Dorothea Puente (9 January, 1929 — 27 March, 2011) was an American murderer. She was sent to prison for killing three people at her home in Sacramento, California. Puente ran a boarding house where old people, people with a disability or mental illness were able to live. A social worker thought something was wrong after a mentally disabled person disappeared from her home. When the police searched the house they found seven bodies buried in the yard. Another two bodies were found in a box in the Sacramento River. She killed people with drugs and stole their money. She had taken more than $87,000 from people she had murdered.