A candlelight vigil for Kristen Galvan, the Spring teenager who vanished at 15, takes place Saturday, Aug. 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Missouri City.

Investigators announced on July 28 that partial human remains found near a Missouri City jogging trail in January 2020 belonged to Kristen. The remains had gone unidentified for more than six years.

Kristen's mother, Robyn Cory, invited the community to the gathering at 2435 Texas Parkway, KHOU reported. Texas EquuSearch founder Tim Miller and forensic artist Lois Gibson are expected to speak.

Kristen disappeared from Spring on Jan. 2, 2020. Investigators connected her case to a human trafficking investigation involving the Bissonnet Street area in southwest Houston. Twenty-seven days after she vanished, partial remains were recovered near the trail.

The Missouri City Police Department asked the Texas Attorney General's Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit for help in November 2022, according to the Texas Attorney General's office. Standard DNA testing could not produce a profile because of the remains' condition, so investigators turned to advanced methods.

The AG's Cold Case Unit worked with the University of North Texas to develop a mitochondrial DNA profile. The Doe Network, a volunteer-driven organization, helped connect the remains to Kristen. Forensic genetic genealogy work by Bode Technology and Astrea Forensics confirmed the identification.

Kristen, known by her nickname "Kiki," was an honor-roll student who dreamed of joining the military, The Guardian reported. She was groomed by a sex-trafficking gang in 2019 and found by police in Houston's red-light district that November. She gave written statements that helped convict three of her traffickers.

Her family relocated her to her grandparents' home in Spring. She went missing again in early January 2020.

"I begged for an Amber alert, but law enforcement mislabelled her as a runaway," Cory told The Guardian in an Aug. 7 interview. "They don't look for runaways."

In the years since, Cory pushed for safety improvements along Houston's Bissonnet corridor. Her work contributed to the installation of barriers along the corridor to disrupt trafficking activity, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman proclaimed Kristen's birthday, April 20, as "Kiki's Day" in 2024, according to NCMEC.

Cory told The Guardian she also plans a permanent memorial at the Missouri City site where Kristen's remains were found, featuring a cross illuminated with lights, because "Kristen was scared of the dark."

Kristen's homicide investigation remains open. Anyone with information can contact the AG's Cold Case and Missing Persons Unit at [email protected].