The Rent Was Always Paid | EP 4

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode contains discussionsof elder abuse, drugging, financial exploitation, homicide, and death. Listener discretion is advised.What does it look like when the most dangerous person in the room is also the most trusted? This episode takes you inside a Sacramento boarding house where elderly, disabled, and vulnerable tenants disappeared — and no one askedthe right questions soon enough.We explore how predators exploit systems built on good faith, what made one social worker's persistence a turning point, and why the criminal justice system struggled to deliver complete answers even after bodies were found inthe backyard.Sources• Online Archive of California / Center for Sacramento History — The People v. Dorothea Montalvo Puente Criminal Case Records • Los Angeles Times — “Landlady’s Trial in Tenants’ Murders Begins” • Los Angeles Times — “Trial of Landlady in Serial Killings Nears End” • Los Angeles Times — “Landlady Guilty in Murders of Three Tenants” • Los Angeles Times — “Landlady to Spend Life in Prison for Killing Tenants” • Los Angeles Times — “Sacramento Landlady Sentenced to Life Term for Killing 3 Tenants” • The Washington Post — “Landlady Guilty in 3 Murders” • U.S. District Court / GovInfo — Puente Habeas Corpus Filing • Sactown Magazine — “The Life and Deaths of Dorothea Puente” • Deseret News — “Tip Leads to Arrest of Woman Sought in Deaths of 7 at Boardinghouse” • WBAL / Hometown Tragedy — “The Shocking Truth Behind Sacramento’s F Street Serial Killer” • Oxygen — “Social Worker Who Exposed Dorothea Puente Speaks” • Oxygen — “Who Were Serial Killer Dorothea Puente’s Victims?” • CBS News / Associated Press — “Sacramento Board and Care Killer Dorothea Puente Dies”