Dorothea Puente When the News Term Paper

Total Length: 695 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

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In 1982 the first case of one death at her boarding house reached Sacramento police. Puente was questioned but never suspected. Ruth Monroe was 61 and Puente said she died of drug overdose. In 1985, she was sentenced to five years in prison on three counts of theft. However Puente turned this into a highly productive period for herself, developing pen-pal relationship with a 77-year-old Everson Gillmouth. The man was so "besotted" by her that he married her despite her criminal record (Crime Library). Gillmouth was later found dead in a box that had apparently been thrown into riverbank by Puente herself.

One after the other, people went missing from her boarding house. "Carpenter, a retired bartender, was last seen in February 1987 when she was discharged from a hospital into Puente's care. Miller, 64, was last seen at the boarding house Oct. 23, 1987. Fink, 55, disappeared about the same time.
" (Cone, 1993) Puente would tell police the missing had either gone to the doctor and never returned or had simply taken off to some place without informing anyone. While the police continued to believe her, some people including a social worker, Peggy Nickerson and relatives of missing people had trouble accepting Puente's stories. It was on the report filed by Judy Moise, a relative of a victim, Bert Montoya that police searched Puente's boarding house and dug up the garden. Seven bodies including that of Montoya's were unearthed. However Puente was a step ahead of the police and while investigation was underway, she simply disappeared from her boarding house. This resulted in a nationwide hunt for her and Puente was finally arrested from a hotel in Los Angeles. Puente was later found guilty as charged and sentenced to life in prison......

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"Dorothea Puente When The News" (2004, October 11) Retrieved May 24, 2024, from
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"Dorothea Puente When The News" 11 October 2004. Web.24 May. 2024. <
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"Dorothea Puente When The News", 11 October 2004, Accessed.24 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/dorothea-puente-news-56514