How One Landlady Became a Cold-Blooded Killer

In the historic city neighborhood of Sacramento, a seemingly kind-hearted landlady turned a charming Victorian boarding house into a scene of unimaginable horror. Once known for her generosity towards the less fortunate, Dorothea Puente harbored dark secrets beneath her benevolent facade. She was convicted of three murders but accused of nine.

The Unsettling Truth Behind a Boarding House

Puente’s early life was marred by tragedy and hardship. Orphaned and abused, she navigated a troubled path as an underage sex worker and used fake identities in marriages and with police. For two decades, Puente lived in a whirlwind of arrests, incarcerations, and money-making schemes.

In 1968, she married her third husband, Roberto Jose Puente, and 16 months later after their relationship ended, she decided to keep his name.

In her 40s, Puente changed her style of dress from what is described as dramatic and sexy to baggy clothing and stopped dying her hair. She claimed to be a newly devoted Christian and opened her house in Sacramento to people struggling with alcoholism and mental health issues. That is when her documented murders began.

She operated her home as an unlicensed boarding house during the 1980s. It was here that Puente preyed on what investigators called “shadow people” - the elderly, alcoholics, and people with disabilities - who are often overlooked by society. Her modus operandi was as cold as it was calculating… drug her victims, bury their bodies in her yard, and cash their Social Security checks.

A Chilling Discovery

The truth about Puente’s horrific acts came to light in November 1988 when police were searching for a missing tenant.

SFGATE reports that an officer asked Puente if they could excavate her garden. “Dig in my yard,” she shrugged. “I don’t know what’s out there.”

Police unearthed the decomposing bodies of seven individuals buried around the property. While the officers were excavating, Puente escaped.

“She went for a walk and never came back,” said Sacramento police Lt. Joe Enloe.

This discovery prompted a manhunt, eventually leading to Puente’s arrest in Los Angeles. Puente faced accusations of murdering eight tenants, including a case initially deemed a suicide and the death of her former partner, Everson Gillmouth.

The prosecution argued she poisoned and strangled them, then cunningly cashed their social security checks. She employed laborers to excavate her garden to conceal her deeds, where she clandestinely disposed of their remains. After weeks of contemplation, the jury found her guilty on three charges, ensuring she would spend her remaining days behind bars.

Puente died in March 2011 at the age of 82 within the confines of the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. The Los Angeles Times reported in her obituary that, “Though there were no witnesses to the slayings, prosecutors said Puente was one of the most ‘cold, calculating’ female serial killers the country had ever seen.”

References:
After Killing Her Boarders And Burying Them In Her Yard, Where Is Dorothea Puente Now? | She seemed like an elderly Sacramento landlady. Dorothea Puente was actually a serial killer.