The Mysterious Case of El Dorado’s Jane Doe

Police found a 21-year-old female murdered in a hotel room in El Dorado, Arkansas, on July 10, 19991. Now, you would think this blog will be all about her murderer and how they got caught, well, this is not that story. There was something different about this girl. This girl is a case that still has not been solved to this day. Jane Doe is what people call unnamed victims and people who don’t want their identity to be revealed in legal procedings. From here on out, we will call this girl Jane Doe. Jane Doe is a 21-year-old white female approximately 5’10” and 150 pounds. She has blue eyes and brown hair that was around 9 inches long but it had previously been dyed blond. At the time of her death, she was wearing a white t-shirt, a pair of acid-washed blue jeans, a black belt, and a pair of white tennis shoes with white ankle socks. Police found in her belongings a handful of items from multiple restaurants in Virginia Beach, an Arkansas ID with the name “Cheryl Ann Wick,” and a Bible. In the bible, there were multiple names scribbled in it. It turns out that the names scribbled in the Bible were from a family she stayed with in Texas. 

Jane Doe had stolen the identity of a Cheryl Ann Wick from Minnesota. When called, The real Cheryl said she didn’t know about the victim or that her identity had been stolen. Jane Doe has been arrested in Texas under the aliases “Cheryl Wick,” “Kelly Carr/Karr,” “Sharon Wiley,” and “Mercedes.” She was also arrested for bad checks in the name of “Cheryl Ann Wick” from Minneapolis. The FBI had been given these names and authorities had learned that Jane Doe was wanted for bank robberies in various states on the East Coast. 

It was discovered that she may have resided in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The police said there was a chance of the victim originally being a runaway from Florida. Since she might have been running away, that is why police believe that she was not using her real identity. 

They found Jane Doe dead on the scene in room 121 of the Whitehall Motel. She was found shot in the head and recently beaten. Her murderer was her boyfriend, James McAlphin. She met James in Dallas. After they began a relationship, she had been in and out of the hospital from beatings. Jane Doe had left James and moved in with a friend. James continued to try to reach out through threats to get Jane Doe back. Somehow James was able to convince Jane Doe to come over to his room at the Whitehall Motel for money. A neighbor witnessed part of their interaction when he tried to ask for cassette tapes back that he had lent to James. He had talked to Jane Doe as she attempted to leave the hotel room. As she was trying to leave the room, James stopped and hit Jane Doe and dragged her back into the room. The neighbor then heard arguing and then a gunshot. Witnesses saw James flee the scene. James has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and second-degree battery. He says he knows the true identity of the victim and her real family but wouldn’t say anything unless the police would do something for him. The police didn’t agree to his terms and tried to find her identity on their own with no success.

To this day, people still do not know the true identity of Jane Doe. Does James McAlphin really know Jane Doe’s identity? Where is she really from? What made her have to steal identities and commit crimes? The world may never know who Jane Doe truly is and what her story was. All and all it was a shame of what happened to her. Her family should know what happened to her. Hopefully, someday the world might uncover her story.

Here are the sites I used for research on this case:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/81ufar.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado_Jane_Doe

https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/10-more-unsolved-arkansas-mysteries/287164819

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/ar-whitehall-motel-in-el-dorado-female-81ufar-18-21-10-july-1991-1.19111/