MISSOURI CITY, TX — Partial human remains found in Missouri City in 2020 have been identified as those of Kristen Galvan, a Spring teenager who was reported missing in January 2020, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said. Galvan was 15 when she disappeared after becoming a victim of sex trafficking, according to Montgomery County Sheriff’s cold case detective Fadi Rizk. Investigators said the identification brings a yearslong missing-person case to a close, though the circumstances of her death remain unresolved. The remains were found weeks after her disappearance, but the match was not confirmed until DNA work connected the case years later.
How The Case Unfolded
Rizk said the case began when Galvan was first reported missing from Spring in January 2020. At the time, her family publicly pleaded for help finding her, and ABC13 spoke with her mother, Robyn Bennet, as the search continued. Bennet said then that she believed someone knew what had happened to her daughter and urged anyone with information to come forward. The partial remains were found in Missouri City not long after Galvan vanished, but investigators did not know who they belonged to. The identification process stretched on for years as the case moved between agencies and was revisited as new leads surfaced.
DNA Helped Confirm Identity
According to the attorney general’s office, Missouri City turned to the state in 2022 for help identifying the remains, and officials began building a DNA profile. That profile later became the key piece of evidence in the identification. In 2025, the Doe Network, a volunteer organization that helps identify missing people, contacted investigators and said the DNA profile suggested the unidentified remains from Missouri City could be Galvan. Rizk said DNA is what allows investigators to rule out possibilities with certainty. He described the confirmation as a meaningful development after years of waiting, saying cases like this can take months or even years to resolve.
Investigation Remains Open
Even with the identification, the case is not closed. The Texas Attorney General’s Office said Galvan’s death is still being investigated as an unsolved homicide. Officials are asking anyone with information connected to her death to come forward with tips. Because Montgomery County was only one part of the broader missing-person investigation, Rizk said he could not explain why it took so long for the body to be identified in Missouri City. ABC13 also contacted Missouri City police and is waiting for a response. Investigators have not said whether any additional suspects or evidence have been identified.
What Officials Are Saying
Rizk said the identification brought relief after years of uncertainty for everyone involved in the case. He noted that missing-person investigations can stretch on for long periods before answers finally emerge. The attorney general’s office said the work to identify Galvan depended on cooperation across agencies and on the DNA profile that was developed after Missouri City requested state help. The case highlights how unidentified remains can sometimes sit for years before technology and new information connect them to a missing person. For Galvan’s family, officials said, the confirmation finally provides an answer to what happened to the teenager reported missing in 2020.
