She never got the chance to see him behind bars.
Ricki L. White, 38, had been quietly doing what law enforcement had not — gathering evidence against the man in her life, Vincent Galvan, 38, to finally put him away.
But Galvan found out.
And on the morning of May 5, investigators believe, he shot and killed her.
A Body Found on Abandoned Land
On May 12, deputies in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, made a grim discovery — a decomposing body inside an SUV parked on an abandoned property on South Roosevelt Road 6, just miles from the Texas border.
It was Ricki.
Inside that same SUV, investigators found something chilling — a folder filled with evidence she had been collecting against Galvan. Prior crimes. Documentation. Everything she had been quietly building.
She had done everything right.
It still was not enough.
Caught Almost by Accident
Galvan might have escaped entirely — if not for a stolen truck and a determined business owner.
Two days after Ricki’s body was found, a Clovis business owner spotted his employee’s stolen pickup on the road and started following it. The driver noticed the tail and opened fire.
The business owner lost the chase — but called police.
Officers in the small Texas Panhandle town of Farwell found the truck abandoned outside a restaurant. One officer made a connection — the victim, Ricki White, sometimes stayed in Farwell with a friend.
Within hours, police tracked Galvan to that very friend’s vehicle. When officers tried to stop them, Galvan grabbed the wheel and sped away.
The chase lasted less than a minute before he crashed.
He was taken into custody on foot.
‘A Part of Me Felt I Needed to Be Caught’
In a phone call to his mother from jail, Galvan said something that stopped investigators cold.
He told her he had thought about running — about jumping out of the vehicle before police closed in.
But then he said this:
“A part of me…felt I needed to be caught for this stuff.”
He had already confessed to friends that he killed Ricki because she had been threatening him — because she had been building that case against him.
Police also recovered a 9mm pistol from the vehicle. It had blood on the frame. The caliber matched the bullet found in Ricki’s body.
What She Leaves Behind
Ricki White was last seen alive on the evening of May 4.
She had survived domestic disputes with Galvan before — including one where the two reportedly pointed guns at each other. Some of those incidents were never even reported to police.
She had chosen to fight back a different way — through evidence, through documentation, through the system.
Vincent Galvan now faces charges of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, and felon in possession of a firearm.
He remains in a Farwell jail, awaiting extradition back to New Mexico.
Ricki never got her day in court.
He is about to get his.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available 24/7 at the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org
