Dorothea Puente Victims
Landlady Dorothea Puente murdered her elderly and disabled tenants in Sacramento, burying them in her garden while continuing to collect their Social Security checks.
Dorothea Puente operated a boarding house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento, California, where she rented rooms to elderly, disabled, and mentally ill tenants. Between 1982 and 1988, she murdered at least seven of her tenants, burying their bodies in her yard while continuing to cash their Social Security and disability checks.
The murders came to light on November 11, 1988, when police investigating a missing tenant began digging in Puente's garden. They found one body, then another, and eventually uncovered seven sets of remains buried in the small yard.
Puente was arrested while attempting to flee to Mexico. She maintained her innocence, claiming her tenants had died of natural causes and she had simply buried them because she panicked.
She was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. She died in prison in 2011 at age 82. Her former boarding house has become a macabre tourist attraction.
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