Dorothea Puente was a convicted serial killer who ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California in the 1980s. Puente cashed in the Social Security checks of the elderly and disabled boarders living in her house. Many of them found dead and buried in the boarding house’s yard.

In April 1982, Puente’s friend and business partner, Ruth Monroe, rented a space in an apartment she owned. Shortly after moving in, Monroe died from an overdose of codeine and Tylenol. When she was questioned by police, Puente said that Monroe had become depressed because of her husband’s illness. Police officially ruled the death a suicide.

Several weeks later, 74-year-old Malcolm McKenzie accused Puente of drugging him and stealing his pension. Puente was charged and convicted of theft in August of that year and was sentenced to five years in jail. When she was serving her sentence, she began a pen-pal relationship with 77-year-old Everson Gillmouth. When she was released in 1985, after serving three years, she opened a joint bank account with Gillmouth.

In November of that year, Puente hired a handyman, Ismael Florez, to install wood paneling in her home. After he completed the job, Puente paid him an $800 bonus and gave him a red 1980 Ford pickup truck- the exact same model and year of Gillmouth’s car. She told Florez that the truck belonged to her boyfriend who gave it to her. Puente also hired Florez to build a box that was six feet by three feet by two feet, which she stated that she would use to store “books and other items.” She and Florez then travelled to a highway in Sutter County and dumped the box in a riverbank. On January 1, 1986, the box was recovered by a fisherman, who called the police. When police arrived and opened the box, they found the decomposed remains of an elderly man- who would not be identified as Everson Gillmouth for another three years. During this time, Puente collected Gillmouth’s pension and forged letters to his family.   more