bijou
03-27-2011, 06:34 PM
Dorothea Puente, the notorious F Street landlady convicted of killing her tenants and burying them in her backyard, died Sunday, state corrections officials said.
Puente, 82, had been seriously ill for months, and was transferred from the Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla to an outside hospital in September 2010.
Even in a city with no shortage of infamous and gruesome murders, the Puente case stands out.
She was a sweet-looking, grandmotherly woman who ran a boarding house out of a rented two-story Victorian at 1426 F Street.
Puente began the business in 1980, renting out the top floor of the home, but she was sent to prison for three years for drugging her elderly tenants and stealing checks from them.
She was back in business by 1985, renting the entire house and offering rooms to elderly and disabled residents, some of whom she met while cruising bars in the area.
The case broke open in 1988, after social worker Judy Moise finally convinced police something was wrong at the boardinghouse. Moise, who worked for Volunteers of America, had referred Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, a 51-year-old mentally impaired homeless man, to stay at the boardinghouse, where Puente was known for lavishing her tenants with gifts and homecooked meals.
Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/03/sacramentos-inf.html#ixzz1HqGoAK00
Puente, 82, had been seriously ill for months, and was transferred from the Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla to an outside hospital in September 2010.
Even in a city with no shortage of infamous and gruesome murders, the Puente case stands out.
She was a sweet-looking, grandmotherly woman who ran a boarding house out of a rented two-story Victorian at 1426 F Street.
Puente began the business in 1980, renting out the top floor of the home, but she was sent to prison for three years for drugging her elderly tenants and stealing checks from them.
She was back in business by 1985, renting the entire house and offering rooms to elderly and disabled residents, some of whom she met while cruising bars in the area.
The case broke open in 1988, after social worker Judy Moise finally convinced police something was wrong at the boardinghouse. Moise, who worked for Volunteers of America, had referred Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, a 51-year-old mentally impaired homeless man, to stay at the boardinghouse, where Puente was known for lavishing her tenants with gifts and homecooked meals.
Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/03/sacramentos-inf.html#ixzz1HqGoAK00