworth as the likely suspect. Stalworth,
who was twenty seven at the time of the murder
and an airmen stationed at Hill Air Force Base, died
of natural causes in July of twenty twenty three. He
lived in Utah, a voluntary DNA sample from a family

(03:40):
member confirmed the match. Follow Up included additional lab analysis
interviews with friends and family to confirm the ID. They
weren't able to arrest the suspect, but they were hopeful
they achieved some measure of justice for her family and
for Christine Diegos herself and friends they loved her. The
relationship between Gyaga was in Stalwart, if one existed, remains

(04:02):
one of the most significant unanswered questions of this mystery.
They couldn't. The detectors were unable to question Stalwart directly
during the investigation, obviously, and those close to Gayego have
no recollection of ever even knowing him, leaving the motive
at any potential connection between them unresolved. But the good
thing is there is some resolution in the sense that
we know who did it, and hopefully now Christine Gego

(04:26):
can rest in peace.