Dorothy Miller was a 64-year-old Native American woman and U.S. Army veteran who lived in a Sacramento boarding house run by 59-year-old Dorothea Puente at 1426 F Street. Friends described Miller as soft-spoken and struggling with alcoholism; she was last seen alive in October 1987 when a social worker watched her smoke a cigarette on the front porch. Her pension checks later stopped being cashed in person, prompting further inquiry.

In November 1988 officers digging in Puente’s yard uncovered seven decomposed bodies, one identified as Dorothy Miller. Miller’s arms had been bound tightly to her torso with duct tape, and toxicology showed she had been heavily dosed with the prescription sedative Dalmane, which Puente obtained using Miller’s veterans identity card after the killing. Detectives concluded the motive was financial; Puente was arrested in Los Angeles in November 1988, charged with multiple murders, and later convicted of first-degree murder in Miller’s death. No other suspects were identified in Miller’s homicide.

If anyone knew Dorothy Miller, her routines at the boarding house, or noticed who managed her benefits in 1987–1988, please share what you know.