Killing of Michelle Garvey

Michelle Angela Garvey (June 3, 1967 – July 1, 1982) was an American teenager who went missing from New London, Connecticut, on June 1, 1982, at age fourteen. She was believed to have run away from home and may have intended to travel to New Jersey, her birth state, or to North Carolina. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, she had a history of running away, and at the time of her disappearance it was unknown what had happened to her; investigators considered the possibility that she was still alive and had started a new life elsewhere.

Garvey's body was discovered on July 1, 1982, in a field in Baytown, Texas, one month after she went missing. Authorities were unable to identify her at the time. The unidentified victim was described as a white female between fifteen and twenty years old, with blue eyes, curly red hair, an inverted left nipple, O-positive blood type, a scar on one foot, one pierced ear, and a height of approximately five feet one inch to five feet three inches. The cause of death was determined to be strangulation, and evidence indicated she had been sexually assaulted. She was found wearing a brown, long-sleeved button-down shirt with a distinctive horse embroidery on the pocket and corduroy pants; her shirt was unbuttoned, and no bra or shoes were recovered. Investigators believed her body had been disposed of in the field only hours after her death. As an unidentified person, she was buried temporarily at the Harris County II Cemetery, near two other unidentified murder victims found in 1981 who were later identified in 2021 as Dean and Tina Clouse.

In May 2011, her body was exhumed to obtain a DNA profile for comparison against potential matches, including a sample previously taken from her brother. An amateur online researcher, Polly Penwell, using the website Websleuths, came across both the unidentified Texas case and Garvey's missing-person case and suggested to NCMEC and the Harris County medical examiner that they could be the same person. In August 2013, investigators with NCMEC and the Harris County Police Department contacted Garvey's family and obtained DNA samples for comparison with the earlier profile analyzed by the University of North Texas. Garvey was formally identified in January 2014, after 31 years as an unidentified decedent.

Following her identification, it was determined that Garvey had likely left her Connecticut home through a window and hitchhiked with an unknown driver toward Texas. Authorities have continued investigating how she came to be in Texas, the identity of the person who transported her, and the motive for her killing; no suspect has been publicly identified or charged. Investigators have also noted a possible, unconfirmed connection to other "Texas Killing Fields" cases. Garvey's remains were returned to Connecticut and reburied by her family in Montville, Connecticut, on March 1, 2014.