She Was Killed In A Motel Room 31 Years Ago, And Even Though Her Family Was Tracked Down In 2019, She Was Only Recently Identified
Someone took a 23-year-old woman’s life in a motel room 31 years ago, and although her family was tracked down in 2019, nobody knew her real name until quite recently.
She was blonde, although she was closer to a brunette at the time of her death in El Dorado, Arkansas. She was pretty. She was tall.
She was skinny. She had blue eyes. Her final moments happened in the Whitehall Motel, and her killer was pretty easily identified, though she wasn’t.
Her former boyfriend was the one who pleaded guilty to shooting her, and he told authorities exactly who she was…or so he thought.
She had a list of different aliases she went by, and a valid driver’s license that turned out to be somebody else entirely.
Authorities had her fingerprints, numerous photos of her, and her diary written in her own words.
They had her DNA, which was positively matched to some of her living relatives 3 years ago, so why did it take until this month to figure out who she really was?
This is the strange story of a woman who came to be known as the El Dorado Jane Doe, or Mercedes, in the absence of her real name.
El Dorado Police Department; the El Dorado Jane Doe smiles in the photo above
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It was June 10th, 1991, and she was at the Whitehall Motel to see James McAlphin, her ex-boyfriend, but she had moved on after their split and was seeing a new man.
Despite that, James had requested that she stop by the motel so that he could see her, and she had agreed.
Witnesses recalled watching her and James fighting right there in the parking lot of the motel. It quickly escalated and turned pretty physical.
Eventually, she ended up in room number 121 with James. Even though the two were full-on fighting, a man who lived a few doors down decided now would be a good time to ask James to give back some cassette tapes he had lent him, so he went over to the room.
She said “You need to talk to him,” asking this man for help, but he didn’t do anything to intervene.
After he returned to his room, she tried to leave at one point, but James hit her and pulled her back inside.
Gunshots rang out, and the police quickly arrived on the scene not long after.
El Dorado Police Department; the El Dorado Jane Doe is pictured above with James
She was found with a gunshot wound to her head inside of room 121, and everyone at the motel who had witnessed her fighting with James knew he had taken her life.
James had fled the scene and told a very different story when police were able to catch up with him.
He insisted that she had taken her own life and shot herself. The only thing he admitted was that he had hit her that day.
James also told the police that her name was Mercedes, and other people at the motel who knew her confirmed that was her name.
But this is where things start to get weird.
Mercedes was carrying several identifying documents that had photos of her and stated her name was Cheryl Ann Wick. Ok, so her real name was Cheryl and people just called her Mercedes, right?
Wrong. Mercedes was not the real Cheryl Ann Wick at all. When authorities made a call to Cheryl’s family to notify them of her death, they had no idea what they were talking about.
Cheryl wasn’t dead in the least, but she had misplaced her own social security card. Cheryl thought that maybe Mercedes had taken it from her purse while she was working at a club as a dancer.
Cheryl had no idea who Mercedes was and didn’t recognize any photos of her, but it turns out people that thought they knew Mercedes could confirm she also worked as a dancer.
So perhaps that’s how their paths had crossed and that’s how Mercedes was able to obtain Cheryl’s social security card and a driver’s license with her photo and Cheryl’s name on it.
Mercedes had a few different things that authorities thought they could look into in order to find out who she really was.
El Dorado Police Department; Mercedes is pictured above in a photo police found among her few personal possessions
The first piece of evidence was a diary that she kept. She wrote about people named Gail and Tyrone. She had collected different menus from Virginia and Texas and tucked them inside.
Seems like there were quite a few clues that might connect to her real name. Unfortunately, none of these things led to anything of any significance.
The second thing Mercedes had in her possession that authorities thought they could use to figure her out was a family bible. It had belonged to the Stroud family and had different names inside of it.
They were able to confirm that Mercedes had lived with the Strouds in Indiana, but they had no idea who she was either. She had given them very little personal information.
As the investigation continued, authorities realized Mercedes went by many different names. She went by Kelly Karr, Kelly Lee Carr, Shannon Wiley, Sharon Wiley, and Cheryl Kaufman, in addition to using Cheryl Ann Wick’s name.
Authorities were also able to figure out that she did have an arrest record. She gave the name Cheryl Ann Wick when she was arrested on December 31st, 1990 in Dallas, Texas while at the La Casita Motel.
On February 8th, 1991, she was arrested in Garland, Texas, at the Carousel Motel, and she also gave out the name Cheryl Ann Wick at that time.
She was arrested again in May of 1991 in El Dorado, Arkansas for writing bad checks. Again, she told police she was Cheryl Ann Wick.
She also had told many different stories to the varying people she had met in her travels. She truly seemed to be something of a chameleon. She had said she was a mom of two. She said she lived in a homeless shelter at some point. She said she didn’t get along great with her own mom.
She said her father was part of the mafia. She said she was in witness protection. She said she robbed a bank.
Authorities couldn’t prove that any of the things she had said were true. And they couldn’t find a real connection between her and any of the names she used.
While authorities attempted to put all of those pieces together, James ended up pleading guilty to the murder of Mercedes.
He accepted a plea deal and charges of second-degree murder in exchange for a 15-year sentence.
In the years he spent behind bars, he said a few things about Mercedes. He said he knew who she really was and demanded money to reveal it.
He said someone had taken her as a child, but authorities didn’t buy what he was telling them.
As the years went on, it seemed like the real name of Mercedes, better known as the El Dorado Jane Doe, would never be uncovered.
That was, until 2019.
In 2019, a positive match came back for her DNA, and authorities were led directly to her living relatives.
This was amazing news! DNA always seems to hold the keys, the answers, but this information just left authorities and the family of Mercedes with even more questions.
One of her second cousins from Alabama was notified of the match…but she didn’t know who Mercedes was at all. She showed her photos to other family members, who were completely baffled by her.
Facebook; Mercedes smiles in the photo above
They all agreed that yes, Mercedes certainly looked like she was related to them, but they just didn’t know her.
And so, Mercedes remained without her true identity, up until a few days ago. After 31 long years, on May 24th, the El Dorado Police Department shared a Facebook post stating that she had been identified.
The Facebook post contained an article written by crime scene investigator turned genealogist Yolanda McClary.
In her article, Yolanda identified Mercedes only by her real first name; Kelly. Kelly’s family has requested privacy, which is why Yolanda never revealed her last name publicly.
Yolanda did say in her article that after Kelly’s family learned what had happened to her all those years ago, they were “overwhelmed with sadness.”
It was especially hard on Kelly’s family to find out about her tragic end at such a young age. Yolanda wrote the article as if from Kelly’s perspective, ending it by saying, “I thank all the people out there who have spent time researching various sites and data banks trying to solve who I am and give me back my name.”
“Thank you everyone for keeping my case alive.”
Facebook; above, Mercedes sits on the hood of a car
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