Dorothea Puente. The Death House Landlandy

To the outside world, Dorothea Puente looked like a sweet, grandmotherly woman running a respectable boarding house in downtown Sacramento, California. She took in people who were elderly, disabled, homeless, or struggling with mental illness. She cooked for them, helped manage their money, and presented herself as a caregiver. Then her tenants started disappearing. In 1988, a social worker became concerned when one of Puente’s residents, Alvaro “Bert” Montoya, suddenly vanished. Police came to the boarding house on F Street to investigate, and when they began digging in the yard, they uncovered something horrifying. Seven bodies were buried on the property. Investigators alleged that Puente had been drugging and killing vulnerable tenants, then continuing to collect and cash their Social Security and government benefit checks after they were dead. What appeared to be an act of charity had become, prosecutors argued, a calculated system of exploitation and murder for money. And while police were still excavating her backyard, Dorothea Puente simply walked away. She fled Sacramento and remained on the run for several days before being recognized and arrested in Los Angeles. In 1993, Puente stood trial for nine murders. The jury convicted her of three killings, and she was sentenced to life in prison. Puente maintained her innocence until her death in prison in 2011. The case became one of California’s most infamous serial murder stories, earning Puente nicknames including the Death House Landlady and the Killer Landlady. Her crimes were later featured in Netflix’s Worst Roommate Ever, and in 2026 HBO was reported to be developing another true-crime series based on the case. This is the true crime story of Dorothea Puente—a seemingly harmless grandmother, a boarding house filled with society’s most vulnerable people, government checks that kept arriving after tenants disappeared, and seven bodies buried beneath the flowers in her backyard.   Sources used for this Podcast Support the show Send Kris and Rob a Message JOIN THE  HITCHED 2 HOMICIDE IN-LAWS AND OUTLAWS START KRIS CALVERT'S BOOKS TODAY FOR FREE H2H WEBSITE H2H on TWITTER H2H on INSTA Dorothea Puente, Dorothea Puente serial killer, Death House Landlady, Killer Landlady, Dorothea Puente murders, Dorothea Puente boarding house, Sacramento boarding house murders, F Street murders, Alvaro Bert Montoya, Dorothea Puente victims, Sacramento serial killer, California female serial killer, Social Security murders, boarding house killer, Worst Roommate Ever Dorothea Puente, Netflix Dorothea Puente, Murders at the Boarding House, female serial killer, California true crime, true crime podcast #DorotheaPuente, #DeathHouseLandlady, #KillerLandlady, #SacramentoMurders, #SacramentoTrueCrime, #CaliforniaTrueCrime, #FemaleSerialKiller, #SerialKiller, #WorstRoommateEver, #MurdersAtTheBoardingHouse, #TrueCrime, #TrueCrimePodcast, #TrueCrimeCommunity, #CrimeHistory, #Hitched2Homicide   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.