A boarding house promised safety. Inside, people disappeared.
In Sacramento, Dorothea Puente took in vulnerable tenants - elderly, disabled, and isolated - then quietly redirected their benefits and erased them from view. For years, the system accepted her explanations. Then bodies were found buried behind the house.
The Boarding House is a chronological account of the Dorothea Puente case, separating record from rumour and restoring the victims to the centre of the story. A true-crime manuscript about greed, control, and what happens when disappearance becomes normal.