1985 COLD CASE SOLVED

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cold Cases Solved Podcast, a podcast that
shares the most recent solved cold cases. Our purpose is
to help bring closure to the victims' families and hope
for those waiting for justice. Let's begin.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
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a deeper connection with their inner works. Well welcome. We

(00:47):
have a nineteen 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 had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and

(01:10):
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, even though they couldn't find any

(01:32):
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

(01:53):
emotional volatility or desire 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. We saw this with

(02:15):
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 to the sexual gratification.

(02:37):
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 viable leads emerged in

(02:58):
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

(03:18):
crime scene evidence in 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

(03:39):
sample from a family 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,

(04:00):
if one existed, remains 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

(04:21):
the sense that we know who did it, and hopefully
now Christine Gego can rest in peace.