El Dorado Jane Doe (Mercedes Cuevas)
A woman found dead in an El Dorado, Arkansas motel in 1991 went unidentified for nearly 30 years. DNA genealogy identified her as Mercedes Cuevas from Guatemala in 2022.
On April 14, 1991, a young woman was found dead in a room at the Whitehall Motel in El Dorado, Arkansas. She had no identification, and the cause of death was unclear. She was estimated to be in her late teens to early twenties.
For nearly three decades, investigators tried to identify the woman. Her case was entered into NamUs and featured on various missing persons databases. Multiple reconstructions were created, but no match was found in U.S. missing persons records.
The DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit using genetic genealogy to identify unidentified remains, took on the case. Through extensive genealogical research, they traced her family tree to Guatemala.
In 2022, the woman was identified as Mercedes Cuevas, who had emigrated from Guatemala to the United States. The identification brought answers to a case that had been open for over 30 years.
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- The local police department or sheriff's office in Arkansas, or the state bureau of investigation
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