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00:00Always good for a roof over your head and a nightcap before bed.
00:05To her neighbors, Dorothea Puente was just that.
00:09A sweet old woman taking in folks with nowhere else to go.
00:14But behind closed doors, her kindness came with a price.
00:21Deadly secrets she thought would stay buried forever.
00:25You know how this whole thing got started was because of this last individual.
00:30Right, Montoya.
00:30When a man goes missing, the search leads police to a beloved community leader's doorstep.
00:38Dorothea helped people that wandered the streets.
00:41She was taking care of these people like almost a grandmotherly figure.
00:46But behind that fancy housecoat comes a heap of dirty business.
00:51The individual hands him a note and the note says she's making us lie.
01:00I pulled a shovel up and in the shovel, I see a leg with a sheet around it.
01:05All of the victims had florazepam in their bodies.
01:10I couldn't envision, I couldn't believe.
01:13The woman I knew could have done this.
01:16So who is lying to me?
01:18Sir, my conscience is not bothering me.
01:22So I have nothing to hide.
01:24I'm an old lady.
01:25In 1988, I was working on a missing persons case on Bert Montoya.
01:44He was 52 years of age.
01:46However, he suffered from a mental disability, which made him kind of childlike.
01:52He'd been staying in these houses for people that had mental disabilities.
01:58But Bert's social worker, she hadn't seen Bert for three months.
02:04And so we took a missing persons report on her behalf.
02:08Where were you born?
02:10Where was that?
02:14Costa Rica.
02:15Costa Rica?
02:16Do you like living where you're living now?
02:20Yeah.
02:22Yeah, I know.
02:24You know what?
02:25When you get on SSI, you will have a place to stay.
02:29You will have a place.
02:30Because you'll have your own income.
02:34Bert was living upstairs in like a boarding house with Dorotea Puente.
02:40She had a reputation in the community for helping the most vulnerable people in our community.
02:48Like almost a grandmotherly figure.
02:52We knew her as la doctora.
02:56The doctor.
02:58This woman was very generous with youth scholarships, the elderly, disability if they needed medicine.
03:04Dorothea helped people that wandered the streets, drug addicts, people with mental disabilities that weren't being housed.
03:13The police realized that if poor Bert is back out on the streets, any number of awful things could have happened to him.
03:21We were trying to find out what actually happened to Bert.
03:27So we had a police officer drive down to the house.
03:30And Dorothea went on to say, well, I was gone.
03:36And when I came home, the tenants told me that he had left with relatives.
03:41The police officer interviewed some people that were on the premises.
03:45They said Bert walked out the door and never returned.
03:48And the officer wasn't quite sure how to classify it.
03:53But as he was getting ready to leave, one of the tenants flagged him and wanted to speak with him outside of the view of Dorothea.
04:02So he takes the individual around, Mr. John Sharp.
04:06Mr. Sharp hands him a note.
04:10And the note says, she's making us lie.
04:13I just thought, there is something wrong here.
04:19So I just go into my supervisor and I said, look, I'm going to initiate an investigation of this.
04:27The cops know that something just isn't right with Dorothea.
04:31And sure enough, she has a criminal record, but under a different name.
04:37Dorothea Montalvo.
04:38Considering she's supposed to be looking after vulnerable people, this is not reassuring.
04:46She'd done five years, state prison.
04:50She was charged with putting stupefying drugs in her friend's drinks.
04:55And then picking their pockets, taking jewelry off of their hands.
04:59And so what I found out that day is that she was on federal parole.
05:04She's in parole violation on the federal level.
05:07She couldn't be running a boarding house or taking care of people that were on Social Security or receiving benefits of Social Security.
05:14That's how it is on federal parole.
05:17If she would have been a state parolee, we would have arrested her at that time.
05:22It has nothing to do with us and why we're there.
05:24I'm there to find hurt.
05:27So what exactly is it that she's running here?
05:33Now knowing that she's in parole violation, changed the way I was now going to conduct my investigation.
05:42In order to go out and conduct a search, in federal parole, first of all, you've got to have the permission of the parolee.
05:50Second is you have to be in the presence of the person's parole officer.
05:55So we had to wait.
06:00A few days later, John's patience pays off.
06:04He gets the okay to sniff around Dorothea's boarding house.
06:09Maybe now he'll finally get some answers.
06:12I was all set, ready to go.
06:14My partner, myself, the parole officer, and Judy Moise, Burt's social worker,
06:20she had been there previously and I had talked to her saying, we're going out today.
06:24I remember that prior to leaving, we were walking out and she says, aren't you going to take any shovels?
06:33And I kind of like, what?
06:36Why would we take shovels?
06:38And she said, I had driven by there on several occasions and I saw mounds of dirt and I thought it was like a graveyard.
06:45I said, okay, so I told my partner that I'm going to grab the shovels from the utility room.
06:51If it would appease Judy, then I was going to do that.
06:55I want her to be comfortable with us.
06:57We put the shovels in the car and we drove over there, 1426 F Street, and got out and I didn't see any mounds of dirt.
07:09It was a beautiful Victorian home.
07:12Nothing unusual about it.
07:14Small yard, gated, a lot of plants, a lot of flowers.
07:20I mean, it was nice.
07:21And then I went up the stairs, knocked on the door, and she answered.
07:31She was dressed neatly, lemon chiffon dress, you know, had her hair neatly done.
07:37I mean, she just looked like someone's little grandmother.
07:42I saw her background.
07:43I saw what she'd been arrested for.
07:45And it was just kind of stunning to say, this person has been to prison?
07:49And the first thing she said was, I was expecting you gentlemen.
07:55And I just kind of like, whoa, she was expecting us?
08:02With her eyes peeled for anything suspicious, John and his partner take a look around.
08:08I'd say maybe it took me less than 10 minutes.
08:10I didn't see anything that I thought was, you know, against the law or anything like that.
08:15And I came back, and then I said, just one more thing.
08:19Would you have any problem with us digging in your yard?
08:23I said, well, Judy Moise, the social worker, she was concerned something might be going on.
08:29And I said, all I want to do is put the shovel in the ground, dig some holes.
08:33If we don't find anything, we'll be out of your hair.
08:36And that's when she just stared at me briefly, just a dead stare, as though she was looking into my eyes to find out, where am I going?
08:50Where am I taking this?
08:52And I was looking her dead back in the eyes.
08:54And then she just says, no problem.
08:58Go ahead, dig all you want.
09:01With nothing telling them where to dig except their guts, the cops pick a few spots in the backyard and put their shovels to the soil.
09:11We decided we'd dig three holes and see what we come up with.
09:18So I'm digging and digging, and I can just barely see this tree root by a large avocado tree.
09:27And I got in there, and I got my hands down underneath it, and I just started pushing and pulling on it.
09:33And at that time, it breaks loose.
09:37And now I can see what I have in my hand.
09:40And I'm looking at it, and I can tell it's a femur bone.
09:46It's a human bone.
09:50I knew I had stumbled upon something much bigger than what I thought.
09:56I got a phone call, and he said, we saw your name in the newspaper, and we think Dorothea killed our mother.
10:05I have no probable cause to arrest her.
10:07In my mind, she's playing the game.
10:09Are there any other bodies?
10:11No.
10:11In your back.
10:12I didn't even know that one was there.
10:14The police went looking for Burt Montoya, but what they find instead is a leg bone buried in the yard of the boarding house where he lived.
10:30I knew one thing when I saw it was a bone, that it wasn't Burt Montoya.
10:35Because Burt had only been missing three months, and that's not what a person in the ground looks like in three months.
10:47Inside of me, I knew I had stumbled upon something much bigger than what I thought.
10:57I remember that Dorothea looked over my shoulder down into the hole, and she goes, is that what I think it is?
11:05I said, yeah, it's a human bone.
11:07What can you tell me about that?
11:09She goes, I don't know anything about it.
11:11There's been a whole bunch of people living here.
11:17Now a whole other investigation starts.
11:19We've got to get the coroner involved.
11:21Got to get supervisors, everybody, CSI.
11:24Everything stops.
11:26We freeze the scene.
11:29Just before I get to the door, I hear this, Mr. Cabrera.
11:33Dorothea said, I know you guys have better things to do.
11:37You guys go back to your office.
11:39I'm going to call some people to come and dig, and I'm going to have them dig the whole yard up.
11:43And then you guys can come back and look all you want.
11:46And I'm kind of like, in my mind, are you kidding me?
11:50I just smiled, and I said, hey, I appreciate that, but we're here, so why don't we just go ahead and we'll just dig.
11:59It's becoming crystal clear to the cops that Dorothea is a slippery one.
12:05But back in 82, way before she opened her boarding house, one guy managed to put her behind bars.
12:13They give him a call to see if he can teach them a few things.
12:17I worked a series of cases against Dorothea Montalvo.
12:22That was the name she was using in 1982.
12:25Most of the cases involved elderly women that she was befriending and pretending to be a caregiver,
12:33sometimes pretending to be a nurse, in fact.
12:35And she was living with them or visiting them.
12:38And she was stealing their Social Security checks, cashing those checks, taking personal property from them, and using that.
12:47She pled guilty to five felonies.
12:52With that guilty plea, Montalvo was sentenced to five years in state prison.
12:59The local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, wrote about that and used my name in the article.
13:04And the day after that story appeared, I got a phone call, and he said,
13:11we saw your name in the newspaper, and we think Dorothea killed our mother.
13:18A woman named Ruth Monroe.
13:22I have to say I was profoundly shocked.
13:25She was just a little old lady.
13:28I characterized her when I was asked by a reporter.
13:31I think I said something like, she looks like Mrs. Butterworth.
13:36Murder is a strong word.
13:39But Bill took the family's claim seriously and looked into it.
13:45Ruth had a wide circle of friends, grandchildren, children.
13:49She had retired as a pharmacist at a large department store here in Sacramento.
13:54When Ruth Monroe's husband died, Monroe moved in with Dorothea Puente.
14:05Ruth Monroe's family would visit her from time to time.
14:10And one night, when Ruth Monroe's son came to visit her,
14:15he found his mother drinking a green cocktail.
14:21It was creme de menthe.
14:22Ruth Monroe's son was a little surprised because he wasn't aware that his mother drank alcohol at all.
14:28But Ruth Monroe said Dorothea was giving her this to drink, and she enjoyed it.
14:36Later that morning, 2 or 3 a.m., Montalvo called the police
14:41and then called Ruth Monroe's family and said, your mother has died.
14:45Ruth Monroe was taken to the Sacramento County morgue and an autopsy was performed.
14:57Initially, there was conflicting discussion whether or not she had committed suicide.
15:02According to Dorothea, Ruth Monroe was despondent.
15:07But then there was a great deal of other indication from her friends and from her family
15:10that she was still active, she was still looking forward to things.
15:16With the autopsy result, the cause of death was a very large amount of Tylenol with codeine in her system.
15:22Whether or not that was suspicious, whether or not it was suicide, that was a different question.
15:30That didn't hold water with Ruth's kids.
15:33In their mind, Ruth was simply not suicidal.
15:36After Ruth Monroe's death, her family began to make some independent inquiries.
15:48One of the things that aroused the suspicions of the family was they had been told repeatedly by Montalvo
15:54that a doctor had been in to see Ruth Monroe and given her an injection,
15:58that she had been to an emergency room at a hospital.
16:02And they checked with the hospital.
16:04The hospital said no, they had not seen Ruth Monroe.
16:09And there were no doctors.
16:12So it became clear to them that everything they'd been told by Puente
16:16as far as the care that their mother had been receiving was a lie.
16:21It became crystal clear to me the full circumstances of Ruth Monroe living with Dorothea Montalvo,
16:28what their relationship had been.
16:30Everybody was convinced Dorothea was a murderess.
16:34In 1982, I contacted the head of the Major Crimes Bureau in the Sacramento District Attorney's Office
16:46and apprised them of what was going on as far as the Ruth Monroe case.
16:50The decision ultimately that was made in 1982 was that the circumstances of Ruth Monroe's death were equivocal enough
17:00that it was not worthwhile at that time to go forward with a homicide prosecution.
17:05That decision came back to haunt me in 1988 when I got a call from a friend of mine who was still in the district attorney's office
17:16and said they found a body at 1426 F Street.
17:20A conversation with the D.A. turns up a bunch of things that weren't in Dorothea's official record.
17:31And now the detectives in Sacramento know all about her past murder accusations.
17:37It's time to dig some more.
17:39Once Ruth Monroe was brought to our attention, my idea of Dorothea Puente being this little grandmotherly-like person
17:49turned to be a suspect in a possible murder case.
17:54In my mind, I put together the lies that she had told the tenants to tell the police.
18:01I put together her background, her crimes, everything.
18:06She's capable of doing this.
18:16I've decided we're going to dig the whole yard up.
18:19And she said, you can dig the whole yard, dig it all up.
18:22You do what you got to do.
18:23So she tried to be like she was part of the team.
18:28In my mind, she's playing the game.
18:31I was really hoping that I would be able to catch her in a lie
18:34or something that would give me more information as to what she might be trying to cover up.
18:40I then tell her, we need to go down to the office so I can take a statement from you.
18:45She says, yeah, no problem.
18:47And so at that time I figured I was going to push her a little bit and see how she reacted.
18:54So I start the interview and, you know, I start talking about where's Bert and questions like that.
19:02And I'm trying to get a reaction.
19:03Now, the questions we need to ask you, I need all the truth from you.
19:08Okay.
19:08Number one is going back.
19:12Of course, you know, this whole thing got started was because of this last individual, Montoya.
19:19Now, his disappearance is very suspicious.
19:21I can tell you that.
19:23Now, as far as a social worker, he had no relatives known to her and never mentioned any.
19:28So who is lying to me?
19:31Who is lying to me, Dorothea?
19:34Well, I'm not.
19:35Are there any other bodies?
19:37No.
19:37In your backyard?
19:38Not that I didn't even know that one was there.
19:40If I had, if I would have said, no, don't search the yard, you know.
19:45But I had nothing to hide.
19:46I'm a little lady.
19:49She didn't break a sweat.
19:51She didn't shake.
19:53Nothing.
19:54Every time I asked her a question, she looked straight in my eye.
19:56And she answered, and she always answered right to my face.
20:02Why does one of the occupants say, hey, Dorothea told me to lie?
20:05I didn't.
20:05Why would this man, and this man knowing, if you lie to me, then you're in violation of the law.
20:10If you're going to tell me this stuff.
20:11Sir, I asked him to move, and he is upset.
20:15I haven't killed anyone.
20:16And what happened there?
20:18My conscience is not bothering me.
20:21I couldn't attribute that bone to Dorothea.
20:25There just wasn't enough.
20:28At that point, given the circumstances, I have no probable cause to arrest her.
20:34I have nothing.
20:36All I have is my suspicions.
20:39Dorothea is one tough customer.
20:42She's not going to crack.
20:43So the cops turn to plan B.
20:47Dig the whole place up.
20:50We have all hands on deck.
20:52I take a shovel, and now I start digging.
20:57And Dorothea, she just came out and said,
21:01Mr. Cabrera, am I under arrest?
21:05And I looked right at her, and I said, no, you're not.
21:11Why do you ask me?
21:13And she said, you know, all of this is making me nervous,
21:16and I want to go have a cup of coffee with my nephew over at the hotel.
21:22And I remember her telling me earlier her nephew was the head custodian at the Clarion Hotel.
21:28I said, you know, Dorothea, you've been cooperative?
21:32Yeah, you can go have coffee.
21:36She wasn't under arrest.
21:38She could leave her house.
21:40Based on the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution,
21:42we have that right as American citizens.
21:47I knew that.
21:48I couldn't keep her from doing anything.
21:50And so I watched her take off.
21:54I just thought, oh, man.
21:56She had maneuvered herself legally, and she didn't even flinch.
22:02I couldn't do anything, so I just started digging again.
22:07And I keep digging and digging.
22:12And somewhere about 21 minutes later,
22:15I struck something.
22:17I pulled the shovel up,
22:21and in the shovel,
22:23I see a leg with a sheet around it.
22:28It's not skeletal.
22:30More like in a mummified state.
22:34It's probably from during the time
22:36Dorothea Puente was living at the house.
22:39Now we have a probable cause to arrest her.
22:42Immediately, I yell to my unit commander,
22:47I need Dorothea back here.
22:50My unit commander says,
22:52I'll go over to the hotel myself,
22:54and I'll bring her back.
22:56So he goes over there,
22:57but then we get a radio call,
22:59and he says,
23:01hey, I'm at the hotel.
23:03She's not here.
23:05The person here at the desk says she came down,
23:07and then she got on the phone,
23:09and moments later,
23:11a taxi cab pulled up,
23:13and she got in it,
23:14and they took off.
23:16Why would she flee
23:18if there's no issue back here?
23:21We put a bolo out.
23:23Be on the lookout for all agencies
23:25and an immediate APB
23:27that this person was wanted.
23:31When she took off at that moment,
23:34all bets were off.
23:35The police have at least two dead people
23:43in a backyard
23:44and a granny on the run.
23:47It's time to turn things around.
23:49They rattle the cage at the boarding house,
23:52and a resident named John McCauley pops up,
23:56who likely knows all the dirt.
24:00John McCauley.
24:02MCCAU.
24:04Ellie White.
24:04Even though John McCauley
24:06had given us statements
24:08to the effect that
24:09he didn't have any knowledge
24:11of where she might have gone,
24:13I believe that
24:14he wasn't being truthful with us.
24:17Have you performed any digging
24:18in that backyard?
24:21Just planting stuff,
24:23you know,
24:24like tomato plants.
24:27I haven't done any.
24:28Who else been digging in that yard?
24:30I tried to get more information out of him.
24:32And we just kept kind of getting
24:34a run around from him.
24:36If I knew I'd tell you,
24:37well, something is desperately wrong here.
24:39All right?
24:40Something is desperately wrong.
24:41Whatever is wrong,
24:43I don't know about.
24:45That's a crock of s**t.
24:47That is a crock of garbage.
24:49I had just reached the point
24:50where I didn't want to dilly-dally
24:52with him anymore,
24:52and I just said,
24:53I'm done with this.
24:55I'm going to arrest you
24:56for accessory to murder.
24:58And all of a sudden,
24:59now he remembers.
25:02She had told him,
25:04I'm going to take off.
25:06I'm going to flee
25:07because they're going to arrest me.
25:11He aided and abetted her getaway,
25:13and he wasn't being truthful with us,
25:16so I arrested him.
25:18The search for Dorothea
25:20grows bigger by the minute,
25:22and so does the dig back at her house.
25:26We continue to dig,
25:28and we found another body.
25:30So now, after two days,
25:35we have three bodies totaled.
25:38Leona Carpenter was the owner
25:40of the femur bone,
25:41and then Dorothy Miller
25:43was found on the second day
25:44when Puente took off.
25:46And we believe that body number three
25:48belongs to our missing person,
25:51Burt Montoya.
25:53And that's simply because
25:55of the size of the body
25:57that's been wrapped
25:58in all kinds of blankets and things.
25:59It's huge.
26:01And in my mind,
26:02there's no doubt.
26:03This has got to be Burt.
26:05By the time the third body
26:07is discovered,
26:08the whole neighborhood
26:09knows about it.
26:11News cameras show up,
26:12and the story goes national.
26:16When we first became involved
26:18with the murders
26:20at the boarding house,
26:21we're in the newsroom,
26:23and I was at Channel 10.
26:24The monitors all had
26:25Dorothea's picture up.
26:27And I was like,
26:28oh, my God,
26:29I know that lady.
26:29We were friends,
26:31believe it or not.
26:32She would always attend the events
26:34in the neighborhood.
26:35That's how I got to know her.
26:38When I heard about this,
26:39I was in shock.
26:41I couldn't envision,
26:42I couldn't believe
26:43that the woman I knew
26:45could have done this.
26:47The more the cops dig,
26:49the more they find.
26:50Each day we find another body.
26:57It's like three, four, five, six,
27:01and it's like, oh, my gosh,
27:03how many more are we going to find?
27:06By the time we reach seven bodies,
27:09it just wasn't the possibility
27:10of her killing Burt.
27:12But the possibility now was
27:15she's killed all these people.
27:23On the scene,
27:24we had the deputy coroner.
27:26Her job investigating would be
27:27to find out who the individual is,
27:31search for all records,
27:34next to kin, family.
27:35I was just like everybody else
27:38in Sacramento.
27:39It was all over the news,
27:40but I just didn't connect it at all.
27:43I knew there was something up
27:45with my mother when she disappeared.
27:48So I filed a missing persons report
27:50for my mom, Vera Faye Martin.
27:53I couldn't always make it back
27:55to Sacramento for her birthday.
27:57So the standard thing I would do
27:58is I would send her
28:00in a package for her birthday
28:01to my cousin, Donita.
28:03And then my mom would come
28:05and retrieve this package.
28:08Well, the October of 1987,
28:10she did not come
28:12to retrieve that package.
28:15We all knew that's just
28:17so out of pattern.
28:18I knew something had happened to her,
28:20but I didn't know
28:21how to get an answer.
28:24My executive assistant came in
28:26and said, hey, Jerry,
28:27there's a phone number here.
28:28They want you to call.
28:30So I'm thinking I'm going
28:31to call the police, right?
28:32So I called the number
28:33and the person picking up the phone
28:36says the Sacramento County
28:37Coroner's Office.
28:40That's how Sacramento told me
28:42my mother was found dead.
28:46Vera Faye Martin,
28:48she was the sixth victim.
28:50And what was different
28:52about her burial
28:54is that the way
28:55that she was found,
28:56there was compacted dirt
28:58below her legs.
28:59It looked like
29:00she was put in the ground,
29:01woke up out of a stupor,
29:03and then kicking her legs,
29:04compacts to dirt.
29:06There was a good possibility
29:07that she was buried alive.
29:12It had escalated
29:14in my thinking,
29:15and Dorothea's still out there.
29:18Hopefully, we'll find her
29:20before she gets involved
29:21in anything else.
29:24Channel 10 wanted me
29:25to get on the story.
29:28So we went digging for
29:30whatever we could find out
29:31about her.
29:32As I was interviewing
29:34the neighborhood,
29:36these people couldn't
29:36believe it either.
29:38There was a neighbor
29:40just almost next door to her.
29:43He said she would make
29:43tamales for us.
29:45And here he is
29:46accepting her tamales
29:47and her food,
29:48and he says it was good.
29:50Never did any harm to them.
29:52But now it looks like
29:54she's been burying
29:55people's bodies
29:56in her backyard,
29:57in her front yard,
29:58and they wanted her caught.
30:02At that point,
30:03there was a nationwide manhunt
30:05to try to find out
30:06where she was.
30:09And that went on
30:10for several days.
30:11With Dorothea's mug shop
30:13plastered on every TV
30:14and newspaper in the country,
30:16it isn't long before
30:17a hot tip comes in
30:19from a fella named
30:20Charles Wilgus.
30:21According to Charles Wilgus,
30:23who was a handyman,
30:24she was in a motel
30:25in downtown Los Angeles
30:27and went to a nearby bar.
30:30She saw Charles Wilgus
30:32drinking by himself,
30:34struck up a conversation
30:35with him.
30:37She wrote her name
30:38in the motel
30:39she was staying at
30:40on the back of one
30:40of his business cards.
30:42After she left,
30:44Charles Wilgus realized
30:45that he had seen her
30:46on the news,
30:47and it's that time
30:49that he contacted
30:50the Los Angeles Police Department.
30:53The Los Angeles Police Department
30:54arrested Puente
30:55as rapidly as possible.
30:57I'm watching
31:04the 10 o'clock news
31:05on TV,
31:07and I hear
31:08this something
31:09Puente.
31:11And I look at the TV,
31:13and I see
31:14two LAPD officers
31:16escorting Dorothea.
31:18And they talk about
31:19she would have been arrested
31:20at a motel
31:21in Los Angeles.
31:23I says,
31:24we need to get
31:25to Los Angeles.
31:26We fly down,
31:29LAPD will be there
31:31with our suspect.
31:33So we landed there
31:35and got out,
31:36and I could see
31:37that a car
31:38had come up
31:38onto the tarmac,
31:40and two detectives
31:41get out,
31:42and there she was.
31:43They had her
31:44in handcuffs.
31:46She looked at me,
31:48and she said,
31:49I used to be
31:50a good person.
31:56Dorothea Puente
31:57was in the wind
31:58for five days,
32:00but now she's locked up
32:01and waiting to face
32:03the judge
32:03and jury.
32:05There were no words
32:06to explain
32:07how relieved I was
32:10that she was in custody.
32:13Just knowing that
32:14she's been given her rights,
32:16anything you say now
32:17can be used against you.
32:18I asked,
32:19Dorothea,
32:20do you want
32:20to talk to me now?
32:22And she said,
32:23no.
32:24And that was it.
32:27And so now
32:28I knew
32:29the real work
32:30was going to continue
32:31and start
32:32identifying the bodies,
32:33finding out
32:34what was taken,
32:35putting motives.
32:36One peek
32:38at Dorothea's
32:39bank statements
32:40reveals that
32:41she's been making out
32:42like a bandit.
32:44We find that
32:45victims all
32:46were on Social Security,
32:47and the overall
32:48motive
32:49for her killing
32:50these victims
32:51was obtaining
32:53and using
32:54their Social Security
32:55checks.
32:57It's believed
32:58that during the time
32:59that she had started
33:01getting rid of
33:02these people,
33:02it was probably
33:03somewhere up
33:04between $70,000
33:04and $90,000
33:05she had obtained.
33:06Stealing money
33:09wasn't the only
33:10similar thing
33:11she did to
33:12Ruth Monroe
33:12and her other victims.
33:15What was found
33:16through toxicology
33:18was that
33:19all of the victims
33:20had dalmaine
33:21or florazepam
33:22in their bodies.
33:25The only person
33:26at 1426 F Street
33:28that was prescribed
33:29florazepam
33:30was Dorothea Puente.
33:34And we believe
33:35that she specifically
33:36decided that she was
33:38going to drug them
33:39and that they were
33:40going to die
33:41and then she was
33:42going to bury them
33:43to get rid of them.
33:49At the end of the day,
33:51there were nine victims
33:52that Puente was charged
33:54that Puente was charged
33:54with killing
33:54including Ruth Monroe,
33:58Everson Gilmoth,
34:01the seven bodies
34:02who were unearthed
34:03at 1426 F Street
34:04like Vera Faye Martin.
34:08It's difficult
34:09because when you go
34:10to pick up the remains,
34:11they hand you
34:11this little bag
34:12and one of the years
34:14before for her birthday,
34:15I had bought her
34:15a little Timex watch.
34:17Her watch was still ticking.
34:18It was in the bag.
34:19There's a number
34:23of failures here
34:24in the system.
34:26Dorothea had been
34:27in parole
34:28and she violated it.
34:30Had she been called
34:31for that,
34:32you would have
34:33possibly had,
34:34you know,
34:34six or seven people
34:36alive that aren't
34:36alive today.
34:38She shouldn't have been
34:39anywhere near
34:40vulnerable people
34:42and yet,
34:43there she was.
34:44Even with the best agencies
34:45in the city
34:46trying to prevent
34:47things like that
34:48from happening.
34:51It now was
34:52in the hands
34:53of the district
34:53attorney's office.
34:54That's where it would lie
34:55for almost five years.
35:03The complexity
35:04of this case
35:05was incredible.
35:06The amount
35:07of paperwork
35:07that it generated,
35:09thousands and thousands
35:09of reports
35:10and documents,
35:11the physical evidence,
35:13the number of witnesses.
35:13John McCauley
35:16was initially
35:17brought in
35:18as an accomplice
35:19but he was
35:20eventually released
35:21because there wasn't
35:22enough evidence.
35:24It was clearly obvious
35:25she had help.
35:27These are big bodies
35:28in some cases.
35:30She's a small woman
35:30but who it was
35:32could have been
35:33anybody's guess.
35:34The DA decided
35:35looking at everything
35:36that he was going
35:38to pursue it.
35:40Dorothea sits
35:41in stews
35:42for quite a while
35:42behind bars
35:43before she heads
35:45to court
35:45on November 2nd,
35:471992.
35:51At the trial,
35:53both Puente's lawyers
35:54argued to the jury
35:55at great length
35:56that she was not
35:57a bad person,
35:59that she may have done
36:00some bad things
36:01in her life
36:02and they were crimes
36:03of greed.
36:04Her defense was,
36:06yes,
36:07she buried the bodies,
36:08she cashed the checks
36:11but that she cared
36:13for these people,
36:15she fed these people,
36:16she in her own words
36:18loved these people
36:19and under her care
36:21they died
36:22on their own
36:24from natural causes.
36:28After that,
36:29she had a number
36:29of people
36:30who came in
36:31and testified
36:32as to her good character,
36:33what a wonderful
36:34person she was,
36:35what a caring individual
36:36she was.
36:39During the trial,
36:40I became a character
36:41witness for Dorothea,
36:43basically paint the picture
36:45that I saw
36:46with my eyes
36:47back in the days,
36:49what she was doing
36:50in our community
36:50and it was all positive,
36:52it was all good stuff.
36:53I gotta be honest,
36:55I was still mixed
36:56in my feelings
36:58that,
36:59okay,
37:00she didn't do this.
37:02Maybe she didn't kill him,
37:04maybe they took the medicine
37:05and they were responsible
37:06for their own deaths.
37:11Being this little
37:12old lady type,
37:14wearing the chiffon dresses
37:15and the nice little hairdos,
37:17that got her a long ways.
37:20It's the best disguise
37:21because we don't picture them
37:23as being
37:24this type of a monster.
37:28It was hard to believe
37:29that she would be
37:30possibly responsible
37:33for all of these bodies.
37:40The deliberations
37:41went on for a number
37:42of months.
37:45As this jury
37:46stayed out longer,
37:47the defense began
37:48to rally thinking
37:49that it'd hang up,
37:50meaning they would have
37:52to be a mistrial
37:52because it was
37:53a punk jury.
37:57Sometimes murder trials
37:58like this,
37:59the worst can happen.
38:05The jury
38:06in Dorothea's trial
38:07takes a whole lot longer
38:09to work things out
38:10than anyone expected.
38:12The jury deliberated
38:14for 24 days.
38:16It was the longest
38:17court deliberation
38:19in California's history.
38:22The second case
38:23to that would be
38:24Richard Ramirez's
38:26Night Stalker case.
38:29After 24 days,
38:31the jury was prepared
38:32to find her guilty
38:34of the bodies in the yard
38:35because they were
38:36all the same.
38:37However,
38:39one juror
38:39decided
38:40that he wasn't
38:42going to vote
38:43along with it.
38:44One juror
38:45refused to deliberate
38:47with the other 11
38:48who believed
38:49that Puente was guilty
38:49of all nine murders.
38:51He refused to initially
38:53find her guilty
38:54of anything.
38:56It took
38:56the other 11 jurors
38:58talking to him
38:59over a period of time
39:00to convince him
39:02to go along
39:02with the verdicts
39:03that they eventually
39:04came back with.
39:05They convicted her
39:08on two first-degree murders
39:10and a case
39:11of second-degree murder.
39:13The conviction
39:14on two first-degree murder
39:16charges
39:17meant that she was eligible
39:18for the death penalty
39:19or life in prison.
39:22In a death penalty case
39:23in California,
39:25there are actually
39:25two trials that are held.
39:26One is called
39:27the guilt phase
39:28and the second
39:29is called
39:29the penalty phase.
39:31In the penalty phase,
39:32both Puente's lawyers
39:33argued to the jury
39:34at great length
39:35that she was not
39:36a bad person,
39:38that she may have done
39:39some bad things
39:40in her life,
39:41but she was not
39:42irredeemable
39:42and that, in fact,
39:44she had many things
39:45to offer.
39:46The prosecutor
39:47gave a very passionate
39:50closing argument
39:51to the jury,
39:52reminding them
39:53of the nine victims
39:54and reminding them
39:55of the ultimate price
39:57that they had paid
39:58for Puente's selfishness
40:00and her greed
40:01and that was
40:02what the jury
40:03was left with.
40:05The jury came back
40:06and gave her life
40:09without parole.
40:12She wasn't going anywhere.
40:15I was okay knowing that
40:17she was never,
40:18ever going to do this again.
40:20They had
40:22a lot of evidence.
40:25I was made a believer
40:26even though I didn't
40:28want to,
40:30but it was there.
40:32Yeah.
40:35She murdered nine people
40:36coldly
40:37and quite brutally.
40:40She caused
40:41their families anguish.
40:42She never admitted
40:45her own responsibility.
40:47Was justice served?
40:52It galled me
40:53that a person
40:54serving a life sentence
40:55had a pretty good life.
40:57Got to watch TV,
40:59got to see movies,
41:00three meals a day.
41:02My mother didn't
41:03get any of that.
41:06Didn't seem fair.
41:10Dorothea spends
41:11the rest of her days
41:13in that prison.
41:15In 2011,
41:16she kicks the bucket
41:17at the age of 82
41:19and leaves behind
41:21a nasty legacy.
41:24She was good
41:26at conning people.
41:30She conned us all.
41:33I became very suspicious
41:35of a lot of people
41:36and I'd like to be able
41:38to trust people again.
41:41to this day,
41:45we don't know
41:46who helped her
41:46move those bodies
41:47from upstairs
41:48down to those
41:50holes that were
41:51dug for their body.
41:54The case today
41:55has never been
41:56out of the public site.
41:57There's always something
41:58that comes around
41:59that brings it up,
42:01whether it be
42:01how many years ago
42:02it happened,
42:03whether it be
42:04she was the most infamous
42:05female serial killer
42:07in California.
42:07she's never left
42:09the public eye.
42:10Her story is just
42:11so mind-bending.
42:12This little grandmotherly
42:14type person
42:15would carry out
42:15these deeds
42:16and wouldn't admit
42:18to them,
42:19wouldn't say
42:19she was sorry.
42:22She took that
42:22to her grave.
42:23She took that
42:27her grave.
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