The Enigma of El Dorado Jane Doe
By: Madison Tramel
Tags: Murder, Jane Doe, True Crime, Arkansas, Unsolved Mysteries

In most Doe cases authorities only have forensic reconstructions that can vary greatly throughout the years. Without a name it is hard to find a killer in most cases. However we have pictures of our Jane Doe while she was alive, and her killer has been caught, but her name still alludes authorities after almost 30 years. This is the story of El Dorado Jane Doe.

On July 10, 1991 a gunshot rang out from room 121 of the Whitehall Motel in El Dorado, Arkansas. A man was seen fleeing the scene with a gun in his hand, and he went to his car and drove away. When police entered the room they found a woman deceased on the floor from a gunshot wound to the head. She was a Caucasian woman between the ages of 18–30, with 9 inch long brown hair (which had been dyed blonde previously), and blue eyes. She was between 5' 10"- 5'11" and weighed around 162 pounds. She was wearing acid wash jeans with a black belt, a white t-shirt, white tennis shoes with white ankle socks, a gold colored chain bracelet on her right arm, and two ponytail holders. She had a birthmark under her left breast, freckles, 2 piercings in her left ear and 3 piercings in her right ear, and had scars on her right eye and left wrist (suggesting an intimacy with violence).

McAlphin and Jane Doe in front of the Whitehall Motel

Her killer, James McAlphin, was caught soon afterwards and charged with 1st degree murder and 2nd degree battery. McAlphin was Jane Doe’s former boyfriend and pimp. McAlphin knew Jane Doe as Mercedes, and their relationship was tumultuous and abusive. Jane Doe was constantly in the local Emergency Room for injuries inflicted on her by McAlphin in 1991. It had even gotten to the point where her friends and local police were trying to help her get out of this relationship. She eventually left him in June of 1991 and went to live at her friend’s, Andrea Cooksey, apartment. Soon after the move McAlphin started calling the apartment repeatedly threatening to kill Jane Doe because she had started seeing someone new. McAlphin had called once again in July of 1991 and offered money to Jane Doe if she would come see him. Although, Andrea told her not to go, Jane Doe said that she wanted to get money to send presents to her children. So Jane Doe walked the short distance to the Whitehall Motel.

A neighbor to McAlphin, Roy Charles Menon, went over to room 121 to retrieve some cassette tapes that he had lent to McAlphin the night of July 10th. When he knocked on the door Jane Doe answered, and when he asked her for the tapes she said “You need to talk to him [McAlphin]” and pushed past Roy to leave. McAlphin followed her out to the parking lot and beat her repeatedly and screamed “Get back in the room bitch”, then he dragged her by her hair back into the room. After this Roy returned to his room and locked the door, he heard more arguing back and forth then- pow (the gunshot). Many people may question why Roy didn’t try to help the situation or insist that he should have done something. But this was a high crime area, and Roy didn’t know what was truly going on and was scared for his own safety.

Andrea just happened to be walking by the motel when the shot was fired, her first thought was- “Oh no he didn’t”. She went to investigate and saw McAlphin fleeing the scene. Andrea went to room 121 and found Jane Doe dead on the floor of the room.

McAlphin’s story was that Jane Doe had committed suicide, which he claimed that she had threatened to do before. For obvious reasons, the police didn’t buy it. The hospital visits confirming abuse, Andrea and Roy’s statements, and other witnesses who saw McAlphin fleeing with the gun in his hand were all proof that Jane Doe was murdered. McAlphin ended up accepting a plea deal for 2nd degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years, of which he served 13.