Ruth Munroe, a 61-year-old Caucasian woman, died on April 14, 1982, in Sacramento, California, under suspicious circumstances. She had recently moved into the home of Dorothea Puente, a woman who would later be identified as a serial killer. Munroe had brought all her belongings and $6,000 in cash when she moved in, intending to start a business partnership with Puente.
At the time, Munroe’s husband was terminally ill and residing at a Veterans Administration Hospital, and she had expressed optimism about her future in letters to him.
However, within two weeks of moving in, Munroe confided in a friend at a beauty parlor, saying, "I feel like I'm going to die." When asked why, she responded, "I don't know." Three days later, she was found dead from a massive overdose of Tylenol and codeine. The coroner ruled her death a suicide due to a lack of evidence indicating foul play. This conclusion allowed Puente to evade suspicion at the time.
Just a month after Munroe’s death, Dorothea Puente was arrested and charged with drugging four elderly individuals and stealing their valuables. One of her victims, a 74-year-old man, reported that Puente had drugged him and looted his home while he remained in a stupor, unable to move or speak. Puente was sentenced to five years in prison but was released after three years in 1985. Upon her release, she was ordered to stay away from elderly individuals and prohibited from handling government-issued checks belonging to others.
Puente would later be arrested in 1988 after police discovered multiple bodies buried in the yard of her boarding house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento. She was ultimately convicted of murdering several tenants to collect their government benefit checks. Although Munroe’s death was initially ruled a suicide, it was later suspected that she may have been Puente’s first victim. However, due to the initial coroner’s ruling and lack of definitive evidence, Munroe’s death was not included in Puente’s formal murder charges. Puente was sentenced to life in prison without parole and died in 2011 at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
