Before she became one of America’s most notorious female serial killers, Dorothea Puente was a master of reinvention — a woman who survived a traumatic childhood, escaped into elaborate lies, and learned to weaponize trust. In Part 1, Killer Minds traces Dorothea’s tumultuous early life, from abuse, abandonment, and shapeshifting identities to the scams, marriages, and manipulations that set the stage for her deadly crimes. Vanessa Richardson and Dr. Tristin Engels explore how Dorothea’s need for control, admiration, and survival shaped the dangerous caretaker she would eventually become.

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