Vanessa Richardson

In late 1985, 56-year-old Dorothea Puente killed her lover, Everson Gilmeth, in order to steal his pension and life savings.

With the help of a local handyman, Dorothea disposed of Everson's body in a river.

Now, she believed she'd found the perfect method for getting away with murder.

But what Dorothea didn't know was that in early 1986, a fisherman discovered Everson's remains.

However, they weren't identifiable, so he was buried in a pauper's grave.

Meanwhile, Dorothea continued to bring in new tenants to her boarding house.

Just like she'd always done, she earned their trust by providing them with hot meals and a clean, warm, welcoming home.

Then she gained access to their pensions, social security checks, and disability benefits.

Whenever Dorothea went to the bank to deposit her tenants' checks for them, she siphoned some of the money into her own account.

At this point, her income was about $5,000 a month.

That's about $14,500 today.

But she wanted even more, and she knew she could make it happen.

She just had to make sure to keep a steady rotation of tenants.

Dorothea also pretended to be much older than she was.

She wore large framed glasses and colored her hair white so that she'd appear elderly.

This helped her trick people into thinking she was frail and harmless.

Dorothea's mind games didn't end there.

She also started encouraging some of her tenants to go out and enjoy local bars.

She chose people who she knew had struggled with alcohol addiction in the past, and she even gave them cash.

Then, after a couple hours when Dorothea figured they were nice and liquored up, she'd call the police and report a drunk in public, which they'd be arrested for.