New technology has helped law enforcement agencies solve decades-old cold cases, but that's only the beginning of the battle.
While some of Arizona's "Jane Doe" and "John Doe" homicide victims now have names, many of their cases remain unsolved.
ABC15 is digging into the stories of some of these now-identified cold case murder victims whose killers have not been identified.
"Jane Doe" (Brenda Marie Gerow)
Brenda Marie Gerow was found dead in Pima County in 1981, however, it wasn’t until decades later that the remains were identified as someone other than “Jane Doe.”
A young woman’s body was found near the Pima County Fairgrounds. Pima County investigators said the victim had been “brutally murdered,” according to a 2015 ABC15 report.
Years later, “Jane Doe” was exhumed and thanks to DNA testing and technology improvements — and a photograph found during another murder investigation — the remains were positively identified as Gerow.
The photo was that of a woman in the possession of John Kalhauser. Gerow had left New Hampshire with him when she was 20 years old, according to an Associated Press article.
Officials discovered the woman in the picture, later determined to be Gerow, looked similar to a facial reconstruction of “Jane Doe” that had been done with the victim’s skull.
Pima County Sheriff's officials have said Kalhauser is only a person of interest in Gerow's murder.
Kalhauser was convicted in the 1979 shooting an ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend, AP reported. He had been living under a different name in the Tucson area before he was arrested.
He also served time in an Arizona prison for the 1995 murder of his wife. He was released in 2019, the Arizona Department of Corrections shows.
"Valentine Sally" (Carolyn Eaton)
Last year, nearly 40 years after the northern Arizona discovery, an unidentified body that came to be known as "Valentine Sally" was identified as a 17-year-old girl — but her killer remains unknown.
On Feb. 14, 1982, an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper stopped to help a motorist along Interstate 40 west of Williams. During that stop, the trooper discovered a body.
Through a recent grant, officials were able to complete a familial DNA search on the remains, matching members of a family in Missouri.
Detectives flew to the St. Louis-area family and interviewed them, learning that they had a sibling, 17-year-old Carolyn Eaton, who had run away from home around Christmas in 1981. The remains were positively identified as Eaton.
CCSO says the case is still under investigation as a homicide, but there are still no identified suspects.
Kimberly Rena Jones
Eighteen-year-old Kimberly Rena Jones was reported missing from San Bernardino, California, in 2017, but she hadn’t been seen since mid-2016, according to the non-profit organization, The Charley Project.
On Sept. 28, 2016, the remains of an unidentified young woman were found north of Dolan Springs near Highway 93.
In 2020, a Special Investigations Unit was assigned to the case and in 2021, after DNA and genealogy tests, the remains were identified as Jones.
Authorities said last year the investigation into Jones' disappearance and death is still ongoing.
Anyone with any information about the disappearance of Jones is urged to call Mohave County’s Special Investigations Unit at 928-753-0753 ext. 4408.
Robert Bresson
Human remains were found near Forest Service Road 418 near Flagstaff in 1995. They remained unidentified for more than two decades.
An Omaha, Nebraska, news station reported that the remains were identified in 2016 as Robert Bresson, last seen near Why, Arizona, earlier in 1995.
He had ties to Lincoln, Nebraska, and Independence, Iowa, and another Nebraska news site reported that Bresson traveled a lot on his motorcycle.
The 56-year-old had reportedly been killed and buried. According to a Coconino County list of cold cases, it appears Bresson's body was found with two bullet holes in his skull.
No suspects have been identified.
Last year, officials said anyone with information about the case is asked to call Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
"Little Miss Nobody" (Sharon Lee Gallegos)
"Little Miss Nobody's" body was found on July 31, 1960, by a school teacher looking for rocks in Sand Creek Wash near Congress, Arizona. Investigators determined the body had been burned and she was likely dead for a week prior to the discovery.
Since then, law enforcement and groups across the country had been working to identify the little girl.
Earlier this month, new DNA testing confirmed the body belonged to Sharon Lee Gallegos of New Mexico. Gallegos had reportedly been abducted from the alley behind her home in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 21, 1960, when she was 4 years old. According to reports, she may have been stalked for some time prior to her disappearance.
According to reports, the car involved in her disappearance may have been a dark green early 1950s Dodge or Plymouth with a man, woman and two children inside. Those reports say the people in the vehicle offered to buy Gallegos candy and clothes if she got in the car, and when she refused, they dragged her inside and took off.
Officials say they are working to fill in the blanks of who was involved and what happened in the days between her disappearance and when she was found.
