Police Want to Dig Up Lot Near Boardinghouse’s Burial Sites

Police investigators sought a search warrant today to dig in a vacant lot near the yard of a downtown Victorian rooming house where seven bodies were unearthed.

Police Sgt. Bob Burns said detectives are “seeking a search warrant to dig for possible evidence. . . . The area is currently cordoned off, and digging will commence as soon as the search warrant is obtained.”

The site, a small parcel covered with weeds, leaves and trash, is across the street from 1426 F St., the two-story rooming house run by Dorothea Montalvo Puente, 59, where the bodies of seven people were discovered earlier this month in shallow graves.

Police believe the victims, all apparently elderly, were killed for their Social Security checks. Puente, who has a state and federal criminal record for theft, forgery and drugging victims, has been accused of murder in the case.

Investigators said earlier that they have the names of 16 missing people who were once tenants at Puente’s well-maintained rooming house and who have not been located.

Authorities believe the list may include victims found buried in the yard. Thus far, the county coroner has identified two of the bodies, but the causes of death have not been determined. At least one victim was found beheaded.