Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix, True Crime
Gregory Robinson
A frightening new Netflix true crime documentary series dropped this week and the first episode tells the truly disturbing story of Dorothea Puente.
Worst Roommate Ever tells the harrowing tales of unsuspecting people who fall victim to their roommates' violent and fatal actions.
Watch the trailer below:
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The first episode explores the horrific crimes committed by a woman who presented herself to the world as a sweet, unassuming elderly lady, who opened her doors to vulnerable homeless people in Sacramento, California during the 1980s.
Puente had sinister intentions. Her guise as a nurse and caregiver was simply her modus operandi of luring mentally disabled and elderly people from the streets to rob them of their social security cheques - and to kill them.
The documentary features an interview with a social worker named Judy who entrusted Puente to care for a vulnerable 51-year-old man, Alvaro "Bert" Montoya, who suffered from schizophrenia.
When Bert went missing, Judy contacted to Puente to help find him but she claimed Bert left on his own free will to live with family in Mexico.
But after a startling account from one of the fellow residents, Judy knew something was amiss. She filed a missing persons report that ultimately led to a police investigation.
Because of her insistence, the detectives started to dig Puente's backyard, which lifted the lid on a gruesome secret.
Bert's body was found buried in the backyard and it became clear to detectives that there were other bodies in the garden. As the investigation continued, Puente attempted to flee, but she was soon caught and questioned and maintained her innocence.
A total of seven bodies were found buried in the garden of the home in different stages of decomposition. They belonged to her former residents in her deadly "care home", with many of the innocent victims being elderly and vulnerable.
Two more bodies, including one that belonged to Puente's former boyfriend, Everson Gilmouth, were found in the Sacramento River.
Puente forced her victims to take medication to steal their social security cheques before forcing them to overdose.
Puente’s victims include Ruth Monroe, Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink, Leona Carpenter, Betty Palmer, James Gallop and Vera Faye Martin.
In 1993 she was charged with the murders of nine people, however she was only convicted of three; Dorothy Miller, Benjamin Fink and Leona Carpenter.
She was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Puente claimed she was innocent until she died of natural causes in prison in 2011 aged 82.
Worst Roommate Ever is a five-part docu-series that delves into four different cases. All episodes are available to watch on Netflix now.