Nevada Man Killed 16-Year-Old Girl Who Called Him Her ‘Big Brother’

A teenage girl in Nevada disappeared, and police would later arrest a suspect — a man she considered practically a sibling — for sexually assaulting and murdering her.

On the afternoon of March 15, 2020, then-18-year-old Bryce Dickey picked up his close friend, 16-year-old Gabrielle “Britney” Ujlaky, to give her a ride home, Elko Daily reported.

The outlet noted Dickey referred to the girl as his “lil sis,” while she called him her “big brother.”

Later that evening, Ujlaky’s father reported the girl missing after he was unable to get ahold of her. According to Elko Daily, Dickey claimed he had dropped off Ujlaky at Spring Creek High School, where he said she met a tall man in a cowboy hat with a green F150 pickup truck.

Days later, Ujlaky’s body was found wrapped up in a tarp in an area of the desert known as Burner Basin. The victim was strangled and sexually assaulted. She died from having her throat slashed, according to a criminal complaint.

Investigators zeroed in on Dickey as a suspect in the case after noticing inconsistencies in his story. DNA from a used condom found at the crime scene linked him to the area where Ujlaky was found dead, though he alleged he and the victim had consensual sex.

Those close to the victim, however, told investigators Ujlaky had rejected Dickey after he admitted he had feelings for her, but she remained friends with him.

Police eventually charged Dickey with first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon as well as sexual assault.

In May 2022, following a nine-day trial, a jury found Dickey guilty of killing Ujlaky.

The victim’s mother, Alisha Ujlaky, said that her daughter loved horses and rodeos and was a “bright, beautiful light.”

Dickey, Alisha Ujlaky noted, was like a “big brother” to the victim but she recalled that in court he “didn’t show any emotion.”

“None at all,” she said. “I delivered an impact statement that I feel was extremely powerful and he just looked me dead in the face like a stone gargoyle — nothing.”

At an August 2022 sentencing hearing, Elko District Court Judge Mason Simons called Ujlaky’s murder “a heinous crime.”

“A young woman with a bright and promising future – who the defendant himself called his ‘little sister’ – had her life stolen from her,” the judge said of the victim, who was “strangled, raped and stabbed in the throat. Her body discarded like trash.”

Dickey was sentenced to a total of life with the possibility of parole after serving 70 years in prison, according to Elko Daily.

“I will fight for my daughter and I will fight to keep him behind bars until I quit breathing, but there’s just no relief,” Alisha Ujlkay said of the pain of losing her child.

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