If you look up New Mexico Jane Does, you will most likely come across Becca, or the 1991 Albuquerque Jane 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 about what her life had turned into, Becca hung herself.
A tip came in eventually that Albuquerque Jane Doe’s name was Rebecca or Becca and she 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.
Eduardo Colin
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.
His family was shown the photo of Becca and the unidentified man. They said the man was not Eduardo Colin, and they had no clue who the woman might be. The motel staff only saw Eduardo briefly at check-in, so they could have been wrong. However, his family could have been lying to protect Eduardo’s reputation, especially if they were worried that Albuquerque Jane Doe had been a sex worker.
The family also denied that the handwriting on the check-in slip was Eduardo’s. But I don’t think I could identify any of my family members’ handwriting on such a small sample. I suppose it is also possible that someone used an alias or a stolen identity when signing into the motel room.
People wonder why Colin never came forward. I think it’s possible he never knew Becca died. Back in 1991, it was harder for information to get out there and he may have never seen her picture. He also may have just been a client if she was a sex worker, so he wasn’t interested in coming forward and admitting he had been with her. The fact heroin was involved makes me think that he had definite reasons for never talking to police about her.
George Martinez
Some people feel that the name scrawled on the scale – George Martinez – is an important clue in identifying “Becca”. This George Martinez has never been identified and I don’t think he ever will be. First of all, that’s a pretty common name. Second, there is no evidence Martinez has anything to do with the case at all. Martinez could have been someone the decedent knew briefly, like a drug dealer or drug buddy, or maybe he was someone in a high school lab where she stole the scale. Who knows? George Martinez may have had nothing to do with this at all.
The scale is the type used for measuring out drugs. That makes it possible that the name scrawled on it was fake, a street alias perhaps. While most street names are not Christian names, I could see a smart aleck drug dealer picking a really common name as his alias.
Many people theorize that the man in the fun booth photo was George Martinez and that Martinez is integral to identifying the 1991 Albuquerque Jane Doe. But it appears not to be so. Rumor has it on Reddit that the man in the photo did eventually come forward. He was supposedly the one who provided the tip that Jane Doe’s name is Rebecca or Becca and she is from California. His identity and relationship to “Becca” remain unclear.
If this rumor is true, then it provides even more questions than answers. This man must not have known “Becca” that well to provide such vague details. I wonder why she had this picture out on her table before she took her life, as if she had been looking at it.
Who Is Becca?
I wonder who Rebecca’s family is, and what her story is. Why was she in Albuquerque? Was it to meet Eduardo Colin? Was she trafficked there? Did she have friends in the area? More than anything, I wonder what happened to her and what made her take her own life.
While there is no evidence of foul play, the Isdal Woman is a good example of someone being murdered in a hotel room with the scene staged to look like a suicide and the door locked from the inside. I guess there is a slim possibility this was homicide.
Now that the police have this tip about her name and origin in LA, I think that there is a good chance she will be identified soon. The beer bottles would be a great source for DNA. While her body was cremated and there is no DNA, there is a blood spot that the Albuquerque PD saved.
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/644ufnm.html
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/unidentified-persons/jane-doe—albuquerque-new-mexico