Katie's Murders and Mysteries

The mystery that I am going to be telling you about is a story I’ve heard about a couple of times. It is somewhat like my last post, but this is a little odder. Each time I have heard the story, I am amazed that anyone would do this let alone an entire town. The story I am talking about is the mysterious case about Old Mike. 

Old Mike’s story is taken place in Prescott, Arkansas. Old Mike was the name the town of Prescott gave a traveling salesman. Mike was his first name but the added Old because well, he was old. Old Mike used to visit the town of Prescott once a month to sell paper, pens, and threads. He was a door to door kind of salesman who got to know everyone, and everyone got to know him. He showed up on doorsteps and in businesses and apparently business was good or else he wouldn’t have gone back. He would stay in town for just one night and after doing his rounds he would leave the next day. 

He seemed to enjoy the town and on April 11, 1911, people believed he went to an outdoor revival in the city park. The reason they believe this is because Mike’s body was found beneath a tree in the park. It was thought that he had passed away from a stroke or heart attack. 

His body was taken to the Cornish Funeral Home and there it was embalmed. He never told anyone his last name, so they looked in his belongings but unfortunately found no form of identification. People knew that he was forty-five years old, spoke English without much of an accent (he was thought of as possibly Italian), he had developed some injury to his right arm and left leg, however, those injuries could’ve been from a stroke. He also apparently had elaborated dental work done.

Since Old Mike was a beloved passerby in the town, Prescott decided that the best thing to do was to put him on display at the funeral home, in case someone might be able to identify him. Years had passed and still, Old Mike was never claimed. After such a long period of time had passed, people started to believe he would never be recognized. At some point, Old Mike became a tourist attraction. People from other places traveled to Prescott just to see his body. In 1975, almost 64 years after his death, Arkansas Attorney General’s Office told Cornish Funeral Home to bury Old Mike. The funeral home buried him on May 12, 1975, a small ceremony was held at the DeAnn Cemetery. To this day we still don’t know who exactly Old Mike was.

Here are the links from the sources I got my information from: https://listverse.com/2013/12/08/10-unexplained-mysteries-from-arkansas/ https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/old-mike-4924/#

Here are the links to the pictures I used: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/408983209886361270/?lp=true https://www.google.com/search?q=old+mike+prescott+arkansas&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjw5tGg_b3nAhWFYa0KHb7MBGoQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=old+mike+prescott+a&gs_l=img.1.1.0j0i67j0j0i67l2.131126.131615..133365…0.0..0.90.167.2……0….1..gws-wiz-img…….0i30.74Rbm3x2heU&ei=qJM8XvDyGIXDtQW-mZPQBg&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS724US724#imgrc=NuLz6fzQ2NrgAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott,_Arkansas

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/

Hi, my name is Katie Rasure and I am originally from Texas but now I live in Arkansas. I am majoring in Marketing and Minoring in Theatre. I have always had a fascination in murder, crimes and mysteries and why people are the way they are. I have been listening to My Favorite Murder which is a podcast about murder and crimes and it is the inspiration for this blog.