James Gallop was a 62-year-old male tenant who moved into Dorothea Puente’s boarding house at 1426 F Street in Sacramento while recovering from brain-tumor surgery and a prior heart attack.

On July 20, 1987, doctors found a suspicious colon tumor and scheduled further testing, but Puente telephoned the clinic saying he had gone to Los Angeles indefinitely. He was never seen alive again. More than a year later, on November 11, 1988, detectives digging in Puente’s yard found the wrapped remains of the 62-year-old male beneath a backyard gazebo. Toxicology on brain and liver tissue showed heavy doses of amitriptyline, nortriptyline, phenytoin and flurazepam, drugs consistent with the pattern of chemical subduing described in the case.

Puente was charged in multiple deaths, and although jurors deadlocked on several counts including the death of James Gallop, investigators identified no other suspect and the killing has been attributed to her in practical terms. Does anyone have memories of Gallop or the boarding house from that 1987 period that could shed more light on his final weeks?