After 35 years, Becca Doe has been identified as Rebecca Mallekoote. This is such exciting news. I am so glad she has gotten her name back!
Few details are available about who Rebecca Mallekoote was. She was born on March 4, 1973, and got her name back as her 53rd birthday present. She grew up in Tacoma, WA, and was living in LA by the age of 18. Some sources say that she had aged out of the foster care system and was not close to her family.
She started dating a car mechanic briefly. This was the man in the iconic fun booth photo of her. After they broke up, the man’s cousin, Eduardo Colin, expressed interest in her. Her ex took her to the airport and she flew to Albuquerque to be with Colin. This was the man she checked into her fated motel room with.
I’m not sure what happened that night. Police seem certain that the death was a suicide, not homicide. The motel door was locked from the inside and there was no sign of a struggle. But something that night led to Becca’s death. Perhaps she and Colin did not get along as well as they had hoped and the despair of abandonment, plus the alcohol and heroin in her system, made her hang herself. Perhaps Colin harmed her and made it look like a suicide. Perhaps this was actually prostitution and after Colin left she decided to give up on a life that did not turn out the way she had wanted.
Colin gave correct information but a false license plate on the motel registration slip. I don’t remember my own license plate, so maybe he was feeling lazy and just made one up on the spot. It seems that if he intended to harm Becca, he would not have put his own info down. He is now deceased, so we will never know what transpired between him and Becca.
After 35 years, Ramapo College took over her case. Through forensic genealogy, they were able to find her half-brother. This led to APD talking to her stepfather and half-brother who reported they had not heard from her since 1991. Inexplicably they never reported her missing. Her half-brother provided a DNA sample that ultimately identified her.
Well, happy birthday, Rebecca Mallekoote. I am so glad you got your name back. You were only 18 and it seems like you had a hard life. I wish things could have been different for you. Just know that many people cared about you and never gave up on finding out who you were!
For those not familiar with the case, this was my previous write-up on Becca Doe:
This unidentified decedent was found hanging from a metal showerhead by a suitcase strap in the Super 8 Motel on Central, Albuquerque. She was found alone in her room by a motel security guard when she failed to check out on June 4, 1991. The door was locked from the inside and the security guard had to enter with a screwdriver. The police ruled her death a suicide. Despite having a photo of her and various items to identify her by, she had no ID with her and she remains unnamed to this day.
The Albuquerque Jane Doe was about 5’7″ and 140 pounds. Her age is estimated to be about 25-35. She had curly red hair, possibly permed, and pale skin and freckles. She is believed to be white or Hispanic. She was wearing a pink and white tie-dye swirl shirt, 3-inch silver hoop earrings, white denim pants, and medium bikini underwear. A photo found in the room shows her with an unidentified man; this is the only photo we have of her. This is her outfit:
The Albuquerque Jane Doe checked into the motel two days prior with a Hispanic man. The man put “Eduardo Colin” on the check-in slip, along with a fake license plate number. They said that they planned to check out on June 4 at 11:00 am, but they never did. When the security guard checked the room, he found the woman dead and the man gone without a trace.
The only things in the room were a few beer bottles, a blue suede purse, a suitcase with some women’s clothing, the picture above, and a scale with “George Martinez” written on it. Oh, and $500 in cash. The motel staff said that the woman in the photo was definitely the Albuquerque Jane Doe and the man was Eduardo Colin.
The room was pretty orderly with no blood or sign of a struggle. You can view the photos of the room here. The windows and door had been locked from the inside. There was no sign of foul play.
Becca was pretty decomposed – suggesting she had been dead since the night she checked in. In the Albuquerque June heat, without the AC switched on, this level of decomposition is expected.
The autopsy revealed a lot of heroin in her system. But she didn’t overdose. Heroin addicts usually have quite high tolerances. Her cause of death was officially ruled suicide by hanging. There was no trauma to her body from a struggle. The autopsy did note some light crusted abrasions on Becca’s face and leg, which had already begun healing before she died. These abrasions could have easily come from a fall.
A lot of people wonder how a showerhead was strong enough to hold the girl. I suppose it could; her weight was 140 pounds and a good old metal showerhead should have been able to withstand that.
The most enduring theory about Becca is that she was a sex worker. Eduardo Colin may have been her client. They checked into the motel room to use drugs and have sex, then he left. Full of despair, Becca hung herself.
The man in the photo was eventually identified but that has never been released to the public. He told the police he believed the woman to be named Rebecca or Becca. He said that she possibly hailed from Reseda or Sylmar, CA. She had flown into Albuquerque from LA or Burbank sometime shortly before she died. She still has not been positively identified but people call her “Becca” now.
Police eventually did track down Eduardo Colin, the man who checked in with Becca. By the time they found him, he had already died of natural causes. He had worked as a truck driver and lived in Albuquerque.