Identified! TX - Pecos, WhtFem, 17-20, UP13480, in motel swimming pool Jul'66 - Jolaine Hemmy

[Friday Fan]

Camp LeJuene NC is a long way from Pecos Texas. He would have also needed to travel to Kansas and maybe Las Vegas too in a short period of time. I wonder if any followup on that marine or the name was ever reported? If he was AWOL at the time that might explain taking the registration card but not much else seems to fit well with the circumstances other than the name.

It's called, "I need a fake name"
The dude probably knew someone with that name from somewhere in his past and simply used it.

I used to get people pretending to be me who used to call the class nerd. (They were prank calls)
He would call me and ask, "Did you call me?"
It got to be pretty routine.
Class nerd quickly caught on and said, "We really need to put a stop to this menace"
I told him who I thought was making the calls...
This was way before caller ID.

 

[glamourkitty1922]

There are actually loads of Russell Battons, Russel Buttons and Russel Battens in the records. I doubt the guy from the obit is connected, he spent all his life in VA. But loads of others who fit the age range and have similar names. He may have indeed stated his real name but whoever was at the reception just had no good writing skills..

Needle in a haystack... also, it could have been a fake name altogether.But why would he take his registration card from the hotel with him then and disappear? If it was a fake name, he could have rested easily.

Perhaps he put his real license plate number on the registration.

 

[ArtilleryShell777]

My hometown is Pecos, and I grew up hearing about this mystery at Ropers Motel. My parents, who were 18 at the time, both viewed her body at the Pecos Funeral Home hoping to help identify her. She is buried in a cemetery right across from the high school I attended.

Decades After Mysteriously Drowning, Pecos Jane Has a Name

 

[Vern]

My hometown is Pecos, and I grew up hearing about this mystery at Ropers Motel. My parents, who were 18 at the time, both viewed her body at the Pecos Funeral Home hoping to help identify her. She is buried in a cemetery right across from the high school I attended.

Decades After Mysteriously Drowning, Pecos Jane Has a Name

What an absolutely excellent article this is. Wow.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

A Woman Who Mysteriously Drowned At A Hotel In 1966 Was Identified - But Her Mystery Companion Is Still Unknown
On July 5, 1966, the body of a young woman was found in the swimming pool of the Ropers Motel in Pecos, TX. She had checked in just hours earlier with a man who appeared to be her husband, under the names, "Mr. and Mrs. Russell Battoun." As an ambulance took her away, her companion said he was going to go to the hospital. Instead, he checked out of the motel and fled the scene, never to be seen again.

The girl became known as the "Pecos Jane Doe" until DNA testing was conducted in 2020. A year later, the body was confirmed to be that of then-17-year-old Jolaine Hemmy of Celina, KS. It was because of a DNA sample given by one of Hemmy's surviving sisters that investigators were able to finally give her a name. Of her sister's reaction, Pecos Police Chief Lisa Tarango said:

She was absolutely ecstatic... It was just as raw as it would have been 55 years ago when she went missing. It was that fresh to this family.

While there's no evidence to suggest that Hemmy was murdered, investigators consider her death suspicious and aren't ruling out foul play.
11 Jane And John Does Who Got Their Names Back In 2021