More Digging for Bodies Planned Near Boardinghouse

Police cordoned off a vacant lot across the street from Dorothea Montalvo Puente’s boardinghouse, where seven bodies were buried, and sought a search warrant for further digging Tuesday.

Police Sgt. Bob Burns said detectives are “seeking a search warrant to dig for possible evidence. . . . Digging will commence as soon as the search warrant is obtained.”

Officers planned to search the property in response to a report by a neighbor that he had seen Puente digging there at night. Other witnesses said earlier that they had seen her dumping trash on the lot, which is for sale.

Puente is in jail without bail, accused of murder. Police believe that the victims, many elderly or disabled people, were killed for their Social Security checks.

Crowds of reporters and spectators gathered at the 80-by-120-foot lot, covered with small weeds and containing only a shopping cart and some abandoned tires, throughout the morning and early afternoon as police tried to contact the property owner and get permission to dig or a search warrant.

16 Missing People

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

County Coroner Charles Simmons has identified two of the bodies, but the causes of death have not been determined. At least one victim was found beheaded.

Puente walked away from police on Nov. 11 after authorities discovered the remains of one person buried in the rear of her yard. Police said then they had insufficient evidence to hold her.

Over the next several days, however, police used a backhoe, shovels and steel probes and discovered six more bodies scattered throughout the yard.

Puente was arrested Nov. 16 in Los Angeles after she was recognized by a man she met in a bar.

Puente has denied any involvement in the deaths, but she acknowledged in an interview with a Sacramento television reporter that she cashed the Social Security checks of some of her tenants.

She has been formally charged in the death of one former tenant, Alvaro (Bert) Montoya, who was reported missing last summer; one of the identified bodies is his. Dist. Atty. John Dougherty said authorities may file additional counts that carry penalties of death or life without possibility of parole.