Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
Details of Disappearance
Missing Since: October 13, 1997 from Gillette, Wyoming
Classification: Endangered Runaway
Date Of Birth: September 13, 1983
Age: 14 years old
Height and Weight: 5'2, 100 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Dark blonde hair, blue eyes. Gallion's hair was dyed black at the time of her 1997 disappearance.
Details of Disappearance
Gallion was last seen walking to school during the morning hours of October 13, 1997 in Gillette, Wyoming. She never arrived for classes that day and has not been heard from again.
Gallion's case was classified as that of an endangered runaway shortly after her disappearance. Wyoming authorities reopened her investigation in 2000 after being contacted by Montana investigators. Nathaniel Bar-Jonah was arrested that year for the 1996 abduction and presumed murder of Zachary Ramsay. A photo of Bar-Jonah is posted below this case summary. Authorities discovered unidentified bone fragments on Bar-Jonah's property during a search and compared Gallion's DNA to the remains. The fragments did not match Gallion, Ramsay or Janice Pockett, a child who disappeared from Connecticut in 1973. Officials have also investigated the possibility that Bar-Jonah was involved in the 1978 Massachusetts disappearance of Andrew Amato.
Bar-Jonah, whose given name is David P. Brown, has a lengthy criminal history. He has been convicted of sexually abusing children in the past and has confessed to cannibalistic activites. He was scheduled to be tried for Ramsay's presumed murder in 2002, but the charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Ramsay's remains have never been located. Bar-Jonah has never been charged in connection with Gallion's case and it is unknown if he was involved.
In January 2007, James Strahl, an accused murderer from South Dakota, allegedly confessed to Gallion's murder. A photograph of Strahl is posted below this case summary. He was in jail awaiting trial in connection with the 1998 death of another man, William O'Hare, when one of his cellmates, Aloysius Black Crow, stated Strahl had bragged about killing Gallion. Strahl allegedly stated he picked up Gallion hitchhiking after she ran away from home, and raped and killed her after she resisted his sexual advances. He said he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the murder. His employment records indicate he was absent from work around the time of Gallion's disappearance. Strahl, however, maintains his innocence in her case and stated he never confessed anything about her disappearance and Black Crow's story is a lie. Strahl has not been charged in Gallion's case. However, authorities plan to use Black Crow's testimony in Strahl's trial for murdering O'Hare. Prosecutors stated they plan to use Strahl's alleged confession to Gallion's murder as evidence that Strahl killed O'Hare intentionally.
Curiously, this is not the only time Black Crow has given evidence in a missing person case. In early 2006, Black Crow told investigators that one of his other cellmates, David Lykken, had admitted to killing Pamella Jackson and Cheryl Miller, teenage girls who disappeared together from South Dakota in 1971 and were never found. Lykken was charged with murdering both girls in July 2007, and is awaiting trial. Black Crow is expected to testify against him. Although many agencies continue to classify Gallion's disappearance as a runaway case, investigators believed that other factors may have been involved in Gallion's case since her Social Security number has not been used since her October 1997 disappearance. Her case remains open and unsolved.