True Crime Society – ‘Becca Doe’ has been identified after almost 35 years

“Imagine lying nameless for decades, your story untold, your family wondering if you’re even alive. Thanks to forensic genetic genealogy, that’s changing. DNA from unidentified remains is now being matched to relatives through public databases, giving names — and closure — back to hundreds of John and Jane Does. Cold cases once thought unsolvable are now being solved, one DNA match at a time.”

‘Becca Doe’ has been identified almost 35 years after her body was found in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We will refer to her as Becca from the start of the episode and we will shortly get into why she was known as that from very early on.  

Becca was found deceased on Thursday June 6, 1991.  She had been staying at the Super 8 Motel on 2500 University NE.  The motel still seems to exist today.

Staff entered room 233 after Becca failed to check out on the agreed upon date.

They found her dead in the bathroom.  

This information is from the Land of Entrapment Blog:

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.

Items found in the room include a suitcase full of clothing, $500 in cash, empty beer bottles, a blue suede purse and a scale with ‘George Martinez’ written on it. The scale was said to be the type that was used to measure drugs.  No identification was found.  

According to the FBI:

She was wearing a “Trends” brand multicolored (white/pink/red/yellow) tank top; size 31 “Guess Product” by “George Marciano” white denim pants; 3-inch silver loop earrings; and a wide metal bracelet. A dark-colored purse and suitcase with women’s clothing were also found in the room.

This photo of Becca and an unidentified man was found in the room.

Investigators discovered that Becca had checked into the hotel two days prior to her death and she was with a Hispanic man at the time.  The man wrote his name as Eduardo Colin on the paperwork and gave a fake license plate number for his vehicle.  They told reception staff that they planned to check out by 11am on June 4.  Motel staff told police that the woman in the photo found in the room was definitely the deceased and the man was definitely ‘Eduardo Colin.’ 

The level of decomposition that Becca showed indicated that she had likely died on the night she checked into the motel.  

An autopsy showed that she had heroin in her system but not enough to cause her to overdose and die.  

There was no trauma on her body to indicate a struggle.  There were some abrasions on her face and leg which had already started to heal by the time she died.  

Her death was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner. 

In an effort to identify the woman, her stats were revealed:

Police eventually identified the man in the photo.   His name has never been officially made public.  He was the one who told police that the woman was likely called Rebecca or Becca which led to her being given the name of Becca Doe.

The man said that Becca possibly came from Reseda or Sylmar in California.  She had flown into Albuquerque from LA or Burbank sometime shortly before she died.

In December 2025, an investigator from the Office of the Medical Investigator in New Mexico reached out to Ramapo College in New Jersey to conduct a genealogy investigation.  

By January 2026, leads pointed towards Becca having a half-brother and stepfather in California.

The FBI worked with the Albuquerque Police Department to identify the stepfather.  They found him in Ventura, California.  He said he had last seen Becca in 1991 when she left Los Angeles.  

Detectives followed this lead and were able to locate the half-brother, who provided a DNA sample to police and confirmed that Becca was the man’s half-sister with 100 percent confidence.

“Becca’s identity was discovered through collaboration between multiple agencies and advancing technology,” Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner, says. “With this kind of partnership and a new frontier of forensic genealogy, I’m optimistic that we will be able to provide more answers to more families who mysteriously lost a loved one.

Becca Doe was identified as Becca Mallekoote on what would have been her 53rd birthday – March 5, 2026.  

We don’t know much about Becca’s life prior to her death except that she was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1973.  

It does not appear that she was ever reported missing.  Many people have questioned where her mother was – 18 is so young to vanish and never be missed.

These comments from Reddit speculate as to why Becca was never missed:

I read somewhere that she aged out of the foster care system? I am not sure how accurate that is but seems plausible as to why no one would think she was missing. It still boggles my mind though that no one that knew her at the time or from the home would have seen this case before and think… could it be THAT Becca?

So she had a few friends looking for her. Two weeks after she had left for New Mexico, her friend Jack and few others were calling their friends if anyone had heard about Becca. George was called about it, and he told them that she left for New Mexico to be with Eduardo and had not heard from her since.

George nor her other friends ever thought that she had died, but that she had simply moved on as they had only known her briefly.

The source that she aged out of the foster care is George, as she was living in a transitional housing facility and was going to be kicked out from it soon for being too old. He had picked her up from there several times.

As of late 2023, the practice of investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) had been credited with solving 651 cold cases worldwide, including 318 perpetrators identified and 464 previously unidentified decedents identified.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) reports that its database has helped make over 10,000 identifications through all forensic methods (including DNA and genetic genealogy).

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