Karen Lynn Chipman Twiggs was 17 when she was abducted from a shopping mall near Sacramento, California, on April 24, 1980. She and her friend Stacey Ann Redican, also 17, were kidnapped together; their bodies were later found in shallow graves in Limerick Canyon, Nevada. Autopsy findings reported both victims had suffered multiple blows to the head with a hammer or a similar blunt object.

The killings were attributed to Gerald Armond Gallego and his wife Charlene Adell Gallego. Gerald Gallego had a documented criminal history that included armed robbery and sexual offenses and was described as acting on depraved fantasies by abducting young women, subjecting them to abuse, and killing them. Charlene Gallego reportedly participated in luring victims into the couple’s van, where confinement and assaults occurred. Gerald Gallego was convicted of multiple murders, including those of Karen Twiggs and Stacey Redican; Charlene Gallego later testified against him in a plea deal.

What details about Karen’s life or last known movements might help shed more light on this abduction?