When the partially clothed body of 16-year-old cowgirl Gabrielle Britney Ujlaky was discovered beneath a tarp on a remote stretch of road in the Nevada desert in March 2020, the small community she came from was desperate for answers.
Ujlaky had been reported missing from her family’s home in Spring Creek on March 8, 2020 — three days before her body was found. Investigators said a used condom was recovered near her bloodied remains. A coroner later determined she had been raped, strangled, and stabbed to death.
On March 12, police arrested Bryce Dickey, an 18-year-old from the same area, and charged him in connection with the killing.
Ujlaky knew Dickey through the rodeo circuit and had viewed him like a “big brother,” her family previously said.
After her disappearance, Dickey told authorities he saw Ujlaky drive away in a green pickup truck with a “tall cowboy” the day she vanished. Police searched for the vehicle — described as a green Ford F-150 — and its driver, but eventually concluded Dickey’s account was false.
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DNA testing later found the condom contained a mixture of Ujlaky’s DNA and Dickey’s. He initially denied ever having sex with her, but later changed his story and said he had.
Dickey was arrested and charged with open murder using a deadly weapon, or alternatively felony murder during a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault using a deadly weapon.
“There’s no worse betrayal than this,” Ujlaky’s father, James Ujlaky, told the Daily Beast. “She really thought he was a good friend.”
Dickey pleaded not guilty and maintained he had no role in Ujlaky’s death. Prosecutors, however, laid out a different account in court.
They alleged that on the day she disappeared, Dickey choked Ujlaky by tightening a ligature around her neck, then raped her and slashed her throat, according to a criminal complaint. Prosecutors said she was stabbed with such force that it severed her carotid artery.
During Dickey’s 2022 trial, jurors heard testimony about bloody boots discovered in his closet. Prosecutors also called a witness who said she had previously dated Dickey and described a history of violence, including multiple incidents in which he allegedly choked her.
After roughly four hours of deliberations, a jury found Dickey guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
Ujlaky’s childhood friend Saquarra Ashby previously said the teenager had ambitious plans — including joining the Navy “to travel” and pursuing her love of makeup by becoming a special effects makeup artist.
“She would have made an amazing Rodeo Queen,” Ashby said. “But she never got the chance.”
