Who is El Dorado Jane Doe AKA Kelly Lee Carr?

Her brief life came to an end in the same place she had frequented for at least the last 5 years of her life, in a run down motel room in El Dorado, Arkansas. In her brief life she had lived a lifestyle of drugs, crime, domestic violence, topless dancing and prostitution that culminated in her death at approximately 23 years old. Beaten severely and shot to death by the man she had followed to Arkansas from Dallas, Texas in early 1991 El Dorado Jane Doe died alone in her room at the Whitehall Motel.

Going by the name Kelly Lee Carr (Karr) police thought the case would quickly be solved and they could send her back to her family. 19 years later police are still no closer to finding out who Kelly really was or where she came from as they were the day she died.

In her life Kelly had also used the aliases Cheryl Ann Wick, Sharon Wiley, Mercedes and the last name Stroud. She had been arrested in several states for prostitution and writing bad checks in Arkansas. It was only after her death that local police in El Dorado received a letter from the FBI stating when she was arrested in Virginia she gave the name Kelly Lee Carr Aged 24 and that she was wanted along the East Coast for bank robberies. Police are still not sure if any of the information she told others is even true.

What is known about Kelly is as soon as she arrived in Arkansas she begin dancing at a strip club called The Carousel in Little Rock where she told several other dancers her name was Kelly Carr and she was a run-away originally from Florida. Along with her personal possessions and many pictures found after her death police also found a large family Bible with the family name Stroud in it and several first names from the family. When police contacted the family in Houston, Texas they stated they had taken a girl in a year earlier and she had given them the name Cheryl Ann Wick and that she was a run-away from Louisiana who had recently moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was also the name and information she gave police in Dallas and Houston when she was arrested for prostitution.

After her death police contacted the family of a Cheryl Ann Wick in Minneapolis and Cheryl herself answered the phone. Police believe this name was fake and Kelly had stolen Cheryl's identity at random.

Testing on her hair showed Kelly had traveled around the country frequently in the last 3 years of her life and that she had spent time in California, but mostly stayed to the Eastern half of the United States and Texas in the last year of her life. She also seemed to enjoy collecting menus from restaurants she frequented across the country and had a large amount with her things when she was found.

Police believe Kelly may have been telling the truth about being a run-away. El Dorado police believed with a recognizable face Kelly would be recognized by a family member or friend when they distributed her information around the country. When nothing materialized from the campaign police begin working on the theory that Kelly may have run away between the ages of 11 and 13 and started hitchhiking across the country to get around. She may have also been in Foster Care or an adopted home when she ran away. She may have changed dramatically from the time she left her home to the time she died and may not be recognizable to her family or the family she was living with.

Kelly had deliberately gone out of her way to hide her real identity and made it a point to work jobs that wouldn't require a background check. While in Arkansas she ended up in the local Emergency Room several times from severe beatings and offered many time by police and hospital personnel help with getting back to wherever she came from.

She refused each time and returned to her boyfriend James Roy McAlphin who ultimately killed her on July 10th, 1991. She begin fighting with McAlphin in the parking lot of the Whitehall Motel where they had been living for several months when witnesses saw him beating and kicking her before dragging her by her hair into the motel room where he shot her.

While police don't know her real name Kelly did leave a large amount of clues that might help identify her, particularly her collection of pictures she carried around with her. The pictures show Kelly in several different settings in different weather periods such as sitting on a bench in winter clothing during the fall and in summer clothing typical in the southeastern half of the US from Texas to Florida.

Distinguishing characteristics:

Kelly had taken very good care of herself and gone out her way to wear somewhat expensive clothes and had professional hair cuts and dye jobs in the years before she died. It was only in the last few months of her life that her look and style changed drastically and she stopped dying her hair and let it return to its natural brown color, previously it had been dyed blond.

She was approximately 18-30 years old when she died. Police believe she may have been 23-25 when she died, but she looked much younger.

Kelly was very tall, 5' 11" and had a slender build of 150-160 pounds. She had noticeable baby blue colored eyes.

She was covered in freckles all over her body and may have hidden the ones on her face with heavy makeup. She had a small birthmark or scar under her left breast. Her Right ear was pierced 3 times in the lower ear lobe and her left ear had 2 piercing's, 1 in the lower ear lobe and 1 in the cartilage.

Her teeth were in good condition with #11 shifted buccally and #27 shifted lingually.

The El Dorado Police Department has spent 19 years trying to find out who Kelly really was and send her home again to her family. Several detectives and officers who have since retired refuse to give up on finding her real identity. If you have any information that might help detectives find the family of El Dorado Jane Doe AKA Kelly Lee Carr you can contact Detective Cathy Phillips or Captain David Smith at 1-870-881-4800 or The Union County Coroner's Office at 1-870-864-1903.